Beginning Potty Training - Step 1

Beginning Potty Training - Step 1 (2 weeks, 1-2 hours or less per day)

Today we begin potty training my 21 month old daughter. (this process worked VERY well for her brother)

Step 1 lasts two weeks. (1-2 hours each day)

Each day without a diaper, she sits on her potty in front of a potty show or with a potty book (procured from the library for FREE) for 1-2 hours with a drink in her hand until she presents pee pee or poo poo. (if she misses the potty, I move her quickly to the potty and still offer successful reaction in beginning phases)

The potty is on a towel and she must stay on the potty or the towel.

If she goes pee pee she gets an MnM or poo poo she gets 3 MnMs. (so does her brother-this way he is more than motivating :)) She also receives a parade of happiness from mom in the form of running around with her in my arms while I praise her loudly for what she accomplished and put on a new diaper.

Tomorrow same exercise (this step will last 2 weeks)

Day one - success. She went pee pee in the potty. (very little, but now she knows potty=party with a treat) took 1 1/2 hours

Day two - success, however it took many more MnMs. One to sit on the potty and one of each color when she goes. For Day 3, we celebrate with one pound of chocolate. j/k.... took 1 hour

Day three - success. 4 MnMs. She only took 1/2 hour.

Day four - success. I added in a morning session as well. She didn't go, but she was glad to sit for a bit. Afternoon, 3 MnMs. it only took 5 minutes.

Day Five - no success. I left her to do some computer work, and she had an accident. After that we had to get a move on to be somewhere. Lesson learned: She needs more one on one attention during the "guiding" process.

Day Six - SUCCESS. She went poo poo and pee pee in the potty! I was nervous that she might be concerned about the poo poo, but not with the Halloween treat box infront of her awaiting her proud moment!

Day Seven- success. In thinking ahead to going out places, I decided today to bring out the potty seat that can be set onto toilets anywhere, and wiped down. This way she can get the hang of it and public places may be that much easier than carrying the kid potty wherever we go. You can find the seat we used for $9.99 at BabysRUs

Week 2- We are moving to step 2 on Saturday. She is really getting the hang of things. Each day of week 2 she has atleast gone pee pee in the potty. I have also added on extra morning sessions or sessions when we can simply let her run around without bottoms that she can go to the potty with urges. She has not been perfect. I have noticed that I must request atleast every 1/2 hour for her to sit on the potty. She doesn't seem to have a problem with poop either! Major bonus. What a great proud face she has when she takes the potty to the toilet to empty her presents! We absolutely build on that.

Next Step Potty Traing Step 2 - Potty Day!

Nail Polish on Carpet... How to clean it.

Imagine this... You walk into your closet with the lights off, and feel something crunchy under your toes... ughughuguuu.. whatever could it be? A broken toy? or maybe a... bah... what is it!? You turn on the lights to find it is dry nail polish and ...... in such a nice design.

After coming up with a brilliant "Bill Cosby" plan to paint my son's nails and have him show them off to his friends since he likes nail polish so much... or have him use his allowance to pay for a needed pedicure for myself.. I realized that he is only 3 and my husband would NOT see the creative discipline behind my nail painting plan on his Son, and the sweet little man doesn't get an allowance at his young age.

Bah. I decided to just figure out how to get the nail polish out and make him help. I did an Google search and found what not to do, then I remembered I had carpets cleaned way back and the guy told me his "secret ingredient" was ammonia. I went down and read the ammonia bottle, and it offered a "rugs" solution of 2 cups of ammonia to 1 gallon of warm water. I got my scrub brush out, added the solution to a spray bottle, and went to work.- A word of caution please: Ammonia is extremely dangerous especially for little ones, and when cleaning the carpet you want to try an inconspicuous spot first.

With gloves, (and my eyes steadily on him) we went to work on the carpet. After a few rounds, and some elbow grease..... Boom.

Although a new rug would've been a nice addition to our home, this is much more economical, and I am feeling pretty pleased with the "solution".

Easy Peeling Hard Boiled Eggs

This tip had made it to the orderly home blog because it is a great time saving tip for any mom. I look forward to hearing about how much time you have saved!

If you want to have some easy peel hard boiled eggs....

• get a pot of water to a rolling boil
• add eggs
• set timer for 12 minutes
• when timer goes off, bring pot to sink and empty water only
• fill pot with ice cubes and cold water
• let sit for 5-10 minutes
• keep eggs in the refrigerator

When the eggs are ready for use, crack the egg by rolling it all the way around in the center, and whala... the shell will practically fall right off. This may even be a fun to do with your little ones.

You may just see this post again around Easter!

