potty training – Myriad & Sundry

Three Going on Thirteen

May 10, 2016 No Comments

What Coraline is Wearing:

3T pants and shirts
Doggie shirt, princess shirts, and dresses or skirts when I can convince her how AWESOME AND CUTE she’ll look 🙂
Headband, because lately she’s wanted to wear her hair down (and then thinks I don’t have to brush it… that’s not how that works)
Big girl underwear, all the time
Size 8 shoes

Coraline was upset this morning when I made her wait to get her blankie until after she got dressed. I’ve been asking her if she wants piggie tails, marshmallow tails, double pony tales, or something else for her hair.
Today she told me she wanted a sad tail.
– Wednesday, December 9, 2015

What Coraline is Eating:

Meatballs, chicken nugget, hot dog, and most any meat she can eat with ketchup or ranch (same as her brother!)
Eggs, waffles, and most breakfast foods that Jameson never liked. Except she’s not a big fan of mommy’s homemade muffins.
Regular and “special” tube yogurts
Anything with a character on it
Candy “treats”, cookies and cupcakes, ice cream… any dessert.
Pasta all the time, even the edamame pasta we buy. Not a huge potato fan like Jameson though.
Strawberries, and applesauce pouches
Milk.
Coraline tries most of her food with every little effort from us, though rarely finishes her plate.

Asked Coraline what she wants for Christmas:
Day 1
C: Kitty
Mommy: What kind?
C: Orange
Mommy: Well, I don’t know if Santa can bring a kitty, what else would you like for Christmas?
C: Birthday cake
Mommy: We get birthday cake on our birthdays. Santa brings gifts and presents. What else would you like for Christmas?
C: Box

Day 2
Mommy: What would you like Santa to bring you? (Was she serious about the kitty)
C: Presents
Mommy: What kind of present?
C: Box
– Wednesday, November 18, 2015

What Coraline is Saying:

Coraline really loves to chatter, so we always get a nice overview of her day and what she did.
Whatever Jameson is saying: Lots of potty language
She’s very articulate, likes to play pretend and tell us that we’re eating pretend food or that her “baby is sleeping” so we need to be quiet, shhh!

Are you hungry in your belly, Coraline?
“I hungry in my mouth.”
– Friday, April 18, 2015

What Coraline Likes These Days:

Coraline loves to make a “surprise” face. June of last year she started opening her mouth real big when she got excited. She’s very expressive with all her feelings, but surprise face is my favorite.
Pretending to be a baby. She’ll do a little fake cry and curl up, waiting for me to scoop her up.
Coloring, stickers and stamps. She loves doing crafts too with our neighbor, Lily.
Eating! Coraline loves to eat and snack. She’s not in a rush through dinner either, she loves sitting at the dinner table and will eat long past everyone else. Not because she’s eating more, but she’s eating slower.
She loves Frozen, all day long, all the time.
Reading stories with me. And really, she’s pretty much a mommy’s girl all the time. I kind of like it.

Too busy to wash hands for dinner that she was demanding just 15 minutes before:
“I coloring mommy, I busy. I busy.”
– Wednesday, June 17, 2015

“Slip-shers” (Slippers)
– Wednesday, June 17, 2015

What Coraline Doesn’t Like These Days:

When she can’t see mommy’s eyes (or the eyes of a doll or eyes on her Elsa and Anna socks, we can’t roll them!)
Getting out of bed in the mornings
Being told to go potty when we request. She’s been potty trained for a long time, but has recently had a few accidents related to delaying her potty time
She’s not super fond of our newest addition, Luna, our labradoodle
Lately, it’s been harder to get her to stay in bed after her songs and stories, or even get ready for bed. I’m sure it’s just a phase, because usually she LOVES sleeping
When she gets disciplined, she gets very upset. She wants to be a good listener, she says!
Going down the stairs by herself, she always wants “uppy” especially in the mornings.

