Potty Progress

Amelia's progress is great.  In two weeks, I'd say she is now about 85% potty trained. 

She definitely has the peeing concept down pact.  She lets us know when she has to go and is now comfortable and quick to go.  No anxiety what so ever!  Her problem areas are staying dry overnight and she still has some anxiety about going poop. 

She has had several "away games."  The public restrooms don't seem to affect her at all, so I'm thankful for that.  When I ask her to go potty before we leave the house, she always says, "No, Mimi goes potty at the grocery store (or where ever we are going)."

As we were headed out the door to go to the library, it was apparent that she had to go.  When I asked her she said, "No, I go potty at the library."  Sure enough, Little Miss Diva held it and went as soon as we got to the library!

On the ride home, she had to go again.  I told her we would be home soon, but she insisted that we stop by the store so she could go potty there.  This is hilarious because she is just the opposite of me.  I hate public restrooms.  The same thing happened on the way to gymnastics.  She didn't go at home, but went as soon as we got to the gym, ha ha.  Maybe it's just a phase?

When I praise her for being a big girl, she responds by telling me all the places she's pottied: museum, grocery store, library, gymnastics, Roshni's house, etc.  She even told the Fort Campbell gate guard all the places she's pottied during our ID inspection.  She is hilarious.

She's also really into picking out her underwear.  She has a pair that have cupcakes all over that are her absolute favorite.  When they are not available to wear she says, "Mommy does the laundry now please!"  Then she settles for another pair.

Anyways, that's all the potty talk I have for now.  I'm loving only having to wash cloth diapers for one baby ;0)  My little girl is growing up so fast!

A Week in Review

The boys were sick over the weekend :(. Little man was miserable and wanted to be held like this all day.

It snowed twice this week! Amelia loved watching the snow fall and insisted on wearing her hat, gloves, and coat inside the house. In this picture, she and her doll, little Mimi, are watching the snow fall. Amelia is explaining to little Mimi that snow is cold and white. "The snow is beautiful."

Pasta face!

Amelia and I had a girls day! We went shopping and got ice cream. In this picture, we are riding in the mall train.

Cleaning Alex's chair after a meal.  Mimi always says, "Alex makes a big mess.  It's icky."

Washing strawberries

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I'm a Tree! (videos)

Amelia was very curious about the exercise mat. We kept trying to explain to her that you exercise on it, but she just didn't get it. Jimmy had the idea to show her a workout video. Amelia got the concept right away and is now obsessed with exercising on the mat. She's so cute!

 

Tree Pose

 

Side Plank

While Mommy is Away

I get a few hours a week to myself to go to the gym.  Even though I'm only gone for about 90 minutes, I still enjoy getting picture texts from Jimmy.  I miss their cute little faces!

Little Miss Sassy

Dr. Lehman Jr.

With daddy on a coffee run for mommy

She Was Ready

WARNING:  This post is about potty training.  I'll be using the word poop and pee!

Amelia started showing signs of being ready to potty train in back December, so we decided to "set a date" to start potty training.  We waited another two months so we could take the time to prep her, talk it up, get ourselves ready, and REALLY make sure she was ready.  I've always heard that the key to potty training success is making sure the child is ready.

In true Lehman parenting style (ha!) we decided to jump in with both feet.  We went with the three day potty training method (no diapers for three days, only underwear).  We knew she wouldn't be potty trained in three days.  Our intent was to give her a good foundation and solid jump start to the process.

We cleared our calendar for President's Day weekend and crossed our fingers!  OMG.  Nothing could have prepared us for how mentally draining the process is. 

Day 1-
The first day, we kept questioning our parenting skills, our method, and agonizing over Amelia's well being.  She fussed, cried, and flat out said, "I don't like it."  It was tough to handle.  Despite everything, she was very successful and only had one accident.

Day 2-
Amelia caught on very fast.  We are amazed at how in tune she is with her body.  (I've heard kids who use cloth diapers are more aware of their potty habits, since nothing is absorbed by their diaper, and they can feel everything.)  Even though she didn't like it, she was peeing in the potty consistently and had no accidents.

We were very worried that we were mentally damaging her because she cried while she peed.  Also, Amelia refused to poop.  She was holding it in and was getting really uncomfortable.  Our worst nightmare came true... We had broken our daughter.  It would take years of therapy to get her back to normal. 

Sooooooooo, after a long discussion and lots of tears (by me of course), we decided to throw in the towel and regroup  We would put her back in a diaper and ditch the whole potty training process.

Miracles do happen because even though she had a diaper on, she still let us know when she had to go potty!  Jimmy and I were ready to give up and my sweet, smart, inquisitive little girl kept it going.  I was so proud of her and ashamed as a parent for wanting to give up.  Amelia wasn't ready to stop trying.  It's always on her terms!

We left her diaper on the rest of the day anyway, but she continued to use the potty successfully.  She didn't even go in her diaper once!

Day 3-
No accidents and peed in the potty successfully all day.

*We didn't get a poop success until day 5, but now she goes regularly... thank goodness!

Incentives used:

temporary tattoos, one for every success (she was all tatted up by the end of the weekend!)

potty chart w/stickers

Candy- licorice, lollipops, and chocolate

play make-up

stickers

 

She had more than a dozen tattoos before we decided to stop using them.  They covered her arm and legs.  She loved them!

