It’s Potty Time Part 2

Day 1 of potty training I’m not sure if I can say it was a success or not.  Saige managed to pee on the floor, then clean it up then go sit on the potty.  She definitely knows what she is supposed to be doing, just need to work on the order that she is doing it. 

We did leave the house for 2 hours and no accidents.  YAY!!  However, as soon as we got home and she was playing out front & peed in the driveway, guess it’s better than on my floors.  She took a good nap and of course refused to put on a diaper or pull-up but managed to wake up bone dry.  Before bed I did convince her to put on a pull-up with underwear over top. 

Now we are onto Day 2.   She promptly got out of bed and once again handed me her wet diaper and put underwear on.  So far we have had one accident, but still not going to the actual potty and doing anything.  Hopefully at some point today she will sit there with progress, one can only hope.

It’s Potty Time

Just for the record, I am a firm believer that kids will let you know when they are ready to use the potty, rather than you letting them know when you are ready for them to use the potty.  Also, I am not a big fan of pull-ups during the day.  I think that kids need to “feel” the wet and that pull ups are simply fancy, expensive diapers with the neat little thing on the front that disappears when wet, which in the eyes of a toddler, is pretty cool.

With my oldest he was just about 3 and with another baby on the way I decided that I did not want to have two kids in diapers at the same time.  Not believing the whole “boys are harder to potty train than girls” or “wait he will regress once you have the baby.”  I thought in all my years of wisdom that I could do this.  Of course with some help from the guys I worked with they taught him how to pee on a tree.  This worked great until it got so cold in Northern Virginia that it froze.  Needless to say by forcing this on him I think is the reason that it took me YEARS to get him to master the art of the potty. 

With my oldest girl, I decided that I wasn’t going to push the potty in fear that it would once again backfire on me.  She was just about 3 and the daycare told me if she was potty trained my rates would go down.  So we went home that weekend, I asked once, “Do you want to use the potty”, she replied “sure” and that was the end of it.  She has not had an accident since.

So now we are onto my wonderful 2 year old.  I bought her the coolest training potty that sings songs whenever weight hits the bowl.  For the past 9 mths she has gone in sat on it, then gotten up and pushed it so it would sing to her.  Well in the past 2 days, she has decided that she is going to wear big girl underwear.  She woke up this morning, took off her jammies & diaper, handed me the diaper to throw away and proceeded to put on underwear.  This was an hour ago and we are now on pair 3 of big girl underwear.  I will have to give her credit though, she pees, cleans it up then goes and gets new underwear then sits on the potty.

My goal for the next 3 days while I have her home with me is to POTTY TRAIN.  My goal for the day is to get her to understand that we have to sit on the potty before we pee, not after.

Saige Day 1 of Potty Training in her Big Girl Underwear

First Days in Prescott

We moved up all of our stuff to Prescott the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Knowing that the temperature here was going to be below freezing, not really sure what we were thinking.  However, after moving to Phoenix I thought that the last thing I would ever hear in the morning was “Mommy it’s snowing, can we go play?”  After convincing the kids that snow is actually cold and that would require long pants, jackets, and mismatched socks for gloves the older three went out to make snow angels.

You can see Jackie’s at the top, Erik in the middle and they even taught Saige how to make one.

After this none of the kids wanted to head back to Phoenix.  We did have to go back for school and for my work though.  Thank you to all my great friends that gave us a place to sleep and for watching the kids while I put on a seminar in Scottsdale.

Though we did come back up a day earlier than expected, which was great to finally be “home”.  Prescott and our house reminds me of growing up on the East Coast with the parades and the cold, and of course the parades.  The kids and I attended the Annual Prescott Christmas Parade.

Not sure if Saige is scared or confused.  But it didn’t take her long to figure out that there was music to dance too and people throwing candy, and she had Erik there to help her figure it out.

Alex joined in from back on the grass with Mom.  He did start dancing when the marching bands came by.

Saige is patiently watching Erik & Jackie play basketball out front, while eating candy from the parade waiting to go to story time down town Prescott.

We are all still trying to get used to the cold, the actually having a yard and to the small town, I will try to post more as to how we adjust.

The Preston’s Move to Prescott

Back in October Tom got the job of Executive Chef at the Wyndham Garden Inn in Prescott, Arizona.  While I thought that I could handle all 4 kids until the end of 2010, I couldn’t have been anymore wrong.  We moved all our stuff up Thanksgiving weekend, then the kids and I followed the following weekend. 

