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      November 27, 2018

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      November 19, 2018

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      December 19, 2018

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      October 1, 2018

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      Finally! Jeans For My Jean-Averse Kids!

      August 22, 2018

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potty training

Exercise & Poop & Procrastination
Parenthood

Exercise & Poop & Procrastination

by Jill February 4, 2016
written by Jill

All morning I’ve been putting off blogging. I don’t know why, mostly because I was really comfy on my couch and I felt uninspired and I did try to clean the house. But then I got my reminder to fit in a workout before I pick the kids up, so now I’m procrastinating on THAT, and suddenly I feel like I should blog.

Speaking of working out, I am trying out Freeletics (that is my special link but I honestly don’t know what I get for sharing it), and by trying out I mean I’ve done two workouts so far. Seems legit. The workouts make me super sore, soo…. must be. I literally just signed up for the personalized coaching thing (I think it was $28ish for 3 months) on a whim. Are any of you doing this? The running part of it seems really promising, but procrastination-me thinks I need to get good wireless headphones before I do that. Hit me with any recommendations that are not $200. (Dre, I’m looking at you.)

So reading through the responses on my audience survey is AMAZING. (Have you taken it yet? I’m still giving away another $50 gift card once it gets to 1,500 responses.) The overwhelming majority of you say what you love to read the most here are humorous stories. That makes me happy.

It also makes me panic. The thing with the humorous stories is so many of them are not mine to tell anymore. My God, you guys, life with a 7 year old is HILARIOUS but not in a way I can write about online. And I find myself really guarded lately, and vulnerable, especially as my audience grows. Which is mostly unfounded. I get a really small percentage of trolling or negative feedback, but I’m overly cautious these days and that’s hard to get over.

I’m working on it, though. I really am.

So potty training is going well in the sense that Lowell hasn’t pooped on the floor. Or on the toilet. Or in his diaper for two days. The kid who poops like clock work at 7:30 every night hasn’t pooped in well over 48 hours.

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I told you all I got him those mini Thomas trains as incentive, right? So I was like, “Lowell, do you want more tiny Thomas trains?!” All excited, like I’m talking to a puppy with a piece of bacon in my hand, pointing at the potty.

And he’s like, “No. No trains. More McQueens!”

Oh. Okay.

I found this giant $20 battery operated Lightning McQueen at Target that he’s obsessed with, brought it home, and put it within his sight but out of reach, and told him all he had to do to get it was to poop on the potty.

I am so stupid. So dumb. Did he run off and poop in the potty? No. Instead, it’s like he now has performance anxiety? And now he just can’t poop. Soooooo excited for the McQueen and please please get it down, PLEASE but no he will not poop for it. Or anything. Never pooping again.

When some of you were like, “Jill, give us real potty training advice!” after my last post. Yeah, this is why I can’t do that. I can’t be responsible for your children never pooping again.

I should stop typing. I have 40 minutes to work out AND clean the house. I do my best work on deadlines like this. So, to summarize, Freeletics– do you use it and/or like it? Wireless headphone recs? Have you taken my audience survey? Please send good vibes to Lowell and his poops.

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February 4, 2016 4 comments
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Entering The Puddle Zone
PhotographyToddlers

Entering The Puddle Zone

by Jill February 2, 2016
written by Jill

Here’s some toddlerhood for you, from the bruised legs (we don’t beat him, I swear!) to the messy face, and the fresh haircut. It looks less like a bowl cut in real life, I think.

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I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed this age (2.5) so much. Mostly because I was quite pregnant at this point with the last two and probably just napped through it.

You’d think NOT gestating someone this time around would make me on top of potty training, but I’ve adopted an IDGAF with this one. Stay in diapers forever, whatever.

Except not really forever because his poops are getting large and seriously gross, and he hides in a corner and then walks around with a loaded diaper, blaming the stink on everyone but himself. Mostly, the dog.

“Lowell, do you have a stinky butt?” 
“No, momma. Arlo has tinky butt!” Ewww! Arlo tinky!”

I seriously DETEST potty training, but the dog is mostly house trained now so while we’re still used to cleaning puddles of pee off the floor it’s like, just rip off the bandaid and get it done.

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He does look so cute in those little undies.

