Gettin' on the potty train!

My little two and a half year old. He has been ready to get on the potty for a couple of months now. I was waiting until Christmas break to really get focused on it and really get into a regime doing it. We've have had a lot of success over this Christmas break and are about 60% potty trained. Nice!

Now for all of you non-parents out there. I am sorry. You might just skip this post. But I will do my darndest to put humor into it.

Here is what I know about potty training having potty trained one kid and working on the next:

* Every kid is different! What works for one kid will backfire on another kid. I like hearing ideas from other moms what has worked for them. Because a lot of them are creative and positive. I shut down when I hear, "This works every time, you have to do this.....xyz....." With all due respect, I disagree.

* I don't care what the parenting books and experts say--bribery/reward of some kind works. This is the one exception to the above rule. You have to know your kid. My little guy loves just getting a big hug and a kiss for a success. If he does a really good thing, then he gets one gummy worm. Whatever! I know lots of people are cringing out there, but I think a little form of reward goes a long way.

* I am not an expert on this at all. I am an expert on my kids. I know what makes them tick and I use that to my advantage. When I potty trained my oldest, yes, I bought books and sought advice, then I took the book knowledge and applied it to how I know his brain ticks. That is the best way to motivate the desire to try. It also took me about seven months to fully potty train him. Remember, I am not an expert. Plus, he dug his heels in to rebel against the process, and that is the bottom of the rope in potty training.

* I have met a few parents who tell me their kids just hated diapers and potty training was a breeze. Mainly because it was "If I go in this white thing, I don't have to wear them anymore? Done!" Most of us bang our heads for a few months getting the right neurons in the toddler's brain to click in how all this new gadgetry works. We have to be careful not to hate parents like this.

* Myth, once they are potty trained, you have no worries. Wrong! Kids get lazy, and suddenly you find little messes in the bathroom, toilets not flushed, etc. I also do spot checks on hands occasionally after bathroom usage only because handwashing can become lax as well. It continues until your child develops a little bit of an "icky" factor. That is the whole germaphobe thing. They need to get grossed out by the thought of something (ie unseen germs on hands after bathroom use), not just the gross thing in front of them (ie squished bug in front of a toddler makes them say "icky!").

* Once you have a success of some kind, don't go back! This Christmas break, BH has been doing number one in his potty very regularly. It is not an option to suddenly go back. It has been made clear--this is now the expectation because he is a big boy!

* I do totally recommend a new product out there. Clorox all surface cleaner. It kills 99% of disease causing germs. It is also not toxic. If you have seen the commercials, the child is eating on a high chair and mom suddenly squirts the tray she's eating off of with this stuff--practically in the child's face. It is safe around food, pets and kids. Why do you need a good germ killing substance like this?? I promise, you will be cleaning up messes that you never thought you would. I am not a germaphobe but human waste gets zapped with some pretty hefty germ killer in my household. Trust me, you'll need a good cleaner--where there are great successes in potty training, there are some pretty nasty failures.

* You need a sense of humor. I never thought in a million years I would be standing over a plastic potty chair, jumping like a cheerleader at what is in it, hoping the neighbors don't hear/see me, and also quite glad at what is in the potty. You just need to laugh.

* Practically speaking, I am looking forward to not buying expensive diapers/pullups, I am looking forward to this summer when BH can attend Vacation Bible School, in the fall he will be potty trained long enough accidents should be a minimum at preschool, and I no longer have to think twice about what is under my fingers nails.

I wonder if CSI is ever going to do an episode where they scrape a victims finger nails and realize she just changed a diaper.....

Girlfriends! Post some of your ideas, embarrassing moments, etc!

UPDATE: Two hours after posting this post. BH ran to the potty and tried to go a few times. I watched a little mystified. On the third run, he did a number two!! WooHOO! Number two seems to be the hardest to accomplish, and he did it! Number two took a full seven months for BH's older brother. As I type this, he is wearing Thomas the Tank Engine underwear. I'll keep you posted! I am so ecstatic, you have no idea! For Child of God, we also have Spiderman as well.

Bringing Sexy Back

Let me give you some history here. Like four or five years ago, I injured my jaw in the most embarrassing way I think possible. Was I in a bar fight with a biker chick? No. Was I in a horrifying accident and saved three people's lives? No. Was I on a roof saving the neighbors cat and fell? No.

I was losing my lunch in the confines of my bathroom. I had a nasty migraine that day. Migraines make me extremely nauseous, and that was the result. During that little episode, I felt a snap in my jaw on the left side of my face. I didn't think anything of it because I was...er....busy at the time doing other things.

