A Little Potty Training Update

Daniel made it clear to me after the first 3 days that he was going to be potty resistant so I put him back in diapers and will give him another go at it in another 6 months or so.  He still goes and sits next to his sister on his potty (in his diaper) to get an M&M reward.  He goes running to admire her productions and tells me about them as though they were his.  He’s just not quite ready to actually do anything on the potty.

Gloria, on the other hand, seems to be taking to it well.  She hangs out at home in just a dress so that she has the air on her bum and no pants to worry with.  She goes whenever the urge strikes her, or whenever an M&M sounds good at the moment.  Several times over the past few days I’ve heard, “Mommy, you gotta flush my pee pee so I can make some more.”  For the most part, she’s the one deciding when to go.  I do suggest that she go in certain instances (before leaving the house, right after she wakes up) but I do NOT make it a requirement.  Most of the time she tries anyway, but she’ll tell me if she’s not interested. 

I load her up in the car every morning and set her in her car seat on a towel to take Thomas to school.  She stays as she is in the house (nothing on the bum) for the short car ride.  If we go out anywhere she’d actually have to get out of the car, she goes in loose pants and nothing underneath.  I think she’s only had 3 pee accidents since the first day of potty training and these were all while she was wearing pants.

We’ve been up to church to set up and copy bulletins in loose pants with no incident.  We even managed to make it all the way through Sunday school in loose pants with no issue.  Granted, she did have a little accident in the first pair of pants before we left the house, but she did stop herself and managed to finish in the little potty. 

Speaking of potties, the princess will only go in her own, so it goes with her wherever she goes.  Once she used Daniel’s potty because her potty was in the same room with her sleeping aunt and uncle and she didn’t want to make her cousin cry by waking her up.

She’s doing pretty well with number two as well.  She had one accident with that on the floor in the kitchen while no one was looking.  She was very vocal about it and shooed her little brother and her aunt’s dog away from it until her mother managed to clean it up.  She even redeemed herself that same night by sitting on the potty before bed and producing something a grown man would be proud of!

The thing that has surprised me the most about this experience is that Gloria has woken up twice with a dry diaper and announced that she wanted to use the potty.  She has yet to have a nap accident.

I think I’m just lucky.

Potty Training Boot Camp: Day 3

Gloria had a wildly successful day.  She had no accidents at all and took her nap without a diaper.  She still protested a bit at the first morning removal of her diaper, but it gets to be less each day.  She even pooped in it again!

Daniel, on the other hand, has pretty much told me that he does not want to go on the potty.  He is ok being without a diaper and will go hang out on the potty with his sister, but does not want to actually use it.  He is going through a stubborn streak right now, so it does not really surprise me.  At least he is learning his lower case “m” from all of the M&M’s that have been doled out in honor of his sister’s accomplishments.

I think Gloria might make it through church this Sunday!  Daniel will be in diapers unless he suddenly changes his tune.

For those of you interested, here is a link to the basic “method” that I am using.  Don’t let the title fool you though.  Potty training isn’t a 3 day thing, but the initial learning process is.  I think of it like learning to walk.  Babies take a few steps here and there before they start to seriously toddle around and once they are toddling, they then still have plenty of spills as they learn how to really use their legs. 

And, yes, they will be going around without pants on at home for a good month.  The more success they have with a bare bottom translates into less accidents with pants.  I would rather look at their behinds than clean up mess anyway!

And now, for a couple of “action” shots! 

Notice the strategically placed dress and book.  No, I’m not worried about the book as Daniel just doesn’t want to go on the potty quite yet.

Yes, that is chocolate on Gloria’s face!

Potty Training Boot Camp: Day 2

Day 2 started out in much the same way that day one began.  Gloria protested at the lack of bum coverage but got over it much more quickly this time. 

This time, however, we had to leave the house long enough to drop off Thomas and our carpool friend at school.  It’s about a 30 minute round trip including the waiting.  I suggested to Gloria that she go potty right before we left.  She refused.  I let it go.  She asked to sit on a towel in the car and I happily obliged.  Right after Thomas got out, she unhappily announced, “Mommy!  I made pee pee on my towel."  It was her only accident of the day!  In case anyone is wondering, the restraints in the car seat protected her modesty and no one knew she was hanging out in a dress with nothing under it.

Since Daniel sprinkles I put him in a diaper for the car ride. 

