Pools and Public Potties

We went swimming today.  I have to say it was an absolute blast.  It was just me and the two littles. I wasn't sure how it would turn out...after all I was completely out numbered. But with Bethany being such a pretty good listener and familiar with the pool, I thought it would be worth a shot.

So here we are at the pool...

You'll have to excuse the quality of the pictures & lack of decent pictures. I was proud to manage to keep track of the two of the kiddos. There was no way I was gonna bring the camera too far into the pool. :o)

Anyway.  The pool we go to was indoors and has a fantastic kiddo section. Bethany loves it. You can see a glimpse of it in the background of Owen's picture. 

When we got in the pool, Owen became ridiculously clingy.  Bethany is the clingy one...not Owen. I was a bit surprised when he started holding on to me for his dear life.  I then realized this was his first ever trip to the pool.  Being the poor 2nd child he is, I didn't even realize the specialness of this trip for him.  You know, I clearly remember Bethany's first time in the pool and was so excited for her. *sigh*  I already am short-changing our second born.

Bethany had a blast going around the playground structure in the kiddie area.  After a while, we ventured out into the big pool (after I put a flotation device on Bethany to aid in my carrying her).  There is an awesome lazy river at this pool place. Bethany loves going around it. Owen was okay with this process. He probably could've done without the water spraying and dumping on him from the different contraptions.  He shrieked the whole time we went around. But I think it was an this-is-a-huge-room-and-everyone-is-loud-so-I-can-be-loud shriek, not a holy-cow-I-am-scared-to-death shriek.

One of the highlights of our field trip was that Bethany went potty at the toilet at the pool.  What's that you say? You don't understand the significance of this event?   Oh, let me tell you. She will only use one potty. It is her little potty with the nice cushy seat.  Oh yeah, we have two potties with cushy seats...but she will only use this one.  This girl has one particular tushie.

Anyway...at the pool she said she had to go. SO we went to the jon.  While in the jon I was trying to wrangle Owen (who still CAN'T WALK & must be held), while trying to coax her to use the jon.  She was in pain...doubled over...had to go.  But refusing to go on that big toilet. She wants her potty.  She starts screaming. Loudly. Very, Very Loudly.  Really, any reasonable adult outside the bathroom should've reported the commotion. It was ridiculous.  However, somehow. She started going on the toilet. Success!  We did it. We used a potty that wasn't our own overly cherished throne.  

We suit back up, wash hands and head back in the pool.  Then get this...10 minutes later she wants to go again!  Ha! Isn't that awesome!  So back we went to the family locker room.  Then this annoying lady (notice not a lady with family...just lady) goes in the potty we needed (the one with the chair for Owen to sit as we work on using the potty). Annoying Lady takes FOREVER in the potty. Hello! There is a woman's locker room you should use lady...not family locker room!  It turns out she is using it for a dressing room to change her outfit and even do her make-up. (even though there were three empty dressing rooms that she already passed to get to the potty).  But after the girl is done, Bethany does her business again! Sweet Success!!!

Hopefully, this is the beginning to our voyage to use Public Potties any- and everywhere! I am hoping that since we managed to jump over this hurdle, we can tackle the whole going #2 on the potty hurdle. Then we will be set, only having to do it again for the Little Man in a year or so.

Potty Perks

Wii are using everything we can to get Bethany to see the value in using the potty.She's noticed there are some perks in being a big girl with the potty. Some of the perks include: candy, yogurt from McDonalds, and stickers.
One major perk is the Wii.
If you know anything about Bethany's Daddy. You know that is a pretty major deal! :O)

Her and Him

Here is a little about her and him.

Her:

Well, she has been visited by the Underwear Princess and all her diapers have disappeared! In exchange she got a few gifts from the U.P.
She has been working on Potty Training. Here was step 1: over coming the fear of sitting on the jon. Yup...she is fully clothed...but it was a step in the right direction. She's also showing off the Dora phone the U.P brought her.
Day 3 of Potty Training: After a couple of fits and tantrums...she's getting the hang of it. She is slowly making improvements. She now will stop what she is doing when she feels the urge and grab my hand to head to the jon. We've had three good pees in the pot. No #2's yet. But that will come...I am sure of it! :O) Look how big she is now!

Him:

He is such a goober...look, we finally found a hat that fits over that head of his...

Bethany and I made a house out of some cardboard. Owen loved it! :O)

She even made a door for him and her dolls to go through.

