Unexpected but VERY welcome

Potty training. Last time we tried was back in December. We worked on it for 6 or 7 weeks before we admitted defeat. Then last week, Jay decided that it was time to GO. He asked if he could stop wearing his diaper one day, so I let him run around naked all afternoon.

Then he begged me to let him wear his beloved Lego Star Wars underwear. Jay had been admiring that special underwear every day for weeks, but I put it on a high shelf and insisted that we’d wait till we move before potty training again. Because I wasn’t ready, and I wasn’t sure if Jay was actually ready this time either. (last time he would go if he was on the potty at the right moment, but he didn’t care if his undies got dirty or wet, so we made no progress to independence).

Well, apparently the motivation to keep the Whiteguys white and Darth Vader dry was all the incentive Jay needed. I haven’t given him a single reward beyond a few jumps for joy or a “good job!” He has only had one accident in the week since he started wearing underwear, and that happened in the bathroom.

I want to share what worked for us, because I’m always curious about others’ methods. Every time I read about potty training techniques, they all made it sound like perseverance and rewards were the key. That’s what we tried the first time around, and it didn’t work for Jay (so we stopped after weeks of reward-filled, painful perseverance). After much agonizing (and mostly useless) research, I chose two things to do to get Jay ready for his second go at potty training:

1. Let him dress and undress himself as much as possible so he didn’t have to learn that along with the potty.
2. For the past few months, every time I noticed him starting to poo, I told him that he had to go do it in the bathroom. So he’d stand in the bathroom and poo in his diaper. This was an awesome idea that I got from my sister. Jay quickly got in the habit of running to the bathroom to do his stinks (as we call them). I think it gave him some risk-free practice on noticing what’s going on down there and getting to the bathroom.

Those two things really did help Jay learn how to use the potty better this time, but I think most of it came down to how old he was and how ready he felt. Having cool underwear helped too. I can’t believe how much Jay LOVES his underwear. Every time he puts it on, he takes a minute to lovingly admire the picture on the back before he pulls them on again.

Rose is completely intrigued by Jay’s new potty skills. She stands right next to him when he uses the potty and tries to hand him toilet paper. Then she has to help him flush. And often she tries to take a turn while Jay washes his hands. Luckily I have Jay close both lids every time he goes.

Of course Jay still wears diapers to bed. And I still haven’t had the courage to go a day without asking/reminding him to go, but it’s been surprisingly smooth sailing. He as even gone to the bathroom on his own a few times without being reminded. Gasp.

I won’t say that Jay is OFFICIALLY potty trained yet, but he’s pretty darn close!

Back at the park

Today we finally got to go spend some good quality time at one of our favorite parks. It has been warm enough to play outside for a while, but every time we wanted to go it started raining or Rose needed a nap or something else.

So today I jogged over to the park and did laps around the playground/field while Jay played. Rose wanted to lounge in the stroller in the shade while I ran because she’s coming down with the fever Jay had last week. But after my run, she got out and climbed on the playground a little bit. Then she came over and sat in the shade with me. It was so nice to be back at the park—we spent so much time outside last summer/fall to escape our tiny stuffy apartment, and I really missed it over the winter.

Jay found a patch of dusty dirt to play in, and that tempted even under-the-weather Rose out of hiding. I let them scratch around in the dust for a while before we left for home.

I can’t believe Rose kept her hat on—it’s a little too big, so it flops on her eyes. I have to fold it up to see her face.

They got so dirty so quickly. It fascinates me to watch kids play outside—they really do have a genius for getting as dirty as possible in next to no time.

We came home after nearly 2 hours outside and drank lots of water. I feel like I will never be able to stay hydrated in this sun! Maybe I need to drink a gulp of water for each freckle I get every day. Hmmm, I had a feeling this was a losing battle…

Sleepers

Jay and Rose are such good little sleepers. I love how peaceful they look when they’re asleep. It’s one of the few times they’re still enough for me to take pictures of them these days, too.

I wish I had a sweet blanket-toga to sleep in, don’t you? This may not seem like a big deal, but yesterday Jay took his first nap in MONTHS. It was almost a whole hour! And Rose was asleep at the same time! It was so quiet.

I love how juicy and sweet Rose’s cheeks and lips look when she’s asleep. Before she fell asleep, she yanked out her pony tail. Hence the mohawk hair.

Peace.

Last night before bed, we took down Rose’s crib. She loves to throw her bunny out of the crib and cry till someone gives it back to her. And she hates it when Jay wakes up and leaves her alone, trapped in her crib. So we decided to give her a little freedom, even though she’s still less than 15 months old.

