Potty Training Attempt (daddy's version)

Ah the topic of potty training :)

Let me just say that the selfish part of me has not wanted to start potty training (I know, shame on me). Lucy has been showing signs that she is interested in it, so back around Christmas, when Ben was off work we decided to dive in and give it a shot!

So, let's recap how all this went down.

Ben was very helpful in getting me pepped up for all this, and the night before we started we felt ready to take on the task. We sat in our room the night before we started the training and it was like a scene from a locker room before a big game. We were pumped up (as pumped up as you can be about potty training, right?) ;)

As far as training methods, we didn't have one specifically really. We read some stuff and took bits and pieces and came up with a game plan that we thought would work for Lucy.

Ben was sweet enough to allow me to share his notes from our experience :) So, here is the recap of our attempt at potty training (documented by dad).

Day1
8:00am- Start

8:25am- Accident #1: Poop in the big girl panties. Nothing like hand cleaning poop from panties.

8:55am- 15 minutes on the potty and still no pee. She hasn't peed all morning. Hopefully all this juice won't come too quick.

9:25am- Still nothing...waiting, watching Little Einsteins while sitting on the potty.

9:33am- Accident #2: Some pee came about 2 minutes after she got off the potty. Nothing like seeing a puddle of pee on the hard wood floors you slaved over. She didn't seem to cry until I said "you should do that on the potty" (way to go dad)

9:38am- Accident #3: The rest of the pee came which was probably double or triple what just came 5 minutes ago. This time in her room on the carpet and all down the hallway. The good thing is that she came and told us about the accident.

10:10am- Accident #4: That was a big pee. This time in the front room. 4 accidents. 4 rooms marked.

10:20am- Lucy told mommy that she needed to go use the potty. Yay! But nothing.

10:32am- Lucy told us again that she needed to go to the potty. Another false alarm.

10:39am- I went to put Lucy on the potty and she asked to move it out in front of the tv and ran out there. By the time I got there she said she "need to get on potty" and I picker her up and got her on it quick without pulling down her panties. Nothing for a few seconds so I had her stand up so I could pull them down but she had just started going. Most of the pee went in the potty! Hooray for progress! She wasn't super excited initially, but was when she got a small handful of M&M's.

11:49am- Still no pee after about 4 false alarms, but better than her not even thinking about it.

11:52am- Success! Instead of sitting at the table for lunch, we sat her on her potty at her little table. That's two in  a row!

12:32pm- Success again! Another pee. She likes flushing it down the toilet and saying bye-bye. This time, she got up and bent down towards her toilet and said "put in my mouth".

2:20pm- Nap time ended early with a wet bed.

2:50pm- Accident #6: Pee in the front room again. Lucy then said that she wanted to wear her diaper again. Then she used the potty again, and after said again that she wanted to wear her diaper.

3:45pm- Accident #7: Lucy just got off the potty and her and I were playing in her room. I stopped her and had her look at my eyes. Then proceeded to ask her 4 times if she needed to go potty. Each time she adamantly answered no. Then she said sorry, and started to pee. After getting cleaned up, she said again "need diaper". That's when we threw in the towel...she's not ready.


There ya have it folks ;) I am happy to report that since that time Lucy has been asking to sit on the potty almost daily. Sometimes she goes, other times she doesn't, and we are happy with that :)  Of course, we encourage her and cheer her on, but have just decided not to push it right now. I am basically just rolling with it and letting her lead the way, and we'll see how it goes.

Happy Friday!!

Lindsey

Michael - 7 Months

There is something about my baby boy being over 6 months old now that makes me a little emotional. I feel like the past 7 months flew by, and it seems inevitable that the next 5 months will go by even faster and we'll be celebrating his first birthday, and just like that, the first year is already over.

My sweet, happy momma's boy...you are just the sweetest, and everybody knows it. 

You are just over 16 pounds of chubby baby roll deliciousness! You started solids this past month and are rolling with it like a champ. You continue to be great at nursing, and I'm thanking my lucky stars for that! It's hard to believe I'm over halfway to nursing you for a whole year, which seemed like an undesirable goal for me a few months ago if I'm being honest. The great thing is, you have made it so easy to get this far, and I hope we make it to one year. 

You sat up on your own this past month which has been a game changer for play time with Lucy. You guys love to sit by each other and play for quite a while. It melts my heart to watch this. Lucy always makes sure you have a toy to play with, even if it means giving up one of her toys. 

You are a pretty quiet guy, which means you take after your momma, but you have started saying "da da" in addition to your usual raspberry blowing ;) I love to watch you when daddy and Lucy are playing and being wild (and usually loud) and you just watch ever so quietly and contently and take it all in. 

You're growing up too fast little one. 

Happy 7 months my sweet little buddy!

Cabin Fever

Hello from Antarctica...I mean Denver. It has been frigid here this week y'all. We have been dumped with snow and more snow, and the high today was 24! Brrrr! 

Now, just for the record, I LOVE living in Denver! I especially love the weather because in between these freezing cold days in the winter, we get these amazing 65 degree days BUT being cooped up in the house for days on end with two little ones can make ya go a little stir crazy! 

I have done some baking with all this time indoors which has been fun for me, but not so much for my waistline, whoops. I tried getting Lucy to bake with me, but she just has not been interested in it at all. She does, however, partake in all the eating of the baked goods ;) Poor girl just wants to go play in the snow but it is way, wayyyy too cold for that. 

