Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Conversations with a 2 yearold

We were in her school parking lot and she started quacking
Me: Audrey that is a crow not a duck
Audrey: Quack, quack, quack. A ducky, right there
Me: No a crow not a duck
Audrey: Right there, ducky Mommy
I ignore it and we go into the school to drop off Celia. After putting her back in the car i hear a true quack. I look around and sure enough some stray duck is off to the side of the parking lot and thanks to me inside the car Audrey is saying, no no ducky, a crow!
So I said, oh it is really a duck
Audrey looked at me and said oh, ok

We tried to call my mom and even as the phone is ringing, Audrey is saying hi Mom Mom. Explaining voice mail to her ia tough.

Audrey: Mom Mom can't hear me
Me: She was not there Audrey, she is in Florida
Audrey: Oh, ok Why
Me: Because she wanted to go
Audrey: Oh, ok, she with Gill?
Me: Yes
Audrey: oh he in Foda
Me: Yes he is in florida too

Then she one by one dropped her remaining lunch on the Florida, as I was emailing my Mom. I say Florida because as she was dropping it she was saying this
Grapies in Foda, bye
Cucumby in Foda, by
Oh more Grapies in Foda

The grapies and cucumbys were picked up in Foda by Audrey and taken to the trashcan.

We were in Wegmans grocery store bathroom
Audrey: Mommy go potty?
Me: yes
Audrey: Mommy poopy?
Me: no, shh
Audrey: Giggling, Mommy toot?
Me: No Audy, stop
Audrey: Mommy, Poopy, toot, lots of giggles
Me: You want a cookie
Audrey: Nodded
me: Then shh
Yes, I went there ( girlfriend also sat through a 90 min meeting with me so deserved it)

Sent from my iPad

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Gross Science

Audrey went to the potty
Celia: Wow that was loud, was it solid, liquid, or gas?
Me: No response (that I can say out loud)

Science Fridays may just have to be canceled for awhile

Monday, February 18, 2013

Sorting colors with pom pons

Audrey loves to scoop pom poms in and out of containers.  I have looked for cheap pom poms at craft stores and I have not been impressed with the prices so we have had a tiny container.  I never thought about the dollar store until we saw them there today!  So we have a tub of pom poms and we decided to sort some colors.  She does a great job sorting and she is not consistent with colors (can match anything and even understands how to play bingo games so I guess she excels in other things!).  Oh and she is doing very well with scissors now too!!

Here is a video of her sorting, and her cute little self.  Pardon Celia's complaining in the background.  She was pouting because I accused her of cheating in a game we had just played (while I was helping out with something for a few minutes she chose to take 3 turns when it was my turn and filled up her game board).  She then was upset because I decided to play with Audrey.


Sunday, February 17, 2013

Rough

So remember I posted awhile ago that I was going to be training to run a 1/2 marathon?  Well I do not believe I will be running it, I am back to hoping that I will racewalk it.  I think that I am setting a goal to run it in May 2014!  What has been happening?  Well I started out ok, I had a lot of energy and except for some slight knee pain I felt great.  I did a 3 mile run and afterward my left knee hurt a lot.  I rested but it never went completely away.  I purchased a knee stabilizer and started trying to racewalk more.  At this time I need to stop throwing running into my workouts at all but for some reason it has been very hard to give that up.  I did 6 miles last weekend racewalking and I felt great!  My time was better then I thought and no real pain afterward.  Fastforward to my workout yesterday.  I attempted to do a slower pace 6 mile workout and I did not feel great, energy awesome, knees and left leg hurt.  I was doing okay until I came to a corner and a car turned suddenly infront of me, I stepped out off the curb suddenly and it was almost like a whip lash effect.  I think I pulled a muscle in my left leg and it just was not a pretty picture.

I guess I do not get the pain from walking at all because I have been in shape, I have never stopped walking with the jogging stroller, double or single.  I think that I just shook things up by trying to throw running into the picture.  Now I need to get back.  As much as I do not like the idea, I know I need to take it easy this week and reassess my training.  I was happy though to look at my calendar and realize that honestly I have time.  I know I have no issue doing a minimum of 6 miles right now and I can build from there, maybe at a slower pace and then working up my speed.  I can not tell you how much happiness it has brought me to go out and do my workouts and train again.  I also can not tell you how completely frustrated I have been over the pain situation!!!  In my intense training periods, I rarely had injuries and I certainly was taking less care of myself.

So send some happy thoughts my way!!

All of this has made me feel old and Miss. Cecelia has not been helpful.

Our conversation this morning:

Celia:  Mommy, what was around before, you know time actually started
Me:  I don't know
Celia:  What??  Weren't you around then?  You are so old, you weren't around then?
Me providing a death stare and Celia going about her normal little business
Gotta Love her

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Always so helpful

Trying to address valentines
Me: Celia who are the college girls that help in your room?
Celia: Well there is Miss. Destiny
Me: There are more then that
Celia: Oh I don't think the rest have names
Me: Thanks

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Potty Training, How we did it. This is long!!




