Time To Eat

Sorry for the poor quality of this video. It was taken with my phone. But it just made me smile.

Eden decided to try the baby food applesauce and she found that she liked it. She occasionally eats it (more often than Leila eats it). But when Leila sees Eden with something, she wants it. Solution? Have Eden feed Leila. PERFECT.

Although, I wish you could see how much applesauce is on Leila's face.

"When I'm Three I Get To Do Potty Training!"

Remember my post back in January about this little adventure?

And remember how it ended in....well....what's the word....

FAILURE?

Oh yeah, I remember.

Since then I stuck her back in diapers and decided to try potty training again when she turned 3.

People would ask her age.

I'd say, "She's almost three."

Eden would then reply, "And when I'm three, I can do potty training!"

Then she turned three. The next day I said, "Guess what? You're three! What happens when you are three?!?"

*Silence*

Bow her head down and walk away.

....Great....

But this story has a HAPPY ENDING. :)

It was a bit of a challenge cause one "method" would work for a while, then we'd need to do something new, and then change it again when she got tired of that method.

Method 1:

I put her in cute underwear and told her she could get a treat if she went potty in the big girl potty. She was somewhat motivated. But that faded relatively quickly.

Method 2:

We reminded her that when you learn to go potty in the big girl potty that you no longer get "owie bummies" and need to use "bum cream". (She had that experience not too long ago and didn't like that at all.) That helped a little, but that faded.

Method 3:

She started to care less and just have an accident while playing....then just continue playing saying, "Mommy! I had an accident!" Not gonna fly. So, I started to have her scrub up her accidents, throw old underwear in the washer, and go get new underwear herself. She oddly didn't seem to mind the work. Accidents continued.

Method 4:

Tyson and I put on our "mean faces" and took out the big guns. "Eden, when you have an accident, you get all dirty and we've got to start giving you a (cold) shower."

Accident.

Cold shower.

Screaming.

New underwear.

After two showers, she started really trying to go potty in the big girl potty. SUCCESS! She was doing a good job. But she was holding in the poopy part of going potty, you could tell.

Method 5:

We put her in Pull-Ups when we went somewhere and at night. She learned that you don't have to take a shower if you have an accident in your Pull-Up. So, she learned to save her poopies until she had a Pull-Up on. I had to go back to reminding her about "owie bummies", try to stay in the house as much as possible so we didn't put on Pull-Ups, and told her that if she goes poopy in the big girl potty then she'd get to pick out a "special prize from the treasure chest". She liked that idea. (When she went poopy in the potty she would choose out a few little rubber snakes and frogs and lizards. She's now got herself quite a collection.)

Method 6:

She had another accident. She had more fear in her eyes than I'd ever seen in her before. She yelled in terror, "I DON'T WANT TO TAKE A SHOWER!" I felt awful. I with love said that we'd take a really short shower and then warm up with a little bath. She felt a little better about that. I had to use the method of lots of love and comfort and showing pride in all that she's been accomplishing. We don't take showers anymore....then again, she hasn't had any accidents in underwear since.

Method 7:

We tried to give her a long term goal. We said that if she went 3 days without an accident in her underwear or Pull-Up (except at night time) then we'd take her to the store and get her a My Little Pony. She was THRILLED. She'd been looking at a paper that came with her other birthday ponies and there was a unicorn. While she loved the two she got for her birthday, it didn't seem complete without the unicorn.

On Friday.....we were able to go get her unicorn.

She was very, very happy.

In that picture she's saying, "UNICORN!" as we got ready to drive to Target.
This is Eden hugging her new unicorn with love.
She's been really good about going potty. I still ask her "Do you need to go potty?" often (although, she actually may not need to be asked much. She tells me herself if she needs to go and if I ask and she says "no", I trust her.) She hasn't even had an accident in her Pull-Up, not even at night time since one of the first days of potty training.

And really, potty training didn't take as long as this post makes it seem like it took. Really all those methods were done within 3-4 days with maybe 1 accident after that. And she actually probably went about 4-5 days before we took her to get the unicorn, we just hadn't kept careful track of days.

The only negative that we're currently facing....going to the store.

When Eden wore diapers, she almost 100% of the time went poopy in her diaper while at the store, at a friends house, and in nursery.

I think Eden is currently afraid of having to go poopy while in public. So, I end up taking her to the bathroom SEVERAL times when we go anywhere. She'll say, "I need to go potty." We'll go and she'll have a little "tummy bubble" and give a little nervous chuckle saying, "Oh, I just had a tummy bubble. I don't need to go."

But hey, I don't complain. Overall, I'd say she's doing AWESOME!!!

Play Time with Grandma

*Several posts about my mom's visit below.*

Between Hayden visiting and then right after (literally the day after) my mom coming to visit.....this picture best sums up how awesome these past few weeks have been...

