I'm A Big Kid Now

Last week we potty trained Jensen.  He will be 3 at the end of December.      

During the summer we attempted one day of potty training with him just to get a feel for where he was at.  But after one day, we quickly realized he was not ready.  So we held off for a few more months.  During those months I DREADED the idea of potty training.  Especially the idea of potty training a boy.  I was just picturing all the accidents and poopy underwear I was going to have to clean.  Plus teaching him to keep things from spraying everywhere.  Blah!

Finally I was tired of thinking about it and I just wanted it over with.

We started a week and a half ago.

The first few hours were the worst part.  He had 3 accidents back to back.  But I could tell that his mind was just processing it all so we stuck with it.  By the afternoon of that first day he was getting it.  When McKay got home from work he had only had the 3 accidents in the morning and I let myself get a little bit excited.  Could it really be THAT easy?!

Since that first day he has had 2 more accidents, and is now in underwear full time.  He is great about telling me when he needs to go and has good control so that we don't have to sprint to the bathroom each time.  Night time he is still in diapers and wakes up dry 1/2 the time so I bet in the next month or two he will be out of diaper completely.

I am so grateful that potty training him went so smoothly.  After having 2 kids in diapers for the last 13 months I am excited to be down to only one child.

I don't think there is a one-size fits all method for potty training, but for us waiting until they are almost 3 has worked great.  Then we just give them a small treat after each time they use the potty successfully.  Oh and we let them drink juice (which is usually not around at our house) on the first few days of potty training so that they have lots of chances to practice.

The last trick that works REALLY well with Jensen was layering his underwear (you can see it in the picture above).  We bought some of the Gerber training pants from Walmart that are slightly thicker then normal underwear and then we let him pick out a fun package of Cars underwear.  Then we layered the training pants under his fun underwear (I promise it wasn't that thick) and then put his clothes on as normal.  This layering method was awesome because when he DID have an accident he of course soaked his clothes and underwear, BUT nothing got on the carpet or in his shoes.  I didn't have to clean up puddles all over the house and my newish carpet was saved from the lovely peed on smell.  This little trick was truly a game changer for me and made me a lot less nervous to venture out of the house with him knowing that at least he wouldn't get stuff everywhere if he DID have an accident.  I just made sure to have a change of clothes and we were good.

Anyway SO proud of this guy and his potty training success.  He is so excited to be a "big boy" and loves his new found freedom as much as I do.  :)        

What I Would Buy- 6-12 months

Here we go again.  A few more of my favorite items for the second half of the 1st year of life.  I am definitely not an expert.  Just a mom who has a small obsession for researching and loving all things baby.  :)

The biggest thing for this stage is that you need some form of high chair.  We do a modified version of baby led weaning at our house so I like having a full blown high chair.  Not a bumbo with a try and not a little booster with a small tray since the food seems to spe.  I recommend getting either a large portable high chair (like this) that fits on a chair or just a regular high chair.  We have had both and loved them equaling.  If you travel a lot then I recommend the spacesaver high chair, but other then that both seats will ultimately take up the same amount of space in your kitchen.  Right now we have a regular size one since we are getting short on dining room chairs and didn't want the high chair to have to use its own chair.  Our current highchair is very well loved since we got itat a garage sale with Adalyn and I think it has gone through at least 6 kids at this point.  So when Declin is done with it we will be getting rid of it and buying this one or this one.  I am planning on getting a wood one.  Some of the features that I have loved having on my high chair is a washable/wipe-able cover.  This is HUGE!  Babies make lots of messes in these chairs and having a wipe-able surface is SO nice.  I only have to throw my cover in the wash every couple months.  The rest of the time I just wipe it down good.  We also have a double tray on our high chair.  A double tray is awesome for when you haven't quite cleaned up the lunch mess on the tray and it is time to start dinner (I KNOW I am not the only one who does this sometimes!).  Just pull the first tray off and you have a nice clean tray underneath for dinner. :)  I also really like the wheels on ours too for moving it around the kitchen, but I could definitely live without them since my kids also know about this feature and now want to push Declin around (he hates it when they move him).  Anyways, you will have this piece of baby equipment in your kitchen for almost as long as you have your crib set up so make sure it is one that you like!  It will get used a ton.