Within twelve hours I noticed suddenly my teeth didn't line up at all. It was extremely difficult to chew meat. After several days, I noticed I always had a low grade headache. I just attributed that to coming off the migraine.

Within a month, I was bothered. Eating was a nightmare, and nothing was making the headaches go away. I wanted to see a doctor. Okay, where do you go? Your dentist or the doctor?? I flipped a coin and went to the dentist. He immediately knew what it was and how to remedy it. His wife is an old friend of mine and has the same problem from an even more embarrassing injury. But I digress....

The solution, wearing a mouth guard at night in my mouth. Yes, the same kind of mouth guard athletes wear. He said there is no explanation for why it works, but it works in about 95% of patients. It doesn't actually fix the problem, the jaw is permanently damaged--but it does line up the teeth and makes the headaches go away. He also said it would help the wear and tear on my teeth since I clench my teeth at night. Okie dokie!

I got my mouth guard, and have had it since. Let me tell you, it doesn't bring my sexy factor up wearing it at night. Plus, the first week or so, I was always on the verge of gagging on it. Now, it's nothing--and it fixed the problem within a few nights. Nice! But I have gotten lax. I wear it occasionally, if not at all. My teeth feel fine, and I have so many other things to think about at bedtime. I don't mind wearing it though, I have just gotten lazy.

Well, over Christmas, suddenly I am waking up with nasty headaches. I start attributing it to holiday stress. But it dawns on me, these headaches are very similar to the ones I had when I first did this injury. I dust off my guard and put it in a few nights ago. Yep, you guessed it. I woke up without a headache and a lot more refreshed.

So if I ever spend a night with you, be sure to ask me to model my sexy mouth guard. I really need to get back to wearing that all the time.

Christmas Memories 2007

I just took 200+ photos and pared them down to the best 25. Whewie! We had a great Christmas, and pray you did too. Wishing all of you, your family and friends, a very blessed New Year.

Connections Academy Article

In case I haven't mentioned it, I am getting more and more excited about doing this! I totally relate to the mom at the end of the article who just couldn't see herself as the home teaching mom. What I can see is driving someone else's plan. I would rather someone else being giving the assignments and tests, while I follow their lead.

Here is our local, liberal publication putting their two cents in. The only thing that alarms me about this article, Connections Academy has until 2010 until their charter runs out. What happens then? I'll need to find out.

Click here.

Christmas Eve 2007

Here are some of the things we did on Christmas Eve. First, we made some goodies. I have Google as my home page, and I have customized it so that I get a recipe a day from several resources, one of them being Betty Crocker. So here was one of those recipes. Click here for the link. It is the easiest cake I have ever made. Yes, it was cake mix and frosting out of a can, but hey, it impressed the kids and my inlaws, and that is all that counts.


This is BH carrying bags out the door for us. We are headed to Grandpa and Grandma's for Christmas.
This is Christmas Eve. We are eating at Aunt D's house. She made us pizza.

Here is BH and his cousin lighting the advent candles at the Christmas Eve service we attended. Very cute!

There you go! I have about 200+ pictures from Christmas morning to go through, so hang on while I get ready to post Christmas photos.

I have to say, our family did a fun thing this year. We celebrate Christmas with my mother and father in law, one unmarried sister in law, then another sister in law and her husband and daughter (pictured above). The kids get more presents than most third world countries. In year's past, so have the adults.

We agreed this year that all the adults would do something different. Each adult would purchase a gift for $50, then we would do some drawing/trading typical of what a lot of offices do with gifts. First thing it accomplished 1) No more extravagant gift giving. That was getting out of hand. 2) We didn't need a second vehicle to come home with all the gifts and our kids. In years past, we had to leave some gifts behind because the car was too full.

Plus, it was totally fun! I gave a beautiful handmade quilt at our church's bazaar for $50 that was so underpriced, it was nuts. My hubbie gave a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble. Nice! Child of God is wishing she was related to us. I received an under cabinet radio and CD player with a remote. Nice! That is all I need. My hubbie got gift certificates to local movie theatres and a gift card to Red Robin for a nice night out. Nice! That is all we need.

We agreed to do it again next year. We have all year to be really creative in our gift giving. One thing my hubbie and I hope to drop hints for next year--one gift from each adult to the kids. You'll see in the next Christmas Day post, the gifts for the kids are a bit out of hand.