MOMMY MOMENT MONDAY - OUT AND ABOUT

Morgan has always done pretty well running errands with me. She actually gets all excited when we go to CVS because she gets to "pull coupons from machine!" It's pretty funny that she recognizes and can say "CVS" and "Walgeens" about as easily as "McDonalds." When we go run errands, and I know I have to stop at like 3 or 4 places, I make sure to have something different for her at each place (at least if it will be longer than a 5 or 10 minute stop). For instance, she has a little "backpack" that she only gets to take on errands or if we have to go someplace that will require a wait, like a retaurant or the doctor's office. It has special stickers and books in it, as well as her My Little Ponies, some play jewelry, a mini magnadoodle, etc. This usually occupies her for one stop. Then, I will give her a snack in her snack cup and a drink at the next place. Then, at the next stop, I'll give her her "wallet." I made her her own little wallet one day after I got tired of her trying to pull everything out of mine. I got out one of my old wallets, and filled it with paper "money," little counting discs as coins in the coin part, and I put wallet sized pictures and old gift cards or those fake credit cards that sometimes come in the mail in it as well. She loves playing with her wallet while I shop. If I have to go somewhere else, I may give her some coupons that I dont' care about in a bag for her to pull out and play with. (She loves coupons!) As she gets older, I can hopefully have her help me find items I need, cross things off her own little grocery list, put things in the cart, add the numbers on the calculator, etc. But for now, this system works great for us. If anyone has any other suggestions or tips for how to occupy toddlers when "out and about" I'd love to hear them!

MOMMY MOMENT MONDAY

Well, I think I can say we are done with the hard part of potty training. She has done amazing, and I am so proud of her. She has only had two accidents since last Monday. One was right after I let her finally out of my sight for a bit (I guess she didn't know to come find me), and the other time was when we were driving in the car and couldn't get to a bathroom. But at least she had a pull up on that time. She tends to wait until right when she has to go to tell us. That will just take time and practice for her to know to tell me sooner. Anyway, we still visit the potty about every 45 minutes if she doesn't tell me, and I still tend to follow her around because I'm paranoid. But for the most part, we've had really good success in what I consider to be a short amount of time. I invisioned weeks of this! She even told the nursery workers at church that she had to go! We're still working on the poo part, though. If I can catch her cues, she'll go on the potty, but if not, she hasn't yet come tell me she has to go, so she has gone poo 2 times in her undies. But 2 out of 7 days isn't that bad, right? I'm not stressed about that yet as I know that takes longer and takes some kids a long time to "get." I am just proud of her for going without a problem when I DO catch her in time. It hit me this week through all this that my "baby" is definitely a little girl now. Where has the time gone?

MOMMY MOMENT MONDAY - POTTY TRAINING

Well, potty training has officially begun. Here's how we've been spending most of our day:

It's tiring. It's exhausting. It's yucky. It's rewarding. I am getting tired of being in the kitchen all day. But I think we're getting somewhere.....slowly. I put Gerber training undies on her first thing. We practiced with Baby. I showed her where to go and what to do when she had to go potty. She was excited about her big girl undies, and I could tell the minute she had to go. She could tell something was different. I let her drink LOTS to give her plenty of chances to go, and I set the timer for every 15 minutes to have her go sit on the potty. She never ever made it that long. So, I started doing shorter amounts. Nope. Never could make it. We went through 8 pairs of undies in just a little over an hour. So, I just stopped using the timer and just kept having her "check for dryness" every few minutes and setting her on the potty between each activity we did. It didn't take long before I was out of undies and had to throw them in the washer. So, I decided to just have her go without undies at all. She was getting good about saying, "Uh, oh. Potty" AS she was going on the floor. We'd rush to the potty and she could usually get a bit more out. Enough that we could cheer and she could see the results and clap for herself. I gave her small piece of Twizzler each time she got any in the potty. But when she had the undies on, she couldn't get over and pull them down in time to go. So, when I had her go without undies she was much more aware when she had to go and could just run over to her potty and sit down. She still had a few misses, but finally when we were eating lunch (picnic style on a towel on the floor while watching Dora), she got up twice on her own and went to her potty and said, "Go potty." The first time she didn't really go too much, but the second time, she finally did it! She got up, went and sat down, and went potty.....a lot! She was so excited, and we even called Grandma to tell her! I have been having her take it to dump out in the big potty and have her help me flush it, which she loves, too. So, anyway. She is napping now.....with a pull up on. I'm kinda not looking forward to days of this....being stuck in the kitchen all day when it is so nice outside. But I keep telling myself it is worth it. We'll be back at it as soon as she wakes up, so I'll keep you posted how it goes. I tell you, this is one of those Mommy Moments that is just not fun.....but necessary.

