Back to School

We had a wonderful, and loooooong, winter break over here; and I must admit that I really enjoyed it.  With the holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's) and family we had so much fun.  Plus, it was also my youngest's 2nd birthday, so celebrations all around.

As we geared up and got ready for school this morning I thought I had all my ducks in a row and was going to be out the door and onto campus with time to spare.  Ummmm?  NOPE!  Although we were all showered, dressed, fed and had our gear together (lunches, backpacks, projects...) we forgot one major item...a car seat full of baking soda to clean up a potty training accident from late last night.  Oops!

So there we were, car loaded, people piling in, ready to roll...wait?  Where is Selah's seat?  We can't go without her strapped in.  Right?!?!  I remember!  I need to go vacuum it out and put everything back together.

15 minutes later we finally rolled out of the house just to get to our school campus late.  So that is how our first day back went.

On the up side, we got to make our own egg/chalk paint, create the layers of the earth with modeling clay and do jumping jacks during class.  So overall it was a win!!!

How was your break and return back to your regular routine?  Leave comments below to share your stories with us!

Love being TWO!

My 2 Year Old Birthday Jams.

Egg/Chalk Paint

Creating My Masterpiece

Enter with Caution

If you have ever had children, raised children, baby sat children or maybe even been a child; then you know that potty training can be tricky.  It may even involve tears (and I don't mean from the child).  So, it was with trepidation, and maybe a little fear, that I decide to start potty training my 22-month old. 

Why was I scared?  What could be so bad about this?  After all, my first two potty trained pretty easily!  My oldest completely trained at 18-months old, but had some serious digression problems at age 2 when she ingested artificial food color.  That became a year long nightmare, but this is a story for another time. 

Then, my second child was really easy!  I didn't even have to train him, but rather big sister did all the training.  Little siblings want to be just like their older siblings; so it worked.  Easy peasy, done and done.

Now I have child number three.  She wanted to start using the potty around 18-months, but I simply was not ready to conquer this task.  She could talk and communicate well (to me at least), but I felt like she might not be ready to tell me BEFORE she need to go, so I kept stalling.  Now, at 22-months, I decided that I was ready to be done with diapers (cloth or otherwise). 

If the first two were so easy, why the fear with the third...especially since she has been ready for 4 months?  Well...I told her for about 3 days before we started that we were going to start using the potty.  Her answer, "NO!"  Simply, loud and adamant..."NO!"  If you know her, you know that she is strong willed.  It is her way or the highway (or so she thinks).  I seriously was in no way ready to clean messes up all day long, so yes, fear.  But, when the day came to train she hopped up on the potty and tried.  All day long she tried.  No success, but no major failure either.  Day two started and when I put her on the potty I quickly realized that I was distracting her, so I acted like I needed to go get something and stepped just outside the door where she couldn't see me, but I could hear her.  The Flood Gates Opened!  Seriously, she used the potty and has been doing it successfully ever since!  She has rarely had an accident and is wearing big girl underwear all day (even staying dry all night, but I still have a diaper on her just in case).  We are on day 5 or 6 and I would say that she is a potty champion!  Proud Momma moment :)  I am thinking that in the next few weeks she will be completely accident free and maybe even diaper free at night! 

Now we just need to work on getting her to sleep through the night - lol.  Hey, there's an oil for that! 

15-weeks

I turned 15-weeks pregnant on Monday, and again forgot to take a belly picture.  Yesterday my belly really seemed to pop out there, so the next pic I post should actually make me look pregnant.  I'm serious.  A lady even commented in the store about hoping my baby #2 is a good sleeper.

I saw my midwife for our monthly check-up and everything looked great.  Well, almost.  My blood pressure is really low (it was 88/62) but there is nothing you can do about that.  The low blood pressure issue causes many women to faint throughout pregnancy; and is very common if you already have a naturally low blood pressure.  The reason it can drop even lower in pregnancy is because your blood volume is ever increasing through 28 weeks and sometimes your hemoglobin just doesn't catch up quite fast enough.  Oops!   Hopefully I will not be faining throughout this pregnancy.  Actually, I hope I won't faint again, at all.  But; it is altogether harmless to both me and baby.

Baby was kicking and flipping and swimming around like (s)he was having a lot of fun in there.  The heartbeat was strong 152bpm and I am measuring 14cm.  I have also gained 6.5 pounds since this pregnancy started.

I also have pictures of Mackenzie to post if I ever get around to it.  She is looking so grown up all of a sudden.  Potty training is going much better.  She is only patient enough to potty train half a day, so she gets to run around naked all morning.  Then when she starts to act tired for her nap we put the diaper back on.  That is when the potty accidents and grumpiness starts, so we just stop for the rest of the day.  This method is working really well; and the fact that she likes to sit backwards on the big potty.  I know she is only 2, but she seems so grown up.  Her personality is so sweet and she is very opinionated.  I hope baby #2 is just like her...I just love her so much (except for the sleeping thing; baby #2 can sleep through the night).

We are trying to get our diagnostic ultrasound appointment set for Friday, June 4th.  That is the one where they check all of the organs, measure the baby, estimate the due date (again) and check the gender if you want to know.  I want to know, so hopefully in just over 2-weeks time we will know if baby #2 is a boy or a girl and we can start calling him/her a him or her or by name or whatever seems appropriate.

I will try to post pictures tomorrow and update blog soon.  Bye for now.

