Growing Up

If you're not a parent, (or at least work with small children) you probably want to skip this one. Just not interesting unless you've been through it!

There are some things I have to try not to think about, or I stop having the desire to ever add to our family.  "Morning" sickness. Labor. Extreme sleep deprivation. Nursing. (not in general, I just have to work really hard at it to make it work!) Teething. (TEETHING!) And yes, potty training.
I was so stressed about how to go about it with Reilly that I waited until he was 3. The first day of potty training with him slightly traumatized both of us, but in reality, it wasn't that bad over all, and he caught on pretty quickly after that.  Jaina seemed ready a little earlier, but we delayed about 6 months after that due to having a new baby and then moving across the country. (also new baby=sleep deprivation and very little time not spent nursing) She was almost 3 when we started. She is now 4.75 and I think we're finally dry 95% of the time. (Not counting nights. We haven't even gone there) I have eliminated cow's milk the last 3-4 weeks and it seems to have made a different in her ability to stay dry all day. I might try reintroducing it in a month or two and see what happens.
Katy has been showing readiness (her verbal skills are much higher than the other two were at this age, she tries and sometimes succeeds in getting clothes off and on, etc.) for a while now, and has been asking to go on the potty even more lately. It's usually when we're out and about though, and everyone's taking a bathroom break. She turned 2 in June, and now I've finally gotten around to jumping into potty training with her. We started yesterday and had 5 hits and 3 misses. And neither of us were super frustrated at the end of the day, which is nice. So potty training is super boring for me (the way that works for me is I stay with them pretty much ALL day long to watch for cues and respond appropriately to successes and accidents... and to try to keep accidents to a minimum.) but this time around not too stressful. I wish I could have figured out to be a little more laid back with my first ones instead of freaking out all the time...
Today was decent. Three quick misses all together at the beginning, but then mostly hits, and she even went over and went potty herself twice when she needed to. She is an independent one.  With the other two I tried to do the "Potty training in one day or less" method, and then modified it as we went. With Katy I put her in underwear, we potty trained the dolly, and had treats and praise ready, but I haven't pushed it. At all. She's not one you can push; it has to be her idea.  The only thing I've insisted on is that she mostly stay in the kitchen area (unless she's just gone) because I am SO not interested in scrubbing pee out of carpet. One reason I didn't start her in VA before she was 2 (she seemed ready then!) is because we had about 9 square feet of uncarpeted area...  Anyway, things are good so far. Hopefully she'll catch on quickly, especially since Jeremy's mom is watching her Saturday afternoon/night while I go pick Jeremy up.
That's right - he's finally moving to Arizona too, and we are beyond thrilled! We're not sure when we'll be moving up to the Mesa/Gilbert area yet, but he's looking for some work (seasonal or otherwise) for the next several months in that area while he works on getting a practice going, so if you know of anything good... ;-)