Easter!

We had such a fun surprise last week. I found out that all of my students would be on spring break and that my whole family was getting together that same week so my lovely and generous mother flew Teagan and I to Utah for the week. We had a blast seeing everyone. THANK YOU MOM!

The first day we were there was my niece Kate's birthday. We went to this jump house place and we all LOVED it. Sadly, all the pictures are on Julie's camera. But just imagine how much fun we had!

Apparently Teagan is only potty trained at our house because he struggled the whole time we were gone and we're having a rough time getting back into the grove of things. We upped the prize for going potty. A WHOLE package of fruit snacks. Anytime he got a package he had a few cousins around trying to get him to share, it was pretty funny.

Here's Teagan with all his Idaho Falls Cousins. From left to right: baby Jax (one week old), Kai, Ethan, Sasha, Grant, Teagan. Teagan had a blast with his cousins!

He was especially concerned about Jax. He'd come up and say "baby go?" and we'd have to point out Jax before he'd go back to playing. He'd go wash his hands and then ask to hold him. So sweet. I'll just say it, I'm so excited for the time when we get to have another one! This isn't an announcement, but man I love those baby newborns.

He obviously loves me already. :)

We got to see the Daniels' side of the family while we were there too! We went to McDonald's and Teag and Tay played in the play place while the adults chatted. It was SO fun seeing everyone again. I could have done without Teagan pooping his pants and it getting ALL OVER my leg and him and the toilet, but I suppose I better focus on the positive. The two little rugrats had so much fun together! When we went back to Adam and Sheena's house they shared rides on Tay's four wheeler and played golf with their new golf sets from g-ma and g-pa. Sheena has all those cute pictures.

We found out that my little bro is engaged to this cute girl: Congrats Jesse and Bri!

Teagan loves holding hands. He was content as can be the WHOLE way back to Utah just to have his aunt Whitney in the back with him. He would ask for her hand, it was pretty cute.

We drove back with my mom and we were both shocked at how well Teagan did in the car! He entertained himself a lot of the time and just pleasantly sat and watched movies. THANK GOODNESS we got a portable DVD player from Zac's parents for Teagan's birthday. I do not know how anyone ever used to take long car trips without those! The trip was so fun! Thanks everyone for making special efforts to see us while we were there! Hopefully next time we won't have to spread ourselves so thin.

What I've learned from Potty Training

This is more for my own records than anything. Potty training was HARD and I want to write down the things that did and did not work for future reference, heck maybe one of you will be able to learn from my mistakes! PS it is really long...feel free to ignore this post.

.5) Kids are capable of more than you think. The program I used 3daypottytrain.com suggests potty training between 22 and 30 months. Teagan is 26 1/2 months right now and he picked it up just fine. I think I might wait a few more months with my next child though, unless they are waking up dry. When I started, Teagan showed zero interest in the toilet. He'd never gone before, he wasn't waking up dry, but he would occasionally tell me he had just pooped, so he wasn't really showing "signs" of being ready. Just do it when you feel ready, the kids will figure it out..

1) DO NOT stretch potty training out over a year long stretch. Once you decide to potty train jump in with both feet. Get rid of the diapers and throw them in underwear. Yeah, there are accidents, but if you catch EVERY accident and rush them to the toilet, you'd be surprised how fast they figure it out. It is much easier to go full throttle for a short time and be done!

2) Plan a few days where you can give your child 100% of your attention, the higher percentage of accidents that you catch the quicker they make the connection. Plan these days when you aren't going to be in a bad mood. I have about 3 days a month where I'm a monster, I'll avoid those days next time because you need every ounce of patience you can get.

3) Start a high fiber diet a few days before and keep the diet going until pooping is regular on the toilet. Have tons of different types of drinks and liquids available. I used otter pops and capri suns as rewards for going pee and constantly offered him water. After he got sick of all the drinks I started getting him to eat ice. Keeping him pumped full of fluids gives lots of practice for pee and helps prevent constipation.