Edit: She did well after nap. She basically sat on the potty for most of the afternoon, content to just sit there and "read books." She went 2 or 3 times while she sat, and would smile and clap each time she did. She also came and sat on it and went on her own once when she was playing as well. I thought we were on a roll! Well, right when I start to get confident about things like this, God is always there to remind me of reality. Around 5:00 she suddenly got scared of going in the potty. I had to really work at getting her to sit on the potty. I could tell she had to go....BAD! But she wouldn't. She just sat there and cried and squirmed and said, "tummy hurt." It got to the point of her screaming, "NO, NO, NO!" over and over again. I finally stuck a pull up on her and decided to lay off a bit so I could focus on getting us both dinner because it was way past dinner time. It is almost 9:00 now and I can still hear her up there making noise and moving around. I'm sure she went as soon as I put a diaper on her and put her to bed, so I'm assuming I'll have to go back in and change her before she'll go to sleep. I'm exhausted, and I dread having to do it all over again tomorrow. Okay, yes, I'm complaining. I need to stop. It's only been one day for crying out loud, and I know we'll have ups and downs. I'm just wondering why oh why I decided to start this the week Jared went back to work and is gone every single night this week! What was I thinking?

MOMMY MOMENT MONDAY

Potty Training......YUK! I have been dreading this since she was born. LOL! I really just have been putting it off because MOMMY isn't ready. But it's about time. Morgan is infatuated with the potty, her potty books, her baby's potty, etc. Plus, she really doesn't like to have her diaper changed anymore. She is showing me it's time to start....I'm just dragging my feet. The other day when I was changing her she was squirming and trying to get up. Finally she looked at me and said, "Bye, Bye diaper. Hello potty." (This is in one of her potty books.) Okay. Message received loud and clear! This week I have been setting her on our big potty (with her little toddler seat on top) each time I change her diaper. If I forget, she says, "Go potty on Mommy potty." The other day she shocked me by pulling off some toilet paper and actually wiping herself (even though she hadn't actually gone potty)! Then, she said, "All done. Flush potty." So, I helped her down, and she went right over and flushed that potty, sure thing! And then, she went to her stool at the sink and said, "Need to wash hands now." Okay, that did it. I decided I had better get in gear and strike while the iron is hot! She has obviously taken notice of what I do when I use the bathroom, and she is showing so much interest. Now, my job is to figure out the best method / way to go about this. I have talked to a few people who all had different methods. I'm so nervous! Any suggestions??????? (Oh, and she is still in her crib at the moment....I know. Something else I need to get moving on. But how does that work at night and naps, then? Should I start with moving her to a toddler bed first or doesn't that matter? I don't want to throw too many new things at her at once, though .....in other words, I don't think it'd be good to work on potty training AND go to a toddler bed all at once, would it?)

MOMMY MOMENT MONDAY

Okay, have you ever had something happen right before your eyes that seems to go in slow motion and you are powerless to stop it? Well, my Mommy Moment this week wasn't a happy moment for me. Morgan fell down the stairs.....and I was even standing right there! Oh the guilt! Please tell me I'm not the only one who stood there and watched my child take a head dive down the stairs, flipping over and landing with a thud at the bottom without being able to do anything about it except scream? (sigh....the memory of it still haunts me.)

Morgan and I were heading down the stairs (thank goodness they were carpeted) to do our "schooltime," and Jared was heading up the stairs with a paint brush in his hand. Now, Morgan is getting really good about walking up and down stairs by herself while she holds on to the railing or the wall. I am still always sure to be right there a step ahead of her with an arm out just in case, though. Well, Jared said something to me (I don't even remember what), and I paused to turn and look at him. Morgan kept on going, though, and chose at that moment while my head was turned to take too big of a step and miss the next step down. Right before my eyes she rolled and flipped down about 6 steps and (thankfully) landed on her tummy at the bottom on the hardwood facing up the stairs with her head resting on the first step. I can't imagine what the result would have been had she not flipped at the last minute and landed hard on her head instead. It was the worst feeling to see it happen and not be able to reach her fast enough to stop it. I sat holding her carefully at the bottom, crying right along with her at the guilt I was feeling for failing her as a mom.

But within 2 or 3 minutes, despite a busted up lip and a black eye (from landing with her face on the first step), she wanted off my lap and proclaimed she wanted to go do schooltime. Within a few minutes she was acting as if nothing ever happened. We called the doctor anyway, and they went over a whole bunch of questions with us. We ended up just having to monitor her and wake her in the middle of the night every four hours, but all is okay.....thank goodness! And she still continues to go down the stairs without issues.....I thought she'd be scared to try again. When she gets to that spot, she'll tell me, "Don't fall. Boom. Boom." But it hasn't stopped her one bit.

Whew. What a scare. But I am sure it won't be our last as parents....unfortunately.

MOMMY MOMENT MONDAY

My Mommy Moment happened this morning when Jared woke me up at 8:00 with breakfast in bed....waffles. Morgan seems to be back to her old sleeping habits (Thank Goodness!) so we usually don't hear anything from her until at least 8:00. Therefore, I often don't wake up much before that either, since I don't set an alarm. Jared went in to get Morgan up for me, and since the monitor was still on, I could hear their little dialogue and it just made me smile. She was so excited to see her Daddy, and I heard her say, "All done nap." (That was one long nap!) After they "chatted" a bit, I heard her say, "Go fine Mommy!" Then, I heard little feet and soon saw a cute little face poke her head into the bedroom. She came over and got in bed with me. What a great start to the morning. We are LOVING having Daddy home with us these few weeks of his break. Morgan gets to see Daddy in the mornings .... he often goes in to get her up... and he often puts her to bed at night. We have also gotten to do some fun family things (like going to parades and parks....and tomorrow the zoo) that she still talks about. We are going to be sad when Daddy has to go back to work. (No more breakfast in bed, either, that's for sure!)