I picked up a pack of underwear emblazoned with his favorite character- Lightning McQueen. And then stocked up on some special treats as incentives.

These Thomas and Friends minis are his newest obsession, and substantially cheaper than giving him a full size train every time he unloads in the toilet. I can’t believe I have to pay him for this life skill that will help him find a future partner.

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So I guess we’re doing this. We’re embracing toddlerhood and running with it.

The only way out is through.

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Fingers crossed I only slip on a few puddles on the way.

HEY! Want a chance to win one of two $50 Amazon cards (perhaps to spend on cute, little undies and tiny Thomas trains?) PLEASE, I would be so so grateful if you’d take my short audience survey. This really helps me determine what brands are a good fit to work with in the coming year, based on what you like to read and who is reading. Once I get to 1,000 responses I’ll draw for the first $50, and then the second $50 when I get to 2,000. THANK YOU!

February 2, 2016 7 comments
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What Doctors Want You To Know About Potty Training {Contributor}
BabiescontributorsToddlers

What Doctors Want You To Know About Potty Training {Contributor}

by Jill April 28, 2015
written by Jill

Contributor Julie Forbes is here today with potty-traning advice she got in a class, based on advice from the AAP, that she took at a children’s hospital last summer.

Good news, parents of toddlers!  You can relax a little bit. Not enough to let them break into the knife drawer, but it seems societal expectations of potty-training are quite out of line with medical expectations. So at least there’s that.

Personally, I started to feel the potty-training pressure around my son’s second birthday.  All of the sudden, people were asking me if we had started potty-training and how I planned on doing it.  My husband was coming home with stories from work about foreign-born co-workers who had potty trained their kids by their first birthday.  Some preschools were saying that my child had to be potty-trained to attend.

I felt completely behind.  I googled potty-training, read about different approaches, and next thing you know I’m stripping my child naked, giving him tons of juice and trying to get him potty-trained in a weekend.  Incredibly, he mastered peeing on the potty within the 3 day time period, but pooping was a completely different story.

He wanted nothing to do with the potty, the only way he’d drop a deuce was in his underwear, hiding behind the couch.  I thought I had failed, I googled more, I talked to our pediatrician, I washed a lot of underwear, and eventually I decided to ignore it and pick up potty training a few weeks later.

I went through this cycle over and over and over again…. for a year…. until, magically, one day, he started pooping in the potty (around the age of 3) and hasn’t had an accident since.

After a year of poopy underwear, I decided I hadn’t really mastered the whole potty-training thing the first time around, and I was going to do better with my daughter.  So, I attended a potty-training class put on by a children’s hospital, and left feeling completely relieved.

All of the information in the class was based on recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics.  As in, hundreds of childhood, medical experts have studied this kind of thing, and think this is the best way to do it.  (Which certainly holds more weight with me than what google or my childless great Aunt Helga thinks.)

Turns out, the problem was me.  I just needed to calm down, ignore what other people said, and wait a little bit.

What Doctors Want You To Know About Potty Training | BabyRabies.com

Here’s what I learned: 

Ignore Everyone’s Schedule, But Your Child’s:

You can’t will this to happen, and you have to wait for your child to be ready.  Sharon Rau, the pediatric nurse who put on the class is also the mother of 6 and grandmother of 10 (so, she’s done this a few times herself).  She says the biggest mistake she always made, was saying to herself: I have to get this child toilet-trained before the new baby arrives, or before grandma visits, or before vacation, etc.  She says the child has complete control over when this is going to happen and you have to wait for their signs of readiness.

Don’t listen to those condescending comments from frenemies, and ignore your mother-in-law’s side-eye.  There’s no need to hurry this along.

Look for These Signs of Readiness:

I thought as long as my child seemed interested in the potty and sat on it from time to time, that he was good to go.  But Rau says the two most important factors are:
1.) your child has decreased frequency in urinating.  (So, not only is the child not peeing as often, but when he or she does urinate, the diapers are extremely wet and heavy.)
And 2.) timely bowel movements, as in, you can set your watch to a poopy diaper.
Other things to look for: your child tells you when his or her diaper needs to be changed, hides to go pee or poop in a diaper, or changes facial expressions when pottying.

Those are the physical signs of readiness, but your child also has to be emotionally and mentally ready. Mental readiness means that your child knows the difference between wet and dry, and that he or she can understand directions.  Emotional readiness means that things are calm in your life and your child’s life.

