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.

How I Wake Up

Once Mommy unwraps me this is what I do...

Shoot my arms way up high and stretch.

Then I scrunch up in a ball.

Next I stretch again.
After all the stretching I look around for Mommy...

and give her a big smile. =)

Already 4 months

Didn't I just do this for 3 months?

I feel like I was just writing about you being 3 months, and you are already 4 months old. You are growing so fast. You are quite the social little girl. If you are not sleeping you are talking. I am still amazed at how precious you are. You giggled at me for the first time the other day. It was one of my favorite moments. I lifted you up above my head and brought you down close to my face. You loved it. You tried so hard to keep giggling at me but it always turned into a cute little shriek. I kept lifting you up and down so I could keep catching that little giggle. We even called Daddy on speaker phone so he could hear you. You are such a happy girl. You are still a mommy’s girl and can get upset when someone else puts you to sleep. You are supposed to be working on rolling over but you don’t like to be on your tummy. You are starting to grab objects. You would be better at grabbing objects if you were not more interested in the people handing you the toy than the actual toy. Every time I hand you a toy your eyes light up and you break out a huge smile. When you do play with your toys you prefer your giraffe. It is awkward to get into your mouth, but you love to chew on it. You also love your brothers and talk to them. They keep you entertained with all their craziness. You are so different from your brothers. Having a little girl has changed me more than I ever expected. Even though I know you are too young to watch what I do I am still very conscious of how I act and what kind of example I set. I know I am not perfect, and I am never going to try and pretend I am. I know that how I live my life will impact how you choose to live. I want you to feel the freedom to love yourself, to see how beautiful God created you. I want you to define yourself by who you are as a person; not how you look, or what you accomplish. Having a daughter is a whole new experience for me, and I know it is not always going to be easy. I am so proud of you already and excited about watching you grow up. I know God has blessed me with a truly amazing and beautiful little girl, who I know is going to grow up to be a lovely woman. I am blessed to call you my daughter.

There is no way you can look at that picture and not laugh.

She is a Daddy's Girl

I may be the one who brings her comfort and puts her to sleep. But Daddy is the one who makes her face light up. He is her favorite person to talk to.



I pray this is the beginning of a very strong relationship.

3 months

You, my beautiful little girl, are three months old today. You are growing up so fast, but every day you are more fun to be with then the day before. You love to talk, especially to your daddy. I can tell your daddy absolutely loves his little chats with his daughter. You two go back and forth making noises and talking. So far you say; ma, hi, ah, and other crazy words but ‘Whoo’ is your favorite word. You have rolled over a couple of times from your tummy to your back but you don’t like to be on your tummy so you don’t get a lot of practice. You love your wiggle time on the floor and also enjoy swinging. You love to chew and suck on your fingers and hands. I have even caught you sucking on your blankets. I guess that is your way of telling me you are ready for some toys to play with. You are still so calm and mellow, so different from your brothers. You still like to nap, but you sleep much better in your own room, away from all the noises and bright lights. I know you are tired when you start to want your paci and don’t really want to talk anymore. That is also the time you want me. You definitely prefer to have me snuggle you to sleep. Once you are sleeping I swaddle you in your blanket and tuck you in. As soon as you wake up you are all smiles and ready to play. You definitely are a little fussier in the evenings and you will usually spend some time bouncing on the exercise ball with daddy, until you decide you want mommy and nothing else will sooth you. Your eyes are a beautiful blue; Nana says they look like jewels. You have rubbed a big bald spot on the back of your head so you are mostly bald with two patches of dark hair. Bald spots and all, you are absolutely beautiful. Kayla I love you more each and every day. You are definitely our little princess.

She is so stinkin cute!!!