Camellia has been begging me to potty train her since April of last year. One day she said she needed to poop, walked into the bathroom, I placed her on the toilet and she pooped. I tried to potty train her after that and it didn't work. She'd pee and say, "I need to pee!" We tried off and on for the rest of the year, never having much success. I finally decided to get down to business and train her at the beginning of December and then she got a stomach bug that gave her diarrhea on day two of potty training. Needless to say I gave up again.
Yesterday, upon waking up, somehow Camellia made it upstairs and to the bathroom without Sam or I noticing. We found her coming out of the bathroom with panties on and her Pull-Up off as she announced, "I'm potty training!" The night before, we had heard her in the bathroom grunting. We found her standing in front of the toilet and a log on the floor. We should have known what the morning would hold for me, but, alas, we did not.
I am still not ready to put any effort into potty training, so I let her take herself. She had two pee accidents and pooped in the toilet and one successful peeing in the toilet after, "I need to pee!" And she literally held herself as she ran to the bathroom. She made it with dry panties!
This morning I ignored that she was wearing a Pull-Up after I had asked her if she wanted to change them and she said no. My mother-in-law was here so I could go to a cooking class, and while I was at the cooking class Camellia announced, "I'm potty trained!" And put on her panties. She didn't have any accidents while I was gone, and went once before we to Grandma to the train, and once before bed. The only reason why she had an accident when we got home was because I didn't insist on her trying when we got home. Instead, I found her in the bathroom trying to pull off her pants that she had peed in when she was in the bathroom trying to make it on time. I think we might actually be successful with her potty training herself this time.
I tried to get her into a Pull-Up tonight and she resisted, "No! Flower panties!" And she ran into my room, opened the dresser, and pulled out plastic training pants. Not really ideal for night time, the last time she used them at night she got a rash, but she insisted she wear them and not Pull-Ups, so there's no point fighting her. I've got the butt cream ready to go for the morning. I'm interested to see if she can potty train herself with minimal help from me or if I'll finally find some desire to only be changing one kid's diaper everyday and really take the time to train her.
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Sam's Club Potty Breaks
The other day, as we were finishing up our 30 minute trip to Sam's Club, walking out the door even, Camellia announces, "I have to poop!" After confirming that all she needed to do was pee we proceeded to the van (ugh, gag me, I hate owning a mini van) and unloaded the groceries before turning around and going back to use the restroom.
I helped Camellia on the toilet, "Cassia, do you need to potty? No. Are you sure? Okay," and then proceeded to help her wash her hands. Of course I knew at the time Camellia said, "I have to poop!" that she had just peed in her Pull-Up and didn't actually need to go anymore, but when your 18 month old tells you she wants to potty train and you're not ready for it, well, you just buy Pull-Ups and use them as diapers until you're ready for real toilet training. I then proceeded to change Jewel Plant's diaper. I knew he had been poopy and was just planning to change him in the van, but this was better, I could use soap and water to wash my hands instead of hand sanitizer. I knew I needed to go too, but the stall we were in had a child seat, but no lock, and with a 2 year old and a 4 year old there was no way that door was going to stay closed, so I decided to wait until we got home. We left. I got Cassia and Camellia buckled in and was getting ready to move the car seat containing Jewel Plant to the base when Cassia cries out, "I have to go potty!" Sigh. I removed Jewel Plant from his car seat to stop him from crying and placed him in the Bjorn.
We trekked our way back into the store, abandoning the shopping car in the stall as we went, and walked into Sam's Club for the third time in less than an hour. I didn't bother showing my membership card as the door greeter hadn't changed, and we made our way back to the bathrooms. As we approached the bathroom I told Cassia to run ahead and get started.
I've learned that the Children's Handbook has to have a chapter specifically for children who are potty trained, and/or potty training. No one can go to the bathroom in the same restroom at the same time during the same trip to the restroom. Period. Making mama or daddy walk back and forth between the restroom and the car, or farthest corner away from the restroom, is much more entertaining. Who needs a 30 minute trip to the store when you can stretch it out to 90 minutes with bathroom breaks?!
I helped Camellia on the toilet, "Cassia, do you need to potty? No. Are you sure? Okay," and then proceeded to help her wash her hands. Of course I knew at the time Camellia said, "I have to poop!" that she had just peed in her Pull-Up and didn't actually need to go anymore, but when your 18 month old tells you she wants to potty train and you're not ready for it, well, you just buy Pull-Ups and use them as diapers until you're ready for real toilet training. I then proceeded to change Jewel Plant's diaper. I knew he had been poopy and was just planning to change him in the van, but this was better, I could use soap and water to wash my hands instead of hand sanitizer. I knew I needed to go too, but the stall we were in had a child seat, but no lock, and with a 2 year old and a 4 year old there was no way that door was going to stay closed, so I decided to wait until we got home. We left. I got Cassia and Camellia buckled in and was getting ready to move the car seat containing Jewel Plant to the base when Cassia cries out, "I have to go potty!" Sigh. I removed Jewel Plant from his car seat to stop him from crying and placed him in the Bjorn.
