First Outing Alone Post PT'ing

A few days ago I decided to try taking the kids out for the first time by myself since we started potty training them. I needed just a few things at the grocery store so I thought this would be a good place to start. We had breakfast and got dressed and ready for the day and headed out. Everybody had used the potty and drank little liquids. I wasn't too worried about it because they have done well on our two previous outings with Craig.

We get to the store and I found a fairly close parking spot to park in. Since we started potty training, we have started parking further out so that when we want to let the kids try to potty in their potty chairs in the car, we will be more secluded and have more privacy. Well, it is different when it is just me and I have the three of them to get in the store by myself and don't want to put them in a stroller or have them walk freely in a busy parking lot. So, I did what I normally do, drive through the parking lot looking for a cart that will accommodate me. I saw one right next to the open parking spot that was pretty close to the store. Pulled in, grabbed my cart, (without having to leave my kids in the car while I go get a cart), loaded the kids in the cart and in the store we went. Normally we have them try to potty before we go in the store and when we come back to the car but I took a chance since it was just me and I was parked so close where everybody could see.

I started my shopping and was off to a good start and within about 10 minutes I heard Whitney saying over and over "I pobby, I pobby". I ignored her because they often don't really have to potty. Then the chaos started... Whitney started taking off her shoes. I told her not to but she did anyway. I didn't bother to put them back on her because of time constraints. I of course didn't catch her doing it until they were already both off - I was a little busy and distracted. :) A little bit later I noticed Whitney threw her shoe out on the ground. I put it back in and then noticed the other shoe was missing. So off I went to retrace my steps and try to find the shoe. I didn't find the shoe so when I got home the other shoe went in the trash. Anyway, a little bit later, the girls started fighting in the car part of the cart. Whitney bit Hannah so I removed her (as I always do when someone starts biting or causing trouble), put her up in the cart seat with Tyler, by me and finished my shopping.

I did put the kids in a pull up for the grocery store outing because I was really nervous about what all messes I would have on my hands if anybody had an accident. And the logistics of how I would get all that cleaned up in a public place with just me, scared me a little bit. So, we finished shopping, I went thru self checkout which I don't mind doing for a few things but I had a few more things than I like, to be doing self checkout with three 2 year old potty training toddlers in tow. I figured better to do self checkout than stand in a long line.

Out we went after all that was done and noticed an empty parking spot next to where my car was parked. I thought "good, I can put my cart here for a few minutes and let the kids potty in the passenger side floor board". Of course I wanted the other two beside me (where I can see them and not at the back of the car) while I assist one kid so they don't fall out of the car. I get Hannah on and off the potty with no success and into the car seat. Here comes Whitney to the potty. While she is pottying, a hurried woman rushes me with her car because she wants the parking spot next to me. So I move Tyler (who is still in the cart) to the back of my car, Hannah is in the car, Whitney is in the passenger side floor board sitting on a potty chair and a basket of groceries still in the basket. I close my doors to allow her to park. God forbid she wait or park elsewhere. So, I let her park and go on with getting Whitney off the potty and in the car seat with no success. Then it is Tyler's turn, on and off the potty with no success and in the car seat. I put all the groceries in the car and leave and head home. I wish people would be more patient, kind and considerate of others. And this woman was a mom too - I watched her get her child out of the car. Anyway, when I got home, I was very proud of all the kids for staying dry that entire time. They did great. I however, was exhausted. Had to get the kids and groceries unloaded and put away and it was time for lunch and naps.

Until next time...

PS - I haven't gotten the nerve to try public restrooms yet because I don't have a travel potty seat yet, to put on the toilets and I don't know if my kids would sit on it without one for fear of falling in. Also, I am not sure how I will keep the other two off the dirty floor etc. while tending to the other one.

Mealtime & Potty Training

Meal time can be a very exhausting and stressful event in our house with three two-year-olds potty training. Some meals go smoother than others but generally I am running them to the restroom to do their business while trying to get the meal made. The meal is usually interrupted by multiple trips to the potty while we are eating; followed up by multiple trips to the potty while trying to clean up the other kids after meal time is over.