For example, Rau says not to start potty-training right before a new baby arrives because the older child could very well revert to baby-like tendencies.  Don’t start potty-training when you have a lot of stress in your life, or you’ll take the stress out on the child.

One way to gauge the child’s readiness is by reading books about pottying.  If your child is saying things like, “I want to be a big boy and go poo poo on the potty too,” that’s a good thing.  If she’s saying, “I don’t want to use the potty,” or, “I like my diaper,” you may need to wait a little bit.

Wait for that sweet spot:

Look for your child’s signs of readiness and strike when the moment is right.  If you’ve timed it perfectly, it should only take a few weeks to master potty-training.  The AAP says that time is usually around 2.5 years old, but Rau says she thinks the longer you wait until 3, the better off you’ll be.  She said its like teaching a 2 month old to walk: the earlier you begin, the longer it will take.

Using the example of my child, I started when he was 2 years old and it took us a full year to potty train him.  If I had started when he was 2.5 years old, it would have taken us 6 months.  If I started when he was 3, he would have figured it out in a snap.  There’s no medal for potty-training early.  And, if you start too soon, you’ll just cause undue stress to yourself and your child.  Rau says, “If you wait for the right time, you’ll hardly know you’re potty training.”

If you have started potty-training and within 3 days you’ve had no success, just drop it.  Your child is not ready.

Pull out some pull-ups:

A potty-trained child is one who does not use a diaper during waking hours.  Waking hours, that’s it.  Nighttime wetness is not something that can be taught.  Sometimes, both daytime and nighttime control happen at the same time, but in a large percentage of children, nighttime dryness comes much later.  If you’ve convinced your child that he’s too big for diapers, then get some overnight pull-ups because you could be using them for a while.

In fact, Rau says pediatricians say that parents come to them waaaaaaay too early concerned about nighttime wetness.  Pediatricians say they don’t consider nighttime wetness to be a problem until the child is 10 or 11.  Yes, 10 or 11!

Some of the reasons that children will still urinate while sleeping is because they just sleep so deeply that they don’t even know they’re doing it.  Others dream that they got out of bed and went to the potty, but they’re just doing it in their diaper.  This is usually something that children grow out of and does not need to be medically addressed.

Don’ts:

Don’t ever punish (this includes humiliating or embarrassing over an accident.)
Don’t ever restrict fluids to achieve success.  Don’t wake a child at night to potty.
Don’t draw a huge amount of attention to an accident.

If you find that your child gets too upset over an accident, you may be making too big of a deal over this whole thing.  Calm down, and your child will calm down. Rewards are ok, such as praise or a pat on the back, stickers work well too.

Rau ended with this: if you forget everything else, just remember : Patience + Praise=Toilet Learning

Keep up with Julie and her life with 3 under 4 over at her Julie Forbes Facebook page. 

April 28, 2015 14 comments
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9 Things Potty-Training Toddlers Do In Public
The StoryToddlers

9 Things Potty-Training Toddlers Do In Public

by Jill December 6, 2013
written by Jill

Our nearly 3 year old is mostly potty-trained. You might be thinking I’m very excited about this. I mostly am.

Except for all those times I remember it’s 1,000 times easier to tell her to just pee in her diaper while we’re out to dinner than it is to take her to a public restroom.

It’s also 1,000 times less embarrassing.

Having potty-trained 2 toddlers now, and heard many a potty-training in public battle story from my comrades over wine, I feel I should compile this list of things toddlers will do in public. Just so those of you new to this are prepared.

ThingsPottyTrainingToddlersDo

 

Source: iStockPhoto.com

1. When dining out, they will suddenly, urgently need to go RIGHT NOW the moment your food gets to your table. As your hot plate of food is placed in front of you, your toddler will begin to shout, “OH! I have to poopy. I farted! There are poopies in my butt! I have to go now. NOW!” 

2. They will narrate everything. And then they will expect you to repeat back to them what they are narrating so they are sure you heard them.

“We’re going to the potty! Mommy, we’re going to go poopy on the potty! We’re going to take off our panties and go poopy! Mommy! MOMMY!”
“Yeah. Yup.”
“Mommy! We’re going POTTY! POOPY ON THE POTTY!”
“Right. Yes, poopy on the potty. Okay. Got it. Please don’t touch that.”

