Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Potty Training Twins

Oh the joy's of Potty Training. Or should I say, "the craziness!" of Potty Training instead!?
sidenote: someday I am going to make a book out of my blog, otherwise I might not write so much about potty training, but it just might be interesting to go back and look at someday. Or for Atley and Avery to look at when they are mommies themselves and ONE of them wonders why her little girl is so hard to potty train....

So, we are on day 3. Let me QUICKLY recap days 1 and 2.
Day 1: I am pretty geared up for potty training and have thought of just about everything I can to prepare for the day. Our living room rug is rolled up and stored away for a while, two potty chairs are sitting right in the middle of the living room, reward charts are taped up, stickers ready, towels and vinegar/water spray are ready for messes. I also went to the library and got a copy of "Once Upon a Potty for Her" the book, and DVD! The girls love it, especially Atley and it has helped in leading up to potty training and we watch it about 20 times a day. seriously. Oh yes, I do have a 6 month old who regularly needs me to feed, change, carry him, love on him, and nap him, so this might prove to be more difficult than I thought. maybe.
Avery is a champ. The first time I ask, she pees on the potty.
Atley doesn't want to go.
So about 1 1/2 hrs. later Avery has gone about 6 times and Atley has had 1 accident on the floor. We're doing pretty good. All day they did a great job, we played outside and even though neighbors would drive by, only a few actually noticed that my girls had shirts on...but no underwear. Yes, they are going bottomless here at home for a while. I tried to fix dinner and in all my focusing on the girls...I nearly burnt the house down. really. We were out in the garage (which my wonderful husband so nicely cleaned out) playing and I forgot that I had started some pasta on the stove. When I came back in to check if Canon was awake...he was screaming in his room and smoke was everywhere! I had to open all the doors and windows and 2 days later, I still smell it! See the burt pot below for proof. This was by far the worst I've had yet.
You can't stop living, so on our first day of potty training, we put on diapers at 5:30 and went to watch daddy play basketball. It was totally worth it since we don't get to go to that many games.
Thoughts for the day: Avery is a peeing CHAMP! I knew she peed more than Atley since her cloth diapers are always soaked and leaking...and I know she loves to drink more than her sister as well. But I had NO IDEA she peed that many times during the day! I'm going to have to restrict her water consumption once she is in big girl underwear. Atley on the other hand is going through a hard stage called "I'm a little independant sweetheart, who thinks by whining or throwing a fit I'll get what I want." So...I'm reading "The Strong Willed Child" by Dr. James Dobson and really enjoying it, but not the behavior. So the sweet girl is having a hard time wanting to do what I ask, or trying to go potty when I ask, so accidents are happening a little more frequently for her. But since she doesn't pee NEARLY as often as Avery, she only had 2 the first day. They both pooped in their diapers once we put them to bed. :)
Day 2: I'm a little less excited about the day now that I know how utterly exhausting day 1 was. I felt like I was constantly on the move.
Avery is a champ by now. Her only accidents are when she is sitting at the table to eat lunch or dinner. She catches herself and finishes on the potty. great job! We are still working on Atley's independance, and having her sister to watch is helping her. If she sees Avery do the potty dance and get a sticker too, then she wants one. So a few times she has gone straight to the potty and peed, just to get a sticker. But hey, that's why i'm doing stickers right?! Avery even pooped on the potty with no help from me!
Our goal today was to take a walk around the block without diapers. So even though it wasn't THAT cold here, they went bare bottomed but with hats and jackets on. They did a great job and neither girl had an accident on the walk. When we got home, they both peed in the potty.
Day 3: wow, i'm tired of potty training. when is this going to end? Ok, I'm going to have a good attitude and kick it up notch. First things first, we went on a HOUR walk with Ashley all the way to the town center. neither girl peed in the stroller (we had a potty in the stroller basket just in case) and both peed upon arriving home....Atley all over the floor. While I was feeling crazy, we then loaded up in the minivan and headed for the library and to Starbucks. Two SHORT errands, and hey...I deserved a sweet treat at this point right? I put towels in their carseats and Avery peed in hers.
Once we got home things got a little crazy. While I was nursing Canon, Atley pooped on the floor (at this point she hadn't gone since Mon. which is a long time for her). Once she made it to the potty there was no more to come, but she peed on the potty, so praises she got. However I am still nursing this whole time, and trying to keep them both away from the 3 poopies on the floor. Thank goodness for WOOD FLOORS is all I have to say:)
No more accidents all day!
So I know I'm on Day 3 of the rest of their little diaper free lives (except for naps and nights of course), and I'm so grateful they are interested in the potty and doing a good job for me. I know accidents WILL happen and that they WILL learn, but it won't happen over night.
More updates to come as we progress on this new journey of potty training TWO TWO year olds!

