This is a hard blog post to write. So much has been going on here that I'm a little uncertain where to start. I guess the first thing to tell everyone is that Rooney is on the road to being an Official Big Boy! I know I've talked about Rooney's potty training in past posts- I mean, this has been going on a looooooong time, but finally I came up with a brilliant incentive...TV! I know, I know TV is evil but in truth, other than his Momma's love, this seems to be the only thing he gives two hoots about. He's earning or losing TV time depending on if he decides to go potty in the toilet or to go in his pants. You might ask how do I know he's "choosing" to go potty in his pants? Well the other day, I stumbled upon another goldmine of incentive- Mighty Machines, and decided to use these videos as special rewards when Rooney landed on these gold bricks that are on this potty training game we have. Every time he landed on one of these gold bricks he was eligible to watch a Mighty Machines episode without dipping into his accrued TV time. Roon really went crazy for these videos and wanted to watch one after another. So the other day he must have felt he was low on TV time because he walked over to the toilet, lifted the seat and peed. Then he said "Can I watch Mighty Machines now?". He had a few rough days in there but today it seemed to come together. Four or five times today he told me that he had to go potty. That is huge because other than trying to stall his bedtime he has never told us! One last thing I wanted to mention on the potty topic. Normally we have to coerce Rooney to the toilet to go potty. I was trying to take him every half hour or so. He used to tell us he'll "try again later" but recently he started to tell us "pee pee says No" and when he does go he will say "pee pee says Yes". We thought that was pretty funny.
In addition to the potty training there is alot of other cool stuff going on with Rooney. He is so grown up all of a sudden. I have had very little issues with him hitting other kids. He is "using his words" most of the time now and coming to me if his words are not resolving the problem. He is totally using his imagination when he is playing and is Rooney the Power Ranger one second then a T-Rex the next. Last week we were at Aunt Renae's house with his idol Felix and their bud April. All three were pretending they were Transformers (Rooney is always Bumblebee). Later I heard them say they were Pterodactyls. 
He can now easily jump in and out of his crib (we lost the instruction on how to convert it) and often I find him playing with all his little dinosaurs on the floor or reading a book when he should be napping. Tonight was the greatest however. I am unclear how this started but sometime this evening Rooney acquired an imaginary friend. His friend's name is White and he is a container truck. Rooney and White were having all sorts of adventures this evening and doing lots of work. Roon would have little conversations with White (although Rooney was the voice for both of them) and to top off the cuteness they played Hide and Seek together. White is a big truck but he is now sleeping on the red bean bag chair in Rooney's room. I love this kid.
I know this is a long post (these catch up ones always are) but there has been progress made in the race for baby #2 (thru #5 or the quads as we lovingly refer to them). Monday I started my stim shots. This consists of 2 shots (then 3 and now 4) a day until this Friday. Sunday or Monday the egg retrieval is predicted with the embryo transfer slated for 3-5 days after that! So far, so good with the shots. If you looked at my stomach you would swear I was a drug addict but I haven't had any real annoying side effects yet. There have been alot of MD visits and of course alot more coming up in the next week. Mike's folks conveniently are here to help us out but one day a week or so ago we had to take Rooney in with us. While I was in with the MD, Mike and Rooney waited in the Waiting Room together. Rooney knew we were at the "baby doctor" and was really excited to be able to go with us. When I came out they needed to do a blood draw and I could hear Rooney say he was going to look for me. He seemed determined to tell me something. I reassured him from where I was and finally when I went to round him up he seemed alarmed that we were leaving. He asked about the "babies" and wanted to ask the MD a question. Mike and I tried to usher him out but he was adamant that he needed to talk to the MD and tell him he wanted a brother and sister! Finally I asked to see the MD, but he was with another patient, so I told Rooney he could tell the receptionist about the babies. He told the receptionist that he wanted a brother and a sister. When the receptionist tried to clarify "Do you want a brother or a sister?" he replied "a brother and a sister". This kid is stubborn.When we were leaving the hospital he still seemed confused. He asked several times where were the babies? We explained to him that the babies are not here yet and could take 9-10 months to get here. He seemed settled with that answer. I know his concept of how babies are born might become skewed because of this or it might bring the idea more down to Earth. Lately he has been saying that I ate him when he was a baby and that is how he got into my stomach to be born. I'm not sure why he would associate anything going in your mouth and filling your stomach since he rarely eats these days but I thought it was an interesting concept.
