Author Archives: Jenn Rian
Guest Post: Toilet Training – For the patient and unwearied
This is a post from dekota at dekota marie blog. Be sure to stop by her place today!
Toilet training has never been easy.
And, I have to say, I am absolutely not an expert. The only true, sound advice I can give you is to be patient.
However, there is something I have heard from the time I became a parent that I never thought would ring true today.
Wait until your child is ready for toilet training.
You, and your child, will know when he or she is ready.
When my son was two, I honestly thought that I would never see the day that he would be potty trained. That he would still be using diapers on his way out the door for college. That I would still be asking him if he did a stinky before he leaves for his first date with a girl.
It often times reminded me of an episode of yes dear. Two parents struggling to potty train their son, often day dreaming of their son pooping in the corner in his diaper in his 20’s.
I tried everything I could. I did everything that books tell you to do. He had his own potty, a training seat for the “big boy” toilet, books, dolls, m&m’s – you name it, we tried it. I was at my wits ends, I was frustrated, and I was DONE. I gave up. I was willing to wipe his hiney until he was an adult. It would have been less frustrating, right?
Until one morning he woke up and got out of bed. His diaper was so full and so heavy that it fell right off of him. This wasn’t unusual because this boy could pee and did a lot at night.
All of a sudden, he started crying and screaming. I, of course, panic and run to his side to find out what is wrong. I GOT TO GO PEE!
Of course, knowing me, you would know that I started to laugh. This, after all, angers him slightly. We rush to the bathroom and with delight he goes in the potty! We do our happy dance, flush the toilet, and hop on out of the bathroom.
He has been toilet trained ever since.
So, simply said, it was just easier to wait until he was ready over pushing him to be ready because I no longer wanted him in diapers. I couldn’t keep forcing him to try to do something that was unnatural for him. Peeing and pooping in a diaper was what was natural for him since day one.
I know this is easier said than done, but when you are at your wits end and ready to be done you should know that there is hope! He or she will be potty trained, it just takes a lot of time and patience – or waiting in my case :).
dekota marie recently moved from Florida to North Carolina where she is a stay at home wife, mother of a two year old and four year old, a full time student, an avid eBayer, and the owner of dekota marie blog. She writes about her experiences as a mom, as a wife, and as a woman along with sharing recipes, crafts, and awesome products she finds online.
Guest Post: Fun Summer Reads for Kids
This guest post is by Theresa at Our Life in Words. Stop by her great blog today!
Long hot summer days are a great time for lazing away with a good book.
Even if your children want to be active during the day, why not cuddle together at night with a good book?
When my girls were little, I looked forward to reading to them in bed at night. Now that they are 9 and 11, one of our favorite things to do is pop a big bowl of popcorn and snuggle together in my Queen size bed, each reading our own books. Sometimes we read really funny or good parts aloud to each other. I believe that if children associate reading with a quiet, cuddly, snuggly, comfortable family time where they feel loved, they will be much more inclined to grow up to enjoy reading.
As a children’s librarian, one of my favorite things is helping children to find books that will inspire a lifelong love of reading. These may be different books for every child. Honestly, many of the books that were said to be “wonderful” when we were kids will no longer inspire a love of reading in children.
Here is a list of New books that may, hopefully inspire a love of reading in your child. Please ask your local librarian for more help and if you still need recommendations, please email me at my blog and give me an idea of what your child likes and how old they are and I will be happy to try to point you in the right direction!
Toddler – PreK
Elephant & Piggie series by Mo Willems
Knuffle Bunny series by Mo Willems
Mo Willems is a New York Times best selling author of children’s books and a three time Caldecott winner. He has changed the face of children’s literature.
McDuff series by Rosemary Wells
Children delight in this series about a West Highland terrier. Beautiful, retro illustrations make it pleasurable for parents as well.
Olivia by Ian Falconer
Who can resist Olivia? The funny, formidable little pig will delight your children and the illustrations are sure to keep parents enjoying these books as well.
