All in one year

When we started 2010, we had Colby in diapers and Blake in pull-ups. Over the summer Blake began mastering the toilet and now stays dry overnight! He has been doing it for over a month and we finally said... enough pull-ups for you. In the beginning of November we began sitting Colby on the toilet when he woke up in the morning, before bath time and before bed. He had totally understood the concept. Yesterday I decide... ok it's time. We spent the morning going to the bathroom every 10 minutes and jumping for joy when I caught the right time and changing about 10 pairs of soiled underwear. Things got better in the afternoon.

Today went surprisingly smoothly. We only had one pee accident and 2 poop accidents, but I was VERY happy. We are going a lot longer between bathroom trips and aren't even using the timer anymore. He has yet to ask to pee on his own, but is very aware of what is going on, so I suspect that will come soon. We are not having to reward him the same way we did Blake, but I think the age difference has a lot to do with that.

So it looks like we will end 2010 with two boys wearing underwear. Colby will wear a pull-up to bed for a while and probably to run errans until I know he has totally mastered it. But, I look at this as a pay raise for me. Yes, I know I don't actually get a pay check, but I'm now saving the family a lot of money not having to buy diapers and so many pull-ups!

Hope the end of 2010 is better than the beginning in your family. I can only hope that my 2011 is a ton better than 2010, not sure I could handle another 2010.

good day

Today we had a great day together. It was one of those nothing big planned, so lets just go with it kind of days. I cleaned the bathrooms in the morning to get them done with and then we left for the gym around 9am. I had a shorter than wanted workout, I forgot my knee brace at Richard's friend's house on Sunday and my knee was tweaky while working out... AGAIN! One positive was the fact that Colby did great in the Y's daycare! This was the first time there were no tears and he actually played. When we got home I remembered that I needed to vacuum before speech and did that quickly. Colby decided to go down for his nap and I changed and made Blake's lunch while he watched Monster Jam. Then it was time for speech. After speech, we played Wii Resort. Then there were lots of loud rumbles coming from the sky so we decided to put the tv on expecting rain... which never came! After less than an hour, we decided to go outside and play. They love to go out and play on the porch. Blake and I played basketball. Colby, Blake and I played in the sandbox. Then the boys decided to get the monster trucks and play with them in the sandbox. For some reason, I didn't grab my camera today, maybe because I was in the thick of playing with them? After bath time, with purple water this time, we made dinner and played some more until Daddy came home. They got to play with Daddy for a bit and then get ready for bedtime. Daddy has been doing the bulk of the stories at bedtime which I think is the best. Is there anything that tugs at a Momma's heartstrings more than watching her guys snuggle up with a book?

Another thing that made this a good day.... Blake went all day without an accident!! We have been working hard on this and today it really seemed to click. I am having to give less and less reminders and seeing him recognize the signs in himself more and more. I'm a proud Momma.

I'm standing here listening to Colby blow kisses as a way to avoid going to sleep. Blake crashed as soon as he went to bed. Time for me to watch a bit of tv while Richard finishes up his day's work. Hope you had a great day today too!

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Today's goals:
Tomorrow's goal:
--head into the Y for a cardio workout (without messing up my knee this time) [ok this is a half check since I did mess with my knee... oops]
--vacuum the house before speech [check]
--clean the bathrooms [check]

Tomorrow's goals:

--go to the gym for cardio dance (remember my brace as to not mess my knee more)

--mop the kitchen floor while Colby naps

--make chocolate chip cookies with Colby (for Richard to take while he travels)

--menu plan for the week

Success... maybe? (heads up potty talk for those who don't like to read it)

I mentioned yesterday in my random weekend thoughts that we had begun to potty train Blake again (I really hate that term). If I had re-posted last night I would have said... I'm crazy... this isn't going to work. Two days and no success... what am I going to do? I refuse to backtrack this time, but I'm not sure he gets what I'm expecting him to do. I went to sleep thinking this weekend was a total failure. I was cringing trying to figure out what to do on Tuesday when he goes to school. I couldn't send him in underwear knowing full well he would not be successful. Yet, at the same time I didn't want to go back to putting him in pull-ups when my goal is to only use them at night. I was dreading today... I mean I was really scared to see what today would bring.

What did today bring? Well the last time Blake went to the bathroom last night he successfully peed on the toilet... that meant that through the whole day he was successful twice. We had made a few changes in what we were doing and I had that in my back pocket for today.

Whenever Blake peed on the toilet he earned a new Monster Truck. We tried having him get M&M's first and work up to the Monster Truck, but that did not work. We then decided (on the spur of the moment) that if he had an accident we would take the Monster Truck back and have him re-earn it.

Today... well he only peed on himself once! He actually stopped playing more than once and went to the bathroom. The last time he went we were actually outside and he managed to get in the house and to the bathroom. I was sooo proud of him and even more important he was proud of himself.

