Belen starts Kindergarden!

My baby is off to school.

I know she'll love it.

I'll miss her.

Belen's First Visit with the Dentist!

When Belen was about  a year old I had the foresight to ask my dentist at what age I should start taking her in to have her teeth cleaned and examined. They told me that 3 years old. So I waited until she turned 3 to take her in. Low and behold I had been misinformed...a pediatric dentist would have seen her much earlier and our insurance would have paid for her to see the dentist every 6 months as soon as she had 4 teeth...argh! Uh well...luckily Belen's teeth are healthy and she has no cavities! YAY! It was so good to get some advice from the pediatric dentist regarding some of the struggles we've had getting Belen's teeth brushed...let's just say it's not always her favorite thing in the world...

The dentist also recommended we give Belen some special zylitol gum to chew to help kill the bacteria that causes cavities and she also told us that we need to help Belen work on not sucking her thumb over this next year so there wont be any further misalignment of her teeth. She currently has a 90% overbite. Not good. Hopefully the process won't be too traumatic for her. I forgot my camera so I didn't get any pictures of Belen in the dentists office but I was able to get a nice shot of her super clean princess smile when we got home!

Camden is 6 pounds!!!

Yesterday, Camden hit 2 milestones! He finally reached 6 lbs AND is 3 weeks old! Though still several days shy of his September 14th, due date Camden is starting to behave more like a newborn (as opposed to a premie), crying when he's hungry, waking up for tiny spells, and eye contact, oh my!

We were pretty worried about him for awhile...it seemed that we kept hitting one roadblock after another with regards to his health and well-being. 36 hours on oxygen in the hospital, difficulty latching and nursing and then he wouldn't stay awake long enough to eat after I'd spent 45 minutes trying to wake him enough so he would latch. Jaundice where his biliruben levels didn't peak until he was 6 days old and spent over a week on phototherapy. We had to have his bili levels checked daily up until last Friday because they were going down so slowly. He even reached a point where he totally refused to eat and had to be readmitted to the hospital. Followed by a not immediately apparent viral infection that manifested itself as vasculitis (he had red, hot, swollen hands, feet, elbows, knees, etc..every joint looked inflamed) that had the pediatrician saying words like "Infantile Lupus". Luckily the symptoms disappeared as quickly as they'd appeared in the first place but not before several rounds of testing that had the pediatricians scratching their heads.

But, after losing 8% of his birth weight (bottoming out at 5 lbs. 2 oz.) our handsome little guy is now 6 pounds of baby boy joy!

Favorite Phrases

I just wanted to post a little of Belen's current favorites. Things she likes to say regularly to give you and idea of her burgeoning personality.

"I DO IT!"

"YAY! I DI' IT!"

She loves adding "too" to the ends of sentences...sometimes it works beautifully and other's it does not work so well. She is speaking very well, more and more clearly every day and she is becoming quite proficient at forming complete sentences!

"I wanna doh, too"

"Mommy gaw to doh potty, too?"

"Mommy, doh potty, too. NOW!"

"Mommy doh sit on uh couch, NOW!"

"Mommy, doh-way." (That's 'Mommy, go away' ouch!)

"Dank you Mommy/Daddy"

"I wan sum, too! Peaz"

(Sometimes she forgets who she is talking to and will call mommy daddy and vice versa...it doesn't happen very often and is a new thing).

She loves to command those around her to do things by firmly saying 'NOW' as you can see, above.

"Weer is it?"
"Is wight daer."

Belen also loves to run screaming and giggling in the opposite direction when i call her. She LOVES to get into things she's not supposed to and make big messes. She LOVES running through the sprinkler in the front yard, going down the big slide at the swimming pool, going to Nursery at church and looking at pictures of Jesus. She loves to sing and is quickly picking up songs from the radio. We can hear her singing along in the back seat when we go places.

She is also very excited to figure out this "big sister" thing, she loves to touch my belly and feel baby brother kicking and she gives him hugs and kisses.

And every night she says, "Ni-night. Swee'-deams. Wuv you!" and blows me a kiss!

Cereal...huh?

I love hearing Belen say, or attempt to say new words.

This video was recorded almost a month ago a short while after Belen started to use it, at least well enough that I could understand.

Potty Training Take 2!

