Potty Training

Ok so N turned 2 last week and has been ready for potty training for a few months now but we just haven't had the time to do it. So this holiday vacation week was perfect for us to get the ball rolling!

Day 1: 

Once she got up for the day we cleaned her up and took off her diaper and she went around for the day pants and diaper free. We tried underwear but she wasn't having that. We had the potty with us in each room we were in, we brought it into the family room or her bedroom or wherever she was playing. We told her about the potty and that she had to go pee pee on the potty. Mean while we're pumping her with lots of liquids so she has to pee a lot today! We did have 2 accidents right off the bat, which was expected, and we told her that next time she had to pee pee that she should go on the potty. The third time she looked down at her crotch and we put her on the potty and she peed on the potty! Yay, we cheered and high fived and got super excited. The next time we had an accident. Then it was time for a nap. We did put her in a diaper for her nap though, as we knew she'd pee and poop during the nap. I ran out to CVS and got stickers and all kinds of goodies for rewards for her for when she did pee in the potty. 

After her nap she got up and peed on the potty 3 times in a row. After each time my husband and I got so excited. We gave her a sticker each time and she put it on a poster of elmo that we had up for her birthday. And she got to pick a 'treasure' from the 'treasure chest.' The treasures were coloring books, silly putty, nail polish, chapstick, fun stuff like that! And she was so excited to pee and get a sticker and treasure that it was so fun for her.

Day 2:

All of the reading said day 2 was toughest and to expect some back sliding. But she got up and we had breakfast and she peed on the potty after breakfast and only did so because she saw it had snowed and wanted to go outside but we told her she couldn't go outside until she peed on the potty. So she ran over to it and peed on it and was ready to go outside! So we put all of our snow gear on, and were outside 10 minutes and she looks down at her crotch and I knew she was peeing. So we raced inside and got all of the snow gear off as fast as we could. But it was too late. We sat on the potty anyway. Then we were putting away the holiday stuff and N was helping Dad up in the attic and had an accident up in the attic. But the next time we made it to the potty. After her nap she peed on the potty and even said she had to go potty as we were singing her to sleep, so we got up and raced to the potty and yep, she peed. And here I was thinking it was a bed time stalling tactic. 

Day 3: 

N's got the hang of it. She peed on the potty twice and we even ventured out to take the garbage to the dump and stopped at Grammy's house, where N peed 2 times on Grammy's potty. Then we came home and she napped and then peed on the potty 3 times after her nap! I think we're getting it.

We're still giving her a sticker after each time she pees on the potty and cheering and giving high fives. And when we don't do it immediately, N gets up and cheers 'yay' after she does a pee on the potty getting excited and making sure we're excited too!

Products I love: Toddler

Naomi is now a toddler and I don't like to think of myself as a product junkie, but I just wanted to post some product that I've found helpful as well as that are designed really well.

Booster Seat
Now that we're out of the high chair (not by our choice, but by hers!) we were in need of a booster seat as N's not quite tall enough to sit in a chair at the table and be able to reach or see her dinner! So I did a little Pinterest search  - my go to for well designed, mom vetted & approved items. And I found the Kaboost. This is the best booster seat out there, because, well, its not really a booster seat. Its a lift for the chair to make it taller instead of putting something on the seat. I saw some cute booster seats on Pinterest, but I wanted something that wouldn't make me nervous that N could tip over or be too bulky. This is the best solution to what I wanted and what her needs were. She has plenty of room to sit, its the perfect height, and in fact has two levels, for when she gets a little taller, and its slip free as the bottom has rubber feet on it so no sliding around. It comes in a bunch of colors, green is N's favorite, and its pretty cheap $35 on Amazon.

Bike Seat
This past summer we spent a lot of time on Cape Cod visiting my parents, playing at the beach and biking. The area where my parents live there is quite and flat, a perfect place for bike riding. So my mother did a little research and found the best baby bike seat out there. Its called the iBert. It is a front mounting forward facing seat. This way the kid doesn't have to stare at your back as your biking! Its a little expensive (about $90 on amazon) but we found ours on craigslist for much cheaper!


