Big Girl!

I'm sure everyone is tired of hearing about the potty . . . but this is one happy mama and I just have to write about it! Emily has done so well since Friday. We have been so proud of her. She even went to school today in training pants and stayed dry! I spoke to her teacher to ask her to take her about every 90 minutes if that didn't disrupt class, and they said she went each time and stayed dry!!! Yea!!!! So we didn't even use the p@ll ups that we bought. I noticed on Saturday and Sunday when we used those that we never could get Emily to go to the bathroom. I think it's because when she has those on she can't tell when she needs to go . . . I never thought this would happen so quickly. I'm so excited. I even got rid of the little potty yesterday! She is going on the big potty with the little chair on top.

Last night during bath time she put all her clothes in the hamper, got on the potty and went, flushed and got in the tub all by herself. It's like . . . one day you help them with everything. . . and the next day they are doing it by themselves . . . I just marveled in that moment : )

Well if Abigail never really takes to the chair we bought this weekend, we are definitely getting our money's worth with Emily:

She sat in this chair today while she watched T$nkerb@ll. She has to put the tray on there too. When she gets up she tells me it's Abigail's turn to sit in the chair and when Abigail's turn is over it will be her turn again. "We have to take turns mom". She's a hoot. The girl hasn't taken a nap since Saturday . . . I think she is too hyped up on chocolate from all her treats : ) I think it's time to phase those out . . .

New Baby Gadgets

This weekend we went to our friend Korrigan's 3rd birthday party. He had a firetruck come visit and the kids took a ride on the truck.

Emily decided she wasn't going to get near it though. The siren scared her so she decided to stick close to dad instead.

Here is the birthday boy climbing on the truck:
We got Abigail all bundled up to go check everything out:
Korrigan's mom made the cake. I was SO impressed!

Abigail has been wanting to sit up more so I've been propping her up on the edge of our chair. She found her thumb while sitting up:

Because she has been wanting to sit up more I went to my favorite web site: cr@igs list and bought her this chair:
Emily had to try it out too:
Last night we sat her in it during dinner. She even played with some linking letters:
Don't let this contentment fool you though. She lasted in the chair about 5 minutes and then got REALLY loud until someone got her out. So we still haven't been able to all eat dinner at once together : ) But I know that this too shall pass . . .

Our friends Jason and April let us borrow this jumpy seat for Abigail. Here she is checking it out today:
It sure does take a lot of contraptions to keep a baby happy!!!!

Emily has continued to do well all weekend in potty training. I'm so proud of her! We had a dry weekend and we are dry today!

Mismatched clothes

Emily has been wearing mismatched clothes all week . . .but all for a great reason! I decided to take the plunge again into potty training and this time I decided I was going to stick to my guns and have no turning back. No matter how many accidents . . . Emily wears training pants at home . . . no diapers (except during sleep time). So I have a laundry basket at the foot of the stairs with lots of knit pants and training pants. When she has an accident she just goes to the laundry basket to get a new pair of everything. I've been doing lots more laundry this week but I don't care.

And we are F-I-N-A-L-L-Y making progress!!!!! I know I've made every mistake in the book and have lost my cool when I wasn't supposed to and wasn't consistent before . . . and we have a VERY stubborn child : ) So hopefully after all of the learning on both our parts, we are now on the road to having 1 child diaper free. Emily has accidents and still only wants to go on her little potty . . . but hey . . . the girl is going. She wants me to set the timer for her and still puts up a little fight from time to time . . . but she has had numerous successes this week. Hallelujah!!!!

I've cleaned up some messes this week I thought I would never be able to handle . . . but I've gone to my "happy place" and cleaned them up. Last night for the very first time ever Emily pooped in the tub . . . gross!!!! Thank heavens Joe was at home and tackled that mess for me . . . I just couldn't do it.

Here is my sweetie pie in her mismatched clothes for the day. Way to go Emily!!!! We are so proud!!!!