I honestly dreaded this day since our last unsuccessful attempt...but, I do realize that our last attempt failed not because Belen wasn't ready but because I wasn't ready. With being in early pregnancy and the complications that were occurring at the time while simultaneously saying good-bye to the babyhood of my first born....just bad timing, pure and simple.

This time I'm a lot more laid back about potting and that translates to less stress for Belen as well. We are still doing the same technique that we worked on last time but I've embraced a reward system that is a bit more appropriate for Belen's age. Treats...she gets 3 Skittles for each successful trip to the potty, or if she is clean and dry at random times when I ask her if she is dry through the day. She even got a treat for waking up last night (3 a.m.) and telling us she went potty. She got a treat for that because she is a solid sleeper and it's difficult for children to wake up at night when the need to go potty.

This morning she was totally dry, despite having played quietly in her room for a good half-hour after waking (she was so quiet I didn't even hear her but I'm assuming she didn't sleep THAT late) and went pee pee in the potty!

Poo poos are a different story...yesterday was a bit of a fiery mess...We got into the potting now..right before we are planning to move, only because Monday morning Belen insisted on wearing her panties...she wanted nothing to do with diapers..even though she really didn't want to go potty on the toilet...so accident after accident I offered her the choice between panties and diapers...(this was NOT a part of the potting method but since we are moving at the end of the week I really didn't want to potty train...so, I left it up to her) without fail she ALWAYS chose panties...so here we are in day two!

The only problem is, she begs for treats all day...she gets treats for staying clean and dry and for using the potty...but she tries to get more treats out of the deal...lil' stinker!

...it's what's for dinner.

Belen's first Corn on the Cob experience.

(ignore the date stamp...it's not right. I didn't even know it was on)

More butter please!

This was actually really gross...Belen was taking chunks of butter and straight out eating it...she thought it was hilarious that Zak and I were making a big fuss about how gross it was!!

Belen's New Haircut!

I've been wanting to cut Belen's hair for quite some time BUT every time I brought it up with Zak he was always in opposition SO...I let it go for awhile BUT today Belen spilled juice all over herself...on purpose...it's her new thing...leading us to an impromptu toddler bathtime...while I was washing her hair I just realized that I really just couldn't STAND her mullet any longer...SOOOOO!

TA - DAH!!!

I cut a good inch and a half off the back and trimmed her bangs...I took absolutely nothing off the sides...that's how mullet-y it was!!! She even let me blow it dry!

Too Stressful?

So, the last two days of potty training Belen had decided to try to hold it in all day so that she wouldn't have to go use the potty...Today she became very upset anytime I tried to put her on her potty resulting in some pretty big accidents.  Also today, anytime I reminded her to let mommy know when she needed to go potty she answered with a firm, "NO!"  

After some research; including the American Academy of Pediatrics who stated that when potty training, if a child begins to try to hold it in all day rather than use the potty then training has probably become too stressful for them  and it might be time to ease up a bit; we have decided to ease up a little bit. We still ask her to tell us when she needs to go potty...we will still put her on the potty when she indicates that she needs to go, but we have decided to do so using feel and learn pull-ups for now so that accidents aren't the end of the world when they do happen.  We will just slow down a bit.

Apparently Belen had wet the bed at some point in the night or early morning while sleeping..she didnt call for me at all...I felt so bad when I realized I had no idea how long she had been sleeping in a puddle of urine.

So, we will see as we let Belen take the lead for a bit. I really hope we won't have to relive the last 4 days when we go back to panties...but, for now we have a much happier little girl.

AHHHHHH!

I could just scream at the top of my lungs...why, because Belen is...why can't I?  Ok, I understand that she is not even 2 years old and I am....older...yes I have more control over my emotions and I exercise that control on a daily basis hundreds of times...

Today happens to be day 3 of potty training...you probably guessed that it's been a challenge...it started off well, though.  Belen had an accident in her bed at 4 a.m. I had woken up about a half hour before she woke me up but allowed myself to go back to sleep instead of waking Belen up to go potty. At 4 a.m. she came running into our bedroom yelling, "PEE PEE! PEE PEE!" I rushed her off to the potty where she immediately said, "all done". Then Zak and I got her cleaned up, changed her bedding, reminded her to keep her panties and her bed dry, and away to dreamland we all returned.

At 7:45 this morning Belen came into our room saying pee pee again only this time she was dry! I rushed her off to the potty and there again, nothing happened. We went and had breakfast and I continued to remind her to tell me if she needed to go potty. 