Play-doh is back!

After seeing an article in the October 2009 edition of Family Fun about making your own playdough, it reminded me that our Play-doh has been out of rotation for a while. Then I realized the reason why. The Play-doh we have is hard ... and hard to work with.

After arriving at the museum we packed up for and drove out to was closed, I had to quick find some excitement for kids who were in the car for too long. We decided to stop into target today for an adventure in the toy aisle. (Please note - this adventure only works with my little ones after a few rough adventures where mama stayed strong letting them know we aren't going to buy anything. I also threaten that we sadly can't come back if they carryon, but we can call Grandma and/or Daddy when we get home to share our findings with them and who knows....)

A case of Play-doh goes for $4.79 and a 4 pack for $1.64 at Target. If you ask me, $1.64 for HOURS of fun is worth it.

Option B is back to the create your own playdough. I would absolutely refer you to www.familyfun.go.com. They have not posted the All-Natural Play Clay recipie yet, but they have a handful of other ones that you can choose from. I just love this magazine!

Back at home... hours of fun began again. Now daddy has a "to do" with his little blessings when the show ends. :)

Crayon on Walls - Updated 08/2010

It has been a while since I have blogged, but after today, I had to share a few lessons learned.

Never allow a 3 year to leave the table with a crayon. Pat him down first!
- You may say duh, right but as a multitasking mother on the phone, I underestimated the agility of a little boy "I habba go poddy Mama"

How to clean crayon off the walls. WET WIPES!!! Who knew!?
Here is how the humbling lesson was learned....
I had given my 3 year old a washcloth with soap and had him start wiping the walls. I told him to continue until it was all done. (I was very serious too even if it took all day)

UPDATE August 2010: Have your kids use the wet wipes as a creative yet memorable punishment. When they are asleep from all that hard work (and rightly so) you can use the Mr. Clean Eraser - NOT FOR KIDS. As mentioned in the comments (Thank you for your feedback Gen and Claire!)- it works wonders! It also works for more than crayon. I have used it for the paint marks toys make when run across the walls, the garage door-entering into the home from garage, and those little black marks on the corner baseboards that no one knows where they really come from!

My 1 year old daughter wanted in on the action, so instead of getting three washcloths dirty (you know I had to have one of my own by now-five minutes into the cleaning) I decided to give her a wet wipe.

In just a few minutes I found she was the most productive! How neat. The wet wipes were a wonder for crayon even on carpet!!!!! I hope if you ever come across this dilemma, you will remember this lesson and feel free to act as though you thought of it first. Hey if a 1 year old can come up with it, you can too!

Weekly Menu Plan

A calendar on my refrigerator with meals assigned for each day of the week. (Updated one week at a time) Wow. How did I let that one get by me? After seeing this technique in place, I was intrigued!

After three months of making a weekly menu plan in advance the following benefits have been found:

• Saving money by not overspending at the grocery store.
• Food wasting is decreased.
• Not stressing out on figuring out what to make for dinner each night.
• You should have all dinner ingredients on hand if the week was planned properly.
• Your spouse will be enticed by the dinner treat he can expect when he arrives home and by the new less stressed you!

How to get started...

1. List all of the meals you currently make for dinner.
2. Get the grocery circulars that come in the mail and see what items are on sale.
3. Compare what is on sale to your meal ideas list and try to make the best buys.
4. Try your best to by coordinating items. (lettuce and tomatoes for tacos one night and a salad the next)
5. Each week you can add one new menu item to your list and in no time your variety will be huge and you will find ways to use all of the shredded cheddar cheese or cilantro you bought for that one recipe you just had to try.

Here are a few sites that inspire with great shopping techniques and new meal ideas.

http://niftythriftythriving.blogspot.com/
http://themealplanner.blogspot.com/

http://cookingclaire.blogspot.com/
http://notesfromthetable.blogspot.com/

Happy Meal Planning!

Bringing Order Into Your Car

Although a simple idea, here is a post on something you may have thought of but simply not gotten around to.

In your most used vehicle, stock one small freezer bag under each child's seat filled with the following...

• underwear/diapers
• socks
• pants or shorts
• long or short sleeve shirt
• wipes (even if your child is out of diapers)
• empty freezer bag for soiled clothing

Based on my experience this past week -- my son atop hills of dirt/mud on two separate occasions prior to getting in the car -- I encourage all moms to stock with these essentials. During both of these random experiences I was able to let him experience the dirt only as a child can, stress free for me!

One might think that a diaper bag covers these dilemmas. This technique has made for lighter diaper bags. It has also assisted when I was "sure" there was an extra (fill in the blank) inside the diaper bag.