This year we are very thankful for our newest addition Adelaide! She slept through the entire Thanksgiving dinner and allowed us to enjoy a fantastic meal. This year I am also so very thankful for my husband. Really feeling like 'Team Weyant' these last two weeks since we had baby #3. I was up through the night with the baby before Thanksgiving, so I took a nap mid-day while Zach cooked. After dinner he needed to nap and I cleaned. Go Team Weyant! :)
We had potato bread and my first ever German sweet bread. Zach created an amazing turkey roll stuffed with sausage and stuffing. He also made candied sweet potatoes and noodles from the turkey stock. Every bite was amazing. This was confirmed as Toben ate from his plate and made noises after every bite verifying his pleasure. Both Toben and Fiona enjoyed drinking from the fancy 'wine-like' glasses and clicking them together saying "Happy Thanksgiving."
Adelaide Fearn was born Friday November 15th at 5:51 in the morning. Melody, Tina, Jessica, and Sammy came from Pennsylvania to enjoy the occasion. The delivery couldn't have gone any better and we were out of the hospital before noon on Saturday. Here are a few shots of our new addition. Love you lots already little one. We can't wait to see who you become and if you keep your dark hair and eyes!
Gammy Mel with Adelaide on her birthday
Tina with her fourth grand baby
My cousin holding Adelaide and smiling; although, she was terrified she would hurt the little bundle of joy.
Sammy playing with the other two kiddos!
My new beautiful family
Love them!
We are still working on a family photo... this is all we have so far. LOL!
Yes folks it can and has been done. Fiona, after three days of potty-guidance (I'll call it), is potty trained. Here is the short and simple of how to do it also. I will go into a bit more info further below for interested parties. I hope this post will help some parents out there looking for some help as they consider 'early' potty-training.
Step 1.
Have a child that shows early signs of wanting to use the potty. Please see my previous post which lists Fiona's signs of potty readiness. Once you have determined your child is both WANTING to use the potty and has the ability to physically handle using the potty(urinary control), move on to step 2.
Step 2.
Set aside at least three days when you will focus on potty training only. Don't plan to go anywhere those days. Have your child with BOTTOMS OFF for those days(except when sleeping or napping), and try to stay on hard surfaces. Set a timer to rhythmically set your child on their little potty. (About every 30 minutes to every hour)
Step 3.
With the insane luck I experienced, your child will simply thank you for the guidance and from then-on-out use the potty when needed.
Disclaimer: Results may and probably will vary from child to child. This same method didn't click with my son for nearly a week when he was 22 months old and it still resulted in numerous accidents over the next couple months. I will not be held responsible for stains or smells on your carpets and/or furniture. :)
Here is little Miss in her new underwear!
Here I will go into some more detail of our specific experience potty training.
Preparation:
Since she was showing signs of readiness I placed a little potty in our bathroom. I let her sit on it when she wanted. It became a familiar piece in the bathroom and she actually used it three times by herself the week before I started training her. Next, I purchased her first pack of underwear. (I think to myself, "here's to hoping" as I throw it into the shopping cart) I also purchased a huge, $9 bag of M&Ms as treat to give incentive to the process. I debated between Huggies SlipOn Diapers and Pampers Pull-ups and decided it didn't matter, they were the same thing. I purchased the Pull-ups for the sole purpose of sleeping in, and simply because the SlipOn Diapers were not available in a small pack that day at the store. We also read a potty book and talked about using the potty.
Day 1.
I decided late on Monday, July 22nd that it would be the perfect week to start potty training. So, my 17 month old started the bottoms-off approach to potty training. I set a timer for 30-45 minutes apart for the rest of the day. This resulted in catching about 1/2 of her pee and thankfully a bowel movement too. We would sing and clap and drink milk or juice while she sat on the potty. I also let her hold a few small toys while we waited about 1-5 minutes, just so she didn't get bored. We celebrated any results in her potty with praise and chocolates. As, I helped her wash her hands, my three year old will cry out "Yayyy! Good Job! I'll go get the M&Ms." Fiona would beam when Toben would praise her. She loved pleasing her big brother. We would all have a few M&Ms together then. :)
She got to sleep in her first Pull-up that night, which was exciting for her because she could step into it like underwear and it had Minnie Mouse. She woke up dry and I placed her on the potty with no results. So off came the bottoms and I let her walk about the house. About 30 minutes later, she let me know verbally and with gestures that she needed to pee. Success! I returned to setting the timer about every 45 minutes.