Rose did climb out of bed to play with Jay after we left their room last night, but Jay was tired so he pushed her back into her bed, covered her with her blanket, and sat on her, saying “bed time! bed time! bed time!” while she cried, until we came in to rescue her. Then she slept quite well on her mattress and didn’t even fall out. Rose seems so long and big when she’s all stretched out on that little mattress.

WHERE THE WHITEGUYS ARE

I think we’ll have to take another one of these all together when Jeff gets home from work.

And yes, Whiteguys eat a lot of ice cream.

Make these, please.

You won’t regret it.

Blissful, Blessed, Beautiful, Buttery Blondies
[Preheat the oven to 350]

1. Whisk together: 1 stick of melted butter and 1 c. brown sugar
2. Add: 2 eggs and 1 tablespoon vanilla
3. With a spoon, stir in: 1 c. flour, 2/3 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt.
4. Then stir in 1/2 c. chocolate chips and 1/2 c. white chocolate chips.
5. Pour it into a Pam-ed pan.
6. Bake @350 till it passes the toothpick test (that’s 25 minutes for a 7-1/2 x 11 inch glass pan—my favorite size, but you could go smaller).
adapted from the America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook by Shaina White

These babies are best cooled or barely warm. They are chewy and buttery and utterly irresistible: easily my new favorite quick-n-easy, go-to dessert. Proof: this is the first recipe I’ve EVER taken the time to actually type out and promote on this blog.

Spring Break

This week was Jeff’s spring break. We went on a trip together!

Jeff and I left these two cuties with their Grama Meri and Grampa Charley (my parents) in the Seattle area, and then caught a ferry to San Juan Island. This was the first time we’ve spent more than a few hours away from Jay and Rose since they were born, and it was strange to have 2 1/2 days without them. We missed our kids, but at the same time it was so fun to spend some quality one-on-one time doing one of our favorite things—explore nature!

The whole island was satisfyingly rural and we had most of the coves and parks to ourselves. We explored remote coves. We drank in fresh damp air. We enjoyed sweeping coastal views. We saw animals in the wild: seals, bald eagles, otters, squashy purple seastars, spiny orange seastars, hermit crabs, mussels, and even some raccoons and a black fox. We looked and looked for whales, and took plenty of pictures of floating logs, but we never actually saw any real whales. It wasn’t quite the right season yet, even though San Juan Island is supposed to be the best land-based whale watching location in the country.

We went sea kayaking in the rain (burrrr). The sea kayak trip is where we saw tons of the wildlife, but since it was raining steadily for most of the 4 hour trip, we didn’t take any pictures. Kayaking is MUCH harder than it looks, by the way. It was fun to be down low in the water with the seals, otters, and sea stars, though, even in the rain.

We brought picnic lunches so we could go out to dinner TWICE. We had a Scrabble tournament and watched a movie (two things that we never seem to have time for in normal life). I slept in till nearly 8am on both mornings! Sweet rejuvenation.

Oh, and we also took a pile `o pictures. Here are some photos of our fun:

Grandma’s Cove

Duck.

Can you see a Shaina?

This is the tip of the island—I loved the panorama of water around us.

Limekiln State Park had a small-but-real lighthouse.

Dead Man’s Cove

That’s a REAL bald eagle! Chills.

I fell in love with the tide pools…

…and the purple seastars! I found one in a tide pool and it was so plump and purple and BIG. I didn’t know that there are purple seastars up in the pacific northwest.

Seriously, the tide pools were mesmerizing. And beautiful.

Me and my purple seastar—you can barely see him down there.

The beach pebbles actually are rainbow colored.

On the porch of the Argyle House’s Honeymoon Cottage.

Isn’t it cute? We liked staying there.

We hiked up to the highest point on the island: Young Hill (less than 700 feet high, but still great views). We went down the other side of the hill and ended up taking a 3 or 4 mile detour to get back to our car.

Yes, I hiked in a dress. And loved it.

blech.

Right as we were leaving, the sky cleared  and it got gorgeously sunny.

In line to get onto the ferry at Friday Harbor. The ferry took one hour to get us back to Anacortes, WA, and from there it was a 2 hour drive back to my parents’ house and our kids. The next morning, we drove the 3 hours back to our home. Washington is such a BIG, diverse state!

Jay and Rose had a blast with their Grama. Jay got her to let him watch Star Wars every day we were gone. They went to the park and used up all of Grama’s bubble supply. They took a bath in Grama and Grampa’s big bathtub. My mom said they were good, and she had fun with them too. I’m glad we all had a super-duper week.

Pulling away from Friday Harbor. Adios, vacation! Jay and Rose always get jealous and squeal and weasel in between us and climb our legs when we even HUG in their presence, so it was great to have Jeff all to myself for 2 1/2 days.

Now it’s back to the ongoing Star Wars conversation that is my normal life.

White Things

Here are some things from our week:

1. Rose

Rose has started to really like running—surprise, surprise. She has started playing dress-up with my running clothes. She chooses one of my running shirts and a pair of my shorts and begs loudly for me to dress her up in them. Then she powers around the apartment till the shorts slip off.

Sometimes I clip the baggy shirt and shorts on so she can enjoy them longer. The other day she even took a nap while wearing my neon pink running shirt. Maybe I should make her some real dress-up clothes. But then again…I kind of like this.

 

2. Jay (and Jeff)

Jay loves his Daddy. When Jeff comes home from work, I more or less cease to exist in Jay’s world. Jeff’s spring break started on Thursday this week, and Jay has been demanding and commanding his attention ever since. They went on a walk together one day. Jeff brought his big fat camera and took a few cool pictures.

Trying to roll down the hill. It looks like he could just climb right on top of those big puffy clouds.

 

3. Shaina

Don’t you wish your hair could look this awesome after you rub it with a towel?

 

4. All of us

Have I mentioned that we  found a house? Our offer has been accepted. Now we have the long, arduous journey of inspections and appraisals and repair negotiations and loan writing and who knows what else. The closing date is set for the end of May. Let’s hope that everything that needs to happen in that time happens in that time.

We had the house we’re trying to buy inspected this week. We got to spend more than 2 whole hours there while the inspector worked, and Jeff took some pictures. Do you see all that SPACE? Seriously, I could hardly even bear to leave and go back to our apartment.

My kitchen. Moan of desire. The cabinets are kind of a thin, fake-feeling wood, but they sure LOOK pretty, right? And that door goes to a PANTRY. I’ve never had my own pantry before. From the window by the sink, I’ll be able to watch the high school soccer practice while I do the dishes.

Livingspace! Jay and Rose were in heaven running around and around the 2500 square feet while we were there. I must say: houses are expensive. And a huge responsibility. But it’s time to take the plunge. That doesn’t mean I won’t scream in terror the whole way down!

I’ll restrain myself and stop posting pictures now, because there still is a slight chance that this will not work out. It is only a teeny tiny chance, but a chance nonetheless. I never thought I’d like a split level house, but this one was the best house that we could find, in the best neighborhood, so here goes nothing! I don’t really get that expression. It should really be something more like there goes everything!

Our Garden

In honor of April, we planted a flower garden by our front door this week.

We live on a block of cement. There is a narrow strip of grass on the other side of the building, but the rest is straight up cement. We could drive up to our front door if there wasn’t one of those parking poles in the way marking where the driveway ends. So obviously we had to get creative with our spring planting.

Rose kept gathering up all the chalk and toddling off with it.

I didn’t realize that sidewalk chalk would be this messy. I need to just let go and accept the fact that kids are messy. I can usually manage that until said children come over to me and grab my pants with their messiness and wipe their faces on my clothes. Then I put the chalk away.

This picture doesn’t do justice to the chalkiness of his pants. After I put the chalk away, we went over to the strip of grass and played in it. I laid in the grass and gazed around house eves up at the blue sky and drank in the spring sunshine with most of my senses, keeping bits of nature out of Rose’s mouth with the rest. Vitamin D really does do a body good.

I must be butter…

…’cause I’m on a ROLL!

I made another ramshackle toy this week.

On an ice cream bucket, I traced shapes of blocks and then used a razor to cut them out. Then I put masking tape around the edges because they were kind of sharp and Rose kept sticking her hands in and scraping them up.

I didn’t know they would like this simple, ugly toy THAT much! It was great—the parents watched General Conference, and the kids put blocks into a bucket. Everyone was happy.

Every time the bucket got full, Rose made sure I opened it up and dumped it out again. This is her “I’m-frustrated-this-is-heavy” face.

I may be on a toymaking roll, but I’m not perfect. All of the shapes on this latest creation do fit through the square hole, so the shape-matching purpose of the toy is nullified. Who cares? Jay usually matches the shapes, but Rose mostly beats the blocks until they fall into the bucket, no matter what shape they are.

Simple toys, simple joys. That could totally be my slogan if I ever go into business! hah