Potty Tales

I care way too much what people think of me.  Even people I don't know, have never met.  It's almost like a self-centred thing; I could swear that people look at me and instantly are thinking of everything that is wrong with me.  When really, they might glance over me and move on with their day.

But this is not a deep, thoughtful post about worrying about people.  Nope, this is to share what a trip to the potty looks like in our household.  Because of course you all want to know that.  (Don't worry it's not MY trip to the potty!)

The reason I mentioned how I care about people's opinions is because Leigh is still potty training and she is going to be four in two months.  I believe that she should have grasped the mechanics of peeing and pooping in the toilet by now.  And I believe that people will think the same thing.  I know, not to compare children, but Abby was trained by 2 1/2.  And before we moved, I thought that I saw the light at the end of the potty-training tunnel.  But since we moved she has seemingly regressed to a small toddler.

The thing is, I know she knows everything to be done.  I think that she even knows when she has to go.  She just doesn't.  She can be in the bathroom and if I'm not there to help her, she will pee on the floor in front of the dryer, rather than hop on the toilet two feet away.  Okay, that's not totally fair.  She did go by herself once this morning.  It is improving.  See, it helps me to write it out and see the progress.

So usually my dear Leigh does the dance.  Crossing her legs, squirming, and eventually dropping to the ground because she has so much trouble holding it.  Even with all this, if I ask her if she has to go, she usually says no.  I hustle her to the bathroom and even though she is capable of doing it all herself, I have to bring the stool over and help her take her pants off.

She does her business, after which she always asks, "Now I get a candy?" Which I assure her that she does. And then I remind her to flush because she would just run out of the room if she could.  After I ask her to flush she will always (and I mean always!) say "Don't leave!"  About 4 months ago I left the washroom once before she was done.  Apparently it left her with separation issues.

Then we go to the kitchen and get the current potty candy available.  Right now it is Swedish Berries for pee and a Chupa-Chup (is that how it's spelled?  I'm too lazy to go check) for a poop. And of course Abby gets a candy just for being the sister of the trainee.

So that is the potty training ritual here.  Probably more than anyone ever wants to know, but hey, at least I didn't describe all the poop I've had to clean up.  Seriously, I have some stories.

Let me know if you have any tips or tricks that will get your child to use the toilet.  I could use all the help I can get.

Motherhood Award, Maybe Not Here

Last night my kids didn't make it to bed until 8:30.  Well, maybe that's when we walked up the stairs so it really was later than that.  Oops.  I should maybe get a bad mama point for that.  If I was into keeping track of that kind of thing, which I'm not.  Really.  I may sometimes think that I'm not the greatest mother to ever live, but if I'm really honest, I know that I do alright.  Definitely not all the time, but sometimes.  I could do a lot worse.

Like today wasn't the greatest of days.  I got up sort of early (before 7) and even showered (Hallelujah!) but then my early alone time was not-so-alone time because Leigh was up when I came out.  So that's ok.  She ate some cereal, and sat with me some.  I ate my breakfast and then sat in my chair, and read a little of the Word.  But then I sort of dozed in the chair a little.  And I have determined that that doze is what killed my day.  I should have forced myself out of the chair and gotten my blood flowing and my day started.  But instead it sort of made me feel a little lazy and off.

So my day was therefore lazy and off as well.  Abby slept in until 9:15 which is another point that I'm tossed on, whether I should have woken her up or not.  Since we homeschool, I let her sleep.  I had some arguments in my head going, saying that we need to maintain a routine and keep with it and yada yada yada.  But my girls rarely sleep in anymore (they used to sleep in all the time) so I figured that letting her have the one day wouldn't kill either of us.  Besides, we didn't take yesterday off school, and all the public school kids did.  :-)

So today the kids just played and watched tv and played and did whatever else we felt like.  A bit of a lazy day.  Which is fine, I know.  I don't have to be go go go all the time.  But the only reason I feel guilty is that I know I could have done even a little bit better.  I could have done more, like maybe the laundry, especially since I don't want to get caught with 4 large loads of laundry and a broken washer like I had this last Saturday.  That wasn't fun.

Oh well, today is over and I am really trying to learn to just accept the fact that maybe I didn't do something perfect, maybe I was even a little wrong, but it is done now and I can only try again tomorrow.