Pretending to be a puppy:
“Don’t pat my butt it’s stinky I poop everyday”
– Thursday, February 4, 2015

What Coraline is Doing:

Playing pretend, playing with her dolls house and tea set.
Watching tv
When coloring sometimes she’ll tell us that she’s writing her name or someone’s name, like on a card.
Singing and talking, all the time.
Trying on and playing with jewelry, hanging out in her room by herself. She doesn’t seem to fear being alone the way Jameson does as often, though she has her moments!
We starting doing gymnastics to help her find her balance better, which has worked out wonderfully. She really enjoyed it, though we’re on a break right now.
We also signed her up for ballet at school which she’s enjoyed.

Coraline found pumpkin stickers tonight and called them punkpunks.
– Thursday, April 9, 2015

A little rough drop off to daycare. Coraline discovered her blankie was “broken” when we arrived. She then threw a fit when the teacher said she was pretty, and she fell out of her chair.
– Friday, April 10, 2015

What We Are Working On:

Mommy and daddy are figuring out good ways to reward good behavior so more of it comes without being told (as always).
Getting dressed herself is sometimes good and sometimes rough. We try to reward it with a puff ball, a new rewarding tool that has worked for us somewhat. Other days though she’ll go upstairs and get her pajamas on after school all by herself and does it just fine! It seems to depend on mood.
Wiping after potty time, and washing hands after that.
No matter the mood, she still struggles with putting on her socks. Trying to do it usually results in a big upset cry

And without further ado, Coraline’s very first interview:

What is your name? Coraline Genevieve… I wanna do poop. I wanna do poop picture! (The “potty language” continues throughout the interview)
How old are you? 3 Holds up fingers
What is your favorite color? Pink

What’s your favorite color?
“Chocolate!”
– Saturday February 27, 2016

What is your favorite animal? Um… Bugs!
What is your favorite book? Poopy book… picture of animals
What is your favorite TV show? Frozen (Daniel Tiger, Doc McStuffins or most anything on Disney Junior, and usually whatever Jameson wants to watch when they’re home together)
What is your favorite movie? Cinderella (I think Frozen is her favorite and maybe Minions, but we have been introducing her to all the other princesses for Disney!)
What is your favorite song? Frozen (Let it Go, which I sing one verse of at bedtime, and the “snowman one” which I also sing a verse of)
What is your favorite food? Orange
What food do you not like? Not blood orange. I like regular oranges!
What is your favorite drink? Sour stuff
What is your favorite snack? Fruit snacks. And apples, bananas
What makes you laugh? Apples and bananas
What is your favorite thing to wear? Naked butt shirts (Such a joker)
What is your favorite game? Something I wanna poopy butt… lets see.. there’s something in here… (We can really tell that she has a big brother)
What is your favorite toy? A Frozen toy
Who is your best friend? Porter and Hailey (Friends from school)
What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Well I’m pushing this. Well.. I’m getting out of this… Well this is very fun in here to push. (Talking about what she’s doing instead of answering. I suggested that she goes to bed with her little blankies.)
Where is your favorite place to go? To Disney World! To Disney (We hadn’t yet gone to Disney when we took the video, but we sure were talking about it a lot!)
Where do you want to go on vacation? Disney
What do you like to do with your family? I like to go with them and push the tent (Again talking about what she’s doing instead of answering the question)
What do you want to be when you grow up? Umm be… Bad Coraline! (I can hope here that she’s referencing the movie Coraline since she was looking at the DVD shelf, haha!)
What did you do when you were little? I used to play with Mommy’s toys
What do you like to do now that you are big? Do big girl stuff… go with the schoolagers (Coraline is really enamored with the idea of going to kindergarten with Jameson)
What is your favorite thing to learn in school? Something I wanna get toys and sit and lay on the floor (Coraline was really distracted at this point talking about what she was playing with at the time, so we cut it short!)
What is your favorite thing to remember? Didn’t get to ask this
What do you want to buy with your money? Didn’t get to ask this
What is the thing you do the most awesomely? Didn’t get to ask this

One Year

Two Years

children

Two Tails on a Two and a Half Year Old

October 21, 2015 No Comments

In September, Coraline turned two and a half with little fuss. I don’t have the rocking chair in the corner of her nursery anymore, and we didn’t get out the blocks (though I did think about it). We did measure her height and let Jameson check his, too! But she already seems every inch of two and a half. Even though she’s shorter than Jameson was at her age (only by a bit), she seems more articulate! After all, she’s got her big brother to keep up with.

