I found my Week in the Life second wind on Thursday. Cooper had a great day on the potty-training front. He had a single accident at preschool and that was literally 5 minutes before I picked him up. They tell me that he goes to the potty all day long. At home? Well, that’s a totally different story.

Mike gave Cooper a bath. When Mike wasn't looking, Coop pooped in the tub. But not wanting such a thing to go unnoticed, Cooper threw said poop at Mike and it landed on Mike's foot. It then slid to the tile. Cooper waited to do such a thing on the same day we had the house cleaned. Awesome. This pretty much sums up life with Cooper!

On the way home from preschool, I went through the drive-thru of Jack-in-the-Box and got the kids some cookies. They have these bags of warm, mini chocolate chip cookies. Coop loves them and whenever we pass by Jack-in-the-Box, he asks for a bag of cookies. Since he did so well with the potty, I decided he deserved a treat. This was of course before the poop incident, otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten cookies from me!

After eating his cookies, Cooper wanted to watch a show. He set up camp on the family room floor. He looked so cute there. While he watched Dora, I helped Shelby with her homework. Sometimes, Dora can be a live saver.

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Shelby as her weekly piano lesson

Shelby had an awesome day. We’ve started a behavior modification program. I did some research and my sister has done a similar program with great success, so we’ve started using a ticket-based program where Shelby earns and loses tickets based on good and bad behavior. She can use those tickets to “buy” iPad time, TV time, movie watching, bike riding, etc. All the things that are considered privileges have to be purchased. She has responded so well to this system. She loves structure and I let her help me set the “prices” for all the items she can buy. The result so far? Two days without meltdowns. Less TV time. No iPad coma. She actually played outside for almost an hour. We played games as a family both nights, because she earned game time. And homework wasn’t a nightmare. I’m hoping this becomes a trend and Shelby really thinks about the choices she makes and chooses not to meltdown and throw fits.

Shelby and my 20-year-old Teddy Bear, which I’ve passed on to her.

I made a point of taking photos of the kids’ rooms on Thursday, to document their spaces. I wanted to make sure I had some photos of the things that are important to them and how their rooms look like right now. Since our housekeeper came on Thursday, I wanted to capitalize on the cleanliness of their rooms before things went to pot!

Like Wednesday, the highlight of our day came when we played a game as a family. We played Uno, Shelby’s choice, and it was a ton of fun. Shelby loves games and she especially loves it when Mike and I stop what we’re doing to play with her. She laughed and laughed throughout the game. And her laugh was infectious.

How was your Thursday?