Don’t Read This!

For a laundry list of reasons, I’m immediately going to start a new routine for myself.  It’s time to get going!  I didn’t make any new years resolutions, at least that I can remember.  Er…  Actually, I think I might have made one not to eat any french fries in 2011, but Ping pulled into a drive through on New Years Day, and Whataburger just has really good fries.  Honestly, I think the idea of resolutions is great, but to suddenly stop or start doing something for an entire year is really unlikely.  Instead, I think I’ll take the lead from another blog I read, and do them monthly from here on out.  That way I can make them big, and not feel like I’m doomed to fail from the start.

February Resolution #1 – Change my diet.  In fact, I think I’m just going to pretty much eat the same thing every day.

• bowl of cereal – breakfast
• smoothie – mid-morning
• salad – lunch
• fruit or veggie – mid afternoon
• make something healthy – dinner

February Resolution #2 – Finish this potty training crap.  Pun intended.  And that’s not going to be easy, because the initial novelty of potty training has worn off and now they think it’s not that fun.  I think I’m going to get the book pictured below though.  I love some of the author’s other books, because they’re really funny.  At least if I’m going to have to be sitting on the bathroom floor for half my life right now, I can be entertained.

February Resolution #3 - Go get my hair cut and dyed.  I despise going to get my hair cut, but it’s way overdue, so I guess I’ll do it.  It’s getting kind of hard to decipher what part is the bangs and what isn’t.

Well, there you go…  I warned you.  A big load of stuff nobody cares about but me.  Enjoy!

Adventures In Potty Training – Day 2

Day 2 went much better than day one.  We went from no successful potties in the potty on day one, to two potties and one #2 on day two.  However, neither one has told me they needed to go.  I’m not sure they even know when they need to go.  I just caught them when I thought they needed to go and stuck them on the potty.  Since it was luck and not psychic ability that prompted me to plop them in there at the right times, I’m not seeing that as a permanent solution.  However, we made progress and I’m not complaining.

Day 3 is off to a bad start, but it’s my fault.  I forgot to set my alarm and they were up and around for a while before I was.  That gave them plenty of time to unload in the diaper, so I missed the one opportunity when I knew they’d have to go.  Oh well, we’ll see what happens today.  Luckily there’s another morning tomorrow!

Adventures In Potty Training – Day One

Before I tell you about the events of our first 1/2 day of potty training, I feel like I need to share my feelings about potty training, in general.  Of course, I know they have to be potty trained.  I do feel a little odd dropping them in the church nursery with diapers.  Despite those things…  I just don’t want to do it.

I don’t think life is going to improve once they’re potty trained.  In fact, for a while I expect it to be more of a pain.  It’s already hard enough to go grocery shopping without having to ditch the cart and make potty runs.  I have no desire to interrupt my errands to wrangle them into a public bathroom, keep one from laying down on the floor, or something crazy like that, while keeping the other one on the potty and not in the potty.  Then as I’m sure will happen plenty of times, I’ll hear, “I don’t really need to go.”

Our pediatrician suggests not potty training at all.  He says you’re wasting your time, and they just sort of do it themselves one day.  The average age for girls to be potty trained in 2009, was 35 months.  The average age for boys was 39 months.  I would love to follow his advice, but I know my daughters, and I do not expect them to want to potty train for a good long time.  Why should they?  They’re perfectly happy the way they are now.

So this morning, as soon as I heard them moving around, I rushed them to the potty.  They didn’t go.  They woke up at 8:00, and by 9:45 I had five total wet pairs of panties and no pees in the potty.  That’s five floor mopping sessions, five short rinse offs in the bath, and five “we’ll try again in a little bit” lines.

I’ve been setting a “potty time” timer to go off about every 20-30 minutes so we can run to the bathroom and try to potty.  They love the timer!  Right after lunch, we went in and they sat on the potties for quite a while, but neither could go.  So, I let them get up and they both immediately ran off and peed.  Sydney actually ran to reset the timer and peed right there in front of it.  Skyler didn’t even make it out of the bathroom.

Potty training probably marks the first time where I feel like I’m in over my head as a mother.  If anyone wants to come show me a good potty training method, I’m completely open to all help and suggestions.  If anyone wants to just come take over, I’m happy to oblige.

Since I’m 99% sure no one is going to come rescue me…   If you need me, I’ll be here holding some 409 spray and a trash bag full of wet undies, pretending to be patient, and resisting the temptation to slap a diaper back on them.  If I’m successful this week, I’m treating myself to something awesome.  I’ll deserve it!

A Heartfelt Prayer

Sydney took the lead on prayers tonight.  Usually I pray, but she had something weighing heavy on her mind, so she just started right in.  She got on her knees, clasped her hands, and said. “Jesus, bless this house.  We need to go to the park.  We’ll all come home together on Christmas Eve.  Amen.”  Really, all she cared about was telling him of their need for the park.  The last line is just how I end the story of them being born, so she already knew it was a good way to end things.

The Guest Room

Another room we knocked out pretty quick was the guest room.  The patriotic theme and dark wall were too much for me, so I again ripped off the horrible border and started slapping on paint.  I really love the wall color I chose.  It doesn’t photograph exactly like it looks in person, but it’s really soft, warm, and light.

Before:

After:

The yellow valance is left over from at least ten years ago.  I think it was over the shower at one point.  Eventually it will be replaced with something less cheesy, but for now it does the trick.

I know my walls kind of look bare in this picture, but there are two framed pictures on the wall you can’t see.  I actually like things kind of bare.  Clutter makes me nervous and uncomfortable.  Perhaps I won’t ever win any decorating awards, but I won’t go insane and everything in my house will look clean and neat.  So, forget you awards!  I wouldn’t put up a shelf to sit you on!

The Pink and Blue Room

For me, giving the girls a new bedroom has been one of the best parts of getting this new house.  They were extremely excited about it and they were adamant about the color scheme.  Sydney said, “I want pink.”  Skyler said, “I want blue.”  So I found what I thought would please everyone, and it was a direct hit.  They’re over the moon!

When we bought the house, the room we designated for the girls was “old-lady mauve” and had a wallpaper border around the top.

Obviously, that stuff had to go.  Also, do dolls owned by adults creep other people out as much as they do me?  It makes me grimace to even look at them.

To get the room looking three year old appropriate, I stripped down that border and painted the whole room in a color called Love Light.  It’s amazing how a little change in the shade of pink can take 60 years off a room.

Here’s how it looks now:

The girls and I made the butterfly button canvas together, and it was really fun!  We got the idea from PB Kids and it was only about $10 to make this one.  I think their version was more than $100!  Frankly, I think I like mine better.  Take that PBK!  Schooled your a**!  You have to guess what those last two letters stand for.  (It’s an R and a T.)

 

 

Happy New Year!

We went to the lake over New Year’s weekend and had a blast!  These are some pictures from New Year’s Eve day, but of course, we put the kiddos to bed early and made time for fun that didn’t involve Cinderella and building blocks.

We played some crazy singing game that was pretty fun.  Especially when Great-Gramma Judy belted out the Justin Timberlake.

I made it until about 10:30 before I started getting really cranky.  Dang New Years rules.  I don’t see why we couldn’t have celebrated on New York time.  And what is with the crap they show on that Dick Clark/Ryan Seacrest show?  Is that music and are those people really indicative of our culture?  Gross.

Other than the weirdo-fest on TV, everything was really fun.  A New Year’s Eve celebration to remember.

P.S.  My dad also caught the mantle on fire, and my grandpa did a perfect re-enactment of a part of the movie Christmas vacation.  He didn’t know he did it.  He was completely serious, but that made it even better.  Memories!