Once we got home, I made up some blue Kool Aid and waited for the fun to begin. ( It turns out that the orange yesterday was lacking in sugar.  Yuck!)  This time, Daniel didn’t sprinkle.  He power washed!  I pretty much heard it before I saw it every time.  He was fascinated with watching the stream come out.  One time he was standing next to an air vent and that’s right where it went.  Thankfully there is no strange smell when the air comes on!

Tinkle, tinkle in the pot.
Boy, my kids can pee a lot.
In the potty Gloria went.
Daniel just peed in the vent!
Tinkle, tinkle in the pot.
Boy, my kids can pee a lot.

Somehow I managed to catch him in the midst of a bowel movement, not once, but twice, and got him on the potty in time for him to finish.  We made a big deal about that and had a flushing ceremony.  He seemed a good bit unhappy during the process but proud of himself afterwards and talked about it a good bit.  I didn’t manage to get him to actually wet on the potty this time.  He did go and sit down next to Gloria every time she sat on her potty without prompting, so that is some progress on his part.

Tinkle, tinkle in the pot.
Show me how much pee you’ve got.
Potty training is such fun!
I can’t wait until we’re done!
Tinkle, tinkle in the pot.
Show me how much pee you’ve got.

Gloria on the other hand would periodically go sit on her potty.  I didn’t keep close track, but I am thinking that she actually produced about one time out of five. 

When Thomas came home and finished his homework, he went into the living room to play his video games and the princess begged to go in there with him.  Since she has been doing so well, I told her that she could go in there only after she went on her potty.  She promptly sat, got a thoughtful look on her face, and did just what I asked her to do.  So I put a towel down for her, at her request, and let her sit next to Thomas.

A few minutes later she came to the kitchen and asked to be let back in and pretty much went straight to the potty, sat down, and announced that she was pooping.  Based on her general attitude about it prior to this, I really figured she would save it and go in her night time diaper.  Upon seeing Daniel’s earlier achievement Gloria gasped , “I NEVER poop on the potty!”  She proved me wrong!  So now Gloria has achieved both pooping and peeing in her potty! 

Now this song is stuck in my head!  I started making up lyrics to “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and decided to google it and see what popped up.  I found it in my search.  Let me stress that it is NOT me or my children, but they sure have enjoyed watching it.  Even Thomas gets a big kick out of it.

We may make it out of the house this week!

He’s Making a Liar Out of Me

So Friday morning I told the pediatrician that Daniel was trying to learn his letters, but didn’t really know any of them as he seems to just say random letters rather than connect the different names with the different shapes. 

Now before you gasp and start thinking that I’m some horrible mother trying to turn her kid into a super reader, realize that I haven’t worked with him on them.  We don’t sit down with flashcards or anything.  I don’t require him to say his ABC’s before he can eat and I’m not shoving letters at him and talking about them all day.  He’s just really interested in them thanks to PBS and his older siblings.

At home he’s been obsessed with the magnet letters on the refrigerator and picks them up and excitedly asks,” What’s dis?”  I really figured that any that he happened to get correct were lucky guesses or were because he recognized that particular magnet, in that particular color, in that particular font. 

Apparently, I was wrong.

After Daniel’s appointment, I went to the church with both toddlers to run off the children’s bulletins.  Gloria was on the floor playing with the Veggie Tales nativity set while Daniel climbed up and examined a wood carving of the word “love” in all capitals.  Then I heard him say “e, y, o, l.”  Say what?  I went over next to him and asked him to identify each one to make sure I hadn’t misheard.  I hadn’t.  He was identifying the letters correctly and consistently.  And in his defense, the V on that carving does look a lot like a Y with a short stem.

At lunch time he gleefully pointed out a “bud-you” (W) on a cup from Manchu Wok. 

At home he began telling me about the letters on the Huggies diaper box in his room.  Did you know that Huggies uses all caps?  At Waffle House, he was looking at the letters on the menu and identifying W, L, E, H, S, O, and U.  Today he has been pointing out D’s.

This is so different than his older siblings.  Thomas was still saying mostly “ack” at this age.  He wasn’t even talking much.  Gloria was talking, but I’m not sure if she knew letters existed outside of the Alphabet Song.  Now we have Daniel who is here to remind us that kids will learn whatever you put under there nose!

My Tough Little Guy

So Friday morning we went and Daniel had his 18 month check up.  I never know how these are going to go, but I’d say this one was definitely one of the smoothest ones I’ve attended.  Before we even got to the exam room, the nurse had Daniel take off his shoes and stand on the scale.  Gloria hasn’t done this yet, but Daniel had no problem and the scale read 26 pounds and 2 ounces-putting him right around the 50th percentile for his age. 
Then she had me undress him down to his diaper and put the infamous urine bag on him.  She took the opportunity to measure him and he was very cooperative.  It turns out that he is 33.8 inches long these days which puts his height around the 80th percentile.  I don’t remember what his head circumference is.  It’s on the paper I brought home, but I’m not going to go find it just so I can post it here, but it’s fine. 