 

 

We took a trip to the toy store to get a special big girl toy.  I told her she could pick anything she wanted.  She picked out a doll that looked like her.  It's the little girl from Monster's Inc, Boo.

We are so happy with her progress!  Every time she says, "Mommy, I did it!" my heart melts and I'm just so freaking proud if her.  She hasn't had an accident since the first day and won't go even if she has a diaper on.  We've also taken her out and she's done great.  We will still diaper her before naps and bedtime.  We'll work on that once she's fully mastered awake/day time potty training. 

Amelia amazes me.  I am so proud of her.  Surprisingly, this whole process has taught me a lot about myself as a parent and brought me closer to Amelia.  She is such a great kid and I feel so lucky to have her in my life.  I'll keep you posted on her progress!

Good job Amelia!

Alex at Home

Alex, just being Alex!

Hot dog shirt and hot dog toy in his mouth, ha ha

 

Always climbing

 

Down dog

Cuddle time with his blankie

Six teeth

His favorite toy, Mr. Potato head

 

 

 

Reunited

Amelia and Alex hadn't seen each other in about 6 hours.  As soon as Alex came down the stairs, Amelia screamed and giggled with delight and ran over to him.  Seeing the joy in his sister, Alex screamed and laughed too.  They hugged and kissed each other.  It was so cute!

 

Double The Fun

Amelia actually wants Alex in the bath with her now.  That was not always the case.

 

 

 

 

Love

My favorites

"A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person." ~Mignon McLaughlin

"What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are, but how you deal with incompatibility." ~Leo Tolstoy

"The older I get, the less time I want to spend with the part of the human race that didn't marry me." ~Robert Brault

"I love being married. It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life." ~Rita Rudner

"You don't marry one person; you marry three: the person you think they are, the person they are, and the person they are going to become as a result of being married to you." ~Richard Needham

Alex, 13 Months

Calls Jimmy "Da da"

 

Weighs 19 pounds (9th percentile) 

 

Four new top teeth are popping through

 

Favorite Toys: Mr. Potato Head, latch board, microphone, and lift & flap books

 Chews on his finger constantly



Good Morning Alex

 

Yes, that's a wagon in our hallway, ha ha

Heading straight for the stairs...

This is how he feels about the gate blocking the stairs

 

Drool monster

My Little Helpers

Start them young....

 

Amelia loves doing the dishes.  (Crazy, I know, but she thinks it's so fun!)  Wanting to be just like his big sister, Alex has joined in to help too.  Surprisingly, they make a good team.  Here they are emptying the dishwasher.  Alex hands Amelia the silverware and she puts it away.  They have a cute little assembly line going! 

 

Nap Time

Alex (12 months)

 

Adorable.

 

 



Run, Ah-Kee, Run!

We were blessed with another warm, sunny day, so we took another trip to the park.  Yay!  Instead of heading straight to the playground, the kids and I took a long walk by the river and played in a giant empty field nearby. 

The kids went crazy in the empty field!  They had so much fun just running around, going up and down the hills, crunching leaves, chasing each other, racing with me, and just being free to roam about as they pleased.  They also collected leaves and Amelia was obsessed with putting them in her pockets.

We were out in the field for about an hour and then took a snack break.We sat on a bench overlooking the river.  We counted houses, looked and listened for boats and birds, talked with the folks walking by, and petted dogs. 

Amelia was excited to see people "exercising" as they ran by and greeted every single one of them with a hello and a cute little wave.  Alex pointed to everything moving: boats, people, dogs, birds, and even moving leaves.  He pointed and would scream out "dis!"

We even met a few fisherman who happily talked with Amelia about fishing.  They showed us their poles and fish.  They explained that there were fish in the river while Amelia sat quietly and listened.  They were so nice, but I was a little weirded out when they were telling Amelia about their "dead" fish and showing her the bucket where they kept them.  Later, during dinner, Amelia brought up seeing the dead fish when she was telling Jimmy about her trip to the park. Yikes!

After snack time.  I thought the kids would be exhausted, but they still wanted to go to the playground.  Surprisingly, they played for another hour.  I didn't mind since I saw a few friends there and had some much needed adult conversation, ha ha. 

At the playground, I overheard Amelia talking with another boy.  They had been chasing each other on the playground.  He looked to be about 4 or 5 years old:

Boy:  Hi, what's your name?
Amelia: Amelia Jane Lehman.  I'm two.  Alex is one.
Boy: I'm Jayden.  Let's play.
Amelia:  Okay, okay, okay, okay! 

OMG, I couldn't stop laughing. 

All in all, it was a great day.  It was one of those perfect, causal outings where everything fell into place and we all had fun.

Amelia checking out the field

They couldn't stop laughing when they were crunching the leafs.  They loved it!

Alex's high step for leaf crunching



 

Hugs

"Come on Ah-Kee.  Run!"

Snack time

"Mommy, I see sunshine."

 

I need to get Alex a pair of his own shades, ha ha

"Mommy, I don't like this."



 

Amelia wanted Alex to swing with her.  Yeah, this lasted about ten seconds before she wanted him out!

 

She was able to go about three feet before she fell off.  Then she said,

"Mimi, did a good job."