3. They will insist on getting completely naked. People outside of the stall with see a pile of toddler clothes on the floor next to tiny bare feet because no, you can not leave their shoes on. Are you crazy?

4. They will look under the stall. And then talk to the person next to you.

“Oh! Hi! I wike your shoes! I went poopy. Are you going poopy?”

5. They will cheer for you when you sit on the toilet, and then try to reward you for your efforts.

“Yay! Go poopy!”
“Oh, mommy just needs to pee, honey.”
“SQUEEEEEEZZZZE your tummy. SQUEEEEZE. YOU GET A CANDY CORN when you go poopy!! You can do it!”

6. If they find a Tampon in your purse, they will insist it’s a snack.

“Nack, mommy! I want a nack! Open it. OPEN IT!”

7. They will try to open the stall door while you are physically incapable of stopping them without leaving a stream of urine behind you.

8. They will lick the sink and other disgusting things that are sure to give them ebola.

9. They will tell the WHOLE RESTAURANT that they just pooped in the potty. Like, literally try to run up to tables and announce it like it’s that evening’s special.

December 6, 2013 44 comments
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Dallas/Ft. WorthPhotographyPregnancyThe Story

I Keep Meaning To Blog, But…

by Jill June 19, 2013
written by Jill

Then summer keeps happening.

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IMG_3983And my 3 hours of productivity a day are often spent putting on and taking off little swimsuits, and covering little legs and arms in sunscreen.

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Or taking Leyna to the potty. She’s nearly potty trained, but not really. It’s a strange little tightrope we’re walking with it all right now, but I’m very hopeful she’ll be mostly out of diapers (except for night and naps) by the time the baby comes… except not on days she has Mothers Day Out. Just for the summer session. She’ll be in Pullups those days (trust me, I’m groaning with you right now, I HATE them) because she only has one teacher in her classroom most of the time. So… it’s… we’re working with them on this. For now.

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And, uhhh… I’m currently looking into switching to a new midwife. At 35 weeks pregnant. It’s a long story that I really can’t get into right now, but I will eventually. So that’s been a real blast.

Tomorrow we head off to the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, TX for a little family staycation. A few months ago, I planned to take the family to the beach this month. Then I got really pregnant and decided that was the stupidest idea ever. But an indoor water park that’s 30 minutes from home? Yes. We can do that.

Oh, and then there’s this thing I’m doing this Friday. Remember I told y’all how I’m going to make my national TV debut by revealing to the world that I eat sand? Yeah. That’s a real thing. So I’ll be Skyping from Great Wolf Lodge to… further embarrass myself? Is that even possible?

June 19, 2013 5 comments
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ParenthoodThe Story

The iPotty Can’t Touch The Damage We’ve Already Done

by Jill January 21, 2013
written by Jill

A funny thing has happened over the last few weeks. Dozens? Yeah, I’d say probably dozens of people have emailed me, tagged me, tweeted me, or left links on my Facebook page to articles about the iPotty.

Image from AP via HuffingtonPost

Why? Because it reminds them of me. Errr… not of me but of my love for the iPad as potty training device.

My dad’s email to me about it was titled “You thought of it first.”

I thought it was one of those fake products that websites conjure up for page views, but a little research proved it is indeed something people can pay money for. It is also something people have REALLY strong opinions about.  One comment on this DailyMail UK article about it said,

This is stupid. I toilet trained my daughter in less than two weeks with a potty, stickers and a bag of prizes which consisted of little dinosaurs.

Uhm, go you? You get a cookie! See, I don’t really care how you potty train your kid or when you potty train your kid. And if you need/want a special potty that will safely hold your iPad for your toddler throughout that process, I am the last one to judge you. 

Not that I’m actually going to shell out the cash for one. Mainly, I hate the little plastic potties to begin with and try my best to get the kids up on the big toilet as early as possible because cleaning a log of poop out of a plastic bowl is 10x worse that wiping it off their butt. I have no idea why. That’s just the way the world works.

But the iPad part? We’re big fans of that as ONE of many potty training tools around here.

