Potty Training

Here it is the post you've all been waiting for! Our potty training secrets. We started at 18 months. We, who am I kidding it was me. Ha! I don't think Scottie had a clue what he was in store for.

Anyways back to the post. I started the process without even really knowing I did. I got her a potty about a month before we even started anything. She would always follow me into the bathroom so I figured at least she'd have some where to sit. I wanted her to really just get to know it before she used it. I know that sounds stupid but I wanted her to know what it was and how to use it before she actually attempted anything. Like really know how to use it. Lifting the lid up and actually sitting on the seat. Of course we had the standing on it, and using the seat as a necklace (gross).

She'll hate me I know, but I've come to terms with that.

After about a month of having the potty I figured hey let's give it a whirl. It she takes to it great, if it gets to frustrating we'll stop and try again maybe a month later. Looking back I think this might have been the key. No stress, no worries. I was calm which helped her be calm. So for the first week, I let her be completely naked. I knew she would have accidents so I watched her like a hawk. Hoping I could catch her so I could rush her to the potty hoping she'd make the connection. Yes she had accidents, pee and poop, but it was good. She was starting to figure out what her body was doing. We only did this until naps. After naps we'd give her a break and put her back in diapers. I knew she was starting to get it because after a couple of days while wearing her diaper she would tell me she had to pee. I would tell her it was ok to pee because she had a diaper on.

First time ever peeing on the potty! She was thrilled!

And yes I am that mom. First time she ever pooped!

Now after a week past we started fresh on Monday. I would take her to the potty every five minutes. Yes EVERY FIVE MINUTES. Even if she didn't have to go. I just wanted her to sit. The next day would be every ten minutes, the next every 15 and so on. Again I kept with the morning trend. I'd put a diaper on her for naps and keep one on the rest of the day to give her a break. I didn't know then but thinking about it now I guess I didn't want her to get frustrated or overwhelmed with the whole process. Now that weekend happened to be pretty busy so she was in diapers for pretty much the whole thing. I was bummed I thought she'd lose all that we had worked on during the week.

But my girl proved me wrong. That Monday I took her pants off and she pooped on the potty! Told me she had to go and everything! First time ever! And yes I took a picture and sent it to Scottie. From that moment on that was it. Of course I used the old here's a chocolate if you pee on the potty and two if you poop. That seemed to work well. She really did great. And yes if you're wondering I am that creepy mom who takes a picture. I took a picture of the first time she peed and pooped, as I said before Scottie got one. I know weird but we had to celebrate!

I think my biggest hurdle was leaving the house in underwear. That was scary. I tried to make her go on the potty before we left the house, and if we were going to a store that had a rest room I'd ask her if she had to go right when we got there and right before we left. I tried to pay attention to how often she was going. She seemed to always poop in the morning, right after she had her milk. Which worked out well for us because it was before we left the house. She can go without peeing for a couple of hours. So really now I just ask every hour or so as a reminder to her. And of course I always brought an extra diaper, underwear, and a new outfit just in case. Honestly I had to trust her. She was telling me when she had to go so I had to take her word for because if I tried to put her on the potty when she didn't have to go she'd have a fit.

Check out those big girl underwear!

The other big hurdle for me was no more diapers at nap time. Again I paid attention. I noticed her diapers were staying dry so we gave it a shot. I try to make her go before her nap but it doesn't always happen so I say a little prayer and put her to sleep. She's usually pretty good but again as expected she does sometimes wet the bed. Next will be no diaper at night time! And also at church nursery. I knew she'd be busy playing and would have a hard time telling other people she had to go. Just about a month ago we finally ditched the diaper. Again I make her go before she goes to play just to be safe.

I try not to get down on her if she has an accident. Especially if it's after a nap. She can take some long ones so I'm often pleasantly surprised when she doesn't pee the bed. We usually just tell her that's ok, it was an accident. Then we talk about where we go poop and pee.

Now dealing with set backs like when we started working in a new environment. I went back to the old candy trick again. It seemed to help her get back on track. I think I was having a harder time dealing with the accidents than she was. I was getting so frustrated because I knew she could go on the potty and I couldn't understand why she was having so many accidents. I tried time outs but that just made both of us upset. So like I said I went back to the old candy trick and that did it. Now don't get me wrong she has her good days and bad days but overall for 22 months I am damn proud of my girl!

Now we're at the month before her second birthday and she's pretty much independent. She tells me she needs to go and as long as it's a little potty she can go all by herself. Pull her pants down and will even wipe! I of course help with that, her favorite part is flushing and washing her hands!

If this helped you in any way let me know. Leave a comment, share it with your friends. How has your potty training journey been?

Hi! Don't Worry We're Still Here.

