No pee pee

**After waiting and waiting....and more waiting, Blogger still hadn't recovered my post so I had to republish this, but in doing so, I lost all of your comments :(  Thank you all for your helpful tips on potty training! We've had 2 small successes (with a little bribing with chocolate chips), and I'm hoping for more progress! Feel free to leave more tips if you want! We need some advice from you experienced potty trainers :)** 

My daughter has officially started potty training. Again. Ok well this is our second try, but for REAL this time, she's started potty training.

The first time we tried was in December. The Hubs and I did some research and found the Boon Potty Bench.

Part potty, part functional bench for standing at the sink, kneeling at the bathtub, etc. You know I love me some combo's when it comes to kid stuff - it's just so much easier to buy things that function as more than one item rather than having to buy something else separately later. We have the crib that converts to a toddler bed, the combo kid's bath tub/kneeling bench (yes another bench, don't judge me), the stroller/carseat/blender. Ok, that last part isn't true, but wouldn't it be sweet to be able to make a smoothie as you're walking your kid around the block?

Anyway, Haley got a potty for Christmas and acted relatively interested in it. A good sign, I thought. Until we actually tried the potty training thing with panties and all. I was on maternity leave with Connor, so it seemed like the obvious time to try to train her. I spent a good part of the day with a bottle of carpet cleaner and a rag in my hand following her around going, "Do you need to go pee pee? You need to go pee pee. Please pee pee?" And then after I put her on the potty, she'd stand up 10 seconds later and say, "No pee pee." Then she'd go in her panties 5 minutes later, and I'd be scrubbing the floor yet again. So we decided she wasn't ready yet.

Well as luck would have it, there are 2 other kids in her daycare that needed to be potty trained as well so with that and the fact that she's now over 2, we decided to give it another go beginning last week. We bought the Pull Ups (becase we don't want to torture the daycare workers with the possibility of 3 wet children running around all day) and started being consistent with taking her to the potty at home and at daycare. We've tried to bribe her with everything she loves: chips, stickers, candy, ice cream.

Nothing.

We've given her praise, I made up a potty song, we've set her on the potty for a set time, and still, "no pee pee." If I was a stay-at-home mom, I feel like things would be so much easier because I could let her run around naked all day long and let her do her thing. But since that's generally frowned upon in public settings, we need to get creative.



Anybody else have any good ideas? We've never done this before, so any pointers would be welcome.

Easy Breezy Placemats

When we moved to Tennessee 2 years ago and bought our first house, we were lucky enough to score an Ethan Allen table and chairs for dirt cheap from a lady who was moving soon and had to get rid of it asap. The only problem is that it isn't child-proof.

The table is gorgeous and in mint condition, but with a 2-year-old bent on destroying everything, we knew that might not last long. Our nice scratch-free table was just screaming for my daughter to scratch it/throw something on it/spill her dinner on it. I needed some table protection stat! 

These placemats I whipped up not only protect it from said 2-year-old, but they also add a lot of personality to an otherwise boring dining room table. This is a great project for beginners!

Supplies for 8 placemats:

• 2 1/2 yards heavy decorator fabric. I used an outdoor fabric because it's thick and spill-proof
• 2 1/2 yards solid cotton fabric for backing 
• Sewing machine and coordinating thread
• Rotary cutter and cutting mat 

Instructions:

Wash and dry fabric first. Cut out 8 rectangles 21" wide by 13" long from each fabric. You should have a total of 16 rectangles - 8 from your print, and 8 from your backing.

Take one rectangle of each of your fabrics and pin them together, right sides facing each other. Using a 1/4" seam allowance, sew around perimeter leaving a 4" long opening for turning.

Turn your placemat inside out by pushing it through the opening you left. Push out the corners using a chopstick, skewer, knitting needle, etc., and press the whole thing with a hot iron. Hand-sew the opening closed, then topstitch around the perimeter of each placemat using a 1/4" seam allowance.You could add an additional row of stitches for a decorative look if you like.

See, easy breezy! And pretty.

This project is so rediculously simple that I didn't go too in-depth with the photos. Let me know if you have any questions!

Linking up here:

Show and Tell Wednesday at Blue Cricket Design

Here's to you, Mom's!

I love my kids. They're my world and I can't imagine life without them.

