December fun

So as to not get any further behind on blogging, I decided to post all our December stuff in one post. This is kind of picture heavy...sorry!

We started off the month with a fun morning at the Robertson Reporter for our annual gingerbread house party. Or in this case, Pop Tart houses. :) Mom E was kind enough to prepare the houses and icing...I just had to bring a little candy. Last year Bubs had no interest whatsoever in decorating a gingerbread house, and he pretty much played with trains the whole time. This time he did much better and was more into the decorating. And neither of the kids ate as much candy as you might imagine, which is pretty impressive considering what a big sweet tooth the Bean has. The Bean's roof collapsed and Mom E had to do a little repair work, but other than that, their houses turned out very nicely. The houses were pretty much destroyed and salvaged for parts by the next day, FYI. The Pop Tarts and candy just sitting around was way too tempting!

Fast forward a few days in December to Christmas. We went to Mimi and Grandpaw's house for a few days and had a blast. The Bean got a lot of princess stuff, including a princess "laptop", princess sleeping bag, Beauty and the Beast DVD, and princess dolls. She also got a big doll house and doll house stuff...and she pretty much loved every single present! Bubs got mostly vehicle-related stuff, including a remote-control car, Thomas the Train stuff, a small racetrack, and toy golf clubs. And he loved it all. I got a Cricut, which I am super excited about trying out! RR got mostly money b/c he is harder to shop for. :) We had a birthday party for Jesus on Christmas morning and read the Christmas story from Luke 2. The kids actually sat still and listened!

Listening to Grandpaw read from Luke 2

Bubs stuffing his face with birthday cake...don't know what happened to his pants! As a side note, my brother is notorious for taking the last bite of desserts, or just plain being a dessert hog. So for fun/just to be mean, I grabbed the last half of his piece of cake and scarfed it down. This was followed by a small food fight between my brother and I. SOOOOO glad the kids weren't really paying attention. Didn't get any pics of my face or my brother's bald head smeared with icing...sorry!

Eating birthday cake for Jesus

And let's not forget about the snow! Sadly, the one thing I left at home during our trip to Mimi and Grandpaw's was our coats. Oops. So we really had to get creative to let the kids play in the snow. They have on a hodge podge of clothing/mittens/hats belonging to various people. Bubs caught on very quickly to the idea of throwing snowballs and was pretty good at it! He liked being hit and hitting others with the snowballs pretty equally. And I think he is part Eskimo. It's like he doesn't even feel the cold! He could've stayed out there forever if we would have let him! AC helped build a snow man and made snow angels. We all had a great time!

The glorious snow man (mostly the handiwork of Evan and my brother)!

The glorious snow man being tackled to the ground about 30 seconds after he was finished!

I have on my dad's sweatshirt and jacket, and my mom's shoes...the Bean has on Grandpaw's ski mask, Aunt Marianna's sweatshirt hoodie, and Grandpaw's tube socks for mittens. And I had even bought my kids cute hats and mittens this year!

Last little happening for December...Bubs is potty-trained! He had been showing a lot of interest and asking to use the potty from time to time for the last couple of months, and the week after Christmas he just refused to put on diapers. So I went with it, and he has had very few accidents since then. He's done really well, even when we're out and about. And he was accident-free his first day back at MDO, so that's a good sign! He's truly just trained himself. I've been very proud of him! And just in time, since baby #3 is due in July!

Potty Training Update

Some of you have asked how potty training has been going since my last post on it, and it is going great! The Bean has only had a few accidents since then. She's really only had one accident w/ me, and the other couple have been at church/Mother's Day Out. I think she gets very distracted by all the fun she is having, and the teachers/workers don't ask her about going to the potty as often as I do. But the good news is, she is getting better at telling me when she needs to go potty instead of just responding when I ask. And she is not afraid to use public toilets, or of loud flushing toilets, or of going poopy, etc. Also, about her b'day party, we brought her potty and put it in the car, and she went once while we were there. I don't think she went in her pull-up, b/c it was pretty dry when we got home. So it went pretty well! So all in all, I think she is doing pretty well for barely being two! Go Bean!

