The P's in My Life

Preschool:

Halloween Preschool was at my house last Thursday. We pretty much just had a party. :) We read a bunch of Halloween stories. Then we played musical chairs and Halloween Bingo. Then we had a snack, candy corns, colored goldfish, and water with gummy-worm ice cubes. For our last activity we made spider webs out of paper plates and yarn, and colored spiders to go inside. 

 Ivan's spider web.

Adelia's spider web

Piano Lessons:

We've had our piano for awhile now, so I figured the next step was to sign the kids up for lessons. There is the sweetest lady in my ward who teaches, but she had a baby a few months ago, so I was giving her a little space before I contacted her about piano lessons. The other day she posted on the ward Facebook page that she had openings in some of her classes so I jumped on it, and signed Ivan and Lincoln up. Ivan will be doing a preschool class, and Linc will be doing a class one level up from that. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. 

Aaron was a little concerned about how we were going to fit the cost of piano lessons into the budget. So I did some fast talking and we came up with a compromise that leads me to my next P.

Potty Training:

In order to pay for piano lessons, I told Aaron that I would stop buying diapers for Adelia. We buy her one giant size box of diapers a month, and not doing so anymore will give me the money I need to cover piano lessons. So I guess I'm finally getting serious about potty training the child. Because soon she won't have any diapers left. *Sigh* I hate, hate, hate, HATE potty training. We've been halfheartedly, on-again-off-again training her for the last six months or so. But now it's time to get down to some serious business. Which basically means, training myself to set a timer to take her potty every hour and a half or so. I think that's what I hate the worst, is trying to remember to take them, and then the knock-down drag-out, kicking, screaming, fit they throw EVERY time you tell them it's time to go potty. And poor Del, you know all that "make it fun", read stories, sing songs, play games, eat snacks, etc. that you do when your first child is potty training? Well, she ain't gettin' none of that. I do not have the time/energy/patience/mental capacity for it the third time around. Sorry kid. She's doing pretty good though. She went all day yesterday without any accidents. And all this week with only one accident per day. Oh I hate potty training! 

Progress:

One of my most favorite curricula that we are using this year is All About Spelling. I am in love with learning the rules of spelling. I feel gypped that I was never taught these rules in school. We've been doing level 1, and Lincoln is just clipping along. Which I had planned on him doing, level 1 is fairly easy, and way below his reading level, but I wanted to do it anyway, just to make sure we had all the rules down, and to build a good foundation for the harder things that will come in level 2 & 3. We got level 2 in the mail yesterday, and I'm really excited to get started on it. 

I'm also really happy with how Lincoln's handwriting is coming along. We aren't doing anything that specifically targets handwriting for him right now, but he does a lot of other writing, and I try to remind him to use good penmanship, and I think he's doing well. There are still a few letters that he gets backwards, and he still had trouble with lowercase b and d, but overall I'm really pleased. 

Our grass is also making some progress. Hopefully the recent cold spell doesn't kill it off.

Programming:

The other night, I was telling Aaron how I think that computer programming is going to be a really important skill to have, because technology and computers are everywhere. I told him that I was going to be useless in teaching this skill to our children, so it was going to be completely up to him to do so. In my mind I was thinking several years down the road from now...but Aaron had other ideas. The last few mornings he has been teaching Lincoln some very basic programming skills using a program called Scratch. Right now he's helping Lincoln work through the tutorials, and once he gets the hang of that, then Aaron's plan is to make up challenges for Lincoln to complete each day. Aaron says there is enough stuff to learn using Scratch to keep Linc busy until he's about 10. :) So that's fun. And what's even better is that Lincoln is enjoying it. He is forever asking Aaron when he can get back on the computer and do more Scratch. 

Pretty:

It's snowed a little bit around here, but it's only sticking in the mountains. I like this picture with the snowy mountains behind the fall leaves and the barns and the harvested corn field. I took this picture while standing in my very own driveway. It doesn't get much better than that. 