Biscuit series by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
This adorable pup can grow with your child. There are board books, story books and then easy leveled reading books for when they start to read on their own.
Grades K -2
Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish
Parents will remember this amusing literal minded housekeeper from when they were learning to read. These books provide delightful lessons into the true meaning of what we say and keep children laughing.
The Grandmas Books by Emily Arnold McCully
These books are very funny and perfect for emerging readers.
Fly Guy series by Tedd Arnold
A boy meets a fly that can say the child’s name and together they set off on a series of adventures that will keep emerging readers entertained.
Berenstain Bears by Stan and Jan Berenstain
Parents may remember this family of tree house dwelling bears from their own childhood. This vast series covers all kind of life lessons and social issues from chores to going to the dentist to sibling rivalry.
Grades 2-4
Baby Mouse series by Jennifer & Matthew Holm
Reluctant readers and even children who love to read delight in this comical graphic novel series about a mouse and her adventures.
Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osbourne
Mystery, exploration and adventure abound in this series that covers historical and scientific events. This series is often recognized for teaching children to predict, infer and visualize- all key skills in building strong readers.
Ramona & Beezus series, Ralph S. Mouse series, Henry & Ribsy series – Beverly Cleary
Parents may remember these series from their childhood and indeed they are still popular with kids. Children can relate easily to these characters and the pace of the novel is just right for the reader who is ready to read chapter books independently.
Weird School Daze series by Dan Gutman
Boys love this off the wall series of impossible scenarios. Reluctant readers will have no trouble being entertained and children who love to read will delight in this fun series.
Grades 3-5
Allie Finkle by Meg Cabot
Moms may be familiar with Meg Cabot and now she has branched out into children’s novels. My daughters love this series about a quirky character who encourages individuality.
Mother-Daughter Book Club series by Heather Vogel Frederick
This series is really more for the 3-5 grader. In each book, the author introduces a work of classic literature and makes it more digestible for today’s young audience by having a fictional book club of girls from all different walks of life and their mothers read and discuss the books as part of their book club. Girls will relate to the modern day character’s lives and emotions while reading the book.
Baseball Card Adventures (Babe and Me) by Dan Gutman
Boys are able to time travel back in time to experience that greats of baseball at their finest, to meet them and get to know them. A fantasy for any young boy who loves baseball!
There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom, Wayside School series, Holes – Louis Sachar
Louis Sachar writes books that kids want to read. Kids find his characters likable and enjoy the crazy situations he puts them in.
Theresa gave up the glamour of being a kindergarten teacher to stay home with her kids for nine years. She now works part-time as the Assistant Children’s Librarian at her local public library.
Early Ultrasound 7 weeks 2 days
Yesterday on mine and Cool Daddy’s 8th wedding anniversary we had an early ultrasound. We were checking to see how our little one(s) were progressing. Also, since this is a Clomid baby there’s a 10% chance of twins so we wanted to see how many babies! I was 7 weeks 2 days along which means they had to do a transvaginal ultrasound.
The ultrasound tech turned the machine towards us and said that she was seeing a gestational sac and a yolk sac, but because it is still so small she wasn’t able to see the baby yet. She was going to have me come back in two weeks to check again. At this point I wasn’t crying, but I was definitely upset. I knew that not seeing a baby even this early on isn’t a great sign. I had an early transvaginal ultrasound with Adaline at 7 weeks 5 days and we were able to see her and her heartbeat really well.
Then she said that she was going to take a look around at my uterus and ovaries to see what was going on in there. While she was looking around in there she moved and twisted the probe every which way which, I’m not gonna lie, hurt quite a bit. Still I was hoping that while she was looking around in there she’d find the baby. Then she said, “I spoke too soon.” And she turned the screen around. Right away I could see slight movement inside of the sac and I said right away, “Is that the heartbeat flickering?!” She said yes! Yay!
Here’s the first ultrasound of our little one.
And just in case you can’t figure out what you’re looking at, this one spells it out for you.