Our first weekend was a lot of fun.  We went to the annual Christmas parade downtown that everyone seemed to enjoy.  We even managed to keep Saige from running out into the street.  Then the kids and I decided to go to the Christmas Story reading and the Annual Lighting of Downtown Prescott.  While the idea behind this is great, unless you hung out all day and had a seat right up front then you couldn’t hear anything.  Erik and I decided that next year if Dad can’t go then we won’t go either.

Today Erik started at Granite Mountain Middle School.  This is a complete change.  He now has a locker so he doesn’t have to carry around his backpack completely full all day.  He has a class schedule that even I can understand.  I did drive him to the bus stop where I was quickly informed I could leave.  We did have a misunderstanding of the Prescott School Districts bus schedule for after school.  We discovered that he is to take one bus to the High School then another to his stop.  Due to this he missed the bus and I had to pick him up from school, but at least now we know.

Jackie also had a great day.  She had two buddies to show her around today at school.  Her classroom is right inside the front door of the school.  It was a bit different not having half the neighborhood hanging out right outside the doors waiting to pick up their kids though.  She managed to go through the day with no bumps or surprises.

As for myself, Saige & Alex.  We did find a home for drop in daycare that is extremely close to the house.  I also think that we have decided to enroll Saige in pre-school for 3 days a week for a few hours.  However, for my first day working from home with two babies I would say we did pretty well, considering I FINALLY got them both to nap at the same time  This is a major accomplishment.

We are all now home at the same time with Alex sleeping, Saige curled up with Daddy, Erik & Jackie having a rare moment of getting along with a fire in the fire place.

Good night all, Plan for tomorrow is to do a recap with the pictures that I have since we have been here.  Check back later for more.

Day Two

I guess the first two really don’t count since we have been up in Prescott with Tom.  Today we went to breakfast at the hotel with Tom and were able to meet some of the people he now works with.  We did get some good insight into the neighborhoods and the schools which was a definite plus.  The kids and I then went and got lost attempting to find a house that we found online but had no luck.  We will try to go out again later today before we have to drive back home.

We are now home safe and sound.  The drive isn’t too bad, just not something I would want to do every day.  I am now hoping that everyone goes to bed early and that this week flies by.

Day One

Today we attended Erik’s football game.  Thank you to Krissy & her family for coming out to help me with Saige & Alex.  This was definitely an interesting game with the snack bar attempting to charge Jackie $7 for Nachos.  Unfortunately, Erik’s team did not win, but having fun is the most important part.  Saige entertained herself by running up & down the handicap ramp for the entire time that we were there.  Luckily she only tried to run out onto the field once.  Both Saige & Alex fell asleep on the way home from the game, and slept for about 2 hours after we put them in bed.

Both Saige & Alex are now awake as we attempt to pack up the van so that we can all drive to Prescott to visit Tom.  Saige being the Daddy’s girl that she is, will be very excited once we get there.  My phrase of the day is “if you can catch a baby, change it”. 

We have all arrived in Prescott!!  I discovered that 75 is far too fast for a speed limit especially when to the left it appears I’m going to fall off the side of the earth.  As always when going anywhere with the kids it was an eventful drive.  First, we had to pull off so Erik could use the bathroom.  This must be a boy thing of seeing how far into the empty desert he could pee.  I do have to admit I laughed about it for like 5 minutes.  Our timing was perfect, we arrived at my mom’s condo about 2 minutes ahead of Tom getting here from work.  The weather here is perfect and what I have been waiting for a month to have in Phoenix. 

On our drive into town I discovered that there really isn’t anything up here.  It will be an interesting transition from Phoenix.  Though, I am looking forward to a slower more relaxed way of life.  Maybe it will force us all to slow down a bit.

We are all here now and happy to have the whole family together. 

Home Alone with 4 Kids for 2 Months

So Tom got a job up in Prescott, AZ, which is about 1.5 hours North of us.  Luckily for us my mom owns a condo up there where he can stay.  We do plan to move the whole clan up there, but I want to wait for the school semester to end for Erik & Jackie and for Erik to finish off the football season that he has started.  So in the meantime I will be down in Phoenix with the kids and Tom will be staying in Prescott.  We plan to go up or have Tom come down as much as possible.  But in the meantime it will be an interesting adventure for me and the kids as we do school, work & the demanding football season.  My plan is to blog once a day until we all move this December.  Follow me to see what it is that the kids can get into and at what point I really throw my hands up and say "if they aren't hurting themselves or someone else I really don't care."  I'm hoping that this will help me keep my sense of humor as I attempt to be a "Single Mom of 4" for the next couple of months.