B-I-N-G-O

And I don't mean the game.

Today we (Mackenzie to be exact) had a HUGE potty training breakthrough.

At 4:25 she told me "Poopie, poopie". We ran to the bathroom. We made it on time. And...she went poo in the potty all by herself!

Of coarse we were so excited and made a really big deal about it. Hopefully she will remember the positive fuss we made and keep up the good work. Now if we can just cut down on tinkle accidents we will be doing great. Especially because she stopped throwing her tantrums yesterday.

Two Steps Forward...

Two steps forward, one step back.

At least we are taking two steps forward on the potty training front. This past Saturday and Sunday we took a break from potty training. By 'a break' I mean that Mackenzie wore pull ups instead of big girl panties and we only used the potty twice each day. This seems to have helped because she is down to one tantrum (or less) each day instead of the ridiculous 6 tantrums a day. Oh, and we stopped watching Karate Kid I which may have also helped?

Yesterday we went back to big girl panties and normal potty training and the tantrums stayed to a minimal once a day :) Also, yesterday she started saying 'poopie' just before she needs to go poo. This is AWESOME!

As for the one step back...she is having more accidents during the day.

I know it will all be worth it when diapers are a memory of the past and she is never having accidents. Then we will start all over with baby #2 (when we have a baby #2).

Potty Training

OK. I realize I have not blogged for a LOOOONG time, but hey...I just didn't feel like blogging. Now that something pivotal is taking place in my daughter's life I decided it is time to post again. That something pivotal is POTTY TRAINING and the 'Terrific Two's'.

Mackenzie has been showing signs of going into the terrible -I mean- 'Terrific Two's' for a month or two now, but nothing to dramatic. The occasional throwing herself on the floor when she was mad or random hitting or kicking when she didn't get her way. She would only do this about once a week at first, then she decided to go for a minimum of twice a week. No big deal. I can handle twice a week, and so can she.

But then -loud music playing DUH, DUH, DUH- we started potty training. The first week was AWESOME. She only had accidents the first two or three days, then days 4-7 she did great. She loved going on the potty (no poo, but that is another story). She loved putting stickers on her potty chart and washing her hands and doing the victory potty dance. We were laughing and having a great time. Day 8 there began some rebellion. She started saying, "NO" when I told her it was time to go to the potty. I thought maybe we were going to often, so I backed off from every hour to every hour and a half to two hours. This worked for day 8, but on day 9 she would just YELL, "NOOOOOO" when it was time to go to the potty then she would just pee in her big girl panties. Yes, pee all over the floor. I thought this was just a stage, but on day 10 she started throwing these yelling tantrums with kicking, biting and hitting if I asked her to do anything (get dressed, eat lunch, go potty...anything!). And these tantrums didn't last just a minute or just five minutes; they lasted 45 minutes each, and she threw 5 or 6 of them each day! No matter what I did, hugs, kisses, reading a book, leaving her alone; nothing worked to soothe her and she just continued on with her rebellion of whatever. So I decided that today(day 12 of potty training) we would just take a break. She can wear a diaper today and I will take her to the potty only a few times today. Did the potty training aggravate the 'Terrific Two's', or is she just testing her limits? Is she not ready to potty train? She finds it easy to tinkle in the potty so that shouldn't be it!

Uggg.

Oh, and NO MORE KARATE KID the movie until her tantrums stop!

Yes, No, Maybe

This is a strange topic...it is about pee. Not just any pee, but my daughter's pee and what is going on lately.

Three nights ago Mackenzie half woke up crying and complaining around 2am. I went into her room to find that her night time diaper had become so full that it not only leaked but it SOAKED her, her pajamas, her stuffed lamb and her bed. So I stripped her down, cleaned her up, changed her diaper, put on a clean set of pajamas and took her to Daddy to snuggle with while I went in to change her sheets and clean up the rest of the mess.

After the whole ordeal Mackenzie was so awake that she had trouble falling back asleep, so I then had to stay up another hour getting her back down in her bed.

But wait, that's not all! This has happened EVERY NIGHT for 3 nights now. Just when we have her sleeping really well this starts happening.

So here is the 'Yes, No, Maybe' part. Do I stop giving her liquids before bed? What time to I stop? Can I just give her less? How much less? This is hard because Mackenzie LOVES to drink water and milk and I don't want to tell her, "I know you are thirsty, but I can't give you any water even though it is good for you and keeps you hydrated." Duh, seriously! And she will not stop asking for a 'drink' or 'thirsty' until I give it to her, and if I don't give it to her she will cry which will make her more thirsty and will dehydrate her. Where is the balance? We must find one, and soon!

What are you doing?

WARNING:
This may be a TMI post for some of you, but I think the majority of you can handel this.

Yesterday morning Daddy was taking a shower and Mackenzie left the living room where I was and headed into the bathroom where Daddy was. I guess Wayne couldn't see what Mackenzie was doing from where he was because I heard him say (in kind of a loud voice), "Mackenzie, what are you doing?"

I figured that was my queue to go find out what might be wrong, so I was surprised when I walked in to find Mackenzie sitting on her potty. I said, "Look, Honey, she is going potty." When she was done I then took off her pant and her diaper to see what she had done, and she had actually gone poo in her diaper while sitting on the potty...all by herself! Now we just have to work on getting her pants off BEFORE she sits on the potty.

I am so proud of her. :)