Parenting Check-in Jan 25

[karlamo]

Since kh826 is a little preoccupied this morning, I'll start this week off.

I forgot to paste the parenting rooster but you all know who you are:)

QOTW:  It's tax time!  If you're getting a refund, do you have any plans on how you'll spend it?

ETA: Welcome new parents cetcar and cet!  I hope your first night at home went well.

[karlamo]

Checking in this week.

Big news over here is R spontaneously started peeing on the potty last week. It came out of the blue. We causually offer him to go pee in his potty chair and so far he's said no and then one night last week after bath he decided to go for it. He peed a little, stood up and looked at it and got all excited and then sat back down and peed some more. My wife and I thought it was a one time thing but he has been going every day since then. He's far from potty training but he has been going 3 times a day in it. We are randomly offering it to him throughout the day and sometimes he says yes and sometimes no. I don't want to push it too formally just yet because right now he is super excited to use it and I want it to stay that way without making it a thing with him. We are going to wait this out and see what happens over he next week or so before deciding if we want to dive in to full blown training. I have visions of not changing his diaper by Spring. Between both kids, we change a TON of diapers.

L is now in the front carry position in our carriers and is loving life that way. He is still working on sitting up unassisted which he can sort of do. He rolls over when he wants. As soon as he is sitting up without drooping his head, I'm going to put him in a high chair at the table so he can join us for meals. Right now he's either on our laps or in a bouncy seat. At our 4 month apt, the pedi said we could start solids but I prefer to wait till 6 months which is next month. For those of you who breast feed, do you do it standing up and/or walking around? I do and I can't tell you how many people come up to me and say how impressed they are that I can breast feed while walking. I'm surprised by this because I didn't realize it is a skill. I assumed anyone could do it. Honestly if I didn't do this, L would never eat. How else do I chase a toddler and feed a baby. hehehe

QOTW: We are having to replace our entire central air. Huge bummer. Maybe we'll get more than we need for this and we can have a little fun.

[mahler5]

karlamo-- that is so great he is peeing in potty some and excited about it! I am a little jealous. We will hopefully be doing some more potty training soon since we are almost back from our trip.

[mahler5]

C is 23 months

She had a lot of fun with her cousins this weekend. And she loved her 5 month old baby cousin and was really gentle with her so that's good. She didn't get mad when I held her either so that's good! But she still wanted attention of course. They have stairs (we don't) and she kept climbing up. She generally does much better but we would try to be a few feet away. She tumbled twice though on way down but didn't go more than a few feet each time. It was scary though. She gets excited to see people at bottom of stairs and wants to go down at lightning speed and not use the railing. Plus, the railing is kind of tall for her. It makes me nervous to have stairs at our new place when we move. Plus she can open our baby gate now, so having that blocking stairs doesnt do anything. Also, her older cousins taught her how to open a door with a baby proof handle thing over it. It's the same ones we rely on to keep her in her room at night since she is in toddler bed now. She could only do it standing on something but still. I'm feeaking out a bit. Our house is generally childproof. But we also have child proof handle on door to laundry room and garage which is definitely not childproof. So, I'm feeaking out a bit. I don't think she would try to open the door in the middle of the night without crying out to us first but I don't know fo sure. So I am going to have to figure something else out!

She also started calling me by my first name as opposed to "mamma" or "mamma [first name]". I think because her cousins call me by my first name. Idk but it is really annoying me. I'll tell her to call me mommy instead and she will but then she will do it again. I'm afraid in public people are going to think I'm trying to abduct her or something!'

Anyway, overall trip was good and she did really well. The worst thing that had happened is she threw up in the car a few hours ago but we should be home in 3 hours, so hopefully that was just a fluke. I don't think the hotel free breakfast agreed with her.

QOTW-- hopefully towards our down payment on house or furniture for new house!

[karlamo]

Jan 25, 2016 11:33:06 GMT -5 mahler5 said:

karlamo -- that is so great he is peeing in potty some and excited about it! I am a little jealous. We will hopefully be doing some more potty training soon since we are almost back from our trip.