She stayed dry until I decided to get things going by letting her play in the water in the bathtub...each time things started to flow I whisked her to the toilet where she immediately said, "all done". Eventually I believe she emptied her bladder completely in the bathtub...

 

After the bath things just went completely downhill. 

Not once has she said a word about potty or pee pee this entire day so far BEFORE the accident happens. 

I know this is totally gross but the carpet in her room is wet everywhere I step because she keeps getting out of bed and standing at her door and peeing on the carpet.  I should clarify that I told her she should go pee pee before her nap. She said, "NO" so down for her nap she went. Then, as with the last 2 days every two seconds she's out of bed telling me she has to go pee pee but never has she told me BEFORE she's had an accident!!! ARGH!!! I just have to say that I am SOOOOO glad it is nap time so I don't have to deal with potty training for at least an hour or two.

Potty Day 2

At 3 a.m. I  was awakened by Belen yelling, "Mommy! Mommy!". When I went into her bedroom to check on her she had gone pee pee in her bed..oops. But, I am so proud of her for telling me the way she did.

This morning I ended up with a bit too much on my plate for the day and decided to put potty training on the back burner...that is until Belen kept dry for 4 hours before going pee pee in the bathtub before her nap.

Naptime went well...Belen only kept getting up saying, "iwannapeepee", without really needing to go, for an hour as opposed to yesterday's 2 hours. She slept well, kept dry, and made it all the way to the hallway right outside the bathroom door before having an accident!

This evening I reread the 3 day potty training ebook and realized I had made a lot of mistakes. The potty should be for going potty only, not for reading books or playing with toys while sitting on the potty. And, the minute you start getting frustrated you've entered a power struggle so it's very important to focus on positive reinforcement and realize that this is a tough thing to learn for your child, too.  I was really encouraged when I reread that it is very common for kiddos to decide it's too hard to learn to go in the potty and they may beg for diapers or start having accidents on purpose but it's super important at that point to hold firm...once they learn that diapers or pull-ups are no longer an option they will learn.

Tonight we didn't fall back on the pull-ups...Belen is sleeping soundly in her panties. The ebook has advice for what to do if your child consistently wets the bed but it's only happened once so far so I will wait and see what happens tonight before using those techniques.

Advice for those who decided to use this method:

1. When your spouse gets home from work enlist his help, let him take over potty training while you prepare dinner, catch a few minutes to yourself, or get some housework done.

2. Make sure you're focused on your child at ALL times.  This afternoon Belen had most of her accidents during moments when she had snuck away, or locked me out of a room in the apt., or when I was just getting too tired to follow her around every second.

3. Follow the method to a "T" for the full 3 days.

I really like that this method never advocates force in training your child. There are never any tears involved. One of Belen's challenges is, as I'd described yesterday, she will go a tiny bit in her panties and stop, then we rush off to the toilet and after a few seconds she proudly announces, "all done" despite not having emptied her bladder....yesterday this little dilemma lead to BIG accidents..today it lead to BIG success because after each accident she would get clean panties, a reminder to keep them dry and tell mommy if she had to go potty and off we went. When the pressure gets high enough she will go.

Anyway, day 2 is now over!

Potty Day 1

This morning:

Whelp, potty day one is just barely underway and we have had 1 successful pee pee in the potty and 2 uh ohs..one of which was the second after I reminded Belen to tell mommy when she had to go pee pee. And so we continue...

Late morning:

Belen learned very quickly that her panties were not for going pee pee in and figured out how to stop the flow after a split second leaving only the tiniest of wet spots on her panties. I would then rush her to the potty and there she would sit for 5 seconds before announcing that she was "all done"....a big accident that she couldn't stop would usually follow...but, it was time for her nap.

Naptime:

When putting Belen down for her nap I explained to her that it was still very important that she keep her panties dry and she was allowed to get up from bed only if she needed to go potty...the wise little toddler that she is showed a renewed determination to learn how to use the potty...for 2 hours she regularly got up out of bed, went straight to the potty, sat down, immediately got back up and went straight back to bed (if I was standing right there that is). Finally, at 2 o'clock (when she is usually finishing her nap) she settled down and fell asleep.

Just after Nap:

By 4 o'clock I figured it was about time that Belen would be waking up. Normally she comes straight out of her room and finds me and we cuddle until she is completely awake but today when I peeked into her room she was sitting up in the middle of her bed, staring at the wall and sucking her thumb...I startled her when I walked in. When I pulled the blankets away I found that she was sitting in a large circle of urine and shivering...poor girl!  She had a tough time getting back on the wagon when she was tired.

