Videos of Jadyn! :o)

Here's some videos of the latest with Jadyn! She started walking just a week shy of turning 14 months! But she was determined to do it and and she wanted to be steady and stable, and she sure is! :o)

Summertime! :o)

Happy Birthday James! :o)

My Baby James is 3!
Enjoy a flashback through his 3 years here on earth so far! :o)

Chickens! :o)

My bro in law, Don, called Dave, "The Chicken Whisperer", cause Dave and his siblings always had chickens as pets growing up and so Dave not only knows how to care for them and play with them, but he knows how to hypnotize them! :o) Its hilarious! Well, James is now what I like to call, "The Chicken Whisperer Apprentice"! James not only knows how to catch them and handle them, but from watching Dave, he learned how to hypnotize them himself!!! And he'll do it in funny places, too! :o)Dave said he even saw James hypnotize all four in row and started giving a nursery lesson to them! I wish I could have witnessed that! :o)I kept trying to get pics of James and I'd say, "Smile!" And so in this pic he stuck the chicken named "Rupert" in front of the camera and said, "Smile!" :o)Dave and Jordyn are holding the chicken named, "Babar" and Jordyn doesn't like to hold them, but she does like to kiss them! Ha ha! :o)

Jordyn has been practicing for a long time to put on shoes, whether they are hers or someone else's, too big, or too small. But the shoes she's wearing in these photos are great because she can easily take them on and off herself! And the velcro makes it even easier! And actually the majority of them time she puts them on the right feet, too! I'm not sure if she really knows or is just lucky. :o) It was so awesome to be able to say, "Okay Jordyn, go put on your shoes to go bubye!" And next thing I know she's got 'em on the right feet and she's heading outside! :o)

Jadyn really seems to actually enjoy eating now, especially trying to feed herself, and she really likes french fries! :o)

She doesn't like to be stationary unless there are people joining her on the floor. :o) She prefers to be on the go in her walker, and she's actually pretty talented in it too! She can maneuver her way into any room and back out again, doing three-point turns or even backing all the way down the hallway, I am shocked by her skills! :o) But whats hilarious is it terrifies her sibs if she approaches them in it cause it actually can hurt if she catches your feet just right! :o)

Entertainers! :o)

James was playing peekaboo with Jadyn and unfortunately I missed videotaping the initial laughter, but I still thought I got some fun video of the two of them! They are so entertained by each other and just love to be together. :o) And its the same story with Jordyn and Jadyn, they are so cute together. :o)

Potty Success! :o)

Its been a week since we first started attempting to train James to use the potty. I've about torn out my hair in frustration when he seemed to purposely have "accidents" because he knew I wanted him to use the potty. Three potty's, a great DVD and a whole slew of stickers later, I feel we have achieved success! :o)

I finally decided to look at other resources for help including the internet and a book I have on Toddlers. I realized I was being too demanding on him, I was asking him if he needed to go, instead of letting him come tell me, I knew he knew what to do since he would call out asking to go potty first thing in the morning after holding it all night! But then the days were exhausting and I was feeling anxious and frustrated, which I KNOW was affecting him. :o(

I found this awesome movie called, "Once Upon a Potty" based on the book of the same title. I figured since James loves videos more than any other person I know, I figured a video geared towards teaching him would be the ticket... and I believe it was. :o) He has watched that video literally numerous times since I bought it, last Tuesday or Wednesday night (the days are blending together) and the next day after he watched it, I had promised myself to have a whole new attitude and I was prayerful for him and for me that we'd make it through this. :o) And I'm telling you, it was an absolute miracle! He had no more pee accidents! He asked for help every time and did his business without crying or fussing or complaining of any kind! He even seemed happy and proud of himself! It was a complete change!

The next obstacle was that James is very regular, meaning he goes number two every morning, and sometimes even in the afternoon as well, and next thing I knew he hadn't pooped for two days.... he was holding it in. :o(

Dave and I figured out from reading material I found online that after a bad potty experience kids will avoid using the potty, so we figured since James seemed to have trouble pooping in the potty that first day (the hole was too small and he had to lift his body off the seat and ended up finishing on the actual seat) we think he just didn't like the way it went and was obviously refusing to go in the potty and since he knew he shouldn't go in his pants, then he just wouldn't go. Which we all know is not a good thing.

So we decided we need a totally different potty. I have done quite a bit of research online and since I had this newfound approach of getting what James would actually like, I first was looking for a potty with a bigger hole, preferably one more suited for older kids, and ideally one that is green, since it is clearly James favorite color! :o)

I finally found, The Froggy Potty! And it seemed as though it would be perfect! The positive reviews online seemed to coincide with what I needed for James, whereas the negative ones had nothing to do with what I was dealing with. And it was CHEAP! $15!!! No bells and whistles, just a pot that looks like a frog! At first we were worried because he refused to even sit on it, he insisted on going in the potty he was already used to. And he and Jordyn seemed to think it was a toy. :o(

The the next miracle happened, one day we decided to just keep the other potty in our car for trips, thinking if all there was available was the froggy potty (since he desn't want to use the regular toilet with a removable seat) then he'd be forced to use it. And it worked! He didn't complain, he just used it! I was about in tears I was so relieved and proud. :o)