You certainly don’t NEED one to potty train a child. So don’t think this is me saying go out and spend hundreds on a potty training tablet. You CAN do it with stickers and little dinosaurs, but if desperation calls to you… or let’s just call it inspiration, and beckons the iPad you already have, go for it. It may be the one thing to keep your kiddo on the potty just long enough to drop that first big poop you’ve all been waiting for so you can errupt into a fit of manic joy and make it rain jelly beans.

And if you feel you need special chair for that, one that will insure they don’t drop the iPad in a bowl of pee? Hey, I can think of worse things you can waste your money on- about half of Babies R Us.

But this is just going to train them to feel like they HAVE to use an electronic device every time they potty! Some say.

Doubtful. I read stacks of books to my now 4 year old when he was potty training. He certainly doesn’t expect that kind of treatment anymore. He’s quite efficient now. I used to worry he’d ask for jelly beans or marshmallows after every poop through college, but that goes away, too.

Potty training can be a time for bonding! Don’t just abandon your kid with an iPad, others say.

Listen, I’m not advocating letting the iPad do the whole thing for you. But sometimes I don’t have 30 minutes, 8 times a day to sit there and engage in loving discussion. Every now and then, I need to break away to do things like make sure dinner isn’t burning or that my other kid is alive.

So before we freak out that this is the downfall of society and we’re creating tiny tots who can’t poop without an app, let’s all calm down and realize that it’s all up to the parent and how they use it. If they are truly relying on an app and an iPad to potty train their child, while they text and get drunk in another room, then let’s just all have a hearty LOL.  I think their kids will still be in diapers at high school graduation.

There is no way to potty train a kid without a shit-ton of involvement on the parents’ part. So please spare me the concern that parents who rely on a little technology to make the process easier are somehow ruining the next generation.

We’ve already done that by breastfeeding too long/not breastfeeding at all, using disposable diapers/using diapers at all, putting our kids in daycare/homeschooling, letting our kids chew on plastic toys and suck on pacifiers. The iPotty can’t touch the kind of damage we’ve already done.

January 21, 2013 21 comments
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PhotographyThe Story

First World Potty Training

by Jill October 18, 2012
written by Jill


How on earth did I ever potty train the first one without an iPad and the PBS Kids app?

October 18, 2012 8 comments
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The StoryToddlers

Begin The Soul-Sucking That Is Potty Training

by Jill August 31, 2012
written by Jill

I was feeling a little proud of ourselves this week. Leyna started pooping on the little potty. Not really asking to do so, but doing it quite happily when we placed her on there.

Yay! My brilliant little cherub is on her way to potty training! There was a light at the end of the tunnel of diapers and wiping butts, at least for this round.

Let me just say that the two most freeing developments in my life since getting my drivers license have been Kendall (my 4 year old) learning to buckle himself safely into his carseat, and finally grasping how to properly wipe his own butt, leaving behind minimal skid marks.

Nothing like a good ol’ fashioned blowout to knock that smug look off my face.

Leyna wears disposable diapers to Mothers Day Out 2 days a week. It’s a battle I’m not going to fight. I tried to get them to do cloth diapers with Kendall, but they wound up throwing away a bumGenius, and it’s now an official “rule” that they only do disposables. It’s only 10 hours a week. I just don’t have it in me to try to change it. The problem for us with disposable diapers, though, is they blowout like crazy (meaning, they violently expel poop like they need an exorcism).

On Wednesday, right after we got home from school, instead of catching her right before she needed to poop like I have been so proud of myself for doing the days before, she silently let her butt explode all over the living room.

I was reminded what this phase in toddlerhood is really all about. It’s not all celebrations and jelly beans for pooping on the potty. It’s mostly human feces and urine smeared all over my house. Potty training is soul-sucking work. It nearly drove me to a breakdown last time around. I almost snapped when I slipped on a puddle of Kendall’s pee on the tile kitchen floor and sliced my foot open on the bottom of the table.

2 years later, we have a geriatric, diabetic dog to add to the mix. My days are filled with cleaning up poop and pee. And yeah, now I have to wonder which species living in this house created it.

MOTHERHOOD IS SO GLAMOROUS.

August 31, 2012 19 comments
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Cloth Diapers

Potty Training Progress Report

by Jill August 26, 2010
written by Jill

“Get used to it now, your life will revolve around pee and poop for most of the foreseeable future. And let me just say, newborn poop has nothing on watching your toddler drop a man-sized turd in the toilet. THAT? Might make you gag.”

