Kyra vs. The Potty: Round 2

A long, long time ago....
I can still remember
How that potty did not make Kyra smile.
And I knew if she had a second chance
She could do that pee pee dance
And make mommy happy for a while.

But February made her shiver
And no pee pee did she deliver
Bad news in the diaper
I couldn't get too hyper.

I can't remember if I cried
When Kyra would go off and hide
To poo poo without me by her side
The day the potty training died.

So we said bye-bye to potty time
Put the pull-ups in the closet
To keep them dry.
And them good ol' diapers were back on her backside
Singing "Oh well, we gave it a try. We will do better next time."



Today marked the beginning of the "next time". After months of half-hearted attempts to get Kyra potty trained, I had finally had enough. Jim and I agreed that it was going to take team work and 100% dedication on our part to give Kyra a fair shot at learning to use the potty, so he took the day off work today and we began our "P90-X" version of potty training.

Earlier this week, I took Kyra to Wal-Mart (ah, Wal-Mart) and let her pick out her "big girl" panties. She chose a 3 pack of Minnie Mouse and a 7 pack of Sesame Street themed underwear. First thing this morning, I put her on the toilet (Kyra has declared she'd rather use the "big potty" than the "little potty") and then into her first pair of panties. She chose a very chic Minnie Mouse glitter pair to get us started with a bang.

After breakfast, we once again sat on the potty, but after 20 minutes still had yet to put any pee pee in the toilet. Knowing it would drive us both insane to keep her on the potty for eternity, I opted to let her play for 10 minutes and then try again. Of course less than 10 minutes later she peed all over the play room floor and even managed to get the front side of the couch. I rushed her to the bathroom and put her back on the toilet to make sure she was finished while Jim cleaned up the mess. We then put on panty #2. And next I filled her juice cup.

Part of our strategy for the day was to keep her filled with fluids to give her the maximum number of opportunities to get familiar with using the toilet and that "gotta go" feeling. The first 4 hours of the day were measured by trial and error. We underestimated how quickly the juice would work it's way through her system and panty #2 didn't stand a chance. Neither did my entire outfit for that matter as I scooped her up onto my hip and raced her to the bathroom as soon as she began to pee.

By lunch time we had cleaned the floor three times and changed panties five. Panty #6, a simple little Elmo pair, actually lasted several hours. After Kyra's first 3 major accidents, she began to alert us right as she was about to start peeing and we were able to make it to the potty before anything besides her underwear got soiled. We had one more major accident toward the end of the evening, but Kyra managed to end the day in panty #8. Which means I didn't need to reuse the 5 pairs I frantically washed at noon "just in case".

All in all I would say today was a success. Kyra definitely is taking steps in the right direction and I'm hoping tomorrow she'll begin to give us enough warning to keep her cute little panties dry.






*Thanks goes out to Aunt Katie for encouraging me by recommending some blogs on potty training.

Craftiness

I am extremely blessed to be a stay-at-home-mom. But recently I found myself stuck in a rut. And this particular rut was the "lack of creativity when it comes to activities with my kids" rut. I was bored. They were bored. It was getting old fast. So, nearly a month ago, in a desperate attempt to claw my way out of the rut, I grabbed a flyer at the local mall promoting free kids art classes. And when we got home, it nearly ended up in the trash, but was saved by the nagging reminder of boredom in the back of my brain.

So now I had a way out of the boredom. I just had to get myself on the right path to reach my destination. In an attempt to chain myself to the train going that direction, I called my sis-in-love, Katie (who also conveniently is an elementary art teacher) and asked her if she would join us for Kyra's first "art class". She agreed and unknowingly locked the chain around me and threw away the key. We were getting out of our rut. We were trying something new. We were going to "Mommy and Me Sea Turtles" art class.

And it was a success. Despite the craziness that was Kylie without a nap. Despite the fact that the "teacher" nearly gave my twenty-something-year-old sister-in-love a stroke because she didn't really have a clue how to teach kids under age 5. Despite the fact that I carried two "turtles" made out of egg cartons around the mall for an hour so they could dry. It was awesome. We did something new and interesting and FREE.

