Every year our town does a Christmas parade and tree lighting. This year Nora and I went with the Walkers. The trees were beautifully lit, and they had free horse drawn carriage rides (which we didn't do because of the long line). Nora was jazzed to see reindeer. We went to a Longmont event last year and she got to see reindeer, but this was not the same event, so no reindeer. :( Thankfully, the ice rink was open, so she and I did that and she wasn't too upset about the reindeer. I was very excited to take her ice skating...
not thinking about the fact that I've only been 2 times in my LIFE. Once in Kindergarten and once 10 years or so ago? Hmmm... We slapped on some skates and hit the ice. They had a little walker that Nora could use, and this would have been great if she had actually HUNG ON!!! No, my little thrill seeker kept letting go of the walker saying, "No Momma, I want to do it like the big girls!" Oh boy... It was a bit of a back breaker for me, holding her and myself up as we 'skated' along, but it was fun! We spent about 10 minutes on the ice and then were done.
The next blip on our radar was Nora's dance recital. She began taking ballet in September at a nearby preschool/daycare. Her teacher is fabulous and puts on a big production with all her students 2-3 times a year. Nora was a bumblebee for this year's production of "The Snow Queen." Overall, it looked like a ton of work went into this and it went pretty well. I did almost have to kill the parent volunteer who was supposed to keep track of Nora and 5 other little 3-4 year olds (Nora's the youngest). She was a flake who got bored and decided not to pay attention to her charges. While Nora was supposed to be in the gymasium staging area, she somehow made her way to the auditorium where another parent recognized her and took her to Murphey. Phew! I discovered her missing and at that point neither Murphey nor the flake knew where she was. Thankfully, all ended well. These pictures are from the dress rehearsal and the actual performance.
Keeping them occupied in the staging area
(Nora has a blue flower)
And on to the very exciting news, Nora is officially potty trained! Woohooo!! I decided to do it as a Christmas present to myself. Murphey was supportive but a little hesitant, because he wasn't sure she was fully ready. He jumped fully on board with me though, and we both realized several hours into it that she was TOTALLY ready. My friend Martha introduced me to the book "Potty Train Your Child In Just One Day" by Teri Crane. In short, you use a doll that pees (or you make it look like it pees) and spend the first half of the day having the child teach the doll to use the potty, and the second half teaching the child (using the doll as backup). There is supposed to be a whole theme to the day, including decorations, toys, treats, prizes, all culminating with a monumental party at the end of the day. We had a great day! Now let me remind you, Nora is a child who had NEVER expressed ANY interest in potty training, ever. She was content in her dirty diapers. At 10:00 a.m., on her potty day, she jumped up from the sofa (dry diaper on at this point), ran the bathroom yelling "I have to go pee!!!" I plopped her on the potty and sure enough, she went! Amazing. I highly recommend this to anyone who is having difficulty training their child.
We did a Christmas theme. I figured we already had decorations for it, and she was super into Frosty, so it just seemed natural!
Bathroom door decoration, a singing, light up door cover.
See the doll's little pink potty next to the sink?
Feeding the baby (so she'd pee)
My Panties Are Dry!!!!
I decided to make a Frosty cake for the party. It was a Pampered Chef recipe, but I did not have the Pampered Chef bowls, so we improvised with some of Charlotte's pottery. It didn't work as well as I planned, but thankfully the frosting was very forgiving.
Levi came over for the potty party (and proceeded to give himself a haircut with some scissors he managed to dig up somewhere...) and a fun time was had by all!!
Nora had a few accidents in the weeks to follow, and we got stuck in a nasty cycle of withholding/constipation, but I am happy to report that things are flowing much more smoothly now. Not perfect, but I am amazed with where we are at. That little girl does have some tricks up her sleeve, which I will have to post about some other time.
Keeping them occupied in the staging area
(Nora has a blue flower)
And on to the very exciting news, Nora is officially potty trained! Woohooo!! I decided to do it as a Christmas present to myself. Murphey was supportive but a little hesitant, because he wasn't sure she was fully ready. He jumped fully on board with me though, and we both realized several hours into it that she was TOTALLY ready. My friend Martha introduced me to the book "Potty Train Your Child In Just One Day" by Teri Crane. In short, you use a doll that pees (or you make it look like it pees) and spend the first half of the day having the child teach the doll to use the potty, and the second half teaching the child (using the doll as backup). There is supposed to be a whole theme to the day, including decorations, toys, treats, prizes, all culminating with a monumental party at the end of the day. We had a great day! Now let me remind you, Nora is a child who had NEVER expressed ANY interest in potty training, ever. She was content in her dirty diapers. At 10:00 a.m., on her potty day, she jumped up from the sofa (dry diaper on at this point), ran the bathroom yelling "I have to go pee!!!" I plopped her on the potty and sure enough, she went! Amazing. I highly recommend this to anyone who is having difficulty training their child.
We did a Christmas theme. I figured we already had decorations for it, and she was super into Frosty, so it just seemed natural!
Bathroom door decoration, a singing, light up door cover.
See the doll's little pink potty next to the sink?
Feeding the baby (so she'd pee)
My Panties Are Dry!!!!
I decided to make a Frosty cake for the party. It was a Pampered Chef recipe, but I did not have the Pampered Chef bowls, so we improvised with some of Charlotte's pottery. It didn't work as well as I planned, but thankfully the frosting was very forgiving.
Levi came over for the potty party (and proceeded to give himself a haircut with some scissors he managed to dig up somewhere...) and a fun time was had by all!!Nora had a few accidents in the weeks to follow, and we got stuck in a nasty cycle of withholding/constipation, but I am happy to report that things are flowing much more smoothly now. Not perfect, but I am amazed with where we are at. That little girl does have some tricks up her sleeve, which I will have to post about some other time.
6 comments:
Ahhhhhh..... I feel ever so much better now! Thank you for the posting! Nora is the most precious bumblebee in the world!! Congratulations to all of you on successfully potty training!!
Great pics and journaling!
What an adorable little ballerina...so sweet!! I love the potty training story and pictures...a friend of mine did the same thing with her little girl and it worked out great! I'm interested to hear about her little tricks! =)
I love the bumblebee pictures, I can't believe it too you so long to post such cute pictures :).
Love all the pictures. Nora is such an adorable bumble bee and it looks like it went off beautifully. I love the ice skating pics. Looks like you all had alot of fun.
Ice skating? Are you nuts? I'm impressed you lasted 10 minutes :) Love that sweet little bumble bee, great pics. And your Frosty cake was awesome! Thanks for all your potty tips, we are rockin' and rollin' here too. Our babies are officially not babies anymore!!!
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