Follow-up

Camden was accident free today!  YAY!  We have both gotten better at reading his body cues.  He is happier, and each day I have backed off a little more to give him the chance to show he can hold it!  And I just remind him occasionally that we need to go in to the bathroom.  He doesn't always want to, because he doesn't like to stop what he's doing, but when I bring him in anyway, he knows now what he needs to do, and does it!

I think it will still be a bit of time before he is telling me he needs to go on his own, or even before he gets to a point where he can just go in and do it all himself without any aid or prompting from me, but I think he is making progress, so we are just going to keep it up!  AND, he's been doing all of this with a 101 degree fever, so he's definitely a trooper!  I actually think it's a bit helpful because he isn't as active, so we can take things slow.

The first day, we went to the potty every 15 minutes.  The second day, we went every 30 (and on this day, I started showing him a movie while he was trying to go).  The third, it was about every 40 minutes.  And now, we just go in when he start giving his shifty cues and he is able to go right away, so we don't have to sit on the toilet for 5-10 minutes each time.  We still "take a break" at night, so he wears a diaper, but I am getting better at slowing his fluid intake a bit before he goes to bed, and I think that will help him to get control of himself at night.  It's awesome that we can see measurable progress and that he is happy about it!   Hopefully it will all keep up! :O)

On Potty Training

Yesterday, I wrote about Camden beginning his potty training process.  He interest has been there in the past several months, as he likes to follow both parents into the bathroom and look in the toilet while we're doing our business, but I'm afraid that maybe I missed the "window-of-opportunity" with him.  I am a believer that each child has certain time periods which are their optimal time to learn various things.

After yesterday, I really just thought we were going to have to wait until we got to the age of 3 to start potty training again, because we had 7 accidents (including one on the kitchen table), a TON of visits to the toilet, and only 1 time actually getting pee in the toilet.  This only happened when his dad was home and set him on the toilet for a while.  It seems a lot of things I try to teach Camden don't sink in until his dad (or a peer--already?!) suggests it as well.  That's why I'm glad I have a spouse--I need the reinforcement; so I can have the emotional support for me as well as the teaching reinforcement for the children.  I'm also SO very glad Camden at least went ONE time in the toilet!  But because things went so badly overall, we just decided to quit the cold-turkey-from-diapers during the night and put a diaper on (Camden has NEVER, ever in a million--or I guess just 2.5--years woken up with a dry diaper, so I think it will be some time before we can get him fully potty trained at night).  I had almost decided that maybe he wasn't ready to potty train yet, but I feel like I have to give everything 3 days before I can really know, so I think I will give it until Friday.  If there is improvement made, we will just continue, but if it's just not happening at all, we'll wait until 3 YO, which is the age I've heard is USUALLY best for little boys, since they tend to train later anyway.  Camden still isn't quite 2.5, but it would be nice to not purchase diapers for two children come June.

However, today, we have had NO accidents so far. On the other hand, the poor kid hasn't gone to the bathroom at all (and it is almost 1:00PM!!!!).  I'm not really sure how he is maintaining himself.  He has figured out that it makes mommy sad when pee ends up on the floor or in his underwear, but he hasn't figured out that it makes me HAPPY when pee ends up in the toilet.  Poor guy!  I know he is getting some of it at least.  I have also backed off a lot today.  He still gets rewards for doing what he's supposed to (for now, it's just going in to sit on the potty every 30 minutes or so--yesterday it was every 15 minutes), but yesterday may have been a little traumatizing for him because he REALLY DID NOT want to sit on the toilet; especially that many times.  I also went to check on him at 2:00 this morning (I had just finished baking bread I've been pregnancy-craving. Usually, I don't do that, promise) and he had a fever of 101.  So maybe yesterday was just an unusually difficult day anyway.

And now, as I'm finishing up this post, I am proud to announce he has still had no accidents on my floor, but has FINALLY gone in the toilet today!  WOOHOO!  Let's see how this keeps up.  Today is already a million and a half times better than yesterday, even though I have zero desire to clean the house, get myself ready, or even work on the other projects I have going on.  Potty training takes enough of my mental and emotional energy I suppose.  It has been, by far, my most aggravating parenting moment of Camden's existence.  Overall, I never had the "sticker" shock with anything of being a parent (except health-related issues such as peanut allergies, hospital stays, and the normal worrying-about-a-fever concerns. Oh and don't read this as I've never had sticker shock with ANYTHING, just because I haven't had it with parenting, doesn't mean I haven't had other difficult things. I'm not claiming any sort of perfection here), but this could have (and still may) do me in.

