ILX Parenting 3: Back In (Potty) Training

getting ready to start potty training in my house. Not looking forward to it. She wants to be trained but right now seems to have no sense. We're just gonna have to buckle down and do it.

(actually, that's an "Andre the Giant Has A Paci" t-shirt I made, but CafePress shut me down for copyright violation)

Oh yes, I repeats myself:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2199/1871421841_74038f1031.jpg

fave pic of the year. :-)

AWWWWWWWWW!

so cuuuute

schwantz, i was referring to alex's boy's tshirt! but didn't realize that is what is on your boy's tshirt - haha neat

That picture is ridiculously cute.

hey, I think I'm starting to be able to tell ben and owen apart finally. ben's the one with the crazy eyes, right?

alex, your kids are adorable. it's the tradeoff for being hard work maybe, so you'll just want to pinch their cheeks instead of selling them on ebay after a rough day.

after the hangover has subsided, here's lulu getting ready to open the pressies from her neighbourhood pals that came to her halloween shindig:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2107/1879500255_53b7047d14.jpg

and a couple from her actual birthday on friday, a fine excuse to light a candle on yet another cake. ava had to help with candle extinguishing, and since then has eagerly volunteered to help lulu learn how to play with her new toys.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2203/1879544703_957573871f.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2378/1880342222_a10ae3b72e.jpg

Aww, cute pics already!

Glad you're doing well Nath, apart from the engorgement and bad lochia.

Aidan and I are coming towards the end of a weeks stay with my parents. It's been interesting, fabulous to see Mum and ad with him, especially dad interacting more with him now he's a bit more alert and smiling. Aidan's really finding his voice and is still at the stage where strangers are fun rather than scary, so he's loved being shown off to all and sundry!

The little bit of expressing I have been doing, I thought I wasn't storing it properly as it always smelled sour whenever we tried to give it him. I couldn't understand why a bottle stored in the fridge for just 24 hours could have gone off already so I did a bit of googling and discovered that if your milk has high levels of lipase then it gets tainted very quickly. Some poor mothers build up hundreds of ounces in the freezer for when they go back to work, only to have to throw it all away. There is a solution, if you scald the milk as soon as it's expessed it's fine. Yes, you probably lose some of the goodies but as long as they're getting some proper boob time as well it's fine. I really wish it was more widely known about though.

Tummy time at grandparents, and the default poition of his fingers at the minute:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2345/1840004319_ea72ee851e.jpg http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2054/1885405703_a3b90e6b86.jpg?v=0

haha vicky I was reading your post and as soon as I got to "smelled sour" I thought "lipase! I have to tell her about lipase!" :) Glad you figured it out for yourself, although it does sound like an enormous pain.

And congratulations Nath, I haven't popped in in a while, so happy to see everything went fine!

I am also thinking of biting the bullet and charging ahead on potty training...kiddo has always been remarkably good about peeing on the potty when we ask him to but only rarely will go over and do it himself. He just now seems to have the motor skills to pull down his pants, and I wish he was more verbal, but everything else is there. I don't want to miss a window, but at the same time, I really wish this window hadn't opened up right as the weather turned cold!

here is your picture:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2122/1809219016_591913520d.jpg

he will be 23 mos in a few days. Current interests: trains, jumping, playing chase, maisy, collecting sticks at the park, drawing with sidewalk chalk. Also he knows all the letters and their sounds!

Update: Lisa sleeps so much. It's quite a strange experience for me as Ophelia slept so little. It's freaky! I have to wake her up to feed otherwise she'd go without milk (so I feared today). I also use ILX: After a nighttime feeding I put her on my shoulder, read the board until she's asleep and then put her in her crib. She woke up at 12 am and 4 am for a feeding. WTF. If I get the hang of this, I can breeze through these months. roffle.

Teeny, some wait even longer to potty train. Apparently the longer you wait, the quicker they learn. Some wait till 3 yrs of age!

OMG teeny do it NOW. Do not wait until he doesn't have interest or it's too late. I may not know shit about anything else in life, but I know your little guy is ready! What you do is commit to it and Do Not Back Down.

