Memorial Day

It's the soldier, not the reporter who has given us
Freedom of the Press.

It's the soldier, not the poet, who has given us
Freedom of Speech.

It's the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the
Freedom to Demonstrate.

It's the soldier, not the lawyer, who has given us the
Right to a Fair Trial.

It's the soldier who salutes the flag, serves under the flag and
whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who gives the protestor the right to burn the flag.

THANK YOU to all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice!!

 

Memorial Day Events?

If you are reading this blog, you probably already know that I try to be organized. I don't like it when things aren't in their 'spot' and it buggs me when items of different shapes/colors/sizes are mixed together. Call it whatever you want, but I call it logic! How else would I find my pink sleeveless top in my closet if my closet wasn't sorted from sleeveless to long-sleeved tops, then from light to dark colors? Geepers!  ;)

Anyway, I am looking for a list of activities on Memorial Day and I can't find a good list. The lists I have found are all laden with ads making the information difficult to read. Aside from that, most of the lists I've found are for LAST YEAR! You'd think with Memorial Day being on Monday the newspapers would have that info out already... at least on their websites!

So, if you are in the Twin Cities and have a great Memorial Day event you want to brag about, I would appreciate hearing about it!!

Potty Training

I can't believe we are already posting about this!! Adelle is, roughly, 2 1/2 and she is learning how to use the big girl potty. We followed the advice of the Moes Family, and tried potty training Adelle in one day.

We got a bunch of things ready before we began, which really seemed to help. During the week I started planting ideas of going on the potty in her head by reminding her that some of her friends already do it, that we have big girl undies, and that she herself is a big girl. Here are the other things we got together:

• Snacks to munch on - Salty, sweet and healthy so she would drink lots.
• Juice, milk, pop, water - Anything she wanted to drink, we had!
• Stickers and a sticker chart for a visual reward
• Suckers for instant gratification
• Big girl undies
• Plastic undies for naps and night-time
• Her favorite doll - We used this along with one of her old medicine syringes. I filled the syringe with water and had the doll "go" and then run to the potty with her. I also had her go in the toilet and not have accidents.
• A towel and cleaner for accidents
• Big girl potty chair/toilet cover - We actually have a potty chair and a smaller seat to fit over ours. This worked well because sometimes she couldn't hold it in and HAD to use her little chair. We kept the little chair on a plastic mat where we were, and the smaller seat in the downstairs bathroom.
• A stool so she could get onto the toilet
• An apron for me to keep treats in
• Lots of enthusiasm from Mommy
• A photo album with pictures of special individuals - After going on the potty Adelle would get to call someone to share her news. We would flip through the album, or I would just ask who she wanted to call, and we did.
• Floor games and books - Nothing too distracting.
• A timer - You don't want to go too long in between visits to the bathroom.

We started our day with breakfast and turkey watching. We do this every weekend and Brian and I wanted to keep the majority of our routines. After we got back from breakfast I put undies on her doll and let Adelle "find" her! We talked about what she was wearing and what that meant, and I asked Adelle if she wanted to wear undies too. She said, "Yes, I do!!"  We put them on started the timer. I then started playing with her doll and made her have an accident. I ran from the accident to the bathroom saying, "No, No, No. We have to potty on the potty!" I did that a few times then asked Adelle if she wanted to try to go. She said yes so we put her on the potty and she went! I was really excited, gave her high-5s, a kiss, a sucker and then showed her the chart and the album. She put a sticker on the chart and called Nonna and Papi. They were SO excited!!

We kept this up for the rest of the day!!

We called lots of people and only cleaned up 4 accidents. Two were poo and I am not worried about them at this time - it's a different feeling! The other two were my fault because I don't think I was patient enough or persistent enough to make her stay on the toilet when she wanted to get off. Lesson learned!

She is doing SO well!!