My children were very excited about the snow. They ran right out onto the patio and tried to catch the flakes in their mouths. Adelia didn't even bother with shoes. Silly girl. 

Party:

On Sunday we got to go over to Aaron's parent's house to celebrate Aaron's Dad's birthday. It was a fun party!

Priceless:

Our neighbor took this picture of Aaron in Sunday School and said he was going to post it on the ward Facebook page. :) He didn't, but I thought the picture was hilarious anyways. I guess daylight savings really got to Aaron this year. Ha!  

Play:

I love when my kids play together (happily). I went up to put Ollie down for a nap the other morning, and I came back down to see them sitting on the floor crowded around the latest Highlights magazine, listening to Lincoln read it out loud. These are the kind of moments that make home schooling 100% worth it to me. They wouldn't have as many opportunities to do this if Lincoln were at school all day long. 

I love this wild 'n crazy child. Her latest fashion statement is the monster beanie with flip-flops.

I wasn't feeling well the other day, so when Aaron got home from work he took all the kids to the park to let them run off some energy. I guess even Ollie got in on the action.

The Potty Project: Bathroom Humor

It's been a long time since I posted anything about how Lincoln's potty training is going. Mostly because not much is happening. Oh, we are still doing it, don't worry, it just feels like making any progress is taking forever. Maybe slow and steady will eventually win the race...in our case I don't care if we win or even place, I'd just like to finish all in one piece. :) I think my sister-in-law Sydni said it best when she said, "Potty training is good birth control." Yup. So is being pregnant. But that's a story for another day.

I guess I should note what progress we have made with it.

-We are (FINALLY!) past the point where Lincoln would scream for up to an hour at the top of his lungs while sitting on the potty because he didn't want to poop because it hurt. I think our little bout with Hand Foot and Mouth can be given credit for that, diarrhea. Super. But at least he got used to going while the going wasn't tough, and can now do it without as much drama.

-Lincoln can, about 75% of the time, put his underwear on facing forward. Big improvement.

-We have successfully transitioned from having to give him a treat every time (aka ruining his meals) to having him move a magnet along a potty chart to get a bigger reward at the end (we will be taking him swimming sometime if we ever get all of us feeling well at once), and from that to just going because that's what you're supposed to do (this is mostly the result of my laziness because I never got around to making another potty chart once he filled the last one).

-He hasn't peed while sitting in time out for a long time, whew!

-Linc can keep his underwear dry all day IF I make sure to have him use the potty every so often.

-IF I can get him to use the potty before we go out in public, he can wear underwear without me being scared to death he'll have an accident.

-Lincoln mostly always wakes up dry after naps and in the morning. He gets credit for this all on his own. I have done nothing to attempt to potty train him in his sleep. :)

-We have also transitioned from the little potty to the big potty. This came about because now that he can hold it for longer periods of time, he has a lot more pressure built up, and even though he was pointing down in the little potty, he was too close to the bottom and the pressure would cause lots of splashing and mess everywhere, and I got tired of cleaning it up. So now Linc uses the big potty with a stool. Much easier to handle, for me at least, and he doesn't seem to mind, so we're good.

-And lastly, but this is the biggest, most important step so far, sometimes he tells me he needs to go BEFORE I suggest that he might want to go. This is a very big step in the right direction.

-Oh, and I should probably mention our "special case". This has only happened one time so far, but it gives me great hope. Once when the boys were taking their naps, I went out to get the mail. When I came back, Lincoln had gotten up and was sitting on the potty. AWESOME! That proves he can do it all by himself.

So those are our improvements from last time. Here are some things we are currently working on.

-How to wipe. He has the motions down, but the effectiveness is still pretty shaky.

-How to wash our hands. He'll do it if I remind him, but he does a lot more playing than actual washing, so I always have to supervise.

-How to pull his pants down far enough that they don't get in the way while peeing. Self explanatory.

And lastly, I'm not generally one for bathroom humor, but with potty training you either have to laugh or you'll cry. Here are some of the funnier moments.

