Potty Training- Day 4

So how tired are you of hearing about PTing?!  You can skip this boooring post, but I just had to record the fact that Ella did so great yesterday!!!!

Not one accident, and she decided she is now able to go potty "her big self"!  Everett was a little needier than usual yesterday so I was NOT on top of the PTing- constantly forgetting to ask, etc. so my big girl would just get up, say "I have to potty", march into the bathroom, get herself on the big toilet (she won't use the kid potty cover or mini-potty anymore) and go to the bathroom all by herself!

The downside to this behavior is that her reward for having no accidents all day was this monstrosity:

That's right, a Dora head that you can style her hair, change her hair color with water, add extensions, etc. I thought she'd love it since she is always trying to do my hair these days. She did love it for a total of 8 minutes.

Pool BBQ

We had a BBQ at the pool today with some of our favorite friends, and I think it was probably the most fun Ella has had all summer!  We couldn't tear the big kids out of the pool from 3pm to 6:45pm so this is the only photo we got of them!

Everett was actually LOVING the pool for almost 2 hours...completely chill. 

It's great because all of our kids are almost the exact same ages, and really this is the extent of Everett's circle of friends. :)

(that says 11.5 months for Ryan- not 15 months!)

But come on, this is a pretty bad ass group, right?!

That's right, we all hang out in our diapers.  What?

Look ma, I pinned Everett!

Chillin' with Gav...

My girls...

It was SUCH a great time, but let me tell me you why you are NOT supposed to have such fun (and lengthy) outings on the 3rd day of potty training...

Because Ella is trying so hard to be good about going in the potty, instead of going pee in the pool like every other child (come on, your kids do it!), she kept telling us she had to use the bathroom.

So I'd march her into the bathroom, cover the seat with two seat covers, take off her wet bottoms, struggle for what seemed like eternity trying to rip off her wet and sticky swim diaper (btw, why do these things seem like they stick to their legs??  Especially when you are trying to get them off quickly to pee!), lift her on the toilet, wait, wait, wait, until she finally said, "oh, I don't have to go potty", go find a dry swim diaper, put it on her, put her wet bottoms back on, back in the pool.  This happened no less then 10 times.  I was finally over it and decided to stop wasting swim diapers and just let her go in with just her suit on.

Well of course, she tells Gary she has to poop.  He takes her to the bathroom AGAIN.  Same scenario..."oh, I don't have to poop."  Back in the pool.  Two minutes later, she tells him AGAIN she has to go poop, so they get out, but apparently this time, she really did have to go and couldn't hold it until the bathroom, and now her cute WHITE swimsuit is not so white.  UGH!  I feel really bad for her because she did tell us, and she did try to make it to the potty but couldn't, and I could tell she felt really bad.  And it was totally our fault because everyone knows that you don't take a kid to a 5 hour bbq at the pool on the THIRD day they are potty training!  I'm actually very proud of her for telling us so many times because she was very distracted with all the fun she was having.

Oh well, we still have another kid on which to perfect our technique.

Potty Training Day 2

Life is rough when you're learning to use the potty.

We had a much better day today!  Ella is telling us she has to go potty without any prompting, and she only had one accident!  And the accident was while I was at Target so I don't think that really counts. ;)  She does seem to have some Pavlovian response to the timer (like she'll try 1 minute before it goes off and not be able to go and as soon as it rings, she is immediately able to go- weird) so we'll see how tomorrow goes when we plan on not using the timer.  Look at all this success!!!

Potty Training SUCKS!

Ella in her very first pair of Hello Kitty underwear

For some reason that is beyond me now, we decided to PT this weekend (Friday to Monday).  Little piece of advice...don't PT until you absolutely have to...i.e. it's required by your school.

I don't mind diapers AT ALL, and Ella doesn't have to be PT for school until she's almost 4, so what in God's name possessed me to PT already?!  Temporary insanity, I guess.  But now that we've started, there's no going back.

She was really excited in the morning to wear her big girl underwear...and then proceeded to pee in her pants (thank GOD for hardwood floors) FOUR times.  WTF?  I understand one time, even two, but after that, don't you think, "hmm, this is kind of gross to have pee running down my legs and no fun to clean it up."???  Apparently not.  So then I had to start setting the timer for every 10-15 minutes...I mean, really?

