Broken Toe?

So, how do you know if your big toe is broken? I don't really know, but my big toe sure feels broken -- or really, REALLY bruised! As daddy was leaving today, the toddler and I stood in the front room waving goodbye. See, he is usally out the door by 6AM, but today he was able to work a couple of hours from home before heading out to a meeting.

So, as we were waving bye to him, I went to move a table top and table leaf out of the way of the window, so we could get a better view of daddy in his car. As I was moving the table leaf, it fell to the floor and directly on my big toe -- OUCH! I started screaming and crying in so much pain. The toddler's response, (in a quiet, cute little girl-way) "oh mommy, I'm so sorry. It's going to be okay, let me hold you".

That did make me feel a bit better, I must admit.

The toe started swelling up and the nail started turning blue and purple right away. I could bend it though, so I'm not too worried. The problem: the toddler keeps stumbling into me all day and has stepped on that exact toe 3 times already!!! OUCH!!!

I really don't think they can do anything for a broken toe....just let it heal. I may have to sneak into the x-ray department tomorrow at work and see if I can fanagle an x-ray of my toe....

typing....

I've always liked to type -- I took a typing class in grade school and I think I was the fastest typer -- at least that's what I remember in my mind.

How good are you?


69 words

Speedtest

charts, charts and more charts!

I don't know about anyone else out there -- or those of you that have older children, but life around our house these days revolve around some sort of chart:

This is the chart we used (we have created a new one) when we began potty training -- one sticker for every successful mission on the potty. We have a sticker chart for when we (and when I say we, I mean the toddler) brush our teeth nicely -- meaning without throwing some sort of fit. We have the 'please' chart -- one sticker for everytime the toddler says please without having to be asked.

I know -- charts, charts, charts! Part of this is killing me, I mean -- shouldn't my daughter just know how to act respectfully? Shouldn't she just realized that it makes mommy and daddy mad and frustrated when she takes like 20 minutes to finally agree to brush her teeth? Shouldn't she just feel rewarded by going on the potty and not in a diaper?

No -- she doesn't get all of that. Sometimes I feel like I am bribbing my daughter too much, leading her down a path where she demands rewards for doing every little thing. But then, I hear her saying "please" quite often these days and she doesn't ask for a sticker (and I don't offer, unless she asks). She goes potty without a sticker sometimes -- even though she knows that when she fills the chart she gets a new book.

It's constant battle of bribbery and negotiating around here at our house, and it's starting to wear me down!

Please, someone tell me parenting gets easier? PLEASE someone tell me that I'm not going insane and I will make it out of this phase soon!!

"the sun will come out tomorrow"

Oh, I do hope the sun will come out.....this was our day today:

windy, rainy, crabby...

and we came home to this: LOTS of standing water in our front yard. Luckily, we live on an acre of land, so this is in the way front of the yard -- by the road and we don't have any standing water right up by our house.

What makes me happy?

Surely, not this...
Since moving to our new house, I have gone through at least 10 pairs of socks -- that's 10 pairs of socks in 4 months! I have never had this problem before -- is it that my socks are just at an age where they are wearing out? Is it my tennis shoes that I wear on a daily basis that are at least 2 years old? Is it the tile floor we have -- where we had linoleum before? I don't know, but it really doesn't make me happy.

THIS makes me HAPPY! The toddler daughter with her daddy, reading books! You see, the daddy and daughter only get to see each other for maybe, on average, a hour a day. Daddy leaves for work before anyone is awake (even the cat) and sometimes gets home by 6:30PM, but more often than not, gets home after 7PM and the toddler should go to bed by 7:30PM.

So, this in turn makes the toddler daughter prefer her mommy and when the daddy is home, I like to get a little break from the constant toddler requests and desparate needs for attention.

THIS makes me happy -- to see my daughter playing with her daddy and enjoying her time with him.

What makes you happy?

A little story about love...

The almost-3-year old is just SO much fun these days -- don't get me wrong, we still have our moments of tantrum and pushing all of mommy and daddy's buttons, but 75% of the time we have a good time around here.