Mid-afternoon & evening:

Much the same as late morning..Belen would often say "pee pee" or "uh oh" as she stopped herself from having an accident...once we found success when I gave her a book to read while on the potty after one of her near misses.

Right before bed:

We made sure not to allow liquids for 2 hours before bed but after the challenging day, Zak convinced me to disguise one of her pull-ups by putting a pair of panties over them and putting them on her for the night after reading another book on the potty didn't produce the same results as before.

I know, I know....the 3 day potty method is firm against the use of pull-ups for any reason. We have a few things coming up in our schedule in the next couple days that I don't want Belen to miss out on so we will probably be prolonging the success of this method but I fully understand and accept that as a possibility.

Potty Training Readiness 101

Every parent of a toddler at some point wonders when on earth they will be required to the endure the mess and frustration often associated with toilet training, and say goodbye to diapers forever..ok, at least until the next kiddo makes his/her grand entrance.

You will inevitably hear and read all sorts of advice offered by friends and 'experts' who will leave you wondering how exactly your toddler is supposed to "tell" you they have to go potty. 

I think Belen and i came across a fool-proof way to discover a child's' readiness for toilet training...

    1.Make sure your child has never been introduced to a child's potty chair prior.

2. Make sure your child HAS to be in the same room with mommy or daddy at all times...just to know what's up.'  Yes, this includes the bathroom...

3. Take your child shopping with you and inadvertently pass by the childs' potty chairs.

How to discern your child's behavior:

If your child points out the potty chairs (in the store) and begins to pull down their pants and take off their diaper (still in the store) while repeating "potty, potty, pee pee" over and over...they are probably ready. 

I decided to buy the potty chair that Belen liked so much, stocked up on big girl panties and decided on 

"D-Day"...meaning the END OF DIAPERS DAY!  We are going for it as soon as we are settled  in our new apartment in January. We'll let you know how things go!  We will be using the potty training techniques created by Lora Jensen found at www.3daypottytraining.com.

Milestones

In the short time that we've been in California, Belen has crossed some major developmental milestones that we'd like to share with our family and friends.

First, Belen has learned the importance of good oral hygiene. Her first two-word sentence (that I can make out anyway) is "bruss teef." If ever mommy or daddy leaves the bathroom door open Belen is often found standing on the toilet brushing her teeth in the dark.

Secondly, Belen has expressed a desire, quite convincingly I might add, for a toddler bed.

She was fine, immediately after this picture was taken Belen popped right up

and ran straight to her toys. Not a tear was shed.

Thirdly, because the temperatures in this oddly humid California desert regularly peak over 100 degrees (actual current temp. is 105 degrees) and energy costs (i.e. the electric it takes to run our dinosaur of an air conditioner) are astronomical.

Belen had to find her own way to keep cool.

SaveSave

Hello!

New Teeth!

I have been trying for the last couple weeks to get a good picture of Belen's new teeth but she usually becomes too interested in the camera itself and will throw a fit when I don't give it to her. Gotta love toddlerhood...Anyway, I finally got one!  Sorry about the poor quality, I took this picture from a distance and cropped it. The only way I could get those top teeth to show is if she makes this silly face and she just won't do it on demand.  If you'll notice she has one top front tooth! She has another just right of where her other top front tooth will come in but in this picture she just looks like my adorable little hillbilly! I love it!

Uh Ohhh!

So, Belen has been walking for 2 months now but she was always very cautious about it UNTIL NOW! All of a sudden if she sees an older child running it spurs her on and she will try her absolute hardest to keep up...ok, so they leave her in the dust..but, despite falling, hard, numerous times she will just keep trying...the little Belen that could! More mobile than ever with Belen means more mischievous than ever. Tonight I was trying to get her clean clothes put away and change her bedding...she had other ideas and kept going behind me and taking everything that I had JUST put away out of the drawer and hurling it across the room....argh!

So, here is our lil' mischievous girl on her 13 month birthday!

Happy New Year!

Belén took 6 unassisted steps today!!!!!  And when she'd reached where she wanted to go she slowly just sat down...she didn't fall at all!!!!  She took her first step on Christmas Eve and has a few times since but, 6!!!!!  I've got a little walker!

