Just Because....

...I think these kids are cute

Nathan has been enjoying play time on the floor.  He even got excited and reached for the ball yesterday!  Woohoo...that's my boy.  I hope his first word is "ball"

Hannah is really doing well at puzzles.  She is finally enjoying them and will sit and practice for quite some time.  I'm really happy about this.  For a while she simply couldn't figure out what the toy was:-)  But, not anymore...she's up for the challenge:-)

Nicole wanted in on the picture taking of course.  Her shirt says, "I get my good looks from my dad" Ain't that the truth?!?

Hi baby boy....He's so darn cute!

Our conversation yesterday at lunch.

Nicole: Mommy, I'm all done my belly hurts.
Me: Did you eat all  your lunch?
Nicole: No, there is still some left, but my belly hurts.
Me: OK how much is left?
Nicole: Um...well....I think there is 20 or 25.

What do you think???

Pelicans Pooping on the Pier

I had to name my post that for a few reasons...
1. I thought it was funny
2. Nicole was most fascinated with the white stuff on the pier on our recent trip...that would be Pelican Poop...don't touch
3. I told Jeremy I would name the post that and he sort of rolled his eyes at me....so I had to make good on my word :-)

So...onto what I was going to show.

Saturday night we decided to load up the kids and head to the pier for a picnic dinner.  We got some yucky pizza and mushy breadsticks (that wasn't necessarily the plan...we were hoping for good pizza and garlicy breadsticks), brought along some soda, juice and water and went off to enjoy the nice weather and beautiful place we live.

I am ashamed to say that this is the first time we've taken them to the pier.  It is one of my favorite places to go, especially at night.  So, peaceful....at night....without kids.  During the late afternoon, with kids the pier was not peaceful or serene, but it was fun.

Nicole thought it was neat we were walking over the water, Hannah said hello to every person we passed, and Nathan, I'm sure was wishing for some sunglasses.  We saw someone catch a hammerhead shark.  Yes....a hammerhead, VERY VERY close to shore.  No thank you!!!!

We ate our pizza at a table that was actually empty...and of course had to make our dinner time potty trip...all the way back to the beginning of the pier (we have NEVER eaten dinner without the girls going potty.  It doesn't matter if they went just before, or if we eat at different times.  They ALWAYS have to go.  A bit annoying, but it's just the way it is I guess).

We saw huge pelicans, and even some dolphins in the water.

We talked to an English couple, here on "holiday".  Nicole introduced herself, her brother Nathan and her sister Hannah.  Hannah, of course not wanting to be left out, then quickly sat up...pointed to me and said, "Mommy" and then pointed to Jeremy and said, "Daddy".  The English lady got a kick out that!

We saw a guy obviously gearing up for a big night of shark fishing...he had a seriously BIG hook, and fish he was getting ready to chum (by the way, shark fishing is illegal on the pier)

Do you see the Pelican in the water?

The girls ran up and down the pier and I had visions of busted lips and cut up eyebrows (did you know that happened to me...silly story...silly girl....bloody face....much embarrassment).  Thankfully my visions did not become reality.  Nor did my fear they would fall over the side.

We took a nice family picture, except that Nathan's poor little face was blocked (sorry Nate).

The only thing that could have made this more fun is if we would have driven there in a jeep.  Oh...a jeep...one day, one day we'll have another one, I'm sure:-)

In Awe

Some days I am simply in awe of my children.  The girls have been looking through photo albums of them as babies...especially Nicole.  I nearly started crying the other day looking back just 3 1/2 years ago.  It's amazing to watch them grow!

The other day, Nathan was crying at nap time, so I went in to hold him for a moment.  I had him cradled in my arms and turned around and caught of glimpse of myself in the kid's mirrored closet doors.  I had one of those "moments". 