As far as plates/ silverware/ sippy cups go we have the Ikea kid plastic plates, bowls, and cups.  They have held up great for the past 4 years and are the perfect size.  We bought 10 of each item and that has been the perfect number for us so far.  Someday I would love to switch everything to stainless steal plates since we are trying to get rid of plastic in our house (especially things that we eat on) but it will be a while before we reach our goal so our Ikea plates are working fine for now.

Sippy cups.  Oh these things could have their own post and maybe even their own planet.  Seriously does anyone have the perfect sippy cup that doesn't leak or break easily?!  We have bought just a few (ha!) sippy cups in our few short years as parents.  Our conclusion: they will all leak eventually even if they say they won't.  Also to our surprise we have found that we actually prefer the cheapo take n toss cups that cost less then $3 for 4 cups with lids (we don't actually toss them, that is just what they are called).  They hold up well (even after being washed in the dishwasher over and over again) and while they don't claim to be leak proof they don't leak very much.  Their only downside is occasionally when a child throws one on the ground the lid comes off and the whole thing spills. But I love that they are one piece and quick to match a lid to a cup when I am searching through our sippy cup drawer.  

Bibs are another need item that can be a challenge to find the right thing.  For a while I kept buying bibs that would start to stink after a few months.  Finally we found these terry cloth pull over bibs that work great for my older kids and cover the majority of their shirt.  They are $5 for two bibs at Walmart.  I can throw them in the washer each day so they don't get stinky.  These are also nice for catching food before it falls in your child's lap.  For really messy jobs or art projects we have these full blown shirt bibs from Ikea that cover the whole arm and has a pocket on the bottom for catching food.  Our kids wear these when they are first learning to feed themselves.  

Some toys that I think are awesome for this stage are...

Teether.  This one or this one.  These are more for a 6-7 month old then for a 12 month old.  I actually do not have these teethers yet, but I have heard awesome things about them. Declin did try them out at someone else's house (ofcourse he did!  He put everything in his mouth!) and really seemed to like them.    

An activity cube.  My parents gave one of these to Jensen for his first birthday and I really like having it.  They can play with it when they start sitting up and then use it to pull themselves up on when they are learning to stand.  

Stacking toys/cups/bowls.  Declin has loved his stacking bowls that he got for his birthday.

Play animals.  All kids love animals. They are gender neutral and can really grow with your kids.  At 6-12 months babies are usually just sucking on the animals, but I think it is great to start to get them familiar with what different animals look like and what sounds they make.  

Magnetic letters.  Great distraction for your baby while your trying to make dinner or do dishes.

First baby doll or stuffed animal.  Addie loves her baby dolls and my boys love their animals.  While don't think a million stuffed animals are necessary since kids really don't seem to play with tons at once I think a couple fun ones are perfect for babies and kids to snuggle with and take on their adventures.  Even today Addie was carrying around her baby while Jensen carried his teddy bear around.  

Easy puzzles.  Declin loves puzzles.  He mostly likes to just take the pieces off and suck on them.  But recently he has started to show interest in putting the pieces back.  Like the toy animals, babies might not use the puzzle pieces in the correct way at first, but eventually they figure it out.

Fisher Price Amazing Animal Zoo.  This is one of the few battery operated toys that we have, but my babies have all LOVED it.  Seriously so entertaining for them as they watch the animals go around and around.  They figure out the button at a pretty young age and then they have fun putting different toys on it and watching them go around and around.

Walker/wagon.  These are fun for when a baby is ready to start taking steps.  We had this one from Vtech, but it broke recently and we now just have a wooden wagon from Ikea (ps. don't buy this wagon online, it is cheaper in stores)

A mirror.  Hang a shatter proof mirror in your child's room or crib.  I can imagine this would be a blast for babies to play with and watch themselves. I have not done this yet, but I am excited to do it in the future.

car or ball run/ramp.  Not sure exactly what to call this.  We have this fisher price car track and Declin has really enjoyed putting cars on it and watching them go down and then doing it over and over again.  He figured out how to do it on his own around 8 months and has loved it ever since.

