old man winter

About this time of year, most Minnesotans are thinking the same thing. Old Man Winter can suck it.

While most people are planning a winter destination for St. Martin or Riviera Playa del something, we are still stuck in Minnesota. So, we thought we'd embrace it this weekend with a trip to the St. Paul Winter Carnival's Grand Day Parade.

I never knew so many Minnesotans were so crazy. Yes, it was in the high twenties. And yes, the sun was part way out. But, it was still cold. And we were still standing outside watching a parade in the dead of winter, with very few people encouraging us with candy. Crazy. But also a little bit fun. Maybe this is why we live here. So we can show people what we're made of. Who knows.  

I do know that we were all eyeing the skyway after about ten minutes of the cold weather. 

 

Especially miss Kiley, who was all bundled up and didn't know what was going on. Poor thing just wanted to take a nap to recover from her night at Chuck E Cheeses. (Yes, we are such a fun family that we had an impromptu evening at the fine establishment in South St. Paul. We had a record 362 tickets, two tootsie-pops, a dinasour and a clacker toy to show for it.)

Jaxon also enjoyed it much better from the skyway. He could sit and eat a snack all while waving and talking to the people in the parade.

So, I guess I would say to Old Man Winter, you can still suck it. But thank you for this fun day and for your fun way of getting us Minnesotans to do silly things, like watch parades when it's 20 degrees out. Now, you can book me a trip to somewhere warm as soon as you'd like. Or just invite your friend Miss Spring over to visit. Soon!

Croupy rites of passage

There are many rites of passages for parents. Dealing with the first major blowout. Traveling on an airplane wiht a baby. Finding daycare for your children. That first sick day you take to be with your sick child. But, one that everyone warned me about, I guess I never thought I would have to deal with. At least not for a few years till Jaxon broke an arm or leg or something.

The first ER visit.

It started with a visit to the urgent care on Wednesday night for Kiley. She had a bad cough and with strept going around at daycare, we decided we better get it checked out. She'd been having some difficulty breathing, lots of phlegmy coughs, hadn't been eating well, and was sent home from daycare earlier that day. I didn't like the look on the doctor's face when he checked her out. I guess I knew, but wanted to think he would say something else. Something other than, 'go to the ER. Don't dawdle. You have a long night ahead of you.' I mean, who wants to hear that, really?

As the tears were welling up, I tried my best to listen to this doctor tell me about my daughter's airways and how tiny they were and how we shouldn't take the chance of going home, etc.

And so, on our way we went to the Emergency Room at Fairview University Children's Hospital.

It was actually my first ER experience, that I remember. I envisioned gunshot wounds, pain med seekers, and lots of kids with ear infections. It was actually relatively quiet. But it was a Wednesday I guess.

They got us a 'room' (an alcove with a curtain) right away, some snacks and toys for Jaxon, and began checking out Kiley. The resident and pediatric physician determined she had a bad case of the croup. After a few hours, some steroid medication and nebulizer to open up her airways, some more juice and snacks for Jaxon, we were on our way home.

Seeing that tiny little wristband for Kiley, holding the 'elephant mask' over her face, and watching monitors... if these are rites of passage for new parents, I hope we've passed the test and don't have to go through them again.

the potty times

Ah yes. The potty times. Are these the days I'm going to look back on fondly, thinking, I wish those days had lasted longer?

Probably not.

But, for now, I will try to suck it up and enjoy the humor of it all. I will just say, nobody warned us quite enough about potty training. Perhaps I'm just a wus, but I really didn't know I'd be getting more familiar with feces than I already was.

Jaxon has learned to stand there and just spread 'em. At least he doesn't fight it anymore. However the challenge is actually getting him to the potty. Which I'm not sure why- it's so inviting with the books and magazines all over the floor.

I'm pretty good at spotting the telltale signs of legs crossed, dancing around, and squatting with a grimace. I've only raised and nurtured him for three years, I should at least know those things. But, every time I ask- 'Jaxon, you look like you need to go potty' I am met with the same response:

'Nope. I'm good.'.

This weekend I learned what those plastic liners are for. Puddles. They are for puddles. We try to use these more now that we know.

 But, we're getting better. I think we're at laundry every other night now and only was sent home two pairs of wet clothes today, so that is progress. Apparently at daycare today, Jaxon told Nancy he had a poo-poo but he was saving it for mommy. Now, isn't that sweet?? It may have something to do with our treat stash. We've got worms and M&M's (right next to the toothbrush of course), and a whole slew of stickers.

Some say not to bribe. I say it's an incentive.

You'd pee for a worm and poop for two wouldn't you?

Potty Time

This week at daycare, Jaxon and two other girls his age started potty training. Having no clue what I am doing, I did a quick read of 'Stress Free Potty Training' and tried to determine whether Jaxon is goal-directed or impulsive. The whole method centers around what kind of kid you have. I decided he was impulsive.

And after putting this whole process off for way too long, we decided, it was time. Potty time.

I think we've known for awhile that Jaxon was ready. He shows a lot of, not all of, but a lot of the signs. He's actually gone potty on his potty chair many times already in fact, so we know he knows what to do. When we visited our doctor for his three year check-up, she essentially told us we were going to need to go cold turkey on the diapers, not even have them in the house as an option, because he was just too smart for us.

So, always the compliant one, I did as she said.

It really started on Thursday night. We made a really special trip to Babies R Us to get a new potty, one that Jaxon could pick out. He picked a race car potty that revs up it's engine when you 'flush' it. Now, why I got the plain one the first time around, I have no idea. This one makes noise!