Helper Tower
I know I've written about this a lot but I can't tell you how awesome this has been for us. N helps all the time with it. She can easily get up on it and down from it now and is eager to help out because she knows she can be at our level in the kitchen safely. There are a lot of different ones out there. But they all looked kind of cheap and I wanted something that was going to be stable and strong. I found plans on how to build your own and a friend of ours, who dabbles in finished carpentry as a hobby, made it for us. We opted to not have it fold up for storing because it seemed like that would make it less stable. It does take up a lot of space, so it may not be for you if you have a small kitchen, but it is so worth it when your kid can help you and be excited about it!

Products I Love: Infant

Ok so this should have been posted a while ago as N is no longer an infant but I thought about this as I was thinking about the products I love for her as a toddler and decided to post some products that we couldn't live without when she was an infant!

Sound machine
In the beginning we were tiptoeing around the house trying not to make noise and wake N up when she finally fell asleep for one of her 20 minute naps. So we got a sound machine and this not only helps to cancel out the noise from us but also lulls her to sleep. We tried a few different ones but the Dohm Sound Machine is by far the best!




Humidifier
We have forced hot air for heat in our house when we're not running out wood stove, so in the winter out house gets pretty dry. We have been using a humidifier in N's room for over a year now and not only does it help with the dry air but also when she's got a cold, cough or any other run of the mill illness she brings home from day care. We've gone through several different kinds of humidifiers and the one we have now is pretty good. The first one we had we loved, it was a Vicks cool mist impeller humidifier but after a year the motor went. So we went out searching for a new one. I loved this one because it was simple, you could take it apart and clean EVERYTHING to get all the water out and ensure no bacteria build up. We couldn't find this one again so we went through a few different ones before settling on the one we have now, Vicks Warm Mist Humidifier. We switched to the warm mist as it was the only one that I found that you could take apart entirely to clean. Which we do each morning, and then once a week let it soak in vinegar. We liked this one so much we even got one for our room!

Yoga ball
This is a must have for new parents. This was the only way we could get our newborn to calm down and go to sleep. We would sit and bounce her to sleep each night as rocking didn't seem to cut it. And you can also get back in shape with it! Ours now sits in the basement and doesn't get much use as you can see from this photo.











Velcro swaddle
Pretty straight forward. I was terrible at getting the blanket tight enough and we had an escape artist for a new born. The velcro held her in much better, even though she was out of it by morning.








Wabanub
This is the best pacifier ever. Infants, or at least our infant, kept spitting out the pacifier and then getting mad. So we'd put it back in her mouth, and she'd spit it out again. This pacifier is attached to a stuffed animal that can rest next to or on her so when she spit it out she could move her head and find the pacifier again all on her own. This is especially key for the middle of the night for both of our sanity.

Let them help

I recently had my 15 year high school reunion and I was chatting with one of my classmates who has a son the same age as N, and she said, "your daughter is really advanced for her age." I was a bit taken aback because well on one hand that's great I've got a smart kid, but on the other hand, what does that mean? I asked her and she said that my kid cooks and cleans and helps with stuff. Thankfully our conversation was interrupted because I didn't know how to respond to her. I've since thought about what I should've said and here it goes:

N helps because we ask her to. We involve our child in everything we do. 

There, that's my response. But here's what's been rolling around in my head about it.

My mother works for a Montessori school for 3-6 year olds and she showed me a video when N was born of a family with a toddler who was involved in everything their family did. He cooked dinner with them, he fed their dog, he did the dishes with then, he made lunches with them. And he went to a Montessori school where they encouraged this. One of the subjects in Montessori is Life Skills, where the kids learn how to sweep up a mess into a dustpan, how to wash dishes, how to shine a mirror, how to zip up and down, how to do buttons, how to do all kinds of everyday life skills. 

And after I saw this video, I thought, that was a good idea. So the first thing we did was get a helping tower for the kitchen. (I actually found plans online on how to build your own and a friend built one for us, but you can buy them online) This is a safe enclosed place for N to stand at counter height and help in the kitchen. As soon as we got it, we included N in helping in whatever we were doing in the kitchen and she was thrilled! (I might add that we were doing this already, just with a step stool or chair, but this tower is less nerve-racking for a new mom!

