Potty Training Part 1: Planning

So I have been thinking about potty training Liam for awhile now but everyone says, boys always potty train older then girls and are much more difficult to do. But he has been telling me sometimes when he is poopy and to change his diaper when it is full and is bothering him. So online I went. I did about 3 days of research and I had a plan. My main resource was an amazing site call Potty Whiz. It gave me tips on common problems and how to get started. So I made a whole bunch of notes and decided how we were going to go about this.

Liam is so smart, he gets things and we bribe him all the time to get him to do things like hug us, yeah I know, great parenting but it shows that that is a method that works for him. He also seems to hate being wet, he has dumped water down the front of his shirt and then cries at me, wet wet until I change his outfit so he doesn't enjoy that either which is good. So he seems ready.

I went and picked up a training toilet seat, because we figured might as well have him start in the bathroom and not have to add that step in. We are going to have him go cold turkey. I have been telling him for days that he isn't going to have to wear diapers anymore and he is going to get to wear underwear like mommy and daddy to try and get him excited about it. He has picked out his own underwear and what candy he will get for his reward. He has sat on his toilet seat very happily and we have tried showing him all the steps that go into using the bathroom like a big boy. So I have done everything I can to make this a fun, exciting process for him.

So we are doing 3 days of intensive potty training in hopes it will kick start it so that when he goes to daycare it is not a horrible experiance for them to have him having accidents everywhere. We are starting on Valentine's Day with just hubby because I work in the morning and then we will work together with him on Sunday and then I will finish with Monday and hopefully he will have a good idea of what to do by the time I go back to work on Tuesday. We won't really be leaving the house at all, it will be us, Liam in a shirt and underwear and lots of trips to the bathroom. I made a list of how we are doing everything and I have printed it out, laminated it and hung it on the wall in the bathroom so that we can easily see it and know what to do in case we forget or get flustered. I also have another page that I will be printing that has what we are doing for rewards and accidents.

Potty Whiz Weekend

(Saturday-Monday)

1. When he wakes up, get all excited and change him into his new underwear
2. Let him run around in a shirt and underwear
3. Keep him within arms reach at all times
4. When he tells you he needs to go, or starts going, immediately take him to the half bath.
5. Have him pull his underwear down, try to not help him too much
6. Let him climb up on the toilet himself
7. Let him play on his iPad with the Potty Time game while sitting on the toilet
8. Sit in the bathroom with him until he goes
9. When he goes be very excited and happy
10. Help him wipe if needed
11. Let him get off the toilet himself and pull up his own underwear
12. Give him his reward and remind him that if he needs to go again to tell us

• Don't prompt him, let him tell us if he has to go
• Do prompt him before naps or leaving the house
• Use cloth training pants for naps and bedtime and call them night underwear
• Tell him to tell us if he needs to go potty at night and we will come get him
• Try not to talk negatively about poop (calling it yucky or anything)
• Dont let him see males pee standing up

Rewards

• Give him 3 pieces of candy whenever he goes at all in the toilet
• On the 2nd day, add in dry checks too (candy for staying dry for an hour etc.)
• If needed use a special reward for telling us if he needs to go or for pooping
• 
   

Accidents

• Be postive still
• Clean him up
• If pooped, have him help take it to the toilet and flush it, while explaining that is where poop goes, not in his underwear (nicely)
• Explain to him that if he doesn't want to be wet, he has to tell us and go in the toilet
• If you manage to get him on the toilet before he is done going during an accident, it no longer counts as an accident and gets rewarded as normal

 

Once the weekend is over I plan on making printout for the babysitters too so that they can use the same plan that we are using. Wish us luck that he gets it and that we can be done changing diapers for the time being. I will do another update next week to say how it is going. 

Superbowl



We had a busy full day for the Superbowl. It started with us hanging out in bed with Liam, playing with the new dinosaur hand puppet hubby had gotten him from IKEA a few days before.

