The family went out for lunch today. While eating, my son said he needed to go pee. Our first public restroom trip! Off we ran to the bathroom, since he isn't tall enough to just stand, I had him stand on the toilet. A wee bit high to keep things in the toilet, but it was a success. A few minutes later, he said needed to poo. So off we ran. This time, I had him stand on the toilet and then I had him squat. The problem is, he then said he needed to pee. Another problem. If he peed while squatting, I would have been the target since I was holding him. But thankfully, he didn't urgently need to go so I was able to turn him around and made him stand. Awkward, but a sucess.  So off to lunch again. Several minutes later, he had to poop again! ARGH!

Thankfully that was the end of that. Any suggestion on making things easier?  Maybe I should just pile on the toilet paper on the seat of the toilet and just had him sit down.

I was just watching a program on TV where they mentioned a website who gives free cellphone headsets to anyone in the world. All you have to do is pay a shipping fee. It is a campaign to reduce car accidents that happens when talking on a cell phone while driving.

Last night, as I was laying in bed with my son he started talking about random things. He's been doing this for a while now and have found that the quiet time right before he falls asleep, he's mind races through a lot of new things he has learned. Last night out of nowhere, he signed "more" "please", which is somethign they're learning at preschool. The other night, he talked to me about animals and told me that if he were to see a bee he would call mommy and daddy because it isn't safe. I said, "you're right, Matthew. Good job". Then he said, "but wabbits are OK."  I asked, "what about snakes? is are snakes OK?" He said, "no. Call mommy and daddy."

Than five more minutes and he's asleep.

On another note, I put my girls to sleep at 7pm last night and they didn't wake up until 4. WOW!! I went to bed at 9, so I got 7 hours of sleep. I'm all giddy now, I don't know what to do with myself!  That's the most sleep I've gotten in one chunk. Woo hoo!

I saw this online last night... a Siberian woman gave birth to her 12th child yesterday, weighing at 17.1 lbs (7.75kg). According to the mom, she ate everything;"potatoes, noodles, tomatoes" because she didn't have money for special foods.

Holy cow! Can you imagine?!  Here's the link

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070926/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_russia_baby_1

 

  Woo hoo, I will be nice and wrinkly and toothless just for my hubby.

 Hmmm, should I be proud or ashamed?

This was fun. Thanks to Kellzacar

I didn't have anything prepared for dinner last night, so I decided to take my son to a fast food restaurant after I picked him up from school. While at the drive-thru, he said he needed to poo. Uh-oh!! I wracked my brain for solutions and thought out some possible scenarios. I could park and run him to the restaurant bathroom, but thought that's not going to work because by the time I get the twins out of the car and into the stroller, my son would have probably done the deed in his pants. The other scenario was that I park the car, get him out of his carseat so that if he does poo, he doesn't mess it up...and just let him do his deed in his pants. Then I thought that's very counter productive to his potty training. We've been getting him to run to the bathroom to pee and poo, and the message to make him go in his pants is just not productive at all.  Then as a last thought, I wished I had a potty chair in the car!!!

But in a matter of seconds after I ran through the different thoughts, I asked him if he could wait to poo until we get home so he could do it in the bathroom. "Yes, Mommy," he said....  Phew!!!!

He forgot all about pooping when we got home, though.

What do you do with your newly potty trained child when you're out and about?

My 2 1/2 year old little man is finally potty trained. I started in the middle of August and really worked on potty training on the weekends and nights. But during the week, he wears diapers because the class he is in does not specialize yet on potty training them. But in Sept. he was finally transferred to the older class and potty training began. So I could work on him at home, and his teachers work to train him in school. And it has been a success. At home, I was never confident enough to put him on big boy undies, but his teacher just went for it because she noticed that he was dry for hours anyway. And that was that!

He is staying dry at night too. This has actually been the case weeks before I started potty training. I still put him on pull ups at night though, I am just too chicken. I don't want to have to get up in the middle of the night wet and have to change the sheets. Besides, I still have diapers left over so I just want to finish them.

My concious decision to have more patience with my son has also worked. It's been about 2 weeks now and I haven't "lost" it. I almost did this weekend, but I was able to stop myself and ask my hubby to take over for a while so I can calm down, and I did.  So far, Matthew's attitude has been great too. It is amazing that some of his temper tantrums really stems from my "tantrums".  Tantrums feed off of each other I guess, kind of like yawning. One yawns, then the next person yawns... my son throws a tantrum and sends me into a tantrum.

I hope I don't become too permissive a parent though.

Four days ago, my Katelyn rolled over from tummy to back. This morning it is Jordan's turn. Yay!

Here are my 3 little angels. Unfortunately, they all have a cold...actually, we all have a cold brought in from school by Big Bro. Daddy was down for the count yesterday and stayed home. I don't feel too bad, thank goodness. The girls have stuffy noses that had to be sucked out a few times last night, but other than that they are not exhibiting any other symptoms.

