Vacation Pics

I realize that I promised some vacation photos and had yet to fulfill my promise. So, here they are! There are many more, but I'm going to let Mike tell you about snowmobiling in Seward with the girls.

This first pic is of a bald eagle Madi spotted perched outside of the SeaLife center in Seward. It was the closest we've come to one since our arrival here almost two years ago.


This is a picture taken by Mike of the Seward Harbor, as seen from one of the mountains he went snowmobiling on. It was sunrise when he took this photo. Beautiful isn't it?


This picture was taken by Mike at the SeaLife center. Who's entertaining who?


This last photo is of Madison blowing a huge bubble at the Imaginarium in Anchorage. They had a great time there, but it's nothing like COSI!


We are still doing pottytraining with Ethan and this is "training week". Hopefully by the end of this week, other than having a severe case of cabin fever, Ethan will be completely day trained and we will start with the night training. Wish us luck!

vacation, potty progress, and pretty kitty

If you were wondering what happened to us, we have been very busy. Last Sunday we left with the Jurva family for spring break. We went to Anchorage and then on to Seward. It was a lot of fun and very exhausting, though I'm not sure why...we did a lot of relaxing! Anyway, lots of great pics will be coming soon so stay tuned!

UPDATES:
Ethan has been doing such a good job with this potty training! I am very proud of him. It seems like every time I work with him, he progresses even more. Love It!


"Can I get that to go?"

We recently adopted a stray cat. She was found outside of our house a couple of weeks ago, and the girls refused to come inside until I agreed to take her in and find her a home. Madison called her Frostbite. Little did I know that the home she would be going to would be ours. No one else could take her, so after a clean bill of health from the vet, Mike and I agreed that she could stay. She has been tolerating Raven and visa versa. The kids just love her. We let the girls name her, and after much deliberation and a lot of disagreements, they finally agreed on the name Mimzy. Welcome to the family Mims!

Mommy Mondays Buddy Post: Potty Training

Okay, so here it goes. My friend Erin Cobb has started a Mommy Mondays post and the current topic is potty training. Since we are smack-dab in the middle of training Ethan right now, I thought it would be good for me to share my ups and downs with all of you. Please check out the Cobb's blog under our "Favorite Family Blogs" in the right hand column.

I am no genius when it comes to potty training kids. I am training my third child now and I still feel like I'm doing it for the first time. I have learned that all children potty train differently and in their own time. That said, I also believe there is a short window of time in which potty training your child will be the easiest. If you start too soon or begin too late you will only make it more difficult for you and your child.

When is the right time? I don't have an exact answer only to say to trust your instincts and follow your child's readiness cues. If they aren't even talking about the potty and still don't understand what to do in it, then it's too soon. If they are asking for new diapers so they can mess in them, they are probably ready. If they are getting ready to go to Kindergarten and they are wearing pull-ups off and on, you've probably waited too long (unless there's a medical reason) and you need to push a little harder.

I think motivation is key. It really doesn't bother a child who has been wearing diapers throughout their short little life to continue wearing them, so what's in it for them? You really have to think like this and try to put yourself in your child's shoes. What motivates one child won't motivate another. Some kids love sweet treats, others love presents. Some love stickers, others love videos. What is your child's favorite special activity? If you can't decide, then maybe you need to incorporate them all, changing the "Potty Surprise" every time they use the potty. Reward jars are great for the kids who will respect the jar and not try to sneak things out of it. That would never work for my son, Ethan.

My oldest daughter hated to be wet. After doing the sometimes pottying sometimes not thing for a while, I finally committed to big girl undies and started it out for a few hours each day. Every day I added more time in the big girl undies, less time in the pull-ups. After a few wet accidents, she decided that she was always going to use the potty. She night trained at the same time, only because she slept all night in big girl underwear (oops! Thought we put a pull-up on her!) and stayed dry. After that, it was a breeze. Big lesson from her was, always, always, bring a change of clothes with you when you go out. Had a couple of #1 accidents in Wal-Mart that first year. It started to look like she was just trying to get new clothes out of me!

My second daughter was much, much different. She could care less if she wet her underwear. I tried everything I could think of to make it fun for her, but she was still having a lot of accidents. Finally, I bought a new kind of cookie and brought them home. I declared, "Everyone who pee-pees in the potty today gets a cookie!" Madi said, "I want a cookie!" I told she had to go in the potty and she told me "NO!" About an hour later, after Daddy, Cassy, and Mommy had all had their cookies she ran to the bathroom, sat on the potty, did her business and said, "Can I have a cookie now?" After that we didn't have anymore problems. It took a little longer to night-train her, but once we cut back the drinks in the evenings, she was soon out of pull-ups all together.

With Ethan my most difficult task was getting him over the hump of actually using the potty for the first time. He would sit on it, but not go. He finally did (check out my 02/28/08 post) and now we are at that place where he really just needs continual motivation to keep it going. It's hard when you're involved in other things, but I'm doing my best. I will keep you all posted! I have to say, though, things with Ethan started a lot like Sarah Cobb's experience, I introduced it early on and he refused. Then the other day I just had this feeling that we could do it this time, so I asked him if he wanted to try and much to my surprise he said "YES!" He finally went and now we are on our way. Still a long way to go, but we finally left "START":)