My experience today was a new one... I started making lunch and made several trips to the potty to assist in between. After all the pottying was done, I put them in their chairs and they all ate their meal with no mention of needing to potty. (I have refrained from reminding them constantly because it usually turns into an automatic "I need to potty" and then not pottying.) I did my usual of assisting them with getting certain foods on their spoon when they asked for help. I fetched more food when they requested more. Tyler finished first. I cleaned him up and got him down. Cleaned up some of the dishes, cups and bibs. Put him on the potty. Got him off the potty. Cleaned his area of the table. Got Hannah down from the table. Noticed she had an accident in her panties while sitting at the table (like she did yesterday). Took her to the potty. Changed her panties. Tyler is asking for his treat for going potty but has to wait. Cleaned up the booster seat. Got Hannah off the potty (no time to just sit in there and wait for her to finish). Cleaned up the chair where the pee had leaked thru the booster to the chair. Decided to check the other chairs too just to be safe. No pee but quite a bit of food that had collected (yuck). Cleaned under Tyler's chair. Disciplined Whitney for throwing food all over the floor. Cleaned up Hannah's area at the table. Cleaned some more of the dishes, cups & bibs. Put food away. Tyler had to go again except this one required more cleaning. Put Hannah on and took off the potty countless times during this cleaning-up event. Tyler is asking for his sticker and treat for going poop but he has to wait. Cleaned up Whitney's mess on the floor. Finally clean up Whitney. Get her down from her chair. Get her on and off the potty. Clean up Whitney's dishes, cup, bib. Oh and Tyler finally got his sticker and treat for going potty and poop.

Whew.... Tired yet? I am! :)

I have found myself starting to prepare meals (specifically dinner) throughout the day to avoid such a stressful evening trying to make dinner while tending to the potty training trio. It is such a difficult task to do by myself, as Craig is rarely home while I am cooking. Things are getting easier though - the potty novelty is wearing off, they are going less frequently and having less accidents.

Never a dull moment in this house. Maybe I will soon share my first outing with them by myself... a trip to the grocery store.

Brookshire's 'Picnic'

We went on our first post potty training outing this afternoon. We had walked with all the potty essentials to the neighborhood pond a couple of times in the past few days but that was the extent of it. But today we decided to run to Lowes to pick up a few things. Then, we thought if things were going well we would stop and grab some dinner and take it to a near by park to eat. We figured this would be easiest considering a restaurant would be very risky since we are still perfecting our pt'ing. We couldn't find a nearby park and needed to stay in the area to run by the only close grocery store after we ate dinner so we decided to have our picnic lunch in the Brookshire's parking lot. LOL! We did, however, park and have our picnic on the side farthest away from all the traffic so we were somewhat secluded. So we ate and then walked in to Brookshire's to pick up the milk we needed and then headed home. We were gone for about 2 1/2 hours and made countless trips to the portable potties in our car between our two stops and our picnic dinner and made it home with zero accidents. I bet those people thought we were crazy sitting outside our car eating Grandy's in the parking lot with our two potty chairs, toilet paper & trash bag in tow.

Potty Training Day 6

We have been busy as ever these past 6 days but the trio are progressing along. We have gone through many stages of potty training in the past 6 days from fear of the potty chair, to not wanting to get off the potty, to running to the potty every few minutes (or less) only to sit on it for half a second.

They have done well during naps on occasion waking up dry, but there have been many days they have not woken up dry as well. If they don't get it soon, we will be resorting to pullups during naps as well as night time. They are sleeping straight through their nap and waking up wet. They wake up after only an hour or hour-and-a-half and are still very tired.

Hannah has definitely improved a lot and is going potty much more. We have found with her, if we ignore her and let her do her business rather than having a staring contest while she goes, she has a much higher success rate. She also "performs" much better for her daddy than me. :) She only had one accident yesterday and none yet today (aside from naps).

Tyler has got it down pat - he is so reliable and I can say he is completely potty trained during the day. I don't believe he has had one single potty accident since day 1 (aside from naps).

Whitney is almost there but still needs a little more work. She is doing great. She hasn't had any accidents in several days (aside from naps).

They are all going #2 much more now and we are so happy about that! Hannah and Whitney are increasingly using the big potty more for both #1 & #2 and we LOVE that. Tyler still likes his "little potty" but he will use the big potty too.

I just love their cute tooshies!

Bye bye diapers! It feels so weird to not be changing diapers all day long!


Our stash of goodies - stickers and jelly beans & chocolate covered raisins.
Their potty charts! Good job Hannah, Tyler & Whitney!
Their poopy charts... This was taken on day 2(?) I think(?) and we had no success at that time.
For nap time, we layered their beds with sheets and a huge plastic trash bag in between each layer to keep the wetness from soaking thru. This way when they soil one layer, you just take the top layer off and have another dry, clean sheet ready for you and don't have to put sheets on during naps or at night. Many potty training moms purchase multiple mattress pads but I decided to try the trash bags because it would be much less expensive and it has worked wonderfully! I will say it is A LOT of work changing these, getting them washed & put back on their beds. Our kids still have their bumpers on their cribs and you moms know how hard it is to change sheets with bumpers.
We did lots of activities to help get their mind off needing to go potty. Of course we reminded them to let us know when they needed to go but if they weren't kept busy with an activity, they were going to the potty to try every 2 minutes or less. Here we are playing with play doh while Craig reads them a story, with much enthusiasm I might add.
My entry table/panty-undy table. This also serves as a barrier to keep them off the carpeted dining room. My house is turned completely upside down. This is only about 50 or 60 of my 75 pairs of underwear & panties I bought. :)
The endless laundry...
Here is an aerial view. It is hard to tell from this pic but there is clear plastic covering the entire living room floor, every where the tarp isn't.
This is the current potty station - where my entry table used to be.


