peter'n'momma day

Peter and I had the day off so we decided to take full advantage of momma's free hands before they're filled with little brother in a few short months. Luckily MBASA put together a playgroup of sorts at Thanksgiving Point's curiosity museum so we headed north and enjoyed our morning at the point of the mountain. Peter had an absolute blast and fortunately momma was able to keep up with him for a few hours.

 

The whole museum has a lot of neat exhibits but Peter wasn't quite old enough to enjoy the "curiosity" stuff... instead he thrived at the massive enclosed jungle gym, especially the 3-story high rope bridges that had a "no pregnant women" sign at the entrance. Woops.

 



 

After a couple hours and numerous laps around the jungle gym we took a lunch and potty break.

 

They even had mini toilets and mini sinks for the kiddos!

 

Here we go again!

 

After a sleepy ride home we went and picked out a treat at Spoon-it-Up. Peter chose strawberry frozen yogurt with toppet-tips (chocolate chips), m's (M&M's), and fresh strawberries sprinkled on top. Typical Peter treat right there.

 

He's such a cute kid. But he doesn't like smiling for pictures anymore so I had to tickle his leg to get a smile...

 

Our date didn't end there! We even played with friends and watched "meatballs." Later Daddy went to a student party of sorts for the evening and had to take a treat. We whipped together some chocolate chip cookies and got to share a few before daddy took them away.

 

Such a spoiled kid! But hey, it was a special day so what the heck. (:

 

I seriously had such a great time hanging out with my little man. He's the sweetest boy and just loves to have fun. He's going to be a great big brother!

 

Until our next adventure!

potty training, an extensive how-to by a complete expert.

Yep, that's me! The complete expert on the subject of potty training. 'Cause like, it's child's play, people.

Mahaha.

Who is a complete expert on potty training?? I mean like... I guess there are people out there that you can hire to potty train your child for an unheard of amount of money (I may or may not have looked into it) and I'm sure there are tons of books on how to potty train. There's for sure enough children's books on using the potty. But realistically... 99.99% of people in this world are not potty training experts. And that most definitely includes your 2.5 year old son that is currently peeing on the carpet for the 7th time in 3 minutes. Just standing there. Peeing. Maybe saying "uh-oh" to give you a hint as to what is going on as you clean up messes #5 and #6 in the other room.

So since there are only 0.01% people (maybe) in this world that are potty training experts I am taking it upon myself to share my very priceless limited knowledge experience on the topic to hopefully benefit some just as clueless mom or dad out there with intentions to train a 2-3 year old human being how to stop filling their diaper and do their duties on a toilet. A great feat.

Grain of salt, people. Just throwing that out there.

Here we go...

How to potty train:

Step #1- make a plan

Where is your toddler going to do the deed? When are you going to start? Have you mentally prepared yourself (important haha)? 

We started by getting a hold of a little toilet for our toddler's little bum. You never quite totally understand how little your toddler's bum is and how big your bum is until you sit said toddler's bum on a normal toilet. And they fall right in! Getting a tiny potty to potty train is pretty dang essential... unless of course you want to hold your child over the toilet for hours on end and count it as your workout for the day. I didn't want to. Plus strength training just isn't my favorite. Anyhow... we picked up a Lightning McQueen potty seat from GOTHE (gifts of the heart exchange) a few months back and it worked splendidly. Not just because Peter loves all things cars (including Cars) but because it was nice and tiny and low to the ground... something all toddlers are already very familiar with.

As for age? Peter was a month short of 2 1/2 when we got started. Basically we knew that we wanted to do it before the baby came but after Christmas break as to limit the messes Peter would make at grandma and grandpa's house.

Getting mentally prepared was something we didn't do. I mean we just figured it'd be hard and when it wasn't extremely terrible we were happy. 

Step #2- check out and start reading every single potty training children's book from the library

Prepare yourself, this could end up being 40 books. All about peepee and poopoo. A topic that can get old pretty quickly. You'll read about and look at pictures of zoo animals pooping, Calliou filling his toilet, firefighters using the john, and little princes wetting their pants. And when you start training you'll do this about 174 times in one hour just to get your little guy or gal to leave something in the potty. Just expect this process to be incredibly painful and it won't seem so bad. A lot of time sitting on the floor next to the potty reading stories and providing lots of encouragement. Heck, you can even add all of the books to your Good Reads "read" list to boost your numbers.