And since that first introduction to the quaint little art class at the mall the experience has gotten better and better. Better because we have gone the last two weeks with our friends Foster and Rowan. Better because we discovered story time at Borders is right after the art class. Better because the Chick-fil-a cow visits story time and gives out goodies like balloons and crayons and FREE KIDS MEALS. Better because we immediately enjoy our free kids meals and then exchange the toy for free ice cream. Better because this week the free ice cream was 4 times the size it is supposed to be. Better because we're out of the rut. We may be getting into a new one, but at least this one involves crayons, paint, friends, cows, chicken nuggets, and ice cream.

Big Sis + Lil Sis = Love

One of the reasons I was secretly hoping our second child was a girl:

Lucky Number 7

June 27th, 2009 marked 7 years of marital bliss for Jim and I. But the anniversary celebration was a little delayed this year due to our amazing vacation to the Outer Banks with all our friends. Our anniversary fell on our last day in NC and we decided we wanted to spend as much time as possible with our friends, so we agreed to do something at a later date. That later date ended up being July 25th - 26th when we escaped to historic Georgetown in Washington DC for an overnight getaway. It was WELL worth the month long wait.

Jim had been in Baltimore, MD for work most of the week, so I drove down and picked him up as soon as he was done tearing down their booth on the last day of the trade show. We plugged our destination address into his iPhone and hit the open road. We made good time getting into DC and to the hotel. Even considering we drove past it once because the tiny placard that marked the hotel's location was a little unassuming from the main street. What hotel would have such a "marquee"? How about a classy little joint called the Ritz Carlton. We were able to book a 750 sq foot suite at the Ritz for our getaway. And, thanks to a huge amount of "points" Jim had been accumulating on his eBay credit card, it cost us next to nothing.

The room was what you'd expect of a suite at the Ritz: a long entry hallway leading into a lounge area with a couch, entertainment center, and desk; then french doors opening up into the bedroom with a king bed and the softest, plushest bedding imaginable; and finally, the luxurious and incredibly spacious bathroom. The bathroom was my favorite. If I could've taken the entire thing home with me, I would have.

After getting settled in our room and changing clothes, we headed out on foot (and me in Italian leather high heels) to find someplace to eat dinner. It was already after 7:00 and we quickly realized that the clouds looming overhead were likely to burst open at any moment. We had talked about doing Italian and after walking up and down a few streets, we felt pressured by the weather to settle on one called Paper Moon. We got a table and began looking over the menu. After a few minutes of silence Jim had the insight to ask me if anything even looked appetizing, because nothing was striking him on the menu and the atmosphere just wasn't what we had in mind when we set out in search of food. I was feeling more like I was about to have my palm read than eat a meal, so (for the first time in my life), we got up and left.

We stood outside the restaurant, as the clouds got darker overhead, and plugged some info into the Urban Spoon Application on Jim's iPhone. We said we wanted a steakhouse (Italian no longer seemed appetizing) in Georgetown. Ironically, the first restaurant to pop up was called Sea Catch and it was DIRECTLY across the street. We walked over and as we stood under the restaurant's awning to look at the menu, the heavens opened up and decided Sea Catch was where we would be eating dinner. it was not a steakhouse, but rather offered seafood and a raw bar, as it's name suggests. But that didn't matter. The atmosphere was inviting and comfortable. And the menu was full of mouthwatering dishes. And as soon as we sat down in a cozy booth in the corner, we were both instantly happy and knew we were where we wanted to be.

Dinner was fabulous and I even tried escargot for the first time. In fact it was such a great dinner that when we walked outside into the pouring rain to head back to our hotel, I simply slipped off my heels and we trotted hand in hand without caring about the rain at all. When we arrived back in our room the maid had already turned down the bed and left chocolates for us. That has to be one of my favorite things about staying in a nice hotel, the fact that they leave chocolate for you, giving you permission to indulge yourself right before bed.

