I'm taking the plunge!

Here goes nothing, I'm stocking up on potty Patty training panties and plunging into a diaper limited world (I'll certainly still diaper at night).
      The beginning of another yeast rash is my final motivator. How will this go? I don't quite yet know. We may have to try for a month or a year, but we will eventually succeeded. Bottom line disposable diapers make me less motivated to keep up with potty time and cloth diapering is not functioning perfectly like it did with Karaline, so training panties are my option of choice for now.
    I have to tell you a few fun stories:
Kevin has now learned to recognize the poop face, today it saved him from a major bath time clean up. Great job super daddy!
Last weekend at Audrey's first birthday party at a lake I was holding her naked on my hip well I prepped her change of clothes when I saw what looked like a possible poop face and at that second realized she was beginning to poop on me. Luckily I was able to hold her out and remain mostly clean, but what a laugh. Apparently she's not quite at the point to boldly inform me of her poop intention every time. Oh another thing, if you've trained your one year old to go pee when you say "ok go pee pee" don't use that same line on a two year old you're watching for a friend while holding your one year, who is only wearing a swim diaper (they don't hold pee) on your hip. Yep that's right in the last week I've been pooped on, peed on, and even used the underside of my dress to wipe my daughters mouth. I am all mom and Kevin can still find my appeal, even in the moments when I feel like it's unimaginable.
   Well, I'm going to go enjoy a productive night to myself as one happy wife and mama.

Three's a party, so baby lets potty in a hurry

I just have to say I am so excited right now. Summer has come to Pennsylvania, I'm four days into cloth diapering again with no rash issues and Audrey's potty party is still going well. We're eating a lot more berries now that she's one and the season allows, so that has made for a few diaper messes but still most potty happens on the potty. I would venture to say if I were more diligent to make potty breaks consistent I believe I could be a diaper free baby mama. However,  I have always said that if potty time is a stress its not worth it so I'm not stressing. I do have to say that these potty time chronicles will continue long after Audrey's potty story is a thing of the past because I'm currently incubating baby number three. I am due November 10th and unless the ultrasound tech was wrong we're going to have a boy. We're very excited! I must admit I'm slightly nervous about the closeness in age (17 months) but mostly about having a boy. Although any nervousness Kevin may have had about the closeness in age went out the window when he read BOY!
So I'm on cloud nine, this summer is going to be great, my girls are amazing little gifts and I love being their mother and we get to have another little blessing.

I'm enjoying project baby lets potty and as my brother says we're filling up the mini van. Cheers buddy! (Oh wine sounds nice right now)

Progressively learning

  I'm so excited! The last few weeks have been great! Audrey has started walking here and there, (not more than six steps) and she's responding to more communication. As far as potty time goes she's improving greatly. She doesn't let me know when she has to pee and so she wets a lot of diapers because, I have a lot going on. Also sometimes she pees on the potty then pees on the potty again thirty minutes later, but has a slightly wet diaper in between. The only time she signs potty is when she's in her booster seat eating and pees. It's really funny, she'll pee while signing potty and then clap for herself, all while in her booster seat eating. I'd say she doesn't entirely get it, but it's a slow progression. As far as poop goes, she hates to poop in her diaper, she will go to the bathroom door and hit it when she has to go or give me a panicky face with a distinct grunt. She rarely poops in her diaper. I am hoping that this new diaper laundry soap I'm going to try will fix my cloth challenge and the uncomfortable feeling of wet cloth will inspire a dislike for wetting her diaper. I imagine if I were super motivated I could buy panties and really rip the band aid off, but I'm not quite there. In the mean time I'm just happy to not have poopy diapers :D and I'm very happy that we started potty time months ago. As we approach her first birthday I'm excited to think by her second birthday potty use should be an old habit instead of a new concept.

Disappointed

Well three days back in cloth and she has a diaper rash. I don't think it's yeast again, but I'm running to the grocery store later to buy disposables so I can use diaper cream. I'm also going to try a new diaper soap and give cloth one more chance. I'm so sad because I like cloth better and never had an issue with cloth diapering Karaline. On a more dissatisfying note Audrey is still covered in a body rash. The doctor said its probably a food allergy, but that he wont send her for allergy testing at only ten months (not sure how I feel about that). Coincidentally Karalines' allergy symptoms began at ten months and after battling with the doctor I finally found out at twenty months that Karaline is allergic to peanuts and sensitive to dairy. So I'm starting a food journal for Audrey and hope to solve this through elimination. We'll see.