The tech only saw one sac and one baby but she said that doesn’t necessarily mean there’s only one baby in there. Because the baby is so small and because she had a hard time finding it at all she said that it’s still possible there’s another in there. At this point I’d be pretty surprised if we found out it was twins. Then again she did have a much harder time than the tech that did Adaline’s ultrasound, so maybe there is another one in there that she missed.
For comparison here is Adaline’s ultrasound at 7 weeks 5 days.
The tech also said that the baby is measuring right at 7 weeks 2 days, so it’s not too small, and the heartbeat was 128 which is good for this point in the pregnancy. We’re going back in two weeks for another ultrasound to get a better look. I’m just so thankful that our little one is okay and that we were able to see the heartbeat today instead of having to wait another two weeks which would’ve been excruciating.
Related Posts
*Wordless Wednesday: Two Lines
*Trying to Conceive: Take 3: Secondary Infertility
*Trying to Conceive: Take 3 Continued
*Our Infertility Story: The Short Version
This post is linked to Wordful Wednesday at…
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Our Wedding
Today is mine and Cool Daddy’s 8th wedding anniversary.
(We were married June 21, 2003 for those of you who can’t do the math ;))
You can read more about us here:
*How I Met Cool Daddy: Part 1
*How I Met Cool Daddy: Part 2
*15 Reasons Why My Hubby is Awesome
*Colonel Mustard on a Rollercoaster with a Plastic Fork
I went all out for our wedding. Cool Daddy was perfectly happy to let me do (and spend ;)) whatever I wanted and tell him a date, time, and place to show up. While there were definitely some stressful moments, some venue mishaps, weather concerns, hair woes, and flower drama…for the most part my mom and I really enjoyed planning my wedding. I didn’t end up with absolutely everything exactly the way that I wanted it, but all-in-all I think our wedding was fabulous and I have no regrets about “going big”. I didn’t have a fairytale wedding…I had a royal wedding. Or as close to one as you can get in Beaver County, PA 😉
You’re going to see quite a few pictures of me before we even get to the one photo of my hubby…but isn’t the wedding all about the pretty girl anyway? 😉
(Click on photos to enlarge)
My sister primps my hair and then puts a sixpence penny in my shoe.
Yes, I actually wore it inside of my shoe the whole time!
I love this picture of me and my mama 🙂
Putting on my veil and showing off my pearl necklace.
On my mama’s front porch.
My hunky hubby-to-be 🙂
Me and my sister and hubby with his brother.
My cousins were the flower girl and ring bearer.
I chose the pomanders rather than a basket. The flower girl hid a bag of petals behind the pomander and this is where she drew the red rose petals from to drop.
For the ring box I chose one shaped like a carriage that was made out of two quail eggs. I didn’t realize that this was the only photo of the ring box that I had. Here it is cropped for a closer look:
I actually found a photo of the ring box online here.
I was very into the details of the wedding. The funny thing was that I was so afraid that the guys that would be handling the ring box to get the rings in and out would break the egg shells, that we actually had the best man keep the rings in a box in his pocket the whole time. So the ring box ended up just being a front anyway.
A string quartet for the ceremony.
Pachelbel’s Canon in D for the bridal party.
The traditional “Here Comes the Bride” for me.
I walked down a very long aisle.
I wasn’t even halfway down when this picture was taken.
Hubby watching me walk down the aisle realizing how very spoiled I am lucky he is.
We had an outdoor ceremony in the gardens of an extinct Utopian community, Old Economy Village.
The guests had bubbles and the wedding party threw red rose petals while our carriage with white horses awaits.
Hubby looks like he’s carting me off to prison rather than escorting me. He also sounded like he was reading me my rights during our vows…I sounded like I was reciting an eloquent graduation speech. Not a lot of heart-felt teary-eyed stuff during our vows…we are robots.
The carriage ride was awesome. We rode down the streets and everyone stopped to look at us and we waved our best royal wave. A mother was walking with her two daughters and I heard one of them yell, “Mommy, she looks like Cinderella!”