Day 2.
From mid-day Tuesday to mid-day Wednesday she had, I believe 4 pee accidents. Mostly because I stopped setting the timer. She would tell me verbally if she needed to go to the bathroom by saying "Pah, Pah" as well as gesturing between her legs. I started to rely on her to tell me because she seemed aware of what was happening. Unfortunately, one accident involved my three year old son getting caught up in the mess. :( Fiona was not phased so we continued marching on.
I attempted to keep my daughter in the kitchen and laundry room for most of the day since they both have linoleum flooring.We had a few toys and puzzles as well as the laptop to watch some DVDs. We had zero accidents on my rug or carpet or furniture. This is the insane luck I was talking about!
Day 3.
From mid-day Wednesday to mid-day Thursday Fiona had only a partial accident. (Meaning half of the pee was in on my laundry room floor the other half was in her potty) Wednesday night, she laid awake, Pull-up on for a long time. She finally requested to go to the potty and after peeing she quickly fell asleep in her bed. The partial accident occurred Thursday morning and from then on she has successfully used her potty. The End. Period. Ta-Dah!
Later:
On that Saturday, the family took a trip to the grocery store. Even after Fiona had been dry for about 48 hours, I had little faith that she was completely potty trained. So, I did a no-no. I put her in a Pull-up and we all headed to the store. We had been gone for about an hour and a half when, in the produce section she let me know she needed to potty. I walked her half way across the large store to the bathroom and she went in the potty! She earned herself a lollipop for the drive home. :) She proved herself capable of wearing real underwear when out and about.
We started that Tuesday the 30th with a trip to library. Then a quick play date at a friends. After her mid-day nap, we went to the SPI Spot downtown to play. We were out and about almost 5 hours in total with panties on. No messes! :)
At our playdate with some friends
First day out and about with panties. SPI SPOT downtown. She's a big girl now!
We went to the local water park this past Friday August 16th. after her 18 month check up. On two separate occasions she told me she needed to use the potty. Both times had results. Again, little Miss proved herself. (I think most kids would just go in the water, right?)
Fiona and Gammy enjoying some snacks and sun rays at the water park
I do not regularly ask her if she has to go potty. She tells us if she has to go. It has been over three weeks and to date, she has had two pee accidents total. I blame them both on me not paying attention to her gestures and not being aware of how long it had been since she last went. We have had maybe three wet Pull-ups when she wakes in the morning also. She is getting better at pulling down her own underwear, but I still help. At home we will sometimes still keep her bottoms off as it is convenient for us. So I am one of the luckiest moms ever because my child, with very little guidance, potty trained herself in three days!
There's our story. Check back in two years to see how her little sister is progressing with this milestone. :)
I borrowed a book from the library called Now I'm Big by Karen Katz. It is a sweet book showing a little girl doing things as a baby and differently now that she is a big girl. It also shows the big girl getting a little sister and helping the baby;which, I thought was a perfect book to read to Fiona. Toben decided last night that he would read it to her.
Toben and Fiona sat on one couch and read the book together in its entirety. I sat on the other couch a super proud momma. :) Afterward, I wished I had recorded the sweet moment. I asked Toben if he would read it again so I could take a video. He said sure. Here are two clips I captured.
After that book, Fiona brought me the Biscuit book that Toben learned to read with. Here is another quick clip.