Surprisingly, he fit through! :O)

He also enjoyed swinging this evening. Bethany earned sometime outside when she went potty. She really wanted to bring the lil' man along. He loved it!

We even found some visitors while we were outside. This two were taking a break when we intruded. I think the lil' one was learning to fly. Eventually they left. But remarkably, they let Bethany climb a few rungs on the ladder without even moving. It was crazy!

Wish us luck as we continue to Potty Train. The goal is for her to be well on the way before Owen's surgery (which we still don't have a date). Ultimately, she needs to be "independently trained" by preschool in August. That's a scary thought! :O)

Feeding Time

Feeding time is always interesting when you have kiddos around. Especially kiddos with colds. They just aren't eating like normal.

So in order to motivate the Lil' Man to eat, I gave him a spoon with his apple sauce. He couldn't be any more proud of himself. Look at that smile!

Of Course, big sister wanted a picture of her using a spoon, too. We didn't let her use a spoon until she was 18 months...I didn't want to deal with the mess. Call me lazy. Well...he is only 12 months and actually not doing half bad!

Sometimes at feeding time we need to see what color our tongue has changed to after eating different foods. This is what your tongue looks like after applesauce is consumed. Intriguing, I know!

Now Lil' Man is wondering if the spoon will be just as useful with fish sticks. It doesn't look to promising...

More see-food. This time Mash Tators...

Look Mom at What I can do! I don't think he cares that the spoon is in the wrong way nor does he care that no food was on it. (BTW...he insisted on holding their toy cookie cutter the entire meal. I have no idea why he was so attached it it yesterday...but with 1-year-olds, I don't try to understand their logic!)

Hopefully these colds go away and our appetites return. But until then we will do what we can...letting the lil' feed himself resulting in a huge mess and all.

5 Reasons I am Ok with Being Thirty!

Top 5 Reasons I am Okay with Being Thirty:

5) We've never looked better nor have we been healthier. See for yourself!

Not every 30 year-old can say that they are in better shape now than when they were when they got married.

4) I live in a great house, I have a great job and a couple of degrees!

3) I have 2 of the most awesome children out there! Seriously. They. Are. Awesome!

2) I've gotten to marry my Best Friend. He is my rock. He is the best thing ever to happen to me. I couldn't ask for a better Husband!
(sheesh...that was pretty ewwy-gooey...sorry I won't let that happen again!)

1) God has blessed me in more ways than I know. I know that He has a lot in store for me. And like Bethany told me Saturday, "God made you special, Mama." With all these blessing surrounding me, how could I not believe her?

What Parenting has Taught Me!

I have had a lot of lessons as a parent. I figured I should pass on some of those lessons to you.

1) Sometimes you have to put the babies in unconventional places in order to keep tabs on them.

Maybe it is just to help them get over a funk...but what is a quicker way to cheer them up other than do something that they don't expect!
2) Kids. Remember. EVERYTHING.

Perhaps, we buy a snack once at Sam's Club...then all of the sudden everytime we go to Sam's we are now asked to buy snacks.

Or it could be that you (you know, hypothetically speaking) accidently say a certain word (perhaps it is the cr*p word). Well...when the 7 mo old spits up in a certain 2 year old's room, the 2 year old may or may not have said, "Oh Cr*p". Nope...this lil' girl would never hear such a word. Not in our house!

3) Kids like to do it themselves. Whether it is playing with PlayDoh.
Or if is getting something off the shelf that is too high and it requires the dragging of a chair or stool halfway across the house to access the "gotta have" object.

Sometimes the gotta do it myself attitude leads to a few (ahem, well) a lot of sprinkles...

that's a snowman cake...fyi!

3) Kids like to be involved with the food preparation process. And you let them . This may create 10 times the work for you, but they are so amazingly proud that they scrambled their own egg or they beat the cake themselves...that it is worth the extra spills, extra clean-up and extra time!

4) Along the same line of food preparation...you do what it takes to make sure your kids eat. And yes...sometimes sprinkles on the hotdog.
5) You really gotta pay attention to what your baby does as well! If he starts to die of laughter when you lay him down to change his diaper...be prepared for a 10 wipe doozing waiting for you in his britches.

6) Finally, you just aren't gonna get the kids to pose nicely for pictures. Nope. No matter how badly you want them to sit still.

It.Ain't.
Happening!

Just after two and a half short years we have learned a lot! God only knows what other lessons those two lil' boogers have in store for us!