We also bought some big boy underwear that Jaxon got to pick out. I told him no more diapers starting Friday. He was very excited. We got dressed that morning in his new underwear. Of course, I packed two extras and two extra pairs of pants for daycare, thinking he would get it right away, but that he might have one or two accidents...

As I was saying goodbye to him at daycare, he came to give me a big hug and we noticed he was wet. Good thing I'd brought a change of clothes I thought. I get a call from Nancy at noon-- 'Uh, Brenna. We've been through all his clothes and I know you don't want him in diapers, but I'm not sure what else to do...'. Okay, so Plan B. Diapers just until we get him home.

Saturday, day 2.
Fecal fiasco.

I knew there would be a little bit of clean up involved with the Duece. But seriously. I did not know I'd be scrubbing my fingernails (and Jaxon's) and cleaning toilet seats in the sink. We went through six pairs of pants and underpants in about two hours that morning. Jaxon just kept peeing, but never quite got to the potty.

Then, I noticed his crouching in the corner and hurried him to the potty, thinking, if we can't get the pee at least let's get the poo! And we did. Three times that morning. I was very proud of him.

But, I was also ready to throw in the towel on the pee. We ended the day with pull-ups. Partly because I felt defeated and wanted to give up, and partly because we had no more clean clothes.

Sunday, day 3.
I woke up, renewed and refreshed, ready to try again. I had him hurry to the potty so we could pee before we eat breakfast. And he did! And we did a dance and got so excited and had a treat for making pee. So, we started the day with a Hershey's Kiss and new clean underwear.

And, I am proud to say, that he has gone four times on the potty today and only one accident so far. I think Nancy is going to kill me tomorrow. She uses stickers for rewards and I've been using chocolate. I felt like things were going to slow for me (and really, it is all about me), so I needed to pull out the big guns. Seems to have worked.

For now. Day's not over yet...

resolved to be unresolved

So, it is that time of year. Everyone is making new year's resolutions. Or not. And everyone has a reason for doing so. Or not.

I realized that last year, I made some resolutions up for Jaxon- things that he would be thinking. Here they are in case you forgot:

• Learn to go potty by myself (okay, this is mom's resolution for me)
• Eat more vegetables (another one of mom's resolutions for me!)
• Be the best big brother I can to my new little sister or brother this summer!

So, looks like we are at about 30%... Not sure if that's considered good or bad in the resolution world.

Funny, we are just embarking on the first one (a whole nother blog post), using bribes for the second one (balancing chocolate with vegetables is something our doctor taught us if you beleive that!) and doing great on the third one.

For the past several years, I've been writing out 'goals' rather than resolutions. I make them for each part of my life- home, work, family, and what I call the 'me' goals. Most of the time, I meet about 75% of my goals. And I re-write them half-way through the year if I know they are way off base.

This year. I have no clue. I think I might try flying by the seat of my pants. Or perhaps I'll see if I can accomplish 50% of what is on my to do list each day and be satisfied in that. Or maybe, I'll just keep setting resolutions for my kids:

• Jaxon will be potty trained by the end of this year, if not the end of this weekend.
• Kiley will get some teeth to prove she is actually teething and not just irritable.
• Kiley will finally start crawling so she can get what she wants so she can also stop being irritable.
• And, Jaxon will eat more vegetables, even if I have to break out my food chopper and puree them into his food so he doesn't know it.  

Mostly, I think it is going to be a great year, with lots of fun, happy moments to come. I'm looking forward to appreciating each day, each smile, each moment of joy. And, really looking forward to dropping a diaper bill.

 

 

More Christmas Spirit

Well, I am playing a bit of catch up this week, so look for multiple posts. I wanted to share a few pictures from our Christmas weekend. Scott and I both had Christmas Eve off of work, so we ended up having our small family Christmas that morning before driving up to Fargo. We opened up a few gifts, including this one from California-- thanks Carol and Jeri! You will be excited to know, that as soon as Jaxon opened this up, he said 'Go Raiders!'. Scott has him trained well. We also LOVE the stocking for Kiley. Jaxon was so excited that it matched his. It is a beautiful treasure our family will have forever. THANK YOU!!



We arrived in Fargo just in time for dinner and some games. Jaxon got a new toy from his great grandparents- somehow they evaded the camera, yet again- it was a big hit. We must have played with that Buzz Lightyear Rocket for over an hour. Sometimes I have to hide it at home because Buzz needs to take a nap... he is exhausting!

Then, that night, we decided we should put out some cookies for Santa Claus. But he needs milk too!

And we also had to put something in our belly so we could pretend to be Santa. Because that's what you do when you're three.

You pretend.

And make things up.

All the time.

Kiley really enjoyed herself this weekend too. She had lots of paper to chew on. Look at those eyes. She's watching you. Making sure you're not going to take her paper away from her. Girl's got paper to eat!

All weekend, we kept saying, let's get a picture of the four of us (Scott and I and the kids.). It's been forever since the four of us have had a picture. Well, we never got one. But we did get these oh so sweet photos of grandma and grandpa with Kiley and Jaxon. They make me smile ;-)

And Kiley got to see what it's like being five feet taller. I think she liked it up there. Can I just say- cute?

So cute.

Oh, and Jaxon. Well, he became Super Jaxon. Thanks to Grandma Barb who sewed him a cape with 'Super Jaxon' on the back. He can now fight dinosaurs and dragons, and all sorts of scary things!

All in all, we had an excellent time in the West Fargo and we are so happy we made it back there this year.