Potty Training

So this post is late. Like 4 months, but I know that this subject is tough for all parents and a LEAST favorite for many too. Believe it or not I started writing a post about this about a week after we first started potty training. 

 A basket of SUPER cool underwear. I'd be lying if I said that we used any other methods than the ones in this VIDEO link and this article from BabyCenter. I did browse quite a few articles, but this one seemed the most straight forward. Basically scheduling 3 solid days of underwear only on bottom (I didn't like the idea of naked bottoms because kids can't feel when they are wet), lots of liquids, timed potty trips, and living in the kitchen or other non-carpeted areas. The only thing we did differently was M&M's for going potty, one for pee two for poop.

9/18/14

My initial thoughts on potty training

Thus far I believe we will not be going back to diapers. I still can't believe it's worked as well as it has. Basically I read a couple of articles ahead of time to get a little prepared and then we went for it. Honestly the main thing that prompted me to try potty training was Davie's box of diapers starting to run low, a great reason to kick the diaper habit right? I knew that if we had some success our diaper usage would save us money.

 Fist things first, I picked a couple of days that David would be home so I could have an extra helper when Macy went nuts and Davie needed help. We haven't had any accidents on carpet or furniture or anywhere else that couldn't be tossed into the wash. I consider that alone a huge success. Davie has done quite well and other than having issues with number two (typical potty training stuff) the accidents have been fairly minimal.

The only day so far that I questioned my choice was yesterday. Before church Davie refused to even go pee, allll morning. So of course he had an accident in nursery and I changed him. Then about 20 minutes later I checked on him again and he had pooped. That's when I pulled the plug. Time to go home!

Lots of days turned into a shirt on top and no pants :)

Now to be clear, I would have loved to potty train Davie sooner, like before Macy came, BUT we had school, Macy and moving on the horizon so yea it wasn't realistic. Then we moved and the house was a disaster, because David was never around to help me move the big boxes and the kids were all in open rebellion. Macy had colic and would scream like she was being tortured no matter what I did so we had to wait for that to pass as well.

 I had a couple of people comment that Davie was "so young!" and that always surprised me. I guess my daring to potty train him earlier mainly came from the fact that I hate poopy diapers, as in David cares about changing them less than me, and is better at it too. Yes it's true my husband has better form and a system that is purely superior to mine when it comes to diaper changing. I also had two babies in diapers so for a little while there I felt like I was just changing diapers like crazy! My brothers and all of David's brothers were potty trained about 3 years old so even my family was a little surprised. 

I am in no way bragging I just didn't want to change a small child's diaper anymore it was gross. To be fair the first couple of weeks were a little rough mainly lots of wet accidents and control issues (as in Davie screaming like a psycho when I would make him pee before he left the house). That actually still happens, so whatever. Maybe it was more work than if Davie had been older and on a couple of the bad days I questioned my decision but I always felt like we had been training long enough that we couldn't go back. Not only that but Davie's worst days always seemed to be preceded and followed by really good days. In the end I had to remind myself that even with the accidents I had not changed ONE poopy diaper in over a month (chorus of angels!), and Davie hadn't wet on the carpet (What?!). He still hasn't and I was really worried about that.

After an accident in his seat I changed his clothes, put his carseat in the trunk and went straight home.

We didn't use big toys, or rewards other than M&M's the first week or so. Davie was young enough that he didn't even remember the candy most of the time. The big toy approach/ reward was completely unrealistic with Davie he did NOT understand. I even made a huge potty chart and to be honest within 2 weeks I stopped using it because Davie didn't really need it or care.

Davie kept hearing us say potty training and he would get all excited and say things about wanting a toy train. Silly boy, it was super cute though.

 We were home bound a bit at first until it dawned on me that if Davie were to have an accident at a store I wouldn't really be the one to clean it up and it wouldn't be on my carpet. So really the only bad thing (in my mind) that could happen was a little public embarrassment just another positive to living in an area where you don't know everyone. For me the the worst thing that could happen was him wetting in the carseat, so many straps to clean and remove, thankfully that has only happened twice. The picture below is Davie's first underwear outing.

As of right now Davie sleeps in a pull up and I had him in a pull up on the airplane rides to Idaho, but  most of the time he is dry in the morning. Overall I am really encouraged and I think I am definitely going to try to train Macy sooner and at the very least before we have baby #3 (whenever that is because this is not an announcement). I wish I could say more, but thats about it for now.