Watching the movie, while sitting on their pottys

Sweet Canon posing next to the Lemonade...thanks Aunt Julie!

The burnt pot...I'm STILL working on getting it clean, yuck!

Our walk on day 2.

I couldn't resist! Sweet little bum peeking out from under her jacket :)

Cutie Atley in her new hat

Since I am not allowing them on the couch this week, they have to lay on the floor. You can make anything fun, and they were pretending to be asleep for this picture.

Phillip's Grandma Hunter moved here last week from Washington St! She is living in an assisted living home and we are so glad she is here. The dogs love her too :)

Canon fell asleep in Phillip's arms after church on Sunday

Little mommy Avery

Atley in her tutu.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Heads up for Potty Training 101

Today is my second day of potty training the girls. Let me just say that potty training TWO TWO YEAR OLDS with a 6 month old baby on my hip has been a little exhausting. They are doing GREAT, and as good as can be expected. But I'm a little on the tired side...so you'll have to wait until tomorrow night for some real potty 101 updates. I'll post some pics and stories while Phillip is at ZOE. Off to take a mini nap while my 3 small children are all sleeping! :)

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Orange for Stellan

Mckmama's son Stellan had surgery yesterday and literally thousands of people wore orange for him, took pictures, and sent them in, and they are posted here. We've been keeping up with her blog since before Canon was born. She has 4 kids, 4 and under. Her youngest son, Stellan, is a week younger than Canon so all of his health issues really touch a cord with me since I can only imagine Canon in the same awful situation. So we took a picture, along with all her other blog followers (her blog has reached almost 8 million hits at this point...) and sent it in. One of these days I will actually get a picture of ALL 3 smiling, but just getting the twins to smile was a feet in itself!

Atley in her bum genius cloth diaper. They are 28 months on Saturday, and we are starting Potty Training NEXT WEEK! Pray for me! :)

Speaking of potty training, you know its time to start when they are trying to change each other's diapers. This is what I walked around the corner to the other day.

Avery has really enjoyed sitting on Atlely lately. She likes to hang on her back, or sit on her back. Atley eventually joins in the fun, but has to protest at first. There are so many fun things about having twins, and this small thing brings me joy to watch.

Riding the pony....or her sister:)

Saturday, April 18, 2009

my blog friends

if you have never looked at my "blogs I love", now is the time.
Please click on the "praying for Stellan" link to the right, to catch up on MckMama's little boy who was just flown to Boston for a possible ablation of his heart. She is a Christian, proclaiming the Word of Christ in her blog, crying out to Him, and letting THOUSANDS of people join this journey with her.
Also, my friend Shalene just blogged about something VERY serious that you should all take a look at too. Check out the Roberts blog.

These are real life things that are happening and far more interesting than me blogging about Avery climbing out of her crib on Thursday, or Canon rolling over both ways, or Atley knowing shapes and colors at just two years old. I think Christ's return is fastly approaching, and my desire is to be ready!!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Easter

