I am blessed with awesome kids!

Disclaimer:  I am not trying to say your kids are anything by posting this.  It is not a "my kid is awesome and yours are not" kind of post.  Please don't be offended.

With that being said, I want to say the reason for this post is sometimes I need to repeat this to myself, sometimes many times a day.  I want this post to look back on when I get to a really "tough" day.

Trust me when I say there are days when Noah simply will not listen to one thing I say and he is insistent on running around naked, peeing on everything in sight and screaming while Emilee screams and cries along in unison.  And of course, that's the day I need to get errands ran, chores done, and about a million other things to do.  I end the day thinking I have 2 demon children that I will never be able to control.  Either that or I feel like I've failed as a mom.

BUT, those days don't happen that often.  And there are so many good things that both my kids do, I just have to feel blessed by them.  Especially after what happened in Newtown, CT.

Let me start with Noah.  His potty training has come leaps and bounds from where we started.  He consistently tells us when he has to go pee and poop.  Last week I even caught him getting up from naptime, going pee, flushing, washing hands, etc all by himself.  When I asked what he was doing, he just said all nonchalantly "I had to go potty, mom".  Well, of course he did...LOL.  His language skills are amazing.  He will tell us whole stories of things that happened at daycare or at home, sometimes even something that happened months ago.  He is so smart.  He knows what makes things work and when he doesn't, he is insistent to know how they work.  He is very kind and helpful.  I don't know too many times he has asked to help, but if I ask for help, he's right there.  Whether it's making cookies, cleaning up the dishes, taking care of sister, doing laundry, etc.  Every morning at daycare, he insists on carrying the milk in for Emilee.  He is also very loving.  I can't tell you how many times he kisses his sister in 1 day.  He also always says I"m sorry or Bless You to other people, even those he doesn't know.  I'm amazed at his physical strength and courage.  This is one of the most amazing feats only because Noah is so small, but he has never let that hold him back.  This kid will climb and jump off just about anything.  I'm just in awe of how he'll jump right in with 5 or 6 year olds and the physical things they do.  He is also learning to ride a 2 wheel bike (balance bike) and he can almost do it without using his feet all the time.  He will definitely be ready for a regular pedal bike by next summer.  I know I'm not the only one that thinks these things either.  He is in the 3-4 year old class at school and has been since the beginning of the summer.  He fits right in there doing all the same developmental things as the rest of the kids.  One last thing to mention is his cleanliness.  Most kids his age eat a meal and it looks like half of it ended up on the floor, the other half on their clothes.  Not Noah.  He will eat and if anything drops on the table or clothes, he requests a napkin to clean himself RIGHT AWAY.  As of today, he eats on a regular plate with regular silverware and a regular cup.  By the way, I love that we can just leave the house with him, no preparing by bringing special food, diapers, special silverware, etc.  He's just like a mini-adult.

Now for Emilee.  She isn't quite as old as Noah so I don't feel like there's as much to brag about with her, but I feel confident in saying she will be right behind her brother.  At almost 9 months old, she is a pro at crawling and she is just about ready to start pulling herself all the way up.  But best about her is her temperament.  She is just so content to sit and watch everything that goes on around her.  When I put her down for naps or bedtime, most of the time I just lay her in her crib, wide awake.  She may toss and turn or crawl around for a bit, but then she'll fall asleep.  She loves her solid food, but definitely enjoys the more solid/whole foods vs purees.  We've been a lot more lax about the foods we've been giving to her especialy after I've read some articles about how waiting 4 days between foods and waiting to give certain foods until certain ages isn't necessarily right for most kids, in fact, doing just the opposite can help them like a wider variety of foods.  So just about anything we eat at dinner, she gets in small bites.  She is really started to like her toys and be able to push buttons and see the reaction now too.  She's definitely starting that "mental learning" phase and it seems like once that starts, it won't stop for a little while (since Noah is still in that phase).

Overall, I'm so happy and blessed with my 2 kids.  Some days are so overwhelming, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Sickness

Sickness took the Porter household last week.  It all started on Sunday.  Noah woke up several times in the night, coughing and saying he didn't feel good.  Then around 4am, he started throwing up.  On dad, to be specific.  He continued throwing up all day long and wasn't eating anything.  He couldn't even keep water down.  I went to the store and got some Pedialyte but of course, he refused to drink it.  At least he was drinking water pretty heavily. 

We had to email our Sunday School director and inform her that we wouldn't be teaching that morning.  Emilee seemed fine, but later she also developed some diarrehea.  Poor kids. 

At least Noah seemed to be making it to the potty and trash can most times. 

And then Monday he seemed better.  Started eating more and no vomiting.  So we thought "great, we could send them back to daycare on Tuesday".  Monday night, I started feeling quesy so I went to bed and an hour later, woke up vomiting.  I tried so hard to avoid it, but I guess I was destined to have it.  I threw up several times until my stomach was in so much pain.  I'm serious when I say the pain was worse than labor pains. 

