All right, enough hullabaloo. We’ve had two crazy busy weeks in a row, a trip to Pennsylvania and back, and another full week staring us in the face.
I can’t just float on and expect productive teaching and training to happen around here.
Life probably won’t slow down any time soon.
Here is what we will be working on this week.
*Putting stuff away. We’ve worked on it before, but it’s definitely time for a refresher -probably for mom and kids.
*Looking at someone in the eye when they talk to you.
and two more constants…
*Obeying with a good attitude
*Being happy and thankful in all circumstances (this is especially with the older ones -and me!)
We already had a great opportunity to work on that last one at breakfast this morning. Who knew being given a smaller piece of banana than someone else could be so heartbreaking?
I really thought potty training was going to be the end of me. If there ever was an end. And then everyone said the next child would be easier. And it was… by four months.
To make it perfectly clear, it took me sixteen months to potty train my first one and twelve months to potty train the second.
The end of me.
In retrospect, it was mostly my fault. My girls would have “got it” much faster if I hadn’t botched it so royally.
For fun I thought I’d put together a list of what NOT to do when potty training. Some may apply to you; some may only apply to me and my crazy mind. Either way, I hope you enjoy, don’t take it too seriously, and most of all, don’t spend twenty-eight months of your life potty training.
1. Don’t let your child sit on the potty too long. The point is for them to learn to go when they need to; not to have “the bathroom experience” by rule of probability and statistics.
2. Don’t think that treats will train your child to go. I’m not saying don’t give them; but at least for mine, there was no connection between a reward for going and actually mastering the skill of well, you know… going.
3. Don’t switch back and forth between big kid undies and pull-ups. Of all the mistakes I made, I think this was the biggest. I am now a huge fan of going cold turkey.
4. Don’t think that buying a potty book at Barnes and Noble will aid the process either. And it gets really uncomfortable when it becomes your child’s favorite book and everyone who enters the house gets asked to read it.
5. Don’t frantically search Internet sites and help books regarding potty training. I found that most of them either said the same things or were too philosophical to actually be helpful regarding a toddler.
6. Don’t begin to wonder about your qualifications to parent if potty training is a little rough. Most people work their way through it in one fashion or another and you probably won’t be the exception.
Helpful?
If you’re really being tried, just remember there’s someone out there who messed everything up completely and somehow through it all daily gets to hear, “Mommy, I need to go potty.”
Ever been taken back to a room at the doctor’s office, have a nurse weigh your child, ask if you have any questions, and then say the Doctor will be right in?
Sleepy
Ever found yourself wondering if that nurse remembered to tell that Doctor that you were even there?
Here are ten ways to be proactive at entertaining your children while waiting in the doctor’s office. (Please note: these would not really be appropriate for the waiting area, but are fair game once in the room.)
1. Play I-Spy. The rooms at our pediatrician’s office are very colorful, so this is always something the girls want to do.
2. Play Simon Says. My girls are a little too young for this, so it’s really just a glorified version of “Do what Mommy says.” Hey, why not throw in having them respond with, “Yes, Mommy!” and make it a training exercise as well?
3. Play Ring-Around-The-Rosie. It’s okay, I promise.
4. Give bumpy horsey rides with the kids on your knees.
5. Explain the different “doctor” equipment in the room.
6. Play Peek-a-Boo.
7. Sing songs softly. Especially ones with fun action or hand motions.
8. Play copycat. Do something and have the children imitate you. (Jumping jacks, standing on one foot, turning around, making a silly face… they love this one; especially once they get to be “the cat.”)
9. Play thunderstorm. Pretend it’s raining and everyone has to huddle under an umbrella to stay dry. (The girls actually made this one up; they love to make rain noises by slapping their laps.)
10. And if the doctor is still not there, Repeat.
Stick out your tongues!
The point is to be creative and be happy. If you are impatient, your children probably will be, too.
Sad faces
Really the sky is the limit.
Laugh!
Last time we went, I happened to have a brush in my purse because we rushed out so early and I hadn’t had time to really get them ready. So we played beauty shop; I fixed their hair while talking to them in my awful imitation Brooklyn accent. They thought it was hilarious. (If they only knew it was helping me stay sane as well… )
Silly faces!
What do you do to occupy your children while waiting?
Oh yeah, and if all else fails, tell them to make faces and take pictures. = )
Here are a few funny things that were heard around here this week ~ hope you enjoy!
****
This morning, Gracie got out of bed a little earlier than I wanted to. So after taking her to the restroom, I brought her in bed with me. One of my favorite things to do with the girls is to ask, “What is your favorite…?”