Jesus is Risen! This is why we celebrate Easter! Looking back on our day it is easy to see how Satan so easily tries to steal our joy and Jesus' fame. A day to celebrate, and we did, but we also did our fare share of complaining. To make it short, we had the prettiest dresses, shoes, bows, Canon's perfectly new white outfit, and 3 hours to get ourselves all together for church. I also made a rice dish for lunch. I started the day by announcing, "Jesus is Risen! and explaining Jesus' life and death and resurrection. And then it quickly turned into planning how to get them all fed, dressed, Canon a nap, Canon to eat again, get myself ready, the girls to not tear or stain their outfits before they got to church. It seemed like a much more crazy Sunday morning than usual...and Phillip even came home to help for 15 minutes so that I myself could get in the shower. Once we actually got to church Atley fell out of the stroller, and then wanted to sit where Canon was, and nothing was going as usual. If I am calm and relaxed, usually it really makes an impact on them and they themselves are calm and don't get too uptight. But not today. Church was wonderful, lunch with our family at the Brookes was wonderful, but somewhere along the way in my heart I lost the JOY of Easter! I'm already planning and thinking how next year can be different and how I need to spend some time actually PRAYING about the day instead of just planning out outfits and food to eat. It is all a learning process, but in my heart I want it ALL to be about the Lord and HIS glory and not about my children's cuteness and getting to church "all put together".

This was my first attempt at getting a picture of Atley in her dress. They really loved their dresses and didn't mind staying in them all day long. They love their shoes, and even loved their bracelets. (After we put them on, took them off, and put them on like 3x)

Avery in her dress smiling up at me. She has been a little sick lately with a cold. Canon finally got it yesterday, and as we were putting Atley to bed tonight I noticed she is definetly getting it too. What goes around comes around :)

The girls got to hunt for Easter Eggs and it was SO sweet to watch them. Phillip's mom had filled eggs full of organic treats for the girl which I really appreciated (thank you!) and Phillip and his brother's hid them in the Brooks' front yard. It was all for them and at first they didn't really know what to do, so after some prompting and showing, they started to get into it. They went everywhere together and would give each other eggs when there were two to get. They are very good at sharing and I was proud of the way they took care of each other.

Atley filling up her basket!

Avery had the greatest smile and laugh as she would see an egg and start running toward it.

sharing sharing

After their "nap" they were sorting through their goodies, all excited about what they got.
"Nap" refer to climbing out of their pack and plays twice and being found in Joe and Bab's bathtub playing with excersise balls! TWICE! They had gotten spanked and cried, and then instigated each other to climb out again! I'm thinking pack and play days are over for them!

Our first Easter with 3 kids!

Matt and Lauren, Josh and Julie, Papa and Mimi, and us :)

Aunt Lauren and Aunt Julie with sweet Canon

My sweet hubby and I

The cutest little boy on earth! He had little white Robeez on with yellow ducks, but Avery had already pulled them off at this point and tried them on all of her baby dolls.

HAPPY EASTER
JESUS IS RISEN
Praise you Lord for your Grace on me!

Friday, April 10, 2009

QUICK look back at March

So we have about 75 or more pictures just from the month of March. Here are about 10 just to sum up the month.

Avery and Atley love brushing their teeth. The trick is getting them to only brush their teeth...and not the floor, table, baby doll, etc. :)

Sweet smile


Here is Canon playing with his feet...which looks a lot like his sister Atley playing with her feet when she was 7mths old. (Canon is only 5)

Phillip gave Canon his first "official" haircut with the 3 guard. He had some stray hairs that were going crazy....like his hair isn't crazy anyway!

Sweet boy at Nana and Pop's house sitting so big in the rocking chair.

Atley was pushing Canon and he loved it.

We went to Purina Farms last week for their Easter Celebration and it was so sweet for the girls to get to pet all the baby animals. They loved it, and Canon thought it was something new to look at, and as you guessed...I didn't NOT touch one animal:)

Sweet boy wearing tights! It was April here, Cardinals Opening Day, and COLD! So what do you do when your Cardinals gear is all short sleeved and shorts? Put on tights! The girls did the same thing with their new pink Cardinals outfits, but before I could get a picture of them they had orange highlighter and orange soup all over their new white shirts...ahh! yes, I was able to get it out:)

And how can I resist taking tons of pictures of my little man who is so adorable?! Here he is LOVING playing with his daddy's face.

Feels good to have my computer back. I'll be updating a lot more often now...I think:)


Saturday, April 4, 2009

we are back

We made it.  We are home.  Laundry is almost done, spring clothes are getting organized, computer is still in the shop.

Things I'll be posting about soon:
climbing out of cribs (not our own thank goodness!)
my amazing hubby
purina farms (we went today!)
3 babes in a tub

:)