We're "March"ing towards 3 April '05 Moms & Babes! - Page 3

[speedknitter]

Julie really likes "My Big Girl Potty" which also comes in a boy version.
http://www.amazon.com/Big-Boy-Potty-...5875889&sr=8-1

I am having a terrible time right now with potty training. At her Montessori school they are working on potty training - loved them because they were the only full-time pre-school that would take a non-potty trained kid. I pay an extra $100 per month, but worth it.

Well, they have "big potties" there, and julie's been peeing on a little potty here at home. She has not yet pooped on the potty, only once and I think that was just lucky. She will sit on the big potty (with some protesting - getting better) at school but has yet to pee or poop there. So, at school we talked about it and decided it would be better if she just started going on the big potty at home. We put away her small potty, now she really resists going on the big potty at home, to the point where she asks for her diaper on and won't even pee in the big potty. I'm afraid we are regressing, but don't know what to do????

Julie knows that she is going on an airplane to see her grandmommie and will have cake with candles. I can't wait for our trip!

[AEZMama]

Here's to school helping out in our potty sitch too! We go to visit Andrew's classroom tomorrow morning. (We did his passport today, too!) I can't wait to see it! Potty is a big part of the schedule there, so I'm hoping it helps to reinforce what I've been doing here.

We're still trying to figure out about having a cookout on Andrew's birthday. DH is hemming and hawing-I think I just need to call the city and reserve the picnic area and that's it. Then, make sure our Sam's membership is renewed and we stock up. Or...I just convince dh to get the year pass to the zoo and we have a get together there with my MDC mama friends and some of our other friends. Oh...what to do!!! Though, I think that we'll do cupcakes for Andrew's birthday, or I was also thinking about making cookie/brownie pops on sticks. I have a feeling I'll totally go overboard if I don't watch it! I'm just so excited at the prospect of Andrew having an actual, real birthday party. Since we're so isolated down here, it's just been the 3 of us these past 2 birthdays.

Yay Vanessa on the truck! As for potty books, I got Andrew this book. He also has some favorites that we have next to the potty as well.

[dara00]

Gabbie does not poop on the potty either. She seems to be keeping her pull ups dry, but maybe not...it's hard to tell. I ditched the underwear cause it was stressing me out. she knows that when she goes potty all the time she can go to school and she'll get a bike. but that doesn't really help her!

for her birthday she wants a cake and a garbage truck.

[AEZMama]

We got to visit Andrew's classroom today! Let me just say, from moment 1 I felt so at ease. The whole campus is fenced in and the only way into the school is through the main office. And you can't get far without signing in with your drivers license (all computerized) or without passing oodles of admin staff and the principal. So safe. And they seem to know each child that came through.

The class was great-Andrew pretty much got absorbed straight away with the toys and things, and the kids kept an eye on him and loved playing with him. One boy was really sad that we were leaving! And they loved showing off for us! So sweet.

Carlos was able to speak with the teacher in spanish since everything is bi-lingual/multi-lingual. They had a cd on with all forms of music and language from all over the world (we even heard Polish when we were in there!). A great morning, that's for sure.

[JustVanessa]

Sounds awesome AEZ!
Preschool did nothing for Byron on the potty, just generated more laundry for me because they left the pull ups off.

Well between Byron being a handful last night and me being hormonal we had a horrible time. I was almost in tears. I have never been in tears over his behavior.
He is already starting it this morning, I am so glad its a preschool day.

[AEZMama]

: : : :
HAPPY
FIRST
DAY
OF
SPRING!!!
: : : :

[AEZMama]

Bump!! Can you believe in a weeks time we'll be getting ready for Happy Birthdays???!!!

Hope everyone had a good weekend and Easter if you celebrate. Ours was far from stellar, and dh got an earful from me. He doesn't care about holidays in general, but I grew up with certain holidays frought with traditions that I want to pass on to Andrew and dh totally f'd up and went out the night before and pretty much slept through our family time. I was FAR from happy and let him know. I guess the silver lining is that we had a very long discussion before he left for work and a lot of things were made plainly clear to him and I have the promise of him making the effort to celebrate things since Andrew would really be the one to miss out.

Andrew had his PT/OT evaluation for school today and, I don't know what it is about these OT people but they are always jumpy and nervous! They are all over the board!

I'm pretty PO'd today too because I sold some very expensive photo paper on eBay and had it out for the postman to pick up this morning and the box was TAKEN!!! And not by the postman! I'm hoping that the neighbor picked it up and kindly dropped it off, but I think her dh may be a dealer so I'm worried that he or one of his friends took it. If they did, they'll be hard pressed to sell it for real $$ as you need to be a professional photographer to use it.

