Good morning

Seth is officially out of diapers at night. He's done very well. He could have done it before our  Yosemite trip but I didn't want to have any accidents while we are camping

Potty Trained

I think Seth is officially potty trained.... No accidents all weekend and he's telling me when he has to go.  He's even taken himself a few times when I've been elbow deep in wash water or dinner prep.  We're still working on the night time part, but I'll take it.  In everything, you need to search for the positive... one of my positives about our fertility challenges is that this will be my last potty trainer.  I'm sure that that we'll have other challenges with our kids, but so far in the 10 years of parenting... potty training is my least favorite.  He had a few pee accidents, and a few poop... only one that was really bad and luckily Jeremy was home for that so I didn't have to clean it up alone.  Good job Seth.

Third time's the charm

Potty Training

I don't want to jinx it, but I have to remember this!  Evelyn has given up diapers all on her own (again), but this time she's been in underwear for about 3 weeks.  She had an accident or two each day for the first 2 weeks... but I did something I didn't do for Sam or Ada... I went and got those surprise grab bags with My Little Ponies in them for $2.50-$3 each... I got 8 of them and taped them all to the wall in the bathroom.  I told her that every day she went without pooping in her pants, she'd get to open one.  It's been 5 days and not a single accident.  I don't even have to set them timer for her anymore... just say that it's time to go potty and most of the time she hops up and just goes.  I hope it keeps up after the ponies run out... but I do love that she likes to go to the bathroom herself.  The next challenge is getting her to ask me to wipe her up when she poops instead of me just having to check all the time.  All in all, I'm impressed. 

I do bribe my kids... Ada learned to use the potty with the promise of a $3 bike we'd bought at DI... Sam wanted a Thomas the Train toy for $7... Evelyn has been about $25, but she's also taken almost two years to train... maybe I'm the most desperate with her.

My neighbor, Deb, came to the door while Evelyn was running around in her shirt and panties... Deb knew we were potty training and commented on her undies... Evelyn very proudly bent over to show her the back of her amazing panties and kept pointing out that they had ponies on them. 

This week

I feel like not much has happen, but we've been very busy.  We did a sale in my front yard to try to help my mom and Sharon sell the rest of the inventory from the store... it went really well, and it was fun to have everyone over.  It turned out to be a very nice and sunny day.  Jer had his LAN party at our neighbor's house... Rachel and Anya came to play, and the kids had a Primary Program practice as well as the actual program the next day.  It was really cute.  It was about Temples and Eternal families.  Sam was very comfortable up there and sitting next to his teacher... He treated her like he treats me... so I think he likes her.  Ada was a great singing, and also a great nose picker... There's always  one of those.  It just happened to be mine this time.  Evelyn has been in panties for about a week and is really doing well.  Still struggles with pooping, but honestly she'd do better if I'd remember to take her more often.  She has about 2 accidents a day... mostly around lunch time when I'm trying to pick up Sam from school, feed the baby, make lunch, and help Sam with homework.  I'm so glad that she was willing to do it this time.  I was gearing up for a major battle of the wills.  We've only had one or two of those this week instead of every time like last time I tried her in undies.  She's even worn panties to bed the last two days without accidents.  Ada is out of pull ups too... and does have an accident once a week or so, but as long as Jer and I take her potty in the middle of the night she is doing a lot better... just a couple months ago, she'd have 4 or so accidents a week.  Progress.  Last night, my sister Janelle came to visit.  It's always fun to have her... and the kids all clamor for her attention.  We ended up playing Star Wars Monopoly... which Evelyn won without buying any properties... We had to end the game an hour into it to go to bed.  I'm sure Jer would have won though.

This morning

Evelyn woke herself up this morning and came down stairs to me where I was doing dishes. She asked for breakfast and told me that her diaper was dirty. I went to get her a sippy cup and I hear her tiny voice behind me saying, "Mommy, I'm peeing." I turn around to see her standing in a big puddle. I pull up her pj's and she had taken off her own diaper and gotten panties out of her drawer to wear. Cute and all, but she's still refusing to use the potty consistently for the whole day...

Yeah

Only took an hour for Evelyn to go potty this time... last time took an hour and a half.

