The Crib

We decided that since Sophie is potty trained she shouldn't be in a crib anymore. She needs to be able to get out of bed first thing in the morning to run to the potty. Since Todd was home he helped take down the crib. Since we don't have another baby on the way for once we opted to just put her mattress on the ground to start then later get her a bed.





She was so excited....but she kept coming out of her room and crying and would sleep so finally at 3:40 am we set up the pack-n-play and she slept fine. The next night we set her crib back up. I'd rather deal with her wearing a diaper at night than no-one sleeping in the house. Maybe in a few months we'll try again.

Potty Training - Day 1

Sophie has shown a lot of interest in potty training and has been telling us before she goes in her diaper for a few weeks...but with spring break I was putting it off. We decided back at home it was time to give it a go. I told Meggan to have her completely naked and it worked like a charm. She went in the potty all day and her only accident was when when she put on training pants. She even went in by herself a couple of times. She would tell me she needed to go then go sit on the potty then get down then get back on then get down then do a little potty dance then finally she would go. We sang (her favorite song right now is Old MacDonald ... she loves EIEIO), we read books and I painted her nails (which is what she is showing off in the picture). I can't believe that I might actually be diaper free for the first time in almost 8 years. WOW!

Such a big girl

Sophie is so excited to be wearing her very own big girl undies. Meggan and I decided to start trying to potty train her since she seems aware and interested. So I bought these fancy training pants for her to wear and she has peed and pooped in them several times already but she seems to be understanding what's going on now and she LOVES it. She was totally showing them off to me while wearing 1 of her pink snow boots.

I should have...

taken pictures of the following today:

When I went in to get Sophie out of bed she was leaning over the crib railing pointing and grunting like she wanted something....her binkies, violet (her puppy) and her footed jammies were laying there on the floor. Silly girl.

Sophie on the potty. She sat on the potty several times grunting and pushing and trying so hard to go potty. She is so funny. She wants so badly to be a big kid. Todd even went out in the garage to get the baby potty seat for her since she is showing interest and she wanted nothing to do with it unless it was the big potty.

Sophie eating powdered donuts. Oh I know...she should eat healthy food but I took the girls to the grocery store right after they woke up since I was home for a few hours with them and we were in a hurry to get it done while Luke was at school. So on the way home I gave the girls powdered donuts. Sophie would put the whole thing in her mouth at once, she was covered in white powder and she kept opening her mouth and showing Claire and I her mouth full of donuts. It was seriously hilarious.

She is the silliest thing.

Potty Training - Take 2

Remember last year when Claire was potty training? Well it went well for a little while, then finally Luke potty trained and I got more and more prego and I just stopped working with her. Occasionally over the last year we've tried for a day or so, but after cleaning up pee a few times I just put her back in her diaper. Meggan (our nanny) has been working with her a lot the last couple of weeks so we pulled out the potty chart again last week. She gets a simple star sticker for trying and a special sticker if she goes and a princess prize.

Then something happened. On Saturday she woke up dry and I knew it was my chance so I put her on the potty.....and I kept putting her on the potty every 20 minutes for 2 hours and NOTHING happened. Then I had to go pick up Tayson from soccer so I gave up and put a diaper on Claire and we ran to the game. We were only gone for about 20 minutes total and when we got home her diaper was still dry so back on the potty and this time she went. I was so excited! She wanted to wear her panties to Luke's soccer game so I packed a big Ziploc, extra undies and pants and off we went. No accidents. Then we went to Roman's birthday party and she wore panties there too and even went potty at Jeannie's house. She made it all day without any accidents. Then on Sunday when she got up she was a little wet and very upset that she went pee in her diaper. She wouldn't wear a diaper to church (or underwear) she wore her "special church panties" as she called them (bloomers that matched her dress). We went into nursery a few times to take her to the potty but she didn't go or have an accident. Todd's grandpa came in town for the day from Idaho so we took the kids up to Salt Lake so I made her wear a diaper. A few hours into our visit I looked over and she looked like she was going so I took her to the bathroom to change her diaper and low and behold she was dry and went as soon as I put her on the potty. Yippee!

Today was a good day again. She went to Wal-Mart in her panties to pick out more princess prizes and get ice cream. I am so excited that she is really doing it. A few more days of this and I think I will only have 1 kid in diapers. First time since Luke was born minus a few short months before Sophie was born.

twenty-six firty thousand happy

What would make Luke twenty-six firty (30) thousand happy? Going potty of course! I'm not sure when the crazy numbers started for him, but if he strings together a few big numbers it shows just how big something is. He really has no concept of what he's saying most of the time but since Tayson says big numbers he has to do it too. So this morning after going potty he told me he was twenty-six firty thousand happy (yesterday it was fifty-five six hundred) and let me tell you I am way happier than he is. Last Friday he decided it was time to wear "undeywear" (he's still having issues with the "r" sound) and he has had a few accidents along the way but way more successes!