All of a sudden, I was in awe that I was holding a little baby that would grow up to be a man one day!  To think that, Lord willing, he will be a man, a husband, maybe a father....is a thought to big for me to comprehend fully. For the next few months, I have the honor to hold and take care of a little boy who will quickly grow to big for me rock to sleep.  A little boy who will soon (hopefully) tower over me. 

I've heard many mommas say that the more children they have, the more laid back they become as they learn to treasure the few precious years we have with them while they are small.  I feel that way a little bit.  But...I think Nathan is surprising me, because he's a boy.  I realize there is a very small period of time for me to freely love on him and hold him.  Soon, this little baby boy that I hold and kiss and whisper to daily will grow into a man who will one day have a different woman to hold him, a woman he will protect and provide for...and maybe even little girls to hold in his then strong hands.  The fact that he will quickly grow into an adult is much more real to me than the fact that this will also happen to the girls. 

I love my little Nathan.  I love his smile, his laughter, his sparkling blue eyes.  I love his little noises...I love that he almost always passes gas as he's waking up (a trait I'm sure will never go away! haha...it's a guy thing, right?), I love that he's so little and sweet....but I also love the thought that one day he will be grown up.  My goal over the next few years is to treasure my moments with him.  I am his mother, his only mother....I had the pleasure of bringing him into the world (although ask me then and I'm sure I wouldn't have said it was a pleasure! ha)....I have the honor of caring for him and raising him...and one day, I hope to see the fruit of my labor in a strong, loving man with simply the memory of holding him as a small babe.

Today...is over

I LOVED hearing what some of you were doing today! Thanks for commenting.

So, today is over.  It was a good day.

For the first time I baked muffins with all 3 children!

Nathan can now sit up in the bumbo (pretend it's blue, not purple!), so he sat on the counter and "helped" Nicole, Hannah and I make chocolate chip muffins.

You can tell he enjoyed it.  Please notice that Hannah is wearing fuzzy slippers and Nicole is wearing her princess dress....stylish little girls, I know!

Here Nathan seems to be screaming "Take those scissors away from Nicole...N.O.W!!!!!!"

And here he seems very concerned about Hannah's stirring capabilities.

After our muffins were made, we picked up Mimi and brought her over to have a tea party with us.  Tea parties (this time with Juicy Juice) are one of Nicole's favorite activities.

Later in the day, I caught Nicole and Mimi having a moment chatting and looking out the window.

Grandma and I watched 2 movies during nap today and just enjoyed a nice relaxing day with the girls. 

By the way, did you notice our dining room chairs are different?  We have been looking for new chairs...just plain wooden ones, but haven't found them.  Our chairs are upholstered...always dirty and not practical to clean.  Finally, I decided I'd just buy slip covers...and expected to pay about $100 for all 6.  I found some cheap ones at Bed, Bath and Beyond the other day....only $8 a piece I think...so I thought they would do.  Well...when I checked out, they rang up at $1.99, plus my 6 20% off coupons...they were $1.49 each!!!!!  I was so excited!  I spent like 9 bucks on slip covers for all my chairs.  The color matches my living room curtains pretty well too.  Woohoo for cheap slip covers!

Today....

Today, I plan on following our time schedule with the girls.  This means having Bible Time, Learning Time, Reading Time, etc.  Our schedule seems to be going well lately, Nicole likes knowing what we should be doing...and she is learning how to read the clock (digital and very very basic manual clocks).  She's still working on saying numbers like 32 or 45.  So...checking the clock a zillion times a day seems to be helping.

Later we will go pick up grandma and have a tea party with her.  I plan on making chocolate chip muffins this morning with the girls (and Nathan if he's awake) for our tea party.  Grandma is going to hang around all afternoon and watch a movie with me...I've worked hard on getting most of my chores done so I could spend that time with her today. She seems to be looking forward to it).

I'm looking forward to a laid back day of playing with no real expectation or things to do.  Sometimes those are simply the best.  

Right now, it's 7:04am and still dark out...this messes with our heads...how about you?