This is my favorite of her fall outfits. I could dress her in that long bunny tunic all day long. For some reason it shouts “growing up!” and “cute little baby!” all at the same time with those pig tails and new minion socks she picked out. “Slip-shers”, her way of saying slippers, has come and gone.

In the mornings, I asked her if she wants one tail or two, but we mostly do two. Her hair is getting too long for the side tail! Long enough now for a regular pony tail or half up, but my favorite is the piggy tails.

Coraline has this hilarious expression of delight when she’s excited, with eyes wide open and mouth in a big “o”. She says it when I tell her we’re going to gymnastics and when it’s “bath-a-night” as she calls it.

She’s fully potty trained (after a bit of drama with numero duo, we have the whole shebang down pat now – including night training). She’ll even use a public restroom, which is a novelty for me since Jameson was so against it as to cause a little paranoia about going out. It happened over the course of the summer and the many days outside in a swimsuit. She was almost as easy as Jameson was! How I got so lucky with two kids I think is mostly due to daycare.

“Are you hungry in your belly Coraline?” -Brian
“I hungry in my mouth” -Coraline

Coraline likes to do art a bit more than Jameson, and occasionally plays with dolls, but for the most part she likes to do whatever Jameson is doing!

“I coloring mommy. I busy, I busy”

Coraline is doing a bit more pretend play. She’ll play doctor, and my favorite, she plays at being a baby. She curl up on the floor, or snuggle up against me, and do a little fake baby cry. I could do this all day long as long as I’m sitting down (she’s getting heavy!)

We are currently dealing with a bit of fear of the dark. She’s a little too young to explain how she’s feeling or what she’s afraid of particularly, and is pretty quick to go back to bed, but she comes running into our room crying loudly for mommy (sometimes daddy) one to two times a night.

She definitely doesn’t like to be in the dark herself, but Jameson is really getting into play in the dark so we have been taking advantage by trying to play games and make the dark fun! Jameson set out all his flashlights for her.

She adores her little burp clothes which are now called blankies. She’s developing preferences for certain ones. She loves the sheep one (of which there is only one!), and the striped monkey one (which there are two). I’ve tried offering some real blankies, but it’s not the same. These are her favorite and they are starting to look very raggy!

We haven’t really addressed the thumb-sucking actively yet, but will sometimes tell her to remove her thumb from her mouth. We say daily that she’s super cute, and I find it a bit harder to discipline her than Jameson because even though she’s a bit of a drama queen, she listens for the most part (and is terribly distraught when she does get yelled at). She’s responding very well to 1…2… the threat of 3 works great.

Her favorite movie and characters is, of course, Frozen. I sing a verse of the snowman and let it go songs every night. She loves when she gets to wear her new Elsa and Anna shirt. She wants to watch the movie any time, too! I’m looking forward to all the fun ways we can play with the Frozen theme through the winter. I’m hopeful that she’ll be into the snow more this year! So much to look forward to that I don’t frequently look back. We are lucky parents!

children

Two + Half

June 19, 2013 No Comments

It would be hard for me to believe that Jameson was two and a half except that we have a newborn at home, so it’s starting to feel natural that he looks and acts so big. Since he first turned two, his reasoning and thinking skills have really improved. He won’t hesitate to tell us what he wants to eat, and then just as decisively will tell us that he wants something else instead and no longer wants chicken nuggets. And speaking of food, he seems to be more consciously messy, which drives us bonkers. Spitting food out on the table and dipping in his milk is a frequent favorite.

Every like and dislike is said in an earnest and urgent tone, and when he doesn’t get his way we are always talking him down from the ledge. Sometimes is easier than others, but overall we don’t experience many tantrums and consider these upset moments as blips on the radar.

Jameson is 26 pounds as of a month ago and measured about half an inch under 3 feet.