Step #3- come up with some sort of incentive for using aforementioned potty

We made up a simple little peepee and pooppoop chart and took Peter out to pick out stickers and a treat if he did use his potty. Not surprisingly he chose an assortment of car and ball stickers. As for a treat he picked m's (M&Ms). For every 100% successful peepee he got a sticker and 1 M&M and for every 100% successful pooppoop he got a sticker and 5 M&Ms. Lucky kid, no? He caught on pretty quickly to the reward system and at one point pulled off pooping twice in 5 minutes... resulting in 10 m's. He stashed those away and very quickly went for a third poop but wasn't able to pull it off. Or I guess... push it out. Smart kid, but no dice.

For the first little while he wanted to hold the jars every time he sat down... and he wanted to sit there for a long, long time. So we just made it a party and threw Cars in the DVD player to top things off. Hey, you can only read potty books for so long.

After day one Peter had pulled off earning four whole stickers. Granted he sat on the potty for a total of about 12 hours. Something you should never be doing unless you are potty training or incredibly loosy goosy down there. Or maybe super pregnant with a bouncy fetus... those potty breaks add up fast.

Peter's first big boy pooppoop. We were all quite pumped. (:

Step #4- introduce the system (WARNING: toddler nudity)

Now that you have a potty and an incentive you are ready to start potting training! We found that putting the potty in the living room on a towel (with another towel acting as a runway coming out the front if you're working with a Mr.) worked the best with our little man. We let him run around in just a t-shirt for probably the first 4ish days. Why? 'Cause lots of people online said it helped the process along significantly. I don't know why it works but it helped Peter better understand when he was going peepee or pooppoop. He had quite a few #1 accidents and we very quickly learned that we needed to buy some carpet cleaner. He only had one #2 accident though which was awesome. Anyhow... introducing the system... this seriously was the hardest part for me because I didn't know how to explain to him that he needed to use the potty instead of a diaper. But we learned that it just takes time. Time running around in the nude, watching yourself wet yourself, and getting familiar with what that feels like. Once they catch on they (hopefully) take business to the pot and stop soaking'n'soiling the carpet.

Step #5- don't forget your patience pills and pick out some underpants

After letting Peter run around half naked/pee everywhere for a few days we took him to the Walmart and let him pick out some underpants. Todd strategically stood in front of the over priced Cars pack and Peter picked out a pack with rawr-rawrs and 'YU (dinosaurs and BYU blue) prints. We were very proud to say the least. (:

Here he is picking out his first pair nice and early the next morning. He went with the royal 'YU ones.

Step #6- say goodbye-ish to your life for another week

There are lots of messes but there's also lots of success! We did our best to praise Peter as much as we could muster every time he successfully used the potty. And when daddy came home from campus we told him all about how well Peter did so daddy could show how proud he was too. Lots of positive feedback for our little guy went a long way. He also likes m's a lot haha.

Before you know it, your little one will be wearing pants again, you'll be able to move the potty into the bathroom, and things will start feeling normal again.

It has now been a little over a month, Peter's stickers and m's are almost gone, and he only has an accident or two a week! He knows when he has to go and let's us know usually with 15 seconds until blast off. (: He's even great at leaving the house for long periods of time and using big potties at the church, library, friend's houses, etc. He still wears diapers when he naps and goes to bed but our last pack of size 4's are running low and he's slowly but surely getting better at waking up to potty. Ya sometimes it's an hour after bedtime or an hour before wake up time but oh well, who needs sleep?

The current status of his sticker and M&M jars... running low and he totally forgets 90% of the time for ask for them after using the potty. Don't worry, you'll get there... in like a month. You can do it!

Yay Peter!

Extra tips and tricks that worked for us...

• Make sure your toddler uses the potty before helping with the dishes... their little hands in that warm water will make them wet their pants fast than you can say #quithittingyourself.

• Before you leave the house explain that wherever you are going has some big potties too... then when you get there show them where the potty is.

Well that's all I've got. I hope your potty training endeavors are successful, painless, and not any messier than they have to be.

first annual Death by Chocolate baking throw down.

