Clothing optional house

If you were to stop by our house to surprise us, you might be the one surprised.
Clothing is very optional in our house and when it comes to the little lady it is discouraged.

When we are home she spend most of the time at least naked from the waste down. This is mainly to help make potty runs smoother.
The little lady like to do most things herself. She knows how to pull down her pants but does not always want to or if she does than she wont want help pulling them up and she ends up getting very frustrated. We have had a few times where she has sat down to go potty and ended up peeing on her pants so we just decided to do away with pants in the house. We will go back to them once she understands the concept a little better.
She does still have accidents every once in a while but not many.
I even found her in the bathroom the other day, sitting on her little potty, in the dark, going poo. She was very proud of herself when she was all done. She only needed my help to wipe her bum and dump the potty. Over this past month I dont think that she has had one accident during nap and when she is waking in the morning her diapers dont seem to be as full.
Hopefully we will be on track to be out of diapers by 2, just like the little man was and a little less laundry for the mama.

Living life and loving it

Just a few of my loves in my life.

The power of four-

I just love the new joys that a four year old brings.

The other night at dinner the little man was not real interested in dinner. Most of the time I allow him to listen to his body but other times we do the X number of bites. Our new favorite number to use is four.

The other night at dinner he eyes lit up when he realized that the fork has four prongs (unlike the three prong forks that I grew up with). So he decided the was going to put his bites of meat on each prong.

 He was counting the bites of meat in the picture.
Toothpaste-
Sometimes when the little lady is sitting on the potty she needs a little something to keep her busy so that she will sit and get done what she needs to do. Toothpaste and a toothbrush fit that bill.

Other times she want to sit there longer and I dont listen. I think after today and having to wash a dirty pair of panties I will listen. Lesson learned.
Heart shaped sunglasses-
The littles really do love each other.
They have there times when they argue and dont get along but there love for each other really shine through.

Sunsets-

One of the amazing signs that tomorrow is a new day.

Panties

I got asked the question today 'Is she (referring to the 13 1/2 month old little lady) potty training?'
I had to stop and think for a little while. I have been ECing for over a year now and I guess I dont really think of it as potty training I think if it more as just a part of my life. It has become second nature. After she nurses I offer the potty, when she wakes from her nap I offer the potty, when she starts grabbing herself I offer the potty. Doesnt everyone?
I dont make a big deal about accidents. We just clean them up and go about our day.
So I answer with a smile 'Yes, she is potty trained.'
The little lady has been wearing panties for over two weeks now. Some days are filled full of accidents and other have none.. so I guess it keeps things fresh and exciting.
If I really feel like living on the edge I will leave the house with out a change of clothes. But most of the time I have a little backpack full of pants and underwear, just in case.
The hardest thing about the little lady wearing panties has been finding pants that fit her. Before her cloth diaper held up her pants very nicely and now with out that extra padding they just fall right down. I guess that the price that I have to pay for ECing.
Last nigh the little lady woke up just after 9pm. I could hear her saying 'Ma.' I went in to check on her. I picked her up and started rocking her. She started telling me that she needed to poo by starting to push (many times she will use the ASL sign for poop, but I guess not when she is half asleep). I asked her if she needed to go and she shook her head yes.
She then sat on her little potty on the counter in the bathroom and pooed. She was so cute half asleep leaning over and laying her head on my chest and wrapping her arms around my back.
It was so nice to just wipe a bottom than having to change a poopy diaper in the middle of the night.
Yay for Elimination Communication.

The little lady helping her dolly go potty

Our bathroom

Next to our kitchen, our bathroom gets used the most in our house. It may only be something like 3'x8' but it gets used, a lot.
It gets used for playing in.

A few months ago this was the little lady's favorite room to play in. We would have to keep the door closed so she would not play in the toilet. Yuck.
Now she will still go over to the toilet and bang on the lid but thats one of her ways of telling me that she need to go potty.
The toilet paper is still one of her favorites. As soon as she sits down on the potty the reaches for it. I have tried keeping the roll off but the little man gets upset when there is no TP on the holder.
The little man enjoys playing in the sink. He will fill it half full and 'wash' it. 80% of the water stays in the sink.
He also thinks that it is funny to drink 'sink' water. Most of the time he drinks water from our fridge, so he thinks that the water from the sink is a different kind of water. Silly, silly boy.
Just like most bathrooms out there we use ours for bathing.

We also use it for the obvious.