Yeah this just happened

My 6 year old thought it was a great.idea to put  my 2 year olds potty seat on her head... Yeah, not the best idea ever.

Potty training again

Since my Grandma died, we put a pause on potty training with Evelyn.  Tonight, before bed, she walked in and saw me using the potty.  She said, "Yay!  Mommy, potty in the potty!"  Then she got a sticker off the wall and put it on her potty chart.  Cute.

What?!

What do you mean? I'm potty training?!

Surprise!

You'll never guess what this little one did today... she peed in the potty.  Weeks ago I had her pick out her own potty seat at the store... then she carried it around the house for a couple days... then I showed her how it goes on the potty.  Since then she will randomly ask me to take off her diaper and sit her on the potty.  Today she peed on it.  Technically, we are not actively potty training... and I don't want to deal with the poop accidents yet so I haven't even showed her the underwear in her drawer, but I think that when I'm ready she'll go at it with gusto. 

Pips started walking a couple weeks ago, and Evelyn likes to take her hand and guide her around the house.  Too cute. 

Wetting the bed

Wetting the bed accident = more laundry = exploding teddy bear = more laundry

Yay!

Sammy's sleeping in underwear!  Never thought I'd be excited about that one did ya!  Ada hasn't had an accident during the day in ages, but still wears pull ups at night... but that means that we're only buying one set of diapers and one set of pullups instead of three.  And I'm hoping that while Ada watches Sammy wear underwear to bed that she'll want to try a little harder too. 

And... I was going to write about something funny that happened... but I can't for the life of me remember what it was... it was only an hour ago.  Does that mean I'm getting old?  Darn.

Go Diego.. yuck

Yeah, so Ada's become addicted to Go Diego Go.  Not a bad show.  Teaches some science, some spanish, and music.  But I'm a little annoyed because Ada tries to be the one in trouble, "Yelp, yelp!  Ayudeme, ayudeme! Yelp, yelp!"  Anyways, here was her conversation to her dinner... we were having Ramen Noodles.

Ada - "When you see a noodle say NOODLE!"
           "NOODLE!"
Noodle - "Help me, I want to see my family"
Ada - "Well your family is in my stomach."

And then she promptly eats it.  Well, at least she is eating... and making Jer and I try not to let her know that we're laughing too hard. 

*And a side note on potty training a boy... I can not get the bathroom clean enough... I clean it two or three times a week instead of once a week.  Including washing the rug.  I wipe the walls down, all under the toilet, and have cleaned the outside of the trash can as well but it seems to always smell like pee.  I swear he hits the toilet most of the time.  Gross.  Maybe it's all in my head?  Or at least partly.

Evelyn

So not only is she waving at everyone now, but she's started to stand without holding on to things and push our little push toys around the carpeted floors.  It's really cute and it makes me realize that she's not a baby anymore!  I took her to the doctor the other day because she's had a fever that hasn't gotten better... she has two teeth coming in so I figured it was probably from that.  But, the doctor says she has a sinus infection, an ear infection and her lungs are congested... nice.  That kind of shows you how calm she is.  She just plays and waves.  Practices standing up and squating down.  Sleeps more than usual, but not vocal about it.  Speaking of vocal.  She might (?) have said Mama the other day.  It's hard to tell because she doesn't vocalize a whole lot but it seemed really deliberate.  She crawled up to me, climbed my leg to let me know she wanted me to pick her up, then she said, "Mama." and snuggled up to me.  If so... melt my heart... if not... soon.

Sammy is still doing well with his potty training... he has about 1 accident a day... but for 4 days of training that's not bad.  His motivation?  If he pees or poops in the potty I let him play his choice of a computer game, a wii game, a game on my phone, or choose between chocolate chips or fruit snacks...   He's doind it, the question will be if he'll keep doing it when we start not "rewarding" the same way. 

Ada on the other hand is having a hard time with it.  I let her play or snack with Sam but for some reason she "needs" me more... she wants me to dress her and she wants me to play ponies with her all the time.  I think she's just trying to reassure herself that I love her just as much as Sam.

