Is it Safe to Say......Potty Trained?!

Well, I think Avery has done it. I think she has passed the mark into potty trained-hood. She wears panties all day now, even if we go out and even at nap time. She's still a little weak in the poop arena, but her last attempt was completely on her own and she succeeded.

You might ask, why the rush. After all she just turned 3. Why push it. In order for her to go to her preschool this year she has to be potty-trained with few accidents. So, we used that on her and told her she couldn't go to school if she didn't start pooping in the potty (she's been doing good at the tee-tee part for a while). Her reply? "I don't want to go to school." Okay, can't use that anymore.

So then it was walk around the house with no skivies. Long tee-shirt only (gotta keep modesty). That made her mad. When she would have to poop, she would tell me she wanted a diaper on. I would say no, and off she would stomp and yell. Well, she learned quickly, that if she just hung onto it long enough, she would get a diaper/pull-up on at naptime, and she would do her business then. Luckily, I'm working with a full deck and figured that out quickly.

Next step....panties during nap time. I was really avoiding that because, well, who really wants to clean up a mess like that? But, it was time to jump the cliff. She's a smart little princess. After stating her obvious objection, she asked if I would put her little potty in her room. What a great idea! So, I did. The first afternoon, she got up and went straight to that potty to tee-tee. The next day, same thing. The next day I get woken up from my napping to, "Mama! Mama, come here." I found her sitting on her potty when I got to her room. "Mama, I pooped." And she had. Not just a small itty bitty that I posted on the blog the first time she ever did it. Nooooo sir! This was a full fledged, bonified......I'll stop there. Lucky for you, I've gotten over posting pictures of it.
I was soooooo proud of her! Now that was several days ago, and she has messed in her panties since then. But overall, as far as school goes, she has the control and she knows when her body is telling her she needs to. I've still got another month or so to work on consistency. I'm very proud of her.

At the grocery store yesterday, she stopped me during shopping to tell me she had to tee-tee. So we went. She sometimes gets scared of the restrooms because the noise of the toilet is so loud. But she's getting over that. She did what she told me she needed to do.

And Ian....well, he's not what I would consider potty-trained, but my goodness, he is further along than we could have imagined for his age with FX. His teacher at ESY has even been helping out by letting him wear underwear to school. That's for 3 hours, and usually 2 potty breaks unless he requests to go any other time. He's only had one accident while at school...lucky for her it was only wetness. I KNOW YOU FX MOMS know what I mean. Scary thought.

My Little Girl Turned 3 and More

It's been a while since I've gotten on blog to read or to write. I've been blessed to have my family in town the last 2 weeks. My sister and niece came in last week, and my wonderful mom has been here this week. And I had all my family in (well, except for my oldest niece who I don't see too much anymore.....teens!) for Avery's 3rd birthday. Since she has the only summer birthday, she gets the pool party at Grandma's.

Sorry, but since I can't figure out how to get the pics to position correctly with the text, you'll have to figure out what pics go with what. It won't be hard. First 2 pics are birthday/birthday cake.

Avery also had her first haircut. Yes, 3 years after her birth. She has unfortunately been blessed with hair like mine.....very thin....very fine. Well, her hair hadn't even gotten really long anyway. Then on top of that, Ian pulls her hair. He doesn't just pull it, he pulls it OUT. I started noticing that the girl just didn't look right. Her hair was uneven and had gotten bizarrely short. Her hairdresser also said that sometimes baby hair falls out. That made me feel a little better. Now, hair is short again...hope it grows fast.

Now, the cake. I have a friend named Julie who is AWESOME at making cakes. One day if I remember, I'll post some of the cakes she's done for my kids' birthdays over the last 4 years. To my total horror, she was going to be out of town for Avery's birthday and couldn't make the cake. Oh my, I almost thought I'd have to cancel the party. Her cakes are that fun! Back on track....so I decided to make the cake this year. I found a recipe for a butterfly cake and flower cupcakes on KraftFoods.com. I didn't want to just do the butterfly cakepan. I figured it take me longer to figure out how to decorate it. They were both so easy to make and if I may say so myself, they turned out pretty good (not as good as Julie's, however).

Okay, the finale picture is my best friend, Zane. She was in charge of pictures at the party. I figure if she was brave enough to take a self-portrait, then it was good enough to post. Seriously, we are playing jokes on each other all the time......re-setting cell phones with different ringtones and backgrounds; turning on the wipers, A/C on high, and radio really loud in the car for when she gets in to go to work in the morning; taking self portraits for me to see when I look through the pics....stuff like that. She's great! I don't know what I'd do without her all these years!

Oh, I can't forget the Avery saying for today. We were in the van and she wanted to hear a certain song from her CD. She kept saying "guac-a-roni". After my mom and I put our heads together, we finally figured out she wanted to listen to "Yankee Doodle"....you know, the part that says, "....called it macaroni".

Cutest Boy on Earth - According to Mom

Enough said! :)

Furniture and Stuff

Here is the furniture set that we got for Avery's room - headboard, nightstand and dresser (has mirror too). It's all real wood and all handpainted. You probably can't tell from the picture, but some of the butterflies, bees, tulips are raised. It's sooooo cute. We're going to give her room a 'garden' theme. We've already painted, so now to hang pictures. I have several that a good friend gave me. I'm a procrastinator and very undecisive person, so getting them up will be a feat for me.

Other stuff: Jim's last day of teaching summer school is today. He is sooooo relieved. This is his hardest summer school so far. Ian is still doing great in ESY. He's starting to get a little more comfortable, so we'll see if his behavior changes any. I'm praying he keeps up the way he's been. The teacher is really trying to get him to use the potty and stay dry while there so she can go for the real underwear......go girl! I got to meet her today at a splash time the kids had up at the school. She seems just as nice as she does in the notes she writes to me.

Other, other stuff: Benjamin went to the dentist the other day for the first time. It was more of a consultation, not a cleaning. He went in for the bruising he's been having on his gums. The right side finally popped a tooth through and quit bruising. His left side is still swollen and bruised. She confirmed that it's just a tooth waiting to come as well. It's called a something hematoma. She said it doesn't happen often, but it does happen. So, we'll just wait.

Also, has anyone done PECS with their child? Our ST recommended trying it with Benjamin since he has no real vocabulary yet. It seems to take a lot of commitment. I'm really going to work hard at it, and hopefully get my husband into it more. He's more of a "if it doesn't show results in a day, I'm not gonna do it" type thinker. So if any of you have done it and would like to comment about it, please, please do. I'd love to hear others' stories with it.