It would be nice if it was a little bigger, never smelled like pee and was self cleaning. But since none of those things will ever happen we will just keep using it the way that it is.

05/16/11

For the first time in weeks I remembered to take some pictures with something other than my phone. 

 I dont really know how she does it but the little lady has learned to hold her pee. Today it was for five hours!! I took her to the potty at least 3 times during that 5 hour stretch and every time she refused to go. So when she finally woke up from her nap and still had a dry diaper I knew the pee had to be coming soon. And it did, in the potty where it belongs.
She has been doing a great job of telling (signing) when she needs to go. Some days she only goes through one diaper and others its a little more. Soon we will be over this hump and onto another one.

The little man and I are not butting heads as often. We still get frustrated with each other but we are learning how to work with our different personalities.

He learned today that he needs to tell me that he is tired (or just go lay down) before he starts whining non stop and I start getting frustrated at the situation. If he is tired than by all means take a nap but if you are just going to start whining because you are board or did not get you way, thats when I start to loose it.

Its getting better. I am learning also.

We were even able to play outside on this beautiful evening. Having more light in the evenings is so nice. I am looking forward to spring. This March has been so windy and rainy. Hopefully its true if March comes in like a lion it better go out like a lamb... I am ready for the lamb.

Awwww

I have just been in aw of my kids lately. Its not that I am not always in aw of them it that I have just really started to take the time to notice it.
Since the little lady's birthday party on Sunday I just really started to notice how much they are growing up and how fast. (A big thank you to all of my crazy wonderful family that came out and celebrated with us. We are truly blessed to have every one of you in our lives. A picture post from the day to come, hopefully.)
Since her birthday the little lady has decided that she can now walk down stairs.

She can not but she thinks she can. We only have two steps in our house that lead into our sunken living room. She fell down them many times before learning to turn around and crawl down bottom first. But I guess now since she is walking all the time, and so close to running, the crawling is no longer needed. I dont know how many more falls it will take before she figures out how to do it, but we will see.

She has also learned how to put toys away, climb up into the learning tower, put on our shoes, sign poop (and then walk to the potty and go), flush the toilet, throw things away in the trash (not always a good thing), and climb into her rocking chair and rock.

The little man is just getting so creative. He can turn anything into something fun.

On Monday we were up at the church and he found a princess wand. With in minutes it was no longer a wand it had become a telescope, than it became a gun, a drill, a jack hammer and even a fishing poll before he was off to explore something else.

He come home from school on Friday very excited to show me that he could write his name. Up until last week he was only writing the first letter and now the whole thing.

Really, kids when did you get so big!?!

A letter to my daughter

Dear Miss little lady,
Four o'clock in the morning is not really the best time to have to go to poop. Morning is a great time to go but AFTER the sun is up. I dont mind taking you to the potty you just have to tell me. But sometimes when I am have asleep I have a hard time listening so tell me loud and clear.
I understand that there is so much going on right now. You are starting to say words and communicate with us, you are learning to climb everything and you are very close to walking but still there has to be some down time once in a while. I am not as young as you so I dont have as much energy as you and I enjoy sleep. One day you will enjoy sleeping also. Maybe that day will come soon but until then I guess there is coffee.
Sleep well tonight little girl.
Lots of love,
Mama

Love love love

So since my last post on Friday the little man and I have started tossing throwing up also. Now four days later we are all feeling much better.
And since I am already 4 days behind on the 12 days of Christmas I am just going to have to call it quits for this year.
I ended up taking the littles to the doctor yesterday to get checked out. The little man woke up with red, watery eyes and a cough. The little lady had a rash covering her chest and still had diarrhea. The results... we have Adenovirus. Its just as contagious as the common cold but each child can have different symptoms.

The little man has been much better today. He is still really mellow but his eyes are not nearly as red anymore.
My love for Hylands is growing. I found some tablets for Sniffles'n Sneezes. The are homeopathic (like all of Hylands products) and they did an amazing job at helping his cough and red eyes. I think that he still likes the Hylands cough syrup better but the tablets seam to work better.

The little lady still has a rash and diarrhea. My love for Elimination Communication is growing also ( I did not know it could grow more but it has) since she has been sick. I have still had to change a good share of poopy diapers but she has made it to the potty many more times. I dont think I would want to see how red her bum bum would be if she never made it to the potty.