Once all the measurements were completed, the nurse prepared to do the finger prick.  Daniel expressed some trepidation when the gloves went on, but calmly sat in my lap and watched in uncomfortable fascination as the nurse pricked his little finger and then squeezed little red “balls” out of his finger and into the straw.  He was going to undo the bandage until I called it a sticker and then he was happy with it.

When the doctor came in to examine him, Daniel was very cooperative and spoke to him a bit.  The doctor was very pleased with his overall health and development and commented that he was speaking well and a lot for his age.  I mentioned something about him trying to identify letters but not really getting them right and he thought that was cute.

Then it was time for the nurse to give him his two vaccinations.  I held Daniel’s hands across his chest while the nurse put the shots into his two little thighs.  Thankfully, he only expressed surprise and then said “Ow!  Ow!  Ow!” when the second needle went in.  He was very interested in getting more “stickers” on his legs and complained more about the urine bag being removed than the shots.  The bag was empty-as usual.  He never pees in that thing.  As the nurse left the room, unprompted, Daniel waved a sad goodbye to her.  By the time we got his clothes back on him and went back to the waiting room, he was all happy again.  I don’t think he even made a tear.  He’s my tough guy.  (Did I mention that Thursday afternoon he fell off the arm of the couch? Onto his head?  And Friday morning he was back on it again.)

Thomas: Breastfeeding Advocate at Age 7

This story is much more amusing if you read it first and then look at the picture, so resist the urge to scroll down and see it before you get done reading.

We all know that breastfeeding is best.  We also know that as a culture, a lot of kids don’t get exposed to the idea of breastfeeding until they hit the age where they have some sort of formalized sex education.  By then it sounds as weird and private as sex does.

Not so with my Thomas.  Having two younger siblings back to back that were attached to me during an age when he can remember and talk about it has completely normalized breasts as a feeding mechanism for him.  While he understands that they aren’t something to be paraded around exposed, he also doesn’t run (or get run) from the room when mine are being utilized in their most functional manner either.  In fact he’s recently had to be taught that unless he owns the breasts, he doesn’t get to offer them up as an option to little Daniel.

Now on to the cute story. 

So Thomas and his friend we drive to school every morning were in the back of the van looking at a National Geographic magazine making up silly songs about it. I’m listening and I hear:

Friend: Oh oh oh. I’m naked. With my bootay.

Thomas: (interrupting) That’s not a butt. It’s a breast.

Friend: What’s he doing with a boobie?

Thomas: (sighs) It’s called nursing. (said nice and slowly and clearly and it sounded like there was an eye roll involved) It’s completely normal. Babies drink milk from their mommies. Lots of babies nurse. Daniel (my 18mo) nurses. It’s not something to make fun of.

Friend: Um. Ok….Oh oh oh. I’m snuggling. With my boobie. Drinking my milk.

I’m not sure if he got the message or not, but I have to give Thomas points for trying! 

And for your viewing pleasure and amusement, here is the picture they were discussing:

Nope.  It wasn’t one of those tribal pictures at all!

Gloria’s Newest Dresses

In my quest to come up with a long sleeved dress for Gloria for the chilly weather, I came across a tutorial for a short sleeved peasant shirt.  I made a short sleeved one, then a long sleeved one, then another long sleeved one that was a bit too narrow, so I turned it into a dress for Little Miss Kinley Jo, the daughter of one of Michael’s co-workers, who is about 18 months younger than Gloria.  This is how it turned out.

The fabric is “patchwork” so, no, I didn’t sew a bazillion squares together to make this.  It was in the remnants bin at Wal-mart and looked fallish. 

After that, I took 2 yards of fabric that was originally intended to be part of my quilt that Mom made us.  It just didn’t quite fit in right with the other fabrics I had selected so we left it out.  I basically did the same thing with this one I did with Kinley’s.  I just did the sleeves a little differently and added about 5.75 yards of eyelet lace to the bottom tier and sleeves.  Gloria sees it and asks to put it on so she can “dance her dress.”  She has learned to twirl in it!

And to get a better idea of just how much fabric is around the bottom:

It hasn’t been washed yet.  It probably won’t ever stand up like this again!

