Anatomy of a Toddler’s Brain

This was just too funny NOT to share!  Enjoy!!!

Overheard at Our House II

Ethan was lying on the couch next to me watching tv when Shawn came over to tickle him.  Ethan was giggling uncontrollably when Karis marched over and pushed Shawn’s arm away from Ethan with a very stern look on her face.  Apparently she was trying to ‘protect’ her big brother from the big, mean Daddy.  :)

Shawn saw her look of concern and said, “Oh, baby.  I’m not hurting him, I’m just tickling him.  Besides, he’s Daddy’s boy.” and he ruffled Ethan’s hair.

Karis looked at him, shook her head and said, “Un-uh” (her version of ‘no’.), then pointed at me and said, “Mama.”

Shawn and I looked at each other and started to laugh.  ”You think Ethan is Mama’s boy, not Daddy’s?”

Karis nodded her head firmly and said, “Ya.”

Potty Trained!!!

We finally did it!  The boy is potty trained!!!!!!

(Yes, I meant to put all those exclamation points after that sentence.  That’s how EXCITED I am that he’s finally wearing ‘big boy underwear’.  If you’ve ever potty trained a boy, you understand my elation. )

After months of fighting, pleading, bribing, arguing, and disappointment, I finally found the right combination of things for Ethan to want to potty train.

We had tried bribing him with candy corn (the treat HE picked out at the store for just this purpose) and that wasn’t really working.  We tried putting him in pull-ups and telling him to let us know when he needed to go - yeah, right.  Then, one day, I got so tired of it, I just put ‘big boy underwear’ on him and set the timer.  Every 15-30 minutes the timer would go off and I would say, “Time to go sit on the potty!”  The first few times he fought me on it and didn’t want to do it.  It took a few times, too, before anything happened when we were ON the potty.  When it did, there was HUGE celebration, much clapping and cheering, and candy-giving.  

The few times that he had an ‘accident’, we went immediately in the bathroom and sat on the potty just to see if there was any pee left.  A friend of mine said that sometimes when they have an accident, they stop themselves before they’re completely empty.  This way you have a chance to praise them for going potty in the toilet, even in the midst of an ‘accident’.  (Thanks for that idea, Shannon!)

We also checked out a book from the library called “Time to Pee”.  It’s a great little book about potty training that starts off “If you ever get that funny feeling… don’t PANIC!”  Cracks me up!  I’m not sure if it was the book, the underwear, some cosmic alignment of the planets, or the combination of things, but suddenly it clicked with him!  And now, I don’t even know most of the time when he’s going pee, because he just gets up from where he’s playing, goes into the bathroom, and goes potty!  Yippee!!!  :)

Now, to work on wiping his own bottom.  That’s the part that no one talks about!  :P

How about you?  What were your tricks that helped get your little on to finally potty train?   

NinaLoca.com

If you’re a mom or dad living in the Houston area and you haven’t heard of NinaLoca.com yet, BOY are you going to L-O-V-E me for telling you about it!  :)

NinaLoca is a great site full of ideas for summer fun for kiddos.  She’s got everything from jumping places, to local parks, to museums, to kids-eat-free restaurants.  I’ve already found 2-3 places that we just HAVE to go check out this summer because of her great information.  Most of the places she’s listed she has a brief description and her own experiences (if she’s been there), too, which is MOST helpful!

Here’s her description of her own site…

Welcome to Nina Loca! Summer Fun Listings for Houston, Cypress, & surrounding areas. We list everything from kids eat free, play places, VBS, camps, volunteering for kids and teens, stuff for Moms and Dads, pet resources and more! We are Houston locals and we know the best places to visit with family and kids. Texas is cool!

So go check it out and then tell me where YOU just HAVE to go this summer because of this list!!

