Potty Training

Well, Hannah's pretty much potty training herself. She's been sitting on her potty for a while now, and at the end of January (the 27th to be precise) we were even able to put her on it before she was finished pooping.

But, frankly, it was a pain. I had a potty full of poop to clean, and Hannah insists on wiping herself...a NIGHTMARE when you have a shallow kid potty full of poop & she's reaching on there to wipe (I tried to get her to stand up and wipe...right after I tried to convince her to let me wipe her...this one's stubborn).

Fortunately she likes washing her hands. Unfortunately she likes washing her hands a lot...over & over. And she screams and cries when I make her stop. All in all it was too much...especially with babies needing me the whole time. I vowed not to potty train her until the twins were at least 6 months old.

Well Hannah apparently doesn't care what I think. Yesterday she came to me and, pointing to her diaper said, "poopoo" then pointing to the bathroom said "potty!"

"Uh oh," I thought & checked her diaper. Sure enough, empty. I said, "Hannah, just go in your diaper." (in my defense, the babies were crying.) She looked very crossly at me pointed to her diaper & said, "poopoo" then at the bathroom & said "potty!"

"ah fine" I groaned & opened the bathroom door for her.

She was successful, & I spent the next half hour dealing with potty stuff, hoping it was a fluke. But alas, today she once again came to me with the infamous, "poopoo" "potty!". And this time she peed too! It took forever for Addison to pee in the potty. Sigh. If I didn't have two very demanding little ones I'd be thrilled. But things being the way they are, I've decided to get a little seat cover for the toilet. If she insists on potty training herself despite my best efforts, she's going to go in a place where all I have to do to clean up is flush.

Birdhouse

Birdhouse
Originally uploaded by Bart's Rebecca

Today Addison asked me if she could do "an activity" which basically is any art project other than coloring. This is what we came up with. She got the birdhouse and paints in her Christmas Stocking, and we finally decided to use them. When she was done, she asked me if we had any other wooden things she could paint. Oh boy, what have I started?

I used to want to fly

When I used to dream of having a super power, my wish was always the same...to fly. I think the sensation would be awesome! Wind blowing through your hair, seeing everything from that ariel view. Avoiding traffic. It'd be great.

But, as I sit here alone on the floor tandem nursing the twins, staring up at the water bottle I accidentally left on the dresser, I'd give anything for the power to move things with my mind.

Not Gonna Lie

I'm getting a little tired of pink.

Everything I Need to know I Learned in the NICU

So for those of you who don't know, the girls are FINALLY home. They came home on January 2nd after a VERY LONG holiday weekend. But it's great to have them home. Addison's look in this picture pretty much says it all.



Bart and I were talking and we realized that we learned all sorts of stuff while the kids were in the NICU. I feel bad for Addison and Hannah because apparently there's a bunch of stuff that we could have done to develop their coordination...among other things.

I specifically mention coordination because of this:



Do you see that rather faint yellow bruise on the upper right side of her forehead? This is a reoccurring bruise. Hannah is constantly bumping into things with that big old head of hers. In fact, she does it so much that it doesn't even faze her any more. Today she ran around a table corner and WHACK! Right in the same spot. It was hard enough to make me gasp, but she didn't even blink. She just kept running around. It made me think that maybe if we had done that little rubbing the feet on the legs thing they showed us in the NICU maybe she wouldn't be running into tables...or maybe she still would.

This is the other cool thing we learned in the NICU.



It's called a swaddle bath. You basically bathe the baby in a blanket and uncover parts of the body as you wash them, then recover them. It helps the baby retain body heat. AWESOME! The girls love it...but then all my kids loved baths once they could be immersed in the water.

Here's Maya's little swaddle Bath.



I'm pretty sure we weren't washing her feet at the time, so they weren't supposed to be out of the blanket. But I'm happy to say that she survived anyway.