For you, Lindsay:
We have an Elmo potty chair that I splurged on just for the occasion.  It has the little dish they can pee in closer to the floor, but then it converts into a step stool so they can access a larger toilet or stand up at the sink, and the seat from the little potty can be moved (easily and quickly) to the big potty if you (or they) like it better.  I like it because it seems to have the best of both worlds--the little potty they can get used to at first, and then the full ability to switch it to a BIG toilet.  Don't know if it's helpful, but I think it cost us about $12 at Walmart (you're paying a little bit for the Sesame Street brand, of course, but Camden has always really liked Elmo, so it has helped us).  There are other chairs there that probably do the same convertible thing as the Sesame Street one.  Good luck!

It went through!

The documentary, "Shamed," got enough funding to begin the project!  I'm so thrilled!  Keep your eyes out for it next year around this time!


On another note, today, we begin potty training.  I had to bribe with Sesame Street to get him to wear the underwear the normal way (and not on his head) after many refusals to put them on at all.  He is now happily watching the show dedicated to the letter 'R' and we try going to the potty every 16 minutes.  Yes, 16.  He gets an M&M each time he sits on the potty (for now) and will get two for actually going while on the potty (again, for now).   If all goes well, I'm hoping we can start weaning him from that many M&M's in 2-3 days.  If all doesn't go well, let's just say I have another full box of diapers waiting for us on the top shelf of his closet.  (Before you judge me, there is nothing else that would have worked besides cookies, and one little m&m is much smaller than the cookies I make, so we're going that route)

Yesterday, for Valentine's, I made Devin breakfast pizzas for lunch and from my Facebook post: Our Valentine's dinner consisted of (everything homemade): Flat enchiladas, Pao de Queijo (Brazilian cheese bread), feijao (black beans), and authentic Brazilian lemonade. For dessert: French crepes.  It was SO. so good!  And we were absolutely stuffed.


And just because I am terrible at taking video and pictures of Camden, I never include them, but whenever my sister is in town, she gets a few things.  Here is one of her videos from about a month and a half ago.  There are several songs that are never-ending in Camden's world.  'Follow the Prophet,' 'Clean-up,' 'Sing, Sing, Sing,' and this one: (He definitely LOVES songs and we regularly go through the primary songs while I'm playing the piano--one of our favorite things to do together).

I promise!

I know a lot of people aren't looking for places to donate money, but please go to this site http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/141091137/shamed-a-documentary-feature-film (it's important enough that I'm actually listing the WHOLE site) and view both videos (and while listening to the song on the first video, read the captions regarding various statistics and quotes regarding pornography and sexual addictions--as they often go hand-in-hand).  As I am a mother, spouse, sister, friend, and child, there are so many unfortunate opportunities for this to affect my own life, and I know, unfortunately, it affects many of your lives (or will) in some way or another, as well--yes, even if you don't realize it.  Please, consider making a small donation if at all possible.  This is something I believe very strongly in, and realize that there are drastic changes that need to be made in our society to help those who struggle with such addictions.  I cannot express to you enough how much I fear for our young ones who will be raised in a world where these behaviors are normalized and/or shamed; even much worse than the world in which we were brought up.  But, if we are prepared, we shall not fear (D&C 38:30), and so, I hope we can put in the necessary means NOW (namely time, attention, money, spiritual and relationship uplifting activities, etc) that will catapult us into a prepared state when dealing with this issue.  Even if you cannot donate, please spread the word to those who can so we can make sure this project gets funded (it only has 7 more days to be funded or else it is dropped).  And when the documentary arrives, make sure you get out and see it! I promise, it will be enlightening and enabling if you make that effort.

*Make sure you watch the videos!  They aren't long and they give the information to you so much better than I ever could.  I am just not very profound (as if that wasn't obvious).*