Potty training in the hole

Lilly is finally interested in potty training.  Can I do a backflip double whip jump and shout hooray?!!!  After reading books, asking advice, having a buck naked girl n multiple occasions,  pee on the floor, rank nasty diapers and o so much more, Lilly wants to use the toilet.

Here is my opinion.....in other words skip to next paragraph if you don't want to hear it.  Too many people rush potty training.  I can see why.  Diapers get nasty..and costly. I know, here is where people who use cloth interject their opinion. I don't because it isn't for me, and I am not here to debate why because I could get myself into endless trouble in a back and forth dumb comment conversation that I don't have time for.

When Lilly first went in the big potty at 18 months don't get me wrong I was excited.  I was going to take advantage of the situation, and we worked daily until it became a war on poop terror.  So we stopped.  The odds were against us.  We maybe got .1% in the toilet. We picked it up again, and Lilly was doing great. No accidents.....but nothing in the toilet either.  She could go a whole day 8 am til 4 with nothing coming out.  I knew this couldn't be good.  I was prone to urinary tract infections as a child as well as accidents because I was always trying to hold it.  I never wanted that stupid card that the teachers pulled to be for going potty.  I think that has been resolved to the point of you can't keep a kid from going potty when they need by punishing them.  I had legitimate problems and I chose not to do that to my child.  So we stopped. I read a few articles on early potty training and infections, and pros on early potty training, and about potty training regression, and with a new baby on the way and then here, I simply did not have the time for all that crap.....no pun intended :) But really the article on the link to potty training and urinary tract infections was interesting. You can read it here http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-hodges-md/potty-training_b_1424826.html.

We did everything....incentives of candy, toys, playing at the park more often, but nothing made Lilly interested.  She would go once, get the incentive and be done forever.  We put the incentive in site, we praised her, we sat with her, we hugged her on the potty, we did everything. We bought her panties, pullups and training pants. We told her mommy and daddy wear panties and underwear (she always wants to be like us). We said princesses wear panties and don't poop in diapers. Everything.  We have 3 kinds of potty seats including a little toilet. We put that in the same room she played in.

Finally, we just put her in diapers and let her have the accident.  But that didn't get us anywhere.  She would cry because she knew she had to pee, but if we sat her down she would cry because she was trying to hold it.  and then if she missed the toilet she would cry because of her failure.  After she went once in the toilet and then again we praised her, gave her 2 m&ms and then she would have an accident.  In the attempt to comfort her and tell her we could try again, she took it as accidents are ok all the time.  She would go an say "It's ok Mommy" or "It's ok Daddy" and we would assure her it is NOT ok to purposely (which is what she was doing) have accidents.

So finally, my mom gave me an advent calendar.  O yay a chocolate a day for 24 days.  But then I thought hey wait....24 days to create a new habit. I'll take the challenge.  I gave her a candy and she ate it, and I said that she could open another door and eat the chocolate if she went all day going potty in the toilet.  Right away she said OK and excitedly got the potty and sat there until she went.  We said yay, I gave her an M&M drew a happy face on a chart and when she asked for chocolate behind the door, I said only when you do that again all day.  To my surprise, there were no accidents.  100% in the toilet every time.  She even went at Grammie and Grandpas.  We found out she does not want to be praised for it as in high fiving or clapping or saying yay good job.  She wants her M&M and happy face and no other attention to the issue.

The next day we had 99% including a number 2 which I was worried would be a problem, and 1 small accident in the evening.

Today, day 3 we had 100% accuracy, and she goes on demand as well as stopping what she is doing when she realizes she needs to go without being told. She even got out of bed earlier to come tell me she needed to go.

Needless to say, I see no turning back.  yay!  I will now have $35-$70 dollars a month extra and I am so excited I don't have to deal with all that poo again...well except for Rosalie but she is still breastfeeding, so it isn't so bad yet.

Rosalie Makenna our Roly-Poly

I really need to get better about this blogging thing.  I just cant do it from a mobile device which is the problem.  So I told the story of our sweet Rosalie Makenna, but I must show the pictures.  When Lilly first met her little sister she called her Rolly, perhaps because she misunderstood Rosalie. It was only once but for me it stuck, and she definitely is our Roly Poly.

Not even a day old.