On another note I cut my friends hair today, it looks great, she loves it and while I was cuttting I enjoyed it and enjoyed my friends company. However, I have now decided that I will no longer kitchen beautician. The romantic experience of doing something you love is lost when you're stopping more times than you can count to take care of kids (even if taking care of your kids is another thing you love). So, my new goal will be to find a hair stylist wherever we move to refer my friends too . I'll cut hair again when my kids are in school and I work at a salon.

So now to take Henery to the vet and buy diapers.
Til next time, be blessed.

One step forward two steps back

First off I just want to say potty time is going great. Despite the one step forward two steps back dance phase that life seems to be stuck in right now, potty time is successful. Audrey is still not telling me when she needs to potty, but I've gotten really good and noticing her natural potty signs. If I am paying attention we can make it through every waking hour with a dry diaper. Oh yeah, since the diaper rash is gone I have been keeping her in diapers which has eliminated carpet clean ups....phew. 
The reason I feel like we're in a dance cycle avoiding moving  forward in life in general, is because as soon as I almost catch up on things something comes our way to say, just kidding. Now I'm not complaining, I am a blelssed positive person and I love my life. Having said that, (I think) we're finally past a stomach bug that lingered on and off for nearly two weeks and now Audrey's body is covered in a rash that I am guessing is due to the added use of borax in our laundry. So just as all the virus laundry was finished, I began a strip everything in the house and rewash without borax process.  This too shall pass and around the bend will be another mommy adventure which challenges, but ultimately fills my heart with gratitude for the blessing of mothering my two beautiful gifts. Til next time.
PS when the laundry drama ends I'm going back to cloth.

C'mon mom

So I must admit I am sure I'm a little bit crazy. I am continuing with potty time even though it is a little much to keep up with. I'm thinking pre-toddler potty training would probably work better if I had nothing in my life distracting me from giving Audrey 100% of my focus.  However,  that is far from the case. The other day I tried to keep up with diaper free baby (as in pants only) living while hosting preschool for four kids (including Karaline, with the help of one other mom). Six pairs of pants and two carpet pee clean ups later, I realized baby potty time only works when you pay attention to your baby (duh). Then the next day while out and about she didn't even pee in her diaper, go figure.  So now Audrey is diaper rash free, and eating yogurt and bananas regularly (even the banana rash hasn't come back after eating a whole one yesterday).  Having said that I don't feel in the clear enough to start cloth again, just yet. So, w/o diaper rash in the mix it has been quite tempting to stop potty time, just because it requires so much attention simply because she's not ready to tell me when she needs to potty. The thing is every time I think of quitting I hear a story from a friend about how terrible of a time they're having training their toddler. So, that makes me think this may require a lot right now, but clean ups are way smaller then at two. One of my friends kids climbed onto the kitchen table to poop. Another friend has been attempting to potty train her almost three year old for a year. I have several other friends whose kids give huge issues about training or simply refuse to train, so I'm thinking Audrey is using the potty when I put her on it, so I will keep it up and once I can get cloth back in the mix I think that will be the best option to use while continuing potty time. Well, I have an evening to myself and two sleeping gifts so I'm going to go make the most of it, be blessed.

Mommy moments

So last Wednesday while the Penn state sleep study was recording Audrey's night sleep she woke up with croup. Just that nasty sound like a seal barking cough and that thick striders like breathing. The following day Kevin left town, since then Audrey's improved greatly and honestly never stayed bad, she would just have a rough hour here and there. However, six days of single mommyhood have been quite the adventure. Just little things like sitting in the steaming bathroom with Audrey while Karaline is in there bouncing off the walls. I finally say "ok that's enough please sit down" and she sits in a slide like maner on the toilet seat which causes her to slide right off landing in my lap on Audrey. Then I set off the smoke allarm with the steam and had two crying girls, the smoke alarm going off and a howelling dog. Or like tonight when I was filling up the humidifier and Audrey pulled herself up to standing on the toilet, so I put the humidifier on the back of the toilet to remove her from the bathroom just to hear it slide off the toilet and dump gallons of water on my floor. I really feel like at the end of the day there should be a warning sign on my forehead: may contain trace amounts of urine, snot and vomit wash before use ;) yes I am a mom. Some how in the midst of all this I still can't imagine not having another one. So I'm excited that my single mommy time hasn't lasted long and glad we have at least a year before Kevin is deploying. As for potty time, I slacked a little when Audrey was sick, but mostly because she would whimper on the potty and I didn't want to force anything. Since she's feeling better we're back to it and pretty much its the same as before if I put her on the potty every half hour she will use it but she only signs potty sometimes when she has to poop. Oh and the rash is back in almost full swing but I had a two day break during the croup :)

To all my temporary or permanently single momma friends .....you're my heroes.