My one more growing love is for soaked oatmeal.
If you haven't ever tried it, you need to.
All I do is soak some oats in some water over night in the fridge. When we up and ready for breakfast I just bring the oats to a boil and then I let it simmer for a minutes. Eat and enjoy.
This was the first food that we could keep down and it was amazing. I have some soaking in the fridge for breakfast tomorrow.
Maybe my shirt that I wore yesterday and today had a little something to do with the love, love, love post.

I am still living my life and loving it... no matter how unglamorous it maybe.

The trail

We were all in the playroom playing. The little man was sitting at his table playing legos and the little lady was chewing on toy on the floor. I got up to take care of some laundry.
From the time that it took me to move the clothes from the washer to the dryer the little lady had made it all the way down the hall. When she meet me I knew what she had done.
She had pooed.
Oh and did I forget to mention she was not wearing a diaper or pants.
So there was a nice trail coming from the pile that was left in the playroom, through the room and out the door. It was just like a slugs slime trail.
There was not a trail down the hall because she does not like to crawl on her knees on the hardwood. So she got up onto her feet and crawled that way all the way until I picked her up.
I stripped her down and got a bath going for her. Luckily the bathroom is right across the hall from the playroom so the little man watched her in the bath while I got to cleaning up the floor.
I am so thankful that I found the Seventh Generation carpet cleaner. It is amazing. It gets everything out of the carpet. It says that its active ingredient is hydrogen peroxide, so I am guessing that you could mix up your own very easily. I got this cleaner for an amazing price of $1.50 at Big Lots.
And speaking of home made cleaners, I made my own dishwasher soap this week also. I ran out of dishwasher soap this week but instead of running out to the store to get some I made some of my own. It was really easy to make, it cleaned pretty and it was super cheap. It is just equal parts borax and baking soda. That's it. Place a few table spoons in the soap dispencer in the dishwaher and press start.
I dont know if I will use the homemade dish washer soap everytime but I am glad that I learned how to make my own for the next time I run out of soap.

The old become new

Last week my plans changed so instead of getting together with some friend we went to the thrift store and I found this...

I was so excited about this find. It is a Learning tower. I was not really looking for one of these but for the price I could not pass it by. I paid $20 for it and just the night before I saw one on Craigs list listed for $180 but after doing a little research I found it at Costco for $175 but either way $20 was a great price.

The little man loves to stand in it and help me make dinner, bake and wash dishes. He even likes to eat his lunch in 'the tower'.

The little lady also got a new potty recently. One of my friends was no longer using her Baby Bjorn little potty so she passed it on to us.

The other little potties that we have are from Ikea. I like both of them but the Baby Bjorn potty is much easier for her to sit on all by herself.

Here is a video of the littles playing together with a sheet. Who knew that these 'old' items only needed these two kids to help bring them back to life.



Day number five

Today marks the fifth day that the little lady has worn panties.
Some days she has had no accidents and others were filled full of many accidents and me about ready to give up and just put a diaper back on her.

But I have not given up.

Isn't she so cute in her little panties?
I have had a very hard time finding her some that fit her little bum. The 2T ones fall off but they work, the 18 month training pants fit but they are hard to find and bloomers fit her great but they are not really panties.

Maybe one day I will find some time that I can sit down and make her some that fit her perfectly and until then I am just going to love on these two amazing kids.

Last weekend of August

In two days August will be over and September will be here. I know that everyone reading this knows what date it is and yes, after August does come September. But I had to type it out are read it a few times so that it could really sink in for me.
So here it goes again.
In two days August will be over and September will be here.


We had a great family weekend.
We were able to spend some time enjoying the great outdoors.


We took a family boat ride out on to the lake.
The little man is a little fearless when it comes to water and this makes me a little scared. He kept trying to reach from the back seat into the water. After talking to him more than enough times he came up and sat in the middle.
I was a little amazed by how many things were growing in the lake. And to think I would swim in this lake as a kid!?! Yuck! The lily pads (or lollipops as the little man called them) have started to take up far more of the lake than they did when I was a kid.


It was so peaceful and relaxing to be out on the water. I dont think it ever crossed my mind growing up on this lake that one day I would take my family here. But here we are.

I was just looking over my to do list and boy is it long. We are headed out to go camping on Wednesday and I still need to go shopping, take the little man to the dentist, wash all the mountains of laundry, bake a few last minute items, trim both of the boys hair and so much more. With a little help from coffee, the ergo and legos I will get everything done before Wednesday.

