Note to self

Put potty chair lid down after your child goes #2 when you take child to clean their bottom. Your food hound of a dog may decide to eat it.

GROSS!!! Bright side: made easier for clean up...haha!!

***Maybe too much information but I had to share.

Finger paints

Sevea got some finger paints from her Grandma and Grandpa Appeldorn for Christmas. The other weekend we got them out and tested to see how well she would do with them. The box said she was a little too young for them but we figured those ages are normally off anyway. Well she might be more ready for the finger paint at age 3. She did well once we didn't give her full access to the paint. She started out just dipping and dipping and dipping into the paint. This was the problem since then she had wayyyyyy more paint than she needed. So the paint went bye-bye and she did well with just playing with the paint. We'll remember this next time and just give her a good amount of paint she can play with and not full access :)

Whose daughter is she?

If I didn't give birth to Sevea myself I would wonder whose daughter she is. I got some big yummy muffins (that is what they are called) from Cub Foods last night. I gave Troy his halves this morning and then shared mine with Sevea for breakfast along with some fruit. She wanted nothing to do with it. I told her it was yummy, it was cake. Nope still not going to try it. And one of them was a chocolate muffin with a chocolate glaze and stuffed with a little cream!!! The other was a carrot cake muffin with cream cheese frosting. Really maybe she was switched at birth...our little girl who ate everything is no more. Which in a way I guess is good...I'd love her to have better eating habits than me anyway :)

Another dinner success

Troy and I get so excited when new recipes we try turn out good. But we love when they turn out amazing and way better than we ever expected. The other night we tried Betty Crocker's Chicken Carbonara Deluxe and loved the result. I've never made Carbonara. Sometimes pasta dishes with the sauce that sticks to the noodles more than being a sauce don't always impress us. But this dish was excellent! We tried it on a whim since I had leftover heaving whipping cream from a dessert I had made. Boy were we glad we gave it a try. It is definitely something we would make again, and again, and again, and again! I love when you make a dish and then the leftovers are even better. This is definitely one of those dishes. Troy and I loved it equally if not more when we had it for leftovers. I totally recommend giving it a try. I normally love a biscuit or bread or something with pasta but this time the whole wheat bread was more of something in the way of me eating the pasta...but I suppose it helped me to not eat 5 servings :)

Pottty Training Update

Sevea has done amazing!!! I can't believe how well she is doing. For right now it is more Troy and I making sure she sits on the potty when we think she needs to go. She isn't able to tell us when she needs to go so as long as we keep an eye on the time since she last went and make sure she goes she does really well. She isn't able to pull up or pull down her pants and underwear so I think once she learns this she could do better at making sure she goes when she needs to. It seems if we keep her naked on the bottom she will go when she needs to without us having to help her. So I think once we get her to know just to tell us and we can help she'll get it. But for now this is really working. We rarely have a potty accident and only the occasional poop. But overall she is really getting it. She stays dry during naptime and has even stayed dry for several nights. She progressed to being able to go on command when we know she should go. So we feel we have real progress. She still gets excited after going on the potty and does her I did it dance. Makes it so fun for all of us. We can't believe how fast she is growing up :(

 

She loves her Dora underwear!

Back to School

School has started once again. I'm in week 3 and look forward to the next 8 weeks flying by. March 18th can't come soon enough. I know Sevea will enjoy a little more quality time with her mom. Although we make time when we can. She can work on her laptop with mommy!

What a peanut!

Love the concentration face

I wish I was that excited about homework!

Naked Time

Potty Training Weekend

It is great watching kids grow up. But one thing that has to happen when they get older is they need to learn how to go pee pee and poo poo (Thank Elmo for those) on the potty and not in their diaper. I talked previously how we finally got Sevea to sit on the potty chair by reading books. Since then she has been making progress. She had only gone pee pee on the potty maybe 3 times before this past weekend. So we weren't really sure how the potty training would go. But we really believed that this was the right time. She seemed ready. (Well and let's be honest, parents have to be ready as well :) And boy were we right. She did amazing this weekend!!! Troy and I were some incredibly proud parents and couldn't believe how well she did and continues to do. Our plan of attack was an approach that I was emailed from Baby Center. It involved having her sit on the potty every 15 minutes. We had to leave her butt naked the entire weekend as well....and I mean just her bottom half. We started the day setting the timer and having her sit down. This did not work! She just didn't want to sit so often and all we did was reset the timer. So we took a slightly different approach and hoped for the best. Instead of using the timer we just paid attention to the time and how long it had been since she last went and tried to do what we could to get her to sit. It worked and continues to work so far. She had one accident on Saturday. She went pee pee on the floor in the morning so the day didn't start out great but we hoped for the best. From there on it has gone really well. The whole poo poo thing was interesting. I knew this could be the hardest part to train as some kids are afraid or scared or just aren't sure about it all. Well she didn't go poo poo at all on Saturday so we knew Sunday it needed to happen. You could tell she needed to go since her butt crack was lined with poo in the afternoon (you probably never thought I would say such a thing..haha!) So again we just kept asking and asking for her to sit and try. When we weren't looking she sat herself on the potty and went poo poo. It was pretty exciting since she did it all on her own. We couldn't believe it! Then an hour or so later she was squatting down by a chair and pooped on the floor. She felt so bad and sad. She seemed a little scared. It was a great opportunity to teach her again where the poo poo went. And thankfully it was on hardwood and no different than picking up after a dog (see dogs do prepare you for kids..hehe!)