Save being jealous for when he's actually wearing underwear, lol.  Right now we have no clue what we're looking at in terms of potty training.  I'm scared to start anything formal for fear it'll cause backlash. Wouldn't it be something if my 23 month old was potty trained before he STTN.  God that would be the best consolation prize for having a kid that still wakes at night.

[mahler5]

Jan 25, 2016 12:14:02 GMT -5 karlamo said:

Jan 25, 2016 11:33:06 GMT -5 mahler5 said:

karlamo -- that is so great he is peeing in potty some and excited about it! I am a little jealous. We will hopefully be doing some more potty training soon since we are almost back from our trip.

Save being jealous for when he's actually wearing underwear, lol.  Right now we have no clue what we're looking at in terms of potty training.  I'm scared to start anything formal for fear it'll cause backlash. Wouldn't it be something if my 23 month old was potty trained before he STTN.  God that would be the best consolation prize for having a kid that still wakes at night.

Sounds like you all are doing everything right. I think I tried the 3 day naked potty thing too early. I'm not sure if I want to do that again. She did seem excited when I would give her m&ms for pottying so will probably do that again. Although I don't want her to get used to always getting candy for peeing in potty. So I don't know. Maybe part-time daycare will magically potty train her for me

[kona]

O is 17 months.

She is still chatting up a storm. I set up her water table in the basement so she would have something else to do at home. She seemed to enjoy it but it's not the same as being outside in the grass and sun. I've noticed that she will sit through longer books now which is nice to see.

I'm sad to think of potty training. Maybe I'm weird. I love our cloth diapers. I also love diaper changes. Occasionally she will be a PITA and not lay still but most times we talk or sing. I think I will miss it. Or maybe when we have 2 I won't enjoy it anymore. Also the whole process of potty training intimidates me!

QOTW: We plan to finally finish our emergency fund. If there is money left over I would like to get new appliances.

[jgy]

karlamo, I hope the process of potty training moves along faster for you than it has for us. Gabe still refuses to poop in the potty, and while he will pee in it he has regressed from telling us he needs to go and now only uses it when we ask (and he's in the right mood) otherwise he just pees in his very expensive pull-up. Argh.

In response to your breastfeeding question, I operate the same way you do. I have to be able to jump up at a moment's notice to chase a toddler or wrestle something away from the dog. And that doesn't even include the times we're out and about and he needs to eat. But I do get the feeling that you and I are not necessarily the norm. My breastfeeding guru friend has remarked a few times that she never was able to feed any other way than sitting on the couch/bed with a giant pillow on her lap. Huh! I guess sometimes you do as much as you have to do. I feel like I had no choice, so we just developed the skill out of necessity.

[karlamo]

Jan 25, 2016 13:34:52 GMT -5 kona said:

O is 17 months.

She is still chatting up a storm. I set up her water table in the basement so she would have something else to do at home. She seemed to enjoy it but it's not the same as being outside in the grass and sun. I've noticed that she will sit through longer books now which is nice to see.

I'm sad to think of potty training. Maybe I'm weird. I love our cloth diapers. I also love diaper changes. Occasionally she will be a PITA and not lay still but most times we talk or sing. I think I will miss it. Or maybe when we have 2 I won't enjoy it anymore. Also the whole process of potty training intimidates me!

QOTW: We plan to finally finish our emergency fund. If there is money left over I would like to get new appliances.

I can't picture still using cloth diapers with R.  He poops like 4 times/day.  We stopped using cloth with him at 5 months.  I tried again at 9 months but his solid food poops grossed me out.

Now with L we are still using cloth but I plan on stopping once he's eating solids.  We are the world's laziest cloth diaperers over here.  I want to buy more workhorses and thirsties but I can't justify buying more knowing we will be stopping in like 4 months. 

[jgy]

Jan 25, 2016 15:11:28 GMT -5 karlamo said:

Jan 25, 2016 13:34:52 GMT -5 kona said:

O is 17 months.