Also, he's super cute.

And congrats Nathalie! I totally even forgot you were pregnant as I haven't trolled the parenting threads in ages.

Congratulations, Nathalie! That picture is super-cute! Glad to hear everything is going well & I hope the good sleeping continues. Madeleine was pretty good, she used to wake about every three or four hours at night for a feed but I had to wake her in the day or she would sleep for too long.

Aw Ophelia and Elisabeth look impossibly adorable, what proud parents you must be nath! Well done and congrats again!

This is a bit late for Halloween and the pic was taken in August(?) anyway but:
http://photos-932.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sf2p/v110/108/9/616388932/n616388932_194675_5678.jpg

Hm, do Facebook pics work? I thought I was linking from Flickr, sorry. Again:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2253/1901789495_fdd74307ea.jpg?v=0

Ava singing one of her fave Chris Montez songs (this was back in August):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPTr8B5iRdA

STOP PRESS: Lulu just took ten steps! Previous record was three!

Steps!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GGW8FiFEcg

wow, onimo, that's proper walking! it's hard to imagine a time when lulu will be so steady and confident on her tootsies. or running around with ava, even!

archel, alice looks extremely pleased to be lucifer's minion, I'd watch out for that one. she's going to be a biscuit thief for sure!

louis is looking so grown-up! it sounds like he might be ready and willing for the potty training but I know what you mean about wishing it was a bit warmer. ava wasn't very verbal at first either, it took ages of us asking her every half hour if she needed a wee before she'd volunteer the info without prodding, I think she just got so irritated at being badgered about it that she started telling us when she needed to go!

I'm taking lulu for her first MMR jab in a couple of hours, urgh.

My goodness, Ava's pitch is great for a toddler. She's going to turn into a supersongstress like Mom.

That's some great walking from M! Alice shows no sign of wanting to strike out alone yet, although she is never happier than when cruising round the furniture.

And you're so right pam, in fact she's a massive biscuit thief already. She can sniff out an unwary toddler at fifty paces and is expert at distracting them while she quietly reaches out for the custard cream in their hand. This morning she got stuck under a chair at baby group because she had spotted a hula hoop underneath it from the other side of the room...

Aw, Pam, Ava is like your mini-me! That's adorable! Megan walking is so cool as well, as is devil-Alice and pumpkin-Louis. These threads are so great for watching them all grow up :-)

(oh, and obviously massive AAAWWWWWWWW at Ophelia and Lisa)

And I though Ava couldn't possibly get any cuter. Wow.

It's their first birthday today, so... here are some pictures!

Owen on his sweet new trike:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2394/1882750390_c8adf1620c.jpg

Ben and Owen at the park:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2273/1927200796_bfe9a074dd.jpg

Owen at one year:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2377/1927247960_3ce382294c.jpg

happy birthday O and B!!

They're plotting in those little caps of theirs. Activating their Wonder Twin powers.

Already a YEAR? My god, does time fly! Congrats!

Hey Teeny how's the vocalizing/linguistic skillz going? O has been forming sentences for a few weeks now. It's freaky how much she understands and how well she's able to express herself. :-)

"Mommy, want computer."

Happy birthday to the handsome crimefighting duo Ben + Owen! Ava and Lulu raise a glass and bottle respectively to their continued good health! Also I'm pretty sure I heard Ava mutter "party on".

Please, someone on this thread with children, explain what the hell this is:

http://sillyape.org/trash/get_ready_for_blastoff.jpg

It looks like a device for teaching kids how to go to the toilet without having to undo your pants.

It appears to be a last ditch solution for stubborn kids who resist potty training. "You want to be let out? You know what to do."

THE TARDLET

Something to do with waterboarding...

The shinstraps are the worst bit of that contraption. And the colours.