So N helps cook and  do dishes in her tower and is excited to help when its time. She likes being involved in what we are doing. She mixes the pancake mix, she helps make cookies or whatever fun dessert we're making and she loves tasting whatever it is we're cooking. It does take a little longer to do things and usually we make a much bigger mess that if it was just myself or my husband cooking or doing the dishes but I think its important for her to be involved, even if she just turned 2! 

Another thing N does is feed out dog. We started this when she was comfortable enough walking on her own. We were very consistent for several days about making sure she knew it was her chore, making a big deal about it, and doing it several days in a row in the morning and at night. I put together a little video of her doing it as she was learning too. Now, about 9 months later, its to the point where she gets mad if we do her chore instead of her!

We try to have things at her height so she feels empowered to do things. Like we have several coat hooks at her height for her to hang her coat on when she's done with it or get it on her own when we're ready to leave the house. We also have a shelf in the pantry that's her shelf with her snacks on it (and where the dog food is for her chore) so she knows she can go in and get anything on that shelf to eat if she's hungry, whenever she wants (she knows not to eat the dog food).

So in a sense I guess my kid is smart or advanced for her age, but every kid pretends to play with pots and pans or dustpan and broom, because that's what they see us as parents doing. And they look up to us and want to be like us and do what we do, so why not involve them in what you're doing? It might take a little more energy and effort on your part as a parent, but then you get to enjoy the company of your kid while you're doing your chores and you have fun and then they don't seem like chores anymore.

 I'm not trying to toot my own horn and say I'm the best parent out there. There are plenty of things I look back on and say, I could have done that better, and yes I have a weakness for letting N watch Sesame Street in the morning so I can get one more hour of sleep. (TV is a whole other kettle of fish - we only just  recently let N watch TV and she only watches Sesame Street, but that's for another day) I think some of the reason I want to involve her is that as a full time working parent I feel guilty that we leave her in day care all day and when we get home we want to spend time with her, but we also have to do things like cook dinner, do the dishes, make lunches for the next day. So this way N feels helpful and gets to learn and gets to spend time with her parents all at the same time! So it's really a win win all the way a round here!

Less is More

So the holidays have come and gone and with that there are so many toys left in the wake of it. My first thought is wow, I'm so grateful that so many people love my kid and have gone out and got these amazing, thoughtful gifts for her, but yikes, all the toys add up and well quite frankly kids (or at least my kid) loves the cheapest, simplest toys. I'm sure you've heard people say that kids like the box the toy comes in better than the toy itself, well that is so true. I think we spent 2 hours Christmas Eve playing in a large Amazon box and had the best time. We colored in it, we played peek-a-boo, we played jack-in-the-box, we turned it into a car.... and the list goes on. And that is just one card board box!

Everyone wants the best for their kid, and lots of people think that the best is something you can go and buy, the most expensive thing, the biggest thing, the newest thing, the best selling thing. But I don't buy into that. I believe less is more. For example, N's favorite tub toys are empty ketchup and salad dressing bottles and Chobani cups. Yes she loves soap bubbles and colored fizzy bath bombs and other fancy things they market for kids tub time, but we always go back to the empty bottles and cups. I'm not sure what that is, but it seems the simpler it is, the more fun it can be.

I also think that having all the new toys, from the holidays, out all at once is a bit overwhelming for them. N just turned 2 and her birthday is 3 days before Christmas, so needless to say, lots of presents were opened over the course of a few days. So we've got toys from before the holidays, birthday toys, holiday toys, and not a whole lot of space left! I'm in the process of cleaning out her closet and putting away her 0-1 year old toys to make room for the new 2 year old toys. And in doing this I decided that I'm going to put away some of the new toys too, just so there aren't so many toys out all at once. When all the toys are out all at once, N tends to play with all of them, bouncing from one to the other every 15-20 minutes. If I put some away and then every now and again we pull one out, its way more exciting and she focuses on that one toy for quite a bit longer. Rotating all the new toys around this way will make them all feel special again when we pull them out. I did this with her 0-1 year old toys. We had maybe 4 toys that were always out and put a majority of them in her closet. Most of the time she played with the 4 toys that were out, but occasionally she'd go into her closet and pull out a 'new' toy and play with that and it was something she could do on her own and be excited about getting out. 

Now putting everything away is another thing all together!