13 Signs you May Be a Potty-Training Mama

Remember my toddler's new year's resolution from 2010?

I'm happy to say he did it! We did it. Potty-trained except for at night. Diapers only at nighttime (although there is the occasional post-naptime sheet change)!!!!

Every time I hear another mom say her child is pretty much potty-trained (it takes a long time before you'll claim them completely potty-trained, am I right?) I say, "Don't you think there should be some sort of award given to the moms (or dads if they are in the thick of the process day in and day out) when they make it through potty-training their kid?"

And I'm serious. Because I know the effort on the parent's part that has gone into that process. The countless trips to the potty, the clothing changes, the washing of urine-soaked and worse clothes, the books read about going potty over and over again, the cheering, the rewarding, the carpet cleaning, the 3 minute car trips that somehow still led to the complete dismantling and washing of the car seat.

It is an experience like none other! Tears and laughter are pretty much guaranteed from both potty-trainer and potty-trainee. But we all make it through, eventually.

So a year away from the trenches I share with you this list I first posted January 2010. We've come a long way Baby!

13 Signs You May Be a Potty-Training Mama:

1. Your 2 year old jumps up in excitement after filling an entire toddler potty with pee-pee, grabs the potty bowl in an eager attempt to dump it into the big potty but accidentally dumps it in your lap instead and you manage to still clap & cheer, "Hooray!!! You went pee-pee in the potty!"

2. You have made up a song that goes, "Pee-pee in the potty, pee-pee in the potty, let's go pee-pee in the potty!"

3. And you sing it loudly whenever your toddler demands.

4. You have also enlisted your older children to join in the chorus!

5. You can quickly calculate the amount of time before your toddler will need to go pee-pee based on the minutes since he last went combined with the critical factors of when he last drank something and volume of beverage consumed!

6. You have washed the car seat cover more times in the last month than in the previous 2 years combined!

7. You begin to think really mean thoughts about the mothers you've heard say, "She just potty-trained herself one day!"

8. You spend a good portion of a day wondering if and worrying that your house smells like urine!

9. When your neighbor stops by you debate asking her if she thinks your house smells like pee, but ultimately you chicken-out.

10. You create a "special seat" which is a folded up towel your toddler must stay on whenever he sits on your couch.

11. You begin rewarding your older children with M&Ms when they go potty in the hopes it will inspire your toddler to do the same!

12. You begin treating yourself to M&Ms when you go potty!

13. When you go potty and your toddler wildly claps and cheers, "Hooray, Mommy, you went pee-pee in the potty!" it occurs to you that nobody else in the entire world would ever praise you for that accomplishment and you are overwhelmed with love and thankfulness for that little potty-training toddler!

Find more Gratituesday here and Tackle it Tuesday here.

Our New Friday Night Hang-Out

Those are my 2 little kids during our Friday evening outing to Ikea.

Yes, their shoes and my daughter's coat are off and piled on the floor, so they can really relax in the display living room!

We've been to Ikea with the kids many times before, but I guess it's been a while because it all seemed new to them. And they were in love!

"I wish we could live here!" My daughter squealed as she tried out all the display rooms.

And then they were entertained with the little pencils and paper provided to write down things you want to buy. My 7 year old and 5 year old began making their lists.

The best part was that all three of my kids were eligible for the store attended play area/childcare (kids have to be within a specific height range and out of diapers and pull-ups). So when they got annoying (you know running around, yelling so we couldn't really shop), my husband and I checked them into the play area and got 45 minutes (there is a 1 hour maximum) to shop through the store without kids! We were even were able to begin and finish a few conversations!

All for free!! I have no idea why we haven't taken more advantage of this before!

My oldest only has another inch or so before he'll be too tall for their restrictions, so we are definitely going to have to capitalize on the magic window of free babysitting again soon!

Also we had a really good laugh about the childcare, because they give you a plastic bin to put your kids' shoes, jackets, hats, etc. in, then they stamp each kid with a number (to match the number stamped on the parent dropping them off). And when we got back to pick them up, the lady stood at the door and called each of their names one by one, checked their numbers, and gave them back their "belongings" from the bin as they exited. I whispered to my husband that it was like they were getting released on parole! But the childcare was not jail-like other than their procedures, the place was pretty fun with a ball pit and other cool things for the kids to do.

After that we ate dinner at the Ikea restaurant for the cheapest amount our family of 5 has ever eaten out -- around $15!!! And the food is a notch healthier than fast food. The kids had mac n'cheese, applesauce, and milk. My husband and I shared a huge plate of the famous Ikea meatballs with a couple side items and two drinks (the Ligonberry drink -- if I ever make it to the real Sweden and they do not serve the Ligonberry drink, I'll be disappointed). So a lot of food and drinks for more than half what we typically spend to eat out!

