Minnesota Lake Visit

In the lead up to our trip to Grandma’s this year we had told Judah “so many sleeps until we go to Grandma’s” and that he would get to help wash Grandpa’s boat when we got there. He loves helping with the hose and only sometimes sprays you with it now. The day before we left Judah says, “one sleep, go to Gwammy’s house, wash boat”. This was the first time he had even tried to say Grandma. The trip itself was particularly fun for Judah as we got to take a bus, train, and airplane! We were met by David and Grandma and headed home to meet  a bunch more family who had come to see all of us. There were Shaun, Ann, Zeke, Grandma Great, Grandpa Great, Grandpa, Grandma, Auntie Mandy, Jason, David, Andrew, Stacy, Ben, Sandy, Jennifer, Faith, and Eli. Judah was very overwhelmed by the crowd of unfamiliar faces which made us realize that we needed to do better about working on these with photos before our visits. The lake was full of new fun though, including an awesome play house from Costco that Shaun and Dad were busy putting together. All the boys loved that, especially the doorbell, “ding-dong”. Other big hits were the basketball hoop, the giant swings Dad installed with the tree trimming cherry picker. We got the tractor and trailer out and I climbed in with Judah for a ride in the trailer. We asked if he wanted anyone else to go with him and he pointed right at Grandma Great, so she hopped in with us! Judah also had fun helping Andrew wash his truck, hosing off the soap really well. On Monday our friends Anne, Justin, and Krisha came for a visit. It was nice to get to catch up with them after too long apart. Krisha even stayed and hit the hot tub with us.

On Wednesday we headed to Fargo for a quick visit. The highlight here was getting to watch movies in Gwammy’s car. We started at Conrads where Grandma, Hannah, and Judah hung out for a nap while Ben, Rick, Jamie, and I headed out to the farm to do some shooting. Jan came out and met us while we were finishing up so we got a tour of his and Sandy’s new house. Then it was over to Jessie and Faith’s for some playtime with Judah and Eli and dinner. It was rainy so we got to see all the farmers, even Garret made it home for dinner. The boys had a bath together before heading to bed. In the morning we had a nice big breakfast and the boys played some more before we headed outside to explore the farm. The “stinky cows” were our first stop, and they sure were stinky. We also saw the big tractors, planters, tree house, and swing before we took a ride in the Prawler with Jessie. Faith made yummy BBQ for lunch and Jan gave the boys a really long ride in the wagon so we could enjoy it. When naptime came around we headed home to the lake.

Grandpa had been busy doing projects while we were gone, he was right in the middle of finishing facing everything in cedar. There were other projects, including placing a big bell on the deck roof which required a few extra hands in lifting and Shaun and him on the roof. While we were there we were able to get all three boats in the water, though there was some issue with the battery on the pontoon. Judah loved launching the boats, probably because he got to ride to the boat launch in the truck out of the carseat (I know, we’re bad parents but it wasn’t very far).

Saturday Mom and I left the boys at the lake and headed to town in the convertible to go to Anne’s baby shower. I shockingly was in town to get to go! It was nice to see some old friends while there and celebrate baby Tucker. We also got to visit Target for a few needed items. Sunday was also a big event, the graduation party for Katie and Kelsie Bell. It was fun to actually get to attend this party too. Judah had lots of fun watching movies on the ride and then playing all their outdoor games while skipping his nap. Thankfully they got a beautiful day. While Judah played with Grandma I dropped Jamie off at the airport for his trip down to Iowa to work. Once we got home we all jumped on mowers to mow the lawn, including Judah! He rode the tractor with Grandpa the whole time and loved it.  

Grandpa also went back to work on Monday so it was just the 3 of us. We had some quiet days at home and played outside, took walks, and played toys. We even did some projects like fill tree root holes with dirt using the tractor and sweeping the garage. A highlight of our days was when Grandpa got home and if Judah had gone #2 in the potty he got to have ice cream. The crew came to plant trees one day but sadly got rained out so we headed to town to get boat registrations, have pancakes at Perkins, and go to Target. One evening I also got to meet my Dad at the range and do some shooting. The tree planting crew came back and finished up which Judah really enjoyed, they had a bobcat! Another fun highlight of our trip was Judah enjoying the lake photo books that Amanda has put together over the years. He liked learning everyone’s names and got really good at Hannah and Stacy, as well as Big Ben and Jason’s Mommy. There were some funny moments during our visit, including when Judah asked his Daddy why he was going to the bathroom and then repeated in a sing song voice, “Daddy going poopy in the potty” while Grandma, Grandpa, and I laughed in the kitchen. Another one was when Grandpa was pushing Judah in the cart and saying, “Geese Louise, who cut the cheese!” To which Judah says, “Gwammy!” and my Dad thought that was a hoot. (I think he said that because he saw Grandma). After that Judah kept asking for Grandpa’s song during bed time. I didn’t know what he meant but finally figured out he wanted , “Geese Louise, who cut the cheese!”