I guess I should count ourselves lucky since there was a confirmed case of pink eye in my son's classroom and hand, foot, mouth disease in another classroom.

My hubby came home late last night because of a business dinner. So I did solo duty in putting the girls and my son to sleep. While I was laying down in bed with my son, he picked his nose. After about 15 mintues of quiet time, he said, "mommy, light on please. I want to see booger." 

Oh, and one day last week, his report from school said "Matthew said, 'It was hot outside because his hair is wet.'" 

So funny!

While I breastfeeding in the middle of the night, I turned on the TV so I don't completely fall asleep and drop the girls. Yikes! I happened to stumble on the Discovery Channel's new show, The Truth About Food. The topic was How to Feed Your Kids, and boy was I glad I saw it. I didn't get to watch the whole thing though for fear of not being able to go back to sleep.

They had experiments and put the major issues us moms face when feeding our children to the test. Incidentally, I noticed that though the host is a doctor here in teh US, the experiments were done in Europe. Hmmmm, maybe parents there are more relax and would allow the experiments more so than moms here.

Kids will stop eating once they are full.  ---- FALSE
They had a group of kids eat a miticolously measured serving of spaghetti for lunch (3oz meat sauce, 4 oz pasta). After everyone was done, the leftovers were weighed. The kids were interviewed and they all said they were full. A few days later, they did the same thing except the amount of food was doubled (6oz meat sauce, 8 oz pasta). Surprisingly, the kids ate more. How much more? Somethign like 60-70% more! 

So the lesson is, be mindful of serving sizes. Today's McDonald culture is all about supersizing, and sadly it's all bad for us.

Sugar Makes Kids Hyper --- FALSE
A large group of kids were thrown a party. The parents were told that there will be 2 parties; the first day, everything sugary will be served and on the 2nd day, only carrots and celery will be served. But the parents were told the opposite; the first party will be the veggie party and the 2nd will be the sweets.

Sure enough, the parents comments on the first day was "she's so calm", "he's so behaved", "I've never seen her this calm before."  On the 2nd day, parents comments are "he's so hyper", "she's just all over the place".   Of course the parents were absolutely astonished when they were told that the sugar party was on the first day and the veggie party was on the 2nd day.

The thing that actually made the kids hyper or more calm was the activity in the party. During the veggie party, the activity was all about bouncing, running around, popping balloons etc. On the sugar party, the activity was calmer : dress up, arts and crafts.

Peer Pressure can make Kids eat their veggies -- True!
A boy absolutely hated his brocolli. So the experiment was to bring very cool kids at school to build the awe factor. When the boy was star struck, they went off to lunch. The cool kids ate veggies and raved about brocolli and actually go the boy to eat it. Days later at home, brocolli was served, and sure enough, the boy ate it without any problem.

Forbidding junk food works better than controlling when kids can have them -- FALSE
In a class of young children, it was established by an interview that they like dried mango and raisins equally. But was told that during snack time, they can have the mango, and can only have the raisins at the last 2 minutes of the snack time. After a few days of doing this, all the kids dive in for the raisins like mad animals, pushing each other aside, eating by handfuls. On the last day, both the mango and raisins were open to everyone. What did they go for? Of course, the raisins! 

Another interview were conducted at the end, and all but one kid said their absolute favorite snack was raisins!

Good thing the hubby and I didn't decide to completely forbid sweets and other junk foods!! We just control the amount and when our son could have it.

Very interesting, don't you think?

My mother in law spent the weekend with us and got to telling me about a woman in her church who lost a child a few weeks back. This woman already have 4 kids, so this was the 5th. Early in the pregnancy, the couple was told that there was too many things wrong with the baby for it to survive outside the womb. They were urged to terminate the pregnancy. But the couple decided to go through with it. Their baby only survived 8 hours. They made a tribute movie (on youtube) and was told by my inlaw that it was a very loving tribute.

I can't imagine the courageousness of a woman who would carry her baby for 9 months, knowing that the baby wouldn't survive very long after being born. My heart goes out to her and her little angel.

 

The hubby and I had a date (first time in a long time) on Friday, while the inlaws watched the twins (big bro was in preschool). We played mini golf, ate lunch, came home to breastfeed, and then we saw the movie Stardust (awesome!). The next day, hubby and I went out to see the movie Transformers, while all 3 kids stayed with their grandparents.

In the theater, there was a couple, hubby and I, a mom with her child, and a family with 2 toddlers (3 & 4 years old, I think). While the movie was playing, the younger one decided to walk up and down their row. It didn't bother anyone, since they were at the very back. But the mom didn't want him walking up and down, so she grabbed the boy and slammed him down on the chair and lightly smacked him on the leg.