The last thing that is great for this stage is a jogging stroller.  I have heard that it isn't great to run with babies under the age of 6 months, but I  admit I have not followed this rule very well.  Hopefully my painfully slow running hasn't hurt my babies too much.  Currently I use my Valco double stroller as my jogging stroller and it works great.  But hands down my first pick for a double or single jogging stroller would be a Bob Revolution.  I totally wanted one, but needed to go with the Valco since it has the third seat option (which we use ALL the time so it has been totally worth it).  My second pick for a single jogger would be a Chicco Activ3 and my runner up for a double jogging stroller would be a Schwinn Double Stroller.  Both of these options are priced a little less than the Bob.

A Ergo carrier.  Ok I lied THIS is my last item, but I feel like I need to add this in even though I don't have one yet.  We have an off brand carrier that works ok and gets the job done but it is not nearly as comfortable as the Ergo.  I am not a huge baby wearer, but I do carry my babies more often between 6-12 months when they aren't too heavy but old enough to wrap their legs around your waist.

So those are my favorite items for this stage of a baby's life along with many of the things that I already mentioned (aka crib, blankets, carseat, etc.).  As you can tell I still have a few things on my wish list that hopefully we can get someday.  The first year is my absolute favorite!  

Oh and as always, are there any items that I am missing?  I always love trying new things.  

  

      

                  

  

    

  

A Week Off

Recently McKay went out of town for work.  So the kids and I decided to spend the week in Utah at my parents house.  Our days of just randomly leaving town for a week are numbered since Addie starts school next year so we are trying to take advantage of it while we can.  While we were in Utah we got to do a lot of fun activities which made the time that McKay was away enjoyable and go by quickly.  

Up first:

The night we arrived at grandma's house we had a mini birthday moment for Declin.  He opened their present to him and then we had cake and ice cream.

Other activities from the week were...

Walks around their neighborhood lake.  The kids especially love the sandy beach area.
 

One day we headed to Laron and Michelle's house for lunch and then let the kids play all afternoon.

Lunch date with Grandpa in between his classes (he teaches High School).  I was a little nervous for this one since the kids are either awesome at restaurants or little crazies... This time they ended up being little crazies so who knows if Grandpa will ever invite us back!  

Going swimming at the rec. center to prep Adalyn for her up coming swim lessons.  I am not a huge water lover so sadly our kids haven't experienced "real" swimming very much in their life time.  Splash pads, kiddie pools, and sprinklers is the level we are at these days.  But thanks to my mom coming with me we were able to manage everyone and I think Adalyn will do just fine at swimming lessons.

My mom had work off on Friday so we went all out by visiting the Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point and grabbing some take out on the way home.  The kids loved the museum and I totally did too!  It was super crowded when we were there with field trips for elementary schools and preschools, but we still had a great time and wished we could have stayed longer (Declin needed a nap so we couldn't stay forever).
Jensen and Declin's favorite part was the water area and Adalyn loved the "bumpy"slide in the triple story jungle gym.

The infant water table was literally a table with booster chairs built into the table.  Then there was an inch or two of water in the table with a small fountain for the kids to splash in.  It was pretty tricky and Declin loved it!

Grandma built this nice contraption for Jensen so that he could spray the water out of the hose.  He was in heaven!  

Adalyn also loved the vet area and the dancing room.  She thought it was SO cool that they were teaching her how to dance.    

Thanks Grandma for the fun time!  

McKay got home Friday night and we were so happy to see him again!  We stayed in Utah for the rest of the weekend since it was General Conference.  It was very relaxing hanging out with family and enjoying the sessions.  Saturday night we even got to get out with the girls (and kiddos) and go shopping during the priesthood session.

Sunday was a family dinner with Corinne and Stu and my Grandma Fry.  The kids actually behaved fairly well during the sessions and earned a few (or a lot) of treats each time they heard a "special" word.  P.S. do not have one of the special words be Jesus Christ... your kids will eat a lot of candy if you do.     

The kids threw the football around with grandpa in between sessions.  Jensen thought it was so cool that we were letting him tackle Adalyn.  

      

Our week in Utah was just what we needed.  Time away from the routine and I was grateful for the distractions while McKay was gone.  Thanks for the fun times, again, Mom and Dad.  