The little lady will turn 6 months old on our camping trip. I truly cant believe it. I tried my very hardest to exclusively breastfeed her for the first six months of her life (just like the doctor ordered) but a few weeks ago I started giving her solids. (There I said it) She was more than ready a month ago but I was not. I was not ready to give up the non smelly poo and the knowing that I am the one that can provide all of the nutrition that she needs.
I almost felt like I was depriving her if I did not give her solids because she really wanted them. I was really torn between what I wanted and what she wanted and of course she won. She has been very happy with my decision.
She is still doing really well with the potty.
Today was a great day until 5:30. We were driving in the car and I heard it. That sound. So once we got home I got her all cleaned up and into the bath the rest of the night went great until I was trying to put her to bed. She was sound asleep in my arms and I went to lay her down. She was rolling around trying to get comfy when I heard it again.
So after another bath (this one was in the sink) it was time for attempt number two to get her to sleep.
I think that it must be the zucchini bread that I gave her that is causing the poo. I thought that a little piece would be ok but I guess I was wrong. Oops! I would say that I typical catch 98% of the poos. But not today.
What a way to end the great weekend.

This week...

Has been very busy. I thought having the little man away at VBS would give me a little more time to blog, relax and do house work (in that order), but I was wrong. I have not found time to blog since Tuesday, the sink is still full of dishes and relaxing I dont know if that will ever come.
It was a fun week even though I did not get the things done that I wanted to.
The little man enjoyed his VBS. He cried the first three days and it was only five days long. I knew that he would have fun so I left him crying. When I got there to pick him up the first day he told me he had fun. So I did not feel so bad. We went back last night for his last day performance and play time. We got there early so that he could jump in the bounce house but he did not want to. When it was time to sing he did not want to either. He just stood there.
What a stubborn boy.
He even woke up this morning singing the songs and when I asked him why he did not sing yesterday he just shrugged his shoulders.
Sometimes I wish I knew what was going through his little head, but only sometimes.
About day number two of VBS he came home with a runny nose that now the little lady has it. Maybe it is the runny nose but she has not been sleeping well at night.
The little lady has always enjoyed sleeping on her belly but lately when she rolls to her belly she then thinks she needs to push herself up. So this is what she is doing at night. This is making for some really long nights. Hopefully she gets it figured out soon. Night time is for sleeping, daytime is for playing.
I just had to move her up to her medium pocket diapers for night time. Tear. She is just growing up so fast. I only have a few so I think that I am going to venture out and try wool at night.
As for diapers during the day we are going through very few maybe three, or less. Over the past month and a half I have only changed something like a hand full of poopy diapers. This I really like.
She is still really enjoying sitting on her little potty. She has completely destroyed a plant that I had sitting on the counter next to her potty. She still does not really like the big potty though. I really think that it the sound of her pee hitting the water that she does not like. She will start to go and as soon as she hears it she stops. Sometimes she will continue going but other times she wont. This makes it hard when we are out and about. Sometimes she will hold it until we get to the little potty that in the car but other times she will just go in her diaper.
Well I guess its about time to lay this sleeping baby down and try to get some sleep. Hopefully this is a good night. My fingers are crossed.
*Sorry about the lack of pictures. I tried to upload a video but an error came up and I am much too tired to deal with it today. Maybe tomorrow.

Sunday funnies

Notice anything wrong with this picture?
On another funny note...
The hubby is always so worried that the little lady is going to poo on him when she is going diaper free but today it was not the little lady he needed to be worrying about, it was the birds. While outside this afternoon one decided to poo on his shirt as it was flying over. Yuck!
And as for the little lady she has pooed on the potty far more times this week than ever Yeah! I think I only changed two poopy diapers and my mom had to clean up one poo mess she made outside. Oops!

Playing in the woods

My parent have been spending a little more time over at the lake house lately and today our family decided to come over and join them.

The weather was beautiful.
The little man had fun helping Grandma out in the over grown garden.


There is a very large garden space over at the lake but this space has not been used for the past few years so it is really over grown. They planted squash plants, pulled weeds and examined bugs. He even saw his first gardner snake that he was a little afraid of.


He also helped Grandpa spread the new gravel in the driveway.


And he took his fair share of pictures.





The last picture is of the little lady going potty outside. She has had some great potty days lately.
It brought back so many memories walking around in the woods around the lake. I am glad that the littles will get to make there own memories in the same woods.

