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!

Judah Update

Judah loves playing in the car. After he gets out of his seat he wants to play for awhile all over the car. So we have to budget some time for this. It actually works out quite nicely if I have to unload a lot of groceries or stuff from the car. Yesterday we weeded part of the garden adn found some left over carrots. So we dug them out and brought them inside to eat. Tonight I made a carrot soup using the smoked chicken broth I had made and froze, it was amazing. We also had homemade artesian bread, the fact that that is just mentioned in passing shows how awesome the soup was. Judah told me “good soup, mommy”. Judah had his bath and was running around naked after. I warned him sternly to come back to the potty if he had to go peepee (after learning the hard way that he just will pee on the floor). So he ran right back when he had to go and sure enough went right on the potty. Jamie has been sending video updates each morning and Judah loves to get a video from Daddy, he thinks it’s like a video chat and responds back to his Dad. He just started watching Veggie Tales and tonight wnated to watch “Bob”, I think he knows the characters from reading the books. Or maybe because he’s red, like Elmo. All things red are Elmo. On Monday I heard him count to three for the first time. We were listening to his music on the way to Stephanie’s, and they sang “here come the one, two, threes!” and Judah repeated it. He always had gotten stuck on two, repeating one, two, one, two. Yesterday he also said Charlie and Kaci for the first time in my hearing. When they had to go home for nap he cried very sadly and said, “my friends, my friends”. Good thing they came back over for bath, dinner, and playing.

Cleaning - The Oven

OK, so I've been trying to find a way to really get my oven clean for several months now. I tried a few things including the baking soda paste and elbow grease. Last night I tried something I saw on Pinterest, I know Pinterest, and it actually worked! I was amazed. I totally laughed while doing it too, at the fact it was actually working. I'm super bummed I didn't get a before picture in all it's hideous glory. I got a pic mid-way to try to show what the WHOLE glass area looked like before. The second pic is my clean oven door, really, that is my oven door. The magic tool in this cleaning experiment? The razor for scraping, it did the trick where rags and scouring pads wouldn't. Here's the link to how to do it. 
-Michelle

Snow Camping Adventure!

Here's some fun pics from our first snow camping adventure.

So, I had been wanting to go skiing all winter and I thought I wasn’t going to get a chance when it was already the end of March but I was wrong! We ski really late in Washington it turns out. Our friend, Chet, is a ski instructor up at Snoqualmie Pass and mentioned he was going to take his kids up the first weekend in April if the weather/snow cooperated. Hearing this we hatched a crazy last minute plan to take the trailer up and give it a go on the winter camping, plus show Judah real snow and maybe let me ski. It was a bit back and forth all week on whether to go, since the weather was more rain than snow. 

Finally, Friday morning we pulled the trigger on going. The benefit of going so late in the season was that we didn’t have to worry about crowds and getting a spot with the trailer, and parking. This was somethign that was concerning when we looked at Steven’s Pass and where they park trailers (up a switch back hill, parked within feet of each other, and requiring a turn), plus it fills up very fast. In fact, there was no one there when we arrived, we got the pick of the lot! So we put it right by the on/off ramp into the parking lot, over looking the slopes from our kitchen window. 

At this point it was pretty much just raining and we got pretty soaked in our venturing outside to unhook everything and play in the snow. So we started learning quick about how to deal with wet and cold while trailer camping. We had a dedicated door blanket for boots and gear. Wet stuff was taken off and hung on hangers in the shower to dry. It was definitely smart to have multiples, especially of gloves. I was really happy that I found some great kid gloves for Judah at the REI clearance rack, they held up really well to puddle splashing with the hands. Judah got to watch his very first ever full length feature film, Shrek, on the computer at the table. We made tacos for dinner and settled in for the night not expecting snow or skiing in the morning because it was still raining pretty steadily. 

