five for friday

1. {this post}by ruth at gracelaced is worth a read. so good.

so.

good.

2. it has been stormy around here. real stormy. lots of crazy clouds. lots of rain.

3. she cracks me up.

4. we finished our basement in early june. we moved toys in and let the kids play. but it did cause a ripple affect upon the rest of the house. we have slowly been moving things and organizing. it is pretty sweet how we have been able to move things around and open up space in other parts of our home. this week during those rainy days we worked on some painting projects and getting shelves up in the craft room.

here are some before shots...after will come later......

5. we did out back to school shopping this week. yikes. feels good to have that all done. now we can just enjoy summer. 

we went to the outlet mall and Maggie saw this Mickey ride and we had to let her ride it. she had some smooches for mickey. we also told her this was disneyland......

happy friday

going.

miss maggie took the plunge and is potty trained.

well mostly.

you know.

i still get a little nervous that we may be the reason the pool has to close for contamination or that we may leave a puddle in the middle of a aisle at say hobby lobby.

she is doing great.

when she goes potty she announces "goooooing!" oh so proudly.

its so cool to watch her take such a big step.

AND we have also gotten a free tour of the public restrooms around town.

love that. ha.



i thought i would share my tips on potty training.

i know there are many thoughts, ideas, plans for potty training.

i am not saying this is the right way or the only way but this is the way that has worked like a charm for us.

1. months before you plan to potty train buy the supplies. start with a potty chair and some panties. let the child sit on the potty chair and try to use the toilet. get in the routine of trying before baths or first thing in the morning. wear underwear over diapers or even without a diaper. know that you will likely have little success. the goal right now is to peak interest. we bought the potty chair that maggie is using this summer last summer!

2. wait. wait until your child shows interest. then let it fester a bit.

3. give it a try. switch over to underwear for a day and see how it goes. remind them to use the bathroom every 30 minutes or so. but let them go about their business as usual. know that you may clean up a lot more pee than actually gets in the toilet. celebrate success. talk about how icky accidents feel. stay positive. do not punish for accidents. if things don't go well or the child is over it throw in the towel and go back to diapers. you may "give it a try" several times before the child actually takes control and starts using the potty.

4. wait some more. wait until your child asks to start using the potty. with all three of our girls there has been a day where they decided to start using the potty and from that day there was no turning back. all three have picked rather inconvenient days to do so. but they also did it with very few accidents.

5. stay a little bit closer to home for a few days but try to go about life as usual. hopefully you will be pleasantly surprised at how well they can do.

5. follow the child's lead. we use diapers at night and during naps at the beginning. then wean diapers away during naps and eventually during night time.

a look back....

five for friday....

1. there has been a lot of space talk at our house lately. we have spent some time looking at the stars this summer. the pluto pictures. then we watched a show about what will happen when the sun burns out some 800 million years from now. another talking about when the earths core explodes. and then there was the new planet found yesterday.

these kind of conversations lead to interesting questions...mainly from miss cece.....

what will we do if the sun burns out?
could inventors invent a new sun?
we will be good and dead before the sun burns out right?
could we go to the new planet?

2. when miss maggie gets tired....she gets a little whack-a-doodle. doing some pretty silly things.
yesterday we were at the pool and she started licking things. like her baby brother, my shoulder and then my bum...i actually had to say "maggie quit licking my bum and saying yummy!" that is parenting gold people.

parenting gold.

needless to say sweet stuff cashed out instantly on the car ride home.

3. i finished my summer classes yesterday. it feels awesome. and even more exciting i will likely never have that kind of course load ever again. wooohooo. i had to read a book for each class and the last one i read was about helping students get organized. it was a really great read. well worth my time. i have lots of ideas that will help miss ellie (and my students). and i am quite geeked to help her get organized for the school year.

4. jake's current feeding schedule has him nursing at 7, eating cereal and bananas at 8, and nursing again at 9. i feel like i spend the entire morning feeding him, because i do! i guess that is what happens when jakey sleeps all night.

real men wear pink bibs.....or boys with three older sisters wear pink bibs. #sorryjakers

5. miss maggie had an appointment with the ENT last week. she has been snoring like crazy over the last few months. at first we didn't think much of it. then i noticed her snoring while she was awake but relaxed. at first i thought oh she has a cold. then the cold was gone and it continued. our normally excellent sleeper started waking all the time. she ended up in our bed most nights. with her sleeping with us we started to notice just how bad the snoring was and realized that she likely had sleep apnea. we had went through this with ellie and we know how big of a disruption sleep apnea is to growth and development. we made a appointment with her pediatrician who referred us to an ENT. one look and he said they needed to come out. he said not only would they be disrupting her sleep but also her eating habits. he said she could be struggling to swallow past them. maggie will be getting her tonsils and adenoids removed mid august. with ellie it took months of doctor appointments, switching doctors, and a sleep study to get the go ahead to remove her tonsils. we are so happy to be able to get this taken care of so quickly for maggie.

jacob six months

big jake is six months old. 

i am going to just keep saying this each month. 

holy smokes. 

how in the world is he six whole months old already. 

it is blowing my mind a bit. 

doing everything i can to soak up this baby. 

and this baby is the best! 

oh jake.

at six months old you.....

• love to smile.
• tolerate the pool
• know your name.
• weighed in at 15 pounds 7 ounces which put you at the 11th percentile!! woohooo!
• measured 26 1/2 inches long.
• are eating solids...your favorites are oatmeal, bananas, apples, and sweet potatoes. 
• uses pink bibs with no problem! sorry jake!
• are sleeping from 9 pm to 7 am like clockwork. 
• take 2-3 naps during the day.
• wear size 2 diapers....but might be ready to move up!
• wear 3-6 month and some 6-12 month clothes. 
• are ticklish. 
• suck your thumb, take your paci, and like to chew on your blanky.
• have the most thoughtful eyes and we often find you studying (staring) at something intently.
• roll all over the place.....we have started to find you in odd places which makes your big sister maggie really laugh!
• L.O.V.E. the jumperoo!!
• enjoy going for walks. 
• love attention :)
• have been working on sitting for several weeks and during your pictures you picked your hands up and sat unsupported! yay jakers!

jacob james you are the best baby brother ever.

we love you so very much.