 

When we finally got up, I went and started cooking and hubby started making his meatballs. Anytime there is an even where you have to bring something, hubby always makes his meatballs and they are heveryones favorite. I started with the desserts since they had to cool anyways. I made something that I found online called Superbowl Bars. They were decently easy to make but I wasn't sure how everyone was going to like them. I then made normal brownies (from the box, I'm not that good) and I had found a box of Smores brownies (technically dessert bars).

Once those were done, I prepped the mini pigs in a blanket. So easy to make, I just put TV on my iPad and it was very methodical and fun to do. I made a ton of them, and then stuck them in the fridge so that I could bake them right before the party and they would be warm for people to eat.

We ended up having 8 people and 2 children over. But I don't really like football, I normally just watch the commercials. Since we had friends over the and one of my friends decided to work on a diaper cake for another friend's baby shower that we are planning.

The whole group (minus me) together.

 

Liam decided to tickle his friend Luke, it was freaking adorable.



 

 

The finished diaper cake, well sort of finished. We still need to decorate it but that shouldn't be too bad.

 

We realized we had too many diapers and since we already wrapped them all, my friend suggested we make little mini diaper cakes for extra decorations. We had run out of ribbon by this point so I ended up getting t go back to Walmart for more ribbon.

The baby shower is a jungle animal theme so the animal print ribbon was so perfect to find.

So that was our fun Superbowl day. 

Sick Week

This is another one that I wrote and then didn't post right away. This happened the week of the 12th. So it was a crappy week. Hubby is out of town, training for work, so that isn't fun. And then early Tuesday morning (around 3:30am) I get woken up by Liam freaking out, I go in his room and he is telling me "diaper, diaper" and then I see a big brown spot on his pillow. Now he is wear footie pajamas so a blowout is basically impossible, he then starts throwing up in front of me. Awesome. I go turn on the light and see he threw up all over the crib and himself. I put him on the changing table and he throws up again, poor boy, luckily I had a wipe out and was able to catch it. He just laid on my stomach on the changing table while I cleaned up his crib. After I cleaned him up, he asked for milk so I gave him some and then he went back to sleep.

I decided to stay home so I went back to bed but had to get up several times because Liam kept waking up and I didn't want him to throw up in his crib again. He woke up around 8 for good. You could tell he wasn't feeling good, normally when he is sick he acts normal, he is just coughing or sneezing during it, this was different. He just sat with me and cuddled, so sad.

I had planned on helping my mom after I got off work so we decided that we would just head over right before Liam's nap and put him down over there (they have a playpen in their guest room set up for him to sleep in). As I was getting ready to shower, I hear him cry and he has thrown up again, this time on my floor. I quickly strip him and put him in the already on shower, then go and clean up the mess. 5 minutes later I head to the shower and he is standing in the exact spot I put him in.

We go over to my parent's house late and put him down for his nap. He sleeps decent (2 and a half hours) and is acting mostly normal again. Playing and he is drinking a little. He takes a second nap but is acting like he feels better and hasn't thrown up again. So I put him down for the night, planning on going to work and sending him over to my SIL's like normal.

4 hours into my shift at work I get an email from my roommate saying that Liam threw up on the way to my SIL's. Well crap. Then I get an email from husband saying his sister is trying to get ahold of me because our kid is throwing up and I might have to get work off. I check my phone and sure enough I have a text from my SIL saying he has thrown up 3 times and that I need to come get him. So I get off work and go get him. He falls asleep in the car on the way home so I let him sleep.

I manage to nap while he does and when he wakes up we head back over to my parent's house (we were working on a project). Liam is acting very lethargic, and basically just laying on the couch watching TV. He mostly refuses to drink, except for small sips ever once in awhile and won't eat at all. In the late afternoon he naps again. Since he has been showing signs of dehydration I decide to call his doctor, they tell me to bring him into the night clinic at 6.

So off to the doctor we go. We end up waiting almost an hour and in that time Liam decided to drink an entire sippy cup. So by the time we saw the doctor he was basically acting normal again. The doctor said if she had seen him an hour she most likely would have checked him in but it is wonderful what 8 oz of liquid can do for a kid.

