Potty Training

Crazy I know I started Potty Training a week before we left on a 5-6 hr rode trip to Oregon, not the best decision. We survived though made it all the way there with dry panties!! At one point we pulled over on the side of the rode adn pulled out the potty chair, but it was 20 degrees and Brooklyn decided she did not need to go that bad. I don't blame her I think my pee would have froze while trying to come out. It was an hour before the next rest stop and she held it. So proud.
Don't let me fool you it has definitely been a struggle. My friend emailed me a 3 day potty training e -book and it suggested starting as early as 21 months the sooner the better. We were almost out of diapers and I said spend $50 on more or give this a try. so we went for it. It was a rough 3-4 days. You pretty much stay home and follow her around the house asking them to tell you when they need to go and picking up after her accidents. The first day we went through @ 18 panties and washed laundry all day. It got better nad seemed to click a bit more by the 3rd day.
We for the most part have been trying not to use pull ups, for cost and she know if I have one of those on it doen't mess though my pants so I am good to tinkle a bit and try to get away with it. She did great in the beginning telling us when she needs to go but has now decided it is not that important to tell us everytime. We struggle don pooping but have gotten much better with that just wokring on the pee pee again. It is a daily task I wonder sometimes if I started to early, am I making her grow up to fast, am I making our life miserable when we get upset with accidents and always having to take her to the potty, the list goes on and on. Lets face it diapers are gross to change but so much easier on the parents. So far we have our ups and downs but sticking to it.

Oregon

We took our annual trip to Bend, Oregon to visit with Auntie, Uncle and Cousins and for the boys to go hunting. As you can tell from the picture above, Brooklyn loves to spend time wiht Uncle and eat all his fries and ketchup.

We got to spend a few days with Cousin Kirabella. The girls loved dancing and playing dress up.

Brooklyn also became quite the fan of Nicki Dog not sure if Nicki was as excited, but she was a good sport.

And here is Danny with some of his loot that they got over the weekend. I didn't take many pictures I was to busy relaxing and just hanging out with Auntie. We had a great weekend stayed in our jammies til noon watched Hallmark Christmas specials, talked and laughed. It was a great time. The boys seemed to enjoy themselves as well. It is something we look forward to every year. Thanks for coming up with the idea Uncle and Toni Marie and Russ for having such a great ranch for the boys to go to.

Baptisms and Birthdays

Sunday we were invited to attend Reagan Wheeler's baptism. It was a rush to get out the door but once we got there it was a good experience to be apart of.

The kids got to help bless the water before the baptism, they of course loved playing in the water.

The Wheeler family plus Audrey and Brooklyn after the baptism with the preist and new godparents.

Reagan so sweet and newly baptized. Her big brother Garrett got to help pour the water over her head while being baptized. She wasn't so sure, but G liked it. Thank you Marin for inviting us to be apart of Reagan's special day and for the excellent brunch after.

Later that day across the street was Berlin's birthday celebration. It was mellow mostly family and Brooklyn was the only other 2yr old there. It had been a while since we had hung out with our old neighbors it was nice to reconnect.

The excited Birthday girl, Berlin and Brooklyn trying to eat her ice cream cake. We survived the potty trainign that day she did not do so well at the Wheeler's but at Berlin's stayed dry adn told me when she needed to go potty. Baby step, baby step and lots of patience.

Joys of parenthood

Brooklyn has been enjoying her new bed, she has been great staying in it at night. I think she enjoys the freedom of being able to climb in and out at night. I always check on her before I go to bed and this is what I found when I opened the door.

I have no idea how she got there but laughed and had to go get Danny to see and them take pictures of course.

Another night with her feet hanging off.


