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I snapped this photo less than a week ago and now our poor baby deer has his head completely buried in the snow! No doubt our Christmas will be white this year.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Labels: Diva of Decorating ...Not

So Day 1 of our resolve to get R out of pull-ups went more-or-less as expected. He spent the morning crying and begging for his 'diapers'. I finally convinced him to put on his underwear by offering to take him with me to run errands, during which time he was even better behaved than usual and earned himself some treats along the way: some play time at a mall and a fruit smoothie while we were out. I made sure to ask him if he needed to pee every two hours and he did so without issue. It was after we got home that he decided he wasn't cooperating anymore and had three 'accidents', one of which was within half an hour of me asking him to go to the toilet.

Day 2 began with a similar, though less drawn-out challenge to get him into underwear. He had had a pull-up overnight, but awoke dry, then refused to go pee and in short order had a wet pull-up he refused to take off. He did finally put on his underwear and spent a good portion of the day with his dad, pulling the same "I don't need to pee." stunt on him that he had on me the day before. Only one peed-up underwear for the day though.

Yesterday was Day 3 and I'm pleased to say that there were no accidents. R was again reluctant to put on his underwear, and every time he went to the bathroom he would tell me in his most annoying whiny voice "I'm so sad; I don't liiiike underwear." So while he's not into it at all, he's making progress regardless.

I had anticipated this to take a lot longer. We had, after all, already attempted to get him out of pull-ups once before -- not a full year ago, I think -- and gave up (laziness on our part though I would say).

So the next question is when to take away the overnight pull-ups. I haven't been paying attention over the last month or so to whether he is consistently waking up dry, so I would say a week or two of overnight 'diapers' is fine -- he really gets excited about them now that he's not allowed to have them through the day.

He'll be getting a new mattress on Monday as he has always complained that his old one is uncomfortable (the furniture for the boys' room has been delayed though and won't get here for another month), and while I do have a waterproof mattress protector for it, I'm really loathe to spoil a new mattress potty-training. I'm afraid this will become my excuse to keep him in pull-ups overnight for a few more months. On the other hand, I could have him continue to sleep on his old mattress until he proves that he stays dry overnight while in underwear, then use the new mattress as a reward for being fully diaper-free. Hmmm.....

Labels: Life with Little Ones, Little R

Pacifier Boot Camp went so well that I'm expanding the program offerings. On for this week (starting today, actually): Pull-ups -- A 12 Step Program. Little R's preschool and music classes are done for the season, so we've got a number of weeks in which to work.

Little R has been potty-trained for solidly more than a year. He hasn't pooped in a diaper in even longer than that. He's very aware of when he needs to go, but out of sheer laziness simply pees in his pull-up, often announcing it to anyone within earshot, though refusing to change into a dry one. These deceptive underwear-like diapers are his crutch -- so incredibly convenient to not have to interrupt the very important things he does to go to the toilet.

I'll admit, they're awfully convenient for us too. There's no scrambling to find a public toilet at a moment's notice when we're out in spite of his aptitude for finding them all and insisting that he needs to pee (only in the public toilets, mind you) in spite of having been only minutes beforehand.

I talked to him about it yesterday, so he would know what to expect when nobody puts him into a pull-up this morning. He stated his outright refusal to cooperate and was advised that he'd then be stuck in wet underwear and pants. We tried this many months ago, and he just continued to pee in his underwear (hyping it didn't make it any more exciting for him), so I fully expect to have to deal with a pee-soaked child for a while.

I know this one will be tougher than the pacifiers, but I'd like at least one out of diapers before we start the next one in them in the spring.

Labels: Life with Little Ones, Little R

I had another fun OB appointment yesterday. No really, that's not sarcasm, I do like to go visit. I generally have something off the wall or completely tangential to ask him and I think he likes that. This time I had four little memory props scribbled on my palm: heart; ps; tubal; taller.

heart was to remind me about the note I saw on my 18w ultrasound that indicated that the tech hadn't gotten a good look and to ask about a follow-up scan. He found me a spot for this morning and we got a good look at a perfect little heart in spite of baby's acrobatics.

ps was to ask if he could recommend a good plastic surgeon to do a tummy tuck about 18 months postpartum.

tubal was to discuss his thoughts on side effects and to ask about his specific technique (apparently one he developed as a variation on an older one).

and taller was to remind me to ask whether he knew of any reason why I should suddenly be an inch taller. No kidding. When I went for my first prenatal check with my GP, I saw 5'6.5" go into the chart. "Must've measured/read/remembered wrong." I thought to myself. A few weeks later I measured myself at the clinic when I took the babies for flu boosters. "Hmmm, 66.5"." At my first visit back with my OB the same, and again this past visit.

All of my adult life I've been not quite five-and-a-half feet. There's no good reason to sprout an inch (upwards) at 37 years of age.

My OB was as perplexed as I am, but his demeanor suggested that he appreciated the puzzle. So it's not pregnancy-related anyhow. I've got to keep an eye on it though, and if I continue to grow, my GP will need to check it out. Of course my brain headed straight for 'pituitary tumour', but I think that's from watching too much TLC.

At the very least I can keep my OB amused.

Labels: Pregnancy 6

I despise seeing two- and three-year-olds running around with pacifiers in their mouths. Really, they don't need them at that age -- especially not when they're out on the playground or otherwise occupied with something else. I was going to make sure my kids were never 'those' kids.

R was done with pacifiers at nine months. On his own, he just decided he didn't need them anymore. Yay! It couldn't have been easier.

At around that same age, S & L still seemed much more attached to theirs, so the rule became: nap and nighttime only. I wouldn't have given it much more thought that now, at almost 14 months, they still had pacis at nap and at night, except that I've been up multiple times at night for the past month because of these things. The babies were yelling because they needed someone (me, of course) to pick their pacis off of the floor at all hours.

Something needed to change and I decided that the pacifiers had to go. Boot camp began that night.

I put the babies to bed with their pacifiers, but as soon as they were asleep, I pulled the pacis from their cribs. All was good until 3am when L decided to make her displeasure known for a full hour. It was sooooo tempting to just give in to get her back to sleep, but I remembered a baby guru talking about how if you give in, babies will just cry harder the next time because they know you've got a breaking point.

The next morning's nap was surprising because both kids went to sleep, pacifier-less, without a peep. Grandma came that afternoon and I think the fussing at the start of the afternoon nap was more because they wanted to continue playing rather than for the pacifiers.

Bedtime was a bit more challenging, as L complained for a half hour and S whined in sympathy. Through the night, however, L only woke twice to whimper for her pacifier, and didn't continue long enough for me to even get up to check on her.

The following day's naps were again relatively easy, and last night's bedtime consisted of 10 minutes of fussing (L again), but no nighttime waking!

I'm optimistic that this is the end of the pacifiers and it took only two relatively simple days. I'm certainly glad I didn't wait until the babies could actually ask for them because as heartbreaking as L's first hour of crying was, it would certainly have been magnified with pleas to return her paci.

Labels: L, Life with Little Ones, S