So people have been asking, "Hey where's your blog?" And by people I mean two, but whatever numbers aren't important. Last post was at 15 months and now my baby isn't such a baby anymore. My girl Penelope Lynn is 22 months old as of yesterday. I know I say it every time but can you believe it. In two months we will be celebrating her second birthday! I seriously can't believe I will the mother of a two year old.

We've had a great summer! We've taken trips to the beach, went to a baseball game, visited the state museum, welcomed a couple of new additions. She's also been able to practice her candle blowing skills. Mimi and Papa Francisco both have summer birthdays, so she'll be all set for her own birthday! She's gotten very good at the birthday song too. Of course she'll never sing it in front of people, so don't ask. Here's some photo updates of the bean and our summer:

 Auntie Ashley helping Nell in the water.

 Hanging at the park with her bestie Jackson!

 Enjoying a pop at the lake! I couldn't believe it when we saw the ice cream man role through!

Comley strong. Always  

More park fun.  

She loves to do dishes. 

Meeting baby Holly for the first time!  

Helping mom with cupcakes! 

 She loved helping Grandma water the plants.

 Taking a hike

 Happy Birthday Papa!

 Big helper!

 Play date with friends at the park!

 Blowing bubbles!

 Pig Roast 2015

 The DeVoe clan!

Modeling my first knitted hat! My new hobby more to come on that!

Let's see what has she been up. Biggest accomplishment for me, she finally learned to smile on command. Often times I end up with side eyes and a big smile but I'll take it! I'm just glad she finally says cheese and really smiles! Onto other important things like she's a chatter box for one. She's very shy around new people but if she knows you she'll talk her ear off. She says full sentences now. She's really good at saying no, and leave me alone or stop it and I don't like that. I'm really working on using her words instead of whining because let's face it no one can understand whines and honestly who can stand to even hear it. She can count to ten, she can say her abc's. We're starting to work on letter recognition, she can find the letter p which is good considering it's the first letter in her name! She's learning her colors, I thought she'd never get it because she thought everything was green but if you ask her again she can usually tell you the right color. Another post soon on how we help encourage her abc's, numbers and colors. She's walking, she's running, she's becoming quite independent. She can pretty much dress herself although the shirts can be pretty frustrating, I mean there are three holes, and her underwear may end up backwards but still she did it. Daddy's really good at giving up all control when it comes to to picking out a whole outfit. I give her choices. She's obsessed with buckles and bags, she wishes she could zipper and button, but that will come. She's learned how to blow bubbles. She's crazy! She's always laughing, she's getting pretty sassy often times that ends in time outs but hey it happens. We're really working on listening to mommy's words. That's a whole post in itself. Her new favorite thing is swinging on her belly, which in her world means laying on her belly and not moving. It's quite entertaining.

She is fully potty trained. Yes at 22 months she can use the potty and recently can pretty much do it on her own. She can pull down her own pants sit, wipe herself and pull them up. She always gets stuck on her butt, she just can't seem to get the pants over that little booty! I'll save our potty training secrets for another post. I mean I'm pretty convinced that she potty trained so early because she's a genius but that's just me. It could be because she's a girl or because she just did. Who knows? Our next will probably be in diapers until they're four. Ha! Awesome news, just this morning she woke up with a dry diaper! I really hope this trend continues because then we can kiss those diapers good bye. Now don't get me wrong I fully expect more accidents even if she does stay dry though the night. And honestly it's not a bad thing if they're in her bed because then I actually remember to change her sheets. Don't judge we're busy people, I forget. Speaking of beds she's in a big girl bed! She's done really good in it too. I want to get her a toddler bed so we're ready for the next one when the time comes.

I've recently started a new job. Still nannying except instead of all my girls I'm with one little girl who is 5 months (cute as a button!) and a little boy who is four. He's in preschool three days a week for a couple of hours so I use that time to hang out with Nella. Do something that she wants to do, so it's just me and her. Of course we still have the baby but Nella is obsessed with her so she doesn't seem to mind. So far things are going really well. Nella took some time to adjust, which included plenty of accidents. I felt terrible that it was in their house, on their carpets. But it happens, they have kids too they get it. She just had to get used to not having all of moms attention. The baby requires feeding which means I can't always be ready to play with Nella or read or whatever it is that she may need at that moment. I honestly think it was a good thing. When the time comes for baby number two at the Francisco's I think she'll be ready. She's always ready to help which is good. Overall we're happy. Life is good.

I'm pretty sure I had mentioned in the last post that Nella had started in the church nursery. Finally. We just couldn't keep her quiet anymore through the whole service. So off to the nursery she went. It was torture at first but now she's a pro. She's gives me and kiss and she's good to go! I'm really so proud of her. She's come a long way. I had to have my mom watch her the other night and again just a kiss, that's all. She's probably good for at least three hours, then she'll start asking about me. But I'll take it.