I've now digitised two hours (26GB!) of mini-DV tapes so I may get carried away with YouTubing the gals. Here's Lulu snoozing...finally, in her high-chair at Grandma's back in September. I could mix in some Harry Hill preamble and a laff-track if you like...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YacFEByCHKM

So Beeps did this for the first time yesterday:

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/2236/im003758bx7.jpg

And yes, we've moved the books out of the way now.

cute!!! in the last 2 weeks beeps learned to sit up from laying down position, creep on tummy, crawl on hands and knees and pull herself up to standing. progresso! oh, and say "mama mama mamamamamamamamamammmmmmmmm"

Tardlet? TURDLET.

dude, that had better be an xxxxxxpost

Yes, yes!

Beeps is such a cutie!!! <3

I'm waiting for her and Charlotte to form a band.

That's some good development spurting from beeps, woo!

I am currently praying that Alice has not caught chickenpox, after one of the baby group mums found out that she's got it... in the meantime, here's a toothy A with a toothsome pineapple:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2194/1985701946_0a035f4a89.jpg?v=0

wow, beeps is going to be running a marathon by the end of the month! and the chatting is great! we have yet to get so much as a single 'ma' out of lulu, much less a 'mama'. she's got 'gah!' down pat, with an occasional 'da' when she's feeling fruity.

cute picture of alice! unlike you archel, I have been trying to get chickenpox out of the way for going on three years now but no dice. every time any of their friends get it we're over there like a shot but just can't catch it no matter how close they hang out together. I'd rather her get it now than when she's in school. there's never a good time for them to be sick but if alice gets it now it may not be so bad, ava's friends lucked out with not many spots and not much more discomfort than a bad cold. mike didn't get it till he was in his 30s and it's so much worse to get as an adult. I knew someone who got it in college and he had blisters the size of QUARTERS!

I have never had mumps, this worries me intensely.

Mumps is part of the MMR vaccine though? So there's no reason kids should get it these days (and therefore you should be okay).

chris, you can book yourself in for an MMR vaccine, it's not just for kiddies anymore. after a routine blood test when I was preggers with ava I was told that I'd never been vaccinated for rubella in my untamed youth. they no longer give single vaccines so I had to get an MMR before I could get pregnant again.

it's pretty unlikely you'd get mumps but since kids don't get the MMR jab till after a year old, I guess there's a slight chance a baby could catch it and pass it on, there was a measles thing going around a couple of years ago right when a few of ava's pals were scheduled to get the jab (she'd just had it so had a narrow escape).

here's munchkin the younger cruising furniture:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2345/1955100982_3b26b136f0.jpg

Funny to think that when our kids are having kids and worrying about these things, we'll be telling them that we had mumps or German measles or whatever when we were young, and they'll look at us like we had scurvy or black death?

Now I realize what it means to have two kids: Both have a cold. :-( Liesje has to take some meds - *squirt* it in her mouth as she doesn't do the bottle - because she has phlegm (???) on her lungs. This night was a disaster as both were coughing 'n' wheezing. Ophelia's alright but lying down the phlegm builds up and she doesn't know how to get rid of it, I guess. She had the nastiest cough ever. Sounded like a asthma attack. *sigh* Apart from that, Liesje sleeps quite a bit but drinks less as she has a runny/stuffy nose. Poor thing. :-(

Also her reflux is pretty bad as a result. Again: poor thing. I have to hold her up slanted (and enchanted heh).

Poorly baby here too -- we have just spent three nights in hospital as Howie has bronchiolitis. We called the doctor out on Saturday night as he was sounding a bit wheezy, expecting to be told to give him Calpol and put him to bed -- next thing we know, we're being blue-lighted an ambulance and hooked up to oxygen in hospital :(

Anyway we are back home today after a worrying few days, he is still poorly but breathing much better, and will recover faster without nurses coming in every 20 minutes around the clock to poke and prod him.

Big dog and little girl! It loks like the huge dog is just trying to let her know in a psychialldoggie way that he will defend her and protect her forever.
And she can squeeze his nose, if neccesary.

or maybe it's "Wait until you throw the ball."
Amazing!