The whole scene bothered me. What would you expect from toddlers in a movie theater? Certainly, no toddler would sit still, no matter how much they loved the movie. But then in an instant, I see myself in that mom. I've been there. I've taken my son somewhere where he wouldn't listen to me, making my stress level shoot through the roof, which then makes me anything but gentle towards him. I was horrified. I felt very guilty and felt very very sad. I started crying. My hubby looked at me and asked why I was crying, so I told him I missed our son.

In times of stress, I end up emotionally abusing my son by yelling at him and being rough with him while he is just being a toddler. Granted, there are times when he really is naughty, but more often than not, he's just being a toddler (moving slowly when we're in a hurry, being loud, running around, don't want to leave when it's time to leave). So why am I being so mean? Why do I yell at him?

The hubby and I had a talk in the car while driving back home and examined how we parent. We are both going to try to be a bit more patient and understand and not be too reactive with our son. We want him to grow up confident and independent, free to be silly and be as curious as he wants.  When we got home, I gave him a great big hug and apologized and told him I will try and be a better mom.

So far so good. On Sunday when his grandparents left, he was so hyped up that he didn't nap. An overtired toddler is not a happy toddler, but with my new attitude, it didn't bother me much. Yesterday, when I picked him from school, I was able to come up with a clever way to get him to leave the school without a tantrum. It's amazing how much receptive he is when he's not being yelled at.

I want to be a better mom. I know he's a very independent 2 year old and we can't avoid all tantrums and hissyfits, but the way I deal with it can change. I need to give myself a pep talk often about staying calm and taking deep breathes, and hopefully I can keep on top of it.

My twins are 3 1/2 months and this morning, Katelyn turned over from tummy to back. We had the inlaws over the weekend and my mother in law commented that Jordan was lifting her chest up and would probably soon rolling over. But instead, it was Katelyn who rolled.

These girls continually amaze me. Their big bro didn't even try rolling over until he was about 5 months old.

Wow, it's been a week since I last entered a blog....it was the longest week too. Matthew didn't have school Aug. 31st, and then there was no school Sept 4 because of labor day. He had a really really long weekend, and on Tuesday when he was supposed to go school, he was sick. He was very very difficult and very very hyper. Now we know what staying at home for so many days in a row does to him, it makes him crazy!!!!!!!!

This week was fine. But today the girls decided they both wanted to be held today. I'm exhausted and tired and my ears hurt. I can't wait for Friday. The hubby and I invited the inlaws so that we can have a day just the 2 of us. It's been a very very loooooooooooooooooong time.

Right now, he's probably slow dancing with a beach-blonde tramp
And she's probably getting frisky
Right now, he's probably buying her some fruity little drink
Cuz she can't shoot whiskey

There's another verse here.. but the best part of this song is this chorus:

and he don't know..

I dug my key into the side of his pretty little souped up 4wheel drive
Curved my name into his leather seat
I took a louieville slugger to both headlights
Slashed a whole in all 4 tires
Maybe next time he'll think before he cheats...

This song is by Carrie Underwood. I just love it! It has a nice ring, plus it shows a woman being strong, albeit a wee bit crazy!

I posted a question in the Q&A about how to make sure that it is safe for me to leave my twins in the car, while I go run and pick up my son from school. But I guess it can never be that safe so I will just have to take the girls with me and go in.

I have a minivan that seats 7. It has 2 seats in the middle row (with a path in the middle) to access the 3rd row. My son's carseat is in one of the seats in the middle row and I have both the girls in the back. I can't have a baby in the other middle row seat because then it's hard for me to get into the car to go to the 3rd row and put the other baby in. But thankfully the middle row seats fold completely flat and onto the floor (stow & go) so now I only have one seat in the middle. It sounds easier, but it's hard to bend 90 degrees and put 2 babies in the back.

If I had both babies in the middle row, accessible just by opening the doors so I wouldn't have to get into the car, it would be the easiest thing to do. I wouldn't have to leave the girls in the car. But being that I have 3 kids in carseats, therein lies the problem.

I can put my son's carseat in the front seat, but that is a big no-no, as it is unsafe.

*sigh*, there is just no way of making the situation easy for me and my back.  It would be great if there is a van that has 6 doors. I open a door and voila, there's  a baby.... 

Ok, I just dug up a fairly old email with a "congratulations on your twins, better you than me."  It rings very wrong to me, that's why I'm blogging about it.

Though the incidence of twins is fairly high because of fertility drugs, identical twins are fairly rare. My husband and I researched a long time ago, the odds of us conceiving identical twins is less than 1%. So having done so, we feel very very lucky and very very blessed. So yes... better me than you.

Had a pretty good Saturday. The whether is gorgeous today and tomorrow so we thought we'd take advantage and go outdoors. It's been way too hot lately. We went to the park and enjoyed ourselves.

It's now almost bedtime, but I decided to pay some attention to my emailbox as it's getting obese. It needs to lose a little weight. I'm going from the newest to the oldest, don't ask me way. So if you see a reply for me that seems backwards, that's why.