Potty Training

We did it. We began our first {and hopefully only} attempt to potty train Nora. This decision has been a long time coming and we finally decided to do it because we had the time and most of what we had been waiting for had happened.

Janie was born 2 months before Nora turned 18 months old so although some people claim you can begin the process around that time, we knew it wasn't going to happen for us then with a new baby and lots of changes around the house. Also mommy & daddy were just tired most of the time those first few months anyways.

When last summer came, I told myself I would try to potty train her then, but then I backed down. I was not sure that I was ready for all of the challenges that came with having a child that had to use public restrooms all of the time. Plus, she had begun to show fear of going #2 and that was causing other issues. We decided to wait until that resolved itself.

Six months later, I'm not sure that it has been resolved, but at least she is not quite as terrified and she actually tries to sit on the potty without freaking out most every day. There was one time that she did go on the potty with grandma but we have never had any success with it.

Well, we decided that it's either now or never and went ahead and took the plunge over spring break. We talked about it the night before at bedtime and then again in the morning. Nora was totally on board. She wanted to use big girl underwear and she seemed to understand that she could not go potty in the underwear, only on the potty chair.

DAY ONE

So the first morning, she hung out with no pants. She ate, played, watched some TV, threw fits, etc. All in the nude. I had her sit on the potty every 30 minutes to try and she wasn't going. At all. After a couple hours of this I began to wonder if she would go at all before her nap time. I gave her a big cup of water/juice and she drank it all up. Then, around lunch time the action started...

First, Nora started to hold herself. I kept asking her if she needed to go potty, which she said she didn't. As more and more time passed, she got slightly more agitated and I could tell that she needed to go and knew that she should not be going sitting on her dinner chair. We kept sitting on the potty but then the fear came back full force. She was SO upset about letting it out into the potty. I do not know why this is so frightening to her other than that it is just a new experience - but, apparently it is terrifying.

She let out a little bitty drop and I made the biggest deal about it. Which didn't really help her get excited about it but she was happy that I gave her a marshmallow. It happened this way again (we were sitting on the potty about every 3 minutes at this point - every time she went back to the table and still had the urge to go she went back, much to her disappointment...) and she got another marshmallow. Finally after about 12 tries, a more substantial amount came out. YAY!! I told her how proud I was and gave her TWO marshmallows. But that was not the end...

Well, she wanted to put on her underwear now. I let her pick a pair and reminded her that we keep the underwear dry. She seemed to understand and was again getting agitated and returning to the potty every few minutes to try. And there were still quite a few tears over this. In my head I was ready to back off and try again another time, but I know she is ready - she is just scared. She's like this in most new situations and I know that she will get the hang of it.

We watched Bubble Guppies to calm her down and it worked. So much so that she went to the bathroom right on my lap. I rushed her to the potty but it was too late. She had gone quite a bit more on her underwear, pants, and me. We put on new underwear and talked about going potty when we felt like we needed to go. She got it. I think. And then later picked up on it and went to sit on the potty, but she had already started in her pants.

So, on pair #3 of underwear, we had a little bit of success but a few setbacks as well. For nap time, I put a pull-up on her but tried convincing her that Ariel did not want to get wet and that she should go potty right when she got up. I don't think she really took to that either and the rest of the afternoon she struggled with using the potty vs. going in her underwear. She couldn't quite time it all correctly.

DAY TWO

I decided that Nora should not wear underwear for day two. That obviously didn't work out so great so I kept her bottomless again. Day two was not a whole lot better. Nora was still terrified of using the potty and I had to all but force her to sit on it. She didn't seem to mind just sitting on her potty in the middle of the living room while she watched Bubble Guppies but as soon as she felt like she was actually going to go... it was trouble.

To top it all off, Janie had to go into the pediatrician for yet another ear infection (this would turn out to be her last before her tubes!) and I knew that I would either have to take a step back and put a pull-up on her or find someone to come over and force Nora to go to the restroom on the potty watch Nora while we were gone. AUNTIE K TO THE RESCUE! We were texting while I was gone about when Nora should need to potty, how much should come out, and how much she would have to physically hold her on the potty chair.

At least on the second day Nora didn't have as many accidents. She seemed to recognize the sensation of using the potty but she absolutely HATED doing it.