The next morning we woke up and had breakfast adn played outside. The rain had started to turn to snow! By the time the Kaufman’s arrived it was snowing nicely. We all bundled up to go skiing while Jamie and Judah watched from the warmth of the trailer. The conditions were pretty hard, lots of wet snow that was hard to turn in and started catching your skiis as you got lower down and it was slushy. It was also super wet, definitely a multiple hat and glove day. I ended up hanging my absolutely drenched coat in the car to dry over the weathertec mats. Odessa was done after one long run and a few turns on the lower slopes on the magic carpet, so we skied right up to the trailer and she joined the boys for hot cocoa and movies. Chet, Dexter, and I did a few more runs before lunch. We had lunch and warmed up in the trailer while the kids watched movies. 

I took Judah’s tent out of his bunk and they enjoyed playing in there for awhile. I headed back out for a few more runs after lunch, while Kaufman’s decided to call it a day and Judah headed down for a nap. Judah had a hard time falling asleep, but ended up sleeping until about 5 when we went out to play a bit more. He wanted to run with the kids the next trailer over, but they were bigger and too fast to keep up with. We had a yummy dinner of mac and cheese and green beans and then Judah headed to bed. 

We woke the next morning to snow...lots and lots of it. About 6 inches. Oh, and avalanche cannons, lots of them, thankfully they started after 8:00. At this point, having not driven our Suburban in the snow really at all, much less towing a trailer, Jamie started to get a bit worried about making it out of the parking lot. We had a quick breakfast and then started packing things up. Just as people were starting to get there to enjoy the snow we got the truck all hitched up and headed out...with no problems at all. Our Suburban did great! Turns out the bigger concern is not getting blocked in by all the arriving skiers. We got right out onto interstate and less than 2 miles down the road the snow was all gone. So we didn’t get stuck, but had we gone the next weekend, they ended up with tons of snow, closing the pass, several avalanches, and a few people lost their lives. So always good to be prepared to stay a few days, extra food, clothes, and maybe some survival gear in the car?

Easter Weekend in Friday Harbor

Early Friday we headed up to SJI to visit the Zaehring clan for Easter. After a super foggy ferry ride over it cleared up and became beautiful for the rest of the weekend. We spent lots of time outside on the deck. The kids got to use the water table and ended up completely soaked in water. Ally was awesome in the yard, she stayed super close and always came when called. Sadly, her table manners left much to be desired as she grabbed food off the counters several times. Friday evening we planned dinner, making the Pioneer Woman’s Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork. Jamie fried up corn tortillas and Bryan made salsa fixings for them.

Saturday we got to have a farm adventure at Mike Carlson’s (Andi’s boss). We saw a baby calf which Judah got into the pen with Mike to pet very gently. They had a great dog that Judah also liked, as well as horses, more cows, and chickens. They also had tractors, buses, and trucks - oh my! Judah was in heaven, he got to sit on the tractor and drive it. He sat on Mike’s lap to drive another piece of equipment which was running which scared him quite a bit, so he went back to the non-running tractor. During nap Jenn and I loaded up the eggs and hid them in the backyard. Then we ran away from home for a little while and found Judah a monkey backpack at the Sand Pebble and got some more groceries. When the kid woke up we did a cooking craft and made Resurrection Rolls (also called Empty Tomb Rolls) which I found on my friends blog here.

While they were baking we took the kids out to hunt eggs! We assigned all the kids their own colors which helped since they hunted at different paces. They loved finding the eggs and opening them and eating the candy! We then had a lovely salmon dinner that Bryan prepared on the grill.

Sunday we all headed to church and made it there all looking put together, so we took a family picture. Our Easter lunch was yummy sandwiches back home before we headed out to catch the ferry. Judah was super tired on the ferry since it was nap time and he just sat and hung out in the booth with us. He fell asleep in the customs line which took an hour to get through and stayed asleep all the way home! Almost a 2 hour nap in his carseat, pretty awesome really. He woke up driving through Anacortes and said, “what you doing Mom?”, to which I answered driving and he fell back asleep. When we got home, our friends graciously invited us over for a dinner of ham, not just any ham though. This was from the pig we bought with them, that Jamie helped to brine and that was smoked on our smoker. Judah gobbled it up and kept going back for more. It was a great end to our Easter weekend.