It's Potty Time!

This might be TMI for some, if not most, but I'm a proud mama right now, so I'm about to shout it from the rooftops -- you've been warned.

SAMANTHA USED THE POTTY!!!!

 (Yes, this is the exact picture I texted to Chris, that's how excited I was. )

I'll be the first to admit, I didn't think I would be writing this post, like this, so soon... in fact, I had a completely different potty post laid out, but I almost feel like it might be moot to proceed as I was intending, but we will see.

I will take it back a little bit and explain a little about how we got to this point.

A month or so ago - maybe two, since it really happened while we were on vacation in July - Samma was almost shy and wanting privacy while she was pooping (I told you this was going to be TMI), so much so that she started standing in the corner while she was going so that we weren't so much around to bother her.  Now, she would let us know when she had gone in the past, but the corner thing was a completely new thing to us, so we figured it was going to be time sooner than later.

I had also started to bring her into the bathroom with me when I had to go, and explained it to her as best as I could so that she could understand it on a toddler level.  Soon enough, she was asking for her own potty... and who am I to deny my daughter anything??!

After some searching and review-reading on Amazon.com, I came upon this:

Baby Bjorn Potty Chair

I figured a 4.5/5 star rating with 597 reviews has to stand for something, right?  And I asked Samma what color she wanted, and she specifically asked for pink, so pink she received.

I also wanted to get her a potty book so that she would have something to "read" while she was on the potty... again, I turned to Amazon and found this one:

Potty by Leslie Patricelli

Again, 4.5/5 stars with 137 reviews definitely got my attention with this one.  The book itself, is pretty fantastic -- it's easy to read with her, and the pictures are gentle while at the same time able to convey the... event, I guess, of using the potty.  Samma loves reading this book with us, and there are times when she seems to be reading the book at us instead of vice versa.  This definitely gets my thumbs-up as a decent way to teach a 2-year-old about the bathroom.

So once the potty was received, Samma loved that it was hers, and every time I brought her in with me, she had to sit in her potty too.  Full dressed, mind you, but it was HER "pink potty" and Mamma's "big potty." 

There were a couple of times when she specifically asked to go up stairs and use the potty, so I would bring her up, strip her, and sit her down while she tried to go.  I would give her a good 5-10 minutes each time, but alas, to no avail.  It's OK, I told her... it's OK to try, and we'll keep trying.  I mean, she's not even 2 yet... I'm going to let her set the pace for this - there's no rush.

The other thing we started doing, within the last week or so, was sitting her down on the potty before she took a bath, and up until tonight we didn't get anything out of her.  Now tonight, I stripped her down, and asked her if she wanted to try the potty before we got in the tub, she said yes, and sat right down.  I told her if she felt like she needed to pee, to go ahead and do it..... and sure enough, she did!  I was in shock, I think I scared her... but I got down and hugged and kissed her, and told her how good of a job she did, and I think she understood.  I continued to applaud her while she was in the tub, and she would smile at me saying "I used the potty!"  And that's where the picture above that I sent to Chris came in.

So where do we go from here?  Your guess is as good as mine.  This is one thing I definitely have no experience with, and even less knowledge about, so just like everything else, it's going to need come research.  I've received a couple of good emails from various parenting websites, like this Potty Training 101 from Parents.com, plus I've been flipping through What to Expect - The Toddler Years for some insight as well.  At this point, however, I don't think I'm going to change any of what we've been doing, at least not much anyway.  I may try to schedule some "potty time" like first thing in the morning and before getting ready for bed, to give her a little more chance to practice... but again, she's still not 2 yet, and I'm looking forward to discussing this with Sam's pediatrician when that appointment comes in the next couple of weeks.

But all that being said -- YAY! Go Samma! :)

Sidenote: Anonymous posting

As of today, anonymous posting will no longer be allowed / tolerated when commenting on this blog.

Honestly, I didn't think it would be an issue, so I never thought to turn it off.

Apparently, someone decided it was necessary to respond as such on my I'm Mom Enough post from the end of May, and it wasn't until I was revamping the blog this past weekend that I came upon this lovely gem.

I'm not going to delete it - no, I plan on leaving this comment there for all to see.  Who am I to deny someone the right to their opinions?

But I will say this -- anyone who feels the need to defend themselves anonymously clearly feels insecure in their own life decisions.  I hope this individual finds the strength they need to carry on, and no longer feels the need to be shrouded in mystery.

So that's the end of it.  Nothing more to see here.  Moving on...

Mondays suck...

 ... and I say that with my most heartfelt condolences.  For as of today,  I am back to working Mondays.

Some may say this is a First World Problem, but when you haven't been doing it since January of 2011, it's a little world-rocking.