I was ready to call it quits after day two. I think I hated it more than she did. Trying to convince her to sit there and go potty all day long was awful. Some friends convinced me to keep working at it and so I did.

DAY THREE

Things started looking up. We were able to wear pants only this day. Nora started to try and use the potty on her own and have success with it. I could see her anxiety about using the potty start to fade away as the day went on and I finally felt like I could breathe again. It was still not smooth sailing and we were home all day for the third day in a row so I started to get a little nervous about leaving the house for the first time and going back to school and how that all would go.

After much more success on day three I was happy we continued with trying. Nora was happier and I was happier and it seemed like she finally got the process down. We may have had an accident that day but I don't remember it being nearly as awful as the first two days.

What you do when you're stuck at home for three days...

Pajama party!

Sunglasses!

Play with the delivery boxes!

DAY FOUR

We had plans for lunch this day and I was crossing my fingers that we could make an attempt out of the house for it. Nora woke up and used the potty so we put underwear on for the first time since the first day when we had lots of accidents. Nora had another successful potty experience while wearing underwear and I was SO excited for her!

When it came time to go to lunch, I asked her if we should put on a pull-up while out and she told me no; she wanted to wear her underwear. Nervously, we left the house and headed to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. I immediately showed her where the restroom was (she had not yet used a big potty - just her training potty) and must have asked her a-zillion times if she needed to go while we were eating. She kept saying no and then wanted to play.

Finally, she said she needed to go potty. YAY! I ran her into the bathroom but she did not go on that big, giant toilet. About five minutes later she said she needed to go again and this time... SUCCESS!! I made another huge deal out of using the potty & gave her special snacks from the backpack for doing so.

Nora did not want to wear a pull-up anymore. Ever. We had to convince her to wear one at nap & bedtimes but let her put her underwear on over it. I decided to let her go to school the next day and see if she could apply her potty training to another context. I let her know if she went potty all day long in the bathroom, we would go get ice cream after school. When I picked her up, it was good news! We went to Yogurtland and enjoyed yummy ice cream. Unfortunately, she would not use their potty (it was big & loud) & ended up having her first and only accident since potty training in the car on the way home.

Happy girl with her ice cream.

After four days straight of doing nothing but potty training, I finally felt like we'd turned a page. Nora has continued to use the potty as she should and since has had only that one #1 accident in her big girl undies. We are still struggling with #2 a little bit but she is trying to use the potty correctly I think the sensation is just different. On the flip side, she lately has been diaper-free 24 hours a day. Since she was waking up dry at both nap and bed times and immediately requesting to use the potty, we decided  to try naps first without a pull-up and then bed time. She was waking up & coming to the door when she needed to go potty even with pull-ups on so we figured we might as well give it a try. We are going to officially cancel our Amazon Prime pull-up subscription!

I'm sure we will have more accidents in our future but I have been happy that Nora has taken to using the big girl potty so well. And the experience has given us even more insight to her personality - she is cautious and can be timid but she is determined. Now we wait for Janie to be ready...!!!

Day at the Park

We had a fun afternoon with the girls at the park before dinner!

Thomas the Train

We took the girls on their very first train ride!

Every year Grapevine has a Thomas the Train event where they dress up their traditional train engine to look like a Thomas the Train. Although neither of our girls know what or what Thomas the Train is, we thought it sounded like a fun thing to do with the girls and were going to meet up with their cousin Hunter to ride the train!

Janie sees the "choo choo"!

The train ride was about 30 minutes long (15 minutes down & 15 minutes back) and they played music which was (I guess) from Thomas the Train the whole time.

Nora really liked watching all the things we passed by while on the train ride. She would point to things and talk about things and pretty much stayed in her seat the whole time.

Janie was happy but wanted to move around a bit more. She wanted to stand by herself on the ground & hold on the railing, or stand on the seat & hold on to the railing. She kept her cool for most of the train ride and it ended up being about the perfect length of ride for her.

The train itself is pretty neat - it's a vintage rail car. I didn't have any air conditioning which made for a warm ride, but it was a neat little train!

I am looking forward to getting our Polar Express tickets (as soon as they become available...) so that we can ride the train again in our pajamas!!