Okay so I have had two early potty learners (18 months and 17 months).  I am not sure if I lucked out or if we did something right.  So I really have to put a disclaimer on this first.  Potty training is a very parental based milestone, what works for one parent may not work for another.  I have never had a child that flat out refused to participate in the potty experience, I have never tried to potty train a child over the age of 2 (except for my students in that case they were all over age 5).  So I am just sharing this so it may help someone out there, it does not mean that this is the right way for everyone to potty train!

1.  Readiness, Honestly I throw that out the window.
I really do.  I know that many articles say they should not like their diapers wet/dirty, they should be telling you when they go, etc.  I never thought this was a clue.  In fact I always felt as if the child was at that point then maybe it was past time.  Again, my opinion, does not make it right!!  Prior to introducing the potty, neither one of my girls was showing signs.  Well, okay Audrey is another story but I will get to that later.  My friend trained both of her boys at age 2 and neither had readiness signs.

2.  Rewards, yep I use them.
Okay, I am a special education teacher and I would not have survived in teaching without using rewards for positive behavior.  I am not under the philosophy that kids should not receive rewards, and yes even edible rewards, for positive behavior.   As adults we would not go to work if their was not a paycheck (reward) involved.  I guess I do not see it as bribery either because I am not asking them to do something that is wrong.  The rewards are faded too, ask quickly as possible.  In special education, rewards are used to shape behavior and then they are faded.  So for Celia we used teddy grahams, yogurt raisins, or a quick elmo youtube clip.  Audrey was primarily teddy grahams and elmo on the iPad.  Both girls were faded away from treats for peeing with in the first few days and for poops, well that took a bit but after the first week they were faded.  Audrey does still think she should get elmo on the iPad but then again she asks for that frequently!

3.  I often view it as more being ready as a Parent then the child. I know this sounds odd or could be taken wrong but let me explain.  Potty training means that for at least 3 days at some point you need to be tied down to the house.  If you start potty training, you need to be consistent and persistent.  It is hard and it is often difficult to find time in your schedule to devote to it.  You also take a tired Mom who is dealing with the house, maybe a job, and a trying child, and then throw in potty training and it can be completely overwhelming.

4.  Start before age 2.  Yep, the US has the oldest potty train age in the world, in most other countries 2 year olds are full time in undies.  But my reasoning why, 2 year olds are nuts.  They are opinionated, hard to reason with, and not as willing to please Mom and Dad.  18 month olds, are curious, pleasers, and more shapeable (my opinion folks, not necessarily right).  3 year olds, well... they are getting into the independent streak and just even more strong willed.  Now that said, if you are started past age 2, it just may take some more persistence.

After all that here is what I basically did (will explain the basically).

Introduce the potty early if possible.  For Celia, the small Ikea Pink Potty came out when she was 11 months old.  It was a spot for her to sit while I went, then it was something to try out.  My theory for this is that when it comes to potty train, it is not something foreign.  For us, it helped Celia initiate going on the potty (she showed no other signs at the time, went on the potty but could care less if her diaper was wet).

We started for both my girls with part time potty training, basically potty at home and diapers everywhere else.  This was 100% not my ideal situation however their daycare had no bathrooms in the 1 year old room.  It worked out ok.  I suppose that if you wanted to, you could try it out, but not ideal.

My potty bootcamp week started with both girls when they were already going just not understanding that they had to stay dry.  So I devoted 3 to 5 days to stay at home and just devote to potty training.  I had my rewards set up, my stash of cleaning supplies, and my stack of underwear.  NO PULL UPS, they feel just like diapers (besides we use cloth).

Day 1 and 2:  Naked Time.  I let both girls go naked or I put a dress on with no undies.  I took them to the potty in the beginning every 15 minutes, then progressed to 20 to 30 min.  I think with Audrey though we may have started with 20, I forget.  Just set a time interval and decrease or increase it, depending upon how well it is going.  Reward each time they go.  If the child is reluctant to sitting on the potty, reward for sitting on the potty (Rewards can be singing a song, short video clip, hugs, high fives, edibles, stickers, time on the computer, etc).

Day 3:  Underwear time
If things go well on day one then you can try to move on to underwear 1/2 way through day 2.  So put on underwear and take on a regular interval, provide rewards.  What I did about accidents during these days.  I did not tell them it was "Okay" or "Poor thing, etc".  I actually pointed to it and said "oh no you went peepy on the floor, it goes in toilet/potty".  I never scolded them for it, just informed them where it went.  Saying it is okay means it is okay to pee on the floor, which at our house, is not.

Day 4 and 5:  Underwear and clothes time
So now it is time to go all the way and just put them in underwear with clothes.  Still stick near the house, but you might be able to venture out especially if you invest in some thicker training undies (cloth training undies, no pull ups).  I used cloth pull ups when going out longer but honestly they were not heavily used.  You can start fading the rewards.  It was on this day that my girls sort of forgot about getting the rewards each time.

It may take longer then this too, or less time!