Long story short, a daycare slot opened up for Sam, we jumped on it, so I'm back to 40 hours/week.  Not to mention, it was getting hard to keep her entertained - she didn't enjoy running errands with me like she used to - and I know she has a better time running around with her daycare friends than hanging out with me anyway.  Most of the time.

So work was on board, quite enthusiastically actually, and the rest is history.

This isn't to say I'm 100% happy with this decision. Sure, it was mine to make, but I was quite emotional throughout the day, finding myself missing my Samma time, and questioning my decision to let her go.  Honestly, it felt like it was the first day at school. 

But I know in the long run it's for the best, and I don't necessarily have to be doing it forever.  Especially if BabyBaby² plans pan out in the next year or so.

C'est la vie. 

Happy happy birthday.... to you!

So it may have casually been mentioned before, but Samma somewhat enjoys Sprout.

For those who are unaware, Sprout is a 24/7 toddler/preschool TV channel, "home to trusted favorites like Sesame Street and Barney & Friends, plus innovative Sprout Originals such as The Sunny Side Up Show and The Good Night Show. From morning to night, parents and kids can share everything from singing and dancing to birthday wishes and bedtime stories." -- yup, totally got lazy and swiped that from the website.

I know there are some people who don't get Sprout - we're very fortunate that Verizon FiOS happily carries it. The good news is that Sprout is going to start hosting NBC's Saturday morning line-up, and I know a bunch of their shows are going to be showcased, so finally there will be Sprout for everyone!

Sam has been watching Sprout since she has been able to sit up on her own and have something grasp her attention. The channel is wonderful as it's programming is in 10-15 minute snipits, just long enough to hold a toddler's attention and then move onto something new just as they could possibly be losing it. Shows such as Caillou, Pajanimals, Poppy Cat, and Super Why played alongside the likes of The Wiggles, Thomas, Barney, and Sesame Street, it brings the old and new together and creates a fantastic balance of children's programming.

Now, the previously mentioned Sunny Side Up Show is live with a different human host along side Samma's favorite chicken puppet, Chica! They have this thing where a couple of times every day, they celebrate birthdays, be it with handmade cards sent in by parents, or online well-wishes with uploaded photos. Names are also scrolled along the bottom of the screen, listing the "Sproutlets" who have birthdays on that particular day. And they all sing the same birthday song, which goes a little something like this:

Happy happy birthday to you!
Happy happy birthday to you!
You're good to grow
So count the candles and blow!
Happy happy birthday to you,
To you,
To you!

Anyway, I didn't have it in me to send a card in for her first birthday (honestly, I think they request that it be for kids older than 2 years old anyway) so I promised myself I would send one in when she turned 2.... and yeah, that came up a lot sooner than I was expecting. I think it was one day a week or so ago I was watching Sprout with Sam and they mentioned a reminder to send in your September birthday cards. Yup... I was at Michael's the very next day.

There are specifications for sending in a card - I made sure to follow them as well as I could to up the chances of Sam's card getting on TV... and even if it doesn't, it'll still be scanned and displayed on Sprout's website the day of, so at least that will be special, too.

Anyway, they said to avoid white, pink, or orange paper as it doesn't show up well on TV - check! They also said to make sure you use only Sprout TV show characters..... duh. Third, I needed to complete and sign an entrant release form to allow them to show the card - done and done! And then, it was go time!

Now, I will be the first to tell you that arts and crafts are no longer my forte, but with a margarita in hand, I had my fun. I had bought the yellow cardboard, as well as black and green because I wasn't sure which one the blue sparkley letters would work on the best... Chris helped me decide, so thank you for that, sir! Also, I had to buy 3 packages of those damn letters just to get the card to read what I wanted it to say... the upside to this was that I figured out they were adhesive once I started to lay them down, so it did make my job a helluva lot easier!

As for the pictures, I used Google and a fantastic color printer... we'll just leave it at that. I picked a picture from each of Sam's favorite shows - The Wiggles, Caillou, Sesame Street, Super Why, The Good Night Show, Poppy Cat, Chica, and The Pajanimals. I will say, the printer I used was so awesome, it even made pictures from Facebook look good.

The card itself took me two nights to finish - I wanted to make sure Sam was in bed before I pulled everything out. From printing to cutting and pasting, I now give you the finished product:

Amongst the pictures, there's a little blurb from Chris and I that reads:

Happy Birthday, Samma!
We love you to the moon and back! You make every day an exciting new adventure, and we wouldn't have it any other way! We hope you have a very happy happy 2nd birthday!!
Love, Mamma and Dadda

Yes.... I am probably way too excited about this card. But now that the card was done, the hard part was figuring out how to mail a half piece of cardboard-sized card all the way to Pennsylvania... but alas, I had thought of this as well.

I decided to take a standard 3M 12" x 12" x 6" mailing box and instead of folding it to make it all box-like, I kept it flat and taped up both ends so it was more of a cardboard envelope. It actually worked out just as well, if not better than I intended... now I just need to get it to the post office, beg them not to fold or bend it, and make sure I get a delivery confirmation number on that bad boy!