We trekked our way back into the store, abandoning the shopping car in the stall as we went, and walked into Sam's Club for the third time in less than an hour. I didn't bother showing my membership card as the door greeter hadn't changed, and we made our way back to the bathrooms. As we approached the bathroom I told Cassia to run ahead and get started.
I've learned that the Children's Handbook has to have a chapter specifically for children who are potty trained, and/or potty training. No one can go to the bathroom in the same restroom at the same time during the same trip to the restroom. Period. Making mama or daddy walk back and forth between the restroom and the car, or farthest corner away from the restroom, is much more entertaining. Who needs a 30 minute trip to the store when you can stretch it out to 90 minutes with bathroom breaks?!
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Dinner Time
Today, Camellia refused to eat dinner, again. Somewhere in The Child's Handbook there is an exercise on testing a parent's limits by refusing to eat. I'm sure it says something like, "This exercise is to see how long your parents can last before they stop trying to feed you what they made for dinner and make you a special dinner because they're worried about your health, despite knowing that you will not die or lose weight if you do not eat three square meals a day."
As per usual, at 4 o'clock pm I sat Cassia and Camellia down at the table, but tonight I made a special dinner. You see, Camellia has been refusing any dinner that is not macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets, pancakes, yogurt or waffles, so in desperation to try and win this battle of wills I'm trying new things. Tonight it was PB&J made to be "Australian Fairy Bread" where you cut out a shape from the middle of one piece of bread then proceeding to make a sandwich, then fill the opening with sprinkles to make it fun and exciting. Add in "ants on a log" and mandarin orange slices and you've got a well balanced meal any kid should totally dig into, right? Of course not. After Camellia got down from her chair the second time I brought in the big guns. Yes, that's right, the booster seat with a buckle. I strapped her in as the screaming began. If anyone had been listening in from outside they probably would have thought I was trying to cut off her hand and would have promptly child child protective services to make sure all her limbs were intact.
Cassia ate her dinner and I sat there, writing up a list of different foods to prepare in special ways to try and get her to eat fruits and vegetables along with her preferred foods, and eventually Camellia calmed down. She drank her juice, she even attempted to eat the sprinkles, before she realized little bits of jelly clung to them as she removed them and the screaming started up again.
As she calmed down, she tried the sprinkles again, this time she ate them, though she had a suspect glare on her face all the while. She made sure I wasn't looking as she continued to sample the sprinkles. Once her juice was gone she requested more. "You may have more juice if you have two tastes of each of your foods. You have already tried your sandwich, so all you have to do is try your oranges and your celery."
She picked up an orange and I dared to hope she would take a bite. Guiding the orange to her mouth, she stuck out her tongue and licked it. She licked it again, and again. Of course, that's when I got over excited and asked her if she liked it, to which I received a nod, so I asked if she wanted to take a bite. "No, I lick." A few more licks and she set it down. "You did awesome trying your orange! All you have to do is try your celery two times and I can get you more juice."
After some persuasion and patience she eventually licked the celery and said it was good, but would only lick it one more time before refusing to do anything else with it. "Camellia, you tried all of your food two times, great job! I'll get you more juice now." At this point Jewel Plant was ready for his dinner, so one-handed, I poured another 3 ounces of juice into her cup, which she promptly swallowed without a breath.
It was 5 o'clock at this point and Cassia said she was done eating. Having eaten all of her fruits and vegetables and half of her sandwich I agreed and told them they had some time to play before getting ready for bed while I finished nursing Jewel Plant.
As he finished nursing I told the girls, "After I lay Jewel Plant down it will be time to get ready for bed." I proceeded to the bedroom and they rushed back into the kitchen. In the time it took to lay Jewel Plant down and get it, maybe 30 seconds (he's usually so good at going to bed), I'm sure the following conversation must have occurred.
"Camellia, I'm going to eat your sandwich. Mama won't let you have it back because I have a cold sore and she doesn't want you to get one, so you pretend like you want another sandwich. She'll only make you a little sandwich because she's too worried that you'll waste it, but at the same time she'll be so excited that you might eat she'll leave all the ingredients out on the counter so she can make you another little sandwich when you finish the first. When she goes to sit down in the living room and take a break before getting us ready for bed we'll take our sandwiches under the table. As a diversion, you open the drawers and I'll grab the sprinkles. She'll only focus on you removing the place mats that she won't even notice I was gone. When she goes back to relaxing that's when we'll open the sprinkles and consume the whole container before she even knows what happened."