Valentine's Day has come and gone. It's one of my favorite holidays, really. I just like everything about it! And this year, my husband was out to make it even more special than ever before. Towards the end of January Todd brought up Valentine's Day and something that he kinda sorta wanted to do for it to surprise me. I got excited pretty quickly. But he needed my help pulling it off... therefore taking away the surprise factor but not the fun and delicious factors. (:

One of our most favorite Mount Horeb, Wisconsin traditions was attending the library's Death by Chocolate event every Valentine's Day. Ya, we were only there for the 8th and 9th annuals but it was great while we were there. This is how great it was.

Todd's idea? Have our own Death by Chocolate with all of our friends here in Provo! Isn't he clever? He is.

And so... we threw together some invites, made some pretty sweet spatula trophies, and invited everyone out for a chocolatey evening.

We had a great turn out and for reals everything was delicious! Everything from truffles to mousse to hot chocolate to macaroons to chocolate covered fruit snacks... it was fabulous!

After we all stuffed our faces with every chocolate dessert to ever exist we cast our votes and gave out awards for the winners of each category.

The Horton's won the brownie category with their fudge brownie/pink coconut whip cream combo.

Matt & Kelsey G.C. swept the miscellaneous category with his chocolatey eclairs. He's French so we weren't surprised at all when his eclairs, mousse, and macaroons were all in.cred.i.ble.

Richard and his lovely date, Michelle, won by one vote (over Matt's macaroons, of course) with their hot fudge delight cookies.

Lastly... Callie and her date, Spencer, took the cake category with their chocolate chip cookie cake. It was huge and beautiful and tasty. Matter of fact there's some in the fridge right now that I might go sample again. (: Todd's chocolate tres leches cake did really well too (and might have won but you can't win a trophy at your own party, right?).

And there you have it! We had such a great time with friends and family. Aaaaand it might take until next Valentine's Day for me to want chocolate again.

Haha okay ya no... it's just so good!

See you next year! I'mma go eat some more cake.

our sweet Valentine's.

Valentine's Day was beyond sweet for us this year. We have seriously spent the entire weekend enjoying tasty treats... and we still are. It has all been so delicious but we are for reals ready to go on like a 2-day sugar cleanse. Ugh, it's gonna be rough.

The sweets are started Friday morning... with my glucose tolerance test. 50 grams of sugar in 5 minutes. It actually didn't taste that bad but I haven't gotten the results yet. So at least drinking it was sorta enjoyable I guess.

That day we enjoyed grandma's sugar cookies, more sugar cookies at the Wymount party, malasadas from the food truck down the road, and a soda bar at a surprise birthday party. I'm pretty sure I consumed about 3000 grams of sugar. And Saturday morning I felt it. Oh man. 

Fortunately Todd was on campus all morning so I didn't have to worry about feeling obligated to spoil him on Valentine's Day. We took it nice and easy... especially since late Saturday morning was the MBASA Valentine's Party and we had Death by Chocolate that night! So. much. sugar. Why does it have to taste so good?? And why do we, as Americans, have to be so obsessed with it?! (and by "it" I suppose I am mostly referring to corn syrup haha)

Anyway... here are some photos of our sweet weekend.

Sugar cookie #1 (of the weekend)

Sugar cookie #2

Sorry... a little graphic.

Sugar cookie #3... isn't my date to the MBASA party so handsome?

And.

We all know what happens when we eat too much sugar...

... we just go a little crazy. And whimper all night with a stomach ache. And wake up with sugar hives.

I suppose little boys (who inherit a love for sweet from both parents) will be little boys.

And that wasn't even half of our weekend. Death by Chocolate post coming shortly.

tried and true burp rags: a sewing how-to

It all started a year or so ago when I was out and about shopping for a baby shower gift for one of my good friends...

[cue harp music and wavy "flash back" screen]

I knew that I wanted to make another one of these cupcake looking gifts that included some onesies, burp rags or receiving blankets, and little sockies. Since I had done this a few times before I knew where to go to get what I needed. But...

