Potty Training Update #4

I think at this point it is safe to say that we have 2 potty trained little kiddos and I am so excited and so proud of my twins. Evan has done unbelievably well, he hasn't had an accident in a while and he even wakes up from every nap and in the morning after 12 hours of sleep dry, and very ready to use the potty. We wake up to him in his crib doing the pee pee dance because he has to go so badly. I guess it is a good thing that transitioning to toddler beds is next on our list. We plan to do that once we get settled in MD which should be by mid September. One of the things I knew I needed to work on with Taryn was going potty in public but unless we are out there really isn't much opportunity to practice this. However, today we had the perfect opportunity, we were out most of the day as our house is being painted and Taryn went potty 3 times away from home on the big potty. When we went to dinner we had actually forgotten to put her pull up on so she went to dinner in her big girl pants and did fabulous and even used the potty in the middle of dinner.

It has been great to see the twins be so successful. I wasn't sure if they were ready or how any of this would go when we got started I just was willing to give it a try and see happened. It has been much easier than I anticipated for the most part they were both trained w/in 1 week of starting their training. I couldn't imagine it being any easier. We anticipate that we may have to deal w/a bit of regression w/the move coming up and/or Annaliese's arrival and we are OK working through any issues that may arise along the way...but for now they are trained and doing awesome...we are so proud and so grateful that we will not have 3 in diapers...I was willing to do that, just not looking forward to it. This way seems so much better :-)

Moving Day

The packers came yesterday and the loaders today. All the movers have been extremely kind and patient w/the kiddos which has been a blessing. One of the men even asked us how we managed to have such well behaved children...my answer the Grace of God :-)

Today the truck driver let the twins climb into his cab and take some photos, I think this just about made Evan's year :-) He loves 'Big Trucks' as he calls them!

One last photo of our GA home...I am going to miss it, though I am ready to leave

Kids Bedding

Annaliese's Bedding

We are using fabrics 1, 2, 5 and 6

Here are the letters I made for her nursery

Here is Taryn's Big Girl Bedding

And the letters I made to go in her new room :-)

Here is Evan's Big Boy Bedding

And the letters I made to go in his new room

The twins will be sharing a room for a bit longer so hopefully these coordinate well enough :)

Here is Annaliese's Baby book that I made for her...cant wait to start filling it up w/all kinds of fun memories.

24w5d Belly Shot

Yes I am a bit tardy on this one but better late than never :-)

24w5d w/Annaliese

24w6d w/the twins

Not sure I am looking much different between the two shots these days...hmmm, not sure how I feel about that :-)

Potty Training Update #3

Taryn continues to do awesome...she has been at least 8 days w/zero accidents. Today she even went potty all by herself w/o asking for help. She went back to her potty, took off her 'big girl pants', which she has now graduated to Hello Kitty and Rapunzel panties from her training pants, and went potty. She came running out of the bathroom, bare bottom and all, excitedly saying "potty, potty". I went to investigate and sure enough she had gone potty all on her own. She seemed so excited, and proud of herself...momma was proud too :-)

Evan is on day #2 of training and while he got off to a rough start yesterday, today he totally made up for it. He went 3 times in a row this evening and even got out of the tub in the middle of his bath time to pee pee. Maybe its the M&M's, he did get his first taste of this delicious little chocolate treat today :-). We shall see how tomorrow goes.

Potty Training Update #2

I think we are well on our way to saying our lil' Tater Bug is officially trained. We are on day 4 w/zero accidents and she just went poo poo on the potty w/no prompting. She just came and told me she had to go we went back to the bathroom she sat on the potty and did her thing. I am so proud of her.

Now on to Evan????

Maybe??? Because of Taryn's success Evan has started showing interest. He grabbed Chad's hand yesterday and told him he had to go pee pee, walked back to the bathroom, asked for his diaper to be taken off and sat on the potty...now he didn't do anything but that didn't stop him from asking for his M&M's. If things continue to go well w/Taryn we will start Evan this weekend and see if he is really ready or if he just wants to be like sissy.

Visual Evidence

Of Taryn's success.....and no I am not posting potty pictures...that would be so gross.

Potty Training Update

Just wanted to drop a line on here to say that Taryn is doing awesome. She has had 2 days with zero accidents. She knows when she needs to go pee pee and heads to the potty...she is also really enjoying the M&M's she gets afterwards. Today she even woke up dry from her nap and immediately used the potty upon waking. We are still doing diapers at bed time and pull ups at nap time and for outings. We still have some hurdles to climb like using a public restroom, switching from the little potty to the big potty and pooping in the potty...she hasn't done that yet and I am wondering if that may be a road block for us but we will see it has only been a little over a week and she was sick this past weekend so we will see how she does as the week progresses. I am really proud of my girl, she has done so much better than I anticipated and I would say so far this has been easier than I thought it would be. So a big YAY for my little Tater Bug.

First Purchase

While I don't need a ton of stuff for our new baby, I do need a few things as some stuff needs to be replaced, I think she will be in a different size than the season of clothing I have and I needed a single stroller but hopefully the things we buy can be few and far between. Although shopping for babies is so much fun.

I did buy this cute little basket and had it personalized w/her name on it. Since we will be living in a 2 story from here on out I wanted something that I could keep down stairs w/diapers, wipes, blankets, burp cloths and such so every time I need something I don't have to run upstairs and of course since it is going to be left in the main living area it HAS to be CUTE LOL.

It is so fun to see something with her name it :-)

"They Melt in Your Mouth...."

...and Not in Your Hand" that is the slogan/song for M&M's as I remember from a long time ago. But I am not so sure I believe that as evidenced by one little girl.

Taryn's Blue M&M Face

So here is the rest of the story:

We started potty training Taryn on Sunday. It was a decision that I have been teeter tottering w/for a while, partly because she didn't seem overly ready and everything is so up in the air for us right now w/a lot of transition coming. But she was consistently showing more and more signs of readiness and we have another month before we are going to be moving and Chad is around a lot right now to help so we decided we would give it a whirl just to see what would happen. Our plan going in was to give it a week to see what would happen. If she showed little to no interest or readiness we would happily go back to diapers and re-attack in a few months. We just took away her diapers and put her in training pants and then just watched to see how it would all go. Much to my surprise Taryn showed progress almost immediately. She went from having no awareness of when she peed in her diaper to complete awareness when she peed in her training pants and not liking it much at all. In just a few days she now consistently tells us when she has to go potty, she shows great control and accidents are getting fewer and further between. She is waking up dry from her nap and not completely dry in the morning but not nearly as soaked as she has been normally. So I guess we are officially training now, and hope to have her fully trained in a few weeks. I am really proud of her, she is doing so great.

So what does any of this have to do w/M&M's. To add an extra incentive and reinforce our training efforts I took advice of many mom's before me...M&M's....ahhh the magic of chocolate. Taryn gets 3 M&M's every time she successfully does her business in the potty. At first she wasn't so certain about them as she has never had them before but w/a little coaxing she cautiously took her first bite and her response "mmmmmmmmmmmm" LOL. The funny thing is she normally shoves food by the handful into her mouth but the M&M's are savored and ate very slowly one by one. Maybe she is just trying to make sure her brother recognizes that she got something that he didn't :-). Poor Evan feels so left out, but we keep telling him he too can have M&M's when he goes pee pee in the potty. So far he has showed little interest but that is OK w/me, training one at a time is enough of a challenge for me. ONce we get Taryn squared away if Evan decides he wants to try great, if not we will hold off until he is ready.