  

 

Adalyn at 4

Four.  Oh this is a fun stage!  Really.  Three years old was kinda rough, but four has been great so far.
Adalyn has SO much personality and she has started to develop her imagination more.  Her play is still pretty realistic, as in she usually makes up stories about a mom and a dad and their kids... real life stuff.  She doesn't usually make up stories about dragons or pirates.   She can spend all day setting up a tea party for the whole family to come to.  She loves "hosting" sleepovers, dinners, and reading time for anyone who will play.  Stuffed animals and baby dolls are not enough she needs real human beings to show up to these events.  She really does not enjoy playing on her own but between Jensen, Declin, or the backyard neighbor friends she can usually find someone to go along with her plans.

She doesn't dress up in princess dresses as much anymore.  She mostly insists upon wearing her purple nigh gown.  The thing is starting to fall apart, but she doesn't seem to notice.

Adalyn started chores at about 3 1/2 years old, but not until recently has she actually been helpful (as in it actually makes less work for me).  She usually still insists upon me watching her or helping her do her chores, but she can unload the dish washer herself and is fully independent in the bathroom and getting herself dressed.  That small independence is SO wonderful to me.

She no longer takes an afternoon nap.  Sometimes I can persuade her to sleep on a Friday afternoon, but other then that she just has independent quiet time while the boys sleep.  Bedtime for her is around 8:00 but her and Jensen don't usually fall asleep until 9.  This isn't a huge issue this year, but next year when she is in school I am hoping that they will got to bed around 7:30.

Preschool at home is perfect.  I kept second guessing myself all summer about not sending her to a preschool as I talked to EVERY other mom out there that was sending their kids, but in the end I stuck with my goal to home school her (just for preschool) and I am SO happy that I did.  We both love it and the flexibility in our days is awesome.  She is really good with her numbers and math concepts seem to come easily to her.  Letters are still a work in progress as she is still working on her lower case letters.  Her favorite subject that we have done so far was studying about birds.  We got a little book about birds from the library and she carried it around with her for weeks looking at the pictures and telling me all about them.  She especially loved the owls.  She is going to do great in school next year and she is already talking about kindergarten.  Recently, I have heard wonderful things about our elementary school which has gotten me excited for her to go to kindergarten.

For Halloween she wants to be a butterfly fairy.  She also tells me that she wants Santa to bring her an Anna (from frozen) dress.  She makes holidays so fun!

Her favorite toys here at our house are her baby dolls.  She has one favorite doll that she has played with since she was one years old.  She also loves her dress up shoes.  "Camping" in the empty lot behind our house is also a favorite activity.

Something else she loves to do is get mixing bowls and spoons from the kitchen and organize her toys in them.  She really is good at matching things up and creating piles.

She is getting pretty good at perfecting her selfie as shown below...

She loves to "practice" dancing and is getting excited for dance classes that she gets to start when she turns 5.  Secretly I have always hoped that she would want to take dance lessons since I also did dance as a kid, but I never tried to force my ideas on her so I was really excited when she came to me a few weeks ago and asked to go to dance class.  I hope she loves it too!  Although if she doesn't love it once she tries it that is totally fine too, just want her to find something that SHE loves.

Her favorite foods are fries and ketchup, chicken nuggets, cheese, grapes, and carrots.  She also loves fruity candy.  She isn't a huge cake or chocolate lover (crazy right?!)

She is a mama's girl through and through and still has a rough time when I leave her at home.  But she also really enjoys daddy's attention and he is usually the one that will let her be hands on and learn how to do things like dishes, shoveling dirt, or baking something.  He has so much more patience for that sort of thing then I do.

After Adalyn's best friend moved this summer Adalyn had to figure out how to make new friends.  All of her old besties from joy school and the neighborhood were no longer there and you could tell she felt a little lost in the friends department.  It has been interesting as she has had to figure things out and meet some new people.  But just tonight she was telling us all about her new friends from primary.  I can tell friends will be a big influence in her life and I hope she can choose some good ones that bring out the best in her.  Oh the things we get to worry about as parents!

Adalyn you are amazing and we love having you in our family!