So, my friends who check this out...what are you doing today?

WHERE DA GOLD AT?

In honor of St. Patricks Day, you must take 2 minutes and watch this very real and very funny news story about a leperchan siting near Mobile, Alabama.  I think this is the funniest YouTube video ever!!



Now watch the rap remix version...also very funny.

Beautiful Day

Well, It's been a while since I last posted.  In all honesty, I had sort of a hard week with the kids last week and couldn't think of much positive to say....and, I didn't have the camera out snapping shots....and nothing to exciting happened that would thrill most of you:-)  Thus, the lack of posting.

But it all stops today:-)  We've had a nice start this week.  The weather is perfect and we are all rested and happy little campers:-)  I still don't have any exciting stories...I think I haven't had my ears tuned to "blog sharing" what I hear.  I'll try to fix that this week.  For now though, I'll share some fun pictures of the kids playing outside this morning.

A smile from Nathan

Look how big I'm getting!!!

My girls LOVE to dig in the sand.  I can't wait to take them to the beach this summer.  For now, the sand by our walkway will have to do.

Digging for gold?  Nope just sand in the bottom of the bucket.

I actually think this whole scooping sand business is good hard learning play, they just don't know it.  They are learning balance and measuring and volume.  I pretty much love to have dirty kids...it means they've been outside and not sitting around inside watching TV (which of course they do at times anyway)

This is serious work mommy!

Another smile from Nate.  I think he really enjoyed laying outside today.  He even seemed to like the grass tickling his toes.  

In complete awe and wonder over the garbage truck.

Close up of Hannah's "awe and wonder"

Hannah was so excited that Nathan grabbed her hand when she came over to "talk" to him.  She started saying "mommy, mommy...Cheese!  Cheese" (that means take a picture).  But, I'm pretty sure she was the one holding HIS hand.  Can you tell she's got a death grip on this poor guy?  I think his fingers are slightly bent backwards! hahaha.  Good thing babies are basically rubber for the first year.  

I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into our day today.  These kids are getting big way to fast.  I asked Nicole the other day if  she would please stop growing up  for a little while and she said, "Well, mommy, God wanted me to grow up, so he just pushed a button...and I grew!"  Oh, is that how it works?  :-)

Crayon Roll

I love this blog called Elle Belle.  It's written by a mom who likes to sew.  She has some great little tutorials that are just perfect for a wanna be sewer like myself.  I saw a tutorial on making these little crayon rolls several months ago, but just not got around to trying it.

It was fun and pretty easy.  I made two...mostly because I learned from my mistakes on my first one and I wanted to try again.

We are giving this to my nephew Seth via Grammy who'll be going for a visit soon.  Don't worry Susannah...I made you some leg warmers too:-)

Nathan and his daddy

I had something else planned to write about tonight, but something to sweet to pass up just happened. I LOVE watching my children enjoy time with their daddy. I Love it, I Love it, I Love it! This video is a minute long and it has some good Nathan laughs in it.

Potty Training

I have now potty trained 2 children.  I have several friends getting ready to start potty training adventures, and I will have to potty train one more time...so this post is for you (and me).  I know there are lots of different ways, theories, and ages to potty train.  Here is what I did....

With Nicole, we potty trained her the week before her 2nd birthday.  Why?  I remember the moment that I changed Hannah's diaper (she was like 2 weeks old) and then I changed Nicole's diaper....she was almost 2 and I thought...this little girl is far to big to be in diapers!!!  I decided I was going to train her two weeks later.  I think it was because Memorial Day weekend was coming, so I knew I would have Jeremy's help for a longer period of time.