- I took the kids with me to one of my Dr appointments, and I had to sit up on the exam table. While I was up there Lincoln kept saying, "Mommy on the potty? Mommy need to pee? Mommy go potty?"

- The other day during dinner Lincoln mentioned that he needed to poop, so he got down and sat on his little potty, and proceeded to do so. When he was done he said, "Look Mom a C!" My first thought was that Ivan had put one of our magnet letters in the potty and Lincoln had gone on top of it. Lincoln kept persisting that I come and see the C, so finally I went to look. To my relief there was not a magnet letter in the potty. What I did see was a perfectly shaped C poop. Linc was so proud of himself and kept saying over and over, "I pooped a C! I pooped a C!" I don't know whether to be grossed out, or just glad he's recognizing his letters.

-A little while ago Lincoln told me, "Mom, pooping is still hard."

- When Lincoln was having trouble pooping, we'd sit by him and hold his hand and try to help him relax. So the other day I was using the bathroom and Linc came in (do mothers ever get to use the bathroom alone?) and said "Here Mom, I squeeze your hand. Now do this (and he proceeded to take a big exaggerated deep breath), good." Thanks for the moral support Linc. :)

-Ivan is now a pro at the potty dance, even though he has no idea what is going on, whenever Lincoln and I start singing, Ivan waves his hands around and dances right along with us.

-We manage our apartment complex, so that means we have to show the vacant apartments. Anyways, a guy (single, probably 21 or so) came to look at one. When we let him in, Lincoln quickly informed him, "I peed in the potty. And pooped." I think Linc was a little disappointed that the guy didn't show the same enthusiasm about it as Mom/Dad/Grandma etc. usually do.

The Potty Project: The Potty Chart

When we first started potty training, I made this chart in a word document and taped it to the fridge high enough that Ivan couldn't reach and low enough that Lincoln could. Every time Linc went in the potty he got to put a sticker on the chart, knowing that when he filled up the chart he'd get an ice cream cone. As you can see, he did not put the stickers on very straight, which made actually keeping track a little bit difficult. But after a quick count yesterday we determined that he only needed 4 more stickers. He reached his goal today! 60 successes in the potty. If that doesn't deserve an ice cream cone, I don't know what does. So we took him to "Macey's house" (Macey's grocery store, I have no idea why he calls it's Macey's house.) to get his reward.

So I'll make a new chart and we'll start over. I've decided that potty training is more of a process and less of an event. It's still going ok, although we got set back quite a bit the week we were all sick. I am having two big challenges with it right now.

#1 Lincoln won't poop in the potty. He's perfectly fine pooping in his underwear or pull-up, but has yet to poop in the potty. Not sure how to convey the message. I've been thinking about buying a few $0.99 Hotwheels cars and offering those as a bribe and seeing what happens. I'll keep you posted.

#2 Now that he's gotten pretty good at holding it, he pees on the carpet every time I send him to time out. Grrr... I've done pretty well at not being upset or frustrated when he has accidents, but this on-purpose peeing on the carpet because he doesn't like being in time out really chaps my hide. I'm not sure what to do about it.

And, this isn't really a problem, more just a measure of where we're at in the process, but he isn't very good at telling me when he needs to go. So, as long as I remember every so often to have him sit down and go, we don't have many accidents, but if I forget, or am not around to see his body language (like if I'm putting Ivan down for a nap) then the result is always a puddle.

But I suppose we should focus on the positive, and the positive is that Lincoln has peed in the potty 60 times. :)

Which Is Better?

Our "Potty Dance"

Or their's
http://www.pull-ups.com/na/pottydance.aspx#

The Potty Project: Day 3,4, and 5

These last few days, potty training has gone about like I predicted it would. Not nearly as good as day 2 and not nearly as bad as day 1. I'd say Lincoln goes in the potty about 50% of the time give or take a little depending on the day. Sometimes a little better, sometimes a little worse. He hasn't pooped in the potty yet, only in his pants. :( But we're working on that. I still haven't dared to take him out in public with only his underwear on. When we go out I put a pull-up on him, but we still take our "potty breaks" when we're supposed to. He does pretty well out in public.