Tubes

We've had some minor health issues come up with Janie over the last few months. I'm looking at her health history report from our last doctor's visit and we have been to our pediatrician EVERY MONTH since she was born. And twice in her 14th month. Half of those visits have been well checks but she has been just as much for other things, bless her little heart!! Early on it was her head shape and then it was her allergy to dairy. But now, it's ear infections which I know are a super common issue with little babes.

When Janie was eight or nine months old, she got her first ear infection. It seems like every time since then that she has gotten a runny nose or congestion of any kind the pattern is the same: fever, visit the doctor, ear infection. Since then, we've had three more ear infections which has since resulted in a referral to the ENT (ear, nose, throat) doctor.

While visiting the ENT, Janie's ears got a much closer look. They found fluid behind her ear drums that probably has just been lingering there for some time. They tested her ear drums to see how much (or little) they moved and discovered that they did not move nearly as much as they should. That along with a simple hearing test determined that she has a mild hearing loss. This is pretty common in littles with recurring ear infections and is resolved by simply relieving the ear of the fluid and results in full function of the ear.

Obviously, Janie's hearing is not THAT terrible because she seems to be developing speech patterns and using words just fine, but at her age she will continue to pick up many new words so we felt it was very important to return her hearing to a normal level. Our ENT felt as if Janie was a good candidate to get ear tubes and we decided to go for it - as many other parents do! Obviously we want her to be well and to be able to hear correctly but we also don't want Janie to have to endure more and more rounds of antibiotics to keep infections at bay either.

About a week into our last round of amoxicillin, I noticed a few little red bumps on Janie at bath time. We had been playing outside and I thought that she had either gotten into some grass and reacted or had a few bug bites. We put her to bed trying to not be too concerned about it but when we got her up the next morning... YIKES. She was COVERED in hives from head to her toe. (She literally had them on her eyes and on her toes...) Luckily, she didn't seem to be too bothered by them. Dr. B. was surprised that she slept through the night! At the time, I still didn't really know what the culprit was but our pediatrician said it was the medicine. I dosed her with Benedryl, which brought the swelling down, but the rash still looked so crazy! It looked more like what I remember MY reaction to antibiotics being when I was pregnant with Janie... Hmm... Some oral steroids and mommy snuggles and we were back to business as usual the next day.

AFTER Benedryl

We really didn't want to mess with any more infections & antibiotics. The doctor was able to get her into surgery the following week. Of course I was more concerned than I needed to be. It just seems like such a big deal when your baby is going under anesthesia (!!!!!!) for a procedure. After talking to some people about what to expect {a BIG thank you to those I reached out to about this!} I was feeling alright about it and was prepared to endure the worst of it, enjoy snuggles, and have Janie back to normal by afternoon.

On the day of surgery, you cannot eat 8 hours before, meaning no food for a toddler that has no idea why... Our time was 7:30. I didn't get Janie up until the last possible second, we hopped in the car, and left. I made sure to have a blanket, a lovee, a sippy cup, & some crackers for after surgery. All was great! We walked into the COMPLETELY FULL waiting room right on time. Bad sign. We sat there for an HOUR waiting for them to call us back. Luckily, Janie was pretty well mannered. Not sure if it was the fact that she was still waking up, that we were in a new place, or that there was some strange cartoon show on the TV - but it worked.

Yay! We're headed back to get this ball rolling... or so I thought. We waited another HALF HOUR before the anesthesiologist walked over to tell us that it would be another HALF HOUR before our surgery! I mean, I know it's out of their control and they did all that they could but this could have been really ugly. I mean - really ugly. We all got lucky and if you have met Janie, you know that child has some voice projection. Also, I'm pretty sure my ENT thinks I'm a bit of a mess - the first time I met him, Janie plucked my bracelet spilling tiny little beads all over the floor of his patient room. This time we talked to him before surgery and all the gift cards from my wallet were sprawled across the floor due to Janie's unpacking of every crevice of my purse while we waited.