Then this little girl from church showed up in a short sleeved peasant dress much like this next one.  I picked out some fabric that looked fallish and did long sleeves and this is what turned out.

It looks much cuter on the toddler than in the picture.  She’ll be wearing it tomorrow for Thanksgiving and I will try to get a good action shot of her filling it up.

And lastly, I fell in love with this Christmas fabric.  By the time I had decided exactly which fabric to pair it up with, it was time to feed the toddlers and get them in bed for a nap, so I did a really quick guestimation of how much of each fabric I wanted.  With the odd amounts I had cut, the dress practically made itself.  It’s hard to tell from the picture, but the fabric with red on green had a bit of metallic gold thread in the design that gives it a bit of sparkle.  I haven’t tried it on her with the red ribbon around the waist yet.  It may be too thin, but I sure like the way it looks on the hanger.

I have one last style kicking around in my head that I would like to sew up this season in a fabric I saw while picking out the Christmas fabric.  Then, I promise, I’ll be done with dresses.  Until summer.

Helaina!

I am feeling a bit guilty that I am just getting around to posting about my darling little niece’s arrival, but I’d rather spend time visiting her than blogging about it.
Helaina Nicole Martin arrived on Thursday, November 12, at 10:16 am weighing in at 8 pounds 13 ounces and 21.5 inches long. I am so stinking proud of Valerie. Her water broke around midnight, so she and Kane headed to the hospital since they were scheduled for an induction that morning anyway and there was some question about how clear the amniotic fluid was. They got Valerie started on the pitocin drip. It is my understanding she was at 4 cm and a couple hours later, asked for an epi, got it, got checked again and she was at 10cm already and ready to push. She got a little rest while the medical teams for the actual delivery got in gear then pushed for about an hour before Helaina was born. Whoohoo!
We went to go visit her the Saturday after she was born and then again the next weekend. She nurses like a champ and is growing like a weed. They were monitoring her bilirubin there for a bit, but as soon as Val’s milk came in, that all fixed itself. She has this lovely pointy chin just like her mother and her coloring reminds me of her father. She makes those sweet little newborn noises and when she cries I have to resist the urge to go love on her and nurse her. I think she may have been put down once or twice in her life so far because everybody loves holding her.
She already has definite moods and lets us all know when she is unhappy. She likes to be snuggled up tight and squeezed when she’s held. Diaper changes are pretty noisy since she protests having herself embarrassed and put into such an unladylike position. She reminds me of an accordion when she cries as she vocalizes on both the exhale and the inhale. It’s very easy to tell when she’s eating as well, since she makes sweet little vocalizations with every gulp and breath. Valerie says she sounds like a chicken.
Thomas got a big kick out of holding Helaina in his lap. I’m not sure why, but he has the tendency to put her butt higher than her head. He’s very gentle with her and enjoys loving on her. And then he’s off to play with his siblings or uncle who can run around and wrestle with him.
Daniel has come up several times while I am holding Helaina and pronounced her a baby. He hangs around looking at her without touching as though he wants to interact with her but isn’t quite sure how. When invited to hug her he gets all tickled looking, grin, leans in with a big “oo-wee,” and walks off looking quite pleased with himself.
Gloria merely informs us of when Helaina is crying and tells us to fix it. She doesn’t seem to have much interest in getting too involved with her at this age. I have a feeling that once Helaina starts smiling and laughing that Gloria will spend a great deal of time figuring out how to entertain her and keep those smiles and laughs coming.
Michael has gotten to hold her several times during our visits. He enjoys being able to hand her off when she has a dirty diaper or needs to eat and gets to enjoy the sweet, snuggly, sleepy Helaina.
I have had the pleasure of burping, rocking, snuggling, and even “slinging” little Helaina during lunch. For those of you not familiar with the term, “slinging” simply refers to carrying the baby in a sling type baby carrier. Slings are lovely, simple contraptions that snuggle baby up close to Mommy. There are numerous positions that you can use from the cradle position where they feel all swaddled up to sitting up to riding on the hip. I found it extremely comforting for my little ones when they were newborns. They felt secure and swaddled, and the motion of me walking around doing daily chores helped to rock them to sleep and keep them content. There was much less fussing when they were in the sling.
Back to Helaina! I will have to take pictures this Thanksgiving while I am here. I am terrible about forgetting to grab my camera. I prefer to enjoy the moment I am in rather than spend them all behind a camera and miss out!