He is really developing his imagination which seems to revolve around food: playing tea with Lily, giving me “pizza”, and he has even told us that Bobby Bear wants to sit at the table to eat. Luckily Bobby Bear doesn’t eat real food. I can only imagine how much messier we’d be!

When I took a picture of Bobby Bear, Jameson said “say cheese Bobby Bear” and when he realized I couldn’t see his smile, he got Bobby Bear out of his chair and turned him around so I could take a picture of him smiling; I obliged, of course.

In another example of his growing imagination, as I was making his bed he told me he wanted a bounce house (he hadn’t really experienced the word “tent” yet). I built one for him, and while we didn’t bounce in it, we did lay in it and made another one that night which he decided to call a castle this time around and read stories inside.

Bed time has been going very smoothly. We had a couple rough months prior to Coraline being born but since then has been very smooth and routine-driven. So has the morning ritual and most mornings go great. Jameson is still wearing pull ups to bed (we tried recently without and it didn’t work nor did he wake up), but during the day he is completely potty trained even through naps.

We read library books at bedtime mostly now, switching them out every month or so. He really enjoys Curious George books which are longer than our former board books and a little more now. But he doesn’t like Curious George the TV show as much; that favorite still goes to Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood (the Mr. Rogers cartoon reinvention). He asks to watch Daniel Tiger goes potty and Daniel Tiger goes to sleep.

And Coraline… he loves his little sister more each day as she seems to be more active and alert. We talk about her smiling at him, and he has finally sat still enough a couple times that she has been able to focus on him and truly smile at him. He likes to take her hand and do knuckles with her. At bath time recently he did “this little piggy” on her hands and toes, which melted my heart.

He does show some signs of wanting more of mom’s attention since it is frequently on Coraline and feeding her or holding her; dad does the morning and most bed routines, so when he can get mom to read a story or sing a song he is thrilled!

Jameson just loves to be outside and doing what daddy (and sometimes mommy) is doing. He sings frequently, sometimes songs we didn’t realize he knows. There is nothing better than listening to a garbled song from a cute toddler!

He loves playing with his neighborhood friends Lily and Nathan and is starting to remember that Nathan lives nearby now, requesting to go to his house on walks. He recognizes his school from the car while driving, even if we are just passing it, and also recognizes our neighborhood when we get close to the house. We can’t fool his memory as easily now!

We haven’t really experienced much of the terrible twos, so (knock on wood) I’ll take more of these toddler years please. He’s so fun!

children, life with baby

Spring Weekend

April 9, 2013 No Comments

Finally, spring weather seems to be here to stay!

This weekend, we got out a lot, even with a newborn and toddler. Saturday, we went to the meat market to stock up on fresh chicken and beef, and then stopped at the farmers market on the way back to pick up some apples for Jameson to take to school during the week.

We played outside, and it is so fun watching Jameson be able to run to through the backyard which is finally drying out a little as well.

It was even warmer on Sunday, and we went to the zoo! We met JP, Lisa and Jonathan there (and we were only about 10 minutes late, haha)

Jameson told us on the way that he was going to see zebahs (we were a little surprised at his choice of animals that he was intending to see, since lions and elephants are in more of the shows that we watch!). We did get to see zebras, but first we saw elephants and the lion, which was on his back, sunbathing.

The trip for Coraline was a bit anticlimactic, since she isn’t observing much yet! But I did breastfeed her, in public (with a drape), which I thought was an accomplishment. Much more convenient than bringing bottles, that’s for sure.

She napped most of the time, and was a little angel for the entire trip. I forgot how much easier newborns really are sometimes.

The toddlers went stroller-free, which was great. Of course, we couldn’t have done it without the two strong husbands to carry them when needed. It was so different, looking at Coraline bundled in her stroller and Jameson walking around and thinking that’s only two years away for her. I am regularly reminded of how fast the time goes, and perhaps more appreciative of that fact with her than I was with Jameson.

After some snacks and about an hour and a half at the zoo, we decided to get some lunch.