Those were my encouraging words of wisdom to one of my BFFs who is loving life with a tiny baby right now.  Clearly, I was a tad traumatized by our current potty training adventure, and yes, I could have offered up more cheerful, more optimistic advice, but why sugar coat shit?

We’ve been in the slow process of potty training Kendall since the beginning of the year, although it really only started out by dipping our toes in the toilet water- getting him familiar with the potty, reading him potty books, letting him try out big boy undies or free-ball it (against our better judgement) and subsequently fighting off the dogs when he’d drop a log on the playroom floor.

We didn’t get serious until late in May. When we were on our Sonoma vacation in late April my mom was able to get him to poop on the potty multiple times, and he continued to do that for us when we got back. I took that as our window of opportunity. And as much as I really didn’t want to dive into potty training in the first trimester of pregnancy, I could only  imagine how much worse it would be when this second baby is on the outside. So after getting a ton of advice from friends who’ve been there, trained that, we decided to rip the diapers off and get down to business.

We started with lots of naked time. During this first hardcore week, we just stayed home (it was during his early summer break from his Mother’s Day Out program). He ran around without pants on for the first few days and I took him to the potty every 30 minutes. It. was. exhausting. And I, frankly, sucked at it in the beginning. So much of potty training, I think, is about training *yourself.* It’s a lot of work in the beginning, and a lot of cleaning, and a ton of reminding.

So we would take him to the potty, and if he went at all, he got an M&M or two. I even rewarded him if he went a little on the potty after having an accident because I wanted focus on rewarding the positive. The M&Ms were huge. He loved them, but oddly, he eventually started asking for a walnut, too. So we would give him one M&M and one walnut. Whatever, it worked.

After about a few days of letting him run around naked, we put the big boy undies on. This actually helped cut down on accidents because he could feel himself start to go (I guess he felt the little bit of wetness on his undies) and would stop. Now, *sometimes* he would tell me he had to go potty, but most of the time he would just freeze with an “oh shit” look on his face, so I had to constantly watch him and take him to the potty when I saw that. By this point in the week, I was taking him to the potty about every 45 minutes.

We finally ventured out of the house after a week. It was terrifying and a lot of work, but he did great. We started with small trips to Target and Chick Fil A, places I knew had decent bathrooms. I would take him to the bathrooms the minute we got there and right before we left.  Now, some of my friends don’t even bother with public bathrooms at this point and, instead, have their kids go on portable little potties they keep in the back of their vehicles (with removable, disposable baggies). Kendall would never go on the small potty we have here at home, though, so I didn’t even bother trying that. I just take a pack of hand sanitizing wipes with me everywhere we go (along with extra undies, shorts, a plastic baggie, and lollipops for bribing) and wipe off the seats before he sits down.

The hardest part, and when he has the most accidents, is when we’re on the highway and he informs me he has to go. It’s not always feasible to pull off to a bathroom (though we have, many times), and he doesn’t quite grasp the “we’re almost home, hold it!” concept. I keep one of these on his car seat, and it’s really helped with cleanup.

So, at this point, I wouldn’t say he’s potty trained, he’s definitely still in the training process, and I feel like we will be in it for a while. He has a few accidents a week (or sometimes he has a bad day and has a few accidents in a day), but most days he’s pretty great. WE still have to be on top of it, though. He’s not to the point where he’ll remind us all the time. So if he hasn’t gone in the last two hours (or less if he’s been drinking a ton of fluids), we have to remind him and take him. That being said, though, we are diaper free while he’s awake and have been for a while. He even wears his big boy undies to Mother’s Day Out and has never had an accident there.

Now, nighttime and nap time are a totally different story. I don’t think he’s at the point where we can expect him to sleep in underwear. He never wakes up with a dry diaper, and lately he’s been pooping at night. That’s NOT a mess I want to deal with right now. We’ll look into potty training at nap and nighttime as he gets closer to 3, I think. Until then, he’s wearing some Bum Genius 4.0 and Flip diapers and a FuzziBunz, since they are big enough to accommodate a 37 lb kid. I LOVE them. Bum Genius hooked me up with the new 4.0 and a couple Flips at Blogher to test out on Kendall and they fit SO much better than the 3.0s. Plus, the snaps are perfect. And Gina, who represented FuzziBunz at Blogher, gave me a one-size pocket diaper to try out, and I’m equally impressed. I double stuff all of them at night with hemp inserts from Artsy Fartsy Foo Foo.