Daniel Speaks

So Daniel has been making sounds that sound a lot like words recently.  A couple of weeks ago, he got a-hold of my phone and began pressing buttons.  I heard him, or rather the phone,  from the kitchen and called out, “Daniel, are you calling China?” to which he replied, “Yeah, Mama!”  It was a bit growly, and he probably wasn’t assigning meaning to the words, but that’s how it came out nevertheless.  I thought Michael was going to bust a gut laughing when he heard him.

Later that same week, Thomas offered him a carrot at the dinner table by saying, “Daniel, do you want a carrot?”  And Daniel said, “Carrot.”  Plain as day.  We haven’t heard it since.

This morning though was the sweetest.  All 3 kiddos and myself were snuggling, wiggling, and playing in the bed.  Daniel laid his head down on the bed next to me so I started talking to him.  We’ve been playing a game where I say, “Bye-bye” and wave his hand for him.  It makes him giggle for some reason.  This morning I just waved my own hand and said “Bye-bye” a few times since he was laying on his hands.  He watched me for a bit, then sat himself up, raised his right hand, and clearly said “bye-bye” in a sweet little voice while waving and grinning.  Then he crawled off to play.  It was so obviously on purpose and not an accident.  And it was soooo sweet to see that little hand waving.  He looked right proud of himself, too.

Hopefully, he will get better soon so that he will stop the constant screaming.  He is such an intense little guy that when he wants something he screams at the top of his lungs to get it.  We are working on being quieter at the dinner table, but when he runs out of food on his tray or sees something on the table he wants, he screams until he gets it.  If I look at him and speak softly, he calms down for a few seconds.  I’m trying to encourage him to make a softer sound before I give him what he’s screaming for.  I’m sure he’ll get it eventually.  He’s already gotten better about biting Gloria.  (Poor girl has little bruises where he’s bitten her.)  Now if I see him thinking about it and tell him no, he stops.  Gloria tells him, “Daniel, don’t bite me.”  He backs off then, too.  And for the record, his biting happens when he wants to love on her the way he loves and squishes on his favorite stuffed toys.  He’s not trying to be mean.  He’s just caught up in the intense snuggling so he bites her.

The little guy is just INTENSE!

Paint, Paint, Paint the House

LAST week, while I was feverishly sewing, Aunt Mindy came to visit and paint the family room and our bedroom/bathroom including trim.  It was really nice having her here for pretty much a week.  She came in on the Thursday before Memorial Day, went home Saturday evening, came back Monday morning and then left again Thursday. 

She was amazingly laid back about it and worked around our family schedule very well.  And she was VERY patient with me hemming and hawing over what color to choose.  The first color that I had chosen (and purchased) for the family room looked mint green when it got on the wall.  Mindy had spent about an hour “cutting in” (doing brushwork up close to the trim) before I managed to look at it.  Mindy reminded me that I had originally chosen a darker color but was nervous about putting it on the wall.  She went back to Home Depot for me to have them darken what we had.  Unfortunately, the darker color uses a different base, so adding color to the paint we had just made it darker and more yellow and, well, just as bad but in a different way.  She encouraged me to go get my first choice while she watched the kids.  She didn’t seem the least bit unhappy that she had just spent so much time painting a color I had chosen and then rejected.  Thankfully, that was the ONLY time I changed my mind about it.

She even took Thomas under her wing and taught him better roller technique than I have.  He was in charge of painting everything from the middle of the wall down, and Mindy took care of everything above that.

I’m not sure how well you can tell from the picture, but the walls went from dark beige to leaf green in the family room.  The bedroom/bathroom is similar but a little darker and more sage looking.  The color matches well with the quilt Mom made and is called “restful.”  I didn’t have to change my mind on that one though!  I chose well from the beginning. 

By now the family room is pretty much reassembled and much tidier than it was before.  We are still missing the picture over the mantle, but I’m sure it won’t take but a few minutes to re-hang it once we think about it when we have the time to do so.

The bedroom is slowly but surely getting back into shape.  We’ve been sleeping with the bed in the center of the room like an island with all of our furniture surrounding it.  It just goes to show how big our bedroom is that we could still get in and out of bed and walk around our island of furniture.   Every day Michael puts one more piece of furniture back where it belongs.  Every morning Gloria comes in and tells us, “Put bed a wall.”  I think that the bed is the last thing that still needs to be moved at this point, but Gloria has been nagging her daddy about it.  She must be practicing for when she gets married.

Mindy is gone now.  I miss having her around.  She’s really a neat person and I wish I had more time to just visit with her and talk.  If you ever need your house painted, I highly recommend hiring her.  She prices fairly and does good work.  She’ll even travel to do it.  Now if only I could pick out a good color for the hall…