*** As I suspected...the neighbor's dh TOOK it from my front door, when the wife got home and saw the box with my name & apt # on it he must have said it was delivered to them by accident (he opened it to find only paper) and she brought it over. When she started telling me his story I said thank you, I set it out right here (pointed) to be picked up and when he got here it was gone. I hope that UAV of a dh was listening....

[JustVanessa]

Ursula-Wow, what a crazy thing. I had neighbours steal my mail once a long time ago and it sucks!

I didn't have a great Easter....my asthma flared up really bad and I had to go to the emergency room twice. Byron stayed at his dad's because I was just too sick to take care of him. I couldn't even drive myself to the hospital. But I am feeling better now, I hate to be on meds while pregnant, but sometimes it has to be.

Byron is so happy it is spring. We still have a foot of snow in our yard but Kev and Byron broke a path tonight to the swingset and are out there playing right now.

On the pregnancy front, everything is good. I had a prenatal visit today. Doc is very happy. I passed the GD test with flying colors and my weight gain is right on track (I am up about 19lb so far). 11.5 weeks to go.

[wombatclay]

Vanessa- glad you're feeling better. You're right... meds are no fun but it's sure nice to have them when necessary. You're getting to be a "short timer" on the pregnancy front! I can't wait to meet your new little one and I bet Byron is getting excited too.

AEZ- yowsa. What a...well... I can't even think what to call him. I'm glad you got the paper back. Does the ebay buyer still want the paper? I hope so!

I'm sort of trying to wean Laia these days... I'm just getting too touched out and unhappy about nursing. I don't "want" to wean her but I nursing her is just getting me so down and...well... I want to end our nursing relationship on an up note. So we'll see how it goes. I'm not really certain how to do this though. We've been nursing only 3 times a day for a minute or two at a time for several months now. So I don't know how to transition gently from there.

Ah well. I'm tired. Off to bed I go!

[JustVanessa]

Good luck Wombat. When I weaned Byron it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. He asked one time, and I offered him a cookie and he never asked again. Got anything you can sub out for boobie?

[AEZMama]

Great to hear you're pg is going well Vanessa! Not long now! You know, I had GD and frankly, the dietician I saw gave me a fantastic diet! It was great! Now, I have to always remind myself to incorporate all the information now day to day.

Oh yeah Wombat-this new neighbor is a total UAV. His wife is SUPER nice, and to look at them together you wonder WTF she's doing with him. She dresses so beautifully, is always put together when you see her (even in sweats and on the patio with a cig she looks great!) and he just looks like a big doped up slob. I'm now a little freaked out about us leaving the apartment for a week in the summer. Our electronics are all visible from the front door, and if he sees us with multiple suitcases headed out the door. Yikes. I'm going to ask dh to ask a friend of his to stay here for the week, add the use of our car to sweeten the deal. And dh has to go back to WPB for most of next week, and I hate it when he's not here. Maybe I'll see if I can get my brother or one of my cousins to come for a visit...not that they could probably take the time off in such short notice.... The good thing is that we might be able to negotiate dh getting a cheap flight down and I'll have the car. I'd love to go down, but the company won't spring for a hotel room for the week.

Ugh ugh ugh.

Wombat-I can't imagine bfing 2, so I can understand how it can be draining. I wish I had some kind of advice, but with Andrew's cleft palate he didn't latch and since I didn't make bm well he was ff'd.

[wombatclay]

I have a thread here http://www.mothering.com/discussions...1#post10866481 but I need some help.

Laia is turning into a cuddle-bully and although it sounds really silly it's becoming (already is?) a problem.

[dara00]

gah, Gabbie is the opposite of Laia! She really dislikes when kids get too close to her. it's kind of sad.

[AEZMama]

Andrew's started "stepping in" to other kids-looking like he's standing his ground and ready to start hitting, but he doesn't. I don't know where it came from, but I'm really trying to get that stopped, especially before school. He's huggy and lovey with me, but it takes a lot for him to be so with dh.

I think a lot of this is boundary exploration-what can they get away with type of thing. Just today I was talking with Andrew's OT and he said that 3 and 5 yo is when very noticeable changes happen with kids. I'm also seeing goofy defiance which does not bode well with my prim & proper dh.

I'm going to talk to a friend of mine who is well read on stages and I'll try to post her info here.

Ugh-dh has to leave for work for almost a week. Luckily, I'll have the car but with only a couple of people that we know, I am going to be BORED! I'm already getting an itch to check out the discount paints at Lowe's or Home Depot and I might have to paint.... Idle hands.... I wish I could get someone to come and visit.

