Potty Training

i really, really should be sleeping right now. i just haven't been doing enough of that lately.
so i'm going to try to fire this out quickly so i can get to bed.

things are as crazy as ever around here.
this week has flown by in a blur of the usual plus preparing for a big fund raiser garage sale that i am helping my sister with, meeting to finalize cabinets for the house, science fair projects, and potty training....

yes, i am potty training wren.
i kept waiting for a low-key week to start on and then i decided i was just never going to have one of those. AND i bought 2 one-piece potty chairs at ikea last weekend and figured we might as well put them to use.
so i dove in on monday. we are 4 days in and wren is doing great.

i'm one of those abnormal moms who actually doesn't mind potty training. because of that i get a lot of people asking me how i do it- not that i have all the answers or any amazing tricks- i just don't find it as tortuous as some.

i like to get it done before they are old enough to realize they can use this as an area of control over me- wren turned 22 months on tuesday.
and this will seriously bore some of you, but here's my recap.

monday i took the diapers away and put her in underwear. i gave her lots to drink, and she went on the toilet three times and on the floor about 7 or 8 times :) she understood what i was trying to tell her about going on the toilet and would get very frustrated with herself when she had an accident. which is a great start!!

tuesday was frustrating because i had a really busy day and i was hardly home so i had to put her in pull-ups (which i HATE to use- they undo everything you work for) for most of the day.

wednesday i was helping with the garage sale but sticking with the underwear. she had quite a few accidents and only peed in the toilet once before dinner. after dinner i had some free time so i gave her a lot to drink and then we played together. and sometime during that time it clicked with her. she started saying, "i potty now" when she had to go. and every time she made it to the toilet she got 2 m&ms and a very happy, excited mom. a few of those times she was only going for the treat and the praise, but hey, that's fine with me :)

today was great. she hadn't had an accident since dinner the night before, so i took her to our meeting with the cabinet maker in her undies- with a little bit of confidence that she would do ok. and she did just fine. only 2 accidents today and one pee on the potty chair with her clothes still on :) a very good day. she is getting it and she is very proud of herself.









here's a picture of where i found tekoa and wren tonight as i was trying to get us all loaded in the van...



things are moving along on the house. the siding is almost done, the shingling is finished, carpentry work on the inside is pretty well caught up, the furnace is set and waiting to have the wires run, waiting for parts to finish the plumbing, and about 1 more full day of electric work to go yet. and then we will be ready for inspection. and if that goes well we can start on insulation and then dry-wall.















i am trying very hard to hold everything together, but i just can't seem to get all things running smoothly at once. i have to keep working on just a few things at a time so that the whole picture comes out ok.
does that make sense??
it's hard for me because i have a really hard time letting things go. i want to do it all and do it right and do it right when it needs to be done. but i'm not sure that it is even possible.

thankfully i have a SAVIOR who will fill in the gaps for me and help me to be all things to all people.

and now my tired, scratchy, pink-eye filled eyes are refusing to stay open any longer....

this is my proof that i helped shingle the roof for a little while on saturday :)
can you see me? (tyden took the picture...)



it's amazing the difference a nice saturday makes. the kids were so good. we brought their bikes, but mostly they sat and played in the sand. SO wonderful. especially for wren...she sat in the same spot in the sand with a bucket and a barbie for most of the day.
and i only had to pull nails out of her mouth just a few times as i walked by.



we are still working towards dry-wall. it's taking waaaay longer than we ever thought it would....
but we are very close to being ready for the inspection that comes right before we insulate.
and we are hiring the rest of the shingling (we got a little more than halfway done ourselves.)
and the siding is being started tomorrow! we are so thankful that we do not have to put the siding on this house ourselves like we did on our first house. it will save us tons of time!!
so things should start taking shape soon......i know, i know, we've been saying that for a month now....

switching subjects-
here is shaeya's new haircut. she wonders if people will still know who she is. she said she asked all the kids at school today, and they all still knew it was her, so.....



climbing trees at grandpa and grandma k's





tekoa is rubbing off on us all, i guess



it is AMAZING how much cleaning you can get done when the sun is shining and the girls are on the porch with a bucket of water colored with lime jello....makes me SO READY for summer!!!!!!!!!





kristin's 30!!!!
we had a wonderful lunch -with just 3 babies with us- to celebrate. it was so much fun.
thank you, jumpstart, for your new hourly playcare :)



we will be celebrating for real this weekend with a girl's trip to chicago....i am so ready to go!!!
(i LOVE it when my friends turn 30.....)