Okay, so it's nothing fancy, but I love it! I found it for sale at a reasonable price on a Facebook garage sale site. My first bread was a bit of a dense wheat bread, that I enjoyed. My second loaf was a simple white bread that Zach devoured before I could take a picture. Below is my second white bread loaf. I hope to try my MILs sweet bread recipe next followed by pizza crust. :)
Little Miss Thing has been showing signs of potty readiness for a couple months now. I set a little potty in the bathroom when she was 15 months old. This week I started trying to have her use her little potty full time. Here she is rocking her her new panties in the yard today. They inevitably became wet, but even though she is still learning she shows signs of desire and understanding with the potty. Tonight, she laid in bed for over and hour(with diaper on of course). She would lay still eyes shut, toss and turn and stay awake. This is not typical for her. Finally, she sat up said, "paa paa, paa paa(potty potty)" and we ran to the bathroom. Sure enough within seconds on the potty she peed. It took less than five minutes for her to fall asleep when we got back in bed.
Some of her readiness signs included:
dry through the night and naps
wanting to sit on her potty
putting her baby dolls on the potty(never showing her that could be done)
patting her diaper and saying dirty
getting the wipes and a new diaper, laying down dry, peeing, then saying dirty
peeing in her potty before getting into the tub, without being told to sit on the potty(3 times in one week)
Sitting on the potty with a dry diaper on, getting up with a freshly peed in diaper on.
I couldn't find support anywhere that said it was okay to potty train before 18 months... but ummm... some of those signs scream, "Just potty-train her already!" I do not expect her to be trained in 3 days but I we have already realized some success. Here's to hoping she will be completely done with the potty training process by 21 months old. (In time for her baby sister's arrival)
Here is a cute video after an accident 24 hours into this rodeo.
Random silly pic
I have really been enjoying Toben's desire to learn lately. Since the summer reading program he has really taken off with reading. We attempt to read daily for 15-30 minutes and do some math as well. He has been reading a lot of Biscuit books from the I Can Read series. He also reads Dr. Seuss books like Fox in Socks and Green Eggs and Ham, usually over two or three days due to the length. This week he has read Biscuit Wants to Play by Alyssa Capucilli and Mittens by Lola Schaeffer. Today he read a portion of Dr. Seuss's Hop on Pop as well as a few BOB Books we borrowed from the library.
Teaching reading seemed easy to me. I taught him his letters by his second birthday using a Eric Carle book and letter magnets mostly. He knew his letter sounds by his third birthday; again, by using letter magnets but also by him playing starfall.com. His first words learned were simple three letter words like cat and dog. He had partial phonetic awareness at 3 & 1/2 years old when we started. Meaning, he could hear the word while he sounded out each letter. "Ck, ahh, Ttt" became cat easily. It wasn't until a month or so into reading that he could then also take a word and break it down into its phonetic parts without seeing the word. He would sound out a word by saying, "you know mommy, pop is ppah, oooo, pppahh. Thats POP." I haven't taught him how to write letters yet, but I think that is the next thing that he wants to get into doing. Above is a picture from this week. He asked me out of the blue while I was reading my magazine, "Can you show he how to do a big R?"
Toben asked me to take a video of him with this little book he wrote in because he wanted to share it with Zach who was away at work for a few days. He loved using the pencil to attempt to write the weather words.
Believe it or not, teaching math has not come easily to me. This week our focus has been on counting frontwards and backwards. The number line on the porch has been tons of fun. We count down and bast-off after zero. He can work out simple addition and subtraction equations but he seems to need some more work with the basics.
Heat board in the quiet area on the top floor. Nice retreat for children that are a bit more introverted.
Huge Operation game on the top floor.
Water table was tons of fun. They provided these rain jacket like things that did little to nothing to stop the kids from getting soaked.
Toben loved the excavator... but it wasn't really able to pick up the rocks. Also, it was made of such heavy metal that he couldn't use the levers without someone's help.
Electric drum
LASER HARP! When his fingers interrupted the lasers it would create the sound of harp strings. Very cool!
Lars's butt photo bomb
Tuckered out after playing so hard
So much was available at the Science Center. I would recommend it even for young children. Mine are 1 and 3 &1/2, both had a blast. Both Toben and Fiona liked the robotics floor and the train setup. The Exploration Station could be gone to again and again! Thanks to their grandma for treating them to the Science Center and the National History Museum while we visited Pittsburgh.