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I ended up cleaning up a million tiny sprinkles instead of reading more of the last installment of Odd Thomas tonight.
As per usual, at 4 o'clock pm I sat Cassia and Camellia down at the table, but tonight I made a special dinner. You see, Camellia has been refusing any dinner that is not macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets, pancakes, yogurt or waffles, so in desperation to try and win this battle of wills I'm trying new things. Tonight it was PB&J made to be "Australian Fairy Bread" where you cut out a shape from the middle of one piece of bread then proceeding to make a sandwich, then fill the opening with sprinkles to make it fun and exciting. Add in "ants on a log" and mandarin orange slices and you've got a well balanced meal any kid should totally dig into, right? Of course not. After Camellia got down from her chair the second time I brought in the big guns. Yes, that's right, the booster seat with a buckle. I strapped her in as the screaming began. If anyone had been listening in from outside they probably would have thought I was trying to cut off her hand and would have promptly child child protective services to make sure all her limbs were intact.
Cassia ate her dinner and I sat there, writing up a list of different foods to prepare in special ways to try and get her to eat fruits and vegetables along with her preferred foods, and eventually Camellia calmed down. She drank her juice, she even attempted to eat the sprinkles, before she realized little bits of jelly clung to them as she removed them and the screaming started up again.
As she calmed down, she tried the sprinkles again, this time she ate them, though she had a suspect glare on her face all the while. She made sure I wasn't looking as she continued to sample the sprinkles. Once her juice was gone she requested more. "You may have more juice if you have two tastes of each of your foods. You have already tried your sandwich, so all you have to do is try your oranges and your celery."
She picked up an orange and I dared to hope she would take a bite. Guiding the orange to her mouth, she stuck out her tongue and licked it. She licked it again, and again. Of course, that's when I got over excited and asked her if she liked it, to which I received a nod, so I asked if she wanted to take a bite. "No, I lick." A few more licks and she set it down. "You did awesome trying your orange! All you have to do is try your celery two times and I can get you more juice."
It was 5 o'clock at this point and Cassia said she was done eating. Having eaten all of her fruits and vegetables and half of her sandwich I agreed and told them they had some time to play before getting ready for bed while I finished nursing Jewel Plant.
As he finished nursing I told the girls, "After I lay Jewel Plant down it will be time to get ready for bed." I proceeded to the bedroom and they rushed back into the kitchen. In the time it took to lay Jewel Plant down and get it, maybe 30 seconds (he's usually so good at going to bed), I'm sure the following conversation must have occurred.
"Camellia, I'm going to eat your sandwich. Mama won't let you have it back because I have a cold sore and she doesn't want you to get one, so you pretend like you want another sandwich. She'll only make you a little sandwich because she's too worried that you'll waste it, but at the same time she'll be so excited that you might eat she'll leave all the ingredients out on the counter so she can make you another little sandwich when you finish the first. When she goes to sit down in the living room and take a break before getting us ready for bed we'll take our sandwiches under the table. As a diversion, you open the drawers and I'll grab the sprinkles. She'll only focus on you removing the place mats that she won't even notice I was gone. When she goes back to relaxing that's when we'll open the sprinkles and consume the whole container before she even knows what happened."
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I ended up cleaning up a million tiny sprinkles instead of reading more of the last installment of Odd Thomas tonight.
The Child's Handbook
There is no parenting handbook. Ask any parent. When you give birth you are given a booklet and CD that gives you only one insight into the world you have entered and only one rule. The insight? Babies cry. A lot. You might not know why they're crying. The one rule? Don't hurt or kill the child you worked so hard to create. Let them cry if you must, just don't hurt or kill them. That is all. After three children I am certain that they are given a manual of how to challenge their parents.
I have a 4 year old, Cassia, a 2 year old, Camellia, and a 3 month old, Jewel Plant and I have learned that, while parents do not have a handbook, children do. The rules in the handbook can sometimes be universal and other times be unique to the child and parent, but the number one rule in every child's handbook is, "Test the limits of your parents as far as you can, so long as you do not make them break the only rule they have been given."
Join with me as I attempt to learn the secrets of The Child's Handbook.
I have a 4 year old, Cassia, a 2 year old, Camellia, and a 3 month old, Jewel Plant and I have learned that, while parents do not have a handbook, children do. The rules in the handbook can sometimes be universal and other times be unique to the child and parent, but the number one rule in every child's handbook is, "Test the limits of your parents as far as you can, so long as you do not make them break the only rule they have been given."
Join with me as I attempt to learn the secrets of The Child's Handbook.
*The names of the innocent have been changed for their protection*
Jewel Plant
Jewel Plant
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