I took some Tylenol and thankfully, I didn't throw it up and I finally fell asleep around 4 am.  I clearly was not going to work.  When the kids got up, Noah threw up again.  That meant he wasn't going to school.  So we decided David was going to take the day off to take care of me and Noah.  About an hour later, he threw up.

We ended up calling David's mom and my dad to come help since it's really hard to take care of 2 young ones when you yourself are sick.  David and I both had fevers (the kids just had elevated temps, never a fever).  The next day, Noah and David were fine to go back to normal activity.  I probably could have but I took advantage and took one more day, which was actually my first PTO day. 

I ended up going back to work Thursday and Friday and now I am fine.  Noah and Emilee both still have these chronic runny noses.  Not sure if that is related to whatever virus they had or just the weather???  Noah also complains about a tummy ache a couple times a day.  I'm convinced that he is just using that as an excuse for attention.

Hopefully we all stay healthy through the Holidays and then next year.  I have to work Mon, Wed, and Fri this week and then both David and I are off through the new year.  Next year, I will start working 5 days a week, although only 40 hours at first.  The plan going forward is to work full-time (either 40 or 55 hours in busy season) except for the summer (Memorial Day to Labor Day).  Then I'll work 3 days a week. 

Potty Training

I plan to write a general update post on both kids very soon, but I want to get this post out there now because it's the freshest in my mind to write about.

I want to explain exactly why we chose the method we did, how we made it work for us, and the progress Noah has made (or is still making).

It's hard to say when exactly we started potty training.  Around 18 months, we set out a potty upstairs.  Occasionally he would sit on it just for fun, but nothing ever happened.  Then around 2 years old, he started to learn the association between the potty and actually going pee-pee.  But by no means was he ready for potty training, or at least we thought.  He would ask to go when we were in restaurants and sometimes when we were getting ready for bed but otherwise, he was still wearing a diaper and not really telling us when he needed to go or when he'd just gone.  Looking back on it, we should have started potty training then, he was much more cooperative than he was even just a short 3 months later.

We were pretty insistent that we were not going to potty train Noah and then Emilee be born and all be lost.  So we waited.  We really thought he was ready (and honestly he probably was) a few weeks after Emilee was born so we took advantage of us both being home during the week.  Our method to start with was what others had told us to do: take him to the potty a bunch of times and rewards.  This failed miserably by the 2nd day.  It was a fight everytime to get him to go to the potty, sometimes he went and sometimes he didn't.  Could have cared less about a reward.  Plus it was more like we were training ourselves, not Noah.  To me, potty training or learning is about learning to recognize urges and when its time to go to the potty.  It was really hard on us especially with a newborn, so we quit and said we would just wait until he was ready, whenever that would be.

Jump forward a few month (I think this was around July 2012).  He was asking more and more to go potty even though I think it was still a novelty thing, but more important he would tell us when he had just pooped, so there was definitely more awareness going on.  I was becoming more convinced that he was ready and if we waited any longer (for what, I don't know), we would miss the window.  Little did I know, I think we'd already missed the window when we should have been doing this closer to when he was 2.  So I started doing research on what to do.  I wanted to be more prepared this time.

We chose the 3-day potty training method.  It was recommended by a friend.  I liked it because there was no taking him to the potty a bunch of times.  No fighting with him.  If he wet himself, he wet himself.  And it was all about actually teaching him to recognize when he needed to go and take care of business.  I'm not against other parents wanting to use the "time" method.  If that's what works for their kids, then great.  And i will admit there are still times when we encourage him to use it, like when we are headed out the door or I know there are no potties around.

Basically the method has you "throw" out his diapers in a big celebration on the beginning of the first day.  Then you just remind them to tell you when they need to go, not ask.  They will have lots of accidents.  But the key is catching them in the act and taking them to the potty to finish.  And then, lots of rewards and positive reinforcement.  You are supposed to do this for nap and nighttime as well, no diapers, pull-ups, etc.  Just underwear.  By the 3rd day, they are supposed to be able to then tell you when they need to go.  You are also supposed to spend all 3 days at home with them, giving them lots of attention.

We mostly did all of that.  All underwear, no pullups or diapers.  He had lots of accidents on Sat and Sun and we thought we were getting nowhere!!!!  I was so ready to pull the plug and quit again but I said I just didn't to wait out the 3rd day.  Day 3 was at daycare.  I know, he was supposed to be at home, but I couldn't take off work and it just couldn't work that way, so we took our chances.  Told the daycare what our plan was, left a bazillion pairs of backup clothes and walked out the door with our fingers crossed.  All day long I thought about him and envisioned all the laundry I would be doing that night and how I couldn't wait to just get him back in diapers the next day. 