I think we found a new Friday night hang-out. And no Ikea has not/is not paying me to say that except with an hour of free babysitting (which is available to anyone whose kids fit the criteria) and all moms know that is, well, pure gold!

Randomness on a Friday

How many times have you written 2010 on something in the last week? Be honest! I usually catch on to the year change around April.

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We got my 7 year old a magic set for Christmas and I have to say the gift has been amazing for my husband and I, too, because the really lame magic shows he kept forcing us to watch were only cute for about the first 2 times and then it got super hard to act surprised or in awe when it was so painfully obvious how he'd pulled off the "magic" trick. But now with the new magic set (link to the one we got him: Fantasma Toys Super Deluxe Legends of Magic DVD Set) his shows really are impressive! I honestly don't know the secrets behind many of the tricks!

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The doll we got my daughter is still a hit, although, it has raised an interesting issue. My daughter likes taking the doll with her places, but sometimes (like at church), it's really not best to bring her in, I mean she may get lost, the other children in Sunday School may destroy her, etc., so I've told my daughter to leave her in the car. Well, last Sunday she left the doll (that is the size and look of a real baby) sitting up in her own car seat after she'd gotten up. When we got back to the car I pointed it out to my husband and laughed wondering if somebody had suspected it was a real baby locked in the car and he was like, "Don't do that again, somebody may break the window to rescue the baby left alone in the car!" Hmm, hadn't thought of that before! She does look pretty real! I do know the doll is going to kindergarten show-and-tell tomorrow so if you see what appears to be a 3 month old baby zipped into a kindergarten backpack, nobody call CPS! It's just a doll!

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My 3 year old asked me today if people wear clothes in heaven. Huh? I have no idea. I know we get resurrection bodies, but clothes? Can't remember anything about that. Except maybe I do. Rev. 1:13, "I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet. . ." So, robes? Should I go with the answer that people will wear robes in heaven? Because my little guy didn't really seem satisfied with my pat answer of, "We don't know all the answers about heaven, the Bible just gives us a little bit of information, but we do know it is more wonderful than we can ever imagine."

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Right now I'm really glad I haven't made any resolutions yet, because I'm pretty sure I would have broken them this week, just dressing everybody in something other than jammies has taken nearly all my energy this week! Although I have to brag that my Christmas stuff is packed away! And I've pondered a few positive changes for myself, I even printed off this January cleaning schedule although now I'm already 5 days behind, so there really is no hope for catching up, but hey I could probably join up mid-month and my house would still thank me. Next week is window treatments -- talk about something to look forward to all weekend! For those of you who just can't wait, no fair doing it early!

Find more Finer Things Friday and Friday Fragments.

Taking vacuuming to a new level

I've come to the conclusion that with 3 young kids and a dog, the floor needs to be vacuumed pretty much every day.

And the bathrooms? With 2 boys ages 3 and 7 years using them in addition to the rest of us? Need to be wiped down every day. Okay, in reality it needs to be wiped down after each time my 3 year old uses it (I've been begging my husband to work with him on aim!), but I'll settle for once a day.

And we gotta eat. So there's dinner to be cooked and dishes to be done every day.

For 2011, we have decided to enlist more help from the little people who live in this house to tackle the daily chores needed around here.

Because they are not so very little anymore at ages 7, 5, and 3, and having all three of them combine efforts to set the table every night just is not quite enough chore responsibility anymore.

So, we divided things up, even let them choose which chores they wanted.

It's only week one, so we'll see how the year pans out.

I can report that first couple days were glorious -- no complaints, the kids were excited and enthusiastic about their new chores, but about day 3 the moaning began. But, that's okay because learning to do chores joyfully is a life skill worth tackling, too.

And occasionally they surprise me by doing things even better than I would have. Like today, when I found my daughter literally vacuuming under the dining room table!

She definitely didn't learn that from me, but I'm thankful for her attention to detail and determination to get all the crumbs!

Find more Thankful Thursday here.

Tattletales Occasionally Appreciated

If you have more than one child, chances are you've heard the tattling.

"No tattling!" becomes the mantra and rule of many who spend a good bit of time around young children.

I began that way, too, but it was the addition of my 3rd child that made me rethink the "No tattling" policy.