When it was finally ready to go home Judah was all ready. We told him what we were going to do on our travel day and he kept repeating all the steps, “watch movies Gwammy’s car, airplane up high, toot toot (train), bus, my car”. I think his favorite part was of course the bus which was our shortest leg of our journey.

Potty Training Followup (or the Poop Saga)

WARNING  contains graphic poop talk

Ironically, on Monday I was sick as a dog starting mid-day with nausea. When Jamie got home I took a test and found out I was pregnant! Wow, boy was I glad we trained when we did, before I felt like puking myself. In the days after training pee continued to get better and better. We ventured out mostly successfully! We did have some challenges on the #2’s. Including going to a BBQ on Tuesday (after not having pooped for two days) that resulted in 3 trips to the bathroom for pooping in the undies. We left while on our last pair of undies.  Thursday we took an outing to the beach with some friends for dinner. We brought our portable potty and Judah used it to pee!

Fast forward a few more days to Friday when I find that I am miscarrying. Devastating. And in the midst of that, Judah hasn’t pooped in three days and is going to bathroom every 2 minutes because he needs to go and saying “my tummy is hurt-ing” in the cutest sad voice ever. We are grieving, stressed, out of patience, and not sure what to do. On Saturday we load up on the fruit and keep on going. That night we had a dinner with friends that took forever to schedule and we were reluctant to try to re-schedule. They have 5 kids so we told them what was up with Judah, brought the potty, and went. Another 17 trips to the bathroom, sometimes with pee success but mostly for the poop and I was done. Dad took over and made Judah sit instead of pop right up again...and he went! Amazing. And he went in his potty two more times, with only once having some in his undies.

The next week was poop accidents in the undies, leading right into our trip to MN on Saturday. Jamie and I were freaking a bit, just dealing with public toilets in the airport and plane is one thing, but poop too? Thankfully Judah did great, peeing in the family restroom at the airport and even on the plane! Jamie took him once and I took him two more times (unsuccessfully) on the plane. The trip to Grandma’s included an unsuccessful stop at Culvers and two by the roadside. Thankfully Mom’s neighbor had borrowed us a little potty so once we arrived we were set. After several false alarms to the potty he finally pooped, though under protest. I had to sit and hug him while calmly coaxing him to relax but it worked.

Finally on June 2, we had a breakthough. More constant trips to the potty because, to quote Judah, “it coming out of my butt!” (adorable! and also sad). Jamie has headed to Iowa for work so its me and Mom. I decided to give him a bath that evening to hopefully get him to relax enough to go and what do you know, it worked! He stode up in his bath because he needed to go, I sat him on the potty, hugged him and softly whispered “push, push, push” and he did it. He got a bowl of ice cream as a reward, which I had tried to bribe him with earlier. Turns out ice cream is a good reward, he has since gone twice more on the potty and each time jumps up saying “ice cream!” He also got a tattoo and pop pop (tick tack) for his efforts. Here’s to hoping we’re over this particular hurdle.

Potty Training

WARNING contains graphic poop talk

So we embarked on potty training using the 3-day intensive method. I thought I was prepared but boy was it tough! First off, I totally forgot to plan dinners for the event that were easy to whip up. Thankfully Jamie was there for most of it so we made do. Secondly, I bought some juice and things I thought he’d like to drink, but we needed an emergency run for different juice after the first day. Thirdly, it was really really trying on the patience, more so than I anticipated when I thought I was ready!

Anyway, the other complicating factor was the fact that I had planned this time for weeks, working around our schedules to find the 3 days. What I was unable to know in advance is that Judah would get some sort of stomach bug two days before the big event. I was sure we should just cancel and bummed since our next window was weeks away, plus it sucks when kids are sick anyway and it really sucks when you get barfed on as a result.

So, on Friday morning we woke up and Judah was himself again, I was wavering on whether to go with training or not and when he threw a tantrum when I went to change his diaper I said “that’s it, lets go with it.” Figuring we could always just quit if we needed to. So off we went. Diaper off and first thing he did was pee in the toilet!  He got a special present and an M&M. As the day went we had very few chances to practice because he was not interested in drinking my selection of beverages. That said, we still made lots and lots of trips to the potty to try as he had figured out the M&M reward system. At first I was giving him one for just trying but I soon wised up to him wising up and we switched to sticker on a chart in the bathroom which he really liked. He had an accident on the bathroom floor when he went in and was hiding behind the door.  And then came the poop. Remember I said he had been sick, well that made his poop super duper runny. He looks up really alarmed and I say “run to the bathroom!”. As I run after him I swooped him up and we made it to the hard flooring before it started running out all over the floor. Yeah, that happened...twice.

Since I mentioned the poop let me say how I dealt with it. I am not a cloth diaper-er so I had to have a few crazed text exchanges with my friends who do. Turns out they scrap it or spray it into the toilet. Since I didn’t have a sprayer for our runny mess I substituted the shower spray wand and cleaned the bathtub after. Another friend had the helpful hint to have a bucket of water and oxyclean to soak the dirty undies while they waited for washing. She even loaned some oxyclean to us which Jamie picked up on the way home.