Scottie's still at Central Plumbing. He switched jobs for about two months maybe three and quickly realized the grass isn't always greener. So he's back at central and really enjoying it. I'm glad he went through that and can be happier at work, because if he's happy at work he's going to come home in  a better mood. Who wants a grumpy husband coming home, not me!

Life is just so good. We are blessed. I mean yeah it's not perfect. We fight, I get mad, I feel like a maid, but we talk, I cry, we fix it. That's what marriage is about right? It's not always a walk in the park, if there were no challenges it'd be boring.

Now I remember why I never write blog posts anymore. Because it's hard. While finishing this I had to feed the baby, then I just had to clean off the older two because they thought it be cool to look like a tiger. Which in case you were wondering just in fact how you can get yourself to look like a tiger, well simply color on your face with marker and you're good to go! Yikes! Now the babies sleeping and the older two are eating lunch! But I will try to at least write once a month, If not more. So please if you feel so inclined give a share with friends. Let's see how far this blog can travel!

15 months!

Wow I can't believe I just wrote that. My baby is going to be 15 months on the 16th. 15 months! When did that happen? (Ok now almost 16 months because I wrote this two weeks ago....at least, if that and I'm just finishing it now. Hey I'm a mom, I get busy.) She's getting so big, making her transition into toddler hood (as much as I would not like to not admit that!) Although it makes me a little sad that she's not my baby anymore I am more than happy to watch her grow!

She's doing so much now, she's walking, running and slowly starting to talk. I strongly encourage her use of words because let's face it words are easier to understand than whining. So far she can say the normal momma, dadda, mimi, papa, still working on Grandma, getting better though. I swore she said Noah (her cousin) one day, we're still working on her other cousins names (Kody, Adora and Logan) along with the girls I nanny for (Lexi, Addie, Eva, Lainey and Jackson too) she's pretty close to saying Jackson and Lainey and she can say Addie really good. She can say ball, hot, happy, whoa, yeah, up, no, stop it, baby, please, of course right now I can't think of anything that she can say. Just know that she can say a lot. I'd say at least, if not more, twenty words. She knows where most of her body parts are, she knows plenty of animal sounds (cow, cat, dog, snake, lion, owl, sheep). She's very vocal, she's very silly. She loves to laugh and dance too. Her new move is her spin. She just goes round and round until she falls over.

She's gotten very good at climbing, she can make it up a flight of stairs in I swear less than 30 seconds. Actually it's true, I timed it. She can make it up in less than 30 seconds! And even better she is able to get down all by herself. Don't worry I'm usually there when she does but if I ever wasn't paying attention it's nice to know that she can make it down on her own and not fall. She sits on her butt and scoots down. She can get on almost any couch, and now even our couch. She also just figured out that she can get on the recliner too and even more fun she found out that it rocks too and that is super fun!

We recently had a snow storm and got a ton of snow. Daddy got to come home early so while he got rid of all that snow from the drive way with the snow blower I took Nella outside to explore. Even Hudson came outside to see what was going on. He didn't seem to enjoy it that much but Nella was all over it! She was walking all over, pulling her sled around and even touching the snow. I think she just like to walk around in her boots.

 Hanging with Hudson

 Helping dad snow blow

This picture's my favorite

She's just so fun to watch. She loves to play. I love to watch her in her kitchen and playing with her trucks. She makes the sounds and everything, it's pretty cute. She loves her babies, gives them plenty of snuggles and kisses. She likes to wrap them up in blankets and feed them bottles. She loves any toy she can push, especially her stroller and shopping cart. She's gotten pretty good at throwing balls too. It's hard to get her to play by herself before dinner, she's constantly at my feet while I'm trying to make dinner so when daddy gets home he's on entertainment duty. Which can be hard because when she's hungry it's hard to distract her from that. She loves her food. I think that's the hardest part of the day. She just gets so cranky, so whiney, and just wants to be held and I'm trying to make dinner! Hello hot stove here! She's gotten really good at dinner time and will nine times out of ten eat everything in front of her. Which makes my life easier. I said it before that I will not be a short order chef, but it's hard at this age. I want to make sure she's getting enough food with regards to nutrition. I know she's growing so I guess we're doing ok on the food front. Update: This past week she has transformed into a picky eater. It's super fun. I make her meal and she doesn't want really anything except her fruit. She does pretty good at dinner time still thank goodness. I will not give in, I refuse to make her special meals. I know she likes the stuff I am making, she's just being a poop.