I started writing this to contemplate whether I should go make my children be quiet and get back in bed since they are currently playing upstairs.  This has been a parenting question for me ever since Abby started sleeping in a big girl bed and was able to get out on her own.  What are everyone's thoughts on this?  Typically I just let them play, as long as it isn't for hours and hours and hours.  Ideally I think that I would like them not to, but well, I'm kind of lazyish so I tend to take the path that involves less conflict.  Tell me your thoughts.

School in September

I just put Leigh down for a time-out/nap and she is crying at the top of the stairs.  I am too lazy to go put her back in her bedroom.  I probably should though.  She is being sooooo incredibly cranky today.  I'm wondering if I am letting her play too many "video games."  Lately while I do school work with Abby, I let Leigh play on my iPhone.  Ideally I don't want to do this every day, but I feel like it's just so much easier.

I'm hoping that once the house gets more organized, I'll have more stuff for her to do.  I have lots of ideas, just none really implemented.  And maybe I should be taking more time with her.  Even while she was playing games on the phone today she wanted to stay cuddled with me.  I think that I don't take more time because I'm selfish and just want to get through the "work" as soon as possible, so that I can sit on the computer wasting my time and mind away.

Last week was a really difficult school week.  Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, oh my, it was just rough.  Leigh was fussy and Abby wanted nothing to do with school.  I was stressed out.  I have ladies' Biblestudy on Thursdays, and I asked for prayer for help with school.  We didn't do any school on Friday because, well because I just didn't want to.  But we did some on Saturday, and it was seriously way better.  And so far this week it has gone much better as well.  I am so very excited.

I think that it's not that Abby is any different, well, maybe a little, but I have just more patience.  An that makes a huge difference.

Yes, This Post Counts as a Distraction

There are so many distractions in this world, it's enough to drive me to distraction.  Wow, that was lamer written out than in my head!  Haha.  But seriously, that is all I am about today, distraction.  Maybe I am just more susceptible to distraction than every other person out there, but it just seems hard to get away from.

There's my iPhone.  Wonderful thing that it is.  It's handy for phoning and texting.  Also handy for Facebook and Solitaire and Civilization and stupid, mindless games that have no point but I play anyways.  That's the problem, it's handy.  I can take it all over the house with me.  I can stop for a quick sit down in the kitchen and bam, spend half an hour moving cards around.  Wow.

There's books.  Some people, like my hubs, aren't readers and so they don't have trouble resisting the temptation to open a book and read and read and read.  I am kind of jealous of them.  Because I am a reader, and I sure have a hard time resisting that temptation.  In fact, I usually don't resist, I just give in and read and read and read and, well you get the picture.  I remember when I was a teenager and I shared a room with my sister, and I would read in our hallway by the light of the bathroom light so she could get some sleep.

There's the computer.  Since I have my iPhone, this isn't quite as big a distraction, but it definitely can be.  I can check my e-mail and then zoom around, maybe shopping, maybe just window shopping (yep, definitely window) and sometimes the stuff I'm looking at is 'good' stuff, stuff that I might need to know or use eventually, but really, I should be doing something else at that moment.

But, here's some points for me.  The TV isn't really a distraction for me!  Hurray!  We don't have any kind of cable or satellite so that's mostly the reason for that.  If we did have some kind of channels, I know that I would watch "just one show" and end up watching four.  I'm just that person.  

The Friday Edition

So I wasn't going to post since I already posted a picture today, but I figured I should at least try to stick to my word.  Since I said Friday was "Weigh-in" day, I should really give the update on Fridays.  Instead of just not.  And yes, it is Saturday already in most of the world.  But I still have 20 minutes here...though maybe by the time I hit publish it will be tomorrow.  Oh well, can't help that now.

I have done horrible, and I mean HORRIBLE, with my eating this last week.  It's so bad, I have to say it again.  HORRIBLE!  And it's such a disappointment after how well I was doing.  So the damage is, I'm 164, and that was yesterday.  I've been doing so bad, I didn't bother weighing myself today.  I don't like to bring on depression purposely.

And I had planned on being 'good' today, but nah.  There were tortilla chips in the house.  And I don't remember if I've said it before, but salty foods are just my thing.  My hubby is amazed at the amount of crackers I can eat, all by myself.  When I think about it, I myself am actually amazed too.  So I have just stopped buying them.  Or actually I buy the unsalted saltines.  No good at all.  So now I don't eat them.  Unless I'm desperate...which happened this week.

So there it is.