I have been thinking about Potty Training Brooklyn for a little while and asked a friend who has a book called 3 day potty training and it has worked great on her 3 kids each time as early as 18 months. So I read it and decided to jump into it. The first thing it sayd is for the parents to be prepared mentally for this. I thought it will be frustrating, I have watched my sisters go through it but it can't be that bad. WRONG I was. Day 1 the first 2 hours we went through 18 panties and had to quickly wash them. Followed her aroudn the house wiht Lysol wipes and carpet cleaner. It started getting a little better but definitely tested my patience. By the end of the day she had gone pee pee a few times and it was a dry night.
Day 2 I had to babysit our nieghbors daughter so it was a distraction for both of us. We had a few accidents especially pooping. Washed more panties all day but was expecting it to be harder due to having a friend over.

Day 2 in her minnie mouse panties

Dancing around

Day 3 seemed to click better she would  go potty more but still having pooping issues. Which from what I have heard from others is completely normal. Come Friday she was not happy with us because she new it was not good to poop and pee in her pants so her tummy hurt.
Saturday was a really bad day she would cry and not go to the potty only to pea, she was in pain. I was ready to put her back in diapers after sitting in the bathroom with her for an hour trying to help her but she finally went that night some in the potty some in her pants. We missed Cousin Lucy's birthday party beacuse of how the day went. Danny was trying to bribe her with a barbie and money of she went in the potty. We did a chart with stickers, but she is still young so does not quite understand the concept.
 Sunday we had a baptism and a birthday party to attend we barely made it out the door on time to get to the church for the baptism trying to get B to go potty for 20 min before we left. She had a few accidents that mornig so I put her in pull up which I was trying to avoid. She would not talk to us or look at us. She gave us a nasty attitude. I would try to hold her face to look at me and answer me she would look with her eyes straigh at the ceiling. Boy are we in for it in the teenage years. That evening she did great went potty and stayed dry. She does great at night staying dry I wake her up around 3 - 4 am to go potty then around 7 -8 she goes again.
Monday night she completed her pooping chart of going 6 times in the potty and got a barbie and $0.25 in her piggy bank. She was dancing around with the biggest smile I had seen in a while, it was a great moment. Things are getting better each day I ventured out with her to the library and we stayed dry so now I am feeling better about starting her and not like a failure of a parent. I just need work on my patience I pray for more every night.

I think the trauma of potty training has gotten to her, she now sees that her door is slightly opened and ventures out to wake me up with her singing glow worm and a sweet voiced "momma" at the wee hours of the morning. I just love waking up in a panic. Just another joyful thing about parenthood.

Our next challenge this week will be taking a 5 - 6 hour drive to Orgeon to see family. Hopefully we will stay dry on this road trip!

Happy Halloween!

This is how we started Halloween morning, while I was making breakfast B and daddy were wearing scarey teeth that Aunt Stephanie gave to Brooklyn. She did pretty good considering they are pretty big for her little mouth.

Then while I was unpacking Brooklyn's bag and going through her summer clothes daddy decided to turn her crib into a big girl bed. It was sad to see it this way but exciting, B is growing up so fast. She was super excited to be able to climb in and out of her bed herself. She got in and put the covers over her. We do not have a bed rail for it so hopefully she will be ok.

Daddy decided to try out the new bed.

Nap time she did great stayed in her bed the whole time and when she woke up she was still in it waiting for us to come and get her. She has not quite figured out that she can get out on her own which is just fine for now. She did great sleeping in it last night as well. She woke up around 11 I think she had fallen out she was standing there crying but I put her back in and she was fine the rest of the night.

Watch out there is a new sheriff in town. Brooklyn had such an exciting night at her cousins that she slept through going to the trunk or treat with them so we took her around the neighborhood to a few houses and then passed out candy at home the rest of the night. Poor B kept being called a cowboy clearly they could not see that she was in a skirt, oh well we tried to correc them but htey were old and didn't seem to notice us calling her Brooklyn.

Her favotite part of her costume was her gun. My favorite part was that we had everything already except for the vest which I got at Kid to Kid for $5. the hat came from a rodeo in SLC last year.

