Potty Training Round 3

Yep, I'm at it again. Due to B just now really being trained, an article that I read a couple of weeks ago and a book that a friend loaned me, I am working on training O. She is doing surprisingly well. Yesterday was her first real day in undies. She had two full accidents, but still went on the toilet. Then she started figuring out how to control her bladder and would wet a little, then still go on the toilet. I put her in a diaper for dinner so that we could sit there and eat for a while and she just went in her diaper. I don't think I'll do that again. Today we have been going to the bathroom every 10-15 minutes. She has only wet two pairs of undies and neither time was big enough to have any mess other than a change of undies! Woohoo! Progress! She wore the same undies for about three hours before nap time and is sleeping in a cloth pull up now.

With thinking about potty training for the last couple of days, I decided to read the book on loan. It is interesting. I was really hoping it would have some tips towards bowel movement training. I have never heard any great advice towards training a child to have a BM on the toilet. This book was no better than the rest. It offers all sorts of guidelines to train a child on how to pull their pants down, urinate, pull their pants up and clean up, but no tips on how to teach your little girl to wipe or have a bm in the toilet. We will press on.

This book (which I can't think of the name of) has a copyright of 1974. It is really interesting to see how pediatric recommendations have changed since then. There are a couple of things that humored me. One is that they always refer to the child as "he". This doesn't bother me at all. We have done that with each pregnancy that we did not find out the sex of the baby. The Bible refers to everyone in the masculine. It's not a big deal. In present day articles they switch the gender back and forth by paragraph or bullet points. If it is an article on potty training for example, each tip will switch between he/she. Another thing that is interesting about this book is that it encourages giving your child a lot of their favorite drinks to promote the need to go. O has only really had water, milk, apple juice and cranberry juice, should I buy some special juice to encourage the drinking? The final thing that is way different is the insistence on giving them snacks as a reward. A pediatrician would NEVER tell you to bribe a child with food these days! In fact, I have been told the opposite, "Don't use food as an incentive."

With the rate of obesity in our country juice and snacks/candy are not encouraged and often looked down upon. I have tried to limit our juice and candy consumption. O has been given juice to help with her regularity, but the boys only get it on occasion from Daddy. Candy is a truly special and rare treat. Today I decided that I would reward O with a little tiny candy for having dry undies and to encourage the boys to encourage her, they would get a piece as well. The first two times were great. Everyone was excited to get this piece of candy that is smaller than a s.kittle. Later we were getting ready for lunch and the boys confessed that they ate all of the special candy, they were all gone. Yep, that's why I ration it out! They would eat every single piece if I gave them free range. I suppose they don't need the bribery to keep their undies dry any more and they won't be receiving any more special treats for a few days!

Happy toilet training!

Big C hits the Big 4!

I don't know if I ever mentioned it, but someone turned 4 years old around here! Yeah, it was two months ago, but it is still worth celebrating in the bloggy world.

C turned 4 the day after CJ was born, August 19th. Almost the entire day of the 18th, I was replaying in my mind what that day was like four years ago. I remember the doctor's appointment, the ultra-sound, hearing that the baby was likely to be about 8 lbs 11 oz. Feeling shock and hope that they were wrong. They were wrong, he was 9 lbs! I remember the doctor telling us that he would like to induce me right then, but there wasn't a room so we would have to come back at midnight. I remember feeling the need to clean everything in our home. We ate pizza with friends and they helped me clean. I felt nervous, frantic and in a hurry. I had no idea what was coming. I remember that Albert got a little bit of sleep, but I could not sleep at all. I was so excited. I remember the IV and the back labor and my water breaking and thinking I would have back pain for the rest of my life. I remember begging for relief and just wanting the pain to stop. I remember the doctor saying we would need a cesarean section. I remember the phone ringing and Albert answering. I remember feeling so mentally checked out. It never crossed my mind that I would need to have surgery for my baby to be delivered. I remember Albert saying "It's a boy!" I remember the doctor delivering C and making guesses at how big how big he was. I remember being in shock that they were guessing my baby was 8.5 to 9 lbs. I remember seeing this huge hand unfold as C reached up while on the warmer. It was so out of body, yet so amazing.

These four years seem to have gone so quickly. They have been full. We've had three more babies since C. Not a single one of their stories is like his. He truly is their BIG big brother. What an amazing brother he is growing into. C has started to orchestrate play and look for opportunities to help O and CJ. He loves to wrestle and sword fight with B and often tries to teach B his memory verses at meal times. Just today C was cheering and starting a parade to celebrate O's dry panties and success on the toilet.

C wasn't our only baby for long. On our first Mother's Day we found out that he would be a big brother. Just seven months later that came to fruition. He hasn't seemed to mind at all and loves being the leader of the pack.

I am so thankful the Lord saw fit to give us a strong, joyful leader as our firstborn son. Praise the Lord!

War Paint

I promised this post a while ago, but just uploaded the pictures today.

I often wrestle with wanting to let my littles do something really fun and making the time to do it. So one day, a few weeks ago, we set out for finger painting. The kids needed a bath, it was warm out and we had all of our school work done with plenty of time before lunch. I put the boys in their swim suits. O wore a white onesie with paint on it from who knows when

and CJ had just nursed.

The three big littles started painting on paper on the sidewalk.

Then C got a little paint on his hand and asked if he could paint himself, I obliged. That's why they were wearing their swim suits anyway!

Then C asked if he could paint B. We both agreed.

Then the boys proceeded to chase each other around the yard with paint brushes and request specific colors for their war paint. They fought a good battle until I came after them with the hose. :)

I really should seek to put more fun in our days!