|
| One of my favorite things about cooler weather is cooler outerwear! I adore hats, mittens, boots, coats, vests - you name it, I probably own it or wish I did! This summer while vacationing near Yellowstone, I found a knitting book that got me counting down the days until Fall. I'm telling you, each pattern is cuter than the next! The hat patterns are just for babies, but since I have two models of my own, and a little niece on the way, I am set!
Despite moving next month, making Halloween costumes and the many other things that fell on my to-do list this month, Kate and Ben's hats were my first priority (especially when snow began falling the first week of the month). So here they are, well two of the three (the third child has not yet arrived, so we'll have to wait to showcase that hat ;) I'm already looking forward to some other cute creations!
 | | |
| Ben is 9 months old, so I figured we'd continue the little comparison thing...
 
Ben's been crawling for about a month now. Poor Kate is having a hard time with it, mostly the part where Ben gets into all of her stuff now and tries to take away the toys she's playing with. We hear an awful lot of "No, Ben. Noooooo!" from her these days. Poor Ben is learning that there are many limits in life, and Kate is beginning to learn how to share. May I stress beginning. Of course there are plenty of moments, like these, where Kate loves helping Ben (especially if it means she gets some of his puffs, too)!
 | | |
| Been a long time since I blogged! Well, we had a big event in our house this week that is definitely worth blogging about: potty training.
I set the stage with streamers (which means "party" to Kate) and a present waiting for her on the table. When she woke up, we announced that today we were having a Potty Party! Yea! She opened the present and found a book (Once Upon a Potty), a doll and the doll's potty. We read the book and I shared with Kate that today we were going to teach the doll how to use her potty. So off we ran to the bathroom to teach the doll. The doll had some successes and some accidents throughout the day, and very quickly Kate wanted to join in on the fun of wearing big kid underwear and using the potty (along with the rewards of being successful: stickers and treats). I fed Kate her favorite salty snacks and had on hand her favorite drinks to keep her VERY hydrated ;) and every 20 minutes Kate and her doll tried to use the potty, so she had several successes. There were a couple of accidents as well, but Kate helped me clean up and then got to pick out a new pair of underwear. At naptime and nighttime she wore a pull-up (sorry, not quite up to changing the sheets as well).
Day Two began with a trip to the potty, of course. The day went VERY smoothly. I decreased the frequency of our visits to the bathroom, so she only "practiced" sitting on the potty every 30-45 minutes, which was good since she is often resistant to making the trip. But the best news of all - she didn't have any accidents! Hip, hip, hooray! That night we had a cake after dinner to celebrate (after which Brad asked if we were going to have cake every night Kate went accident-free ;)
Day Three. She was on a roll (still not always a fan of sitting on the potty every 45-60 minutes, so I tried giving her a five minute warning when the time was coming), and we ventured out to the backyard. This also included wearing more than just a t-shirt and underwear, which is what we did the first two days. Well, I slipped up and didn't insist on going to the bathroom, and after an hour plus of playing, she had an accident. Poor girl was so embarrassed walking into the house. Anyway, that was our only accident, but the incident did leave Kate in a bit of a funk. Poor thing.
Day Four was today. Some friends invited us on a hike and we enthusiastically agreed before remembering that Kate was in the midst of potty training. In the morning I prepped Kate by explaining what we were doing (using the potty before we left, wearing pull-up in the car, using her potty when arrived, going in the woods while hiking, using her potty when we finished the hike and when we got home). Amazingly the pull-up stayed dry all day and the girl loves to go in the great outdoors! I shouldn't be surprised since she's been hiking since week one ;)
The keys for Kate have been the rewards (a sticker on her chart and one treat for #1 and two treats for #2), reading her Once Upon a Potty book (which I brought along on our hike, too), and talking through what's going to happen so she has a good idea of what will happen when and how (that includes giving her 5 minute warnings before we practice sitting on the potty). She doesn't yet know when she needs to use the bathroom enough to tell me or go by herself, but I guess that will come with time.
I got most of my ideas from the book How to Potty Train Your Child in Just One Day by Teri Crane which a friend lent me after hearing some success stories from other folks. All in all, it's been a good experience. Kate is more and more confident about the whole process each day. Ben was a great trooper this week, which helped immensely (thanks to all of you out there who were praying for that!). Poor guy was left to sit with his toys for long periods of time while I was sitting on the bathroom floor ;) And I'm a lot less stressed/panicked about Kate having accidents after cleaning up a bunch the first day. At least I'm not wiping her bottom and changing her diaper anymore! So there you have it, Potty Party success story!
| | |
|