She is still chatting up a storm. I set up her water table in the basement so she would have something else to do at home. She seemed to enjoy it but it's not the same as being outside in the grass and sun. I've noticed that she will sit through longer books now which is nice to see.

I'm sad to think of potty training. Maybe I'm weird. I love our cloth diapers. I also love diaper changes. Occasionally she will be a PITA and not lay still but most times we talk or sing. I think I will miss it. Or maybe when we have 2 I won't enjoy it anymore. Also the whole process of potty training intimidates me!

QOTW: We plan to finally finish our emergency fund. If there is money left over I would like to get new appliances.

I can't picture still using cloth diapers with R.  He poops like 4 times/day.  We stopped using cloth with him at 5 months.  I tried again at 9 months but his solid food poops grossed me out.

Now with L we are still using cloth but I plan on stopping once he's eating solids.  We are the world's laziest cloth diaperers over here.  I want to buy more workhorses and thirsties but I can't justify buying more knowing we will be stopping in like 4 months. 

karlamo, the only reason why we continued cloth with G is because we had a diaper service, and because they used cloth (they provided them) at his DC.  I can't imagine if I had been the one doing all that laundry.  Yuck.  Kudos to those of you that can do it!

I'm kind of wishing we could go back to cloth with him right now, because we are spending a FORTUNE on pull-ups with no clear end in sight.

[karlamo]

I need a diaper service jgy. I've given up washing every other day and now wash every 3-4 days. Last night I threw out a flat that was disgustingly stained only after checking with my wife if it would be too gross to reuse. I wasn't lying when I said I'm lazy. I figure he's the last kid so I can abuse the heck out of the diapers:)

[jgy]

karlamo, diaper service = my favorite thing. I almost take joy in throwing gross diapers into the pail. To make it affordable we had to go with simple prefolds and I did buy a number of my own covers, but all in all WELL worth it for us. And, honestly, not that expensive. Do you guys have any services out there?

[karlamo]

jgy, I've never looked into it. Cause that would make my life too easy right?

[2mrsks (mrs&mrsk)]

R says dance (tries to) and dances on command. He's starting to walk more (than 3 steps) he gets so excited.

Looks like some daycare changes in store... Sil says she's done in March, my mom is floundering on retiring... May be a few months of daycare. Wish we'd finalized this sooner. Nervous about placed f.
Qotw- the regular- pool maintenance , some house stuff, next years Christmas presents, etc.

R is almost 11 mo

[Deleted]

jgy, I hate to freak you out, but J was in an overnight pull up until, like 4 1/2... But daytime, once he was done it was done. As with all things J, once its his idea, no turning back. FYI he barely ever sat down always more successful standing up... and the poop... once he finally decided, it was done. But he was at school from 2 1/2 on and seeing his peers master the skill was a good thing.

[jgy]

@sherminator, it's funny, G is actually really good about staying dry overnight. Intentional or not, as long as we have him pee in the potty before bed and right when he gets up, he's at about 95% dry in the mornings.

But the daytime stuff is where we struggle. When he was in the Toddler room at DC, they worked with him quite a bit on it and I felt like he was making progress (except with poop, nothing seems to be working there). But now that he's in the Preschool room, there's less emphasis on making progress. If he asks to use the potty they help him, but otherwise they just change him when he's wet. It's pretty frustrating. And he's gone from being a willing potty-er at home, to saying no. Ugh.

[2brides]

Snow days with 9.5y olds are awesome. We got 24" on Friday - Saturday and school will be out till Friday so we've had a lot of together time, but they can totally entertain themselves, play outside alone, and have been alternating going to the neighbors house and their kids coming here.

They were already scheduled to be off for teacher work days on Monday and Tuesday, so we were prepared for them to be out, but not on Weds/Thurs. So, we are having to do a lot of juggling and taking time off from work and juggling childcare. That part stinks.

QOTW: Paying down credit cards. Maybe saving a bit for a vacation. We'd also like to redo our kitchen - nothing major, but we'd like to get rid of the crappy countertops and paint the cabinets.