Potty Training...

Austin is (Hopefully) finally potty trained.

Potty training is one of (so far) the most frustrating things to have to do with raising children, well my child anyways. I have been trying to potty train Austin for almost a year, on and off, now. I have tried everything from leaving him naked running around the house to asking him every 20 minutes if he has to go potty to now where I just quite cold turkey and he is not allowed to wear diapers anymore (not even pull ups) except at night time only. It took a lot out of me over the past few months trying to figure out why he wouldn't use the potty. I didn't understand why he was being so difficult and I came to every conclusion possible. I finally figured it out! I think that what I did would not work with every child, just mine (well maybe others). I think that my stuborn side rubbed off on him and he was ttrying to see how far he could push me! Well he pushed me to figure out how to potty train him once and for all.

Last fall (I believe) when Austin was just about 3 I decided to try to actively start potty training him. I started out by leaving him naked around the house. It started to work for the first few days. He never peed on the floor and always went to the potty when he had to go. I would put him in a pull up when we went somewhere and at nap time. He still wore diapers at bed time. For a couple of weeks I thought it was working. Going to the store he would sometimes ask to go to the potty and sometimes he wouldn't. At nap time he would not ask to go to the potty ever and he would always wake up with a dirty diaper. I figured that maybe that was ok and at least during his awake time he was going (sometimes). And then one day everything went backwards...He peed on the floor. I thought it would happen just the once and then it kept happening, so we went back to full time diapers.

A few months went by and we tried again. Sometimes I would put him in underwear, sometimes I would leave him in a diaper and sometimes I would leave him naked. Nothing seemed to be fully working. It would only seem to work when we were at home. At that point I kind of gave up on the whole thing even though I knew Austin was smart and he knew when he had to go pee and poop.

I started getting super annoyed with changing austins bum and asked him why he can't just go in the potty. He would always say he didn't want to. So I came to the conclusion that he was just lazy.

During being pregnant every once in a while you have a melt down. Well I had one of those a couple weeks ago about Austin. About him not being potty trained, never listening to me and just being a 3 year old boy. So I searched on the internet hoping for some answers and help. Well I found it, with some of my own ideas combined.

I decided to make Austin quite diapers cold turkey. The website I read this on made a lot of sense in that if you keep going back and forth between not wearing diapers and wearing them it confuses them and they dont want to learn. Well with Austin, he knew what he was supposed to do he just didn't want to. So I told him no more diapers except at bed time, even naps were no diapers. He wasn't happy with this but he did it. There were two times where I wasn't sure what to do but apparently what I did I was right. Once he was sent to his room for doing something bad and he decided to pee his pants. I knew that he had done this on purpose so I made him stay in his peed in pants. That was his punishment for not telling me he had to go pee, he had to stay in his wet pants. Now I only made him stay in them for about 10 minutes. The other time he peed in his pants during his nap. Now he was still awake and he did it on purpose because he wanted out of his bed. Well little did he know I made him stay in his wet pants and made him have a nap. I know that you are all thinking that I am cruel for doing this, but it worked. He hasn't done that since and he has told me if he has to go. He is smart and knows that I can hear him when he is in bed (yes I still have a monitor in his room and his door has a child thing on it because he comes out of his room all the time unless the door thing is on and he can't get out). He hasn't had an accident since last Sunday (which that accident was on purpose) and last saturday we spent almost the entire day at a friends house and peed in their potty 3 times without me asking if he had to go, he just went!! I am so happy about his progress and I firmly believe I could take him any where and he would not have an accident! I am so proud of both of us for sticking to it. I may have made some mistakes along the way but that is part of being a parent. Now onto other things, potty training Dalyce, she is eager to learn and nighttime training with Austin, Oh and having another baby!!!

Embrace Life

So you are sitting there one day thinking that everything in your life is absolutely perfect. Perfect husband, perfect kids, perfect house, everything in your life is everything you dreamed of, and then it comes crashing down on you. In just a few seconds, a few words are said to you that might change your life forever. Overwhelming information to get by yourself. A million thoughts start running through my head and I can't help but wonder, What did I do wrong? You try to tell yourself that it doesn't matter. That it is just another bump in the road that you can get through it with love and support. Still, it's very scary all the same and you have no idea what to do. It is what you were given. Take it, accept it, embrace it. However hard it might be.

Only 4 months away!