Then we get the, "I want to wear diapers again!!!!!"  Well, the excitement of wearing underwear certainly wore off quickly didn't it?  But then after a few times on the potty and the resulting sticker and m&m, she realized this is a pretty good gig.  So she decided to either sit on the potty for 30 minutes at a time until something would come out OR tell me she has to potty every 3 minutes.  UGH!

I will say, the 4 accidents were all in the morning, and she hasn't had one since morning, and she has gone on the potty TEN times (including a poop- yay!), and she has not had any poop accidents so I do need to give her some credit.

And now I have to be one of those people that carries a toliet in their car and/or has to rush to the bathroom a bunch of times while shopping or at lunching or at the park.  Yuck.  I already miss diapers...

Being stuck in the house all day long turns you into a bag lady :)

For my own records in case I want to the same with Everett, what I did...

*Talked it up for about a week before starting

*Woke up, tried to go on potty then put on underwear (no pants- just underwear)

*Rolled up the rugs downstairs so it was all hardwood floors!

*Had a basket of "prizes" that I showed her in the morning and explained that she got to choose any treat in the basket after getting a row of stickers on her potty chart

*Made a big deal after each time she went pee/poo on the potty- gave her 1 m&m and let her choose 1 sticker and put it on her chart

*Made her clean up the pee herself when she had an accident

*Stayed home all day (and had to cancel a playdate we had in the afternoon- too much distraction)

*Set timer for either every 10, 15 or 20 minutes for her to try on the potty...asked her periodically between the timers if she had to go potty...sometimes when the timer went off, I would just ask her if she had to go and not make her try if she said no, but mostly, she would run to the potty and try when the timer went off

 

Vegas Nightmare

Ok, I'm being dramatic, but we just got back from Vegas with both kids, and I promise you we won't be doing that again anytime soon!

Ella was pumped to go to Vegas...


Let's start with the good.  First, the weather was actually really nice- I was a little scared to go to Vegas in July, but it was perfect at the pool.  Even walking around outside between hotels was fine (I do think it may have been cooler than it typically is in July).  Second, the room was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.  I definitely recommend the 1 bedroom, 1,300 square foot Tower Suite at the Mirage.  I could not get any good photos, but trust me, it's much nicer than it looks in the photos!

Just arriving at our room...

The foyer with a great walk behind bar!

The family room...

Dining room...

Bedroom...

With a tv that pops up...

The bathroom was gigantic with a huge jetted tub...

And a flat screen on the wall to watch while you bathe!

 

A hallway in the bathroom with a walk-in closet and water closet (with bidet) led to the make-up table...

It kind of went downhill from there!  We had dinner at Tao on Tuesday night, which was delicious...

But that night was a nightmare.  Everett decided to wake up screaming at around 10:30 or 11 p.m., and he screamed and screamed and screamed (for 2.5 hours) until he finally woke Ella up.  We had no idea what was wrong with him since he's never done that before so we assumed it was teething (he had no fever), and Gary had to go out at 1 a.m. to get Tylenol!  That finally did the trick, but then it took awhile to get Ella back to bed.  Needless to say, we were EXHAUSTED and crabby on Wednesday, which was really the only day we had in Vegas.

The pool at the Mirage is fantastic...

But we really only spent about 30 minutes there as a family before Gary had to take Everett up for his morning nap, so it was mostly just Ella and I...

We went to the well known and much hyped BLT Burger for lunch.  I thought it was delicious.  The burgers, fries and onion rings were SO good, and I had the best shake I've ever had in my life.  I think it was called the mocha mudslide with oreos...the whipped cream was chocolate and tasted like chocolate mousse!  I would go back just to have that shake again!

We did get a little shopping in (my girl has good taste!)...

And some dancing at H&M ;)


But because no one really slept the night before, we scrapped our plans to go to Bouchon and ate at one of those little Italian places in Venetian next to the performers in the square.

The most partying we did was in our room on Wednesday night when Gary brought up a frozen margarita for us to share!  We we so over Vegas by Thursday that we just woke up and left instead of going to the pool.