I had been wavering on whether to go all the way and try to night and nap train. After discussions with friends we adopted “night night” pants which were basically the special training pants with a washcloth insert and rubber cover. Crazily, he ended up waking up dry or when he was needing to pee! Not perfectly of course but it made me realize it wasn’t as far off as I thought. The sad part of that of course is that during nap it was like an 1-1.5 hours into what is typically at least a 2 hour nap. Oh well. One other helpful training hint was to make his bed with multiple layers of sheets and rubber sheets. So I did two layers of matress pad, rubber sheet, and sheet.

Most of what I remember of Day 2 is more accidents and some successes. Oh, and getting barfed on again. After his lack of drinking on Day 1 we loaded up on juices and started offering them right away. So before he ate anything for breakfast he had orange juice and like two other juice boxes. It turns out that if you don’t ever give your kid juice its probably not a good idea to overload their system with it like this, and all on an empty stomach. They will barf, all over you. So now I’m thinking I’m the worst mother of the year, potty training while he is still sick with the stomach thing. We had no idea of what to do, continue or quit. He kept telling us when he had to go to the potty and acted his normal self again after some breakfast so we kept on (when he had the stomach bug he was a rag doll in my arms all day and napped most of the time so acting his normal self was a good clue that it was just a sugar overload).

Day 3 finally arrived. I had been texting for moral support with several friends who all encouraged me that it might not click until the last day. This was very helpful, if you train get yourself a support group of friends. We had one or two accidents but overall it was much much better. He even pooped in the potty for the first time! That was very encouraging that we were going to be ok. I had debated trading my work day on Monday for a Day 4 but my sitter was game to have him over and give her son some experience to the training so we went back to our new normal life on Monday!

Potty Training Prep

In preparation of potty training I got busy being crafty and made some special training pants. I think I saw something like it on Pinterest first and thought it would be good to try. The project was basically taking a set of Gerber white training pants and adding additional padding on the inside and then adding PUL, the water proof fabric used for cloth diaper covers, on the outside. That way if an accident occurs it will be somewhat absorbed and contained within the training pant. I thought this would be helpful for giving clothes and bedding a better chance of staying dry, as well as being helpful for trips out and to his babysitters while I work. I got the PUL at Joann’s, I got a package with three colors, it was about $15 but I used my 40% off coupon. I made 9 pairs and probably used a little less than a third of the PUL I got in the packages. Judah picked the package and chose the red, yellow, and green set.

The link to the instructions for the training pants is HERE.

The other project came from some input from friends and an idea I saw on pinterest for a carseat cover saver HERE. I had lots of left over PUL and some fun extra fabric so away I went. I decided not to do the pattern from Pinterest, instead keeping it a bit simplier. I also decided to make mine so I could use a cloth diaper as the absorbent padding, which could be removed and washed with the cover. So mine has an open side, which happens to be on the front, where there is also a indent for the buckle to come through. In retrospect, it would have been much easier to make the opening in the back, lessons learned. The opening also has velcro closures to keep everything in place. I sized it so that it will fit a folded in half cloth diaper insert and would fit on the seat of the carseat. So far it has yet to be tested by an accident.

Adventures in Babysitting

This weekend we attempted a challenge, taking care of five kids under 5 for the day. We had the Rikalo kids over Friday night while their parents had a getaway. We had pizza, bathed and got them to bed relatively unscathed, though we were tired afterward.
On Saturday we woke up and had eggs and pancakes for breakfast before the real challenge began when the Day girls joined us. We somehow managed to gather all of our stuff and load up in the Suburban by 9:30 for a trip to the beach. Five kids, two adults, and a wagon of stuff. We arrived and sunscreened all the kids as they excited the vehicle and sat in the back. The it was off to the beach, while Judah helped pull an Charlie helped push the wagon. What helpful gentleman. The girls held hand and led the way and Jamie brought up the rear with the lunch cooler.

After some rolling in the grass hills we hit the sand. The kids all were in bathing suits and immediately headed to the water to get their feet wet in the waves. Joe was able to join us after awhile and it was really helpful to have another adult for potty runs. We had a picnic lunch of pizza and grapes. Then the kids took a walk down the beach. Sadly Jamie and Charlie stepped on something pokey which made Charlie very sad. Be snuggled with me for awhile after that while the kids headed back to the grass. Soon enough it was time to pack up. We only had to stop once on the way home to get water out of the back for Brynn and Chloe. The boys went right to sleep and the girls had quiet time.

After quiet time the girls and I headed out to the pool and sunshine. They ran through a makeshift sprinkler and tried to swim. It was too cold though so I tried adding some hot water to no avail. These were the same kids in the sound that morning. After awhile they got dressed and the boys started waking up. Jamie made popcorn for snack and we continued to play and enjoy the sun. We ended in the front with wagon rides and chalk when Jentry arrived. We made dinner for the rest of the kids and did baths as Rikalos arrived.

Friday also happened to be my Birthday. So to celebrate Jamie arranged for Mallory to babysit so we could go to the iPic theater in Redmond for Iron Man 3. It was a great end to the day!