double trouble mom

I will start by saying we have gone quite a while with a sick free home and hope we can make it the rest of the winter. 
Last week the girls were without daycare.  My daycare provider had surgery and was out of commission for a week so the girls were blessed with grandma 2 1/2 days and daddy the other 1 1/2 days. Before Ryans days off he would tell me how lucky he was to have 2 days off work and how he felt bad I was having to work.  I reminded him that he had yet to have a day home with the girls and I will ask him Fri how things are going not working.  Well come Thur he was already tired and cranky from a long day at home with 2 kids who would much rather be playing with their friends. 
In all reality he did quite well and even had some tea time in with the girls.  The best was when I left them Thur am with Annie playing.  The girls now have a new favorite movie - Annie.  This is one of mommies favorite so I don’t mind.

Did I mention that I started really potty training the girls the Sat. before their week at home?  I think Ryan did 10 loads of laundry.  They week started off with Emily really getting the hang of things and she was all for sitting on the potty.  Erika was more like yah what ever.  She would sit there for 10 min telling me she needed to poopie.  I was and still am afraid she is going to give herself hemorrhoids or something.  She still will sit on the potty forever if we let her.  The week at home and potty training went pretty well.  Accidents, yes of course but that is expected.  But really it was all about getting them used to the idea of not going when ever they feel the need.

Over the weekend they did AWESOME.  Erika went all Sat and Sun with no accidents.  Its like a light went off and she gets it.  She does a potty dance and tells me potty.  Grabs herself and runs off to the potty.  She needs some help in there, mostly making sure things get wiped and put where needed.  Emily on the other hand has given up.  One min. she is good to go and does the potty the next it’s like she could care less.  So all week Erika has had very very minimal accidents and Emily more frequent but still not as bad as week 1 was. 

There are a few things expecting mothers or mothers getting geared up for potty training should know.
1) buy lots of extra panties - Wal-Mart has the best deal on a 10 pack
2) buy lots of sweat pants so they are easy to pull down and up - and pack in a bag when you out and about
3) bring extra panties and pants when out and about - learned this one the hard way
4) extra toilet paper is needed - they constantly wipe and use the whole roll in one wipe if you don’t watch them
5) your water bill will go up due to the amount of flushing  - don’t get me started
5) we stared with gum as a reward and wish we would of started with money - to them a nickel is the greatest thing and in the end I would spend less.  Between them and Ryan eating the gum it’s crazy.  Plus there are all the issues with giving a 2yr old gum.
6) BE PATIENT - sitting with a kid in the bathroom while they try to go #2 could take FOREVER.
7) do not let the child empty the potty cup thing themselves.  We did once and now we can’t stop them.  I have had pee dumped on me at least 3 times.

I hope this gives you a little insight into the life of a potty training mom.

On another note - cute things the girls have done lately.

We were looking at pictures the other day.  I have some of me as a kid and when I showed them to the girls they both said Erika.  In my opinion I look just like her.  I will try to post our picts so you can see.   They also recognized my mom as grandma at an age when I was just born (29 yrs ago).  Another photo was of my older brother at about 4 or 5 and they said it was Jackson, who is their cousin. 
Go to my photos to see a few I’ve loaded.

I said shut up the other day and right after that Emily said shut up to Erika.  I told Emily we don’t say that and it’s not nice.  She looked at me and said ‘mommy said it’.  I had to refrain from laughing and tell her that I was sorry and mommy shouldn’t say it.  She is 2 and put mommy in her place.   By the way she still says shut up but I never know if it’s really shut up or sit up she is saying to her dolly. 

Erika’s big thing lately is her dolls, animals and anything she can put in her pack n play.  They received their size pack n plays for their babies.  Ever since Erika has decided its a great way to carry around all her animals and babies.  She will pack that thing full and heft it around the house, make us put it in bed with her.  She will even wake up in the morning and haul it into our room so I can put it up on the bed while we watch our morning cartoons.