Our biggest challenge these last few days has been trying to keep Lincoln interested in being on the potty. I think he's getting bored with it. I've moved the time between potty attempts from 20 minutes to 30 or 35 minutes, depending on if he went previously or not. That seems to help some. We've also had to come up with new activities to do while on the potty. We've invented "the potty ball" which actually wasn't meant to be for Lincoln at all, it's an elastic band ball for a craft I'm doing, but when I brought it home he wanted to play with it, and I told him he could if he'd sit on the potty. It soon became the "potty ball" and he only gets to play with it while sitting on the potty. I also found some bubble up in the cupboard that had been long forgotten about. We now only blow bubbles while Linc is on the potty. And, the very best, most persuasive tactic of all...if nothing else I can think of will work, I offer to let him call Grandma and talk to her on the phone while sitting on the potty. Not really sure how she feels about it, but she goes along really well and always acts excited when Linc calls to tell her he's sitting on the potty. :)

I do think we're making progress. For one thing, I think he's learning how to hold it. He goes a lot less frequently than he did the first day, and I'm giving him the same amount to drink. And when he does go on the potty (and on the floor for that matter) there is a lot more in there when he's done, instead of just the few drops like there was the first few days. I think he's also starting to recognize a little bit when he has to go. Not enough to run to the potty himself, but enough that he starts shouting, "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" or sometimes it's "I need help! Help me!" and other times, "I'm freezing! I'm freezing!" (No, I don't know why he associates being freezing with having to go to the bathroom, maybe it's that tingly feeling, I have not idea, but that's what he means by it.)

Lincoln does a lot better in the morning than in the afternoons. That's probably a direct reflection on me. I tend to be a lot more patient and fun in the mornings, and a lot more cranky in the afternoons, especially if naps did not go very well. And frankly, being the sole source of potty entertainment gets really old, really quickly. So that is something I could work on. But we are moving forward. No, we did not have the miraculous-2-day-potty-training-and-then-zero-accidents experience I was secretly hoping for, but I doubt very many people do.

The Potty Project: Day 2

Today has been so much better than I ever imagined it would be. Let's just start by saying that when I woke up this morning, I was dreading having to work on potty training. But I'm so glad we kept at it! We've made lots of progress, I think.

First of all, I had a realization last night, I'd been setting Lincoln's timer for 20 minutes, like planned, but then if he didn't go I was worried and would try again in 5 or however long, but it was like I was constantly trying to guess when he was going to go, and I never guessed right. Anyways, it occured to me last night after we'd gone to bed, that the point of setting the timer every 20 minutes isn't to catch them when they have to go, but to teach them to hold it for 20 minutes and then go on the potty after that. If you can't teach them to hold it, you might as well still have them in a diaper, because trying to guess when they're going to go is impossible. But, today we also figured out that you can look for clues for when they do need to go. If they are grabbing themselves, or crossing their legs, then you can say, "Lincoln you're crossing your legs, that's a sign that you need to go potty, let's go sit on the potty for a minute." And that way it helps them to recognize, "Oh, when I feel like crossing my legs, that means I need to go potty." And they are learning too. We had 9 success in the potty today, and zero accidents on the carpet! Granted, there were a few time (about half) that he started going, grabbed himself and yelled, "Mom! I'm peeing!" And we would rush him to the potty and he'd finish up on there. But I'd say that's a major step in the right direction at least.

Also, we decided that we needed a new potty chair. The one we had was really hard for Lincoln to sit on because the base of it was so wide, and the hole wasn't very big, and it was poorly designed, meaning, even when he was peeing in the potty, it didn't keep the pee in very well, and there was always a puddle on the floor when we were done. Anyways, a friend recommended the "magic" $4.00 IKEA potty. We did some research, and everyone seems to think it is wonderful. We decided to make the long trip to IKEA. We had Lincoln pee in the potty before we went. Then we put a pull-up on him. As soon as we got to IKEA we took him to the potty. His pull-up was dry, and he peed in the big potty! He was actually really excited about flushing it down. You know those industrial toilets are pretty cool. Then we did our shopping, checked out, and took Lincoln to the potty again. He was still dry, but this time he didn't pee in the potty. We loaded up and went home. As soon as we got home we let him try out his new potty. He was still dry! Good for him. The new potty was so much nicer. Smaller for one thing, not as wide, and had a much bigger hole, and better blockers (don't know what else to call them) on the front and back to keep stuff in. We actually got a red one and a green one (one for my mom's house). Lincoln keeps switching back and forth for which one he wants at Grandma's and which one he wants here.