Getting ready to go home....by the way we used a head support, i just hadn't put it in yet.

 Time with Daddy

 Snuggling Grandma

 1 month old!

 3 months and half the size of big sister

 A trip to Disneyland as a family of 4

 Lilly loves to help with "her girl"

Sweet cheeks and Daddy's dimples.

Full time mommy!

Ok so I posted something about Lilly turning two that u wrote a while ago, but I never mentioned the many changes to our lives in the past year and change.  This post may be long.  Fell free to skip if you don't like reading :). So Father's Day 2012, I found out we were pregnant with our second child.  The child I would never meet.  Although I was excited, I was surprised to see how many people judged the fact that we would have two kids less than 2 years apart.  Well I guess they really regretted their opinions when we lost the baby at 9 weeks just before Lilly's first birthday.

Then on July 30th we celebrated Lilly turning 1!  Where had the time gone.  She has been such a blessing to us, and her sweet and overwhelmingly cheerful demeanor has helped us through so much. The Lord for sure gave us the child perfect for us.

While grant and I dealt with many questions and thoughts we were blessed to have many friends to support us.  Then our best friends, who no one thought would have kids, but we secretly knew we would wear them down. Told us they were pregnant.  We were elated!  The baby to be was going to be like our niece or nephew.   I think they told us in October or so.  We found out later nephew.  Little Ethan David was born July 2, 2013.

Come December, the Monday after thanksgiving, same as we found out about my first pregnancy, I found out we were pregnant!  So many fears raced through my mind, but I was truly excited.  I told Ashley, the beastie, we were expecting even before I told Grant.  I wanted someone to pray for the health of this baby right away.  I was placed on additional hormone pills to prevent miscarriage again, and every month was the worst waiting game to go and listen to the baby's heart beat.  I had so much anxiety during the first appointment for ultrasound because I just wanted to see a little heart beating.  And I did!  Although the pregnancy was riddled with worries one things, a sub chorionic hematoma, and a possibly abnormal anomoly scan at 20 weeks,  every time I went in for follow up, what they originally saw was either healed or not there.  And then on August 12th, 2013, m due date (what are the odds) I delivered my sweet 8 lb 10 oz roly poly, miss Rosalie Makenna.  We picked the name  because 1. Rose is a flower, 2. Rose is my grandmothers maiden name, and 3. We wanted to not use rose as a middle name like everyone else.  Her name means rose or rose garden.  Grant picked the middle name.  Although it is considered a surname, so is Lilly's middle name "Hadley" and grants middle name "Gordon" and the name in the spelling we chose means happiness in Swahili. And this little girl is so happy and has brought us so much more happiness!

So I think that is a brief catch up for now.  I will post some pictures and add more since we have become a family of four.  Sorry for getting so behind....if you actually read these:)

Oooo the cute things they say

It is crazy to think that Lilly will be 2 in a couple of weeks.  O have we enjoyed this age.  She is so great at communication and picks up new words and phrases that make us laugh every day.  Yesterday we went over to my parents house for my dads birthday. And they had some friends over witha 31/2 year old boy named Wyatt.  Of course they had bubbles and a little splash pool for the kids to play in and they were having a blast.  Lilly just kept calling Wyatt "boy" as if she were Wendy from Peter Pan.  He said something at dinner and she looked at him with the most serious expression and said "boy you silly". And every time she went to refer to him it was "boy". I guess it is good she knows he is a boy.  Of course he was upset because his name was not boy, but Wyatt.  Then of course there was the playtime with grandm and grandpa.  Lilly really enjoyed singing and playing the piano.  I think we have a little performer on our hands for sure.

Bowties for him, hairbows for her

Ok, So I am really slacking on this blogging thing, but here we go.  I will try to get this back up and running.

Now that I have an etsy shop and have been actively sewing, i would like to continue sharing my projects and my family.

Here is one of my mot popular products that I have in my shop.  Who would have thought....shoes to bowties.

This is a set of 2 bowties and a onesie.  And you can interchange them, or mommy can use them in her hair or sister's hair.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/114373006/white-onesie-and-interchangeable-bow

And now that my most best friend is having a boy, I have a little model.  So when the end of June comes you can see all the adorable pictures.

You have to have something for everyone right?