Do I have a future cheerleader?

Potty Party and Ice Storm

So I have an incredibly stubborn child. Even though she is 3.5 she has absolutely refused to have anything to do with potty training. I have been so frustrated about it. Especially when children a year younger than her were getting potty trained. That has changed!

I recently read the book How to Potty Train Your Child in Just One Day .

The premise of the book is to have a potty party for your child. The whole morning of the potty is spent potty training a potty doll. You act like a overly caffienated cheerleader. After lunch your child is suppose to magically want to pee in the potty. I was most skeptical but at this point it couldn't hurt to try.

So I spent a month working myself up for the big day. This past Monday was potty party day. She was very excited to see her new potty doll and absolutely loved teaching Peepee Doll to potty. We named her Sarah, but halfway through the morning she just became Peepee Doll. We read potty books and watched a potty movie. We got hyped up on sugary snacks because each time Peepee Doll went potty we got to eat a treat. Everything was going well.

Then I noticed it was sleeting. Well, I knew it was sleeting, but it started sleeting much harder. I was afraid I was going to slide all around when I went to pick up my son from school at 3:30 so I decided to check him out early. That ruined our party momentum. Plus, now I had an extra kid that wanted my attention. I was afraid we were doomed.

But after lunch we picked it up again. I bribed her into panties and loaded her up with Dr. Pepper. I know bad, but it's her favorite drink and I knew she'd drink lots of it. I even got her to sit on the potty which in itself is a huge accomplishment. But after nearly 4 hours we weren't getting anywhere. I was starting to get discouraged, but suddenly I had an idea. I put her potty chair onto the computer chair and let her play computer games while sitting there. And you know what after a while she finally peed! I was suddenly flooded with emotions and started crying. It was like I thought this day would never ever come. And what do you know we got her to pee again later before bed!

It's now Saturday night and she's done fairly well. She still has no desire to potty train but after some protesting she will sit on the potty and she will pee. She's had more successes than accidents so I am happy. Oh and she still only pees when the potty is on the computer chair, but I am sure it won't be like that forever.

So thank goodness for that book!

On the other front the sleet kept coming and school ended up being canceled for 3 days. Here's a couple of pictures of the kids playing in it.

7.45am

Is entirely WAY too early to wake up on a Saturday when you have absolutely no plans.

Why did I wake up do you ask?

Because my children were up coloring in the kitchen. One is the same child that I have to struggle to wake up during the school week at 8am. The other went to bed early so I kind of assumed she'd get up early, but not before 8am early.

At least they found a way to entertain themselves before I pulled myself out of bed.

Bargain High

I swore I wasn't going to spend any money this week besides Nate's birthday present. But yeah, I blew that out the window today. That's because Old Navy had all their clearance marked an additional 50% off! Woot! I got mostly stuff for Natalie for next winter, but the rest of us got a few things, too.

I spent $116 total, but look at all I got:

3 winter coats
2 jackets
3 pairs of pants
3 pairs of jeans
2 pairs of shoes
1 dress
3 tank tops
3 pairs of boxers
3 pairs of panties
1 pair of gloves
and 18 shirts

That's 42 items at an average cost of less than $3 for each thing. Woohoo!
I am a happy girl tonight.

I went to the movies

The last time I went to see a grown up movie as in not an animated movie was I believe The Family Stone. Yep, Nate and I don't get out to the movies much. I really hate to waste money at the movie theater when in just a few months I can check it out at the library for free. However, my dear sweet sister bought Nate and I gift certificates to the Warren Theater for Christmas.

My mom called me this morning saying she'd babysit the kids because we Had to go see Gran Torino. They saw it last night and loved it. So even though it was my mom's birthday she watched my kids for me for a lovely 2.5 hours while Nate and I saw the movie.

It was fantastic. Seriously, it's been a long while since I've really felt a movie was that good. Clint Eastwood was awesome. I think I may actually buy it when it comes out on dvd.

Oh and this is definitely NOT a movie for children to see. The people next to us brought there maybe 5 or 6 year old son. The poor boy was covering his eyes and crying at the end from being so scared. Also, he didn't need to hear the foul language that was spoken almost every second of the movie. I felt sorry for him and ashamed of his parents for making him sit through all 2 hours of the movie.

It's been 2 weeks...

since my Christmas post. I guess I am slacking again.

We had a good Christmas. The kids got everything they wanted and more. I am pleased to say that I don't think we had any bad gifts. Everything gets played with but the winner gifts were definitely the two Nintendo DS systems. The kids figured out how to chat back and forth with each other on them. They draw silly pictures and send them to each other.

We just went to Little Rock to see Nate's family. It was a quick weekend trip, but we were able to visit with two of his brothers, his grandma, cousin, aunt, and uncle. Not too bad for 3 days. His aunt gave him an awesome Christmas gift. She collected a bunch of old family photos dating as far back as 1920 and gave them all to Nate. She also included his great grandfather's Marine papers and dog tags. Which reminds me we need to write a thank you note to her for that and we still need to write thank yous for Christmas gifts.

My sister and I started exercising on Monday. I am really mad at myself for putting 25lbs back on after losing so much weight 2 years ago. It creeps back on so easily. My goal is to be back where I was by sometime around my birthday. That gives me 4 months. I hope I can do it.

I have some pictures to post soon. I just have to take the time to upload them. I'll get around to it eventually.