Earth Day: Kid-Friendly Ideas

So, Tuesday, April 22nd, is Earth Day.  And, I’m wanting to do SOMETHING with my kids to mark this day as special.  We already do a little bit of recycling at our house and we ‘celebrated’ Earth Hour a few weeks ago by watching the first Indy Race of the season in the dark (see this post about Earth Hour) - btw, we would have gone completely dark, but hello! the FIRST Indy race of the season?  Couldn’t miss that one.  :)  All of that, but I’m still feeling the need to do something more, especially on a day set aside specifically for the purpose of recognizing the earth and our contribution to the environment.

So, I’ve been doing a little googling and have come up with a few ideas that I think we can handle here with a 5yo, 3yo, and 18mo.  Here’s a couple of links for your reading enjoyment…

Tin Can Herb Pots - This looks like lots of fun and I figure we can use the end products as gifts if we want.

Coffee Ground Fossils - I have to admit that this one REALLY appealed to the Earth Science teacher in me…

Rice Krispie Earth -  Okay.  This just looked yummy.  How long HAS it been since I’ve had a Rice Krispie treat anyways??

“Stained Glass” Butterflies - Not sure how this really fits in to the whole Earth Day theme, but it brings back such fun memories of my own childhood, that I HAD to include it. 

There were SO many other ideas out there that it was almost overwhelming!!  I figure we’ve got to save some ideas for next year, though, right?  :)

So, what are YOU doing to celebrate Earth Day this year?  Leave me a comment so I can change my mind again about what I want to do!

Honey Better Than Drugs for Kids’ Coughs

Parents might consider giving their coughing child honey instead of medicine, according to a study released Monday.

Buckwheat honey — a dark variety sold in most grocery stores — relieved children’s coughs and helped them sleep better than dextromethorphan, the drug in most over-the-counter cough suppressants, according to a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Honey also beat out no treatment at all.

“(Honey) is a cheap and effective treatment,” said Dr. Ian Paul, lead investigator for the study. “Consider using this as a treatment before going to the pharmacy to pick up an over-the-counter cough and cold medicine.”

Click here to read the rest of this article, courtesy of the Houston Chronicle.

It’s Too Quiet… Again

If you’re an avid reader of my blog (aren’t you all? ) then you’ve read my previous post entitled, “It’s Too Quiet…” about my oldest two kiddos’ fun in their bathroom. If that were a movie, then this would be the sequel…

I was sitting in my living room on the couch with my oldest, Kate, just enjoying catching up on emails and skimming through my favorite blogs when it suddenly hit me… I had been smelling something quite strong for the last few minutes. I stopped emailing mid-sentence, looked at Kate and said, “What’s that smell?” As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I knew what I was smelling and it caused me to immediately throw my laptop on the side table next to the couch and jump up to run into MY bathroom to investigate further. Continue reading…

Product Review: Step 2’s Sand and Water Table

When I decided to buy an outdoor activity table for Kate, I did lots of research. I knew that she LOVED playing in the sand, but didn’t want to necessarily build a ‘real’ sand box in our back yard. So, I went to Amazon.com (of course) and started reading reviews on all the different brands of sand and water activity tables out there. Many of the brand names that I normally would have trusted to make a good quality table got bad reviews and so I wound up purchasing the “Naturally Playful Sand and Water Activity Center” by Step 2 and I’ve never regretted it!

Here’s the product description from Step 2…

This adorable Sand and Water Activity Center features wood crafted styling and nature’s colors that blend with traditional landscapes in residential outdoor living areas. It’s divided into two separate sides - one for water, the other for sand. Continue reading…

Continue reading...

product-review

Free Shipping on Gerber Onesies

Gerber is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the onesie! Not only are they hosting a sweepstakes for a $25,000 savings bond, but BabiesRUs is also helping them celebrate by offering free shipping on all their onesies. Check it out…

Free Shipping on Gerber Onesies at  BabiesRUs.com

Crafty Ideas

Are you looking for cheap, crafty things to do with your kiddos to keep them from driving your batty? I stumbled across this blog the other day and thought it had some great and creative ideas for doing artsy types of things with kids and for repurposing all sorts of things around the house, too…

Check out scrumdilly-do and have hours of fun!!!