All our problems were solved, he had a potty he liked that he could pee in without it getting everywhere (earlier problem with finding a potty with a decent splashguard) and he didn't even need to hold himself down! And the potty is scooped just right so he can poop without literally sitting in it! And so today he has peed many many times (he drinks lots of juice most days) and pooped twice, and had NO accidents!!!! I couldn't be more relaxed. :o)

Thanks to my sister, Carter and my mom, for all the great advice and encouragement. And especially for keeping me from backing down and giving up and reverting back to diapers. He is loving being a big boy and dumping his eliminations into the big toilet, and putting stickers on his chart! He always would get a hug from me after doing his thing, but now he holds out his arms requesting it! :o)

I am so happy... can you tell??? :o)


And a funny little extra, is that Jordyn seems to be very interested in all this and wants to sit on the potty and pretend to dump the contents, and say, "Yay!" :o)

Dave and I are trying to not get too excited, but we are hoping in another few months maybe we might have two out of diapers!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHH!!!!! :o)

Potty Time! :o)

On the morning of Saturday, January 23rd, I was not home, and apparently James said, among other things like it, that he "didn't want to be a baby anymore", he didn't want to use diapers anymore, and he requested to use the potty.
Let me tell you, I have been waiting for a moment like this for a LONG time, although I never really expected it. We tried to train him before Jadyn came, unsuccessfully, and I was resigned to waiting until I could train both him and Jordyn at the same time.
Recently I'd been feeling like I wanted to just try it again, because I was certain he was more than capable, and I was simply tired of the fights in order to change his diaper.
And so I was extremely frustrated that this request was given at a time when I was not there to accept and carry it out.
I decided we could NOT wait another day even, and we simply had to do it the next day in hopes his feelings would still be the same.

So Dave took the girls over to Grandma Farr's house first thing in the morning and James and I got started.
It was a rocky start... he refused to take the first step, which was, to put on "big boy pants" or regular underwear. And yes, I had a array of his fav characters including Thomas the Train, and Lightning McQueen from Cars, and one of his fav cartoons, Babar, but it didn't matter, he wanted to be nude. So I folded, because I did NOT want this experience to be negative in any way.
We had purchased an anatomically correct doll called, "Potty Scotty" when we attempted to train him before, and so we once again enlisted the help of our little peeing friend and James cooperated when I needed him to watch as Scotty drank his water and then peed in the potty.
But after Scotty had an "accident", James wouldn't cooperate with showing Scotty what to do. I was beginning to get very frustrated.
By this time, I knew James needed to use the potty himself, having had A LOT of juice to drink, and I was about to have him go sit, and then he proceeded to go on the living room floor, I stopped him immediately, and made him go sit on the potty, which made him incredibly angry.
He was obeying me by just sitting there on his little throne, but continued to cry quite hard until he gave up and just sat there holding his "tiddle" (security blanket) and sucking his thumb.
I figured any minute he'd go and the whole fiasco would be over and I could shower him with praise and he'd finally "get it". But time went by and he was proving to be more stubborn than I already knew him to be.
I could hear Dave walk in the door, and hoped he'd have some solution for our trouble. I showed Dave that as a last resort I pulled out my trump card and showed James the brand new "Percy the Train" I had bought as a prize for becoming a big boy, and I had it up on the shelf where he could see what he would get if he'd only do what I asked. But James was so intent on having the train that I think all he could see was that I was cruelly teasing him with a toy he wanted so badly.
So Dave suggested we let him hold the toy in its package, but as you could probably guess, that was not good enough. So Dave caved, and took it out of the package so James could play while he sat. But as soon as he realized he'd rather play on his train track, he thought he should get up, and as soon as I made him sit back down, the tantrum started all over again and he eventually threw his new train at me. I was out of ideas and trump cards.
Finally, I decided it was mean to make him sit on the potty and stare at the wall, so I brought him and his potty out to the living room so he could watch a show. He then asked to put on big boy pants and when Dave offered him a comforting hug, Dave got urinated on.
So James requested to watch SpongeBob SquarePants, and he sat on his potty for the entire duration, but still no urination. He then requested to watch KungFu Panda and Dave and I went to the kitchen to get something to eat. I went back a couple minutes later and found that James had finally relieved himself. We made a huge deal of it, but he seemed to be more interested in his movie. Go figure. :o)
After he dumped the contents into the toilet and we got it all set up again, James thought he needed to sit back down. Dave and I insisted he could get up and play since he went pee-pee, but he refused to obey.
Over the next few minutes, I tried to give him his space, but every time I checked on him I noticed he was repeatedly standing up and sitting down. Finally I came back to check on him and he had POOPED!!!!
Now I was surprised, but not really, since he had pooped just fine when we tried to train him before.
And I could go on and on, but he had one more accident and then went standing up and sitting down and he just did splendidly.
Today has been another story. I think he thought things would go back to normal and that maybe yesterday was just a dream. Because he has been fighting me on it all day. He simply does not care about treats or prizes of any kind. He is so stubborn that he doesn't seem to care about wearing wet pants. He refuses to pull down his pants, but doesn't want to not have pants on. I am now feeling flustered and hoping that he will just need to be worn down. If anyone has any tips for a stubborn boy who is not swayed by saying things like, "Daddy goes pee-pee in the potty, don't you want to be like Daddy?" He is clearly afraid of something but I can't figure out how to communicate to him to calm his fears. I just keep praying it'll all work out. :o)