We had a great time last time we went to Vegas with just one kid, but two kids is one too many for Vegas.  At least when one is a baby.  And if we ever do go again with both of them, we'll definitely stay longer than 2 nights.

I need a vacation from my vacation.

Firsts...

First of all, Everett is *finally* sitting up!  Of course my mom got him to do it at her house on July 18th (she also taught Rylee all her tricks so I guess she's the dog AND baby whisperer!)...

She sent me a series of these photos while I was working.  He is still VERY wobbly, but it's a start!

On that same day, he sat in a shopping cart for the very first time...

It didn't go as smoothly as it looks in the photos since he kept sliding down so the strap would dig into his armpits so we probably aren't ready for the shopping cart yet, at least without a shopping cart cover.

Ella and Everett both visited Partyopolis for the first time for Jack's superhero 3rd birthday party- it was so much fun!  Ella loves her Jackie!!

Etc., Etc., Etc...

Ella-isms

Ella had to go with us this morning to take Everett to the pediatrician, and as we are driving home, she says, "Thank you for inviting me mama!"  That girl cracks me up.

Everett Head/Sitting

We had a follow-up appointment with our ped this morning to look at Everett's flat head.  He said the facial view and front view are within normal range, and his head is flat on the right back side, but he thinks we can wait for 6 weeks until the 9 month appointment to revisit the issue- he would not recommend that we do a helmet yet, but he gave us the number because it's up to us and completely cosmetic. So yay! No helmet! Oh and no signs of torticollis so that's good.

I mentioned Everett's refusal to even *try* to sit, so he gave us the number for PT/OT (physical therapist/ occupational therapist) if we want to do that to have them work on strengthening his muscles, etc., but he said his muscle tone is good, he is very advanced in that he is already army crawling a bit (since he's 6 months adjusted), and that he isn't too worried about the sitting since he is only 6 months adjusted, and that Ella was just advanced in that area. He said if he was a term baby, he would definitely send us to PT/OT right now, but again, it is completely up to us at this point, and his recommendation is to wait until the 9 month appointment again to reevaluate. He thinks he'll start sitting in the next few weeks (I'm not so sure about that!).

Photos

My mom recently pulled out the box with ALL my costumes from when I danced (she really saved 12 years of costumes?!)...Ella has a unique way of wearing them!

You'll notice she has a jazz costume OVER a ballet costume

She also likes to get into grandma's leis...

Some aerial bounce house shots...


A recent crayon clutch I made...love this fabric!


And finally, I took some photos of my good friend's boys for her recently...how to die for are his eyes?!

Beach Day!

We took Everett to the beach for the first time this afternoon!  We love the beach so any day at the beach is a great day, but it's funny how a day with two kids *actually* plays out...

Aww, aren't we cute?

You will note that we are not the only nutjobs to bring a stroller onto the sand!

Got on my suit, ready for the water!

Except as soon as I get near the water, I start whimpering and bolt back up the beach...

And look for my sand toys...

But I insist on sitting like this so 27 pounds of sand get into my diaper and every crevice of my skin, which you know we will still be finding 10 days from now...

I also insist on taking that cute little pink shovel and chucking a pound of sand right in baby brother's face to make sure that his eyes and mouth are entirely full of sand.

All the while, daddy's back is breaking since Everett needs to eat, and although it took 45 minutes to pack everything up, and we had a week's worth of crap, we failed to bring a single lounge chair...

And since he is apparently going to attend college without the ability to sit up on his own, Everett must roll around in his dork outfit (speaking of which, is it too much to ask for a PLAIN rash guard?  One WITHOUT a dog on a surfboard on it?)...

So now it's daddy's turn to attempt the impossible...maybe she'll get near the water if Everett is there?

Nope.  Not happening.  So I guess we'll just freeze our infant son by putting his feet in the ice cold water because SOMEONE is getting in this damn water before we leave...

Maybe we can at least get a cute shot with mommy...

Except apparently none of us noticed that our poor child's entire face is covered by his hat...seriously, do second children even stand a chance?

Let's try this again...

We've had enough...time to relax at True Food Kitchen for dinner!

And this my friends, is why despite the fact that we live very close to the beach, and we love the beach, Everett's first trip to the beach took 7.5 months to occur.