The day we started, she never wore a diaper again.  She just wore undies around and I set a timer.  Every 20 minutes or so, we would get all excited, run to the potty and let her try to go.  If she went, we had a party (and a cookie) if not, knew we would try again later.  There were a few accidents here and there, but within a couple of days she was able to feel the moment she needed to go.  She needed reminding sometimes (and still does sometimes...I'll see her start the "potty dance" and so I'll send her to the potty).  She did wear a pull up at nap time and bed time.  She was dry about half the time but after several nights of changing wet sheets and mornings discovering she had slept in wet sheets for who knows how long, I decided it was better for her to be in pull-ups than sleep in urine.  She stopped using pull ups at naps on her own about 6 months later....and it's been about 9 months since she's stopped wearing a pull-up at night too. She prompted that by telling us she didn't want to anymore. (once you start to tackle all night, you really need to stop giving your child something to drink at least an hour and half before bed time)

My feeling is....once you take them out of diapers, don't put them back in except at naps and night time.  This includes Pull-ups during the day.  They quickly learn they can pee in a Pull-up and it won't make a mess...but, if they pee in their undies, they get all wet and they don't like that.  So...even when we went to the store, even in the car....they wore undies...even at the very beginning.  I think this helps them train MUCH faster...at least in my experience.

Now, Hannah was in cloth diapers for most of her diapering time, so I think this helped her train faster...and prompted me to push a bit earlier.  Plus, her changing table is in the bathroom, so...since she was about 8 months old, I would put her on the potty several times a day and she would go.  Then, when she outgrew the cloth diapers I knew the time would come quickly because I didn't want to be buying diapers for her.  So...Hannah was already going potty every once in a while. Then, in January, our family started our fight with a month of sickness.  Once I realized we were pretty much stuck at the house for a while, I thought I'd give it a shot.  I had a lot more accidents with Hannah, but really....it was usually just pee which is so easy to clean up on wood floors.  No biggie, you know?  The worst accident was when she wet her undies (twice!!!!) at a play date at my friend Jennifer's house (Sorry Jen!!!).  But, come to think of it...that was the last time she's had an accident. Anyway...I'm rambling.

Hannah had a few more accidents than Nicole but she quickly learned.  She was also 3 months younger than Nicole was when I trained her.  Hannah is dry about 50% of the time at night and naps.  I'll let her guide me, hopefully like Nicole did, on when it's time to get rid of them.  This might be TMI...(like the rest of the post hasn't been, haha), but Hannah had a little diarrhea a few days ago.  I was worried she wouldn't make it to the bathroom...but each time she did!  I was surprised and felt like potty training was a complete success!

Now I've heard from many many friends that boys are harder to train than girls...so, I'm bracing myself for Nathan.  First of all....I'm not sure if I train him to pee sitting down or standing up.  I guess I have some time to figure that one out.  I'm a little nervous about all things "boy related" if you know what I mean....I just don't know how it goes.  I'll have to learn each day I suppose:-)

So....my potty training advice....
1. Pick a day to start wearing undies only!
2. Don't ever put a diaper or pull up on during the day... except at naps and bedtime
3. Set an alarm and go every 20-30 minutes the first few days (dedication ladies!  It's all about the potty the first few days)
4. Reward with a small cookie, sticker or treat every time then wean them from that once their potty habits are established
5. Be prepared for accidents.  It'll happen, but they'll learn from it...I promise!
6. Have lots of undies on hand
7. Be prepared to visit bathrooms everywhere!  Nicole would say potty just to go visit a new bathroom.  Hannah says potty just so she can wash her hands somewhere new.  But, at least they have a chance to go in the bathroom one more time.
8.   Oh....one more thing.  I bought undies with characters on them (Dora...who my kids DO NOT watch, but they are amused by her picture...whatever! haha), and Elmo.  And I would say, "Don't pee on Dora" or "Don't pee pee on Elmo".  Both girls would get a little upset if they had an accident because the "Pee peed on Dora" or whoever they were wearing.  For some reason...this worked! haha

I hope this advice helps...and I hope I can remember it one more time!  I'm definitely not an expert at potty training...just sharing what worked with my two so far.

Have you done or are you doing anything different for potty training?