Potty Training! {way more information than you wanted to know!}

First a Big Girl Bed and now potty training! Reaghan is getting the hang of all of the big girl milestones before she becomes a big sister and its so bittersweet to watch.

Potty training has been just a tad bit more challenging than the transition to a big girl bed. Before we started she hadn't actually gone to the bathroom on a potty before but was showing all the other signs of being ready. She was super interested whenever I used the bathroom and always wanted to flush the toilet for me. She wanted her diaper changed right away after she would poop and was even telling me several times throughout the day when she peed in her diaper.

I was nervous to start because I once we started I didn't want to go back to diapers but I wasn't totally sure she was ready. I mean, theres no way to know unless you try right? I really wanted to make sure when we started that it was for good and I knew if we didn't do it now then it wouldn't happen until the spring, well after the baby was here, and the thought of that spurred me on to just get it done! I'd always heard that doing it in a weekend was possible and thats the way we wanted to go.

Prep Work:

We talked it up with Reaghan for a few days before we planned to start to get her really excited about what was about to happen. We bought a little potty chair for her for the bathroom and had her practice sitting on it at night before bath for a few days before we started. I took her to the store and we picked out some pretty underwear and Mark picked out a few potty training books that we started reading with her a couple days before as well.

Reward:

Potty chart with stickers and a bowl of M&M's - 2 for pee, 5 for poop!

Day 1:

When we got up that Thursday morning I excitedly got her out of her bed and reminded her that today was the day that we were starting to go potty on the potty like a big girl! I texted Mark to pray for us and I put her in panties right away and we went out for breakfast. She had lots of accidents that morning but we just cleaned them up together and I said things like "uh oh. pee goes in the potty. lets try harder next time!" and "remember if you feel pee coming to tell mommy!" We spent the morning sitting on towels in the living room reading books, coloring and drinking lots of juice and lemonade. Her favorite activities! And setting a timer on my phone for trying to go potty every 15 minutes. We would sit and read on the potty and if she didn't have to go then we just tried again later. She successfully peed in the potty for the first time around 11:45! I realized I didn't have any stickers to put on the potty chart I made her so I texted Mark to stop and get stickers on his way home for lunch. She LOVED putting stickers on the chart and I realized that was motivating her way more than the promised M&M after a successful pee pee. By nap time at 2:30 I was exhausted! She had peed on the potty 7 times but had also had twice as many accidents! I put her in a diaper for nap time and was happy to take a break from being on a constant potty vigil!

Pregnancy Update: 28 Weeks

28 Weeks!

Wicked 10k Race! {6 miles at 6 months}

I made kind of a spur of the moment decision a few weeks ago to run a fun 10k the weekend of Halloween. I hadn't been running very much, so I wasn't sure how much of the 6.2 miles I was going to be able to actually run but there were two girls at work who also wanted to run it while pushing their kiddos in the strollers and they were willing to walk/run it with me so we decided to go for it.

I've run the race a few times pre-baby with Mark and his sister and brother-in-law.

2010 - Redskin vs Cowboys

2011 - Guts!

2012 - Pacman!

It's such a fun race with people dressed up in way crazier costumes than we ever did! 

This year since I was pregnant I searched pinterest for some cute costumes that revolved around the belly and found adorable Mike Wazowski costumes from Monsters Inc. that I thought would be perfect because then I could dress Reag up as Boo.

I went to the craft store and picked up a black tshirt for me and a pink tshirt for Reaghan and then some green, black, white and blue felt.

I found a bowl in my kitchen that somewhat fit around my belly and traced out a circle.

I put the shirt on and tried to mark where I needed to put the green felt circle so that it would be centered on the baby bump and then glued it with craft fabric glue to the shirt.

I ended up cutting angles at the bottom so the shirt fell a little better around my stomach and it ended up working out as the perfect spot for the legs.

For the legs I rolled up a length of felt and secured the roll with the glue to give them form and keep them a little stiffer and then just cut out all of the other pieces for the face and arms.

I was so happy with the way it turned out when I was looking at at it laying on the floor!