(I have friends with an 18 month girl living with Suzzie, the husky mix good dog who is 10!
They have a wood stove. Suzzie KEEPS the babe from the woodstove.

It seems scary to some people, but - dog and child LOVE each other, and I think the whole family is safe because Suzzie is there.)

one day i hope to sleep straight through. for now it's been hellish.

Poor Nath :(

Hey, guys, can we start a new thread? My wireless connection crashes every time I load this one.

I'm happy for there to be a new one - it's been nearly 8 months. I can't do anything with "Citizens on Patrol" though...

ILX Parenting 4: We make our own people

Itty-bittyzens on Patrol?

hahaha best part about schwantzs fathers day reading pic is he's the only one of the 3 who looks confused

sunny what is the story behind 'beeps' (the name/nickname)? because it is awesome

ummm..lets see. we had decided on the name Beatrice when I was still preggers. we started referring to her as Beats and then that changed into Beeps for awhile which just kind of stuck on ilx i think because i started a thread about "beeps" at the time. She is really "Beats" at home though.

Before we leap into the inknown that is ILX P4, any news on rumpie?

Her babe must be out by now.

Fingers crossed!

sunny if i start a beeps vs beats poll thread & beeps wins out will you guys change yr mind on that one?

I want her to be a drummer, not a keyboard player.

YOU ARE LIVING IN THE PAST MAN, at least give her a chance!

DO IT

i will - ILE or 77? thats yr only choice other than the vote - after that it is out of yr guys' hands

btw split vote = i choose

wow i dont know. more bros on 77 but more peeps on ile. you decide

I don't know, deez. Singing "Beats Street, Queen of the beat, you see her rocking that beat from across the street" to her at night ain't gonna sound the same if her name is "Beeps".

not to mention "we got the beat"

well you two might just have to get 'creative' & substitute 'beep' for 'beat'

deal with it motherfuckers

we are polling on 77 in t-5 min i submit that all ILXP's be invited if they have not been already

no mentions of 77 on this thread pls. Some of us aren't that cool.

(Or invite me)

whats yr ilx email SCHWAAAAAAAAAAAAN? ill feel very powerful if i successfully invite another user

Hi everybody, see you in December!

preggers!!!

Can I repeat: HELLISH. Last couple of days it was 4 or 5 am. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then an accident as well, she fell off the diaper table. But (I hope) nothing's wrong. Thank god. So has anyone gritted their teeth and let their baby cry? I still can't. Silly me. :-( I'm going completely k-razeee tho.

i could let beeps cry to some degree at infant stage but i cant now. i guess because she can communicate better now so crying more often than not does mean something is wrong. poor nath. do you have someone who can give you a day, or at least a night, off where you can hide in your bedroom with earplugs in?

3 months away.....and its a boy! just one, we thought two....but just one. We have decided to name him Cole.

Thank your lucky stars ;)

BINGO! Awesome! Very happy for you and yours! (it's Huk-L, btw)

Huck and Chris! You guys!

Yay! I like Cole - I have a beautiful nephew by that name.

Wow, people be sprogging! congrats, you guys!

More pics!

Ben:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3015/2600886144_fb98f5b9a4.jpg

Owen:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3086/2600881948_ca6ddc153a.jpg

Ben and Owen playing with a fountain:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3001/2620180974_b6ee624f49.jpg

Beautiful. How old are these boys now? Do I remember you saying they could say the alphabet at 18 months? Beats is 16 months next week and all she says is "DADA!!!"

OK, we're moving up to 4!
Using sunny's title...
ILX Parenting 4: We make our own people

Think we might be approaching this time with Howie -- in the last few days he has done a wee on the potty every night at bathtime, and asked for the potty this morning.

I have TEH FEAR over putting him in pants and spending the next x weeks wiping up accidents (especially as I'm glued to a breastfeeding newborn half the day) so am considering going via pull-ups, and leaving pants til he is reliable at letting me know when he needs to go. OTOH some say it's best just to stick 'em in pants and put up with the mess for a while...

So... any tips?

Argh, meant to start a new thread on this. Pls ignore this one!