Things have continued to go well this week as well. She has kept her diaper dry at nap time since. We've made two outings (one to the store and once she went to the gym daycare) and she stayed dry those times as well. We haven't ventured out without a diaper yet but we are thinking she could be ready soon. We told her in order to go see friends (gym daycare) she needed to go potty since we can't go in our diaper. She sat and went. Real progress we think to be able to get her to go a little more on command (although we knew she should need to go). Overall we are very excited about how well the potty training has gone. She has done so well and we are very proud of her. It will just take some time to get her to tell us she needs to go. We have to adjust to wearing pants and underwear without going in them. (She is excited for her Dora underwear but the program said it can feel the same as a diaper at times and promotes some kids to go in them....so since I am home with her we'll try a little longer without) We also have to get the potty chair in the bathroom and not the living room :)

A bribe of Cheetos to sit on the potty :)

Why buy toys?

Sometimes you wonder why even bother buying toys. Kids will find the simplest things to entertain them. Sometimes a roll from the toilet paper or a sticker or your tupperware. I think most kids can say they loved playing in their parents cabinets growing up. If not, let your kids try. Sevea and Troy had lots of fun...free fun!

Blanket fort

The other weekend I was hiding under the blanket from Sevea. Then Troy joined me. Then Sevea had to get under. Of course she couldn't forget about Lily joining us, so Lily came under as well. We decided Sevea might enjoy her first blanket fort. We made these growing up and what kid doesn't love them. It was a pretty pathetic one but hey she is only 2 and it did the trick. She enjoyed her time hiding under the blankets!

Do you see Lily in the background?

Yes my bangs are long, we are growing them out!

She enjoyed reading some books under the blankets!

Bye bye!

Donut, muffin, what is it?

I love reading a couple food blogs because I get some really great ideas that I don't think I would ever find on my own. I mean would I ever search for Glazed Donut Muffins??? I mean I love donuts and I have been a big fan of muffins lately but I wouldn't ever "have" the reason to search for either one to make. The other night I decided on a whim to make this delicious recipe. They turned out great. However the bottom half of the muffin is a little drier than I prefer. So for this batch we just slather a little butter on it. Next time....I would dunk both the top and the bottom of the muffin!!

Baby #2

Don't get excited, this post is not to talk about baby #2 on the way. The week after Christmas we had the pleasure of watching my friend Vicky's son Hunter. Her and her husband took their 6 year old son Parker to Walt Disney World. So we had Hunter day and night. It was interesting to see how life would be like with another child in our home. Sevea really enjoyed having Hunter around and she did really well with being patient if I was doing something for him and she wanted my attention. Hunter is 8 months old so she sort of felt like she could play with him. He would crawl after her and she would play next to him.

It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. But then again I did say he was 8 months old. Nothing like a newborn to create some fun. However this week was the first week for the new infant at the daycare. She is only 10 weeks old and although we don't have her all day and night, the 10 hours she has been here each day are going well. Every baby is different and it is interesting to figure out a new baby. Sevea seems to think that all babies should be able to do what Hunter did so she is slowly learning that the new little girl can't do those things. It is fun to watch her!

Lily, puppy!

So for those of you who don't know, when another dog comes onto the tv and Lily notices she starts barking and acting like they are in the same room with her. Well recently Sevea has noticed this fact. When a dog comes on the television Troy and I will sometimes say Lily, puppy, Lily puppy and point to the tv. The funniest thing happened after lunch today. Sevea wanted to color so I gave her a color sheet. She was done with that one and asked for another one. We went through the whole pile looking for a cat or a cow but she settled on the puppy. She held the picture up and showed it to Lily (who was under the blankets on the couch) and said Lily, puppy, Lily, puppy. It was pretty darn cute...also reminds me how much we as parents are our kids teachers!