The next morning, we took advantage of our childless situation as well as the hotel's noon checkout time, and slept in until 10:00. We then packed up and had the hotel hold our bags so we could walk around Georgetown, without getting drenched. We ate lunch at Johnny Rockets and then hit up a few stores, but the day passed all too quickly. We soon found ourselves taking the scenic route out of DC. From the hotel, I didn't realize how CLOSE we actually were to EVERYTHING. The Mall, the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Smithsonians, etc. Our drive out was like being on a sightseeing tour. Then we were suddenly on the Parkway headed back home. And stuck in traffic. But even the traffic couldn't really ruin our amazing getaway.

The Ritz was fantastic. Dinner was perfect. But the best part of the trip was that I was there with my best friend. And even after 7 years of marriage, we're still having "firsts".











*Sorry, I didn't get pictures of the room before we settled into it, so I just didn't take any at all.

**A HUMONGOUS THANKS to Susan for taking care of our girls while we were gone.

A Wii Bit of Help

Clint and Ang Weldon are two of our closest friends. My blog is strewn with pictures of our kids playing with their kids. Which is what this post is about: their kids.

They have 2 boys, Foster and Rowan, whom they love more than life. But they have another child that they love just as much, whom they've never even met. For a while now their hearts have longed to adopt a little girl from China (where they lived for a while and have visited many other times). But despite their desires, this dream has yet to become a reality because of one major roadblock: money. Adoption, especially from a foreign country, isn't cheap.

If the Weldon's could pay in love, they would have enough to get their little girl a billion times over, but unfortunately the government uses a different currency. And it would be a shame to let something as trivial as money prevent a family from being complete. Soooooo.... some of us encouraged Ang to go out on a limb and do a fundraiser to raise the first portion of finances to start the adoption process. In response the Weldons have set up a raffle on their blog to do just that.

For a mere $5.00, you can buy an entry into their raffle to win a Nintendo Wii gaming system. Don't need one yourself? Christmas is only 4 short months away! Surely you know someone, who knows someone who would like one for Christmas. :) Or, feel free just to make a donation to help bring this little girl into the family God has for her.

For more information or to enter the raffle, click here.

To read Ang's heart regarding the daughter she has yet to meet, click here.

"Ishies"

Kyra doesn't pronounce the letter "f", so all week long as we anticipated going to the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Kyra would talk about going to see the "ishies". On Saturday, the girls and I made the long, short drive (if you get my drift) to Baltimore where we met up with my sister-in-law, "Aunt Susie". To help with traffic flow, the aquarium doesn't allow strollers in the building, so we traded the wheels for a stylish back carrier and started the tour.

The first thing you see is the impressive tank of sting rays. The NAIB has a bunch of them and a few are rather large. When we pointed out one of the largest ones to Kyra, she informed us that it was a daddy sting ray. I just adore her logic.

We hit up nearly all of the exhibits, including the tropical rainforest, the sharks, and the jellyfish. We also splurged and paid the extra $3.00 to attend the dolphin show. I must admit that every time I see those amazing creatures in action I find myself wishing I would've chosen a career path that allowed me to work with them. I mean who wouldn't want to work with someone who always looked like they were smiling (and didn't mind being paid in fish).

One of my favorite little moments of the day was when Kyra pointed at the huge blue whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling and said "dinosaur". Obviously, it wasn't, but I think she assumed it was because of our trip to the Museum of Natural History in DC several months ago where every large bone structure was in fact a dinosaur. I found it cute how she made the connection. It's little things like that that make me realize she is growing up.

By the time we reached the end and traded the now 1000 lb back carrier in for the stroller, the girls were beat (and by girls I mean Susan and I too). So much so that Kylie fell asleep within minutes after we put her back in the comfy stroller. Although, she did seem to really enjoy her special bird's-eye-view of all the exhibits and creatures. All in all it was a very fun, very memorable day.