I went in to go get him and the first thing I noticed was a paper in his mailbox that said "Congrats for using the potty!".  A little confused, maybe they give that to all the kids when they start trying.  Went in and talked to his teacher and was SHOCKED to find out he only had maybe 1 accident all day.  More surprising, he went most of the times they took potty breaks and he even asked to go a couple times.  I wish you had seen my face that moment.  Well of course I couldn't stop potty training now, not now that I'd seen some progress. 

A few weeks later, he was still doing OK.  I would not say potty trained in any manner since he was still having 1-2 accidents a day.  We did switch to pull-ups at nap and nighttime though.  He just wasn't waking up at all and I felt bad that he was sleeping in his pee all night long.  We took a vacation to Branson and I was so afraid of the massive amounts of dirty laundry we would create (especially considering he doesn't have enough clothes to go through 2-3 changes a day for a whole week without doing laundry).  Maybe it was the attention he got all week and just being in a new environment (David read or heard a theory that a vacation while potty training is very helpful because it "resets" their brain by being in a new environment with a new schedule), but it did REALLY well.  VERY few accidents, if any.  I even remember going to the Dixie Stampede and our seats were really far from the bathrooms and he was still asking and having no accidents.  Although I will say it was hilarious when David took him to the bathroom and brought him back out in no pants or underwear.  He didn't take the bag with him to change him and I'd assumed he must have had an accident.  When he finally got back with Noah clothed, it turns out the toilet overflowed and got all over his clothes.  Gross, but so funny!

Since then over the next 5 months or so, we've been making progress.  We had about a week or so of regression where he was peeing in his pants and did not care at all, but overall we've been moving forward in potty training.  Little did I think potty training was actually a year long process!!!!  I can tell you with almost 100% certainty that Noah's failures in potty training are related to the phase of life he's in, which is worthy of a blog post all on its own. 

I can tell you that this last week has been amazing.  He's been doing really well asking to go potty everytime, even when he has to poop.  He's been good at daycare, home, out, church or even when he's with someone else.  I hope and pray we've really turned a corner and are just about there.  He does still wear a pull-up at night.  We went through a month or two where he was getting up at night, I think to go potty but we never really tried to night train him yet.  The plan is to try again at the end of the year when we have some time off.  We have been working with him to potty train during naptime.  And for now, it's about 50% wet and 50% dry so we are still working with that.

If I had to do this over again, I would have started earlier, like when he was 2 instead of waiting for him to be in this "testing his limits" phase.  Sometimes he will literally rip his pants off and use his "hose" as a weapon to assert his independence by peeing all over everything.  Last night he even stood over his sister and pretended like he was going to pee on her.  He didn't but it's things like that that make me think if we had really fully trained him earlier, he wouldn't act like this, at least not with potty training.  I think one thing that has helped that is getting punished or time-outs for having accidents.  Not all accidents.  We are very careful to recognize true, honest accidents that he just needs love and reassurance and the accidents were he knew exactly what he was doing and he did it for attention. 

I think the best advice is to relax.  I'm a very clean and controlling mom (I know it), so it's hard to potty train since it seems like it's so out of my control.  But even when he was accidents (true accidents), you just clean it up and go, don't make a big deal out of it.

Ok, so that was a novel and you deserve a cookie if you made it to the end.  Any other tips you'd like to share with me would be great.  Like I've said before, I'm not an expert and always love advice!  I also pray and am convinced that Emilee will be worlds easier to potty train.  She hates wet diapers so convincing her to pee like a lady will be no problem at all.  Plus now I've been through one so I feel way more confident to do it again.

Return to blogging

I apologize for waiting this long to come back to blogging.  Honestly, I just didn't have time with 2 little ones  and a part-time job.  But I want to make time.  I'm not even sure how many people still read this blog, but even if it's just for me to look back on months and years down the line, then it's worth it.  I can't tell you how many times in the last couple months, I've thought "I wonder what we did with Noah" and then came back here to read my thoughts on it.  Not to mention I haven't updated Emilee's baby book since Month 2 (eeeek!).

My goals are to post more regularly, at least once a week on updates as well as blog posts about big things happening in our lives or when a topic is just too big in my mind to ignore.  I plan to write about whatever I want so I apologize in advance if what I write is offensive to you or you just highly disagree with me.  But I would love for you to comment and tell me why you think differently.  I love hearing different opinions and I never claim to be 100% right on anything.  I generally analyze everything I do or any decision I make, so chances are I've already thought of what you are saying but I just didn't write it down.

I don't plan to post many pictures.  First, I find it hard to upload them here.  Second, if this blog is just for me, I have plenty of pictures on my phone and computer, I don't need to spend the extra time uploading them here as well.  Lastly, most of my followers are also on facebook and most of my pictures go there. 

Lastly, I added a "Christmas" feel to my blog just to update things, but after Christmas, I plan to make a more "permanent" look to the blog.  Stay tuned!