Potty Training the Little Miss

There is one thing every parent dreads: Potty Training. It seems like a beautiful thing. You think that life will be wonderful without diapers. But then you realize the insane amount of time, energy and effort that comes before you get to that blissful state. Forevermore, I will be reminding (they'll think I'm pestering) my children to go to the bathroom.

Regardless of the commitment, there comes a time when you just need to bite the bullet and say "bye bye" to diapers. It happened for Kate this weekend. It was spurred by seeing her cousin using the bathroom. Kate kept taking off her diaper and talking about the bathroom. My mom swears by training kids at the magical age of 2 years and 3 months. I was going to wait but I knew I couldn't handle 3 months of fighting to keep her diaper on. Plus, Kate is all about being big like her older brother.

My experience with Kate has been the complete opposite of my experience potty training Vince though. He was so excited to earn candy and never fought me when I told him to go potty. Kate, on the other hand, is a stubborn and independent little lady. She is always demanding to "do it yourself". That's her way of saying she doesn't want me to help her. She screams if I put her on the potty instead of letting her use the stool and she hates to go when we tell her to.

Going into our potty training weekend, we knew that Kate totally had the know-how. She has been going potty before bath time for at least 6 months now. In the weeks prior to pulling the trigger we began making routines like "when we wake up in the morning we go potty". This weekend just happened to be when we said sayonara to the diaps and hola to the big girl undies.

Overall, things have been great. It's all time consuming and completely exhausting, but it's going well. She had 4 accidents on day one (two pee, two poop), 1 accident on day two (poop, ugh!), and 1 accident on day three (pee). Not too shabby if you ask me. We watch her like a hawk, remind her every 20-30 minutes to go, reward her for being dry, reward her for going potty, and cheer like crazy every time we have success.

This upcoming week Vince has swim lessons so we'll test out how we do with outings. Wish me luck, I'm going to need it!

Splurging for Family Memories

Sometimes it's worth it to pay for the expensive, not in a carton, ice cream so you can see your kids get it all over their faces. Because no matter how hard life with kids can be, it's certainly sweeter with them in it.

Mutiny.

Kate has always been an amazing eater and a fairly good sleeper. She would scarf down anything you placed in front of her and, for the most part, didn't need help falling asleep. All of the sudden the forces have changed or something, because this little girl is jumping off the "be a perfect angel" bandwagon. She slops her food on the table instead of eating it, she tries to escape her booster chair, she crawled out of the crib so many times we had to move her to a toddler bed (resulting in a little girl who won't nap unless you hold her). What happened to my star child?

Oh wait, she's almost two.

Five Years of Love

When couples post their sappy anniversary photos it usually includes the husband talking about how he married up. In 2011 I may have thought that Paul had gotten himself a pretty good catch, but five years into our marriage I see that it was me who married up.

Paul is the most selfless person I know. He wakes up at 5:30 am every day so he can come home from work by 4 pm to rescue me from the humans I call my children. Even with waking up at a ridiculous hour, he's still the one who checks on the crying kids at night because he knows how much I love my sleep. I do my best to make dinner but he never complains when he comes home from a long day at work to find that there's nothing on the table. Paul never says no when I ask for favor, whether it be building a fence or changing a newborn diaper. We don't fight because he is so loving and kind. He doesn't take offense and he is quick to forgive, even when he's in the right. When I grow up I want to be like him. He is my best friend and I can't imagine life without him.

I love you, Paul Martin. I am the luckiest lady alive and I can't wait to keep writing our love story together.

Happy Birthday, Vincent!

My little boy is FOUR! He has been itching to turn four so he could be as big as his cousins, Trace and Trevor. All he wanted for his birthday was to play at Frog Hollow Park with friends. A totally doable wish, except for the fact that he and Kate both got pinkeye in the days preceding his birthday. Instead of passing around our germs, we wait for them to mend and went to the park sans friends. As per his request, we also enjoyed some chocolate cupcakes with mint frosting.

As far as gifts go,Vince has been begging for a Chick Hicks car. He has quite the collection of Cars cars, but we hadn't had any luck finding Chick. Nana came to the rescue and made his dreams comes true. He also got a scooter (thankfully he doesn't care that it's pink. Options are limited when garage sales are your main shopping source), books, Blades the Rescue Bot, Lincoln Logs, and some other random toys. The real kicker was getting his pedal bike. Vince has mastered riding his balance bike and he's been eager to ride a bike with pedals like his daddy.  He gave it a shot and did a great job... until he got scared and stopped pedaling! For now he still prefers his balance bike, but he likes trying out his new bike when Dad is there to lend a hand.

Four year old Vince is a silly, sweet, playful boy. He can be quite stubborn and he never wants to put his toys down. He'll choose playing outside over watching TV any day of the week. He can be so brave but also shows a sensitivity and resentment to being pressured into trying things. Vince is an awesome reader and we often find him with a pile of books. He just started to show an interest in coloring and art (whereas before he would just scribble and run away to play). Vince is 100% a people person. He needs people around ALL the time. Although he doesn't want Kate to touch any of his toys, he often pulls her into the room so she can have company. He's a great sleeper and he's a pretty good eater... though he doesn't particularly enjoy eating chicken.

I love my Vincey Boy. He has changed me in so many ways. He tries my patience daily and teaches me to love more fully by the minute. I am so thankful he chose to come to our little family and lead the way for his siblings. We're lucky to call him ours.

She doesn't even know.

When Kate teethes, she shoves everything from her fingers, to her clothes, to her toys, into her mouth. Most recently, she has started pulling on her lips. She doesn't even know she's making a silly face and it kills me. The first time she did it we were eating at a restaurant. Paul and I looked at each other and bust up laughing uncontrollably. These little moments are some of my favorite parts about being a parent.

Teeth Probs.

Everyone in my family needed braces (except one lucky sister who got away with retainers!). Going into motherhood, I was aware that my kids were going to need some orthodontic help. What I didn't realize was the myriad of other potential issues.

You see... Paul and I both have a baby tooth where an adult tooth never came in. Apparently, this is highly genetic. We braced ourselves for the possibility that our kids might be stuck with some baby teeth. We've been brushing really well and taking care of what they've got because it might need to last 30+ years. Today we got a little surprise though. It seems that Kate is missing a baby tooth (and thus will not get an adult tooth either). It didn't dawn on me that she could be entirely missing a tooth from birth!

We're giving it 6 more months. Then we'll do x-rays to confirm the tooth isn't there. After that, we'll leave it alone until she's about 7 or 8. At that point she'll get a "flipper" (a false tooth attached to a retainer) for her to wear until she is 14-15 years old. Hopefully her jaw will be solidified enough to get an implant at that time. Had it been missing from her upper palate, she'd have to wait until she was 18 or 19 years old! Looks like we're going to have to invest in some good dental insurance from here on out...


On a happier note, neither of the kids have cavities! Woo hoo!