We couldn't be happier as a family. Tayson is always there cheering him on and telling him how proud he is then quickly telling him which toy he should pick as his reward. And this morning the first thing Claire said to me was "Bubba so happy go potty". And trust me I am completely overjoyed at the thought of having him out of diapers before this baby comes.

I wish I could say something great about my parenting that made the difference with potty training him (trust me we tried every trick in the book). But, I don't know what finally made him decide he was ready. Nothing we did could get him motivated until he finally thought he would just do it and now he's unstoppable! Way to go Luke!!!

And the good news is Claire is feeding off the excitement and I think she'll follow quickly. Life is good!!!

Naked Time

So we decided to get serious about potty training and Luke and Claire have both been spending a lot of time in shirts only. Of course the first day Tayson joined in the fun of naked time - don't worry Todd and I didn't!!! Luke was doing great and was accident free, had gone potty a few times and was smiling from ear to ear when you asked him about it until this morning. When he got up this morning I grabbed a shirt and went out to get him dressed. I took off his jammies and diaper and put him in a shirt and he freaked out. He wanted a diaper and pants SO bad. But I felt like we were so close so I didn't give in to him and made him stay naked. He screamed and cried and peed on the floor and then sat on my lap totally sad that he had to be naked begging me to let him wear a diaper. I think I have ruined my child and someday when he's an adult he's going to have issues and it will all stem back to today. I feel horrible as a mom and I have no idea where to draw the lines with forcing the potty training and letting him make his own decisions. All I can say is I HATE POTTY TRAINING!!!

Equality in Parenting

This morning was a HUGE morning for us. Luke woke up dry so I hurried and put him on the potty - we sat there for a full 10 minutes and nothing. So I let him get off for a few minutes and had to go in the other room for a few minutes so he wouldn't see how upset and disappointed I was in myself for not being able to potty train him. Then I stuck him back on the potty with a full glass of his favorite drink (strawberry milk) and told him he had to drink the whole thing before he could get off. He wouldn't even sip it (I'm sure because his bladder was way too full) finally he let go and went and trust me he went and went and went. I've never seen a kid with such a big bladder! Then I got Claire up and she sat on the potty and went too. What a great morning. The funny part however is the reactions to their successes. They both got "special" stickers on their potty charts and I told them how proud I was of them. Then Luke got to pick any toy he wanted and I just kept telling him how proud I was of him. My mom was over since she is watching the kids this week and just laughed at how much more praise Luke was getting than Claire and she said "isn't it hard to have equality in parenting?" It made me laugh and think about the truth of it and how many times when I was little I would tell my parents "that's not fair...so-in-so got to do this and I don't." We live and we learn.

It's Potty Time

Mornings are usually a little hectic for me. I got home from the gym this morning at about 7:15 and the boys were already awake and downstairs playing so I had time to jump in the shower and try to start getting ready. Right after my shower I heard Claire talking in her room so I went to get her out of her crib. She wanted to get dressed right away rather than kick it in her jammies like most mornings. Then she just hung around me while I tried to put on makeup. In no time it was 7:45 and time to get Tayson dressed, fed and off to school. On his way up he banged his knee on the door frame which caused him to be completely incapable of walking - he's so dramatic. I of course can't carry him up the stairs without killing my back so I woke up Todd to have him carry Tayson upstairs (it just wasn't worth fighting with Tayson). When Todd went downstairs Tayson was feeling well enough to run around playing with Luke so he ended up having to walk upstairs all on his own. :) He was really good this morning and ate 2 bowls of cereal and got dressed fast so we had a few minutes before he had to walk to the bus stop so he yells "it's potty time!" Tayson got Luke and Claire and headed back into the bathroom where I was still trying to finish getting ready. We got Luke on the big potty, Claire on her potty seat and Tayson grabbed his Diego folding chair and Todd's guitar and started playing a "potty song" for them and singing to them. It was so hilarious to me.

Tayson loves potty time and is always encouraging Luke and Claire to go sit on the potty so he can do the robot dance, sing them a song, read them a book or just be silly for them. Of course it gets pretty crowded in the bathroom when the whole family has to be in there. I love Tayson's enthusiasm with potty training. If only Luke and Claire would go potty!!!

Potty Update

Last week we finally got Claire in to see a specialist (Pediatric GI doctor). I made her appointment 2 months ago and was hoping all her issues would be gone before now. Oh well. It was a great appointment. In case you aren't aware of her issues - she cries really hard every time she needs to poo - which has made potty training a little easier since we know it's coming hours before but it's horrible to watch her cry. She has always had issues with constipation and we have had her on Milk of Magnesia since November. Anyways, her appointment was great and the doc said she has a "sluggish colon" but nothing else so we need to give her a high fiber diet. I realize this is healthy and everyone should eat like this .... but she is still short a few teeth (4 on top, 2 on bottom and her 4 molars but lots missing in between) so high fiber foods aren't her favorite. But we are on it - I even bought whole grain mac-n-cheese which has 4 grams of fiber instead of 1 per serving. Who knew? So basically we need to keep her on a light laxative until she gets over the fear of pooping.

