The Potty Diaries

On Friday Rachel woke up at 7:30 AM and went potty. She went all through church without an accident. Then we stayed after church to be home taught. Then we stayed even later so that Andrew could do his home teaching. Rachel finally went pee (in the potty) while Andrew was home teaching with Girgis and Joseph.

Then Andrew had to home teach the Lewises, so we went over to their house and Rachel stayed dry the whole time. We then had a lunch appointment for a lunch/dinner at the Barton’s and Rachel managed to stay dry until around 3:30…when she peed her pants…but she was standing up when she peed and her rubber pants contained the whole mess. Amazing! I was really happy about that because the Bartons have a very nice home and I would have been forever embarrassed had she peed on their floor.

She napped for 45 minutes once we got home, woke up and went potty. Then she played with her new toys until it was time to go to the Sharp’s for dessert and games. She stayed dry there until around 9:00 PM when she peed in her pants again. She just doesn’t do well at other people’s houses, I guess, but since she should have been in bed I suppose I can’t really blame her for peeing her pants.

We were in the middle of a good game of Settlers (I won, so it must have been a good game) and Rachel just wouldn’t simmer down. She was jumping on the couch, running around the apartment, and “mopping” the floors until 11:00 PM when we left. We tried putting her down, but she was in a screaming mood and we didn’t want her to wake up Finn or Abby, so she stayed up virtually all day long from 7:30 AM until 11:00 PM with only two accidents all day long. Not bad for a 14 month baby, I think…

Today Rachel got up at 7:00 AM, but since she didn’t go to bed until 11:00 last night I just nursed her and put her right back in her crib. She fell back asleep until around 10:00, got up, and wouldn’t go potty. We bummed around the apartment, watching the Presidential Debate on CNN, while we waited for her to be ready to go. Eventually she went and then we left to go explore the Citadel. She stayed dry the entire time we were out, I was a little nervous to have her be in underwear because I was “wearing” her, but I don’t like the idea of putting her back in diapers when she’s doing so well in underwear. She did a wonderful job, though, and went potty when we got home, and then went down for a nap.

When she got up she didn’t want to go potty, so we let her play but continued to pester her about going on the potty about every 10 minutes or so. She ate dinner and still didn’t want to go on the potty, so we let her play again, still pestering her about going.

Finally, around 7:00 PM, she dropped her toys and kind of squatted. Then she stood up straight and ran over to me shaking her little fist like a wild woman. I was so happy!

We’ve been trying to teach her the sign for “potty” for a few months now. You make the letter “T” by holding your hand in a fist with your thumb between your pointer and middle fingers, then your shake it back and forth to mean “toilet.” Rachel hasn’t been able to get her thumb between her fingers yet so she usually just shakes her fist. She’s never done it to let me know that she has to go before, though; she’s only done it when she’s already sitting on the potty and we’re talking about it.

So I ran her to the potty, pulling off her undies as we went. It was a good job I did that, too, because the minute I set her down she let everything go.

We celebrated her communication with high fives all around and a standing ovation and lots of hugs and kisses.

Rachel is doing a wonderful job at going on the potty. I’m so proud of her! And I’m absolutely thrilled to announce that I can’t even remember the last time I’ve had to change or wash out a poopy diaper (of Rachel’s). It’s had to have been at least 2 weeks? I’m not sure. Let’s just say that elimination communication is the bomb. With the next one, I think we’ll start a little earlier. With Rachel, we’ll just keep on keeping on. She’s doing so well!

FHE Idea

Since we've been married, Family Home Evening lessons have always revolved around very grown-up topics and grown-up conversation. We've used big words, no visuals, and lots of scriptures.

We continued with this after Rachel was born. She spent most of her FHEs nursing or sleeping.

She's bigger now, though, and a lot more focused and we've been struggling with what to teach her and how. We lack resources and we lack creativity. Rachel loves to look through her "reverence book" and talk about the things in the pictures--sacrament, temples, prophets, Jesus, etc.--and that's been going alright, but what we really wanted was some sort of direction to go with this. We want to teach her the basic gospel principles in our home so that she can start building her testimony today.

But how do you help a one year old do that?

You use the new nursery manual! I'm so excited that they've redone this! It has awesome little lessons that are still a little too long for Rachel's sake but simple enough that she can sit through about half of one. There are pictures and activities with every lesson. In short, it's awesome.

Andrew taught the first lesson this Monday and Rachel seemed to enjoy it.

Car Seats

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Now that Amy is 1, the time to get her a front facing car seat is coming closer. (We're not quite ready to be done with the carrier that we can just bring in the house without waking her up. I love that. But before long, it will be time to change.) So I was just curious if any of you parents have opinions of what you did/ didn't like in the car seats you've gotten. What kind of features should we look for? Do you have favorite brands or even specific car seats? We have been pleased with graco so far and would be happy to get another graco car seat. I plan to do some research/ price shopping before we get one, but I thought this would be a good way to start the process. Thanks!