Good Morning Life: Potty Training & New Camera

Hello Monday, What kind of week will you be?--good? bad? boring?exciting? mediocre? Well I'll take GOOD--thanks :) So far so good....but it is only 8:44am and my kids are still sleeping.

Last night we had ALL my family together. Meaning laws-and in-laws and my good friend Stacey :) It was the first time I had been with all of them in a VERY long time so it was really nice. We all came together to celebrate my birthday. I felt the love and I even got some great family pictures! Some how we crammed all 12 adults and 6 kids into our little house, to be honest I didn't feel like it was that cramped---good news, we can have 10 grown children living in our house...HAH--'yah right!'--not have 10 kids, nor am I living in this house that long (don't get me wrong I do love our sweet little abode).

What did I do last week, umm....is it bad that I can't remember? don't answer that future adult children! ha!

OHHH YAH! My big moment of the week was getting a Costco membership! HAH! It is true, I now feel like a grown up. So it's official now, I am now an adult! Only took 27 years.

Last night when we had everyone over, Adelade was kind enough to wear clothes the entire time! (it's a big deal!) but it was not even 10 seconds after the last guests left that she had taken her shirt and pants off. She actually did a little dance of JOY! It was pretty hilarious. Oh to be 2.5 and completely in love with your body!

Oh yes, I need to remember how I potty trained Adelade, so when I feel inadequate and like I'm doing everything wrong I can look back and think, okay--at least I did that!....so if you'd rather not read about peeing & pooping on the potty for the next few minutes (yes, I'm sure Adelade in 20 years will "love" reading all about it!) just skip to the pictures *note: pictures have nothing to do with potty training! lol

So a few months back, probably about 6 months ago, we went and bought Adelade a potty. I was toying with the idea that I would potty train her before Bentley was born….yah that did NOT happen. The potty became more of a toy because she would constantly sit on it and wipe. So after a few rolls of wasted paper and me being annoyed that she was just playing on it, I put it away for a bit (a month or so). I then bought her some underwear hoping that would entice her to want to go on the potty in order to wear them. Well that last about 30 minutes and 6 accidents later. I was NOT ready! I had zero patience and was not ready to teach Adelade how to pee and poop on the potty. By this time Bentley was born. I then just left the potty in the bathroom. She wasn’t playing with it as much, so I was okay to just have it out for her to use periodically. She started to poop on it every once in a while (which was pretty AWESOME!) so after a few months of that, it brings us to the end of Decemeber. She was starting to get the hang of pooping on the potty but not really peeing. So one day when I was cleaning out her room I found the underwear I had bought here a while back. I thought “I will just put them in a basket on her shelf where she can see it, if she is interested in it maybe she’ll start wearing them and peeing on the potty”. It was worth the try! I AM SO GLAD I DID THIS! Honestly within 5 minutes she noticed them and had put a pair on. I made sure she was aware that she had to pee and poop on the potty, that these were not diapers. She was pretty excited about the whole thing. I am pretty sure it was the fact that she got to wear fancy underpants with princesses and dinosaurs on them. So we tried them out for the day. She would had tiny accidents but most of the time she made it to the potty. The next day I went and bought jelly beans and lollipops and made a sticker chart. It was a MAJOR hit!  Within a week she was peeing and pooing on the potty consistently. It WAS AMAZING! I feel like the underpants and jellybeans potty trained her for me; she has since filled 2 charts and eaten 2 boxes of ‘mike n ekes’. We are trying to now just praise her without the treats, but she is still asking for them every time she goes. Once and a while I give her a chocolate chip J In the last week she has had a few accidents, but it’s all a part of the process. The hard part now is going out. It is hard going somewhere when I don’t know where the washroom is, or if it even has one, and if I have Bentley with me-- it is such a production. So sometimes I put her in diapers when we have errands to run and such. It is more for my own sanity. Either way I am so proud of Adelade. She sure is growing up every day. She is talking SO much more and doing so many more things on her own. Okay Bentley you are NEXT! Hah! Just kidding, I’ll give it a few years. Let’s start you on solids and sleeping through the night first.

So just after the new year Matthew and I treated ourselves to a NEW fancy-pants camera. I still have very little clue how most of the do-dads work, but I'm getting there. It takes nice pictures, so here are a few...or maybe a lot! lol
Note: if you click on the picture it will show up larger

My Stud!

Oh Adelade :)

Yes it's true I'm picking Bentley's nose!

eating...without clothes

Eating yogurt at its finest

Mr. Hand-chewer

"Oh, good it was just a fart!"

Isn't he a cutee!!!

Smiling at his daddy :)

Adelade literally trying our her new toys

"HUH?"

Pretty lil' lady!

hehe--love  this one :)