[wombatclay]

AEZ- please do. On the one hand I'm sort of like "Great! She is a loving and affectionate kiddo who likes to epress her emotions!" but then I step back and realize that inappropriate sharing is inappropriate... happy emotion, sad emotion, angry emotion it doesn't matter. If it's impacting others in a negative way then that needs to be addressed.

Today at play school it was very clear... the little girl (who really does love Laia, the two of them are very close) was so upset her mom had to hold her for a good 5-10 minutes. And Laia had a (thankfully short) tantrum when another little kiddo wouldn't hold her hand. And she was crawling all over another kiddo "hugging" her but also "holding her down"... the other child was smaller and couldn't have gotten away from Laia on her own. So even though form Laia's point of view she was being loving and affectionate, from the other child's point of view they were being attacked.

So it's an odd blend of aggression and friendship. And I know that a 3 year old really doesn't have the verbal or reasoning skills to "talk" about boundaries. And Laia get's the whole "don't hit, don't kick" sort of stuff... I just don't know how to address this without putting affectionate touch in the same broad toddler category as hitting/kicking, you know?

Argh! How on earth do you explain personal space to a toddler?

In other news we're doing a wheat/corn/dairy/soy elim diet (whole family) to see if it helps Laia's eczema/eye circles. I'm hoping the problem is corn instead of wheat. She seemed to have a wheat problem so we pulled just wheat and things got worse (she was eating more corn). So we are doing the whole shebang to see if we can find the problem. Fingers crossed it will be the corn since that's easier to avoid!

[AEZMama]

Originally Posted by wombatclay

In other news we're doing a wheat/corn/dairy/soy elim diet (whole family) to see if it helps Laia's eczema/eye circles. I'm hoping the problem is corn instead of wheat. She seemed to have a wheat problem so we pulled just wheat and things got worse (she was eating more corn). So we are doing the whole shebang to see if we can find the problem. Fingers crossed it will be the corn since that's easier to avoid!

Wombat-since you're in a new, wooded area do you think Laia could be having an allergic reaction to the leaves? If elim doesn't work then try children's claritin. Andrew has "allergy circles" under his eyes when his allergies to our grand oak outside kick in. He (and dh) have terrible tree allergies. You also might want to see what (if any) allergens might be rising in your area as well. Worth a shot.

I'll see about the stages and get back to you!

[JustVanessa]

Wombat- I hope you find out what is bugging Laia. Food allergies are so hard to find sometimes. About the aggressiveness, I think its a bit of a stage and maybe explaining to her about "asking first" about touching people not in the family.....that is a tough one.

We have had a potty break through. The "Its potty time" book combined with bringing back the baby potty and new Spiderman underwear has brought Bryon a renewed interest. He went on the potty all day today for pee. He keeps telling me he can't pee on Spiderman. Whatever works, right? Commercial characters don't really bother me at all, esp. if they are under his pants.

[wombatclay]

I wish it was the trees, but this has been going on for most of her life. And there's still about 5 inches of snow on the ground (it's snowing now ). Though I think it's going to be interesting to see how she handles the increased pollen load. DH has horrible sinus problems (according to his own dr this could be due to a wheat sensitivity on his part) and spring is a tough season for him.

Unfortunately dd's eyes and eczema have been pretty constant for the last year. She had sensitivity to foods in my diet when she was exclusively breastfed (eczema flares when I ate too much wheat so I was wheat/dairy free for a while) and when she started solids wheat and dairy made her eczema worse. We took her off wheat entirely till she was two and then brought it back... she seemed fine as long as there wasn't too much at once. But gradually I noticed her eczema was spreading (not flaring, but more and more patches forming in new places) and although I knew she had under eye circles it wasn't till I was putting together a photo album that it really sank in that those circles were becoming bigger/darker/more present over the past year and practically permanent for the last 6 months.

We pulled wheat a few weeks ago on the advice of our ped but it looks like the increase in corn (we got corn cakes and were using cornmeal a lot to replace wheat) was a real ooops. Since we always had a fair amount of corn in our diet I'm hoping that when we challenge foods after the elim phase it will be the corn that does the most damage so to speak. DH is dreading baking without gluten.

[wombatclay]

Almost forgot!

Laia pooped in her potty yesterday and repeated the feat again today! I think yesterday was actually an accident on her part (she seemed surprised that there was poop in the potty) but today was on purpose. We've been giving her a gummy bear for each successful potty visit (she calls them "peepee bears" and selected that reward at the store) and she decided she needs TWO peepee bears for each poop.

Inflation!

[JustVanessa]

Good job Laia!!!! A good friend of mine IRL is using gummy bears for her ds's poops and its working for him too. Congrats!