Monday, May 20, 2013

a plethora of sorts

Remember that time Greg graduated from BYU?

See that pregnant girl in the red shirt? I miss her face so so much.  It's just not the same without my Rachel living a couple doors away.


We took Evan to this place called Young's Jersey Dairy here in Ohio


Of course we had to let him sip on a smoothie. We thought we were getting a new kind of ice cream, but apparently it was a smoothie. You can't go to Young's without getting ice cream, it's basically a rule.

I've had a really hard time staying up on my prego pics. Greg said, "I'm sure she's going to care that you didn't take pictures like you did with Evan." Ok, Ok I'll do it :o) It's just not as easy as it was when I didn't have a little busy boy.
16 weeks Pregnant

20ish

I'm currently 22ish weeks and growing out, not to the side which is always a good thing.


Friday, May 10, 2013

Potty Training

April 12th I quit my job and April 13th I started potty training. 
I had researched this a lot and I disagreed with a lot and agreed with some and then basically took the things I liked and my own thing and went to it. 
We bought him a little potty when he was about 15 months old to get him used to it so when this day happened it wouldn't be scary. He has always loved going to the bathroom with us and sitting on his potty. 
We didn't go anywhere for 5 days (except to sacrament on Sunday). Evan ran around the house naked waist down from Saturday-Monday. I made a little sticker chart that had poo-poo's and pee pee's. We had a plethora of treats and lots of singing and dancing and hooting and hollering every time magic happened. We even made up our own potty dance :o) We gave him tons and tons of juice and took him to the bathroom every 20 minutes. When he started barely peeing we stretched it out to 40 minutes.
I went and bought training pants on Monday night (they are like underwear but a little thicker to catch the pee) We started those on Tuesday, but he had more and more accidents so we went back to naked time. The poo part wasn't as difficult for him as we had thought it would be. He has always liked going into his room to poo. He would close the door and then come out and say, "poo poo!" So I put his potty chair in there when he had to go and he sat on it and there ya have it! From the on he was more comfortable doing it in the bathroom. On Thursday, he started taking himself to the bathroom to poo and pee! Greg and I were in the kitchen getting dinner ready and I asked him where Evan was and we went hunting and we found him on the toilet! We were so amazed and so so excited! 
But then my mom came to help us move the next week and he completely regressed (except for pooing, he has continued to do well). He was too excited to even think about peeing on the potty. He started having tons of accidents, but we never put him back in diapers (except for naps and night time...which we still do). I was so nervous about our flight to Ohio because of seat belt signs (what if they went off and he had to pee?) and tiny airplane bathrooms. Thankfully, it worked out and we didn't have a single accident during our journey home...I may have restricted his fluids a lot that day haha. 
When we got here he was still having a little trouble so we went back to taking him every 20 minutes 2 weeks later he's back to asking to go to the bathroom. I had a hard time knowing when would be a good time to stop taking him adn just seeing if he would do it on his own, but apparently, one day they will just get up and run to the bathroom and then you know you can stop taking them. Once he started taking himself we went back to the training pants. His real underwear are somewhere in a box, so he's going to be these for a bit.

My advice? 
Do a method that you think would work with your child. There are so many different ways. Don't get frustrated because it doesn't help them learn (although it's very frustrating sometimes...especially when they regress because you know they know what to do). Try not to react at all when they have accidents. I would take Evan to the bathroom without acknowledging his pee but then when he was on the potty I would say, "Sweetheart, we potty in the potty, not in our pants." Now Evan still says, "potty in uh potty not in uh pants."
Expect accidents when they have little toddler friends over because they are not going to stop playing to pee. Don't ask them if they have to pee. Evan still says no even though he means yes and sometimes he will say potty back to me which is a yes but if he is busy he will just wait until he can't hold it anymore and then book it to the bathroom. Have them pull their pants down and pull them back up every time they go, so they get used to doing it themselves so when they want to go without asking they can get their drawers off. Just remember they are still just little guys learning all new things. Evan barely turn 2 when we potty trained him. Anyway, happy potty training! 

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

we moved

We moved back to Ohio this past Saturday!
We are excited to be back near family, but I have to say we became family with very good friends of ours and we already miss them. We are already making plans to reunite in the next year with our dear friends.

I would upload pictures of Greg's graduation, but I haven't a clue where my camera cord is...

My husband is done with school forever! He got his masters in Accounting from Brigham Young University! He's awesome!
I think if people understood what BYU puts their Accounting students through (the BYU Accounting program is ranked #2 in the nation. Sometimes #1 depending on the year. Big Four accounting firms basically beg for BYU students) everyone would be so much more impressed with him. It was brutal for him for 3 of the 4 years we were there. Some things were hard for him, but because he's basically a genius (and I'm totally not even exaggerating) most of it wasn't too terrible, but he was just so busy. So, so, so busy. He did it! He survived! And I have a husband again! At least until October and then I will sometimes have a husband and sometimes not because his job will be pretty busy. He is getting ready to start studying for the CPA exam to get it out of the way before his job starts, but he's taking this week off because you know what...he deserves a break!

We got preapproved in columbus Ohio to buy a house and we started house hunting this past Tuesday and found a house we loved, but unfortunately, there was a mold problem that we weren't willing to take on. The Lord will guide us and we will find our fit. We just need to be patient. I have become less picky because Greg keeps reminding me we won't be there probably more than 5 years. We are hoping to find something at least a couple months before baby girl comes because hello stress...having a baby and trying to find a house too..no thanks, one at a time is good enough.

Anywho...if I ever find the cord we'll get some pictures up :o)