No Coffee Or Red Box In Atlanta! (Or At Least, by NW Standards) Part One

We made it! 6 days on the road, 2 cars, 4 adults, 2 preschoolers, 1 baby, 1 policeman, and 2 frosties, and countless coffees later, we are in Atlanta, GA. I am so grateful for all of the grace God gave us. Most of Lucy's poopy diapers were timed while we were stopped, or about to stop. The kids did really well, no more arguments than on a normal day. No car problems. No driver problems. It was a really a wonderful trip. Almost like a vacation. A really really intense vacation.

It took us the entire first day to figure out that we needed to fill up Lucy and the gas guzzling car with the trailer, and hopefully take care of any and all other necessary details. Seems pretty basic, right? But man, it is pretty challenging to line up all the needs of 7 people and 2 cars on a three hour schedule.

I think our most exciting moment was between Vegas and the Grand Canyon (referred to by Emily as the Gran Candy.) We have been making a lot of progress in the potty training area, and are down to one child in diapers, and two mostly just wearing one at night (Joe still wears a pull-up when we leave the house.) Emily has had a harder time with "#2" and has worked really hard to make progress. However, she is also prone to false alarms, novelty stops (seeing a new bathroom) and playing the potty card to get out of something she does not want to be doing. A little bit before lunch, she starts squeaking and moaning that she has to go poop. Ok. What do you do? Out in the middle of the desert. I mean, there is NOWHERE to stop, even if we wanted to. Joe is poopy in his pull-up and not happy about it. Lucy is screaming becuase she is tired and does not want to go to sleep. We pull over and grab the potty from the back. In the middle of getting Joe unbuckled to take care of him, we look up and there is a police car behind us. Oh yes. Out in the middle of the desert, a half-naked child sitting on the potty next to the car, one whining one in the car, and one screaming baby in the car. Can you get arrested for child indecency? Or ticketed?

The policeman used his speaker to ask if we needed any help. How do I answer that? Yes, would you please change the pull-up? Or how about the screaming baby? No, we are ok. Thank you. Just had a toddler potty emergency.

We spent the next few minutes on the side of the road while Emily played with rocks but could not manage to get anything out. (Do scorpians like to hang out in the rocks next to the freeway? How about snakes?) Joe, of course had to use the potty as well. And we hit the road again. We had potty sucess on our second emergency stop. Phew. The next day we put pull-ups on both of them and answered questions, "Yes, you are wearing a pull-up. Yes, you may go potty in your pull-up." and "I know you need to go potty, but we are in the middle of nowhere . You may hold it until the next stop, or go in your pull-up." all the way to Atlanta. Thankfully, we are back on track in our new house. Phew. Thank you, Jesus.

Hm, all of the children are asleep. I had better get some, too. I will continue the brief summary of our Big Adventure tomorrow, and then hopefully return to normalcy. (Ha!)


(Pictures to come!)

Potty Note

Ikea has a similar potty to the Baby Bjorn smaller size one for $3.99. How could you beat that?

Potty Training

This is our favorite potty training movie. There is one with subtitles, but I prefer this one. I think it actually helped Emily. She would be fine (I like to think) if we had not gotten the stomach flu. All things considered, she is doing just fine. We just have to work on number two a little more. (Sorry to be so detailed.)

things your potty training book may forget. . .

Well, I think we have made it through. Almost. Emily gets the point. We are still working on the number two. She had it down amazingly last week, but we ran into a complication. Hence the list.

1. If you know someone with the stomach flu- DON'T GO ANYWHERE NEAR THEM until they have been healthy for a week! Maybe more? Maybe less? All I know is we went to the family's four days after the last person had been sick, and two days later we were wishing we hadn't.
2. (Maybe a little more practical) Have enough clean clothes for you to go through several. You may want them on hand nearby, depending on your tolerance level.
3. Have rags and a favorite cleaner on hand (and/or maybe disinfectant wipes.)
4. If you are going to train using underpants or training pants, have a lot on hand. I guess this goes without saying. I did not think it through and we had to have nap time for both of us to emotionally regroup and to wash all 12 training and underpants. (We ditched the pants all together after nap time.)
5. Have a laundry basket or other bin on hand to throw dirty laundry into. Lots of germy, stinky stuff just sitting on the floor. . . yuck.
6. If you think you may resort to reading to get your wiggly child to sit still long enough to experience going potty on the new big-kid potty, have books planned that you do not mind reading five times in ten minutes.
7. If you are on your first or second child and still wash all baby clothes on delicate and the appropriate temperature, you might choose pants that can be washed in the same load, once you re-enter the pant wearing phase. Then you only have to do one load at the end of the day. :) (If you are not on your first or second child and still do these things, way to go!! I am impressed.) Hopefully, this is not even an issue for you.
   

If I think of anything else later, I'll add something. Right now though, I am excited to go to bed and sleep!

potty training-yikes!

So, we have started potty training-this is why I haven't posted. I was doing last minute cramming trying to finish the book before we started. Shortly into the training I wanted to throw the book out the window. Beware books written by men with doctorates and no children. (OK, one of the men had four children, but I'm convinced that IF his wife followed his advice it caused marital problems. Or maybe he potty trained them.) We are still working on it, but here are a few little things I've learned:

1. Don't underestimate "treats": Emily seemed excited just to get to use toilet paper and flush the toilet. We did use treats, though. I had fruit snacks, granola bites, and chocolate covered almonds. My friend is using raisins (which will help poop happen!) You could use grapes, blueberries, dried fruit. . . think outside the "candy treat" box! I like the idea of raising so much better than fruit snacks.
   
2. www.tummytickler.com: they make 100% fruit juice in a spill-proof water bottle with character heads on top. Emily loved them!! I took some juice out an added water. One is in the dishwasher to reuse. Not a very useful thing to learn, but lots of fun for Emily.
3. If you have a baby eating solid food-make sure that things are out of reach when you run your toddler to the potty!! It helped Josiah if I had frozen peas or corn on his tray, so when I had to dash off, he wasn't left foodless. He loves his food!
4. I made the mistake of doing this when Emily was borderline anti-clothes. . . I've created a monster! How do I get the clothes back on her?? We ran through all underpants and training pants by noon the first day (I did laundry during nap time.) A friend told me they learn more quickly naked anyway, so we ditched the pants.
   

That's all so far. I will try and write something more useful when we are on the other side. :)