However, becoming a mother makes you realize that there are a lot of things that change when you have kids.

Sleeping in is non-existent (why can't they learn that 6 AM is not an acceptable hour to wake up??). You trade in your TV shows for Wonder Pets and Dora the Explorer. Your favorite lipstick becomes your daughter's new favorite marker. Of course, these things don't make you regret being a mother, they're simply the "other side" of motherhood - the side that people don't see when they look at your perfectly preened, rosy faced child. (You know, the one who covered the cat in applesauce right before family portrait time?)

I've had many of these moments as a mother. I think it's most difficult with your first child because you haven't experienced the true ins and outs of parenthood before. I mean sure, you've changed a diaper here and there and babysat for the neighbor kids but now, you can't just give the kid back to their parents. You ARE the parent.

Now, your days go something like this:

Yes, I am wearing pj's while I grocery shop.
Um yes, I DO have a Cheerio stuck in my hair. That's not a fashion now?
Yes, that's my kid eating your potted plant. That's the most vegetables he's had in 2 weeks.
Oh wait, I'm not supposed to discuss poop at a dinner meeting?

There have definitely been some hard times. My daughter once managed to take the cap off of my bottle of chondroitin/glucosamine supplements and eat a couple of them. That was the first day I called Poison Control - and hopefully my last. (The supplements aren't harmful in case you're wondering.) Poison Control is now on speed dial. And of course my least favorite times when my daughter has gotten sick in the car and my husband and I have had to scrub down everything. Ugh, no matter how much throw up I've dealt with in the past 2 years, it still bothers me the most.

All the hard times make me appreciate the funny times the most though. Like the challenge of working out with a toddler, or most memorably, when I put one of my daughter's boogers in my mouth. My son is still too young to wreak any big time mischief yet, but I know the minute he can crawl I'll have some stories for you.

I polled some of my friends and readers to ask them for their stories. Surely I wasn't the only one who has ridden home in the back of the car holding a handful of throw up? I wasn't disappointed.

We go through a lot of crap for our kids. Literally.

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My daughter was only 4 days old. It was the middle of the night. We were concerned because she hadn't pooped for 2 days and only once while in the hospital. That night I prayed that she would poop! (Something I never thought I would be praying about!)


Around 4 am she was sitting in her bounce chair and she opened her eyes and was wide awake. I was happy to see her awake,since she was only days old, but was wondering why it had to be at 4 am! All of a sudden my husband screams, "Oh my gosh! She pooped!" And he runs into the bathroom to get a wet towel. I was confused because I didn't see anything. (After all it was 4 am and dark). He replied, "You are not looking up high enough."


I look at her shoulder and there it was, green/black poop. (You moms know what I am talking about too, those first poops newborns have). It made it all the way up her back, sides and shoulders and starting to come down the front of her shoulders. Her brand new bounce chair is covered too. I pick her up and take her to her changing table. At that point I said to my husband, let's just cut this onesie off of her! So that's what we did. Then my husband looked at me and said, "You prayed she would poop!"

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A few days ago, my daughter came running up to me in the backyard - she had something in her hand. It was dried dog poop. And she had something in her mouth, which she told me was grass.


So...we're in the public restroom at a local restaurant, every stall full with people waiting,and she decides she needs to poop.


She says, "Eewww, that tastes bad." I said, "You mean it smells bad. You smell with your nose."


Then she said..."Mom, I did eat the poopie. I'm sorry I lied to you.

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And here's a sweet (non-poo related) reminder from one reader that God is always looking out for our kids when we can't:

I was a young mom of 23 with my first born. I had to work so I was working a a snack bar at the pier. I took the playpen and placed my son in it where I could watch him and play with him, during the times I was not busy behind the counter.

One day I was very busy and I heard a voice (which I know was God ) telling me "look at your son." I responded in my head "I am too busy right now" the voice more sternly but at the same time lovingly said "LOOK AT YOUR SON!" so I did.

Somehow he had grabbed a cap from a baby juice bottle and had placed it in his mouth and was choking. I jumped over the counter took the cap out of his mouth grabbed my baby and went outside.

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Thank you all for sharing your stories, and thank you for all that you do as mothers.

Happy Mother's Day

Mother's Day card

Raise your hand if you've completely spaced on Mother's Day this weekend! Just me then?....crap.