More play doh activities...
Look at the attitude in that face.... Ha! She is saying, "mom, seriously, stop taking my picture." She looks so grown up here. sniff sniff
Sweet, happy Whitney
Tyler is such a silly boy. Doesn't take much to get him tickled. :)
We glued noodles to paper...
We made cookies, iced and decorated them with sprinkles.
These pics are out of order... Here is the icing part...


Til next time.... :)

Potty Training Day 1

We started today potty training using the three day potty training method. This morning was very very difficult and had it not been for Craig, I would have given up a long time ago. There was mass chaos and mass crying right off the bat. Whitney wanted nothing to drink, nothing to do with any activities or crafts to keep her mind off of it. All she wanted was to be held. They were all scared to death of the potty when it ran down their leg (especially Tyler) and they were also scared to death to sit on the potty (mainly Tyler). At one point, Tyler just peed in the bathroom floor because he was so freaked out, we didn't want to force him and didn't know what to do.

By later morning things started looking up a little while later and Tyler was by far the most improved. He was keeping dry and going in the potty the majority of the time. Whitney was also doing much better.

Naps were really rough - we changed several sets of sheets and panties/undies including one poopy undie and I really hated how Tyler didn't seem too bothered by his poopy underwear. They really didn't nap much if at all but when it was time to get up, Craig said Tyler was awake but sat patiently in his bed waiting for Daddy to come get him and he kept his undies dry and pottyed in the potty like a champ. We were SO proud of him. :)

I missed half the nap time "fun" because I ran to Target to get pull ups and a few other essentials. Yes, we are doing pull ups at night because we HAVE to get some better rest if we are going to continue this. Can't be getting up 50 times in the night to change them like we did during naps. We actually took our blankets and pillow and laid down in the play room outside their bedrooms during naps because we wanted to rest but were tired of going up and down the stairs.

The afternoon went much smoother and Tyler and Whitney are getting most of their pee pee in the potty but they are sitting on the potty literally every 5 minutes or less and sit often times too long. We are trying to figure out a solution to this because we don't want to discourage them going but would like them to learn to hold it a little longer, sit less and urinate more when they go. I guess it will take longer for this to come. :) Hannah is just not getting it in the potty very much. Poor thing... Most her accidents are on the floor. Can't get her to relax enough on the potty (I guess) to go. She wants to sit and try to go and needs to go, but just doesn't go much in the potty.

Anyway, for bedtime we kept their underwear on and put the "night time underwear" on over it to catch messes but they could still feel the wetness more so than if we had a diaper on them (or just a pull up). So I am sure we will still be up with them some in the night but hopefully not have such a mess to clean up.

We have gone thru almost all 75 pairs of underwear I bought and we have done 3 loads of laundry today. The day surprisingly went by very quickly. I looked up and couldn't believe it was lunch time, then dinner time. It was 6:45 and we hadn't cut off liquids yet or eaten dinner. Oops! They are in bed now and we have already made multiple trips upstairs and had to tend to them. Hopefully they will get to sleep soon and get rested and stay dry.

I am open to any tips you may have regarding all of this so feel free to share if you would like. Here's to a successful day 2! Stay tuned...

Destin - The Drive Home & Pics of the Room

This was our condo...

The living/dining room...

The coffee table was actually a slab of granite but they had painted the top.
Our bathroom... Loved the size of our bathroom. And the shower was huge too. The afternoon after we got back from the horrid experience at the beach, I gave the kids a shower rather than a bath due to all the sand all over them. You would have thought I was torturing them with the way they freaked out. Not a fan of showers!

Our bedroom... I cannot believe how early the sun rises in Florida! I think it rises around 5:30 or 5:45 each morning! I look at the windows in the room we slept in and that is the first thing that comes to mind.
The kid's bedroom... We moved the two tables out to have room for the three pack n plays. It was a shame we couldn't use the bunk beds but maybe next time. The kids didn't know what to think sleeping that close to each other.
Mamaw's room... The picture hanging between the two windows was hung upside down. So when you lay on the bed with your head hanging off, you can look at the picture right side up.
The second bathroom... They weren't fans of baths either or at least not in this bath tub. It didn't have their nonslip mats they are used to.