Before surgery

I kept waiting for them to bring a stretcher of sorts to get her situated on. But... they didn't. They simply came & got her & carried her back into the "surgery area." I walked out to the waiting room & text everyone that I knew was waiting on an update (after all, it had been two hours since we were scheduled...) and then I was called back in! This time was just to meet with the doctor. I made sure that I was extra put together & took thorough notes to make up for my messy-mommy status. HAHA! I waited some more and text another round of updates and mentally prepared myself to comfort my terrified & confused daughter as she came out of anesthesia and when I was called back to see her, there she sat - happy as a clam being rocked in a chair by the nurse and drinking some juice... I was super thankful that I didn't have to witness that, if it happened. I knew she was feeling herself again when she screamed at me about the little oxygen level tester that was taped to her foot and dropped her cup on the floor multiple times.

Although we had to wait a long time to get into surgery, I will say that I thought the staff really handled the procedural part of everything well. It was nice to not have to see Janie upset at all or out of sorts. When we left the surgery center, they let her pick out a stuffed puppy. She got the biggest smile on her face when they gave it to her and would not let it go for the longest time.

Riding home with that puppy...

We spent the rest of the morning eating crackers, watching American Idol, and snuggling on the couch until she went down for her nap. After waking up, she has not skipped a beat. We just finished giving her the post-op ear drops and you would have no idea that she had anything done! We will go back in a few weeks to check with the ENT and make sure her hearing and ear drum tests are improved and then that will be that.

Happy to have food, drink & a puppy - and 

unwilling to put any of them down.

We are very happy we had this taken care of and are looking forward to an infection-free toddler!

Easter

Our Easter celebrations this year started the weekend before with an egg hunt at a local farm that does some thematic celebrations throughout the year. We headed out in the morning with our baskets and geared up the girls for the egg hunt. If you've been to one of these mass egg hunts, you know that there are just eggs sprawled everywhere and the people running the show basically have to hold the parents the kids back behind the start line until it begins. So slowly, the crowds accumulate until they give the go ahead and then it's a mad dash to the eggs. If your child is quick enough, they can fill their basket with ease. But if your child is like mine and likes to stop and open each one as they pick it up, examining their contents carefully, then put it back together all before they put it in their basket, then you end up with six eggs total between two toddlers. But, we had a good time and everyone was happy having one or two eggs to open on occasion.

We waited in a very long line that went right by the port-a-potties where a conversion along the lines of this went on...

Nora: "What's that mommy?" pointing to said port-a-potty

Me: "That's a potty."

Nora: "I need to go potty."

So of course we then had to find daddy and then take the adventure into the port-a-potty only to discover that you cannot flush them and therefore she will not use it. Nora did however lock and unlock the door about four times before I just carried her out and got back in line. Unsuccessful first port-a-potty attempt. But no accident for the day so all was fine! Nora enjoyed petting the bunnies, trying to feed the goats, and listening to the baby duck say "quack! quack!"

Janie slept the rest of the time we were there.

Both girls also had an egg hunt at school. The weather was less than ideal for the afternoon and in order to beat a thunderstorm, the girls went egg hunting at the same time. This time, the girls each got a few more eggs to take home so that was good for everyone (mommy loves Easter candy!!!).

The weekend of Easter we went over to Mimi & Pops' house to eat brunch, color eggs, and have another little egg hunt in the front yard. The girls had a good time going around to find all of the eggs and it lasted much longer since they didn't have any competition! Nora liked coloring the eggs and could probably have made more than the eight that I boiled.

On Easter Sunday we went to church as a family. We got up and got everyone ready and out the door and made it (miraculously) to church on time! The girls were great as we sat through the church service until just towards the end when Janie got sick over EVERYTHING and we had to hastily clean up & get out of there. Nora did get a few more eggs that morning at church but we did not get to take a cute little family picture. I intend on having a re-do day sometime soon!

Nora at church with me on Good Friday.

Our Easter selfie.

Later in the day we had our own egg hunt at home (EASTER BUNNY!!!) and the girls got to go through their baskets. I remember last Easter hanging outside all morning but this year that just didn't happen as it had been raining and Janie obviously wasn't feeling that great. I also made a big Easter dinner for the four of us including ham, scalloped potatoes, pineapple casserole, & honey glazed carrots. Yum!

This year was the first time that Nora could talk about the Easter bunny and really looked forward to her egg hunts! And Janie could go and pick up her own eggs. It was a great Easter season!