I was getting ready this morning to go to work and the toddler found my old jewelry box. I have all sorts of 'pretty things' in there -- ranging from childhood keepsakes to the first ring my husband (my then boyfriend) gave me.

She found a small silver ring with the words "faith" imprinted around the band and she asked me about this ring....here's the conversation:

toddler: "Mommy, look at this pretty ring."
me: "Yes, you know what? That's the ring mommy wore when you were in her tummy"

{I gained a nice amount of weight and my fingers swelled up and I could no longer wear my wedding ring, so I found a nice silver ring to wear}

toddler: "oh"

{after some searching, the toddler then finds a little Strawberry Shortcake ring I had growing up}

toddler: "Mommy, this is the ring that daddy wore when Poohkie (our cat) was in daddy's tummy, right?"

Now, doesn't that just make you smile? I story of true love -- the innocence of a toddler. Everything I think of that conversation, my heart beams.

Updates on the training....

I know you all think I have some magic wand and once we started potty training it was free-sailing from here....well, think again.

Update from today:
going in the potty: 5 accidents: 3

WHAT? Where did all those accidents come from? We had a friend and her 2 girls over today and one of the accidents happened when they were playing and I think my daughter just forgot about going to the bathroom.

The second accident -- she was playing a game by herself after her friends left and all of a sudden, I hear, "mom, I'm going pee".

The third accident -- we're sitting at the table eating lunch and she does some sort of acrobatic move -- balancing herself between the back of the chair and the top of the table and says, "mom, I need to go to the bathroom" and proceeds to pee on the chair and the floor!

Now, I haven't read any potty training books (you would know my opinions on said books from reading a previous post), but I do have enough common sense and mom-sense to know that I shouldn't get mad at her for having an accident -- but, do you know how hard that is? I bit my tongue and said, "Oh, accidents happen. Next time we'll try to get to the potty faster" It killed me to have to clean up toddler urine from under the kitchen table.

I guess it could have been worse -- the accidents were on tile floor and not our new carpet!

Back to the trainer being trained by the trainee.....

...another bouce-y birthday!

So, our 2nd birthday party of the weekend was at the same location as the first party....Bouncetown. Going there 2 days in a row was a bit much, but we had fun nonetheless!

Here the toddler daughter and her 'just-like-a-sister', Holly (she's the babysitter's daughter) -- climbing a very steep ladder. Just about 2 months ago, our daughter couldn't climb this 'wall' and she needed our help on practically every jumpy aparatus. This time -- she was "I can do it myself"!!

The toddler daughter and 'just-like-a-brother', Bradley & Holly -- getting ready to go down the slide!

Runny around with Cooper, the birthday boy and little Lainey & her mom not far behind!

This little curly-haired cutie is Cullen. Our daughter and Cullen will be going to preschool together in the fall. This was really the first time they've spent some time together --- two almost-3 year olds don't really understand, "you'll be going to school together in the fall" -- it didn't phase them a bit!

A bouncy-fun time!

We were invited to 2 birthday parties this weekend......@ the same location!! Bouncetown -- I guess there are other places called Pump-It-Up which is the same concept. It's a large warehouse type location with large inflatable bounce houses and slides, etc.

The first party was for a 5 year old of one of my husband's friends from a previous employer -- we've kept in contact pretty well. Our daughter was infatuated with this 5 year old boy today -- running around asking, "where's Thomas?", "I need to find Thomas". Once she found him, she tried to get him to play with her, "Thomas, do you want to play with me?". Unfortunately, Thomas invited all his playmates from daycare -- other 5 year olds. Our almost 3 year old daughter was just not 'cool' enough for him! So, she was shot down time after time, but she persisted and finally got him to sit for a picture with her:


Here is the toddler and daddy running and bouncing around .

Here's a giant slide -- WHEE!!!!

Being chased by daddy...
...getting ready to fall.

