This morning Josh gave Elena a bath, and when it was over and she was out and dried off–she said what sounded like “potty” to me. So, I asked her if she wanted to sit on the potty and she said “yes!” We just put the little training potty in the bathroom about a week ago. I put the seat on the big toilet and set her up on it once, just to show her, but we haven’t really said or done anything with it. I wouldn’t say she was “potty training.” But this morning when she said yes, that she wanted the potty she put the little training seat on the big potty just as I had shown her and then she patted herself as if to indicate that she needed to pee. So Josh hefted her up on it and she sat there for a little while. 
She made some gassy sounds and then climbed down, but then immediately wanted back up. So Josh helped her up again and she sat for a while kind of looking around the room and then…SHE PEED IN THE TOILET! Oh, there was cheering and clapping, hugs and kisses flew, and she looked so proud! Jacob came to congratulate her and hand her some toilet paper which she used to wipe with and then she climbed down again and threw the TP in the wastebasket (we’ll have to work on that I guess) and Jacob helped her flush. Then she took the little potty seat off the big toilet and put it back on the training potty and shut both lids and ran over to me to get her diaper on! She’s so responsible! LOL So, it was very cute, and I will take cues from her as she shows her readiness, but I would still not say she is “potty training.” I’m not going to get my hopes up just yet. I’ve been burnt on that one before.
Archive for March, 2007
I don’t know why, but I’ve been feeling really weird this evening–doing a lot of internal processing etc. And…shopping. I had to quick run to W-M this evening to pick up Happy Feet the dvd for Cameron. I’ll probably put it in his Easter basket or something, maybe even try to hold it until his birthday if that’s possible, but it’s cheaper to buy it now when it just came out than to wait even a week. So, that was the only thing I HAD to get. My sole purpose in going to the store. So naturally, I spent about 2 hours AGONIZING over some absolutely adorable little girl Spring/Summer items for Elena and Elise (ok, mostly Elena, but I looked at stuff for all the others too.) Anyway, I’d been shopping earlier this morning with my sis-in-law and I did pretty well…managed to put back most of what I was holding before ringing it all up, but now I could NOT get over these little outfits and I don’t know why. I’d seen them before. I’ve seen cuter things. I could probably get something similar at an outlet or TJMAXX or Goodwill cheaper and then what it all boils down to inevitably anyway is do we really need it in the first place and is my buying it just going to annoy Josh? And all of this was going through my head in the store but it was balanced by the thoughts of precious could-be images of Elena in said outfits, playing, picnicing, dancing, etc. So finally I put almost everything back on the rack (again!) and started to leave, but not before stopping at the Krispy Kreme rack and grabbing a box of glazed donuts. I’d told myself as I passed them on the way into the store that if they were still there when I left I’d get them. I don’t think I’ve had a donut since October or November and its been hard, really hard. So on the way home I’m driving and thinking “If Josh is going to Cedar Rapids Saturday maybe somehow we could figure out a way to make it work out that we can all go, then I can see the Grandparents too, and the Wheelers, and…(and sadly, this is really what my mind was wrapping around) I could stop at the Williamsburg outlet mall and go to the Carter’s store to find a similar if not CUTER and CHEAPER outfit for Elena for this Summer! Eureka!” Yeah. But it still doesn’t work. So then I start thinking “What am I doing? What have I been doing?” And of course I try to talk to Josh, but I don’t have any real answers or even clear questions and he’s already stressed about a paper he has to finish tonight so he says all the wrong things (meaning not the things that I wanted him to say, not that I wanted him to say anything in particular, but just not what he was saying which is of course not his fault so I try not to blame him but I shut down further anyway because I don’t want to continue talking and hearing things I don’t want to hear). So I get home and put away my purchases (girls’ socks clearanced Rock on!) and I pour half a glass of skim milk (instead of the usual full beast tumbler that I would normally drink with donuts) because, you know, I’m watching my calorie intake! !!! And I sit down to the computer to write and as I’m writing I’m starting to feel just a bit guilty about the donuts beside me, but I justify them because I’ve only had like 600 calories so far today and my goal is to have 1500 minimum so that’s like 4 donuts and a glass of milk! Then I caved. I took my first bite of fluffy sweet soft baked goodness of the Krispy Kreme variety in literally MONTHS and you know what? It wasn’t fluffy, or soft, and even the sweet had turned to wetness which is NOT how a proper glazed donut should be. So immediately I’m like ugh, that’s sooo not worth it! But, you know, I spent like $5 on the frickin things so I try to pick out a different one hoping to have better luck. I did this 4 times before resigning myself to finishing the first one I’d tried and then putting the box away. So, what is my lesson here? I really truely don’t need donuts. They never turn out as heavenly as I imagine them to be and ultimately I am dissapointed. I spent two hours driving myself nuts over whether or not to spend $6 on an outfit my daughter could’ve worn all Summer and been totally adorable in which I ultimately rejected, but in an emotional food instant spent that same money on a box of crap that will just kill me if I eat it. I apologize for ranting. I guess at least I made the right decision not to eat the donuts anyway (despite the child in me saying “that’s wasteful!” “there are starving children in the world!” “You’re not a member of the clean-plater club!”). Of course now I’m dealing with the dilemma of “do I have Josh take them to work in the morning to share with others even though if I don’t need them, they probably don’t need them,” or “do I give them to the kids in the morning for breakfast even though if they’re not good for my body, why should I encourage my children to eat them,” or “can I somehow ship this package to some third world country where perhaps it may do SOMEONE some GOOD?” Welcome to just a glimpse of the inner workings of my mind. I hope I’ve done ok here gramatically and punctuationwise.
ok, just in case, if you click to play the picture I just posted, it takes a moment to load so don’t click on the advertisement that looks like colorful envelopes (unless you’re interested in some colorful envelopes).