The best part of the visit, aside from the fact that there is nothing really wrong with Claire, is that the doc had lots of good advice for potty training. He suggested that we have different types of rewards (star stickers for trying and special stickers for going) as well as secondary rewards like nickles for trying and quarters for going. And trust me I am all about buying off my kids if they will potty train. We are trying these tactics on Luke so hopefully now he'll at least try to potty train. He still only has 4 stickers on his chart...pathetic.

Another funny side note to the whole chart thing is that Tayson (who is very competitive) is really bugged that Luke and Claire have charts and he doesn't. He asked me if he could have a potty chart and I of course said no. So instead he rubs it in. He told Luke that he didn't need a chart when he was potty training and I even caught him lecturing Claire about not needing a chart to potty train (like she was as bad as Luke or something). So I told Tayson that she isn't even 2 and he was 3 when he potty trained so he should lay off her a little. But I did decide that since he is competitive and there is something I really want him to do we'll start a chart for him - a book chart. Every book he reads (we help with the big words) he can get a sticker and for every 10 stickers he can get a little something. His first prize is a General Grievous action figure (he's very into Star Wars right now). I'd say the chart works for Tayson because this morning right when he woke up he came in and told me he wanted to read a book and we got one in before school this morning! Yippee. Now if it would only work with Luke my life would be perfect!!!

A Parent's Patience

I know it takes a lot patience to have kids. I have 3 kids, and sadly I have no patience. It's something that I have struggled with since Tayson was born and Luke is really putting it to the test! I honestly had to walk out of the room last night after changing his poopy diaper. It is ridiculous that the kid can't figure this whole potty thing out. It drives me crazy and I just have no patience for it. This of course makes me feel horrible, but seriously it's just too much. Luke is a very smart kid - I'm not trying to brag or anything but since he gets it from Todd and others in my family (not directly from me) I feel ok to say that he really is smart. He's almost 3 1/2 and he can spell almost any 3 letter word I give him. It's amazing. He can do any puzzle we give him, he has even done an adult puzzle with Todd before. But he CAN'T poop in the toilet!!! It makes me want to scream. Claire on the other hand only knows a handful of words, her favorite of these words is poo poo. And she knows what it means and does it. She even made up her own "poop" word a couple of weeks ago. She passed some gas and she smiled at me and said "poopsie" it made me laugh pretty hard so that's her new word for a toot. She's on the second line of her potty chart already (Luke has 1 mercy sticker and has earned 1 on his own). I keep praying for the patience to make it through this whole potty training event, but if it doesn't come soon I'm just going to have to get rid of Luke for a few months. :)

Don't judge me....I'm just at the end of my rope and had to get it off my chest :)

Potty Training - Day 2

Well we are done.....he's simply not ready. We set his watch and he wore it great, he ran up to the bathroom to sit on the potty every time the alarm went off. Tayson continued to cheer him on and do the robot dance (I'm still not sure how this has anything to do with going potty - but Tayson seems to think it's inspirational). After Luke sat on the potty for 10 minutes he got off saying he didn't need to go then within 5 minutes peed a lake on the kitchen floor. So I'm thinking he's not quite ready yet. I guess we'll try in a few more weeks .... or years.

Potty Training - Day 1

Since Luke has been 3 for a few months now it is time to take serious action with the potty training. So last night Luke, Tayson and I took a trip to Wal-Mart to buy all the necessary supplies. Luke got to pick out new underwear (or undeeway as he calls them since his "L" struggles) he tried 3 times to buy the Dora panties but Tayson and I wouldn't let him. Then he got to pick out a special treat to have after he goes - he picked ice cream (what a Schultz) so we got a few varieties of small ice cream treats. Then we got some fun new fingerpaints for him, posterboard to make a potty chart and star stickers. We made his chart last night and hung it in the bathroom and he was really excited. I am taking tomorrow off work so I planned on starting then, but when he woke up this morning he decided he wanted to wear his new undeeway and he got himself all dressed in them. I told Tayson that everytime he goes to the bathroom he should take Luke too. So I walked by the bathroom and they were both completely naked and Tayson was trying to get him to "race" him going pee. Luke didn't quite manage ... but he tried. Then a little bit later Tayson told him to sit on the potty to go poop. So Luke was trying and trying and to be motivational Tayson offered to do the robot dance for him - and he did it. I was cracking up!!! I have no idea how the rest of the day will go, but at least they are excited and Tayson is the best potty coach around so far.