On a side note, this was our first 'adventure' out in public for an extended period of time with no diaper -- all's well, no accidents. Well, let me clarify that -- no accidents while out and about. The potty trainee fell asleep on the car ride home and we let her sleep in the car for ~ 1/2 hour -- BIG mistake -- we had an accident! I guess the potty trainee taught the potty trainers a lesson there.

Happy Birthday....to me

It was my big 3-1 birthday on the 1st. I'm not a big birthday person -- it's really just another day on my calendar -- I actually forgot it was my birthday until my husband was leaving for work and he came and told me "happy birthday". My response: "oh, yeah I forgot". This year all I wanted for my birthday was for my husband to take our daughter shopping and pick out something for me. They went shopping and these are the lovely gifts I received:

A table-top pool table, plastic necklaces, My Little Pony stickers, birthday confetti & Brach's conversation hearts - now that's one special birthday!

My husband said that when they were shopping, the toddler just kept saying, "I know mommy would love this!" She did well keeping the surprise -- they went shopping a week before I opened gifts. The only gift she kinda told me about -- the pony stickers -- she really wanted them one day and I had no idea what she was talking about!!

Potty Training update & tips:

Today we awoke and got ready to go to the babysitters -- we leave (or attempt to leave) at 7:15AM on the days that I work -- I'm finding out that as my daughter gets older, I need to allow more morning time.

This morning we did our normal routine, but she wanted to wear her underwear!! WHAT? You want to wear underwear to the babysitters? I thought this was a crazy idea -- I mean, we've really only focused on potty training for 2 days now. But, I thought -- what the heck -- we'll give it a whirl. So, I made her sit on the potty before we left (hence, needing more time in the morning now). She picked out which Diego undies she wanted.

{sidenote: yes -- she picked out Diego undies, and yes, they are boys underwear, but that's okay with me -- I'm one of those moms that doesn't push the princess stuff nor put her hair in all those sparkly bows -- I'm a tom-boy mom and proud of it -- so, if she wants underwear with a little flap in the front, that's fine with me and we're not telling her that they are boys underwear. I had to stop my husband from telling her they were for boys -- he ACTUALLY said, "aren't those boys underwear?" I shot him the glare and he got the picture!}

Back to the story -- so we head to the babysitters in underwear and I warn the babysitter that we have underwear on and there are extra clothes in her bag. I go to work, all is good. I return to the sitter's house -- MY DAUGTER HAS THE SAME CLOTHES ON THAT I DROPPED HER OFF IN!!!!

She went potty 7 times at the sitter's and had NO accidents!! :) Now, that's what I call CRAZY...

I've had several people ask me what are my 'tricks' for the success (knock on wood) with our training process. Why are people asking me? I mean, I really don't know what I'm doing in this whole parenting department, but here is goes:

The We Are Reilly tips for potty training:

1. we waited until the toddler daughter was good and ready -- she's 34 months old, so by some people's standard in the potty training world, she's too old! I've been asking her for ~6 months now, "do you want to go potty", when I can tell she's going in her diaper. I've invited her to go potty with me or watch me go potty for, well, about 2 years now -- I'm a very open potty-person when it comes to my own house with no guests.

2. the above 'tip' was rarely successful in our house -- she said "no" 100% of the time to my question of "do you want to go potty". I have been letting her run around without a diaper, what we like to call here 'nakey-butts', for probably the same ~6 month time frame. When she was without a diaper, we had NO accidents -- she was very good at running to the potty.

3. rewards worked well for our daughter -- yes, I gave her chocolate to go potty -- I know a 'no-no' in the aforementioned potty training world. You shouldn't give your child food as a reward, it will teach them to eat, eat, and over eat -- blah, blah, blah. It worked for us, so there!

