Potty Training 101

Potty training is such a funny thing. I mean, for two and a half years, Benjamin remained perfectly content to do his business in his diaper. Then all of the sudden, we told him  it was time to do something different and expected him to get it within days or at least no more than a couple weeks. The miraculous thing is that withing less than a week and a half, he was mostly there. Kids are amazing!

After we got pretty well settled in here, I decided it was time to do the dreaded potty training. We tried it last summer and he was not ready at all, so we gave it a break. He began showing lots of signs of readiness back in January and February, but since I knew a move was on the horizon, I wasn't about to potty train and then deal with regression after the move, so we waited. I read a book and got advice and it was all great, but the best advice anyone ever gave me was telling me not to worry about using a particular method, but rather to go with what seemed to work for Benjamin. So, being that Benjamin is a major food lover, and being that my mostly health food buying self never has much junk in the house, we made a trip to the store for some fun treats. Benjamin was super excited about his treats and told everyone on the cookie aisle that they were for potty training. We came home with mini oreos, animal crackers, fruit snacks, and gold fish. My first brilliant idea was to let him pick which treat he wanted every time we had a success. I decided to set the timer and he got a treat both for being dry when the timer went off, and for every time he went on the potty. Unfortunately I underestimated the power of the treats and Benjamin managed to go just enough for a treat and then come back to go again 5 minutes later for another treat. He stayed dry for most of the morning, but was tired of it by the afternoon and by the end of the day, he was having lots of accidents and was so hyped up on sugar that it put me in a super bad mood and I felt little hope that we would ever get anywhere. So we gave up for the night and decided to start again the next day.

Day two was mostly the same. He was a mess from all the sugar and I was frustrated and tired. So I called my mom and she suggested only giving him a treat for being dry when the timer went off. So I tried it. And it worked!!! We started with 15 minute intervals and still had some accidents, but I never prompted him to sit on the potty unless the timer had gone off. I explained to him that the way to stay dry was to go on the potty if he had to go. It didn't click right away, but pretty soon, he got it and would go to the potty unprompted. It was amazing! I'm pretty sure it was one of the most tiring weeks of parenting I've had since he was getting up in the middle of the night to eat, but he did it and I'm so proud of him. I have not changed a poopy diaper in more than three weeks and it's awesome!

It's been about 3 1/2 weeks since we began and I think he may actually be having more accidents now than he had right after he got the hang of it. But, I think they are mostly just him playing and forgetting to stop and think about going to the potty. I hear that's normal and I'm trying not to get frustrated by all the extra laundry. I'm just so glad it's mostly behind us. :)

Now for the funnies:

During the second week of potty training I was feeling cooped up in the house and decided to go for a walk. Benjamin of course had to go while I was out and since we were kind of on a wooded trail, I told him it was time to learn about going outside. He LOVED it and kept telling me he had to go again. I told him he needed to wait, but before we got in the car to go home, I decided to let him try again. He got all ready to go and then spotted a puffy white dandelion and moved over to aim at it. I mean is he a boy or what?!!

Getting Benjamin to go poop on the potty was challenging and took several days (which from what I hear is not bad at all). Now that he's finally figured it out, poop has become a common word in our home. He can be heard ending his prayers with the word, analyzing his accomplishment in the toilet and telling me what's there, or telling me about the baby snakes in the toilet. Again, all boy!

And I'm not sure how funny this is, but when I first began thinking about potty training, I was very set against using pull-ups. I was pretty convinced they were a waste of money and would make Benjamin just think he was in a diaper. But, before we started up with the potty training, I decided to buy some just for times when I was dropping him off with other people like at church or the Y. My sister had given me a coupon, so I felt pretty good about it. We got home with them and I never thought much about them again since we used underwear for the at home training. It wasn't until the end of the first week that I decided to venture out to the Y with him and wanted to put him in a pull-up. They were nowhere to be found. I searched everywhere and finally determined that I must have left them at the store. I was frustrated about having spent that much money and then wasting it, but determined to get to the Y, so I took him in underwear. He stayed dry! Now here's the funny part. 3 weeks after starting the potty training, I was moving some stuff around on the shelf of his closet and what do you think I found? haha! I guess my theory that they were unnecessary was correct. However, we will definitely be using them for trips and they came in very handy this past weekend when I traveled to visit a friend. :)

Easter Pictures

Well it's a little late, but I'm finally posting Easter pictures. We enjoyed being with my family this Easter and seeing some family members that we hadn't seen since we moved away. It was great to all be together to celebrate Christ's resurrection.

Benjamin and his cousin Stephen had matching outfits.

Ben's first egg hunt. He was so excited about the candy that we had to convince him to keep hunting.

Playing with trains. This boy can always be found where the vehicles are.

Benjamin Funnies

I really need to be better about writing all these down, but here are a few little funnies from today.

-Benjamin was singing Jesus Loves Me this morning and sang "They are sweet but He is strong."

-While playing duplos this morning, we were making a house and Benjamin said his little duplo man was having breakfast. When I asked what he was eating, he said "cakepans." (pancakes)

-We have been totally spoiled by having Matt home for lunch just about every day since we moved. Benjamin looks forward to it, but as soon as Matt gets home and is half way through lunch, Benjamin starts telling him "bye bye, see you later." Before Matt goes back to work, he usually brushes his teeth and sometimes blows his nose. (I know, who cares?) So today when Matt told Benjamin that it wasn't quite time for him to go back to work yet, Benjamin said "you have to get your boogers daddy?" He's so observant of our routines!!

