Potty Training; "official" attempt #1

So, I am really tired of changing Ryan's poopy diapers, and all diapers for that matter. I guess now that I have two in diapers, I'm just ready for one of them to be done! So, I think Ryan is smart enough, and maybe ready, so I gave it a shot. His little girlfriend Macee is also potty trained. I came up with a plan, based on my cousin Effie's posts, and went for it.

Here was the plan:

I bought a package of gumballs from Wal Mart and took them home as "potty treats", or "potty gum". I told Ryan that he could have one if he went in the potty.

I bought two packages of undies, one is Disney's Cars, of course, and the other is motor cycles or something like that.

So, I told Ryan the plan and set out to achieve our first day of potty training.

Well, the first day was less than successful. He never went in the toilet and twice I was about to take him when he went in his undies, but no poopies!

The second day was even worse, no success in the toilet and a poopy in the undies.

Well, I think we'll wait a little longer to give it another attempt.

Ideas? Hints? Suggestions?

Daddy says, we should wait till he turns three. We are definitely waiting a little while longer. This week, we're going to tackle the bedtime battle that's been going on since Christmas.

Second-time around

As a second-time mommy, there are a few little gadgets and gizmo's, toys and tricks, that I'd like to try out this time. One of those, was a baby wrap. And, I was so lucky as to have a wonderful friend,Teresa, make me one of my very own! Thank you, Thank you! She came to visit and taught me how to "wear my baby". So, I'm just new to the whole wrap thing, but on my first try, I took a picture of myself wearing baby Evan. I think I tied it on too low though, and he was kind of sitting a bit too low in the device. Probably because I just have NO TORSO whatsoever. Anyway, this one was patterned after the Moby Wrap.
I was also really wanting a shopping cart cover for when Evan can sit up, and my co-workers just happened to buy one for me at my mini-shower. I am so excited to try this thing out, maybe a few months down the road.
Other things I'm looking forward to purchasing this time-around are:
- Jack and Lily shoes these are so cute and I have a few pair picked out that I'm dying to buy
- the bumbo chair my cousin Cheryl says that this is a must-have, and it just looks like too much fun
- and a changing pad for all of those diapers that I've been changing. (No luck getting Ryan potty trained yet.)
Any other items I should add to my list?

2 week check-up

I took Evan in for his two-week check up today. He turned two weeks on Friday of last week. At this check-up basically, all they do is a weight check and then run the PKU screening. I was told that this is a screening for all kinds of diseases including metabolic disorders etc.

Evan weighs 9 pounds (70th percentile).
He is measuring 22.25 inches long (90th percentile).
and his head measurement was ... I don't remember but it was 25th percentile.
So basically, he's a big kid but has a tiny head.

I can't help but find myself comparing him to his older brother all of the time. What else do I know though, than my experience with Ryan? Anyway, Ryan was never above 50th percentile in height so Evan is for sure taller. And he did start out large in the weight department but didn't gain back his birth-weight quite like Evan has, so he was heavy, but I'm not sure quite 70th percentile like Evan. His head was also small and still measures about 25th percentile, although, I think they quit measuring Ryan's head anymore.

The doctor's office was full of kids with strep throat, so if you've got the symptoms, make an appointment and go get a culture swab taken. But, please, make an appointment, we were there FOREVER and I heard of two moms trying to have sick kids that didn't have appointments looked at. I really wanted to get my precious newborn out of there!

My Boys

Internet Addictions

So Colin is going to call me a total hypocrite for this post, but I've really gotten into a few things on the Internet lately. I know I should probably be doing better things with my time, like cleaning the house or reading, but if you know me, you know I'm getting those things done too. Anyway, I just thought I'd promote a few of my Internet interests and you can check them out too, if you'd like.

First of all, cafe mom. So I think I was on myspace or something when I saw an add for cafemom so I clicked on the link, made an account, and now I do it almost daily. It's just a message board for moms. Colin is really into the message boards. He does two pretty regularly, cougar guard and cougar board. They are both BYU cougar message boards with topics generally surrounding BYU sports. But they do talk off topic occasionally. I looked into joining a diabetes message board about a year ago when I did my long series of living with the pump posts. I did sign up for the ADA message board, and I check it occasionally, but for some reason everyone on there gets so long-winded and I can't stand reading so much text. Cafe mom is a lot of fun. I've joined five or six groups. LDS moms, breastfeeding moms, two toddler groups and I just recently left the pregnancy group for the newborn group. If you're a mommy of toddlers, you should join my message board by clicking the link I've created on the right side panel.

The second thing I've been into lately is bloglines. I love bloglines because I check out so many blogs and sometimes I spend forever just checking to see if people have updated their blogs. With bloglines, I just go to one site and anyone who has posted appears in a feed. I click on that blog and check it out. No more wasted time waiting to see if anyone has updated. Some people rarely update and I was going to their sites quite frequently. Anyway, bit time-saver there.

I could also waste a lot of time looking at these websites:

utahhomes.com

daybreakutah.com

craigslist

pyzam

Well, you can see my links at the right for the rest of the things that I'm sort of into on the Internet. I'll just say that I am mad at Kodak right now because they aren't honoring my Coke Rewards anymore. Dumb! I'd been saving one coupon for months. I should have used it to make Christmas cards I guess. Oh well.

