Filling you in on all the fun

Here are some shots of the kids over the last month.

My favorite 3 little people.

Kisses

Andrew giving Kayla a Piss (as he calls it)

Jumping in the ball pit at Gym Class


Trampolines are tons of fun.


Just the 3 of us in Rocky Point.

Kayla is not a fan of the ocean. We didn't even put her in it.

Uncle Trav and Christin came for a visit.

5 months (just a little late posting it)

You are five months old you have mastered putting everything in your mouth. Your favorite toys are your Exersaucer, Sophi the giraffe, paci with the clip, and pink baby doll. You are becoming more and more alert all the time and therefore you don’t like to sleep when we are out places. If we are out you don’t want people to cradle you, you want to sit up or stand, so you can see everything that is going on. You are still working on getting that giggle out, it always ends up sounding like a scream. You laugh at mommy, daddy, but you just love to laugh at your brothers. Half the time we have no idea what you find so funny. They love that you are becoming more interactive with them and they can’t wait for you to be old enough to play with them. You are still very social, but you are not as vocal as you were last month. You spend more time watching others and learning new things. You have been such a mommies girl that we are trying to get you used to having Daddy, Nana, and Babci to put you to sleep. I love having a mommy’s girl, but I know it is better for you to be comfortable with others. You love everyone, until you are hurt or tired, then you only want me. You sleep from 8 till 3 when you eat and then go back to sleep till 6:30. I should be pushing you to sleep more but I am too lazy. You are starting to wake up and want your pacifier in the middle of the night. You are a little stinker when it comes to rolling over. You want nothing to with tummy time and you are perfectly content to lay on your back and scream and kick. Your favorite new thing to do is to lie on your back and play panda by grabbing your toes. Nana said I did the same thing when I was your age. Some days I stare at you and am still surprised you are my little girl. Our family feels complete now that you are here.

Two Toddlers Talking

The boys never fail to make us laugh, and the laughter grows the more they talk and communicate. So I thought I would share some of our laughable moments from the past few days.

-Andrew and Nathan are throwing the ball back and forth over the pool fence. Every time Andrew threw the ball into the pool Nathan would yell back "Anew Lee" (Anew is Andrew without the /d/ and Lee is not Andrews middle name but Nathan's. Nathan is mimicking what we say when he gets into trouble which is 'Nathan Lee!'.

-Nathan is sitting in time out yelling "Kristina, Kristina" There is something to strange about your own child calling you by your first name rather than mom.

-The Fed Ex guy dropped of a package when I took the box and closed the door Andrew started to cry for pizza. I guess every person who rings our door bell with a box is supposed to be a pizza delivery guy. Then when I told the boys it was not pizza but papa's coffee Nathan responded "Yeah, Papa's Starbucks".

These two boys certainly have minds of their own, but it is obvious that they are watching us all the time and mimic our every move.

Then & Now

Today we met some friends at Desert Ridge Splash Pad. It was our first trip of the summer. They reminded me so much of last summer I went home and looked back at our old pictures. I was so surprised at how much they have grown in one year. They are becoming little men.

Mamma's Littlest Helper

While her brothers run around the house Kayla tags along with me.

Taking a ride in the Laundry Basket

She enjoys helping Momma fold the clothes,

but cooking dinner is her favorite.

She also likes to help do the dishes.

parent pride

Nobody warns you when you are becoming a parent how “parent pride” really works. People tell you how much you are going to love your child. They warn you how you are going to think they are the cutest newborn in the world even though, in reality all newborns look a little funny. I guess they even tell you how proud you will be at all their milestones. As a parent you expect to be proud when they stand in their little costume on the stage, or make a great play during the game. But nobody tells you how excited you truly are when you son calls to say “I go poop mom. I go poop in the potty mommy.” It’s poop, one of the grossest every day occurrences faced by everyone. It is something my kids have done every day since they were born and lately it has become a big accomplishment. It’s poop in the potty and I am one proud Mommy. No one told me it would be the simply little every day successes that bring so much pride and purpose to parenthood.

Potty Training, my thoughts and observations

3 day potty training

Does it work?

I would say yes, but I guess it depends on how you define being potty trained. It took a day or two longer for my two. However, doing two kids at once is supposed to take a little longer. They still have problems pooping, but from what I gather from other moms that part always takes a little longer. Both boys have bladder control and tell us when they need to go. So I say yes, they are potty trained. I am sure we will have accidents, but I think they get it. I do have to add the disclaimer that this method teaches you to potty train for day and night at the same time. So the kid is in underwear for all 24 hours. We did not do nap and nighttime. We just didn’t think it was the best decision for our family. So I can’t comment on that part of it.

What I liked about this method:

I didn’t have to force them to go. I know some methods use a timer or put kids on the potty every certain number of min. I have nothing against that way and I am sure it works. I just know that my boys would have resisted it. This approach gave them a little more ownership and freedom.

It keeps everything positive and puts the pressure on the parents to be patient and does not put the pressure on the kids.

The boys LOVED having our FULL ATTENTION for 3 days. Although it was exhausting to keep them in arms length all day long, it was fun being together as a family and playing with them nonstop.

General Observations and suggestions:

Keep up the fiber and start it before you potty train. Soft poop is your best friend in this process.

Since you can’t really leave your house for three days plan ahead. Buy toys to use for bribes in case you need more. We needed emergency poop prizes as motivations and I had to send my family out to get them.

Make sure you have everyone who is helping out or going to be around read the whole method. We didn’t at first and it made it much harder to explain it as we went.

I went back and reread certain parts after the first day. It helped since I didn’t remember everything the first time. You don’t know before you begin how your kids will react so it is hard to know what parts of the method you need to focus on or remember. Rereading helped make me feel a lot better about the struggles the boys were having and helped me stay positive.

On the third day I gave the boys a new candy for their reward. It helped them stay motivated. In fact I opened a new bag of candy and both boys sprinted to the bathroom to sit on their potties so they could try the new candy.

Closing:

Potty training is not easy and it takes a lot of time and energy. I know there are tons of various methods out there and I am sure many of them work. Even though it has not been easy I don’t think it was as hard as I had imagined. I am glad we followed the three day method and I expect that we will use this same approach with Kayla. We will have to wait and see what she is like when we get there. Good Luck to all you moms as you lose the diapers, just don’t lose hope. I am still in this with you; we have yet to leave the house for more than 30 min. I am sure our potty training adventures are not over yet.