I Push Little Children

That's right I'm a pusher. A week or so ago we attended a little carnival hosted by the swanky Upper Arlington Library and I pushed a little boy AND got in trouble. The library is pretty small and it has a super nice little park right by it. Upper Arlington is beautiful.

 Upon arrival to the carnival festivities I decided to have Davie participate in the book walk in hopes of winning him a free book. When the music ended the boy (about 7 years old?) in front of us just kind of stood there, which left us between numbers. So I started pushing (it was more than tapping but less than pushing) him, nothing more than what I would do to Davie,  and saying "hey keep going" mostly to get his attention. He was in total La-La land, he didn't move or even acknowledge that I was talking to him let alone tapping him to move forward. I'll admit that maybe I was a TINY bit over zealous (no sarcasm that's just me trying to be understanding of what happened next), but his mom immediately came over to me and said "Hey we don't need to push"..... I barely got out a reply it was something like "I wasn't pushing... (trail off).

 I was seriously so shocked, but mostly annoyed. If I saw someone doing what I was doing to this little boy to Davie my first reaction would have been to prompt Davie to move forward not poo-poo the parent for trying to get his attention. Whatever people. (eye roll)

So yea, that was interesting. Other than that the night was lots of fun, free prizes, games, Davie ate 2 dum dums and 2 (maybe 3 I can't remember) popsicles. I love that I have free time to a) Know activities like this are even happening and b) ACTUALLY be able to attend. Did I mention David was there?! It was awesome. I wish I had some pictures, but I was trying to just enjoy the evening. Did I mention the weather was soooo nice? I was worried because the whole day had been really hot. Yuck. Enjoy these ones from a couple of days before.

Hanging out at the park on a completely different day.

Davie climbed all the way up to this slide and went down by himself. He is fearless.

 David is always helping him do more complicated parts of the playground.

Ugh, David and his socks & sandals. I do what I can people.

5 Months

I hate how cliche it always sounds to say things like "oh my baby is growing up so fast" or "I can't believe she's almost 6 months old!"
Because seriously how did 5 months fly by like that. 

It's not just that I am sad at how big she is getting it's also because I can't keep time straight anymore!

I'm sure 2 graduations, a 2 week trip, selling a house, moving, a new job and settling in don't help me understand the time line better, but they sure do make for a busy life!

Oh, little Macy.... so much to say.

 She is still the sweetest little thing. Macy smiles at everyone ALL the time, and she has such a girly little face, David and I noticed a while ago that even her little baby eyelashes are curled. Making her all the more irresistible.

She loves to make this double chin face.

She still has a love hate relationship with swaddling and gets out of the swaddler EVERY night. 

 Davie took almost a whole month longer to escape the way she does.

I say love hate, because swaddling is still a powerful tool for putting her to sleep, calming her down and then keeping her asleep.

Thankfully I can say that she spits up less that Davie did, BUT she still does it plenty and almost alway on the carpet (grumble, grumble).

 This month is the month of another awakening. Macy reaches and grabs for everything now, usually while she kicks, waves her arms, shivers and shakes with pure excitement/impatience. 

And she also has the stickiest, tightest, baby grip around. Baby Hercules. She is always rolling. And loves to sleep on her tummy with her tushy way up in the air and her knees under her tummy.

I gave her some applesauce ONCE and it seemed like she enjoyed it, then I tried it again the next day with absolutely NO luck. She has a SUPER strong tongue thrust reflex. Just giving her gas drops or vitamin D is difficult and has been since day one. 

This is why she still will not take a binky or a bottle. She just bites down once or twice and then spits them out.... the logic is lost on me though because she LOVES to chew on toys, fingers and other random things, so why not a binky?? Weird kid.

One of my friends called her little baby girl a T-rex and I would have to say that is a perfect description of Macy's eating habits. The gurl gets HANGRY and FAST. I'm glad to see that she is rounding out quite nicely and is deliciously chubby in a kissably yummy way.

She no longer sleeps 6-8 hours (one more reason why I thought solids might be a great idea). According to her 4 hours between feedings is more than sufficient sleep for Mommy. 

And there is NO putting her off, she gets angry FAST. Hence the T-rex. Think the T-rex roaring on Jurrasic Park, only with endless longevity and more raspy. She thinks Davie is so entertaining and watches him very closely (and she's a smart girl for it hah!)

She has VERY recently discovered her tongue and I've been teasing she's a little Miley Cyrus. 

