Our March Madness

Well spring has sprung around here and so have my allergies. I'm on day #4 of battling my allergies and it's crazy windy outside today, so I thought since I'm hiding inside I might as well work on a little update. We've been dealing with minor injuries (both real and imaginary), school projects and a small house project!

Let's start with the injuries...

Rian had a teeny tiny scratch on her nose and had insisted that I put this ridiculously oversized band-aid on it.

And well Rory's were very real. During PE Rory face-planted into the pavement while riding a scoot type of thing (kind of looks like something a mechanic uses to slide under a car) that abruptly stopped. This was the day after it happened. When I picked him up from the nurse's office, his lip was 3x the normal size. Poor kid!

This little guy popped up after Rian pulled him from a pile of stuffed animals in Rory's room. When I asked Rory why the bear had a band-aid on his nose...

...He pulled the band-aid back to reveal that the bear was missing part of his nose.  Rory had said that when he was "really little" he chewed on the nose. And when he realized that he put a hole in his bear, he remedied it with a band-aid.

But as you know, band-aids don't last more than a few days, let alone five years or so. Rory asked if I could sew the nose back, but after looking at the bear's injury, I could not. But I told Rory I could make him a band-aid that would not come off.

"You even made the holes on the band-aid!"

St. Patrick's Day was spent at the park with this little munchkin and some of our friends!

The kiddos made rainbow cereal necklaces.

Rory's class celebrated 100 Days of School last week. He had to create a poster with 100 things on it. He decided that he wanted to make a poster with Mario Kart. So he narrowed it down to his favorite race course of the game, Wario's Gold Mine!

He put the characters that we like to play (Randy/Mario, Rory/Wario, Me/Princess Peach, Rian/ Baby Peach), along with the mine cars carrying 100 gold nuggets! He had so much fun working on this project!!! He even had it done a week early!

If you don't know about Mario Kart and Wario's Gold Mine, you can check it out on YouTube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pMmSB6YSVc


I'm so proud of Rory. He has been working really hard with his spelling, writing and reading at school. Keep up the good work Rory!!!

Rian has also been doing really well with her potty training. We are still working on the #2 portion of PT'ing, but all in all she's doing great!!! She no longer needs a sticker chart to help her.

This girl being crazy!

And her cute ponytail that she will not keep in. I can try, right?!?

Rian with one of her friends walking together to get their big brothers from school.

And I'm in the middle of repainting our half bath downstairs. My little deign assistant!

Our sleeping beauty...

Thanks for stopping by HOH!!!

xoxo
-aMie

Adventures in Potty-Training Land

For the past week or so we've been navigating the ups and downs of potty training. And if you know Rian, you know this has not been easy. After months of researching the many methods of PT'ing, I realized I was in uncharted waters with Rian. The bottom line of every method was that you had to find your child's "motivation". What is going to motivate them to want to PT. Well with Rian, we all quickly learned that she didn't have a motivation. In general, Rian can't be bought, threatened, or punished. So while putting a jar of m&m's out or a basket of small gifts works for many kids, Rian simply passed. In fact she passed on all treats offered as a reward for sitting on the potty. She offered her sassiest version of no thank you to my sweet friends and my mom who dared to try their hand at PT'ing her. And well threatening to take a toy way or punishing your child is clearly not an option (unless you want to be the next Mommy Dearest!), I was left feeling a little defeated before I even got started.  

So I decided that I was going to start the same way I started with Rory, making the pull up diapers  disappear. I had been warning Rian over the last month that one day she was going to open the bathroom cabinet and her pull ups would be gone. And then one Saturday, that's exactly what happened. Her response, "Oh no! The diapers disappeared. The Joker took them!!!" Yes that's right, the Joker did in fact take them! I mean he's already a villain, why villain-ize myself if I can avoid it. And she's obsessed with Batman right now so her reaction was totally fitting. She had no problem putting underwear on, but she was clearly putting zero effort into trying to use the potty. And I'm going to be completely honest the first 4-5 hours were rough. It consisted of changing wet clothes and cleaning up messes. I realized that I just needed her to sit on the potty. If I could get her to just sit I could get the breakthrough I was looking for. After lunch I took into the bathroom and I tried to get her to sit down. She protested that she was scared of the toilet, which I've heard before. But toward the end of her very convincing argument, I saw her crack an ever so slight smile. And that's when I realized I had been played by my three year old. For months she had been playing me and now it was all going to change! Well done Rian. well done!