What's up, Doc?

Just in case you were wondering, we had a terrific Christmas!  It was so nice to go back to Washington and spend time with family there.  We were so busy shopping and doing family stuff that we didn't get the chance to visit with many friends outside of those we saw at church.  Just know that we were thinking of you!!!

Another neat thing about being is Washington for Christmas was we happened to get the best of both worlds...meaning simply that it was a lot warmer than we were used to so we could get by without bundling ourselves up quite so much as we do here in the mountains...but we also had a little dusting of snow on Christmas day...how nice was that!

Belén and Dolly

Belén had a great time exploring Grammy and Grandpa's house and knocking down all the Christmas decorations that she could reach.  She also really loved meeting Sadie (doggie), and Elsie and Oliver (birdies), and Shadow (kittie).  Had Shadow let Belén come even remotely close to her I'm sure she would have been quite gentile!  Though, I think by the end of our visit they learned a bit of mutual respect for each other...they would often get into little stand-offs where they would just be watching each other, not moving at all but watching...It almost looked like Belén was stalking prey.

Not too much else going on around here....we're glad to be home and spend time with friends we haven't seen since before the break...Zak is getting really antsy for school to start again but I'm enjoying having him around so I couldn't care less about school starting... 

yumm! yumm! Grammy's Cookies

Zak also just had his wisdom teeth removed 2 days ago...he's doing really well, though his left cheek is really swollen and painful.

Belén is changing so much...she's become quite the little talker and says "mama," "dada," and "uh-ohhh."  It's just the cutest thing except she'll say uh-ohh when she's trying to throw something the little stinker. She was sick when we got home from Washington and was pretty irritable but as she started feeling better she would crawl over to me, climb up on me and give me long sweet hugs.  It just made my heart swell.  I know, sappy mommy stuff, huh?  I just really savor those days.  For Christmas her Grammy got her a big stuffed Tiger, he looks pretty realistic for a toy and at first Belén didn't really know what to think about it but now she likes to pet it!  

I am in awe.

I know that every parent thinks that their child is the smartest, most adorable creature on the earth and I just have to say that Zak and I are no exception to this school of thought! Belen has been feeling much better the last couple of days and seems to be back to herself, though she has yet to cut any teeth. She has two little white bumps, one on each side where her eye teeth will eventually come in. I am relieved that we have a little break until the next episode.

Belen playing in the shipping paper her jumper came in.

When we were in Washington about a month ago, my parents bought for Belen a "Rainforest Jumparoo." It is just the coolest freestanding jumper and Belen absolutely LOVES it! We, however, have been waiting for my parents to mail it to us here in Idaho because we couldn't take it on the plane. We'll, we are all SO happy to announce that the wait is OVER! It arrived at our doorstep just a few days ago and Belen has been bouncing like crazy...and when she's not bouncing, she's playing underneath the bouncer...she just can't get enough of it, it's just totally cute!

Belen has started pulling herself up to stand! It may just be a byproduct of just trying to climb all over Zak and I but she'll get herself onto her feet and will bend at the waist with her little hands firmly planted on my leg, or some other body part that she can reach. Earlier this evening I caught her trying to get into her diaper bag and she was totally standing up on her feet holding on to her diaper bag! She's not even 8 months old yet (o.k. so she will be in about a day and a half...)!

Zak and I had some errands to run the other day and I was getting Belen's diaper bag ready. Well, in the bottom I found one of her pacifier's that she hasn't used since she was barely 3 months old (she prefer's her thumb but she seems to actually be phasing that out as well). Since it is something she no longer uses I just pulled it out of her diaper bag and tossed it aside then ran upstairs to grab my shoes while Zak was downstairs with Belen. The next think I knew, Zak was standing at the bottom of the stairs holding Belen in his arms and what do you supposed is in her mouth?!! YES!!! The little stinker sucked on the thing all evening! She did get over her attraction to the pacifier pretty quickly, now she'll throw it on the floor like all her other toys, wait for mommy to pick it up then throw it on the floor again.

And finally, my little sweetheart is learning how to clap her hands...so far she uses one hand to clap the back of the other hand instead of the palm but she's getting better! She also had learned how to play "peek-a-boo" but she controlls the game...She's the one who pulls the blanket up over her face and brings it back down again...it's just the most adorable thing on the planet so I just HAD to show everyone a video of her playing.