Anyway, that's my bit for today.

Enjoy.

Hunting Easter Eggs

dying Easter eggs

After church, Ryan and I dyed some Easter eggs. He had a lot of fun with it and surprisingly didn't make much of a mess. Colin took video while I assisted in the egg dying, so these are mostly the "after" pictures. You know your child is a boy when they don't really care much about the coloring, they just want to smash up the eggs when they are done. But, I made him put these in a bowl and stick them into the refrigerator so that we can smash them up (and make egg salad) at a later time.

thinking about how he can smash up the egg without mommy noticing

umm, he must be trying to eat it...

pretty good use of the egg dipper I thought- he got it to balance pretty well

family Easter photos

Evan

Ryan
Colin and the boys
Jen and the boys
all four of us

Those of you with children will understand while we're not ALL looking at the camera at the same time... anyway, we were all dressed up so I had to get evidence. Aren't we cute?

a look back

2008

2007

2006

1-2-3-9- Go!

Getting some sun

Since sunlight is really good for jaundice, we decided to enjoy the somewhat warm weather we had yesterday, and we took the boys outside. Ryan played on the playground equipment while Daddy and I admired our beautiful baby boy. Evan soaked up the rays and we all had a great afternoon.

Eat the Pudding, Eat the Pudding, Eat the Pudding

My mom and grandma brought us dinner last night (it was yummy, thanks!). For dessert, pudding cups! Ryan was excited about them. So, we gave him the spoon and pudding cup and left him in the kitchen while I fed Evan and we watched American Idol. 5 to 10 minutes later, this is the scene we found in the high chair! Too much, I just had to take a picture of this mess.

Angel Baby

I'm probably jinxing myself by posting this, like I did when I posted Ryan's bedtime routine, but Evan is an absolute angel. He is a perfect baby. He hardly ever cries. He eats well, he sleeps well, he isn't really fussy. In the night he wakes up to eat, then goes back to sleep. He does spit up a lot, but that's manageable, and I'm happy my milk came in without any problem. It seems like every diaper is a poopy diaper, but Colin has been doing most of the diapering around here. I'm really, really sore and like to just sit or lie down as much as possible. Evan is off the lights now, he's still a bit yellow but is still eating and pooping well, and that's how you get rid of jaundice, so we're glad that is over with. He's sleeping a lot lately and I forgot how much newborns sleep. Evan does like to be held, or at least swaddled really tightly. We are really loving this little guy. He's a beautiful little angel.

Jaundice

So after the first two days in the hospital, the Pediatrician will come to you and say, "your child's bilirubin count is up, he has jaundice". And so then he'll go under photo therapy for the next couple of days. Luckily, Evan has been nursing really well and he's had lots of wet and dirty diapers. So hopefully the jaundice will go away soon. We had to order a set of lights for the house to keep him on as well.
Here he is getting his first light treatment in the nursery.
They put him under two banks of lights, one underneath, and one on top. At home he just has the lights underneath. But he is supposed to spend almost all of his time on them. So its a bummer that we can't ho him as much as we'd like.

Visitors

Evan had a few visitors come to see him at the hospital.
Not pictured are his Uncle Justin and Grandpa.
A HUGE thank-you goes out to my parents and brother for their help with Ryan the past three and a half days. We could not have done it without you and we're really grateful you were there to take Ryan (and spoil him we're sure) too. Love you!
Aunt Jessie
Aunt Katie
Uncle Cole
Grandma

Family of Four

It's quite hard to believe that we have TWO kids now! It's truly amazing though. I'm SO COMPLETELY in Love with this little guy! I just look at him and think of what an amazing miracle of life he is. It is truly glorious to bring an infant into the world. He's a bundle of joy. He has been doing really well with everything so far.
When he was born he had a nice loud cry and we knew his lungs were good and strong. He's been breathing really well. His blood-sugars have all been normal. When a mommy is diabetic, they worry about the infant having hypoglycemia (low blood sugars). An infants levels can be much lower than an adults though, and so they hope for numbers above 40. Evan's lowest one was 46 but most of them have been in the 60's.
He is really doing an amazing job with breastfeeding as well. And, for all of you mommies out there, you know what a challenge this can be. I hope this isn't TMI but he latched right on the first day and eats really well. We have had one small set-back, he has a little bit of jaundice today, but I think everything is going really well so far.

Colin and the boys. Colin is trying to teach Ryan what kind of loves he can give Evan. He kept wanting to touch him right in the face.
aw! What a cute picture of the three boys.

This was the first time Ryan "held" Evan.

Me holding Evan.
All four of us. Not a great shot, but we're all there.
Ryan and I looking at Evans tiny feet.
Trying to pose with both boys in my lap.

We gave Ryan this "I'm the big brother" shirt to wear on Friday. Mom said that he had to wash it so that he could wear it again on Saturday.
I have no idea what I'm doing in this picture. Colin was trying to set Ryan into the bed with us. Ryan is making a strange face...