So I firmly planted myself on the bathroom floor, expecting to endure a long, drawn out afternoon of battling Rian. I told her to sit down and go potty! She finally sat down, and within a minute or two, she was going in the potty!!! OH MY GOSH! I just about cried. I cheered and jumped up and hugged her. She looked stunned at my reaction, but it was the moment I had been waiting for all day. I quickly found a potty chart on pinterest and found a stash of Rory's stickers. Rain and Rory colored the chart and I proudly hang it on the bathroom wall with her first sticker. 

This last week has been full of ups and downs, but she has made progress. We stayed home that entire weekend, but started making short outings on Monday. We've had a couple of accidents while we were out, but nothing a quick change of clothes couldn't remedy. 

So if you are heading in to Potty Training Land, I have a some tips and tricks for you:

1. Get rid of any diapers/pull ups. As far as I'm concerned pull ups are just a toddler diaper and to your kid they work and feel the same as an infant diaper. So once you are committed to this process, get rid of them. 

2. Buy extra cleaners. Make sure you have extra laundry detergent, floor cleaner, couch cleaner, paper towels, cleaning rags, shampoo and body wash. Trust me! (I had to make a run to the market for more laundry detergent.)

3. Let your child pick out their new underwear. Anything to get them excited about this process is a plus.

4. Buy a pack of puppy training pads. I forgot to get these and I ended up having to strip Rain's car seat to wash because she had an accident on the way home from running an errand. Opps! Lay them in the seat of the car seat and should they have an accident, the puppy pad will help with that.

5. Let your child run around in a t-shirt and undies when you're home. When they are first learning, its a lot for them to just get to the bathroom. Why add one more thing for them to pull down and possibly wet. 

6. POTTY TRAINING SUCKS!!! Remember that there will be accidents, even after months of perfect potty training. Don't get too frustrated with them or with yourself. It happens. :0)

GOOD LUCK!!!

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Thanks for stopping by and if you have any questions or any tips please let me know.

xoxo
-aMie

Living in Kiddo Land

So like usual, life has been happening around here faster than I can jump on HOH. The kids have been busy with birthday parties and school activities and well I guess life in general.

Recently we had a weekend packed with birthday parties. The first was at a trampoline style place where the kiddos had so much fun running and jumping with their friends!

The next day I took Rory to a birthday party for one of his classmates. It was at a pizza place that had an arcade. He was in heaven!

He asked me if he could take me for a ride on a motorcycle game. Haha, my sweet boy!

Rian wasn't invited so Rory got her a ring with some of his arcade tickets.

Rory's school participated in Nevada Reading Week recently and the kids were able to dress up for each day's theme. Monday's was Super Hero or Princess day. He considers Ninja Turtles to be super heroes. :0)

The next day was camping day. (Not sure what he's doing, but he now makes crazy faces when he takes photos!)

Wednesday was Favorite Book Character day and he chose to wear a Lego shirt. Go figure. But the great thing about that day was that Rory was awarded Student Explorer of the Month!!! We are so proud of him!

Thursday was Dr. Seuss Day and Rory decided he wanted to be Lorax!!! So I put my costume skills to work and ta da...

...LORAX!!! (By the way, that orange shirt is now his favorite shirt, so you will be seeing a lot of it in the near future!)

And Friday was Harry Potter Day. Rory had never read the books or seen the movies, so he was a little confused as to why I drew a lightning bolt on his forehead. But lucky for him there was a movie marathon on TV that weekend, so he is all caught up on who Harry Potter is!

Driving lessons from Rory...oh brother!!!

Family racing at it's finest!

The craziest bedhead I've ever seen...

...to go with her trampoline hair!!!

Nothing better than dirty toes on a warm day. It's been so nice out lately that we've been trying to soak it all up before it gets too hot out here.

My sweet girl!

When did these two get so big?!?

(See the orange shirt is already on repeat! ;0) Haha!)

Afternoon slumber parties with Maggie. And yes Maggie snuggled up to Rian on the floor.

This is just too funny...her idea of a treat is eating a tub of tomatoes! #snackingonthego

And yes this is actually happening in our house right now. Finally after months and months and months, we've got a potty-trainer!!! More on that later.

I'll be back with all of our adventures in Potty-Training Land. I hope everyone is having a great week. And as always, thanks for stopping by!!!

xoxo
-aMie