 

She said to bring him back in if he starts showing those signs again, great. While we were sitting there waiting, I started feeling crappy. I tried ignoring but realized that I must have whatever Liam has. Once we get back to my parents place, I too throw up so my mom insists on having Liam spend the night at their place since she was going to watch him while I was at work anyways. I get some supplies for Liam and set up the monitor and go home and go to sleep with pills to help me make it through my work day tomorrow.

My mom texted me at 5ish saying that Liam is doing better, he was drinking and had some toast and was keeping it down and they were just chilling watching Curious George. That was fine except he was up really early which I felt bad about for my parents. Apparently every time he woke up throughout the night one of them went in there to make sure he hadn't thrown up or anything again, so they had a crappy night but they wanted me to sleep so it was nice for me.

 

My mom had me pick him up at about 4PM, so that I could nap for a bit after work. Liam had done great, he was eating and drinking and basically back to normal. So that was our few days of crappy sickness. We survived thanks to my parents helping out so much.

This was Liam's first time being really sick and acting it. Normally when he has a cold he just is sneezing or coughing while doing his normal thing, I've never had him just laying around not wanting to do anything like an actually sick kid. I felt so bad for him but since then he has felt so much better, thank goodness.

Children's Museum

I wrote this post a few weeks ago and had issues with the pictures and wasn't able to post it right away but I figure later is better then never. So I finally made it to the Children's Museum and it was awesome. First off it doesn't actually cost any money to go, they do ask if you want to donate anything which I did but it isn't mandatory. And secondly it is amazing!

There are 2 floors, full of rooms with different themes. Like one with farm stuff, it had a life sized cow that you could actually milk and chickens to play with. There was also a desert animal one, with a pit that is all padded that you can put the kids in and let them roam, and stairs that lead up to an area with buckets that moved and you could put little foam pieces in (I might have explained that badly). And a music one had something like a piano, with no keys, all you do it wave your hand over the empty space and it played notes, so cool. There was also a steel drum and drums and cymbals on the wall for the kids to bang on. There was only one room that was a bit too old for Liam, it was a science one, so he will soon be

We ended up spending an hour and a half there and Liam was sad to leave, we will definately be going back. Now the fun part, all the cute pictures of my kid.

 

Latch Board

It is a goal of mine to make a present for Liam for his birthday and Christmas. His birthday one, was his felt board and for Christmas it was his latch board. One of my friend's turned me onto them by showing me some on their Pinterest board. I decided that would be perfect with my kid that loves that type of thing. Of course I first found ones that I would love to copy. I found some great ideas.

http://www.thephotographerswife.com/latch-board-activity-toy-kids-diy/

 

 https://jabaayave.wordpress.com/2013/02/03/diy-latch-board/

 

http://www.younghouselove.com/2013/01/last-minute-latch/

 

http://makebakeandlove.blogspot.com/2014/07/diy-latch-board-for-emerson.html

 

http://www.tealandlime.com/2011/12/diy-latches-board-kids-gift/

 

http://runninglawyer.blogspot.com/2013/08/diy-lock-and-hinge-board-for-toddlers.html

I then made a list of all the pieces I wanted for Liam's board, and got pictures of them because I do not know the actual names of most latches. I picked about 10 different ones. I was trying to keep the project cheap so I decided to go to our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore to get all of the supplies.  I went down there and was thrilled to find everything I needed and after heading up to the register, I found out that they also have pieces of wood, so I went back to the back of the store and found the perfect size board and a smaller piece for my doors to be cut out of. The only thing they didn't have was the color of paint I wanted so I went to Lowes and $6 later, I had my 2 different colors of paint for the board and the doors. When I got home I took everything carefully out of the packaging and put all the screws and whatnot in ziploc bags around the board so I didn't lose them and arranged everything on the board and took pictures.

I took pictures because I was not installing any of the latches myself and so this way made it faster. I painted it all with 2 coats of paint, taking advantage of the fact was hubby was out of town and we didn't have 2 cars in the garage.

