I am in central Iowa Ken, I am sure there was only one school blueprint for the midwest in the 50's. But it is nice to have it back there, it is kind of like having a great big yard to play in, that someone else mows. Thus I can keep planting hostas and trees on my half acre until the grass is gone. :) Ok, this conifer thing....what is amend the planting hole? What is plant properly? You might as well give the whole lecture if I am about to start over. I like the weirder the better, but I want the tree by the house to be somewhat upright. And if I planted it straight, it would be even more crooked, straight out of the pot the top pointed at a 45 degree angle if not more. The person we bought it from told us to stake it to make it go straight. I was so overwhelmed by all the choices when we left there I couldn't remember how they said to stake it. Now you tell me not to stake it. Feeling overwhelmed again. LOL So the one in the back, I would gladly let it be as weird as it wants to be, but I just thought i am going to have a whole tree on the ground if I didn't try to get that top branch to go up a bit initially. So I am still confused..... And the rabbit comment, don't get me started on the bunnies! The bunnies didn't do that, but if you could see what all they have done to my clematis and the hostas, you would know that there is a war going on here. I wouldn't be so upset, but they don't even eat them, just chew the leaves off and drop them on the ground. And the clematis they eat to the ground early in the spring, and now they are just chewing the stems in two on the ones that did make it up the fence. I am one of four girls, and I always joked about being my Dad's only boy. I was the one that went hunting and fishing with him. So my DH, who didn't grow up doing any of that, was shocked at what a good shot his wife is. I have tried spray, and still spray, I have put bloodmeal under the gazebo, pirate ship and deck along with moth balls, and I have a live trap. But now that school is out, my Dad's pellet gun and I have moved 8 bunnies out of the neighborhood for good. So they had better not touch my trees. Our little town is overrun with rabbits. Ok, I know now Ken is going to tell me that I am reminding him of Caddyshack and the gofer thing. I am now awaiting further instructions....

I have a daughter who is very strong willed and what worked for us was to get her to feel proud about using the toilet. She was about 2 1/2. What we did was one day we sat down together and made a "toilet sticker book". We put together a bunch of paper, tied it to bind it, put her name on, wrote a story in it about how she was such a big girl and was going to start to use the potty like a "big girl" and every time she used the toilet she would get a sticker to put in her book. I bought stickers and kept them in the cupboard above the toilet and every time she would try to go I would let her look at the stickers. If she went, she got a sticker. If she didn't go she did not get one but got to look at them and hold them while she was on the toilet. She was already interested in stickers which is why I chose them as a motivator. So if stickers don't work for you maybe something else your child likes would work better. I let her wear underware or a diaper, I let her choose so she felt like she had control of the situation. I didn't make a big deal about it if she chose a diaper, but I would go on and on about what a big girl she was when she chose her panties. If she had an accident I would just say, thats okay we can get you a clean pair, try to see if you any more pee needs to come out. And I would have her sit on the toilet while I got her clean clothes. We always used the big toilet with a ring in it at first so she didn't fall in and a stool at the base so her feet could touch. This was part of the "big girl" plan. It seemed to me that the little toilet just emphasized that she was still a baby. It also was better for me, I didn't want to clean the little toilet, seemed just a bad as changing diapers. She still, shes almost 3, refuses to try to go if I suggest it in a "do what I tell you" voice. But we made sort of a game out of me "telling" her to go potty. I would ask her if she had any pee or poo that wanted to come out. And then we would call the pee and/or poo like you call a dog, come out, come out, come on. etc. It sounds really stupid and I would not want to be recorded saying this, but it works!! I hope this helps you and your daughter. I would just advise you to try to help her to feel good about it and to be proud of her accomplishments. Try to let her make choices about things as much as is reasonable and she'll get it. Good luck!!

I think that usually that's the case with potty training kids. Everyone we know has talked about how difficult it was to get their child to sit on the potty and poop. The children just don't want to sit for that long or they just feel it is easier to go in their pants and have you change them. What was that I read awhile ago...that toddlers often get to a point where they don't understand why they have to change the system. It worked for how long to just go in their pants and have whoever change them and they don't understand why they can't do that anymore. I guess you could try finding those books about kids going to the potty or a movie and keep showing that to your son. Or you could always invite him in the bathroom while you're going or something and show him it's normal and that Mommy and Daddy do it? I know that may seem gross to some but figure they tell father's to show their son's that they stand up to pee to get them into doing it. But honestly it may just not be time for your son to start being fully potty trained. I've read a lot that they may be all excited about it for a few weeks and then regress back to not going at all for a while. Guess I'm VERY lucky, though. DS started pooping in the potty first and it's been about 4 months since I've had to clean a pull-up or diaper! Now if we could just get him to be much more consistant with peeing in the potty... ~Leslie~

My son, 9/27/98 is a bit over 3 yrs. He is a big boy (95th percentile) about 43 lbs. We could never find the cloth training pants that would fit him, only pull-ups had the extra large. Alst night we went to cloth underwear, and we made a big deal out of it. They were space man under pants, and they were really cool. He had an accident about 2 hours later. He hid in the play room and pooped in his pants. We took him to the bathroom, and told him that he had to help us clean him up. We told him that this would have been alot easier if he had gone in the potty and not so stinky. We told him that he needed to go on the potty, or we would need to go back to diapers. He was not about to go back to diapers, so he begged for the big boy pants. He stayed dry all night and got up this morning to go potty at 6:30 am. I think we are going to stay with the big boy pants and retire the pull-ups. I am sure that this is a messy road in the future, but, if he knew to go and hide to poop, he knew could have gone to the potty. We sent a few pairs of underwear and pants to pre-school this morning and started our journey. He cried when I left him, this is not like him. He held onto my legs and buried his face. I think maybe he knows that this is the beginning of being a big boy and maybe by moving away from pull-ups will distance us. I am not sure, but I reassured him that I loved him and that I was am very proud of him. I told to he need to go on the potty today, and I waved to him through the window. I hope this works. Jainie