I’d love to do that about once a week 😉
This was actually the aisle that I was supposed to walk down, but I knew that my gown wouldn’t fit, so we had them set up the chairs on the other side of the garden where my gown would have more room to breath 🙂
The bridal party.
For a photo like this the photographer would usually have the bridal party jump off of a step which would put everyone at about the same height, but we didn’t have any stairs available. I couldn’t jump at all without losing my dress so hubby and I stayed put.
I love how weird this photo is.
(You’re definitely going to want to click (twice) to enlarge this and check out all the great facials expressions!)
The reception venue: The Timberhouse at Rolling Acres Golf Course
This is a view from where hubby and I sat at the head table.
Our fancy champagne glasses that form a heart when they’re pushed together 🙂
The bells were the wedding favor…more on that later.
To the right of the glasses you can see my handkerchief. My grandmother crocheted old lace onto a new handkerchief and then tied it together with my mom’s wedding handkerchief. Something old, something new, something borrowed. My something blue was a blue ribbon on the garter that my mom made for me with my great-grandmother’s lace (more old). I had plenty of new: my necklace, my earrings, my tiara, my handkerchief, my shoes, and of course my gown.
The topiaries above were the centerpieces on every other table, the remaining table had wreaths and hurricane lamps shown below. Believe it or not we’ve gotten a lot of use out of all of the topiaries and wreaths. There are a few in Adaline’s nursery, we’ve used them as centerpieces for tea parties and I sometimes use them to decorate at Christmas.
Our wedding favors were silver bells. We attached everyone’s table number to their bell along with a little poem that I wrote about how to use the bells:
We all remember traditions past, to see them kiss you clink the glass.
But new traditions work as well, to see them kiss just ring the bell!
The cookie table…’cause that’s just how we roll 😉
(Yeah, I have a big Italian family. Mangia!)
Cutting the cake. We used our wedding cake knife to cut Adaline’s 1st birthday cake and have used it for each of our birthdays since then, it’s one of my favorite new traditions.
The cake was white with raspberry filling. It was covered in fondant with gumpaste flowers.
The detail on the cake mimicked the detailed beadwork on my gown.
(Click the photo twice to enlarge it and see the detail.)
Our first dance to Nat King Cole’s “Unforgettable”.
Ironically, my husband always asks me, “What was our wedding song again?” and I always answer, “Seriously? You couldn’t be more ironic right now. Did you seriously forget? How could you forget our wedding song?!” Oh well. The song didn’t hold any special meaning for us, I’ve just always liked it.
In case you were wondering…I can still rock a mean Electric Slide in a ball gown.
My throw-away bouquet was a break-away bouquet. We’ve all seen the “America’s Funniest Home Video” clips of single ladies fighting each other for a bouquet. Mine was a bunch of single flowers tied together with one special rose in the middle with a ribbon tied around it. While my back was turned to the girls, I untied the flowers so that when I tossed the bouquet individual flowers went everywhere and several girls picked up a flower. The lucky girl to get the rose with the ribbon is the one who will get the garter.
The garter was actually caught by my then-10-year-old cousin Ben, who snatched it up using a slick slide-on-the-knee move 😉
He placed the garter on the lady’s arm rather than her leg for a more pg version!
And here are some more photos of me, just because I’m pretty 🙂
Happy 8th Anniversary, Hubby! I love you!
On a side note today at 12:15pm Cool Daddy and I are going for an ultrasound to check and see how things are progressing with our little bean and to see if there’s perhaps more than one in there 😉
Credit:
Photography: Brad Allan at Redford Photography Canonsburg, PA
Cake: Carol Decanini at Carol’s Cakes Aliquippa, PA
Ceremony Venue: Old Economy Village Ambridge, PA
Reception Venue: The Timberhouse at Rolling Acres Golf Course Beaver Falls, PA
Bride’s Gown: St. Pucchi by Rani
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Guest Post: Parent Club
This is a guest post by Dana from YouthMuse. She has a lot of great stuff on her blog, so be sure to check it out!