New Years Resolutions

Last year I didn't even bother to make any, but honestly... I always have something that I'm trying to accomplish... the difference is that I'm usually trying to accomplish something rather than better something.  So I will have the "to accomplish" list that I always have, but I want to make some "to better" goals too.

To accomplish
1. Official potty train Sam  (He has already peed in the potty, but I haven't tried to put him in underwear yet... I kept saying, "After the holidays." Now it is... so now is the time I guess.)
2.  Teach Ada how to write the whole alphabet. (She knows about a third...)
3.  Finish at least 4 projects before I start another one


To better
1.  How we manage finances
2.  How I clean the house (I keep it okay, but I'd like to step it up a notch)
3.  How I explain things to Sam. 
4.  How well my family eats.  (we don't eat junk, but I want to get them used to a bigger variety of things.  Especially my picky Sammy... the girls will eat pretty much anything I give them, but Sammy... we need to work on that a bit.)
5.  My cross training.  (I do a lot of the same exercises, but I need to cross train so that I can stop putting my hip out.)
6.  The kids scripture reading.  (We already read scriptures together, but we've missed the last couple of crazy weeks... I just want to get back in the habit.)

First landmark...

Exciting!  Though I really don't want to potty train until after we've got a schedule worked out with the new baby, Sammy likes to ask to sit on the potty after Ada in the mornings... so I let him if I don't have an appointment somewhere that I need to be to.  Today... he sat on it and almost immediately started peeing. Good boy!  The problem... I wasn't expecting him to pee... so half of it got on the floor before I was able to go and redirect.  But exciting despite the mess.

Potty time

I've told several people about this already, but I want to remember it... so it needs to be committed by computer keyboard. 

I was watching my brothers twins last week.  Ada's potty training, the twins are interested... but not understanding that you do more than just sit on the toilet.  Well, I took Ada to the bathroom and everyone decided that they NEEDED to go potty... So I wiped up Ada (Aubrey wanted to, but I didn't want her getting into the habit of wiping her cousin up after going potty.)... then took off Aubrey's diaper and put her on the potty... washed Ada's hands... got Aubrey down... got Devin on... washed Aubrey's hands... got Devin down... washed Devin's hands... turned around in time to find Sammy playing in the toilet water... washed Sammy off... closed the bathroom door and turn around to see the three two year olds streaking bottomless around the living room... I wanted to take a picture but I wasn't sure if I should in this case!  I finally got panties and diapers on everyone and smelled something nasty coming from Sammy's diaper.  I kind of wish that I had timed this particular potty break to see how long we spent taking care of everyone's bodily functions!

Funny

Ada had an accident the other day at my mom's house.  I cleaned her up and sent her to the kitchen while I washed my hands.  I put a chair in the middle of the kitchen and put her on it in time out... but by that time I needed to remind her that why she was in time out. "Why did mommy put you in time out Ada?" "Um... " "You peed in your panties." "Oh... Dang."

New milestones

Sammy started crawling... it's so exciting... especially where my back has really been ready for him to start being mobile... but the funny thing about it is that he cries the whole time... He went across my entire bedroom floor... but he just bawled the whole time.  He loves lentils and doesn't like sweet potatoes anymore.

Ada started going potty in the potty again... finally... she's still having a hard time getting there in time to poop in the potty, but at least I don't have to clean her/change her 5 times a day.  I just made sure that it was not easier for her to pee and get cleaned up instead of going to the bathroom in the first place and she decided that it wasn't worth it. 

I'm starting my training for the half marathon... I am already running, but my training schedule starts next week.  This will be interesting because my last run... my SI Joint is out again (I'm pretty sure that it's mostly because I carry Sammy on my left side for a total of about 8-10 hours a day) and my ankle was all swollen by the time I was done because of it.  Oh well... at least it's at the beginning instead of right before the race.

And I really do count this as a milestone... whether it's a good one or not... My house is a complete disaster and for the first time I'm resigned to it instead of angry or agitated.  I'm too busy to keep it clean.  I clean up the best I can and everything gets cleaned at least once a week, but never at the same time so my house never really looks clean.  I've decided that as long as I know that it was cleaned just yesterday and that Jer will help me out on Saturday then I won't stress about it.  Speaking of which... I need to go start the laundry before Sammy wakes up.