Well baby #3's due date is fast approaching. Only 4 short months away. However I think it will be only just over 3 months away, but that is my opinion! I said to Grant yesterday I don't know how much longer I can take being pregnant. My body I think is telling me that it is not a factory! But only 4 months. It seems like 4 months ago seems so far away but thats only because a lot has happened. Grant pointed out that 4 months ago we were out camping for the last time that summer. That does seem like a long time ago but the next 4 months I think will fly by. There's not a lot thats going to happen between now and then besides Grant going to school. In 4 months I would love to have bought a bunk bed for Austin and Dalyce and have them sleeping in the same room. I don't think this is going to happen though. The Bunk bed might be bought but the kids won't be sleeping in the same room. Dalyce won't be quite old enough to sleep in a regular bed and getting them to sleep in the same room I think is going to be a disaster!

I have an ultrasound again on the 13th. We still don't know what we are having and I don't know if we'll find out. We still have quite a bit of time to request to know! We are having a tough time deciding on names (once again). Anyone have any great suggestions?

Life's journey!

A year has gone by and so much has happened. The family picture on this blog was taken about a year ago and soon we will have to replace it with a new family picture of the 5 of us!! Wow did I just say the 5 of us!! It seems like just yesterday I was apart of just a family of five...me being the youngest. Now I am going to be the mom of a family of five! Our once little family of five has grown into a family of 8 adults and 5 soon to be 6 grandbabies! Our little family of 5 grew into a family of 14 in just a few short years.

So much to think about with life being too short and kids growing too fast. It was just yesterday that I found out I was pregnant with my first baby and I was soon to be married. Now my third baby is due in just 5 short months and my oldest is 3. Its crazy where life takes us, on this journey, on this path and we have no idea where it's going to take us next.

Trying to survive...

We try to give our kids everything we can. Sometimes what we can give them just isn't enough. For me, My kids have everything they need and they always will. That not only being because Grant and I work as hard as we can but also from Grandparents and Great Grandparents. And sometimes what we can give them just doesn't seem like enough, in the eyes of the parent anyway. Kids don't need a million toys, or a big house, or a big bedroom, or a nice vehicle, or anything fancy. Heck Dalyce plays with shoes and containers most of the time and Austin watches a lot of movies and reads books. Grant and I have been looking for a house with 4 bedrooms the last little while because I am determined to give each of my children their own bedroom. This might be delayed a little bit more than expected but it will happen one day I'm sure.

Austin woke up this morning to discover that it was snowing. He yelled "Mommy look it's snowing, now I can go outside and build a snowman right?" Good thing Austin finally got a snow suit last weekend (from grants parents) so that when there is enough snow he can go outside and build a snowman!

Sometimes we take for granted the little things in life that are most important. Money isn't everything, I know we need it to survive but it isn't everything. Sometimes just barely getting by does a family more good than harm. I wouldn't be the person I am today if my parents were rich or had everything handed to them. I was tought to work for everything and be proud of what I've got. I was tought that family is the most important thing you can have. And you can't buy love, especially from your kids!!

My Husband!

I have been extremely fortunate to have Grant as my husband and sometimes I take that for granted (lol...does anyone else find that funny....I have grant and I take him for granted...teehee). Anyway, everytime I get pregnant I get very emotional and I blow things out of proportion and I make things seem way different than they are and I take things the wrong way...and I do this all to Grant. When we get into an argument he always just agrees with me and keeps his opinions to the bare minimum because he knows there is no budge room with me when I'm like this. He has to tell himself that I'm pregnant and I'm not usually like this. Thank goodness he does because I think he would've been long gone if he wasn't so understanding. I got to thinking yesterday that the romance in our relationship has dissappeared and so I was grumpy yesterday. Grant kind of agreed with me but we both said that we have a lot on our plate right now and I'm not the easiest to romance when I'm grumpy all the time. I agreed with him on that aspect. So I woke up this morning and came downstairs with the kids and saw a bunch of paper on the floor...the first one said hi and then there were arrows towards the counter and then another one that said look at the pictures on the camera. The first picture was a piece of paper that said Good Morning, the second said I Love You... and the third was of Grant with a piece of paper stuck to his shirt and his arms out wide and the piece of paper said This much!!! And he also changed my computer screen to heart balloons and he wrote on it that he loves me very much!! I hope hes ok with me posting this but I don't care. I wanted to share this with the world and let him know that I appreciate everything he does for me and the kids.

Drawing Board!

Austin always wants Grant and I to draw on his drawing board. He usually tells us what he wants us to draw and this time he asked me to draw Daddy and Mommy and Dalyce and Me...so I did.......


Apparently I only have one boobie!!!!!!!