But it didn't hug my belly quite as snugly as some of the pictures I had seen on pinterest. 

The felt was a little stiff and the mouth actually busted off when I put it on race day morning so I had to emergency safety pin it back on haha. 

Overall though I was happy with how it turned out and Reaghan looked cute in her oversized tshirt and pig tails to make a sweet Boo. Who wasn't super thrilled to take pictures with me though.

I ended up running WAY more than I anticipated and felt great. We ran the first 3 miles without any walk breaks and then took only a 2-3 more walk breaks the second half of the race.

Not bad for 6 months pregnant eh? AND! I didn't have to stop and pee the entire race! haha That's  pretty significant since sometimes I just sneeze and have to pee.

We call ourselves the Bob Squad. ; )

I was exhausted the rest of the day and so, so sore. Like felt like I had run a marathon sore. 

I think I fell asleep before Reaghan did that night. I was totally bragging to Mark when I got home about how I had run more than I thought I could and how awesome I was haha and then after I got out of the shower I could barely walk. He was real impressed. ; )

I guess 6 miles at 6 months pregnant takes a lot more out of you than I realized.

I'm glad I did it, but I think I'm gonna stick to walks and squats for the rest of the pregnancy!

Already looking forward to my first post-pregnancy race though. : )

Big Girl Bed!

Two weeks ago we had Reaghan make the big switch from her crib to a big girl bed!

This is the first of many changes coming up for her in the next few months as she becomes a big sister and loses her only child status. Honestly if there wasn't another baby on the way I would've left her in her crib a bit longer. I liked the idea of her being confined safely to a space when we were all sleeping, especially because I'll let her play in her crib for a bit in the morning while I'm getting up and dressed and I know she's perfectly safe without supervision during that time. Not to mention she was sleeping 11-12 hours at night and has just in the last couple months settled in to a 2-3 hour afternoon nap. I was so nervous that her sleeping habits were going to get all messed up! But there is in fact a new little one coming that will be needing the crib at some point and we wanted Reaghan to be well adjusted to her new bed before the baby comes.

We wanted the switch to the big girl bed to be more about Reaghan being a big girl and not too much about having to change because of a new baby. I've done a lot of thinking about all of the changed Reag will experience with her baby sister and while I don't think she'll struggle too much with the whole jealousy and resentment issues, I do think when adding kids to the family, going from 1 to 2 is going to be the biggest change with the most risk of emotional struggles for the firstborn. Reaghan's basically the center of our lives right now. I mean she's not, our world doesn't revolve around her, but at the same time she is. She is the only one we have to give our attention too, the only one we read books to at night or play with during the day. The only other seat at the dinner table. So when it comes to big changes that are just part of the natural progress of toddlerhood, we want to fit some in before the baby comes so we can avoid unnecessary conflict the first few months the baby joins our family.

Okay, enough of my justifying why we're putting her in her big girl bed!

Her room had been a bit of a hodgepodge of her toys and furniture since we moved in because I knew eventually she'd be moving to the big girl bed and losing the changing table etc so I wanted to wait to really decorate her room until all of the changes happened.

We also put her in the bigger of the 2 spare bedrooms knowing she'd more than likely end up sharing her room with a sister in the future. :)

We spent the week leading up to the big change talking about her big girl bed and trying to get her really excited about it. I think I spent 2 months leading up to this looking for a bed set for her that I loved haha I ended up ordering one from overstock.com so she didn't help me pick out the set. But that Friday that we made the switch I pulled it out and we opening it together and she helped me wash everything and it get it ready. She loves to help me do laundry!

She helped us break down her crib and move it into what will be the nursery. (We need to get on that by the way!) and she helped us set up her new big girl twin size bed!

The bed we have is a low slat frame that was actually Mark's dad's bed when he was kids. They had given it to us after we got married to use in our spare bedroom and I had painted the head and footboard white then. It's perfect for Reaghan since it's fairly low but because its a slat bed we couldn't do a typical side rail - we found out they only work with beds with box springs a few days before we were going to make the move! haha We ordered a foam bed edge from amazon though and it works great. Reaghan moves a lot in her sleep but this has been just enough to keep her in the bed.