Well, this is a Mommy blog so here is a post on what the kids are up to these days. For me, all their developmental milestones are exciting.
Toben, for a couple months now has started to do some preschool math. We do a lot of 'plus' and 'take aways' Below is a picture of Toben doing 'Cheerio Math' with a deck of cards and cheerios. This was a math tip from a friend. He covers his eyes and I place the cards face down. Then he gets to see his surprise numbers, read his equation, and work the problem out with Cheerios. He loves it!
This summer we signed up for the reading program at the library. Turns out there are tons of starter level reading books that even Toben can read. Spot and Biscuit books were a great start. He started reading Mo Willems books also. Last week his favorite was Hot Dog by Molly Coxe Super simple. ("Dog is hot. Mom is not. Get away, dog..." )
Also, last week, he saw a tv episode explaining Valentine's Day. Naturally we had to make some Valentine's of our own. He cut out the hearts and wrote most of the words, being assisted only with the order of the letters, of course.
He made them for Tina and Zach. Top left says, "Tina, I love you."
The next day while I was reading the mail on the porch I hear, "Look, Mommy, I you you. I you you" He pointed to the words he wrote on the porch with chalk. He was super giggly because he knew that doesn't make sense. :)
"I yuo you" Okay, the first you is spelled wrong and its supposed to be love, but I was happy to see an interest in writing already out of him.
As for Fiona, of course there has been tons of development from 12- 16 months old. (More than I feel obliged to write here... I have it documented for my and her reference on paper) One thing that kind of surprised me was that she has an interest in getting dressed. Usually a kid will take clothes off and months later start putting clothes on. Here is a video of Fiona a few days before turning 16 months trying to put on her shorts.
This year we planted zucchini, snap beans, green and orange peppers, roma and beefsteak tomatoes, and corn. We have a modest sized vegetable patch, I know, but I am proud that we have been taking care of the garden well so far this year. (Its incredible better maintained than last year) Below are some shots of the garden as well as Toben and Zach hoeing this weekend. (Toben is always concerned the little weeds are taking drinks away from his corn)
Finally, we were able to make time to build a land bridge over a small stream that runs through the back of our property to a creek at the far end. The stream kept us from accessing via truck or tractor about 3 acres of the back field.
Zach placed six corrugated pipes and covered them with some dirt from the bank and hill around the stream. Here are some shots of the process.
Zach placed the pipes in the stream
Packing dirt around the drainage pipes
About 15 feet wide access to drive to backfield!
Fiona and me standing on the access
Toben walking into the field to pick
wild raspberries with Zach
Zach brush hogged up to the fence at the back creek. Way back there. :)
Loving playing in the dirt!
Toben request to play in the 'jungle' every day now.
Little Miss Thing has been showing signs of potty readiness for a couple months now. I set a little potty in the bathroom when she was 15 months old. This week I started trying to have her use her little potty full time. Here she is rocking her her new panties in the yard today. They inevitably became wet, but even though she is still learning she shows signs of desire and understanding with the potty. Tonight, she laid in bed for over and hour(with diaper on of course). She would lay still eyes shut, toss and turn and stay awake. This is not typical for her. Finally, she sat up said, "paa paa, paa paa(potty potty)" and we ran to the bathroom. Sure enough within seconds on the potty she peed. It took less than five minutes for her to fall asleep when we got back in bed. 
I have really been enjoying Toben's desire to learn lately. Since the summer reading program he has really taken off with reading. We attempt to read daily for 15-30 minutes and do some math as well. He has been reading a lot of Biscuit books from the I Can Read series. He also reads Dr. Seuss books like Fox in Socks and Green Eggs and Ham, usually over two or three days due to the length. This week he has read Biscuit Wants to Play by Alyssa Capucilli and Mittens by Lola Schaeffer. Today he read a portion of Dr. Seuss's Hop on Pop as well as a few BOB Books we borrowed from the library. 