4) Start them off on the big toilet, only resort to a "mini" on the floor potty if you MUST. With Teagan that was the ONLY thing that got him to poop somewhere besides his underwear. He used the one on the floor for 3 or 4 days and then was fine when we moved him back to the big toilet. Now he isn't worried about the whole poop thing anymore. Best $20 I ever spent. But still, next time I'm still going to try to avoid it cause it is NASTY to clean that out every time he pees or poops!

5) The way you SAY things makes a huge difference:

"Time to go sit on the potty" -you are telling them what to do
vs
"Let mommy know when it's time to go sit on the potty" - they are in control and are in charge of making sure they get to the potty on time...he learned QUICKLY

"I'll give you a candy if you go pee on the potty"- this, bribery, works about 25% of the time. with Teagan, mostly he just says NO! and gets more defiant.
vs
"Little boys who pee in the potty get candy" or "hmmm, I wish I had some candy, but I can't remember how to get some" ---these have a success rate of maybe 75% just a little less bossy, I usually say these things more to myself and try to just have Teagan "overhear" them when I know he needs to "go" but is putting it off.

After an accident:
"eww, why did you do that? You know you're supposed to pee in the potty not on the floor!!!!..."
vs
"next time just let mommy know you need to go, before you go pee/poo, OK" or "remember that pee and poo go in the potty"
This one is so hard because after a bunch of accidents you're frustrated, but it makes a huge difference. When he senses my frustration he is more self conscious about going at all. Just reminding him that pee and poo go in the potty seems to be enough.

6) For rewards: For Teagan he gets just as excited over getting a chocolate chip as getting an m&m or a cookie or a toy. I shouldn't have spent so much on prizes. A bag of choco chips would have been enough. After he goes poop I'll usually say something like "Alright!!!! Big boys who go in the potty get to go ___________" (insert fun activity) in the beginning his rewards was something big: go to the park, get icecream, go to the pool.... now it's more like: go outside, jump on mommy's bed, cut with scissors, color on the white board...basically any activity he likes that we haven't done for a while. It's cheap and as long as I'm super excited about it, he thinks he's the luckiest kid in the world.

I didn't do it exactly how I wanted. I started doing it more this way when we ran out of big prizes, but on the next kid I want to start it off this way. The idea is that good things happen when they go on the potty, but they aren't being bribed to go. They have to learn to want to do it themselves or at least that it's not optional. I just took a break and bribed Teagan to go...so I am OBVIOUSLY not perfect, and it worked so maybe all this is a bunch of crazy talk...haha

The main thing for me to remember: It seems impossible and that they'll never get the hang of it, but you have to STICK TO IT and be CONSISTENT and never have a melt down (in front of TEagan at least). The pooping took 3 solid weeks of accidents, but he's got it now. I consider Teagan to be "potty trained." He tells me when it's time to go and has accidents maybe every 3 or 4 days if that. It was definitely WORTH IT! I hope this makes sense in 2 or 3 years when we have a another one who needs to be potty trained...that's weird to think about!

Happy to be a Mom

The last few days have been bliss being a mom. Teagan went through a really rough spell for a few months. He was getting his last 4 molars, he got sick a TON, and for the last few weeks he was having issues with pooping on the toilet....then our life started looking up.

He has ALL his teeth, as of Tuesday or Wednesday.

He is a full time POOPER (accident free since Monday!).

He is HEALTHY! (knock on wood)

Those three things seem to have turned this little boy's life around (and mine!). He is so happy now, the tantrums are fewer and farther between, he is napping better and he is just down right silly all the time. Constantly laughing and making me laugh and just as sweet as can be, and he is talking lots more. I swear he is growing up so FAST and going wild with that imagination of his.