The balcony was nice and big. Mostly shaded and the breeze was nice enough that is was very enjoyable to sit out there most of the time.
The drive home...

The trip home started around 9:30 or 10 that morning. We had a different game plan in mind this go around. We would make many more regular stops and I would drive some and catch a break rather than being cooped up in the cramped back seat the entire trip home tending to the kids. It seemed that every time I drove, the kids were good for Craig and he was able to watch an entire movie at a time and sleep without having any trouble with the kids. It just worked out where his turn in the back seat always fell right after the kids had been fed and had a chance to stretch their legs, so they were in much better spirits for him.

The kids definitely had a much more difficult time on the trip home than they did on the way there. Part of this probably had part to do with the late night at Seaside the night before. They had their moments throughout the trip, even right from the beginning where they were really fussy. We stopped for a picnic lunch at the Alabama (?) maybe it was the Alabama welcome center. And stopped several other times to stretch, switch drivers etc.

A stop at McDonalds for an early dinner because the kids SO needed to get out of the car! Whitney somehow got her fingers stuck in the carseat slot where the belt comes out and we just thought she was suddenly crying just because she was tired of being cooped up. Poor thing! Her fingers looked like they had been closed in the door. I just cried with her once I saw what happened.

We hit a little rain in Mississippi and at one point I couldn't really even see the road. We switched drivers because it was supposed to be rainy for a long while but then, it wasn't. They finally started to fall asleep off and on around 7pm or so but none of them would stay asleep. They would wake up pretty regularly and have a crying, screaming fit. And when the car stopped, even if they were asleep and had been asleep for a while, they would still wake up. This was the worst episode yet when we pulled over for something. Whitney woke up and literally screamed her head off for about 45 minutes. The poor thing was so tired. My first thought was 'We are going to have another round of this when we stop to drop of Mamaw in Rowlett and pick up Lacy.' Luckily Mamaw volunteered to drive straight to our house and we could drive her home in the morning.

We finally got home around 1:30a.m. and I was up at 8 that next morning. I took Mamaw home and when I got home at 10:30 I was surprised to see everybody still asleep in bed, besides Hannah (was awake). Tyler and Whitney actually slept until noon and we finally woke them because we feared they wouldn't sleep that evening. Hannah had a nap later that afternoon, as did I, while Craig stayed up with the other two, who weren't getting naps. Our entire day and schedule was off and we finally managed to get back on track on Sunday.

It was a rough traveling experience and with the long distance and their daddy's reluctance to make stops, I don't plan to make another trip that far anytime in the near future.

I will post more pictures on facebook so if you are interested in seeing the rest of them, go check them out on there.

Destin Day Four

Our last day of vacation, we all headed off to the pool once again. It was rainy off and on that morning and we thought it had passed but it did start up again a few times while we were at the pool. We just sat under the canopy for a few minutes and waited for it to pass then back in the pool we went. We had a good time spending the morning there and sadly didn't get any more pictures of us or the pool.

We decided to have lunch at the La Cocina restaurant again so Mamaw and the kids could enjoy it. Well and me too since all I had the night before was chips and a margarita. This time we ate inside and we really enjoyed our lunch.

Then we headed back to the room and put the kids down for a nap and while they napped Craig and I headed to the beach for really the first and only time. It was really nice and relaxing - the breeze was nice as were the occasional cloud cover. We got some sun while listening to music and flipping through magazines. Then, Craig and I went into the water and had a great time riding the waves. And let me just tell you about the sea weed... It was EVERYWHERE in the water! We overlooked it and had a good time anyway. When we got back to the room, I discovered I brought some sea weed home with me (in my bathing suit) as a souvenir. :)
After getting cleaned up, we then went back to Seaside to thoroughly look around and eat dinner. This was the tower thing leading to the beach right next to Bud & Alley's Pizza Bar.

This was where we ate. There were several of these trailers lined up serving food and drinks. It was a nice, light meal after having such a heavy lunch. I don't think I will ever forget Mamaw's 10 dollar corny dog. I think I paid less for a sausage on a stick.
The clan waiting for their food.

After we finished dinner and window shopping, we stopped by for some frozen yogurt. Here is Craig waiting with the kids for Mamaw to get the yogurt.
On the way back to the room, we swung by the pool so I could get a picture because I knew it was really pretty all lit up at night. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of the pool during the day time...it was so pretty. :( Of course the picture doesn't do it justice but here is what it looked like at night - well, just one small portion of it. Then off to bed - a long day ahead as we pack up to leave and another 16 hours in the car! The drive home post coming up!