... this time around I wasn't able to find what I was looking for (burp rags) at Burlington! Dang. Since we lived "out of town" I didn't want to drive back into town to look around another day. (We were on a "strict" go-into-town-once-a-week gas diet.) So I decided, "What the heck, I'm across the parking lot from Jo-Ann's like right now... I'll just make my own!" I called up my wonderful mother, got a pattern from the interwebs, and bought all of the ingredients to make a simple burp rag.

Now that it has been a while and I've got these things down to an amateur art of sorts (emphasis on amateur) I thought I'd share this easy peasy sewing project with you... especially since they're apparently some pretty sweet burp rags. I've never actually used one but all of my buddies that use them say they work great. Either that or they're lying to me. ;)

So here you go... for sure let me know if you have any questions!

Step one: gather your ingredients

• fabric: 1/4 terry cloth & 1/4 yard snuggle flannel (makes two burp rags) I like to buy a whole yard of terry cloth and four different 1/4 yards of coordinating snuggle flannel to get eight total rags.
• cutting board, clear ruler, rotary cutter
• fabric scissors
• ironing board, iron
• sewing machine, thread
• pins
• chopstick (or other long pointed object to push out the corners when you turn it right side out)

Todd says this picture is very pinterest-esque... minus the dirty ironing board. Haha thanks Todd, I'll expect an adorable ironing board cover from you as a Valentine's Day gift. ;)

Step two: wash, cut, iron, and cut your fabric some more

When you buy your fabric (if you haven't bought fabric before) you'll notice that it is folded in half on the bolt. Don't let this throw you off. Bring your fabric home and give it a good wash. Then fold it back up and cut along the fold. If you're not sure which way to fold it, lay it out and make sure four of your 1/4 yard snuggle flannels will fit across (give or take a few inches). Another way you can tell which way to fold it is by looking for the selvage edges. Line those up together and cut the opposite side and you should be set. (:

Once you've cut your folds you should have two large pieces (if you got a whole yard of terry cloth) and eight smaller pieces of snuggle flannel. Iron your snuggle flannel pieces. I don't bother ironing the terry cloth but feel free to. 

Using one piece of terry cloth at a time, line up your first piece of snuggle flannel in the corner and use your clear ruler to cut a nice straight edge.

Use that newly cut edge to line up the top for another squared off edge.

Continue this process until you have four 90 degree corners.

Repeat this process for your other pieces of snuggle fleece (eight total, four per large piece of terry cloth). I've found that the snuggle flannel 1/4 pieces always add up to be a little bigger than the yard of terry cloth, So don't be afraid to trim about half an inch off the long sides of the snuggle flannel otherwise you'll end up with a really small piece of terry cloth at the end for your last piece of snuggle flannel.

Once you have your eight pairs of ready-to-sew pieces of fabric go ahead and give them a good press.

Step three: inside-out your fabric and pin 'em together

Now that your snuggle flannel and terry cloth are cut the same size and pressed nice and flat, flip the piece inside-out like so...

Readjust and line up your edges. Use 8-ish pins to pin 'em together.

Step four: sew job #1

Starting about 3/4 of the way down one of the short ends make your way around the fabric with about a 1/2 inch seam. You will probably need to keep an eye on the edges to keep them lined up since the different fabrics have different elasticity.

Once you turn the corner (I like to make nice sharp edges on my burp rags solely for the occasions when you are trying to wipe spit up out of some deep crevasse of your baby's car seat.) switch to a 1/4 inch seem until you come back around to that 1/2 end. And totally feel free to round your edges though if you like that more.

Once you've made your way around be sure to stop about 1/4 of the way down that first short side so you can turn your burp rag right side out.

Step five: snip, flip, and press

Snip your corners (not the stitches) to avoid clumpy corners in your end result...

... and turn everything right side out, using the chopstick to gently push out the corners from the inside.

Head back to the ironing board and press the edges nice and flat.

You'll also need to press a fold at the open seam... it'll make sewing it shut much easier.

Yeesh, you think I coulda touched up my nails before taking
these pictures?? My deepest apologies.

Step six: sew job #2

Starting with the open seam, sew another 1/4 inch boarder around the burp rag making sure to close up the seam.

And voila!

It's all ready to be gifted to a baby (momma, really) in need...

... or tucked away in your diaper bag to mentally prepare itself for it's next sour milk soaked adventure. 

Good luck my friends! Let me know how it works out for you! (: