9 Years and Soon to be Diaper Free!!

The deed is finally done. Atticus, my fourth and final child is now interested in going on the potty and is almost out of pull-ups! The photo is actually a picture of him from last summer when he just started getting curious about the concept. Then he stopped going on the potty completely. Over this holiday break, he finally got it. Murphy celebrates her 9th birthday this Saturday so as clear as I can remember, this has been 9 straight years of at least one child in diapers. I know, I know, some mothers might be thinking that with four kids in 9 years...there should have been at least one point where at least one of them was not in diapers. Alas it was not to be. All of my kids were late bloomers and remained in diapers/pull-ups until they were at least 3 1/2 Atticus is my latest bloomer...he is now 3 3/4. He will be 4 in March, so I guess I'm happy he did it before his fourth birthday. I never really pressured any of them, so no wonder it took them so long. Not sure what I'm going to do with all of that money I am saving...oh yeah, I guess I'm going to use it to send Atticus to Catholic school, along with his three siblings.

As I mentioned, it is Murphy's 9th birthday Saturday. Last year we did "parties with friends" for the three oldest. This year we are partying as a family. We are going to head to Albany, stay at a hotel, eat out, swim in the pool, hopefully see Uncle Jimmy and go to the mall where Murphy wants to visit a Build a Bear workshop and build some kind of stuffed animal. Gee, another stuffed animal. What a concept!! Let's just say there are more than 50 in this house right now. At least Murphy is starting to understand the definition of excess. She is filling a plastic bag full of stuffed animals, animals she wants to give other less fortunate children. I'm sure they will be thrilled. Hope everyone is staying warm. It is 14 degrees right now. Supposed to shoot up into the 40's next week so I guess we can't complain.....but we will. I'll once again try to blog more often. If you're still reading thanks for hanging in there. As I said from the beginning, I'm really doing this for myself but if others want to check in on our boring lives, I welcome it!!