No mama can be everywhere all the time, but especially a mama of 3 or more who is out-numbered may begin to realize that the extra eyes of siblings combined with their loud voices that are perfect for announcing situations in need of attention can be used for good. And that hmmmm, maybe tattling is needed sometimes!

For example:

"MOOOOOOM, he's coloring on the wall again!"Good to know! (My 3rd child was the king of toddler antics!)

But, then there's the tattling that is not good to know, "She's looking at me!" or, "He's not sharing!"

So, I realized the rule "No tattling" was not working for me, because there were times I did want my kids to rat our their siblings.

So, the rule was changed to "Tell me if they are hurting someone or hurting the house, otherwise use your words and work it out yourself."

When my kids come to me with a tattle that doesn't fit the criteria (which there seems to have been a resurgence of lately around here), I ask, "Is that hurting anyone? or hurting the house?" Usually after a few days of repeating the question several times they realize what is and is not going to get my attention and the annoying tattling dies down.

Do you have any tricks for handling tattling and harnessing the power of those little eyes for good?

Find more of the special themed edition What Doesn't Work for Me Wednesday here.

The Best Gifts Can Be Given Lazily

Some of my favorite moments from Christmas 2010 were from Christmas Eve morning (no not Christmas morning when my own kids dug into presents) when our family of five gathered around the computer together and picked out gifts for children in 3rd world countries, children that have known poverty the likes of which we cannot even fathom.

Last year we did our Christmas giving in the form of sponsoring a local needy family and it was great, but we didn't get their wishlist until kind of last minute so we couldn't buy anything on-line and spent a weekend running all over town dragging our kids through crowded stores to find coats and shoes in all the right sizes for the family of 3 kids plus a single mom. I was really glad that we did it, but in hindsight I think the spirit of what we were doing was entirely lost on our kids as we snapped at them to behave in long check-out lines and stressed over if we'd gotten all the right sizes.

So, this year doing the biggest chunk of our giving through shopping on-line at World Vision seemed like the way to go. The lazy way to go, perhaps, but still a tremendous organization doing great things around the world!

We watched the videos on the various gift choices learning things like how just 2 chickens can completely change a family's future, suddenly with that gift they have an ongoing source of nourishment and income as the chickens lay eggs and also give birth to baby chickens.

My husband and I had an amount in mind that we wanted to give overall and helped the children dole it out among various gifts. And when our amount was exhausted, the 7 year old offered up some of his allowance towards another gift.

It was one of the most fun gift giving experiences I've ever had! We were all together in the comfort of our home, thinking about people other than ourselves, nobody was whining or hiding under racks of clothes, we learned about agriculture and how people on the other side of the world live, and it kinda felt like we were actually giving Jesus presents for His birthday!

And how exciting it was to be able to give someone a goat for Christmas or chickens or a rabbit or a Bible (which will likely be the only one in their entire village and read and listened to by many)! I'm so grateful we had the privilege!

Find more Gratituesday here.

If year 2011 were a pancake . . .

Our first breakfast of 2011:

Awesome what some cut-out numbers and powdered sugar can do! And yes, those are chocolate chip pancakes because nothing says celebration quite like throwing in some chocolate chips!

But apparently our breakfast food of choice is cereal from a box.

I started saving our empty cereal boxes about a week before Thanksgiving when I heard about a collection that was happening in my area for The Apparent Project in Haiti. The Apparent project calls itself "The Un-Orphanage" because they are addressing Haiti's orphan crisis at the root by finding creative ways for Haitians to be self-employed so that they can take care of their own children with dignity and joy. One of those ways is teaching them to use cereal boxes to make jewelry! In about 6 weeks time we went through 36 boxes of cereal! How is that even possible? That's nearly a box a day!

And when I drove across town one day at 4:30pm to drop off the boxes at the designated spot and time, I may or may not have done it with 2 out of my 3 kids still in their pajamas from the night before! In fact, during the week between Christmas and New Years my kids pretty much spent every day in their pajamas. And when I did the kid wash yesterday it was so much less than usual -- awesome!

But, I have to admit, the letting your kids go places in pajamas is a slippery slope. We all know when I have to do elementary school drop-off at 7:45am, I take my 3 year old in with me still in his pajamas, walking all the way to the cafeteria (where my kindergartener lines up), and back out. That I've gotten comfortable with. I mean it is early and he's cute in his jammies. But, after we dropped off those cereal boxes last week, I remembered my boys really needed haircuts and considered swinging by to get that done while we were out. Then I realized my two younger kids still had their jammies on and I actually considered taking them into the haircut place like that!!! Thankfully the sanity won out, but there must have been a part of my mind that actually thought that would be okay -- scary!