Lunch was wild! We went to Aladdin’s, and the boys did great with veggies and hummus and pitas, but Jameson clearly needed to go potty and kept refusing. We tried at the zoo at every restroom, and tried again at Aladdins another 3 times. When we spoke logically to him, he said he needed to go potty, but as soon as he saw the restroom, he refused. I am not sure where this fear of public restrooms came from, though I think it’s related to the automatic flushers; Aladdin’s didn’t have them though. Regardless, he started telling us he wanted to go home, and we quickly wrapped it up.

We tried at the public rest area off the highway with similar results. Somehow… he managed to hold it until we got home. I am still not sure how he managed that. This is the first time I have thought that being potty trained has its inconveniences. Not sure how to get him over this fear except to continue trying. Unfortunately, we only have opportunities on the weekends sometimes to get him to go at other restrooms.

Looking for any advice!

children, general life

Spring Ahead Weekend

March 13, 2013 No Comments

This weekend really did feel like spring, so much so that I didn’t even mind losing the hour to gain the daylight in the evenings. It was in the 50’s and 60’s all weekend long, sunny and amazingly enough, no rain!

Saturday, we had a few errands to run. Now that we don’t have swimming lessons anymore (at least until the fall), we have regained our Saturday mornings. First, Jameson slept in until about 9 (pre time change!), which was fabulous. Jameson didn’t seem too bummed about his restricted breakfast (no yogurt, since he had to come home on Thursday and stay home Friday due to diarrhea). He enjoyed his “special juice” of gatorade.

We stopped first at Target for some necessities, then a trip to Jo-Ann Stores, where I bought some fabric for my very first official backdropped photoshoot for baby girl.

I purchased this lovely home decor fabric, which shouldn’t reflect light and should fade out in a very nice way, matching perfectly with one of the newborn hats I purchased months ago. I just need to iron it… and Brian needs to get a hold of some PVC pipe for the structure of the backdrop stand.

We then did a dry run to the hospital. With Jameson and our scheduled induction, we casually arrived at the hospital with plenty of time. We don’t know what it will be like this time, so we opted to circle the hospital grounds once to see where the main entrance and ER entrances are.

After having the hardest time finding a place to eat lunch, we stopped at O’Charley’s. Jameson got in a half hour nap on the road, and was a pleasant lunch companion. Brian and Jameson played outside and took their first “spring walk” of the season while I putzed around indoors. Honestly, I can’t even remember what I did.

Sunday was even better! Our errands on Sunday took us to Harbor Freight to look at tools, and then to one of Brian’s go-to stores for beer-making-supplies. We followed that up with an amazing lunch at a new, recently opened joint with hand-tossed, wood-fired over pizzas. Jameson was a little less than pleasant this go-round, but the food more than made up for it.

After I enjoyed a lovely warm bath at home, I joined Jameson, Lily and Brian and Curtis outside for the rest of the day. I even took a few photos!

Jameson and Lily were quite the pair. He has been requesting to play with Lily every evening since!

While sitting with their juice boxes, Jameson suddenly turned to Lily and requested a high five, followed by “knuckles”. I am not sure when he picked up on knuckles like that, we have only done it a few times, but it was hilarious.

When I took photos, Lily and Jameson squealed “cheese” for nearly a whole minute, looking at each other and laughing.

They enjoyed chase, and played in their cars…

Check out that tongue!

… Drawing with chalk (Lily claimed everything she drew was a hotdog, and Jameson claimed the drawings were chicken nuggets and big poop)

… and watching Brian wash the car. Jameson was excited to help dad do a bit of the washing too; he wasn’t too neat about it and ended up all wet.

Later in the evening, we went on a walk with the neighbors, and another of our neighborhood friends happened to be walking and joined us as well. Jameson and Lily held hands. Wish I had had my camera for that one!

Jameson did have an accident when we returned, which he was very distraught over. He has been doing so well with the potty training that we are calling him day trained. He was simply caught up in the excitement! Earlier in the day, he requested to go inside to go potty, so he is definitely there. We are pleasantly surprised with his earlier-than-expected progress!

It was a wonderful weekend, and Jameson was simply exhausted by the end of the evening. I am excited for the return of warm weather (and disappointed that it’s not in the forecast now for at least another week–just cold and rain!).