We made a big deal about bedtime that night. Mommy and daddy both came in to read her books and say prayers and sing songs.

We bought her a new book about going moving from a crib to a big girl bed.

(She's a big Elmo fan.)

And made sure to give specific instructions about staying in her big girl bed once mommy and daddy said goodnight and left the room and also staying in her bed in the morning until mommy came to get her. We already expect and require her to be obedient throughout our days so, while obviously she is a toddler and doesn't always listen or do what we ask, I was hoping the foundation of obedience we had been laying would help make this transition a little smoother.

The first night she woke up several times. I was expecting this to some extent so went in each time and reminded her that she was in her big girl bed, it was still "ni-night" time and that I loved her. She went back to sleep easily each time. 

The second night was only a 2-3 times and I still went in each time to help her back to sleep.

The third night she woke up about 2 times. One time I went in to remind her to go back to sleep and the other time I let her fuss it out for a few minutes and she was able to orient herself and lay herself back down to go to sleep. I think it was also that morning that she woke up at 5am and talked to her teddy bears for about 30 minutes before going back to bed! I just stayed in bed and watched her in the monitor. If she did that in her crib honestly I would turn her monitor down and go back to sleep - but this time I knew I had to stay up and watch to make sure she stayed in her bed! 

We are now 2 weeks in and she is back to sleeping 10-12 hours without waking - or atleast without needing me to help her get back to sleep! AND she has yet to leave her bed at night or in the morning until I come to get her. I'd like to think it's because of our awesome parenting haha but I think it has more to do with her more reserved personality! Maybe a combo of both? ; ) I am wondering if this will become an issue as she gets more and more comfortable in her bed. 

Even if it does, I am so proud of her for making this big change so well! 

Some toddler days are hard and tiring but honestly, this girl is a joy to parent.

She still loves her big girl bed and we still let her know how proud we are that she is doing so well in her new bed because she is a big girl!

Our next challenge is potty training!

To commence in approximately 8 hours.

I have a feeling its not going to go nearly as well as the big girl bed.

Apple Snicker Doodle Bars!

After we got home from the Apple Orchard I was quick to start browsing Pinterest for some yummy new apple baked goods.  We brought home so many apples! I took some to coworkers and my family, still had some yummy fresh ones to munch on for snacks and made lots of baked yummy goodness. I made an apple pie, apple turnovers, and a new favorite - Apple Snicker Doodle Bars! They were so good I made them twice! I found it from a pin from Back for Seconds, a cooking blog that I had never been on before, but I'll probably be checking back there for some more delicious recipes since this one turned out so well!

My pictures don't do it justice, but if you're looking for a delicious fall snack you need to try this.

The cinnamon, brown sugar apples are delicious right out of the pan too.

I forgot to add the glaze before I took the picture and

the bottom corner is where Reaghan helped me sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mix ;)

My food picture taking skills are lacking *shrugs* but I couldn't not share this recipe. 

Seriously if you have apples, give this one a try. You won't be sorry.

BArs

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 2/3 cups all purpose flour **The second time I made this I used gluten free all purpose flour for some girls at work that have celiac disease. It worked perfectly fine, but was a little more crumbly than with regular flour.**

FILLING

• 4 cups chopped and cored Granny Smith apples
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/4 cup brown sugar

TOPPING

• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon

GLAZE

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1-2 teaspoon water

DIRECTIONS

Bars

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350 In a mixing bowl cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, vanilla, and salt, and mix well. Add the baking powder and flour, a little at a time, and mix until incorporated. Spread half of the batter into a greased 9x13" pan. Set aside.

Filling

Step 2

Add apple, cinnamon, and sugar to a large skillet. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes or until just starting to get tender. Pour evenly over bars. Top with remaining batter by dropping small spoonfuls all over the apples. Gently spread out batter as evenly as possible.

Topping

Step 3

Mix together sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl, and sprinkle evenly over bars. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely.

Glaze

Step 4

Whisk together sugar and water and drizzle over bars. Store covered in the refrigerator. Best served warm!

ORIGINAL RECIPE