Potty Training success

I have been wanting to post this for a long time, well about a month, but I was afraid I would jinx things.  Elaina is POTTY TRAINED!!!!! She was really easy, and I think that was bc she wanted to go in the potty and we didn't wait to long.  She is already pretty stubborn, so I can only imagine how hard it would have been if she was really old enough to know that she had complete control over the whole thing. 

I bought one pack of pull ups for night time and outings, but we didn't even use all of them.  We were concerned about night time because she wasn't waking up with a dry diaper in the mornings.  Trey would wake her to go potty when he would go to bed and we really didn't have many mornings that she woke up wet.  After about a week of that he stopped waking her up during the night and she still woke up dry in the mornings. 

After a mistake by me she became afraid of public toilets.  I forgot about the automatic flushing toilets, and of course the thing flushed like 5 times before I could get her off of it.  She became terrified of public bathrooms and would SCREAM "No momma, No momma" as soon as she realized that we were within 10 feet of a bathroom.  So I would take her out in a pull up, but again she rarely wet it. 

After a successful trip to Branson (including Silver Dollar City) with no accidents, I feel that it is safe to say that she is 100% potty trained.  She will go in a public bathroom if she really has to go, but you can't make her go just bc you think she might need to. 

We have had a few accidents but that is just part of it.  After our Branson trip that was a complete success we go to Chuck E Cheese and not 2 minutes after she told that she didn't have to go potty she peed her pants so bad that even her socks were wet.  I guess she didn't want to miss out on the fun we were having.  Thankfully there was an extra pair of sock in the bag and I learned to make sure that I packed extra socks with her clothes. 

Unlike Josiah, who wanted to go potty just to wash his hands, Elaina rarely says she has to go when she doesn't have to.  So I have learned that when I hear "momma, pee pee" that we need to get to a bathroom rather quickly. 

It is really kind of nice to get a break from the diapers for a few months.  I have also learned that having 2 bathrooms is really nice with 2 potty trained kids.  It is amazing how many times that they both have been needing to go at the same time.  Or it may just be Josiah's way of trying to aggravate her, by beating her to the potty.  He does like to try to figure out which bathroom Trey or I are going to and try to beat us to it. 

I am so proud of my big girl and that I have a break from diapers for a little while. 

Daddy's hair is gone

The Thursday before Spring break the football team had a fun raiser, and one of the booster club members came up with the idea that if the team raised a certain about of money that the kids could shave Trey's beard. 

The amount was significantly higher than what they had done in the past.  Trey agreed and the kids got busy raising the money.  Well by the end of the night the kids had not only reached their goal; they had blown right past it.  They were able to raise more than double the amount that they had last year. 

So Friday morning Trey let the players not only shave is beard, but also his head.  I am sure that they all had a lot of fun. 

Trey ended up shaving the mohawk off before he went to his other school, and has since trimmed up the goatee.  Josiah and Elaina really didn't have a reaction this time.  When he shaved back in September (the last time he had trimmed/shaved his beard) Elaina cried and Josiah acted all shy.  This time Josiah just laughed and Elaina just looked at him like he was crazy. 

Skating Party Fun

Last weekend one of our friends had her 5th birthday at the skating rink.  I knew that Josiah would have a blast, but I never dreamed that Elaina would have as much fun as she did. 

As soon as we walked in she started saying Oh Wow Oh Wow and pointing at all the lights.  Of course she had to get some skates too.  If Josiah was getting some there was no way she was going without them.

The only time she did not have fun was when they played the special birthday song for the guest of honor.  She had chosen Twinkle Twinkle Little Star as her special song, well the minute I mean second that the song started playing she started SCREAMING.  Trey had to pick her up and hold her till the song was over then she was fine. 

The kids wore skates that fit over there shoes and they wouldn't roll backwards so it was easy for the kids to skate.  Josiah wanted to try the big boy skates (or Trey talked him into it, I not really sure).  He did ok on the carpet but could do it on the rink.  All he would do is lock his legs out and hold on to Trey and get pushed around the rink with his legs straight out in front of him.

Needless to say he soon wanted his other ones back on and finished out the party in those.  Neither kid wanted to leave when it was over.  They were having to much fun. 

Beautiful Day

The weather was great today and we took full advantage of it.  I finally got to cook the kids pancakes for breakfast.  Well I guess I could have all week if I really wanted to, but I wasn't about to start my day off with a fight because I wanted pancakes and the kids wanted cereal.  Today they finally agreed and I think that they enjoyed their chocolate chip  pancakes. 

After breakfast we got ready to meet some friends at a park down the road from our house.  It is a neat little park that the kids love but there is nothing really built around it, so it feels like it is in the middle of a wind tunnel.  We played there for a while and then everyone was getting cold so we all came back to the house so the kids could play here. 

They played inside and warmed up a little bit and the went out in the backyard to play.  My two were wore out the played hard from about 10:30 till 2:00.  Of course Josiah had to give his token crying at nap time, but he was so tired that he didn't even get up once. 