She also loves to read, she'll read the same book a million times, you might not make it through the whole thing but you'll probably start it at least five or six times.

 Peek a boo!

 Playing dress up

 One of her favorite books. 

 So happy!

 She likes to steal mommy's water.

 She's so silly. 

 Chatting on the phone with Mimi.

Hanging with dad, stealing his food. 

We are, well I am really working on her having nice hands. She likes to hit. If you get in her way or take something from her you better watch out because she will come at you. On one hand I am glad that she will stand her ground but she can't be hitting her friends, or pulling hair because let's face it they're not going to be your friends much longer if you keep hitting them! Am  I right or what? I recently read an article that said they hit to see the reaction. It's really not to be mean but their curiosity wants to see that reaction (which made me feel better) and I do see that with Nella, but I also see that she gets mad when people take her stuff so we're working on it. Sometimes she's honestly just trying to look at their face, look at their eyes which can lead to poking them in the eye. So I'm a broken record all day, saying nice hands, nice hands, No, no don't touch their face, ok Nella all done.

I'm so glad I nanny. Sometimes it can be hard, sometimes it can make for a long day but it's so fun to watch her interact with kids her own age. I'm so glad she has so many friends that are around her age. It's fun to take her to parties or play dates and watch her interact with them.

 Hanging with Hudson and Sadie.

 I swear they like each other.

 Our little rocker chick.

 Watching the snow.

She's finally gotten more consist with her sleep schedule. Can I get an amen! She usually goes down around or a little before 7:30 unless we have the neighbors over or are visiting someone. We've gotten into a pretty good routine, we brush her teeth and then she nurses, sometimes she falls asleep on the boob but for the most part she goes down awake. Most nights she goes down without a peep, there are some night where she tries to put a fight but her crying doesn't last longer than five minutes. Once in a blue moon she'll wake up at 3 or 4 but for the most part she sleeps until at least 6:30, which is perfect. I wake up and get my stuff done then I get her nurse her and we are out the door. Once in a blue moon she'll get to sleep with us for a couple of hours in the morning but that's about it. I'm very thankful for the sleep. I still every night go and check on her before I go to bed. 

 Looks comfy right?

So sleepy. 

I'm also thankful to still be nursing her. As she's getting bigger I get more sad because I know sooner rather than later our nursing journey will be coming to an end. She's done so good and I'm proud that we've made it this far. Especially since she's not a big fan of whole milk. I'm glad she's still getting milk from me. Although it is weird to have her going down my shirt, especially when we're in front of people but oh well what can you do.

A big shout of to my momma friends. I am so glad that I have so many friends that have kids, it's nice to be able to vent to them. Seriously having girlfriends is a must, how else are we supposed to make it through this crazy world? I'm so blessed with the women I have in my life. Not only do I have my mom, my sisters, my mother in law, sisters in law, all my cousins and crazy aunts but I have this fun group of girls that I am honored to call my friends. It's so fun to hang out with people in all different stages of life. One of my girlfriends is single, young and living on her own, I have one who's getting married, one who's married with no kids and a bunch of mom friends some married, some not. It's so fun to just hang with everyone and watch. I love them all! 

Stepping outside my comfort zone this weekend. I am dying my hair purple! Yes you read that right, PURPLE! Gahhh! I can't believe I'm really doing it. I've seriously been thinking about this for probably a good three years and I am finally doing it. I figure the worst that can happen is I hate and I get a box of dark brown hair dye and dye over it or just wait for it to grow out. Fingers crossed I love it. I'm going to start out dark so it's not too shocking but I'm sure I'll go brighter soon enough! Pictures soon!

But for now, here's some more pictures of Nella:

 Seriously the cutest!

 Sharing is caring 

 Love her little piggie tails!

Last weekend Scottie's brothers family was visiting for the weekend and they stayed with us. I love when they visit, we always have a good time. Nella loves to be able to hang with her cousins, she was obsessed with baby Colton, she just couldn't give him enough kisses and I don't think he minded that much. We were sad to see them go but we know we'll see them again soon!

 Reading with Uncle Jeff!

 And Aunt Autumn

 She insisted she had to have a bottle with the baby.

 She loves Teagan too!

 Kisses

And more kisses!

We seriously have such a good life. I am beyond blessed. We may not have much money or always be able to do certain things we want to do but damn the love in our house is worth more than anything money could buy and for that I am grateful. 

One last picture. Here is a typical first birthday. Parents want a cute picture of all the kids together, put them in the ball pit they say! Ok here we go, look over here! And this is what you get. This is real life. You have the birthday girl happy as can be, Nella who has no clue whats going on or why Husdon is climbing on her and then there's Sadie who clearly does not want an part of this. Haha. Happy Friday everyone!