A few little tidbits of the last few days:

I went to drop him off on Friday for our "date swap group" at a friends house. As the mom's chatted, Teagan would venture a foot or two but would come nervously running back to my leg. Little Preston grabbed Teagan's hand and said "c'mon, lets go play, lets go!" Teagan looks up at me and gets a silly grin, waves and says "bye mom!" before he turned and ran away with the other little boy, never looking back. It about broke my heart, what a champ! He has NEVER done that. He always cries for at least a minute or two when I leave him somewhere. He is growing up!

At first when it was time to go #2 he wanted us in there to tell him stories to distract him and then he'd go. Last night we went in to go and I and asked him if he wanted a story. He said "no, go mom" and pointed to the door for some privacy...alright mr. independent!

He takes his stuffed animals to the bathroom one at a time. He sits them on the potty makes tooting noises, giggles, cheers and then pretends to wash and dry their hands. Each time one finishes he goes "OH! _______" (insert the name of any stuffed animal who hasn't gotten a turn yet) and then he runs off to get them.

He is loving singing songs these days. His favorite way is for me to sing first and he is my echo. For example, I'll sing the alphabet one letter at a time and he repeats each letter. He also loves to sing "lalalalalala" all the time when anyone mentions song.

The other day he was in the shower while Zac was getting ready and Zac went to get dressed or something and heard Teagan yelling for one of us. Zac went in there and my razor and fallen on the floor of the bath tub. Teagan had backed away as far as he could and was saying uh oh and ouch. I always tell him that if he touches the razor his finger will get cut off like daddies.....hehehe apparently he was paying attention!

I think my favorite thing is that he gets SO excited about little things. The enthusiastic words "OH YEAH!" escape his mouth about 25 times a day.

Me:do you want to read a story?
Teagan: Oh YEAH!
Me: should we read about trains or trucks?
Teagan: trucks, oh YEAH!

Me: should we go get the mail?
Teagan: oh YEAH!

You get the point, he is always excited to do anything, help with anything, play anything, pretty much anything is overly exciting and it's just fun to be around him.

I like to write all of these funny little things I love so much about my little boy, it helps me realize how lucky I am to be a mom!

Love of socks

Can I just say that I LOVE funny stages. The nasty, naughty ones I can live without. But when Teagan developes a new funny thing I can't get enough! For the last few days he's insisted on wearing socks on both hands and feet. Of course white socks are unacceptable so I've been washing a lot of colorful socks. :)

Price is Right!

So the most exciting thing happened yesterday, we went to the Price is Right! 22 people from Zac's class all went together, we even had matching blue t-shirts for the "blue class." It was so fun to be a "college student" again. There was so much energy and the group was really fun. All the people there were crazy, each trying to show how fun they'd be up on stage so it was entertaining. People were singing, dancing, being obnoxious and more!

We waited in line for about 2 hours. For the last part we did get to watch old Price is Right shows and get a little practice. I think the most shocking part once we were inside was the size of the studio. It was tiny! They make it look like the stage is huge and the audience has a thousand people on TV, but it was really small, it's amazing what they can do with cameras!

I'd LOVE to tell you about the events of the actual show and who got on and everything, but I have to wait until it airs on April 8th. We were right in the middle so our group got lots of camera time and I'm excited to watch it on TV.

Teagan did terrible at the babysitters house. After 4 accidents in a row and him screaming and sobbing in sadness I had her put him in a pull up. There were a couple times that I called where he was screaming in the background, it was really sad and hard that I couldn't do much about it and she had no idea why he kept crying. We were 2 hours away and they take your phone away for like 4 hours so I was a little stressed. At 6:30 when we got out we called and Teagan had been crying and sobbing for about an hour and she'd tried everything to comfort him. After we hung up we said a prayer in our car that the spirit could comfort him. I called back a few minutes later and he had stopped. He didn't have any more outbursts for the rest of the night. I wish we had thought to pray at 9 in the morning when he had had his first crying spell. I am so grateful for the power of prayer! Poor poor babysitter, we had to give her one heck of a tip!