We have watched entirely too much Mickey-- cue the Hot Dog song!  We have had Christmas music dance parties in the kitchen, colored our little hearts out, played with Play doh, played a game of chase Daisy around the house, & endless stickers that can now be found all over the house. I even managed to make vacuuming a fun activity for all of us!

But all that fun had to come to an end and we had to bust out of the four walls today!

I had a doctor's appointment to get to, so we bundled up and headed out. Since we were out, I decided to stop at Wal-Mart to get a couple of crafting items for stuff to do with Lucy...big mistake! Of course Wal-Mart was packed, so I had to park about a football field away and try to steer the stroller across the icy parking lot, ay-yi-yi.

So I did all that complaining about being stuck inside, then I go out, and all I wanted to do was run back home. 

Go figure.

On a totally unrelated note, Lucy made my stomach hurt from laughing so much tonight. She finally learned daddy's real name and I was cracking up over it. Her and I were reading books before bedtime and Ben was leaving to run to the store for more diapers. I called his name so I could tell him one more thing about the diapers to get. After he left the room again, she yelled "Ben!" And she kept yelling it and yelling it, and I lost it! At one point, she looked at me and asked, "where Ben go?" Ahhhh kids are too funny!

Happy almost Friday! ;)

Lindsey

'Tis the Season

I can't believe Christmas is right around the corner! Thanksgiving came and went with a quickness. We opted to stay home this year, and although we missed our family, we had a glorious 4 day retreat filled with snow, PJ's, naps for momma, and endless fires.

We have a tradition of going and cutting down our Christmas tree after Thanksgiving with some of our sweet friends. There are a bunch of designated areas to go cut down a tree, and when you are in beautiful Colorado, that's just what you do :)

We have always gone to Winter Park to cut ours down, and I gotta tell y'all, it is an event! People get there early and bring food and drinks and basically have a giant party all morning and afternoon. We have never been able to stay and hang out too long because the kiddos just get too cold, but there is some serious merriment in the air! I look forward to the kids getting a little older so we can stay and make a day of it!

We went this past weekend, and made the hour and a half drive up to Winter Park with our friends. I wasn't sure how things would go this year because we knew the weather was supposed to be REALLY cold, and that can make things tricky with two little ones, but we bundled everyone up and went into it very optimistic!

Lucy was a trooper, trudging through the snow for a good 5-10 minutes then Ben carried her in the back pack the rest of the way, and I bundled Michael up in the Ergo. The snow was up to my knees in some places...a little scary at times with carrying a little one. Michael actually did better than I expected. He lasted about 10 minutes and then he and I headed back to the car to hang out. My happy fella...

Not too long after Michael and I got back to the car, I saw Ben and Lucy coming with a tree. Thankfully Ben found a good one not too far off the path, and he even managed to cut it down and carry it back with Lucy on his back the whole time. That's my man! ;) Lucy loved it, and never complained once about being cold.

All in all, such a successful day! Happy kiddos, great friends, good looking trees, and a partridge in a pear tree! :)

Happy Holidays!

Lindsey

Michael - 5 Months

My big guy!

Another month gone by! I can't believe Michael is 5 months old already! My sweet little blue eyed, fair skinned happy boy! 

At 5 months old, you continue to be the happiest little fella, and a big time momma's boy! 

You learned how to roll over back to belly a couple weeks ago so you are starting to really get around with all your rolling. This has also brought about the always scary the first time around, belly sleeping. Last week you hardly slept because you kept getting your arm stuck under you while you rolled in the night. Now that you can roll over onto your belly though, I definitely think you prefer sleeping on your belly. It's usually no more than 5 minutes after I've put you down that you have rolled right over on to your belly. 

You just adore your big sis! You love to watch her, and you try really hard to reach out and touch her...only problem is she isn't too fond of you touching her ha! Today at the park, you were smiling and cooing at her watching her in the swing. It will be so fun to watch the two of you grow up together!

Cuddling is still your jam! Some of your best naps are still in the wrap, which is awesome! 

Oh how I love those sweet, pudgy, baby fingers!

You are having major teething symptoms!!! Lots of drooling and fussing lately. You are still trying to chew on your toes all the time, or mommy's fingers.

And those giggles...I could listen to them all.day.long.

We love you oh so much sweet, little Michael Benjamin!!

Snow Day!

We had such a fun snow day today! If I had to guess I'd say we ended up with around 7 or so inches of snow. I was pretty excited to get Lucy out in it to play. We got to test out all her oversized, new snow gear, and it held up very well.

She was so excited!

I tell ya, it brings so much joy when your kids are having a blast! My heart was exploding watching her play around! We played in the snow for an hour and then came inside for lunch, and she was not happy about having to come inside. But after lunch and naps, she got to go back out and play in it with her Grammy!

While Lucy and Grammy played outside, I got busy baking some amazing lactation cookies! Recipe can be found here. 

These cookies are amazing!! Honestly, I'm not even struggling with my milk supply right now, but I totally justify eating them because I just say that I'm breastfeeding and trying to "take care of" my supply. Judge me hard! ;)

This particular batch of cookies had a little extra something in them...obviously, I need to pay extra attention to detail ;)

A little extra Vitamin D anyone?

And my sweet little helper while I baked :)

Lindsey