When people find out you like to create, they seem to expect that you plan ahead and have a project ready for every holiday....or maybe it's just me that's behind? I get so caught up in other projects that I've committed to, or have gotten just too excited about, that I don't plan ahead for holidays and therefore either end up doing things last minute or not at all.

That's why I was so thankful to see Polly's post pop up on my blog reading list yesterday. Over at Helping Little Hands, Polly posted a great idea to make a Mother's Day Bubbles Card.

Here's her version:

She took an adorable picture of her daughter blowing bubbles, and then used Photoshop to add the bubbles and wording. AND she was sweet enough to include her Photoshop file for others to make one for themselves - which is exactly what I did.

Since I already had a picture of my daughter blowing bubbles (the one in my header), I just flipped my image and moved the bubbles and wording where I wanted them in Photoshop. It seriously took me maybe 10 minutes. Love it.

Here's my finished card:

So cute, and I love that my mother and mother-in-law will be getting a personalized Mother's Day card!

Hope my mom and mother-in-law aren't reading this. If so, um...surprise! And Happy (early) Mother's Day!
GO HERE to visit Polly's blog and download the Photoshop file to make your own Mother's Day Bubbles card!

Spring topiary

I have a bad history with keeping flowers alive.

I had a garden last year, but those poor flowers didn't stand a chance. I didn't have the stamina to sit out in the 90 degree Tennessee heat and pull weeds from a bed full of plants that weren't going to give anything back to me other than a few months of visual enjoyment. I can't eat them. I can't sell them. They're pretty, but if I pick a few to display inside, they die within days.

What's the point??

My flower garden became a sad little bed of wilted flowers and weeds by the end of the summer. I think I'll stick to the fake flowers, thanks!

I made these cute topiaries for a friend's Flowers and Dots baby shower recently, but they make a great spring decoration or Mother's Day gift as well.

Supplies:

• 3 wooden skewers
• Glue gun
• Green ribbon
• 2 colors of issue paper - 1 for the flowers, and 1 for the center
•  Floral foam ball
• Yellow quilting pins
• Something to display your topiary in (small bucket, vase, etc.)
• (optional) floral foam squares

Step 1: Glue your skewers to make the stem.

Line up 2 skewers with the points and bottoms facing the same direction. Using a glue gun, put a dab of glue on the side of one skewer close to the bottom. Attach the second skewer. Dab a little more glue on the opposite end of the skewer to glue the other ends of the skewers together. Attach the 3rd skewer in the same way. You will now have a little cluster of skewers for the stem.

Step 2: Wrap your stem in ribbon.

Next, take your ribbon and hot glue the end of the ribbon to the side of your skewer cluster near the bottom of the cluster with the flat ends. Tightly wrap your ribbon all the way around your cluster until you are within an inch of the top. Cut your ribbon and attach the end of the ribbon to the side of your cluster with more hot glue.

Step 3: Cut out your circles.

Now, find some kind of template to trace circles on your tissue paper. I used a toy teacup that belongs to my daughter. Fold the tissue paper you want to use for your flowers several times to get the most circles when you cut. Use your template object and trace lots of circles on top. Cut out. Repeat to get lots of circles! You'll be making your flowers by stacking 3 of these circles on top of each other, so you'll need a bunch.

Make the center for your flowers with this same method. You will only need one circle for the center of each of your flowers, so you don't need to cut as many of these.

Step 4: Make your flowers.

Place 3 of the circles you cut for your flowers on top of each other. Place one of the circles you cut for the center on top of your stack. Scrunch your circles to make a flower. Position your flower on the floral foam ball, and insert a quilting pin through the middle of your flower into the ball. Repeat around the entire surface of the foam ball.

When you finish, your ball should look like this:

Step 5: Insert the stem.

Now, pick a spot where you want your stem to go and push aside a couple of your flowers to uncover the foam ball. Push the pointed edges of your stem into your foam ball.

Now use the same ribbon you used to wrap the stem and tie a small bow around your stem near the top. Insert the bottom of your finished topiary into a square of the floral foam and insert into your chosen display, in my case some small buckets. You can add fake moss, fake grass, marbles, whatever you want in the bottom!

Now you have a cute spring topiary that won't die. It's the perfect plant.

Linking up here:

Show and Tell Wednesday at Blue Cricket Design