It was tough in the beginning, and a ton of work, but I’m so glad we seized the opportunity to potty train when we did. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that come December he’s going to be nearly, if not completely trained during the day (and, yes, I do know to expect a bit of a regression when the baby comes, but we’ll get through it). From what I’ve heard from friends who waited to train until the kids were 3 or 3.5, they basically just train themselves and it’s a quick process. So I think at this age, it requires a lot more work on the parent’s end, but it’s worth it to me. I’m not saying I’ve got it all figured out, but feel free to ask any questions and I’ll at least tell you where I found the answers.

Kendall is 2 1/4 and I’m 23 weeks pregnant.

August 26, 2010 12 comments
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ParenthoodThe Story

“I’m such a mom.”

by Jill July 2, 2010
written by Jill

Ever find yourself doing or saying something or reacting a certain way that makes  you stop and think, “I’m such a MOM”?

This week I had the house to myself for a couple hours while Scott took Kendall for a long run and a trip to the park. I put on the Christina Aguilera Pandora station and got pumped to do a little house cleaning. It’s always so much more fun to sweep when old school N’ Sync and Britney comes on. As I cleaned the living room the song “Rude Boy” by Rhianna played over the speakers. I’ve heard it many times before. It’s alright. Not my favorite, but a good beat, I guess. Well, for the first time I actually really listened to the words (because they were blaring at level 50 over the surround sound) and OH MY GOODNESS I think my face turned six shades of red. Now, I’m not a particularly prudish person. I really don’t think I’m shocked easily, but the lyrics had me wanting to switch to the nearest easy listening station while I clutched my pearls and ran off to put on a conservative cardigan. “Kendall can NEVER listen to this song!” I thought to myself. I am such a mom.

Yesterday, as we were loading the car to take Kendall to Mother’s Day Out at 8:45 am, a car from a house on the end of our street peeled out of their driveway and sped down the road at at least 50 mph. I stood there and let my mouth hang open. I muttered things like “ridiculous!” and “totally uncalled for!” while shaking my hand in their general direction. This street, at nearly any given time of the day, has kids running up and down and ACROSS it, half the time never looking before they cross. This particular woman SHOULD KNOW THAT. She’s the mother of one of them. Ooooh, I was so pissed off. I seriously contemplated writing a bitchy letter requesting she not drive like a maniac and threatening to call the cops next time. THINK OF THE CHILDREN! I’m such a mom.

After I picked Kendall up at MDO yesterday I had to take him to Chick Fil A for ice cream. Why? Because he went the whole day in his big boy undies *almost* accident free! He only had a tiny little leak right before naptime that barely dampened his shorts. I figured that was celebration worthy. The teacher told me he hadn’t pooped for them all day. So as soon as we got there I made him go sit on the big potty. I proceeded to do this 2 more times while we were there over a 40 minute period (terrified he would shit in the playground tunnel). During one of the visits he started to pee, except it was sort of trickling out over the top of the toilet since… well, let’s just say with the way things are positioned around the chub down there, it, uh… points straight forward. (OMG, he might need therapy for me typing that someday.) Without thinking I reached over and tried to push it down, except somehow it ended up shooting up and out of the toilet in a perfect arc right onto my pants and shoes. Without flinching or screaming I reached over, grabbed a bunch of toilet paper cleaned myself and the floor off and we headed out to wash our hands. As I was eating my milkshake, I looked down and the still damp spot on my pants and realized it just didn’t bother me one bit that I was walking around in my son’s urine. I’m such a mom.

What about you? What are your “I’m such a mom” moments?

Kendall is 2 (and in big boy undies ALL day except naps and nighttime) and I’m 15 weeks pregnant.

Just a reminder that I was voted for Funniest and Blog I’ve Learned the Most From for the Social Luxe Blog Luxe awards (thanks for the nominations!!). I would LOVE your support and vote! You can vote until July 12th and once a day if you’d like. Click here to go to the voting page. Thank you!

July 2, 2010 14 comments
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