Update on Potty Training

We went out to dinner tonight. I had the brilliant idea to take the seat part of cailin's potty chair, which fits onto adult toilets with us stylishly stashed in a pretty bag to hide it. It was a good idea. FOUR times during dinner, Cailin told me she had to potty... and did so on the big potty.

We are going to save so much in diapers.

Growing up so fast

I can’t believe how fast Cailin is growing. In 2 weeks, she turns 2. One year ago, I had a little girl who couldn’t walk on her own. Her vocabulary consisted of a few one syllable words. She was still sleeping in a crib. Now, she is speaking in sentences that are 5-6 syllables long already. This seemed to start over night. She is very concerned with how others are feeling and always tries to make them happy. She has opinions of her own now, and knows how to express them (even if it is the most inappropriate time).

The biggest change that I am noticing right now is that she is learning to use a “big girl potty”. About 2 weeks ago, we decided to try teaching her to use the potty. I wasn’t sure how to go about doing this, so we used what I will call the ‘Naked Method’. I stripped her down on the bottom half and let her run around naked. Every time I would have to potty, Cailin would follow and sit on her potty too. Sometimes, she would pee pee, sometimes nothing. If I asked if she had to potty and she said “no”, it was fighting a lost cause to get her to sit on the potty and try. Within three to four days, there were no accidents on the floor. We used pull ups when we were taking naps, and a diaper when we were out and about, or when Cailin was going to bed for the night. That was it. Last week on Thursday, she surprised me. I didn’t see her disappear, but apparently she did. When I went to use the restroom, she had pottied in her toddler potty and didn’t even tell us. So much for thriving on praise and M&M’s for reinforcement.

This past Wednesday, I was in the shower getting ready to run some errands. Cailin was where I couldn’t see her for a good 5 minutes or so. When we went into the bathroom that she uses to get a brush for her hair, I noticed she pooped in the potty… again without telling me! Good job big girl!! Yesterday we hit another potty milestone. We were eating lunch. It was me, Chris, Cailin and Billie. Cailin was sitting in her seat dancing while she was eating. All of a sudden, she started to cry. I was wondering if she might have pinched her foot or something with all her wiggling. We tried asking what was wrong, but she just climbed down and came over to my chair and tried to climb on my lap. I picked her up and asked what was wrong. She says "poppy momma, poppy". She was telling me she had to potty. She had a pull-up on instead of a diaper while we were out and about. We walked into the bathroom and she immediately tried to get her pants down. I helped her and then lifted her onto the potty. With a death grip around my neck so she wouldn’t fall in, she went.... ALOT. Her pull-ups were still dry. I put them on around 9, and we ate at 1. That is a long time for her without going.

Last night, we were out celebrating a late valentines day dinner with some friends. After dinner, the guys went to Home Depot and Lowes, the girls wandered in the mall. Cailin tells me she needs to potty, and she went on a big girl potty again. An hour later, the same thing, but she pooped this time. I think it has finally clicked that it is better to go on a potty and keep those pants dry.

Dr. Hamby has told us that Most kids don’t start potty training till they are two-and-a half to three years old and not to get discouraged if it takes us a while. I am well aware that this is early and that she might get some set backs and might retaliate and go back to diapers, but for now, she is doing wonderful. I can’t believe how much she is growing up!!!

Do Mom's ever stop worrying?

Oiy. Cailin had a recheck doctor appointment today. On January 11, I took her to the doctor because of a nasty cough. Turns out she has double ear infections that were nasty. She was put on medicine for 10 days and we will see you at her 2 year old check up. Sounds good. TWO weeks later, she had an uber snotty nose, a gross cough (again). We made an appointment and went back... again. She had another bad double ear infection... again. Dr. Hamby wanted to see her in 2 weeks again to make sure that it cleared up this time. That check up was today. Guess what... She has another ear infection... still. We aren't sure if it is again, or if it is still... most likely still. Chris said that he had ear problems when he was little too. I don't know if I did or not. In a little less than 3 weeks, we will go back for her 2 year "well baby" visit. At the same time, we are going to re-check her ears again. This is the third medication we will be on in a month. It tastes nasty. The pharmacy REQUIRES you to flavor it because it is so gross. Dr. Hamby told me that if her ears were still not healed up by the time her 2 year check up rolls around, we need to take her to an ENT. We have already been to this ENT. She was AWESOME last time we went. Last time we saw her, Cailin was not quite 1 year old and had strep throat 6 times. She reccomened surgery to remove her tonsils, but said she would wait a bit longer because she was SOOO young. Dr. Hamby warned me that IF we have to go to her for ear infections this time, not to be surprised if she still talks about the possibility of taking out her tonsils. He said that they can affect her ears as well. The other possibility may be discussing tubes in her ears. If it helps, it helps, then do it, although I HATE that possibility. This is the girl who was constantly jumping into the pool, who lays back in the bath tub to play, who loves putting her face (and ears) in the water during bath time and who loves to swim. I know that having tubes in her ears will make things more challenging to keep them dry.

I am trying not to worry, and I am telling myself this NASTY gross disgusting medicine is going to work, however, in the back of my mind, I am still paranoid that I am going to be going down this road again to the ENT. Please say prayers that her ears will be better with this medicine alone!!