Yesterday I had yet another dentist appointment. See, my upper left teeth have been causing me pain ever since I got a filling in one of the them over a year ago. It doesn’t bother me all the time, but I can’t eat on that side so everything that requires chewing has to stay on the right. I’ve been back to see the dentist twice and they can’t see what’s wrong so they’ve just been grinding down my teeth to “change my bite” so I’m not putting too much pressure on the wrong spots. Well that thought kind of scared me, and so far it hasn’t helped. So yesterday (I think) instead of grinding my teeth, they ground down the filling that they’d put in. I get to wait about a week and if that doesn’t help I will probably have to get a crown somewhere–I assume in the tooth with the filling, but like I said, they haven’t exactly located the source of the pain, so it may be a neighboring tooth. They also recommend that I try to get the remainder of my wisdom teeth removed asap. Seriously. This does nothing to help with my severe dislike toward my teeth. Or my general distaste for dental appointments. In better dental news, the three older kids all had dental appointments this morning and came through cavity-free! Elise has to go back to get seals on her molars, and they want all the kids back in six months for a checkup and flouride treatment. “Flouride Treatment.” That phrase immediately takes me back to the very beginning of my problems with dentists. THE SPOUNGE! Oh ew the dreaded sponge! The very thing that eventually turned me off to all toothpaste and dental visits. I can probably trace most of the future dental problems that I will have back to the use of the sponge. GAG. For my children’s sake I surely hope that they’ve come up with a better form of administering the “flouride treatment.” I try really hard to keep my dental feelings to myself so I don’t turn the children against seeing the dentist, and so far they seem to do ok. Hopefully I can spare them from experiencing pain like I am dealing with now.
Josh and I have been trying rather unsuccessfully for a long loong time to get our things more organized so that we can clean our house and keep things more orderly. One of the biggest problems has been that we have so many things that don’t have places where they belong so we never know where to put them and they pile up and become overwhelming. Our master bedroom is not enormous, our bed takes up most of the room, but its been feeling even smaller because we’ve had piles of stuff lining the entire perimeter leaving only a very narrow walkway. Until now. We finally decided once and for all to just bite the bullet and get some storage furniture and then do some major Spring cleaning. And it arrived today! So! Here is a picture of our new door chest
and I’ve spent a chunk of today filling it up! I’m not quite done yet, but so far everything is just working out so well. I love it! And isn’t it purty?
At last, at last, the car has been sold! But not everyone was so happy about it. Jacob pulled out the crocodile tears. The only thing that stopped the crying was taking pictures. He wants to put pictures of the car in his “Happy Book” and I said he couldn’t take “happy” pictures looking so sad. So, here are his happy pictures.
Kate got into the graduate program at the University of Iowa, way to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited for you…of course, I told you so. LOL
< BIG HUG >
I fianlly had my camera when the turkeys were in my way on the way home. here is my proof that I am not crazy, but the Turkey’s are.
I guess its been a while since I posted about my progress. For a while that low number my doctor quoted me was really bugging me. I tried to keep my calories that low, but you know I had said that 2000 was my daily max and so now I had it in my head that 1200 was supposed to be my max and so not wanting to go over my max I was eating an average of 1000/day. And while I was still exercising daily (2 miles/day, min) I was not seeing ANY changes in my body or my weight. Then I went to a ladies church group activity on the topic of health with a guest speaker from the Y. She said that 1200 calories per day was the MINIMUM amount that anybody needs for basic survival/nutrition whatever. So, then I had conflict. I felt pretty messed up mentally for awhile. I’m not gonna lie. It derailed me. I generally was eating better based on things I had learned while I was trying so hard to improve what I ate, but I stopped counting and I stopped exercising for almost 2 weeks. I was just starting to feel really low about it all, but then I started exercising with my friend again and now I’m sort of counting again–definately aware of what and how much I’m eating, and I’ve actually lost weight! I was so afraid that after two bad weeks that I’d have gained like 20 pounds, but no! I’ve lost 5! I had been in conflict between following my own doctor’s advice and the generalized statements of a random fitness professional. My own concerns were that (first of all, I have AWFUL metabolism) my metabolism was not getting any better and I was afraid that my body thought it was starving since I usually eat so much more and so I do think it was holding on to the fat for dear life. A belief that I think is proven by the fact that now that I’ve been eating cupcakes and Chinese food I have lost 5 pounds! So, for those of you who are following the numbers, while I’m not as strictly counting, my goal now is 1500 calories/day. Not min, not max, just my goal. I try to get as close to that number as possible. And I allow for myself to go up to 2000 max for special occasions etc. I’ll keep you posted on how this all works for me now.