When the kids woke up we went back outside.  They played in the back for a while then Josiah wanted to go see if any of the neighbors were out playing, so we went to the front yard.  No one was out so we played with bubbles and chalk. 

After supper we went back out so the kids could play with Trey.  They had a blast, but I think our kids are a little confused on their sports.

 Elaina loves to put the baseball helmet on backwards; she will wear that thing all day if I let her.  And of course she had to play football since daddy and brother were.

Josiah also seems to be a little confused.  He insisted that his goal for the football game was his basketball goal.  He would get the football and run and slam dunk it in the goal. 

We really enjoyed the great weather today.  Tomorrow is suppose to be even warmer and we already have another park play date set up. 

Firestation visit

We went to visit a local fire station and I thought that the kids would love it.  I purposely don't tell them when we have something planned until we are getting ready to go.  I am afraid that one of them will wake up sick or that something will come up and it will get cancelled.  So when we started getting dressed they were both super excited.  Elaina chattered all the way to the fire station and Josiah talked non stop.  They were both excited as we crossed the street and walked into the station.

But that all changed the minute we met up with the group in the garage area. Elaina started screaming.  There was no sirens or lights going off or anything.  I could not believe it; I was afraid that I would be chasing her all over the place to keep her off of things.  That was not the case.  I think I could have let go of her when I was holding her and she would not have fallen bc she was holding onto me so tightly.  The few times I had to sit her down she grabbed my leg and cried.  It was so bad that the other moms were in shock that Elaina was so clingy.  She is NEVER like that.  I even was afraid that maybe she was getting sick, but thankfully that was not the case.

Josiah on the other hand had a blast.  He climbed up in the fire trucks and checked everything out.  He didn't really want to get near the fire fighter in his fire gear (but they can be a little scary looking to a kid), but he keeps talking about Fire Fighter Cody, so I know he enjoyed that part too. 

Thankfully Elaina wanted to walk up the stairs like a big girl.  They were so steep that I don't think that I would have made it up them carrying her.  Well she was so slow that we were one of the last ones up stairs and she saw that they were giving out hats and stickers and she was fine.  Once she got her hat she didn't want me to hold her anymore (which I was relieved about bc she was getting HEAVY).

After we toured the upstairs, we got to see the fireman slide down the pole.  The kids loved that.  They both pretended to slide down the pole after all the fireman had come down.  Elaina was back to her normal happy hyper self.  She was laughing and playing with Josiah and the other kids. 

I still have no idea why she was screaming when we got there, she had so much fun when we visited our towns station back in the fall.  Click here to read about that.  The only thing that I can figure is that she wanted to see our yellow trucks not the other towns red ones. 

Batman Princess

The kids love for Trey to get in the floor and play with them when he gets home from work.  They usually will all play together, but occasionally they want to play something different.  Josiah wanted Trey to play with his Batman Cave and characters and Elaina wanted to play something different.

This time it actually worked out ok.  Trey played Batman with Josiah and Elaina, just climbed all over Trey puting necklaces on his face.

After a while I asked her what she was doing and she said princess.  So I asked her if she was making daddy a princess and she said yes.

So I guess Trey was able to play Batman and princess at the same time.  Oh one funny thing about there Batman playing was that Josiah didn't have his bad guys with him so he said that one of the batman figures was rude batman and that was the bad guy.  The other batman figure was just batman and he was the good guy.  

supper helpers

The kids help me make pizza rolls for supper.  Josiah had been wanting pizza rolls (I have no idea where he heard of pizza rolls bc we have never had them) so I decided that we would make some for supper.

I decided to let the kids help me make them.  I thought this would be a good kid friendly meal to help prepare.  Josiah was a great helper.

Elaina......

not so much!!  She wanted to eat everything instead of make the rolls.  She got rally mad at me when I wouldn't let her eat the raw crescent roll dough.  I stopped giving her pepperonis and cheese when I realized that all she was doing was eating them.

Josiah was so proud of his supper that he could hardly wait till Trey got in the door before he was dragging him to the stove to show them to him.  They were really tasty, it must have been all the love that went into creating them.  Or maybe it was because I really did next to nothing to prepare it other than grate the cheese and open the packages and put in and take out of the oven. 

Elaina's Valentine Party

I am finally getting around to posting Elaina's Preschool Valentines Party (it would have been Josiah's too, but he went to daycare with my mom that week).  She was excited to got to preschool for her party.

After our regular preschool activities we had a party and did a Valentines exchange.  It was fun to watch her put her friends cards into their bags.

Yes I made sure I grabbed her a pink icing cupcake (the palest color) so we didn't have some of the mess that some of our friends had.

The party was Tuesday so Thursday on Valentines day.  I decided to take a picture of Elaina at breakfast bc she was being so silly.  I couldn't get a picture of her not saying cheese (showing food) or with her eyes open.

We met Trey for lunch and then when Elaina was napping I made a Valentines snack for Trey.  Of course I got to enjoy them too.  My favorite were the potato chips.