They will not magically tell you that they have to go to the potty in a week.  Some kids will, most will not.  Audrey started telling me consistently a few months after she was trained but she had less accidents then Celia who told me sooner.  So you will continue to have to take them to the potty on a schedule but after about 2 weeks for Audrey it was every 2 hrs, so really not that inconvenient.  Naps and night time come much later, so do not skip on diapers during that time.

Changes may or may not cause set backs, but I am in the opinion that if you are ready to potty train then you really should not put it off.  I have heard that many people give advice not to potty train a child if they are going to have a new brother or sister soon because they will regress anyway.  Well.. perhaps the advice may be that you will have your hands full with the newborn and may not have the availability to devote to potty training.  Regression from a new sibling can develop in any different area, not necessarily in potty training.  Honestly the attention a child gets for potty training is a lot and maybe devoting that during a time when attention otherwise has decreased is a good thing, not sure!  But if you are ready, go for it!!  3 weeks after Audrey was trained we took a 12 hr trip to Tennessee, it caused a 2 hr regression time and then we were back to normal.

This all said, if you fail the first time, don't give up.  Stop it, drop it, don't even mention it and come back to the task next month.  No harm done.

Oh and why I say basically to my strategy.  Well Audrey was a bit of an odd ball, she pooped on the potty at just a few months old.  That is a whole other post.  So honestly when it came time to training her, the pooping part was easy!!


Friday, February 8, 2013

Safety in the House





Now it really is rear facing until 30 lbs however I suppose you can make exceptions when it is inside the house.  Notice how she has her feet flexed up to support the pizza??  She honestly could play for a good half hour with the carseat.  I think it is hilarious as this is the child that the minute she saw her carseat as a baby she started screaming.  Audrey hated that carseat, okay Audrey did not appreciate life until recently, but the carseat was her nemesis for a very long time.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Fingerpainting





I have been very interested in trying to get Audrey to overcome all of her sensory issues even though she has come such a long way.  Okay.... Or...

Sometimes Celia and I get a bit bored.  When that happens, crazy things like this happen.

Monday, February 4, 2013

birth centers

I was very happy to see this new study come out about birthcenters. I have to put a disclaimer out there though. We chose to have birth at a free standing birthcenter, it is not right for everyone. I wanted as little interventions as possible and quite honestly, my experience with OBs was never great, but there are great OBs. I love my midwives. But the birth experience is really very individualized and your decisions where and how to birth are the only right ones ( unless you decide to do it in a parking lot, who does that?). This all said, I want to encourage those of you who are passionate about it to please support your local birth center. They provide not only maternity care but many, many other services.

While the whole nation has been watching the cesarean section rate and cost of maternity care climb ever-higher, midwife-led birth centers have been providing low-risk women with a safe, low-cost model of care with excellent outcomes and a c-section rate orders of magnitude lower than the national average.

The long-awaited National Birth Center Study II (Stapleton et al., 2013), published today in The Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health (the journal of the American College of Nurse Midwives), reported on outcomes of over 15,000 women planning to give birth at birth centers around the country between the years of 2007 and 2010. The American Association of Birth Centers has published an excellent summary of the study results for consumers.

Briefly, the main results showed:

84% of women who started labor at the birth center, had their babies at the birth center.
94% of women had vaginal births (whether they remained at the birth center or transferred to a hospital), with no evidence of compromised outcomes for babies. (That is, only 6% of women who started labor at a birth center had a cesarean birth.)
The national average is 32.8%. According to the authors, the national c-section rate for low-risk women comparable to this sample is 27%.
The fetal and neonatal death rate was extremely low and comparable to what has been reported in other studies of low-risk populations.

Why is this study important for consumers to know about? The overall number of birth centers has been growing over the last ten years. However, if you Google the phrase, “birth center closing,” you will see story after story of communities around the country despairing as their birth centers were closing their doors for all sorts of reasons.

In some states, the regulations for birth centers represent barriers to getting them started. In others, the financial or physician back-up structure was not sustainable. The loss of birth centers leaves significant gaps in the continuum of care options for women, leaving them to choose care that is not optimally suited to their situation.

The solution to lowering the cesarean section rate and the astronomical maternity care costs in this country will be multifaceted, for sure. Today we have been given empirical evidence that support for birth centers, with their low-cost and excellent outcomes, should be a substantial piece of the equation.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Fun with photo booth





Celia and I had some fun with our new MacBook Pro!  It is awesome to have a computer that starts up in less then 20 min and opens applications consistently, or even runs for that matter!!  Poor Celia suffered from her first case of strep throat this past Thursday.  She had a very sore throat and a high fever by the time the doctor saw her.  Pete took her and was texting me during the visit.   I suspected strep right away and was fearful that the doctor would just say it was virus/flu and not test her.  The doctor actually did not think it was strep but cultured her throat just in case and we are glad.  Two doses of antibiotics and Celia was 100% except for a small appetite.  By last night the appetite was back.  With all that is going on, I actually was very happy that it was something that could be treated and be done with quickly.  She has 2 birthday parties this weekend so she is excited that she can go!!