Adventures in potty training

 WARNING GROSS IMAGES AHEAD...PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!

In early may I started the potty training process with Madison. For the first couple of days I tried the cold turkey straight into regular panties! What the heck was I thinking. She was willing to sit on the potty easily (thankfully) but I had a 5 week old too which made it difficult to constantly need to clean up pee and poop accidents constantly and when I say constantly I mean constantly! So after 2 days of feeling like I was going insane we decided to put Madison in pull-ups and work up from there. It only took 2 or three days where we had lots of successes and lots of accidents but it was progress. It took her over a month to really understand the feeling of needing to go pee pee. But it seemed like once she understood it was like a switch it just came on and she got it. I kept her in the pull ups for another month nut she really started to do well and by the beginning of August she was a pro at doing pee pee in the potty. So since she was so good at the pee pee I let her wear big girl panties all the time and at home she rarely had accidents if any at all. When we would go out I would put a pull-up on her for precautions but most of the time she was good at telling me she had to go and holding it until we got to the potty. Pooping however was a whole different story. She pooped her panties everyday for over a month. I tried everything

- cleaning it and telling it she can't do that

- timeout for pooping in panties

- spanking

- cold showers to clean her

- hosing her off outside

- I made her sit in the pooped for a little while before I cleaned it in hopes she would not enjoy the feeling and stop

Nothing worked she still continued to do it and eventually started hiding to poop in her panties. A friend suggested I keep her completely naked...and I thought I'll try anything I'm desperate. So the next morning I got her out of bed removed her pull up and pajamas and left her completely naked running around my house. Awkward is the best way to describe it. I constantly prayed that nobody would knock on my door or want to hang out. IT WORKED THE FIRST DAY! Since that day she has never pooped in her pants again! So 14 weeks later she is 100% potty trained and proud of her self and mommy is so proud of her too. She is growing up so fast and amazes me every day.

5 months of joy!

Wow time is truly flying I'm doing what I can to enjoy him as much as possible! He so active, he is rarely happy it seems like, and I love him all the same. We started baby mumums this month and this kid loves them and eats them like a pro! We also started baby food this month too. We introduced him to bananas first then avocado, squash, sweet potatoes, and carrots. He eats them all except the avocado. He's not a fan of avocado at all.

• He is starting to chew on things more ans drool a lot
• Holds head up when sitting really well he has finally stopped bobbing his head forward
• When lying on back puts feet to mouth
• Voluntarily grasps and holds objects
• Plays with toes
• Takes objects directly to mouth
• Says “ah-goo” or similar vowel-consonant combinations
• Smiles at mirror image
• Gets upset if you take a toy away
• Can tell family and strangers apart
• Starting to explor his body especially when it comes to his manhood, anytime his diaper is off his hands go there first

Here's what a his schedual looked like right now

7:30-8:00 wake up

8:00 bottle

9:30 solids

9:45 sleep (usually sleeps 1 to 1 1/2 hours

12:00 bottle

2:00 sleep

4:00 bottle

5:30 sleep

6:00/6:30 solids at dinner with us

7:00 bath time

8:00 bottle and bed time

He is getting much better at putting himself to sleep and sleeping well.

Summer Scavenger hunt...Glow in the dark bowling and Group FHE

 One of the challenges to earn points for the summer scavenger hunt was to go bowling and another one was to have a second family over for FHE. so we decided to combine these two activities. We invited the Markarian family over and did glow in the dark bowling with the kids. they didn't really get this (not quite old enough to bowl) but the adults had a good time!

Trying to teach Madison how to roll the ball

Mom's turn

 

Kylie's turn

Summer Scavenger Hunt...mail something into the friend/ build something out of a box

One of the challenges that actually had me thinking from the beginning of this "scavenger hunt" was what to send into the magazine "the friend" our church has for the little kids. there are some pretty strict guidelines but one of the options was to send in a recipe. so we sent in a recipe for peanut butter play dough given to us by a friend of ours at church when Madison was just over a year old. its perfect for toddlers since you wont care if they eat it. then after we wrote the recipe down we took a walk to go and put it in the mail box at the post office. fun, quick, and simple activity. She was really proud of her letter.

Since the first activity went so quick i decided to try and cross another one off the list the same day. My mom got us a box from her work and when i asked madison what she wanted it to be she said she wanted a car. so we "parked" the car in front of the T.V. and turned on a movie, had some popcorn and there we had it a simple drive in theater and a very happy 2 year old!

 

Summer Scavenger Hunt...Go Miniture golfing

I've never taken Madison Miniature golfing and I'm always looking for fun things to do with her to challenge her brain. well this one absolutely challenged her brain a lot! this is one we're going to have to do a couple of times. we went on a Saturday while Anthony was at work because i found a discount ticket where you turned in 3 school supplies and you get 1 free ride at boomers. I thought this would be a great way to help others while having fun as a family. My mom and Kelly went with us (mostly because I'm still too chicken to take both kids anywhere on my own). Man they were amazing. My mom played with Caleb and kept him busy while the rest of us played golf. it was good to spend time as a family, we don't do that much.