We have 2 more trucks to earn and then we will go back to M&M's and hope that now that he has felt success he will start weaning himself off the rewards. (Now if we could just master poop... oh but that's another story)

Goals for tomorrow:
--stay positive in potty training
--create food menu for next week
--vacuum the house
--bring the boys outside to play at least once
--run laps around living room and kitchen with boys for 10 minutes

I may start posting these goals and if they are accomplished as a separate night time post that way I have all day to attain them and think about the next days goals. I'll think about it.

Wordless Wednesday

New adventure?

Well potty training 101 started today. I decided that it was time since Blake had begun to recognize when he had peed, or at least let on that he knew he needed to be changed. I have him in training pants, and we are taking many trips to the bathroom. But, we've yet to actually pee in the toilet. The first time he peed was over 2 hours after he woke, about 8 minutes after we'd tried. The the second time was about 40 minutes later. The last time was about 1hr 15 minutes later which was about 10 minutes before I was going to take him back to the bathroom. (Hmmm maybe I need to make a spreadsheet to track his bathroom trips?? I'll have to think about that.)

The last time Blake grabbed himself as he begun to pee... yeah for baby steps! I know he will figure it out, and as for now he seems to be enjoying this.

I know how excited you all are about this (hahaha) soooo I made a chart on my sidebar so you could keep up with the laundry potty count.

the no-cry potty training solution

Back in January, I was contacted by Elizabeth Pantley about a give-away that she was holding in regards to her newest book the no-cry nap solution. I posted about the give-away on my blog, part of the give-away rules was to post about the book on your blog and then send her the link to the post. In my e-mail to her I told her that I would not recommend the book to you, my readers, since I had not read it, but I did mention the book and the give-away in my post. I told her that I would be willing to review one of her books on my blog if she wanted me.

After a few e-mails back and forth, and a bit of time due to the craziness of my life, I received the book the no-cry potty training solution by Elizabeth Pantley (published by McGraw-Hill) in the mail. At the time, I was thinking about jumping into potty training with both feet. I figured hey lets give this a try... how hard can it be! HA!

Anyway...

The book starts with an overview in the first chapter, including a quick quiz to see if your child is ready to begin potty learning. There is a longer quiz in chapter 2. I figured ok let me read the overview and see what I think. I sat down and read 121 pages that first night. As you can assume from that this book is an easy read! It is very well written in my opinion. It also seems to be based on a combination of research and common sense. When I read it, it confirmed a lot of things I had already thought and made me step back and think again about some conceptions I have/had about potty learning.

I went through the book while I was reading it with a pen (yes I felt like I was back in college for a bit). Here are some of the points that I felt were worth noting:

You can begin toilet training a child at any age: you can even sit a newborn baby on the potty. However, the more important question is when will training be finished? (pg. 6)

The amount of time it takes for your child to master toilet training is closely related to the span between the age when you start training and the age that he is physically and emotionally able to take responsibility. (pg 6-7)

**A parent's readiness to train is just as important as a child's readiness to learn. (pg. 23)

**The two magic factors that will set the pace for potty training are your
(the parent's) attitude and your patience (pg. 51)

When your child uses the toilet all day, every day, with only rare mistakes, you can consider your toilet training job complete, even if your child still wears a diaper to sleep. Potty training is about daytime toilet habits. Nighttime dryness is a totally separate subject. (pg. 97)

The first step to solve any problem is to take a deep breath and repeat after me: "My child will learn how to use the toilet. They all do. This too shall pass." (pg 105)

(Talking about setbacks) Tuck away your own injured pride, because this has nothing to with your job as a teacher nor does it mean your child has failed Potty Training 101. It just means your child is normal. (pg 120-121)

Pantley, Elizabeth the no-cry potty training solution Gentle Ways to Help Your Child Say Good-Bye to Diapers New York, McGraw-Hill Company, 2007

This book does not give you a quick answer for how to potty train your child. Actually it pretty much tells you there is no quick answer. There are chapters on pre-potty training, potty time set up, potty training ideas, bed wetting, common training problems and questions and answers.

I plan on utilizing some of the suggestions when I decide that Blake and I are ready to start this process. I have started some of the pre-training things with him and looking at our set up. As, we proceed through this process I will continue to let you know what I've utilized from this book and how it worked for us.

yuck

This is an e-mail I sent Richard today...


Well I guess it really is time to start potty training Blake!

I put Blake down at 11:30, and in less than 10 min he was asleep in the hallway. He stayed asleep when I got Colby out of his room even. Well around 12:15/12:20 he woke up and was fussing at me. I decided to ignore him and see if he'd go back to sleep (he did yesterday). Well around 12:35 or so I heard velcro and I thought he was pulling the bumper off the gate... yeah NO!

he had taken his diaper off... his poop diaper off. he then managed to clean himself up with his blanket. He got it on the floor and a bit on the wall, but it wasn't smeared and it wasn't on his hands so my guess is that was from moving his diaper or blanket around. I finally went to check on him because he was in the bathroom. He'd put the toilet seat up and was playing with the bath toys. I decided to have him help me clean up a bit (after I cleaned of course) and as he was washing his hands he peed... oh joy now I have pee to clean up too.


sooooo how's your day going??