The Dancing Continues

Benjamin's love of music and dancing continues and he makes me laugh all the time. I love how serious he is about his dancing in this movie until he realizes he has an audience. Then he cracks up.

**I'm not sure if it's just my computer being crazy, but you may have to manually move the video forward a tiny bit to get the video to start playing.

Settling In

I'm always amazed at how much work it is to move. Since I was spoiled rotten by having movers, I didn't have to do the heavy lifting, but it's always such a job to take all of our belongings that each have their place in one house and move them to another. I still have a few items that haven't found places yet, but considering that we gave up a garage and 475 square feet of living space when we moved to our apartment, I feel like we are doing well.

So it's been two and a half weeks since we left San Antonio. We are finally starting to feel settled. I still don't really think of it as home, but I think that will take some time. It's hard not to constantly compare and refer to things in San Antonio as "we haves" and things here and "they haves." But I'll get there. After three trips to the Drivers Licence Branch, I finally have my new license. They won't let you show teeth in your picture, and I felt like I managed a semi-natural closed mouth smile for the first picture they took, but they said I had too much hair in my face, so they retook it. The second one felt pretty good too, but the picture was crooked, so again, they had to retake it. Benjamin was with me and was sitting at my feet under the counter in front of me and by the third picture, he was losing patience and I looked down to tell him we were almost done. I barely looked up in time for the third picture and could tell it wouldn't be very good. But it was good enough for them. :)

The weather here has been amazing. This time of year in Indiana is usually cold and rainy with maybe a couple of days of sunshine and a couple warm (maybe 60's) days thrown in. But since we got here a little over two weeks ago, it's only rained maybe three times and been cold maybe 4 days. I feel so blessed. One of my most difficult things about this move was knowing there would be a lot less sunshine and warmth here. I know this is unusual and that it won't be this way every year, but I'm so thankful for sunshine and 70 degree weather.

One thing that's been fun has been rediscovering a park I played at as a kid. It's been totally redone and it's amazing. And the best part is that it's super close to our apartment. Benjamin loves it and I'm pretty sure we will be spending a lot of time there. We also discovered a paved trail that runs through the city for walking/running/biking. We've been a few times already and love it. I'd forgotten how much I love Indiana in the Spring. Everything is in bloom and it smells so good outside.

There have been some hard things too. My first grocery shopping trip was rough. Anyone who knows me knows I like my healthy food and especially produce. My first trip out I had a hard time finding even a decent head of lettuce and found that the prices of most things were quite a bit higher than they were in S.A. But, I did end up going to another store here that had a much better selection at least, even if it was expensive. The other hard thing is that to my knowledge, the only gym here with child care is the Y. I absolutely loved our gym in San Antonio and was pretty religious about going at least three days a week. That was one of the first things I researched before moving and it was pretty hard finding out that my only option was a Y. But, I decided it would be OK and planned to sign up. I went to visit it this past week and was majorly disappointed. All their equipment is crammed into a pretty tiny room with very little space to walk between machines and no place for stretching and abs. So now I'm trying to figure out how to get a regular work-out in. I'm grateful the weather has at least been warm and nice enough to get outside.

We started looking for a church this past Sunday. This is one of the hardest things about moving. The church we visited was nice, but it certainly wasn't our old church. I do realize that we just won't find our old church here unless everyone from our old church moves here :) but it's hard to feel like we are shopping for a church. We plan to visit each church on our list twice and then make our decision. We'd appreciate your prayers for wisdom and for courage in being outgoing enough to make new friends.

I promise that my blogging won't turn into a running description of boring details, but I wanted to let you all know where we are at. :)

Digging Out

I felt so spoiled during this move as I had packers come in and pack up all of my dishes and kitchen appliances, as well as several of our wall decorations and other breakables. But my goodness did they use a lot of packing paper in their boxes!!! The picture below is the paper from ONE dish box. It filled up three trash bags. But our dishes did come through unbroken and Benjamin thought all the paper was great.

Deliciousness

Well the house is still a wreck and I feel like I spend as much time moving unopened boxes around a room so I can arrange the furniture as I do actually unpacking those boxes, but last night it was time for a real meal. We have eaten out more in the past two weeks than I ever remember doing and when we haven't been eating out, we've been just eating strange assortments of things we have around the house that usually aren't all that great for us. So, last night I wanted a yummy meal that tasted good and was healthy. Not sure why, but ever since going out to Red Lobster with our friends Todd and Elisa before leaving San Antonio and tasting their coconut shrimp, I've been thinking about trying to make a coconut chicken. I finally did it last night and it was yummy! Even Benjamin thought it was good and he informed me all afternoon as I purchased, thawed, and cooked the chicken that he didn't like chicken. And best of all, it's super simple.

Coconut Chicken
1 lb chicken
1 1/4 c dried unsweetened shredded coconut
3 T virgin coconut oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 avocado

Begin by pounding the chicken with a meat tenderizer until it's less than a half inch thick. Then cut it into bite size pieces. Place chicken in a bowl along with coconut and stir until the chicken is evenly mixed with the coconut. Sprinkle on salt and pepper and stir. Melt coconut oil in a skillet. Then place chicken in the skillet and cook on medium until chicken is done and coconut is just starting to brown. Remove from heat and serve with slices of salted avocado.

I served this along with asparagus and quinoa and it was delicious. Unfortunately it was so delicious and we were so hungry that I didn't think to take a picture. So you will just have to take my word on the fact that it looked as pretty as it tasted and try it yourself. :)