But by now you must be asking yourself - wait MB... Samma's birthday isn't for a couple of weeks, right? RIGHT, but another of the requests was that you send the cards in about 2 weeks before the actual birthday, and if my calculations are correct, the two week mark would be this coming Thursday, so go me! I'm actually ahead of the game!

So there you have it -- the card goes in the mail tomorrow, and now all of you must watch Sprout on September 20th and look for Samma's card. I myself will be setting the DVR up for each every Birthday portion of the Sunny Side Up Show between 9am and 12pm, hoping and praying that at least Samma's name scrolls across the screen -- fingers crossed!




EDIT - 9/5/2012: The card is in the mail! I went to the post office first thing this morning and sent it out Priority, so it should be there by Saturday at the latest. I also tacked on Delivery Confirmation like I said I would, so $6.40 later I'm hoping my ridiculous efforts haven't been in vain...

Stroller Etiquette

I don't know why it's taken me this long to write a post about being a mother with a stroller, but something that occurred during this past Monday's trip to the outlets with Samantha really got under my skin, so please pardon my forthcoming rant.

Now, we own a couple of strollers, each with a different purpose.

We have our Graco stroller from the travel system we received when Sam was born. It's somewhat bulkier, sturdier, and larger than the others, but it's comfortable for her, has storage room for me, and pretty easy to maneuver. This is my usual go-to stroller for errands, and always lives in my car.

Then we have a Babies R Us umbrella stroller - this is much lighter and smaller than the Graco stroller, but at the same time has not storage and it's not the easiest thing to control. Retailing at $20.00, we actually got this one free from friends who received it as a promo for buying something else, and they had no use for it at the time. It's not my ideal mode of transportation for Sam, but it does come in handy when we're going on trips and want to save packing room. This one lives in Chris' car.

And there's this Baby Trend Expedition jogging stroller I REALLY wanted when we were registering because I had this crazy idea that I was going to take up running once I had Sam to get back into shape, and the best way to do that was to get me a stroller to run with. Clearly. Go ahead - ask me how many times I've used this stroller, let alone run with it. I don't think it would go beyond one hand. If anything, it's been used more as an emergency backup whenever the Graco was left in Chris' car when I needed it while he was at work. Sidenote: If anyone is looking for a jogging stroller, we may be looking to sell this in the near future. Let me know if you're interested!

Anyway, since my Mondays with Samma are soon coming to an end (we'll get to that later) I decided it was time to take a trip down to the Wrentham Outlets while we still had the time to do it. Packing Sam up wasn't a problem, especially as she slept most of the way down and back, and traffic wasn't even an issue at 10am in the morning, and I was able to grab my usual parking spot, so I was in pretty good spirits when we started.

Three hours later, however, it was a totally different story, and I was pretty much ready to punch anyone who got in the way of me, Sam, her stroller, or my car.

For one, you would think a store that caters to children and newborns would have accessible aisles large enough for strollers within their store, but you would be amazed. Stores such as Carter's, Gymboree, and StrideRite were so cramped and crowded and awkward with product overflowing from their shelves and endcaps that I was lucky to even get the chance to look at anything while I was there. Not going to lie, it was a serious turn off, and yet a blessing in disguise, because it definitely was a factor in the amount I didn't spend while we were there.

Second, and this may be more for me than anyone else, but I know for a fact that I will never purchase a double-wide stroller for whenever BabyBaby² comes along. Those things are massive and you thought I was having a hard time walking through those stores with my single Graco... there was this woman in front of me at StrideRite who was not having an easy time, and she was getting pissed off at everyone else around her because THEY were in HER way while she was trying to get her massive stroller around a corner. There was even one instance where she was so aggravated she more or less plowed her stroller on through, creating a pile of shoeboxes in her wake, leaving me behind her to clean them up without even looking pack.

Finally, and this is the one that made me the most angry, was the lack of courtesy from those around me. I couldn't tell you how many times someone in front of me didn't bother to look behind them as they walked into a store, or how often someone came up behind me, saw I was struggling to get the door open with one hand, and just stood there, waiting for me to get the door for them. This infuriated me to no extent.

Now, I'm not saying that because I have the stroller, there's a sense of entitlement for the world to hold the door for me, but at the same time there's also a level of expected common courtesy. Or maybe it's a Mom thing... a couple of times there were individuals who not only helped me out, but made off-handed comments about those who didn't, so you could tell there was almost a camaraderie there amongst the moms that knew what you were going through.

So there's my little rant. Not much, just some food for thought.

So to all of you out there who don't think we notice when you let a door slam behind you... oh yes, we do.

And to all of those who go that extra step to help a mom out, that, too, is noticed. And appreciated. So thank you.