It’s The Parent Clubs, Not the Kids That Can Drive You to Drink
It is not the children in one’s classroom that lead a teacher to drink (or seek some other, “healthier” stress reliever); it’s the Parent Teacher Association, a.k.a. “Parent Club”.
In an attempt to put together a celebratory Thank You dinner for the most active members of my school’s Parent Club, I’ve had 3 calendar dates rejected after setting them, 3 venues rejected after booking them and 2 finalized dinners cancelled altogether. We’re talking about a “Thank You” dinner paid for by the school – not a fundraiser!
Interestingly, the rejections came from parents who had complained one way or the other to a teacher about their kids’ problems.
Parents can be far more concerned about the daily foibles of their kids than kids are. Although some of their concerns are valid, others need to be confronted by and worked out by the kid himself.
But parents who bombard teachers with “His feelings were hurt,” “He can’t lose his recess even if he didn’t turn in homework for the week,” or “I know you are watching 20-plus kids at a time, but mine didn’t drink enough water and it’s hot outside” are factually doing a disservice to their child.
Coach the kids, don’t resolve the problem yourself, and don’t expect your child’s school teacher to resolve it, either.
Most of the time the real problem is not the one you think it is, anyway!
The child is the one ultimately responsible for his education and environment. By the time he / she is 6 and older, they need far less hand-holding and far more “It’s your life, how do you want to live it?”
YouthMUSE would say the top three goals any parent should have and be responsible for are:
1. Insisting their child become actively self-reliant.
2. Ensuring their child is moral, both through education and parental example.
3. Helping their child get the best general education possible in his / her environment.
These three things alone will give us ethical, productive and intelligent future generations.
There are no parents around to guide our everyday decisions in adulthood. Perhaps the roots of teen delinquency fall back to parents failing to do #1 through 3 above.
Dana Houston Jackson www.youthmuse.com
YouthMUSE was created as an outlet for truly exceptional books, games and real life examples to guide and inspire children to discover their own super powers. Dana is an elementary teacher by trade, fumbling blogger, and understanding junkie. Join her at www.youthmuse.com
Guest Post: Top 10 List of Things to do with Toddlers this Summer
This is a guest post by Stephanie from Always Just a Mom. She has some great ideas for keeping your toddlers busy this summer. Be sure to stop by her blog and say hi!
Top 10 List of things to do with Toddlers this Summer!
2. PARK: Get up and go to the park. The beds can be made in the afternoon, the dishes can get done later. Get your kids outside before it’s super hot. We are very lucky to have a park up the road…we can actually walk to…but pack some granola bars, some water and get to the park!
8. THANK YOUs: My kids love to paint with those little water paints (little cup of water, get the hard paint color wet, make some pictures). We use those for Thank You notes. They paint them and then I hold on to them throughout the year to send as “thank yous” to family and friends when they receive a gift or have a special day with someone. They have painted them, and then I write the words they want me to write over the painting. It’s just a little more personal and it makes them part of the process!!! (Who doesn’t want a cute little water color painting from a toddler hanging on their fridge door!)
10. PLAY IN THE MUD: Let your kids play in the mud. Although I have two very rowdy “BOYS” and they are all boy…let your girls play in mud. You can put it in a little plastic tub and let them just put their feet in it…mud is fun!! It’s messy, it’s a pain to clean up, it’s a picture you’ll cherish and it’s fun you can’t replace!I hope you enjoyed my Top 10 and I hope you try a couple ideas! These are nothing Earth Shattering but sometimes it’s the little things we forget to do! Summer is here and like the lyrics say “There’s a 104 days to summer vacation…” enjoy these days and enjoy your little ones!!! Have a great summer and thanks for letting me share a little bit of me with you!!! Look forward to seeing you over at Always Just a Mom!
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Fun and Dysfunction 