Maybe Miley just discovered her tongue last year... you never know.

 Anyways Macy is way cuter than Miley, hands down. She now includes that little tongue with most of her smiles now, basically she is adorable.

She has followed in Davie's footsteps and uses spitting as a part of her getting upset and crying.  It's so funny but also really annoying because just like her brother she will soak her shirt while blowing angry raspberries. Seriously does anyone else's baby blow raspberries while crying? Haha I babysat a LOT as a teen and this is totally new to me :)

Speaking of crying her colic is FINALLY on a downward slope (I THINK). I don't think she had horrible colic, relatively speaking, I just have a low tolerance for the "I'm going to DIE" scream crying for 20- 40 minutes at a time several times a day, and nothing helps. Whew!

We still give her gas drops fairly often though and she still struggles with those air bubbles in her tummy. I know this is over-sharenting but she is also an amazing pooper. I mean really. I do NOT remember Davie filling up so many diapers during the day.

There are more people of Indian, Middle Eastern and other foreign ethnic mixes here in Columbus and they all LOVE Macy, but so do old white people. Haha that's not supposed to be racist in anyway it's just the truth. It seems that everyone notices Macy first and they just love her, then they realize she has an older brother who is just as beautiful (handsome doesn't cut it ;) She gets called a doll baby by EVERYONE. Personally I'm ok with that. You're welcome world, hopefully there's at least two more where they came from.

Macy can almost climb out of her bouncy seat when she gets angry and doesn't want to be in it anymore. It is amazing to watch and quite impressive.

She LOVES her exersaucer, I'm still sad that we got it so late with Davie. Watching Macy enjoy it so much makes up for it a little though. Almost every time I go to put her in it she starts to kick her little legs and bounce in my arms like crazy, which actually makes putting those chubby little legs in the holes quite tricky.

Overall she is more snuggly than Davie, but only a little bit. One of my most favorite little things she does is push her check up to mine when I hold her. She will sit like that for 10 or so minutes at a time and she loves it. We are so thankful for her adorable little self.

It's really July?

Hey how are you? It's been a while. Also the title of this post was more ironic/funny when it actually was the last day of July. ANYWAYS... How have we been?? Oh man, now that is a loaded question.

 I guess I kind of thought that after school ended I would feel less overwhelmed... haha funny. 

We have successfully moved to Columbus, David has started working at the hospital in the intensive care unit (one of the worst schedules but it's good to get the bad out of the way first), and Macy Davie and I have been exploring the library the zoo and other various places here in Columbus. 

We have a pool in our new apartment complex and lucky enough for us it's been quite chilly this summer (sarcasm) which means we have gone a grand total of two times. 

Although it's not entirely fair to blame the weather the added difficulty (and danger) of taking two VERY small children to a pool be myself doesn't help. Combine that with my husband (aka- the extra pair of hands) being gone 12+ hours a day 2 visits to the pool start to seem quite successful. 

Our family added another cousin to our little ones on the 25th, so now there are 3 boys and a Macy. David will officially NOT be joining us in Idaho for Christmas. MUCH more about that later.

 I have been trying to "craft" a little but it's more like spray painting things I want to be a different color. Davie has started to climb on things enough that he doesn't always make noise for me to come get him in the morning. So today I found him in his dresser drawer (a cheaper Ikea one) yea so luckily he didn't break it. 

Did I mention we did nothing on the 4th of July?? Yea so that's what we did, nothing the end. I'm glad that was easy enough to catch you all up on. 

Ok almost nothing, we went to a friends house and had bratwursts and hung out for a couple of hours. No fireworks, no swimming, no BBQs or parades. David worked a night shift so he came home at noon slept a little, ate food and then went to bed early after our dinner with friends. 

I have so much more to say about EVERYTHING and I'm trying so hard to be more motivated to blog in fact I've been blogging in my head almost not stop since the end of school. Hopefully I can catch up the blog by the end of the month. 

Instead of daily pictures on Facebook my goal is to have blog posts for the day :) Hope you love the random pictures!

Look at that chubby girl 

here's a close up 

Two cheesers 

 This picture is just so perfect, that fat smushed face.

 David in his REAL doctor coat and scrubs!

 Macy's cute face

 Davie gives his cousin Brian a hug

 Baby Brian punches Macy in the jaw... haha

Auntie Jessica and the newest nephew to join the crew, Rowan.