This is the best smile I could get out of her this morning . . . .she is already hyped up on M and M treats this morning from her 3 successes before 11:00 a.m.!
So what have I learned thru all of this? To let go of trying to control so much of the situation myself. To not hang over her all the time to make sure she doesn't have accidents. If she does, she does. I've also learned to make sure she is setup to try to go and then walk away to give her some privacy. The whole hanging out and reading books strategy just distracted her from what needed to be done. This works great for some children but not Emily. I also learned not to make her sit there forever hoping she would go. I have her try to go and if after a minute or so she hasn't gone, then get up and reset the timer. I also learned from someone yesterday NOT to give her a ton to drink. I had heard to let them drink alot but that just seemed to cause more accidents for Emily because she was going every 15 minutes and believe me . . . trying to get her to go every 15 minutes was not helping the situation. So now I limit her intake of liquids and we try about every 45 minutes . . . I get a much better response from her then because I'm not interrupting her play time as much. We are also finally switching to P@ll Ups for school next week. I said I would never use these but we need to move away from diapers all together. It will be easier for her teachers at school if she has one of those on instead. I also learned to give her choices in the situation. If she doesn't want to try to go on the big potty then don't make a big deal out of it. I will just have to get over the grossness of cleaning out the little potty because she has chosen to use that one. I also let her choose what treat she wants when we have success. This has helped too in the motivation. I'm also now firm about it. When it's time to try I don't ASK her if she wants to go . . . I tell her it's time to try. If she doesn't move towards the bathroom then I give her a choice of trying to go to the bathroom or choosing to give up a toy that she is playing with. She gets to choose and I'm not pleading or arguing with her about trying. Because the girl is smart . . . she'll drag it out forever if I let her. In fact the other day she chose to give up her toy so I took her toy and moved on.

I hope all this info helps someone who is just as clueless as I am about how to do this! And I hope to read this again in a couple of years when we try all this on Abigail : )

I know this is just a journey and it will be a while before she is in underwear all the time with no accidents . . . but at least we are finally on THAT journey!

P.S. Update. February 5, 2010 will forever be the day that it "clicked" with Emily!!! She had 1 small accident this morning but I'm happy to report that the rest of the day was accident free!!!!!!!!!!!! She even stayed dry during her nap and went to the bathroom right when she got up. YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rolling Over

Abigail rolled over from front to back for the first time tonight. We were all there to witness it! She did it 3 times for us. Of course I had to capture it on video so enjoy:




Today was the first day since last Sunday that Emily didn't have a fever. So we hope the flu has now come and gone from the Wilson house! She still has some congestion and a cough but was in much better spirits today.

Routine

In the midst of Emily's illness this week, Abigail has started falling into a little routine! I've been putting her in her bed more and more during her naps to get her used to falling asleep on her own, instead of having her in the swing or walking the floor with her getting her to doze off. Well this week it seemed to click with her, for whatever reason, we are thankful! She is very sensitive when she gets tired . . . so if you don't catch her in her small window of "I'm tired, let me go sleep" then she will scream her head off and be VERY mad about it : ). So this week I have fed her, let her have some wake time, and then after she's been awake for about an hour and a half, I cuddle with her a couple of minutes and then put her in her bed, swaddle her, give her kisses and walk away. She fusses for a little bit trying to find her thumb . . . and then she is quiet . . . yea! It feels so good to be at this place . . . . when your baby starts to be more predictable. She is still a mystery to me in the evenings. She is tired around our dinner time but doesn't want to be away from the action. So the little squirt usually gets held at night which makes getting dinner ready or cleaning up an adventure. . . but I'm o.k. with that. She usually stays awake with us and hangs out and then wants to go to bed around 8 or 8:30 and sleeps till morning (between 6:30 and 7:30).

Way to go little Abigail! Your mommy sure is happy. Keeping you happy and not crying sure has become easier . . . and we thank you!

She has also started to laugh and that is a joy to hear. Last night at the dinner table she was laughing at Emily . . . sweet sweet.

Of course as I've been trying to type this out, Abigail is in her bed crying and won't settle down for a nap : ) She knows I'm writing about how sweet and predictable she is becoming and wants to keep me on my toes. Well off to comfort for a little bit . . .

. . . yeah . . . I'm talking about you little one:

Sick

Emily has the flu and it's been a really rough week at the Wilson household. She was fine on Saturday when we had her 3 year pics and Abigail's 3 month pics . . . and then Sunday woke up with a fever. She has never been this pitiful before during an illness. Pray that she gets well soon and that Abigail does NOT get it. Pray for patience for me to get thru each day . . .

Here are the pictures we got taken on Saturday. We of course have a TON of pictures now. My favorite place to get pics taken has closed so we went to a new place where you had to get so many sheets of each pose you pick . . . so we have a ton. If anyone wants a picture of our children feel free to ask . . . we have plenty!

Thumb

Abigail sucked her thumb three different times yesterday. She was sleeping in her bed yesterday afternoon and had been in there for about 2 hours. It is rare for her to nap that long during the day in her bed so I went to check her out:
In fact, she is sucking her thumb right now while I'm typing this : )

Here are the outfits Emily and Abigail wore this morning for our errands. Too cute!:

And to see her in action, here is a video of Abigail sucking her thumb: