Love

I often get overwhelmed with love for Nola. The latest time was when we took her trick-or-treating. We dressed her up as Boo, the little girl from the movie Monsters, Inc. Everyone thought she was so adorable. She had so much fun. By the third house she had figured out how to take the candy from the bucket, and then put it in her treat bag. When we got home she sat on the floor in the living room for a long time just taking her candy out of the bag and then putting it back in. I sat on the couch and watched her, and was ready to burst into tears of love and happiness.

And then I think of God. "If we love giving gifts to our children...how much more the Heavenly Father." And I think of how He loves me. And wants the best for me. He is overwhelmed with love for me. While I was sitting in the living room adoring Nola, He was on the other end of the couch adoring me. And, again, I'm ready to burst into tears of love and happiness.

Hello?

Hey, guys. Remember how I have a blog? Well, it seems to have slipped my mind recently. I thought I'd just quickly give a short potty update to get myself back in the groove.

Nola is going to turn one in November! I started elimination communication with her around seven months old, I think. One of her greatest achievements so far has been her weekend at Grandma's where she pooped in the potty every time all weekend! I was so happy and amazed. Pee is still a challenge, but she still goes quite often. We missed a big poop today, but didn't let it get us down! :) It's getting easier as she is getting bigger and more coordinated. She stands more steadily on her own making it easier for me to pull her pants up and down. And she can reach up and flush after she goes. Pretty cute.

I'm still very glad I did this process with her, and feel very hopeful she will be completely potty trained by 18 months. Fingers crossed.

A big shout out to gdiapers! They have been the perfect tool for this stage of potty training.

Teeth!

Nola is getting her top teeth in. It doesn't look very fun. It's so fortunate that we don't remember the pain of teething. Just imagining hard, white teeth bursting through tender, red gums causes my mouth to hurt. Kind of in the same way that my mouth hurts when I hear the twang of steel guitar in country music. That's what they played at my orthodontist. Since it was the only place I listened to country music for any meaningful amount of time, I now have a very painful memory association with that sound. Sorry, Country Music. You will never be my friend.

Yep, we're still doing it...

Warning: This post is a little graphic and a hair preachy.

In case you thought I would give up by now on this new, crazy, parenting technique...Nope. We're still going. Why? Because it honestly feels so natural and normal now. We went out to dinner recently and I noticed that she needed to go to the bathroom. So I swept her up quickly and off we went. I held her over the potty and she had a nice big poo. Later, while we were shopping, I needed to use the ladies room so I offered to let her go, too. After I was finished, I held her over the potty and she had a nice little pee.

We have passed the off ramps and there's no going back now. Now that Nola knows she can use the potty when she needs to poo, it feels a little strange of me to make her go in her pants. Can you imagine telling your newly potty trained three year old, "I'm sorry, but I don't have time to take you to a bathroom. Can you just poop your underwear?" I think we'd all agree that would be an unfortunate situation for all involved.

At this point, pee is still a different story. She pees WAAAAAY too much for me to get her to a potty every time, but little by little I've noticed her holding it longer. Today we went grocery shopping. She peed in her car potty before we went in, we shopped for about forty five minutes, and then she peed when we got back to the car. She also holds it more when she is being held, riding in her car seat, and just generally sitting up or standing. She pees the most when we are at home letting her play on the floor on her belly. I swear she pees every five minutes when we stay home all day. Any ideas why that would be?...

Remember, anyone can do this. I have no superpowers. I guess I'm just really into pretending I live in a third world country!

EC update

We are doing well with the pottying! I say "we" because it is definitely a joint effort. Nola still does not give any signals when she needs to go. At least, not that I recognize. But she seems to do really well with timing. Meaning that she goes almost every time the potty is offered. She has been doing so well today I let her wear some tiny undies while we are at home. As I write this, I had to clean up a tiny little "miss". But it's only the second miss today in a five hour stretch. That seems pretty good. She has not pooped in her diaper in over a week now. She uses the potty every time. So I think we may have that one pretty much conquered.

We have good days, and we have bad days. I never would have thought I would do this...but I'm actually really enjoying this process!

A Singer and a Mom

We were clapping and laughing and practically jumping up and down with excitement. We couldn’t believe this was happening!

Ryan and I were recently on the radio. We were on KOTK 1420 am Radio Luz, here in Omaha. It was quite an experience because it was entirely in Spanish. We sang two songs and were really looking forward to hearing ourselves on the actual RADIO!!! The program was pre-recorded so we were planning to listen together the following day. I got me and Nola all dressed and ready and we ended up meeting Ry at his parent’s house to listen. It was really exciting to hear our broken Spanish as the program began, and then hear our song start to play. Just as the song started, though, I noticed Nola starting to go to the bathroom. This was when I had just started taking her to the potty and I didn’t want to miss a possible success! So I rushed her to the potty just a hallway away from the radio and sat her on it. I could tell she was going to go so I called Ry and he came running in, too. We could still faintly hear our song playing on the radio, but we didn’t even care. Nola was going potty! We were so excited. She had never used the big potty before. So the whole time our song played, We were clapping and laughing and practically jumping up and down…for Nola pooping in the potty.

I hope that’s a recurring story in our lives. I hope whatever success we achieve with our music…I hope it just becomes the background music to the real story of us cheering on our kids.

A Little Update

It's gong surprisingly well! Just thought I'd let you all know. I think this time the process is going to stick. Today I took her out shopping and just brought her potty along. She went only once, but I offered every time we got in or out of the car. It sounds time consuming, but I feel it's worth it. She pooped twice this morning at home, and had a nice big poop before nap. This is awesome! Little by little I have less diapers to wash. I'm not sure I would've tried this if I hadn't had that motivational factor.

Oh, yeah. I bought her the smallest little undies I could find at Baby Gap today. I'm going to tailor them for her so when we're at home she doesn't have to be completely naked. I'm going to put a little soaker in them, too. Just big enough to catch one pee.

I'll keep you posted...Nola is going to love this when she turns sixteen. "Well, Sweetie, I never made you a cool scrapbook like the other moms. But I have a whole blog about your poop and pee!"

Hippy Mommy

I have decided to attempt infant potty training. Go ahead and laugh.

I bought a tiny potty when Nola was only a couple of months old. I had heard of parents who practice “elimination communication”. The goal is to learn your child and know the signals they give before they eliminate. And then put their elimination somewhere besides their diaper. It sounded a little extreme, but worth a shot. I set her on her potty once in a while and she even pooped in it twice. But in the end found it too difficult and stressful to “catch” her sudden, explosive poos. Once she started solid foods that all changed. It became very obvious when she was attempting to eliminate. So one day she was attempting and I thought, “Hey, let’s give it a try!” So I quickly got her on the potty and she went! She went an entire week pooping in her tiny potty, and once on the big potty at Grandma’s house. She did still go in her diaper when we were out shopping or doing other things, and at naptimes she seemed to always sneek one in before I got her up. But when we were home and awake she was a champ!

Pee is a different story. Although she has peed quite a few times in her potty, it’s harder to tell when she needs to go. So today we are experimenting. I have a huge quilt spread out in our living room. Nola is playing and watching Plaza Sesamo with just her onesie on. No diaper. This way I can see when she needs to go. (The cloth diapers I use are amazing and I have trouble telling when she is wet.) And, yes, I’ve already had to clean up one mess. But it was worth it because now I know…it appears she needs to pee a few minutes after she poops. Which I wouldn’t have thought. I assumed she was already peeing in her diaper before I catch her pooping. Lesson learned.

Ryan said to me last night, “You’re kind of a hippy mom.” I guess so. But only a little. I pick and choose my hippiness. Nola wears cloth diapers, but she eats canned baby food. I enjoy the breastfeeding bond, but Nola has slept in her own bed since the day we brought her home. I want Nola to learn to poop in the potty not for the health and well being of her inner zen, but because I’d rather flush her poop down the toilet than wash it out of her diaper!

What makes sisterhood so wonderful? I was just perusing my oldest sister's blog. I was listed on her blog roll as "my sister, Charity". I felt so proud to be her sister. Aside from my husband, and also my mother, my sisters are my favorite people. Hands down. If someone told me I was going to be trapped on a desert island forever and could only take two people...I'd have mom and Ryan in one hand and Felic and Seren in the other...and there would be serious debate going on in my head.

My sisters have been with me my whole life. (I'm the baby of the family.) When I was five my mom was really sick, and I remember one night Felicity tucked me in and gave me a kiss on the cheek. She became my idol forever. During one very difficult transition from little girl to teenager, Serenity held me while I cried because I didn't want to wear that stupid new undergarment! Idol. Forever.

Maybe it's not the same for everyone. I mean, my sisters are extremely cool. But it's so nice to have someone you're stuck to. Your relationship is forever defined. No matter how you change, or what opinions you make, or what church you go to, or what stupid stuff you do, or what amazing stuff you do...you will always be sisters. That can't change. It's the identity factor.

Here's to sisters!

Mommy-ness

My daughter is amazing. She gobbled up her mushy cereal for dinner. She went for her first ride on the baby swings tonight, and she peed in her tiny little potty before her bath. She already tells me that she loves me with this sweet little gurgling sound she makes in the back of her throat after she breaks out her nose crinkling smile. It really doesn't take much for me. The way I feel when she does these things is one of the best feelings ever. Do I feel the same way when I see another tiny baby gobble up their mushy cereal for dinner? Not so much. I read in one of my many baby magazines that they have studied women while they look at pictures of babies smiling. Their physiological reactions were similar to that of taking recreational drugs... but only when looking at their own children.

It's an amazing bond, the mother daughter relationship. I've spent twenty six years on the receiving end. Now I'm ecstatic about being on the giving end. Or is it vice versa?...

Picking up Prayers

I brought my daughter to her first Easter Egg Hunt today. Not just any hunt, though. Easter at my grandparents house has always been a big deal. Every year, rain or shine, sleet or snow, Grandpa hides eggs for everyone in the family. I vaguely recall one year when the eggs were hidden inside, but no one ever seems to remember that one. It messes with our reputation.

Everyone gets an egg with their name on it. No one can leave till everyone has found their egg. And you can't tell if you found someone else's egg. One year all the grown uncles took a turn climbing a tree to see if the egg at the top was theirs. Naturally, Uncle Kenny went last and the egg belonged to him.

This year I was one of the last to find mine. Maybe I was last, actually. I made pouty faces at Grandpa to get some sympathy or some clues. He said to me, "I remember where I hid yours, actually." There are a lot of us. And he remembered where mine was. I could suddenly picture him hiding my egg. Holding that pastel pink, plastic egg in his leathery aged hands. I know he was thinking special thoughts of me as he hid it under a clump of grass by that old tire in the side yard. Maybe he was remembering the first time he hid that pastel pink egg with the name Charity on it, even as he hid another pastel pink egg this year with the name Nola, my daughter.

After so many years of enjoying the fun of finding my egg, getting candy, and occasionally hating the cold he was forcing us to endure... I realized how much more this must be to Grandpa. I'm sure Grandma helps stuff them with goodies, but Grandpa hides them himself. And everyone of us passes through his mind while he takes our egg from his basket to it's hiding spot. Grandpa isn't one for fancy words or deep spiritual discussions. His life well lived is his testimony for Christ. But you should never underestimate the silent type....

Silly me, we weren't just picking up eggs. We were picking up prayers.

This Is For You Mom

I've always said I'm not a writer. Writing has always been my mom and older two sisters "thing". But I always have something to say. So I'm going to give it a go. Let's just see what the youngest Nickerson Girl has to say...