“Gracie, what is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?”
“Strawberries and eggs.” No surprise there; she’s said that before.
“What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?”
“Macawoni and cheese.” Again, completely normal two-year old answer.
“What is your favorite thing to eat for dinner?”
“Pizza.” I quite agree.
“Gracie, what is your favorite thing to eat for a snack?”
“Spinash.”
?
****
We were driving home from eating dinner out this week when Gracie interrupted the conversation to complain…
“Mommy, I’m hungry!”
I reasoned with her, “You can’t be hungry, Gracie. We just ate.”
“I’m hungry from the talking!”
****
And the grand finale (in my mind). = )
Hope and Sophia were cleaning up their papers and crayons after coloring one afternoon. Sophia held up two cut-out figures that closely resembled a man and woman for me to see.
“Wow, Sophia, those are great. Who are they?” I asked.
Her voice became very excited as she held up the woman who I could now see had a beautifully colored dress, “This is Aunt Laurie at her wedding!!!”
“Oh wow!” I said.
She held up the rather long, skinny figure of a man, “And this is Uncle Aaron. He was so excited he turned into a microphone!!!”
Gracie is, or can be… a little contrary. Let’s just say she seems to enjoy not liking things more than she does liking things. Bubble bath? The other girls can’t get enough of it. But Gracie shakes her head and says, “I don’t like bubblths.”
Perhaps if you’ve read much here, you’ve caught on that Gracie and I have a special time of mother/daughter conversation while she uses the restroom before her nap. Strange as it might sound, it’s one of the most entertaining, (dare I say, favorite?) times of my day. This conversation basically consists of her monologue-ing and me just saying something every now and then to keep her going. One day, early on in the two year old stage, she began to tell about things she didn’t like.
“Mommy…”
“Yes, Gracie?”
“I don’t like bugths!”
“I don’t like bugs either, Gracie.”
“Yeah, them gwoss!”
But it was cuter than that. Imagine her scrunching up her nose and shaking her head when she says, “Bugths.” It continued.
“I don’t like beeths.”
“I don’t like waspths. ”
“I don’t like anths.”
“I don’t like ca-ta-pil-wa-ths.”
“I don’t like butterflieths.”
I had to disagree here. “You don’t like butterflies? I like butterflies.”
“Mm…no, I don’t like butterflieths.” And the nose scrunches and the head shakes.
It was too much.
I don’t know how long we would ask her, “Gracie, do you like bugs?”
In my recent post about why every house should have a two-year old, I said that one of the best things about this time is the stages that they go through. I thought it would be fun to chronicle the different stages that our dear Gracie has had. It started out with them all in one post, but that was way too long. So, I’ll just break it up and do a couple every now and then. There are two for today; hope you enjoy!
Birthday Woo!
Gracie’s first stage that relates to being two started a few weeks before her second birthday. Her sisters had been in the habit of singing “Happy Birthday” with an enthusiastic “Woo!” for an ending.
Of course, Gracie was quite small still, but for fun we would ask her what she wanted for her birthday. At first she would smile and think and then say, “Birthday Woo!” We thought this was adorable, so like any good family we kept asking her and asking her and asking her. Her response would grow in excitement. To accompany the “Birthday” she would shake her arms twice in a typing position, then raise them up high over her head when she said, “Woo!” It got to where you could ask her at any point in the day, in the middle of any occasion, we would ask, “Gracie, what do you want for your birthday?” and she would adorably reply, “Birthday Woo!”
I so wish that I would have caught this little antic on video; but as all stages do, it came to an end before I did. Poor thing, her arms must have gotten tired.
Boy run!
This next stage was a weirdy. I sort of hate to include it because it wasn’t all that funny and didn’t make sense, but then again, who says that two year old stages by requirement must be sensical?
Gracie would say to me, “Mommy, when I was a little boy… I would say, ‘Boy run!'”
Yep. That’s it.
Every now and then it would be, “Mommy, when I was little boy… I said, ‘Boy preach!'”
I have absolutely no idea where this one came from, but I do know that she would say it at least once at every meal.
Sometimes we would interrupt her and say, “Gracie, you never were a little boy…”
And she would continue, “…I said, ‘Boy run!'”
Like I said, a weirdy.
Until next time…
What are some of the funny stages your two-year olds have been through? Do tell, I love these kinds of stories. = )
All right, enough hullabaloo. We’ve had two crazy busy weeks in a row, a trip to Pennsylvania and back, and another full week staring us in the face.
small steps, big picture 