P.S. Last night, we did end up at the hospital for a false alarm; we were back home about 3 hours later around midnight. Who would’ve thought that contractions aren’t just supposed to be 5 minutes apart, but also needed to be “strong”? So even though I did see an increase in strength from when they first started, they aren’t getting strong enough for labor. I am having regular, mild contractions that aren’t doing anything… still waiting!

life with baby

Toddler Extremes & Cold Water

November 16, 2012 No Comments

It’s been a bit of a extreme week for us, with a lot of highs and lows.

Monday morning, we discovered that our water heater went out. Luckily for me, I finished my shower before all the hot water was gone. Unfortunately for Brian, he had to take a cold shower!

While we planned to have the part on Tuesday and only have one day without hot water, it did stretch to 2 days, and got more complicated when Brian got a flat tire on Monday evening!

We got a brand new car just about a month ago, so the flat tire was a bit of a shock (it was due to a nail). It made pick up and drop off and deciding where to shower in the morning a little complicated. We did buy the supplemental warranty though, which has already nearly paid for itself because we ended up needing a new tire altogether.

Meanwhile, Jameson began using the potty! All of a sudden, he seemed to understand how that part of his body worked, and he began using the potty at school consistently whenever they would put him on it. He doesn’t understand holding it yet, but knows how to make his body go.

This major event also coincided with him biting a classmate, which hasn’t happened in a long time since it seemed to be related to teething before.

Wednesday evening, Brian’s parents came over and while Brian and his dad replaced nearly all the parts in our water heater, Brian’s mom watched and played with Jameson. Since I couldn’t do dishes just yet, I laid out by the fireplace. That was so nice!

We had pizza for dinner, and all was well, finally.

Thursday evening though it all fell apart again. Jameson continues to use the potty at school and at home, so we decided to run out and get him a seat for downstairs as well. That, along with two other short errands, and we were home by 6:30 which is Jameson’s usual dinner time.

Jameson was hungry and wanted a snack, so we gave him one and put on Elmo while we heated leftovers for dinner. But when that snack was over, he didn’t want dinner, he wanted another snack. And he had an absolute meltdown.

An hour long full on tantrum. We tried everything to calm him down, starting with a time out, followed by holding him, bath time, more holding and trying to distract or startle him. Nothing worked, including his very favorite loveys: Mr. Bear and B Blanket.

During the bath, he stood the entire time, crying “no no no” over and over. When I finished bathing him, and asked if he wanted out, the “no no no” continued. What helped was knowing that I understand toddlers can’t control their emotions yet. He wasn’t in any more control than I was, and couldn’t help it.

I did take a picture of him. For posterity. I was trying to find some humor in a situation horribly lacking. He continued to yell.

We even tried turning on the shower to shock him for a second, and turning lights on and off. We finally got his diaper on, and Brian was going to put him to bed with milk. At this point, we had even tried to ask him if he was in pain or hurt somewhere, since it had gone on so long, but he continued to answer in yelling, crying, “no’s” and flailing of arms.

I returned to the room gathering up laundry and asked him if he wanted to help mommy put his eyeball shirts in the wash so he could wear them tomorrow, and he lifted his arms up to get picked up. We went to the laundry room, where he spotted 3 dice.

(The dice were in there from a previous time that I had taken them away and wanted them out of his sight. Really, I need to get rid of them)

He picked them up, and went totally silent.

Where to go from here? We took him to our bedroom and asked him if he wanted to watch Elmo under mommy and daddy’s covers, which he did. We laid there next to him for about 15 minutes, watching Sesame Street.

We convinced him to get in his pjs. He said “zip zip”. I asked him if he felt better, and he said “yeah”. I told him mommy was happy he felt better.

And then we actually went down at bedtime and finally ate dinner. Jameson ate some of his left over pizza, and then he ate some of our rice and pork. Surprisingly, since he never really ate any significant quantity of pork before.

This morning, he was cheerful and excited to wear his eyeball shirt (he asks to wear them every morning). However, when I tried to take photos this morning with the 23 month blocks, he completely refused and started to get upset. He got up and walked away a couple times. We gave up, hoping for a better mood later… I certainly hope this passes quickly.