Summer Scavenger Hunt...A trip to Amy's Farm

I was not happy with this place at all and I don't recommend it! especially if you have little kids. There are no specific Directions on what to do once you get to the farm even though I called ahead and scheduled a tour. once we finally got started (like 20 minutes late) we were paired with a large preschool group. we were told groups had to be smaller than 10 people. 20 people for Madison with her "Social skills underdeveloped" is not something that goes well. it was extremely hot but we were told about that ahead of time so I wasn't too stressed about that. there's no room for strollers so if you have small babies don't bother bringing one. there's very little shade to "hide" the really little guys in which was bad since I had a "really little one" who was trying to sleep. however if you go at the right time of year in a smaller group and a better situation the tour was quite educational and the kids do get to do alot of hands on stuff and touch and see animals really close up.

 

 

Summer Scavenger Hunt...A trip to the Chino Farmer's Market

I was seriously pulling teeth to figure out where to go for a farmer's market in our area. I really wanted this to be a fun experience for the kids and have some things for them to do while we were there. I really wasn't impressed with this one but i was really trying to find one and it came down to the wire so I just had to settle for the little one down the street.

 We had a little dessert (madison was not a fan of the shaved Ice)

 

 Played with Hula Hoops (this was a big hit)

And planted a flower in a biodegradable carton to put in the ground at home. she decided to give it to daddy. (no she's not a daddy's girl at all! *cough cough*)

Summer Scavenger Hunt...make smore's

This one was super simple and super fun for madison. I have to admit i was pretty suprised how well she did and how compliant she was about not touching the fire. we kept it simple and since we dont have like a fire pit or something i decided the stove was probably the best way to go. clearly this activity was a big hit from the begining to the end. I love this oversized red shirt i have for her. I use it for everything I dont want her to do in "good cloths". since Caleb was too small we just waited until he went to bed and then got to spend a little time with just mommy and daddy (which is rare).  I'm pretty sure she thought the best part was eating it at the end cant you tell?? p.s. she's never had one of these before!

 

Summer Scavenger Hunt...4 in 1 day

The kids were a little sick on a sunday (too sick to go to primary for madison but she didnt act sick just an obnoxious cold) so we kept them busy by doing a bunch of activities on the scavenger hunt list.

First up was to do a science experiment. I had to do something that would catch Madison's attention but also be something she might understand. so we made a rubber egg. you put an egg in a glass and then cover it completely with distilled vinegar. let it sit for 24 hours then drain the vinegar and rinse the egg. place the egg back in the glass and refill with vinegar totally covering the egg and let sit for 7 days.

Caleb joined us on the table even though he just watch (who knows maybe he learned something) and we let Madison do most of the activity with a little of mommy's help.

Next we painted flower pots to put outside in the garden (that's really just roses not a true garden) this ended up being an all Madison thing. mom and dad watched, Caleb slept and Madison painted away in her famous red shirt.  this activity was a really big hit...so i decided after to give her a piece of paper to paint on and that was a no go...she pretty much refused.

 I'm not sure anthony really wanted to do this but i begged and he was the best ever and obliged me. We made a family stepping stone. I'm not super creative but i'm very "emotionally" connected with my family so i decided we should make a family stepping stone. so we painted our hands first and then  did the kids. I even was able to get caleb in on this one which made it all the more fun!

 And last but not least we painted bird houses. Anthony painted his with an angels theme. madison asked for pink! everything is pink in her world. I did talk her into a little purple. and I chose a teal nd brown. it was fun and we were forced to talk to eachother.

Summer Scavenger Hunt...Build a fort

I was a little surprised at what a big hit this thing was. I'm not the greatest fort maker (please don't judge me) but she loved it and had a blast. A simple activity that went off great. she had lunch in there, read in there, and kept telling me "night night" and laying on the pillow.

4 months of lovin

This baby boy is growing so fast! I can't believe he has been apart of this family for 4 whole months it feels like he has always been here. This is one of my favorite times in the first year because they become a whole lot more active and can really enjoy what is going on around them and they start eating rice cereal.

this month Caleb:
   

• Gained Good head control
• Started sitting with support like me or Anthony behind him and he started sitting in the little high chair pretty good too
• Loves to stand on his legs and has started playing in the baby Einstein quite a bit
• He is lifting his head pretty good when he is on his tummy and usually puts his arms under his chest and props himself on his elbows
• Rolled from back to side and most of the time sleeps on his side even if i put him to bed on his back
• Explores and plays with hands and anything i can get in them
• Tries to reach for objects but overshoots
• Grasps objects with both hands
• Laughs when we talk to him
• Enjoys being rocked, bounced or swung
• Loves to scream
• Drools alot
• Started eating rice cereal and oatmeal
  
  
  

Summer Scavenger Hunt...A magic show at the library

 

Sorry there are so few pictures of this one they were really picky about not letting us take pictures so the ones that I do have I had to be sneaky about. this guy did a magic show all about the food pyramid and healthy food choices. Madison totally didn't get this but all the kids around us were having a good time. afterwords the diamond bar library has a used book section where you can buy books for a dollar. so we went on over to the used book section and I let Madison pick out a couple of books to take home. we went home with the hungry caterpillar and the grouchy lady but. by the end of this i was carrying Madison out with no shoes on and her screaming at me. it was a rough day but I hope something gets through and she will remember about healthy food choices later.