We went next door just when they were getting ready to go out so we went for a little while with Darth Vader - Mikie, Witch - Annde and Cowgirl - B. Mikey used the pillow case i made him for his birthday as his trick or treat bag.

The girls were not to sure what to think at eat house, but Brooklyn was more than happy to wave bye to them all. This is our neighbor across the street Jim he is a nice man with a cute lab puppy. I was surprised to see the older couples in our neighborhood get into Halloween most of them had pumpkins and dressed up to answer the door some were even scarey. It was a short night out but fun for B's first time going door to door.

Babysitting in SLC

Day 1 of our 8 day stay in SLC, UT. Brooklyn and I stayed with the Johnson kids while Cherlyn and Blake went to a Urologist meeting in Hawaii. Eliza and Brooklyn in the huge shopping cart at Target, I felt like I was pushing two carts.

Day 2 driving back from picking up Marissa from her softball game. Don't they all look so excited to be in the car. Can't really blame them Caleb was driving and Lucas was sick. It was an adventure Lucas got sick and we had to pull over so he could throw up in the street when it was raining, he then threw up several more times in a plastic bag on the way home. We were going to go to the pumpkin patch but decided to grab some fresh apple cider to go and head back home.

Cousin buddies for the next week

Eliza was readign to Brooklyn

We went to the discovery center, the girls had a great time playing house and in the grocery store

Always on the phone

Making sandwiches in the deli

This is Brooklyn's hiding face, there was an older man their with his grandson and Brooklyn was afraid of him so she stood there like this. I think she was saying in her head mommy make the bad man go away.

Princess Eliza playing dress up

Princess girls, B was not so sure

SNOW, it snowed for a few days and quite a bit, I was not ready for that.

Talking to daddy on the phone, she was so excited to talk to him. Daddy was excited that she was answering his questions.

Playing with the dress up shoes and babies

Waiting for lunch after we got back from the library story time, they made monster hats

More dress up, can you tell what B learned from her cousin. They had a great time together.

She loves to put on all the necklaces and carry around a phone.

Lucas with the pumpkins that we went to Walmart and got. It was an adventure watching 6 kids by myself, but it was fun. Having teenagers is a whole new world but a good challenge to face. I am grateful I have quite a few years before that stage. Brooklyn was not so sure at first but I think she had fun with ther cousins even if she was exposed to Strep throat, the flu and the latest call was that Miranda has the chicken poxs. Hoepfully the vaccine worked for B and we will not have chicken poxs here. So far we have been healthy.

When I got home Danny made us dinner and made arrangements with Richard and Stephanie to watch Brooklyn so we could go on a date Friday night. When we dropped her off they said there were taking her over night. It was a great treat for us and Brooklyn's first sleep over. We got to go out to dinner which was an adventure in itself and them the movies. I felt like we were back in the dating days, laughing and having a good time together. Danny even opened the door for me it has been a while since he has done that. Thank you Ricky and Steph it was a much needed very fun night.

Pumpkin Patch

We went to Linder Farms with the Wheeler Family. We have had great weather this October unlike last year we were all bundled up. It was a perfect night with great friends.  Brooklyn was running through the hay maze with Garrett.

Picking a pumkin, she kept throwing them

Garrett found a some

Brooklyn was not ot sure of the weeds and grass she ahd to walk through in the patch

I loved that G would smile for me, if only he could teach B that.

She liked this one better

Playing in the corn

Wheeler Family so cute

It was hard to get Brooklyn to smile even Garrett was telling B to smile

Enjoying soem warm mini donuts waiting for there first solo water barrel train ride

We were a little nervous they might fall out but they did great

The best I could get it was hard to get all of them to look at the same time

Baby Reagan gettign so big and looking cute as always

Swings

Brooklyn cried when she had to get off she loves the swings

Corn box

We had a fun evening with the our friends, thanks Marin for inviting us. Love this tradition always a fun time at the pumpkin patch.