I had asked my dad to help me put it all together, so the next day I brought it all over to my parent's house, luckily Liam decided to fall asleep right then so we didn't have to make my mom watch him. It took us about an hour and a half total to attach all the pieces. I am so glad that I had my dad to help me because some of the pieces needed adjusting to make them work, or to be oiled and some of the screws were too long and went all the way through the board so he grinded them down so they wouldn't poke Liam. I had to repaint some spots because the grinding machine thing destroyed the paint in a few places.

Overall I am very pleased with how it turned out, it wasn't very expensive (it totaled about $46) and Liam seems to love it too.  I am not completely done yet, I plan on put carabiners on the handles, put a mirror or vinyl animal underneath the doors, and put locks on the eye hook and the other lock thing.  But it is pretty close to done and Liam doesn't know the difference, it will just be more exciting when new things get randomly added.

Fun Day Recap and New Year Resolutions

Mondays are normally laundry day but since my hubby went out of town on Monday and needed clean clothes for the trip I did laundry the day before, which means my Monday off was completely free. I am part of the local Free 2 Feed group which is a breastfeeding support group. I had only gone once before (considering I am not even breastfeeding Liam anymore) but since I was free, I figured I would go. We showed up late because it is hard to get a child and myself ready and out the door by 9. So we left at like 9:30. I ended up just hanging out and chatting with one of my friends there while our children attempted to play with other kids.

After that we went and got lunch at Kneaders. The kids were getting wild and we were counting down the minutes until our next activity, the Children's Museum, where we can just let them run wild and play.

So we headed over to the Children's Museum and find out that on Monday they are only open for members and only from 2PM to 8PM. Well since it was noon, we were just screwed. We decided to go over to the library which was next door. We were meeting another friend so she and her kid met us over there. The kids colored for a bit, and then we happened to be there right before storytime so we stayed for that. Liam is not great at sitting still so he spent the majority of the storytime under the chairs and sitting right in front of the book.

After storytime the kids were done, they were tired so we all split up and headed home, me with 2 kids now because I offered to watch my friend's kid so that she could go to an appointment. Liam conked out in the car and then proceeded to nap for 3 and a half hours, he was so out. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and just playing at home.

Now New Year's happened last week and hubby and I were talking and decided that I am going to lose weight this year. I gained a lot when I had Liam and never really lost it. I am wanting to get back to at least my pre-pregnancy weight before I have another kid, that way when I gain weight with that pregnancy I am not gaining more weight on top of what I have already gained. I am going to try and do a combination of eating less and working out. I like most Americans am used to eating large portions so I am going to attempt to cut what I eat in half. I also am going to try and eliminate soda, and majorly cut back on candy and junk food, which are my weaknesses. I am not going to completely clean eating or anything but trying to better with moderation.

Working out I have done on and off during last year and even when I was working out 3 days a week, I still wasn't losing any weight, which is discouraging. So I am going to alter how I working out. I love the classes at my gym, so Monday through Thursday (not necessarily every day) I will go to classes with my mom and then on the weekends I will go and do true cardio by doing the eliptical or the stationary bike for 30 to 45 minutes. And because I hate working out and need motivation, if I work out 4 times a week for a month, my hubby agreed to give me a $25 gift to where ever I want. So that is the plan, we will see how it goes.

My last resolution is going to be for my home. I want to be more organized, certain areas of our house are a mess and I want to clean them up and try and make it so they don't get that messy again. Obviously it will be a work in progress considering I am hopeful to move this year and then we will get to start over.

Those are all I have got. I will give some updates to how I do on them throughout the year.

Posting Again, and New Project

So I know I haven't posted for a long time, I was going to do monthly pictures but then I got hit by a car and by the time I got back on my feet, I felt like I was way too late and just decided that one year of pictures was good enough.

Now I am just wanting to post just to kind of keep a diary of my life. The projects I am working on, the things I do with Liam and our family, and it will force me to take more pictures of everything and to do more fun things so that I have things to post about. I don't plan on having any schedule but I will try to post once a week, maybe.... we'll see.