I know that every day will probably not be as good as today. In fact, I'm kind of considering today to be some kind of beginners luck. But I did think we made progress, and I'm really glad we kept trying. We'll see what's in store for us tomorrow.

The Potty Project: Day 1

Today was probably the most frusterating day of my life. We decided, kind of spur of the moment, to potty-train Lincoln. When I say spur of the moment, I mean he ran out of diapers, and we were like hmmm, let's give this a try, so we bought underwear and a box of pull-ups for night time, instead of new diapers.

Here's the game plan. He stays in his underwear all day except during naps and bedtime. We decided that having him wear pants would make too much laundry, so it's a shirt, underwear, and socks for him. We set a timer to go off every 20 minutes. So every 20 minutes he sits on the potty for 5 minutes. If he goes we have a big party! We cheer, we give high fives, he gets a treat, he gets to put a sticker on his potty chart. If he goes on the carpet/in his pants, we do our very best not to get upset. And we try to explain to him the difference between wet and dry underwear. Sounds like a simple enough strategy. We mostly copied it from Aaron's sister Lisa.

Well, Lincoln likes his potty. He's been curious about it for awhile now, and is really interested whenever Daddy or Mommy uses the big potty. He talks about the potty all the time. The other day he even put his toy allegator into the cup holder on his car seat and told me that it was going potty. He really likes his underwear. He picked out Cars, no surprise there. He likes it to the point that today when I tried to put on his "nap time underwear" aka pull-up, he threw an absolute fit, because he wanted to wear his "McQueen" underwear to bed. He even does all right sitting on the potty (mostly, not always) when the timer goes off. For the five minutes while he's on the potty, we tried a bunch of things to entertain him. I read to him, I let him watch movies, I gave him a bowl of potty snacks (fish crackers) that he could only eat while sitting on the potty, we played firetrucks, and sword fight (I never let him sword fight, so he was really excited about this one), I even showed him a cool trick I can do, using a spatula I would flip a fish cracker high in the air and catch it in my mouth. He liked that a lot, but I got tired of eating gold fish after about 3 rounds. So we've made sitting on the potty as fun as I can think of.

The only problem is that he won't go in the potty. It doesn't matter how long he sits on it, or how short I make the intravels between sitting times, he waits until about two minutes or so after he gets off and then goes and pees somewhere on the carpet. I did not have a single, in the potty, success with him today. Aaron took over potty training when he got home from work, because I was so frusterated. He got Lincoln to go three times in the potty. So that was a plus. But that's 3 successes and about 20 clean the pee off the floor experiences total for yesterday.

Needless to say, I was happy when it was time to put him to bed, because then we could just put the pull-up, excuse me, "night time underwear" on him and not have to deal with it again until tomorrow. I'm pretty frustrated right now, if you can't feel that coming through. Half of me says I'm not cut out for this and to just put him back in diapers. The other half of me says to keep trying and be more patient because he's just learning too, and needs some time to catch on to the whole process. And really, I would love to put him back in diapers except for one minor setback. Notice in the sentence above I said, I'm not ready, not Lincoln's not ready. I guess I still just feel like Lincoln can do it, and that he's showed a lot of interest in doing it. But I don't know if I can handle another day like today...

But I'm going to do my best to keep a daily log of our Potty Project experience, because it's looking like I'll have to do this at least two more times in the future, and maybe looking back and reading about the process will be helpful when we start potty training Ivan, like when he's 12. :)