Back at home life is feeling a little mundane, but I'm sure I'll find my grove again and my voice. You can't go to game shows every day. :) On to dishes, cooking, laundry, ironing, play groups, poopy underwear, tutoring and "pwaying games" with Teagan. :)

Zac kissed a GOAT!

Hey friends and family. Sorry I post so much. We just don't get to see a lot of our family a lot of the time so we like to share what we're doing. Especially Teagan. I also like to have a detailed record of our lives. Teagan is so funny and every day he starts a new "thing" and I want to keep track.

Zac's 4 day weekend turned into a 6 day weekend last minute so we started planning fun activities. Yesterday we went to Disney Land so Zac could use his free ticket from the "give a day, get a day" program. We made the command decision to pool together our birthday money from Zac's Grandparents and upgrade his to a season pass. Now we can go ANYTIME we want, except all major holiday and weekends. But hey, monday-friday is pretty awesome! So anytime you want to come visit and go to DisneyLand we will totally go with you!

I forgot about the camera until the petting zoo when Zac decided to kiss a goat...
...and of course Teagan wanted in on the action!

He loved the sculptures of all the characters and wanted to "hug" them. Sweet.

We all love the Jungle Cruise ride, the dry sarcasm and life like animals make it a great family ride. :)

Teagan's favorite part is the Characters. He loves to touch their faces and give them hugs and high fives. It is so fun to see him get all excited.

If you look really close you'll notice that Teagan is wearing mis-matched socks. For the last 2 or 3 days he has been obsessed with socks with designs on them. He refuses plain white socks and is always trying to find more with pictures on them. We only have a couple that are actually matching so we put him in two that were lost from their partners. Today for church he insisted on snoopy for his feet and one Michael Jordan and one doggie sock for his hands. haha! He is so funny. He wore socks on his hands for about an hour, before he realized they were getting in the way.

One of his favorite activities this weekend has been baseball. He does really good, I'm kind of impressed!

Potty training is coming a long. When he is all the way there I'll do a big post. For now pooping is about 50/50 so that is a huge improvement. This picture was taken right after a poop on the potty and he was so excited!

He is wearing his "Grandpa Durtschi" shirt. He wants to wear it all the time cause we told him he looks like Grandpa in it. haha

We went out to ice cream to celebrate his wonderful accomplishment. :)

Zac's Birthday and Grandma's Visit

Thursday was Zac's birthday. Sadly he was gone from about 7am to 7pm so I had to be a little tricky to make it feel like his birthday. He opened the fantastic presents from his parents while we ate our eggs, bacon and toast for breakfast.
If you ever wonder why Zac is so well dressed it is because of his parents. They keep him up to date with the newest, best lookin dress clothes around. And as you can see, he gets excited about new clothes! Thanks Mom and Dad Daniels!

That morning me and Teagan brought peanut butter bars to Zac's class as part of the celebration, everyone loved it, who wouldn't want to be in elementary school again. :) They were so good! Thanks for the recipe Julie!

Friday we anxiously waited for my mom to come into town. Teagan wanted to wait outside. He insisted on wearing his Toy Story Beanie on the back of his head, crackin me up!

When my mom arrived we decided that since it was only 1:30 we should go to the wild animal park. It was such a great time. Teagan LOVES his Grandma Packer.

I'm pretty sure she loves him too, she even took him on the carousel and bought him some little toy animals (later used as leverage to get him to go potty). :)

That night Mom took us out for Zac's birthday dinner at Red Robin. It was delicious and really fun to get out. Thanks mom!


Saturday me and my mom went for a run in the rain. It was VERY wet outside and we were soaked to the bone. It was nice to have a running buddy!

Since it was raining ALL day Saturday we aborted our plan to go to seaworld and hit the samples at Costco and the mall instead. We played lots of pinochle and Zac grilled delicious steaks. It was an all around great weekend! So much fun.