I have been doing projects at work lately. I made a felt board for Liam and had so much fun picking out the projects and making them all. I ended up doing a build your own snowman, where everything is removable execept the eyes and the mouth, so he can put all the pieces back where he wants them to go.

Then I did a bunch of Christmas shapes. I figured it would help with new words and learning about Christmas and honestly they were just so cute and fun I couldn't help myself. That is how I ended up with 14 of them.

The next ones I did were the 5 Little Snowflakes. There is a cute poem/ rhyme that goes with them.

One little snowflake with nothing to do,
Along came another and then there were…two!
Two little snowflakes laughing with me,
Along came another and then there were…three!
Three little snowflakes looking for some more,
Along came another and then there were…four!
Four little snowflakes dancing a jive,
Along came another and then there were…five!
Five little snowflakes, having so much fun!
Out came the sun, and then there were none!

So I did the 5 different snowflakes which were kind of crappy to make considering I didn't think through cutting the holes in the middle of the felt but I figured out that if I cut through a piece of the snowflake to get to the center to cut the piece out and as long as I glued carefully, it is barely noticeable. Also it is for a 2 year old that doesn't really care.

Last but not least, I did a Christmas tree with different color shapes for him to decorate it with. But it didn't seem Christmasy enough so I decided to have Christmas lights on each one (in a different color of course) to give it some more holiday cheer.

Making the board was the easiest part of the whole project, I just stapled a piece of felt onto a canvas and voila, felt board. There will be no picture of that though because since I have done it, my child decided to draw on it with chocolate milk and I haven't had a chance to clean it yet.

I eventually plan on getting a cute trunk thing from Michaels (already found it, $19.99) and paint it for him to keep all the baggies of felt pieces in but I wanted to make sure that he liked them first before I spent more money.

About 3 weeks before Christmas I started seeing some cute advent calenders on blogs I read and it got me thinking, I could make one of those. Of course not for this year but if I start it now, I know it will be done in time for next year. And next year he might understand what is going on a bit more. So I started Googling and found all sorts of wonderful inspiration.
　

http://eatpraycreate.com/2012/11/felt-christmas-tree-advent-calendar.html 

 

http://projectsforyournest.blogspot.com/search/label/Christmas%20advent%20calendar 

 

 http://www.makelifelovely.com/2012/12/diy-felt-advent-calendar.html

 

http://www.familyeverafterblog.com/2011/11/sew-along-part-1-pottery-barn-advent.html

 

As I looked at these and read how they did it, I kept seeing that a lot of them talked about how they handstitched everything, now I can sew by hand but I am not necessarily very good at it. It is the knots and tying off that gets me. Normally when I have that sort of stuff to do, I make my mom help me but then on one of the inspiration ones they had a stitching tutorial. (http://projectsforyournest.blogspot.com/2009/10/stitch-101-basics.html) So I decided to give it a shot and handstitch all of the pockets.

They didn't do only Christmas colors for the pockets so I tried to do a variety. I got my missing colors, cut out my pockets and arranged them so I didn't have similar colors next to eachother. I then picked out a font (well I emailed my roomate asking for a good font), printed out the numbers, cut them out and stitched them onto my pockets.

　
Then I looked at my list of ideas for decorating the pockets and assigned one to each pocket. Which was harder then I thought it would be because I would assign 2 pictures to one number and not realize it, so I would have to go back though and see what I messed up. This is my final list.

1.Candy canes
2. Gingerbread man
3. Ornament
4. Stocking
5. Wreath
6. Christmas lights
7. Birthday cake
8. Snowflake
9. Bell
10. Starry night
11. Star
12. Holly
13. Ice skates
14. Presents
15. Poinsetta
16. Snowman
17. Penguin
18. Sleigh
19. Ornament 2
20. Reindeer
21. Mittens
22. Stocking 2
23.Christmas tree
24. Snowy night
25. Santa

That is all I have done so far, as I get further I will update more. I know this project will take forever so it might be a bit but I will get it done before next Christmas.