What a difference a day makes

Yesterday the sun peeked its head out from behind the clouds. It was not real that sunny but at least it was not raining. We were able to spend most of the day outside and we even went for a nice walk in the afternoon.
As I was laying in bed last night I heard it. The four letter word that has been haunting us this spring. RAIN. I lay there thinking to myself I guess I did not need to water the garden.
So today when we got up it was still raining. The sun did come out for a little while this morning (and I had a little hope that today might be a nice day)but by afternoon it was hiding behind a really dark, big cloud. Just after lunch that dark cloud opened up with a bright flash and a large rumble.

It seems like on the days that it is wet outside the little lady is staying dry inside.


We have been practicing elimination communication (EC) with the little lady since she was about a month old. We have good days and then we have really good days.
Today has been a really good day. We have had far more 'success's' than 'misses'.
But what really makes it a great day is being able to be there for my kids and show them how much I love them.

I wonder what tomorrow has in store for us?

Teen star to unusual mom

That was the tittle that was on my yahoo page when the hubby opened it up this afternoon. When I heard the words elimination communication come out of his mouth I just had to know what he was looking at. It was this article. Not the normal type of articles he looks at on the Internet. He sat and listened (watched) most of the interview. After it was finished he replied "She sounds like she could be your idol." I would not use those words but I was happy to see a mom in the public eye talking about her unconventional parenting styles. We need more moms like Mayim Bialik or should I call her Blossom.

What a weekend

Friday afternoon I got a phone call from my mom who told me that my brother was at her house. Not my brother that lives down the street but my brother that lives in the wilderness of Northern Washington. The one that I have not seen in years.
This was the first time the little man got to meet his Uncle Doug (I was very surprised that before the night was over he was able to call him by name). We got to sit and catch up a little and he taught the little man how to do a google search.


googleing (yes thats my brother not a Geico cave man)

It was so nice to see him we stayed there till 9:30pm. Hopefully it wont be another two years before we see him again.
Saturday the little man helped me make our first carrot cake.



He enjoyed playing in the shredded carrots and stirring it 'round' and 'round'.

Our plans were to go out to dinner with some friends to harbor lights but they both got sick so we had a change of plans. So we invited the hubby's family. It was a very enjoyable dinner. I had great fish and chips and the hubby had what he says was the best steak he ever had, we both ended up with horrible heart burn, but it was worth it.
Sunday we had an EC play date. I am a member of a diaper free baby yahoo group. It was nice to get to meet some other moms and kids who have gone down the same road we are on. Before today I had only meet two other moms and one on blogger who have or are ECing their children. Hopefully we will be able to make it to some more get togethers soon.


Out after a long weekend

I hope that everyone else had a great weekend.

Snow, Surgery, Sleep, Scarf and more Snow

Those are the first five words that come to mind when I think of this past week. Thursday morning the little man went in for SURGERY. It was something that needed to be taken care since he was 2 weeks old. It was something that could of been prevented if this doctor was not such a snob.

The morning off surgery Sound asleep

Anyway enough about her. Everything went great. In the Doctors words it went perfect. We got to Mary Bridge just before 8am. We drove very slow in the SNOW from our house on one hill to the hospital on the other hill. At about 10:30am we handed our kicking screaming little man off to the nurse as we walked off crying down the hall. About an hour later they told us that he was on his way to recovery. When we got down to recovery he was sitting on his bed crying and saying "I want my mama." When he realized who we where he stared crying and whining more. I picked him up and he kept saying that he was all done and pointing at the IV in his foot. He finally calmed down enough and nurse.

When we got back to out room the little man informed us that he needed to go potty. I asked the nurse for a bed pan but she handed me a cup for him to pee in. Like that was going to work. So the hubby and I walked down the hall to the bathroom. By this time the little man was shaking because he is trying to hold it. He did not want to sit on the potty so back to the room we went. We did this one more time before he went. Both my hubby and I could not believe that a children's hospital would not have accommodations for potty trained kids.

The drive home went slow again because most of the time we were at the hospital it was snowing. It was so nice to be home and know that our little man wont have to go through this surgery again. All the little man wanted to do was SLEEP.

Wanting to sleep after we got home

While at the hospital I started a SCARF. It is nothing too fancy. I am using three of the balls of yarn that I got from my sister last Christmas and another ball that was my grandmas. My goal for it is to one day have a matching hat.


We got more SNOW. The little man was feeling well enough to go out and play in it on Friday. Saturday and Sunday we went sledding and today we tried to make a snow man but it is just not pack-able so we made snow angels.

I cant believe Christmas is in three days. Well I guess I should be cleaning or baking.