wren is catching on to the gymnastic/leotard theme that is taking over our house-
is she not the cutest thing EVER?!?!?



and the last of the big news-
shaeya and tekoa are finally starting to play together. it only took 4 years. (i'm pretty sure it has a lot to do with the horse toys tekoa got for her birthday)



they play together and cry together.
and then make sure that i am aware that they are crying. :)

tekoa's gymnastics party.
the kids had a blast :)
most of the girls that came take gymnastics too, so they had fun showing us all the stuff they've been learning.









dave stopped in during his lunch break which was so fun for tekoa- and for me :)





after gymanstics we went to the barn for cake and ice cream and presents.













yes, i let my baby entertain herself by eating candy off the floor.....







and now that things have settled down this is how tekoa spends most of her day- always on her mat and always in a "beautiful dress"....









and here are some videos-
tekoa dancing and some of her learning to do a bridge into a walk-over. so cute :)





and the last one is wren. i asked her if she would sing the 'strawberry shortcake' song.
typical wren reaction to anything i ask her to do....



gotta love that blue leotard, right?

this morning wren started calling to me from her crib very early. i was tired and did not want to get up to get her (and there's always that slim chance she might go back to sleep, right?)
so i let her yell my name for quite some time before i went and got her.
and when i finally picked her up she looked at me and said, "i's yelling, 'MOM!'"

i know you were yelling 'mom', i just didn't want to come and get you yet.....

and the other morning she was up early enough to see dave before he left for work. he kissed her and told her good-bye and then went downstairs and out the door. she followed him down but he was gone by the time she got down there.
she was all alone and wanted her daddy, so she started to cry...."where daaaaaddy go???
he went awaaaaay!!"
don't know when she learned "went away" but it was sure cute. and heart wrenching. she needs more daddy time than she gets....

i was in the shower one morning last week and when i came out shaeya said, "wren woke up when you were in the shower. i got her out and changed her diaper."
i said, "seriously?? you changed her diaper?"
and she said, "yep."
i told her thanks and the day went on from there.
and then around lunchtime i changed wren again and discovered that the diaper was on totally backwards :)
don't know how she would've gotten it on her that way- probably had to roll wren onto her stomach to close the tabs.
so funny. it would've been hilarious to watch i'm sure....and to know what wren was thinking while shaeya was diapering her wrong :)

and speaking of diapers....i dug out the potty chair today.
just gearing myself up....

this is what happens to poor #4 when they are sick and don't want to be left alone....



here's a little of what we've been doing to fill our crazy days-





















this is the day we sang at the nursing home. the kids were a hit!!
a few of the ladies wanted a promise that we would come back. "well, when do you think you could come back? soon? next week? next month?" :)
and some were just as enthralled with wren playing on the ipad as they were with the kids' singing....
and tekoa had fun. look at her, she LOVED it...



and the HORSE SHOW. afterwards shaeya said, "i can't think of a better way to say how exciting this day was!" she had the time of her life- and i loved watching it through her eyes.
if you ask her, she will give you a list of all the different breeds of horses she saw and what they did and what colors they were....
and if you ask wren about the horse show she will point to her head and say, "horse hit head."
yes, a horse kinda got her in the head with it's nose leaving a slimy, wet trail of horse snot and chunks of grain in her hair. at least it was memorable for her, right?





these are from tekoa's actual birthday. (only tyden gets very confused about birthdays and parties being on different days- i told him one thousand times on tuesday that it was tekoa's birthday and that she was 4 now, and just 5 minutes ago i heard him tell tekoa, "you're not 4 yet, tekoa, you're party is tomorrow...." :)



she got to wear a beautiful dress to school that day which seems to be her greatest joy apart from gymnastics.
and i told her that morning that since it was her birthday i would take her out to lunch after school.
anywhere she wanted to go.....
....and she said "church."
she wanted to eat lunch at church. i'm assuming that just meant she wanted doughnuts and milk.
i guess i don't blame her for "church" being her favorite place to eat lunch....



so tomorrow is tekoa's long awaited party. and the kids are very wound up tonight.
as we were cleaning the barn and setting up for the party shaeya said, "good thing you had all of us kids or else you would have to do all the chores by yourself."

yep. good thing.... :)