4. recently, which has aided to much of our success, if not 100% of the reason for having success -- WE STAYED HOME! I work part-time outside of the house, so on my days off of work we run to the grocery store, the post office, to the park district, playdates, mom's group, etc. So, for the first Monday and Wednesday (my days off of work) in ~6 months, we stayed put and focused on potty training. I cleared my agenda for the day and focused 100% of my attention on my daughter and her undies, potty chair and potty chart. We moved the potty chair into the living room (another 'no-no' in the potty training world), made a tent, read books and went to business.

5. I also gave her lots of milk, water and juice -- a real treat! I am not a juice-mom, we just don't have it at our house. I have mixed emotions on juice and I'd rather not have it around, but for this special event in our lives, I broke out the sugar free pink lemonade -- and she LOVES it!

6. we have a potty chart with a known reward once the chart is filled. She gets one sticker for each pee-pee or poopie in the potty. Once the chart is filled, she gets a Wiggles book (bought them on e-bay for $1). It's been a huge incentive for her!

So, there you have it -- my 'tips'. Now, I really don't think I've done anything different or have any sort of magic wand to help, but one thing I am also a firm believer in -- DON'T READ THE BOOKS -- there are so many books out there written by 'experts' in one area of parenting or another -- but, those experts are not the parent of your child. Your child is unique and you just really need to clear your agenda and focus a little time on your child and follow your heart and your gut and your stomach! :) It also helps to have a good support of experienced moms in your life -- this is where I get most of my education -- not those silly books.

Potty Training: day 2

I am one of those moms who works-out-of-the-home, part-time, so that makes it that much more difficult to do this whole potty-training thing I'm being 'called' to lead with my toddler daughter. Yesterday, she went to the sitters and she went potty once at her house -- this is BIG news around here! She has never went potty at their house -- we're making progress.

So, today -- one of my days off, we attempted to tackle the potty training situation again. We picked out some Dora undies and off we go! The darling daughter found some yummy Dora & Diego chocolates that her Grammy (my mom) got her for Christmas. I was putting those away for some other day -- or maybe just the garbage! (I like to try to steer clear of unnecessary sugar) Well, she found them and I figured we could use them for rewards for using the potty today.

Boy -- did that work wonders! She went pee on the potty 4 times in a matter of an hour -- all for the love of chocolate -- do you blame her?


Daddy worked from home today, due to more snow, ice and wind (don't you just love midwest winters?), so we decided to brave the elements and head out to lunch. While we were at lunch -- the toddler says, "mommy, I have to go potty!". So we run to the potty and by-golly, she actually goes!!

Now, that's some proud momma moments I tell you!

Potty Score for the morning: in the potty: 7, accidents: 1

Wordless Wednesday

Making Valentine's:

(for more Wordless Wednesdays, go here)

My day in pictures

I saw this cute blog post here and thought I would give it a try for today. Today was our first day in a LONG time that we had nothing planned! So, I decided to break out the Dora undies and take a stab at potty training:


We made a tent -- see it in the background? Placed the potty chair (vintage -- my husband's potty chair when he was a little boy!) out front and read some books -- read LOTS of books today. The potty training wasn't too bad for a morning -- pee in the potty: 4, pee in the pants: 1

We played a little ball on the couch...

And we collected rain water in buckets and tupperware and anything that will hold dripping water. See, we have this little problem with our new house -- it leaks! There is some ice and snow on the roof and now it's raining outside so some of the snow is melting and leaking into our house -- I guess there's something called an 'ice dam' out there -- at least that's what my husband tells me.

I just collect the water.

SNOW?

Is there such a thing as too much snow? I think there just might be. Here's what I found outside our back porch this AM: remember that cardinal the other day in the bush? Well, I'm sure that poor thing wouldn't be able to find the birdseed in this feeder today -- we got about 8 inches of snow last night and it's piled up EVERYWHERE!


Today at the babysitter's house -- they all played out in the snow. Our toddler daughter isn't too much into outdoor adventure, but I figured with all the kids home from school, she might like to go out and play with them -- so, we packed the snow gear!

Here are the '2 Amigos' -- standing on the tallest pile of snow they could find!

Too bad I had to go to work...I would have liked a snow day too! :(