Bright eyed and bushy tailed.

Last night, I woke at 4 am to hear the aquarium on Cailin's crib through the monitor. The bubble feature of it is LOUD. I wonder if they have re-formatted it so that it will be a touch quieter... if so, i might need to invest in one. Anyway, it ran for the 10 minutes and as soon as it stopped, I could hear her turn it back on again... and again, and again... I went down to peek on her. She was curled in a ball on her pillow just under the aquarium sucking her thumb. She wasn't asleep though. I figured either she was snotty, and the coughing kept her up, or her teeth were sore and keeping her up. I got out the Robitussin and Motrin and went to join her. She sees me, leaps off the bed and says "I naped mom. I nap". This is normally her way to say i took my nap and am done now. I told her that we weren't taking naps, it was night night time. She took her medicines and lay back down. Lately she wants her bed EMPTY except her, a pillow and a blanket. She throws everything else on the floor. She curled up again and i put my head down next to her. It was uncomfortable, so after 2-3 minutes, i stretched out on the floor and tried to rest some. every so often she would peek her head over the edge of the bed to make sure i was still there. She would ask if i was sleeping. I finally realized she wasn't going back to sleep with me there so i went back to my room. She cried for a minute or two, but then was quiet. I am not sure how long it took her to fall back asleep, but the aquarium was quiet for the rest of the night. It is 9:30 now and she is just waking up.

Stop Banging!!

To the little one living in my tummy, PLEASE stop banging on my bladder. It isn't a tambourine. You are making me have to pee 6 times an hour. That is a little extreme, don't ya think?

Better than what it could have been.

I read this article over the weekend that I loved. When I first heard of the dog fighting ring that Mr. Vick decided to fund and start, I was sick. I am an animal lover. I went to school to learn how to make these creatures better, and I worked for many many years in animal hospitals trying to do so. One of my biggest pet peeves is the bad name that a lot of the bigger dogs get because of their breed or size. You always here “don’t go near that dog, it’s a Rottweiler, it might bite”, or my favorite of all, “Pitt bulls have no right to be in this world, they need to all be put down. The only thing they are good for is fighting, so just get rid of the breed”. This bothers me. After working for more than 10 years in the veterinary field, biggest thing I learned is fear the little dogs (or the cats with cute names like “fluffy”) because they are the ones that are going to try to eat you. I can’t tell you how many times I have had a Doberman or Rotti, knock me off my feet by leaning up against me wanting attention, wanted to get their ears scratched. I have dealt with the huge dogs called Presa canarios, you know, the ones that were euthanized and feared in CA because they mauled a woman to death. That is an unusual circumstance… I had two come into the office where I worked and I patted them hello before I knew what was wrong. Little did I know that one of them was injured pretty badly in the area that I was patting. Did I get bit? No, did the dog get mad? No… he whimpered and lay down until it was his turn. I apologized and he licked my hand as if to say “that’s okay, you didn’t know”.

Anyway, when I first heard about this dog fighting ring that was broken up, I was glad. Those dogs had a horrible lifestyle. Then I got to thinking… most likely, all of these dogs are going to be euthanized because they were bred to fight and nothing more. It made me sad. This article that I read really brightened my day. MOST of the dogs are in foster care. Most are going through obedience training. Some are going to be working at therapy dogs in the future. There was one line in there that really struck me… a lot of shelters were seeing this and realizing they didn’t have to euthanize every pitt bull that came into the shelter.

I am glad for the happy ending!!!

Thank you!

Yesterday after church, there was an appreciation luncheon for all nursery workers for the church and their families. My church is Big. My church is growing. My church is amazing with how many different ministries there are and how many ways you can become active in the church. I help in the children's department every other month. They want you to only go every other month so you can have time in bible studies with your family as well. I teach in the "pink 2's" class. There are sometimes 5 kids in my class, and sometimes 15. It is the "pink 2's" because there are 4 different 2 year old classes... we have to split them up because of how many there are.

There were between 150-200 people at this lunch yesterday. Normally when I think of a luncheon to say thanks or whatever, you think of deli sandwiches, chips and drinks... right? Nope, not here. They started us off with salad and rolls. Then there were baked potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, there was this stuff which I thought was dessert. I was wrong. It was awesome though. There was peach Jell-O on the bottom, and then bananas, pineapple, mango and some other type of tropical fruit in a sweet creamy sauce toped with toasted sliced almonds. It was awesome. Then there were green beans with diced up onion and huge chunks of bacon to add flavoring and the main course was ham. It was sliced about 1/8th of an inch thick and rolled. Stuffed inside I am guessing it was spinach and cheese mixture. I am not for sure on that, but whatever it was, it was good. Then it was topped with a hollandaise sauce. AMAZING doesn't do justice when you are describing this!!! After we had been eating for 15-20 minutes, they came around with desserts... white cake with this chocolate covered wafer thingy, chocolate cake with chocolate icing and a chocolate covered strawberry (this was my choice), cookies, carrot cake, or mousse.
What was even more amazing about this meal was this... ONE WOMAN made all of it for us. She worked most of the week getting it prepared so that she just needed to warm it on Sunday. I am appreciative of all of her hard work. I would like to tell her thank you, however, I am not sure of her name. SOOO… to the lady who made an amazing meal for us, thank you.