Eden was so tired that she fell asleep while eating dinner.

My mom came to visit last week....and it was loads of fun. We had a party. We actually had a longer parter than expected because she missed her flight home on Friday and couldn't get another flight until Tuesday. (While it was unfortunate that she missed her flight....I admit I loved it...we had a good time).

The girls loved it too.

We honestly did so much. It was a blast. We went to the Moon Marble Factory, Crown Center, Kaleidoscope, Deanna Rose Farm, book fair, Legends, and out to eat more than I probably should admit.

I decided to put this picture on here cause I only have one picture at the Moon Marble Factory....but it was AWESOME! It was a little building FILLED with marbles and old-school toys that made me remember my childhood.

This lady in the picture actually made a marble in front of our eyes. She even put a little glass frog on the top of it that looked awesome.

...To see the rest of my mom's trip here....I've got several more posts below.

Legends Outlet Mall

We went to Legends to try this restaurant called T-Rex Cafe. Eden was a little worried about the large robotic dinosaurs but loved sitting by a giant fish tank to eat lunch. By the way, I really enjoyed the food.

Eden found it a little noisy during the "meteor shower" that occurs every half hour.
The fountain was great fun.

Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead

Eden loved feeding the baby goats.



Leila had a blast!

Feeding the fish was also a big hit. The only negative part was noticing that Leila had picked up some fish food and popped it in her mouth and I didn't get to it until half of it was traveling down her esophagus....um...not gonna lie, that grossed me out.

Can you see Leila's little arm reaching through the fence.
Leila loved the little benches until I told Eden to go sit with her. She threw a tantrum and tried to push Eden off "her" bench. But Leila's cute...even when she throws a tantrum.

Lots of fun playgrounds, slides, etc.

Kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscope is an awesome place where kids go and it is FILLED with tables and tables of arts and crafts. Eden LOVED it and Leila would have loved it if we didn't have to stop her from eating all the paint, glue, and papers.

Eden's favorite was painting.
This is her saying "I'll smile for a picture mom...but I'm busy painting" face.
Leila did enjoy the water fountain intended for washing hands covered in paint.
This picture doesn't do justice. This room was all black light and you took these paint sticks an could fling paint on your picture...or as Eden would do, paint little dots on it.

When Eden first found the room, it was dark and she ran back out. Then she said, "Mom. Come with me. But don't be scared." She's so brave. :)

Tornadoes

Crazy time to live in Missouri.

After the MASSIVE tornado in Joplin, Missouri....we're all a little on edge over here.

Tyson's met doctors from Joplin. Now the hospital and clinics are all demolished.

Here the storms come and go along with warnings that there are more storms to come.

Today I took the kids to the library while Tyson stayed home to do more boards study. While we were there a librarian came around to talk to everyone.

"There's a tornado warning. There was a touch-down in Jackson County just now and the storm is headed this way. You are welcome to stay here if you like. We'll be heading into the basement. Or you could quickly head home if you'd rather be there."

I decided to go home. I'd rather be with Tyson.

As I leave the library and start to pack the kids in...the tornado sirens go off.

I head home.

We get in the house the rain starts coming down harder.

My cell phone rings, its our friends telling us that they say to go to a safe place in the house in about 15 minutes. They knew we didn't have a television to have really updated news on what was going on and what we're supposed to do.

Our neighbor comes out and knocks on our door.

We stand with him outside in the rain and we talk. He tells us "watch the clouds".

The clouds are moving fast.

Our neighbor says, "Its the big black one over there that is the one to worry about. Watch and see if it starts a swirling pattern."

Sure enough, a little swirl comes.

I've never seen clouds do that before. It was crazy to watch.

It was lunchtime, so Tyson cleared out the closet under the stairs and laid down a blanket and I made some lunch.

We ate a little picnic in a closet under the stairs.

Eden thought that was pretty cool.

Soon after, the sirens stopped, the clouds blew past, and the sun came back out.

Things went back to normal. Tyson went back to studying. I cleaned up lunch. Eden and Leila played in the family room.

I admit that I wasn't deathly afraid of a tornado hitting....but I admit that it definitely made me nervous. I figured that tornado sirens and hiding underground were very much an "extra precaution" than a warning that death is on our doorstep.

In fact, Tyson and I had a laugh as I made lunch and asked Tyson, "So, how prepared to you think we REALLY need to be?" and Tyson replied, "Famous last words..." And we talked about that question regarding the Last Days. And had another little chuckle.

I don't know if people around here think all this is normal. I've never seen clouds move the way these did or had to seek shelter before. So for me, this has been an adventure.

And apparently there are still more storms on the way....but I think the fear of more tornadoes is coming to an end.

I feel terrible for those who have suffered injury, damages, death, etc. from all these tornadoes. My prayers go out to all of them.