Potty Training - Day Four Summary

Bless the child - the Bean had no accidents at all today, and acted like an old pro at going potty. Tomorrow is her b'day party, and we're having it at a park w/ no restrooms. I'm bringing her potty to put in the car. It ought to be interesting. :)

Potty Training - Day Four at naptime

I have a potty prodigy on my hands. We have achieved potty perfection today. She even did poopy on the potty with no persuasion! (Do you like my illiteration?) Seriously, she has done so great today! The Bean has had no accidents thus far. I must share a couple of the day's highlights:

1) The Bean told me she had to go poopy this morning, so we went to the potty but she just went tee-tee. I told her good for trying and went on to the next thing. The Bean stayed in the bathroom (she was playing peek-a-boo behind the door), but I didn't think much of it. She shut the door and couldn't open it back up and started asking to be let out. So I went to open the door and she says, "Poo-poo." I look in the grown-up potty, and there is her poo. I was like, did she sit on the grown-up potty and go poo-poo? So I asked her where she went potty, and she pointed to her potty, and sure enough there were remnants in her potty! She had gone poopy in her potty and deposited it in the grown-up potty to flush!

2) We went on some errands today to pick up some things for her b'day party. I wasn't sure what to do, but I put her in a pull-up for the outing. I asked her to go b/f we left, and she went twice b/f we left. And I brought her little seat that goes on top of a grown-up potty w/ us. (She has been using the small floor potty, and had not used the transitional seat.) Once we got to Costco I asked her if she needed to go, and she went on the big girl potty! Then she went again b/f we left Costco, and twice at Wal-mart! She never went in her pull-up!

This is probably all TMI for most of you, but those of you who have been through this potty training experience know how exciting a day like today is! Yea Bean!!

Potty Training - Day Three Summary

Hello all! Well, the Bean did pretty good today. She had four "true" accidents, which surprised me a little, but she ended the day on a good note. She caught herself going poopy and finished in the potty. We are staying at home again all day tomorrow, and hopefully she won't have any accidents. But I have to keep in mind that she is just few days shy of two...she's still a little young for all this! After the vast improvement from Day One to Day Two, I thought she'd sail through today w/ no accidents, and I think maybe that was a little bit of an unrealistic expectation considering that she's been going in her diaper for almost two years!

As a side note, over the past three days I have eaten my weight in M&M's as I've given them out to her, and I've watched more Barney and Sesame Street than any person should be made to endure. I think I'm going to turn purple and break out in song and dance.

Potty Training - Day Two Summary

We went through only 3 pairs of undies after nap, and none of those were true accidents. So a grand total of only 7 pairs of undies today and only one true accident. Praise the Lord - we are making progress! We may even be ready for her b'day party on Saturday!

Potty Training - Day Two at naptime

This morning has been much better! We've only gone through 4 pairs of undies, and only one of those was a true accident. The others were wayward pee again. (Got to remember to set her far back enough on the potty!) I am much encouraged!! I'm beginning to be a believer in this 3 day method!

Potty Training - Day One Summary

Well, the afternoon was better. We only went through 12 pairs of undies. That makes a grand total of 29 undies. But I did not help her this afternoon...I did a dumb thing. I told our neighbors they could come over and play (since we couldn't leave the house). The Bean was very distracted while they were there and had several accidents. After they left, she did much better. She did poop in her pants once, but other than that she pretty much caught herself every time and ran to the potty. I am a little discouraged, as I thought we'd go through less undies and generally do better, but hopefully tomorrow will be better. That's what everybody says, anyhow. We'll see!

Potty Training - Day One at naptime

Well, it's naptime, and potty training has been in full swing at our house. So far, we have gone through 17 pairs of Elmo and princess undies. SEVENTEEN! We had 3 clean pairs left before naptime. I am washing the others now. I am sure we will have more accidents b/f the day is done, but I have been assured by many that this is normal. The lady who wrote the book on this 3 day method said that her son went through 46 pairs of undies on his first day. That makes me feel better. The Bean is catching it about 50% of the time, so half of our accidents were either on our way to the potty or b/c some wayward pee shot out on her undies when she was on the potty. She's even gone poopy in the potty! Several times she's ran to the potty and kept her undies dry, so even though we gone through 17 (SEVENTEEN) pairs of undies, I am not totally discouraged. When I was feeding Baby G I had to put him down like 5 times for me to go put the Bean on the potty. Poor kid - he didn't like that too much.

Pray for endurance for us - I'll keep you posted, my vast readership!

Bye bye tee-tee!

The Bean tee-teed on the potty all by herself today! We haven't really started potty training, but today she told me she had to go tee-tee, so she went on her potty! Then we flushed it and said, "Bye bye tee-tee!" And she's been saying that all day since then. :) I'm hoping to start full-fledged training her next week. Any advice?