toilet training adventures

Toilet training has seriously been one of the funniest adventures in my life.. and it continues... I am hoping to be done by age 3 for lil-L purely so that she can enter the world of coloured balls in IKEA when we go shopping... just kidding...

I think I spent 90% of my waking hours in the toilet for two solid weeks when lil-L first started toilet training... and that was a loooot of hours seeing my little angels were not sleeping at all well at this stage.

The first days were truly funny! Not long after we started, lil-L did a seriously ingenious thing.. She did not know how to open doors at this stage and we had forgot to leave the toilet door open for her. I was busy changing Zaccy and she was busting to go to the toilet. Knowing that I couldn't leave him on the change table, she didn't even ask to go to the toilet, but instead, got one of her pull-ups out of the drawer and put it on, did a wee in it, took it back off again and gave it to me to put in the bin... I would have never thought of that... my little legend!!

After a mums group gathering with 8 kids all lil-L's age, their mums and now 5 new siblings.. chaos as you can imagine, the hosting mum yells out to the kids "if you do a poo on the toilet you get Smarties in this house!" So lil-L runs for the toilet.. not the slightest clue what Smarties are mind you.. but never the less.. runs for the toilet and yes... she managed to squeeze one out, despite already achieving one at home before we left.. so now she knows what Smarties ('farties' as she calls them) are.

So now lil-L believes that doing a #2 on the toilet deserves a reward of some kind.. I gave in and we got some of those Natural Confectionery Dinosaurs.

So she is sitting on the toilet the other day... doing a #2 and I am squatting down in front of her to assist her if needed. She was having a little trouble but was determined to get her hands on that dinosaur.. "My do it my-by-self, go away, make some dinner" comes flying out her gorgeous little mouth.. I was dumbfounded and seriously had no response... so I went and made dinner.

I was sitting on the toilet a few days later doing a #2 and she comes in and squats down in front of me as I do when she is on the toilet and says "I'm just helping you".
So I reply as she does to me, "I'm alright, I do it my-by-self, I'll let you know if I need your help".
She doesn't budge... "go make your dolls some dinner lil-L, I think they're hungry" I add...
no, she's still there... so I continue.
I'm done and reach for the toilet paper... my hand gets nudged out the way and she gets a hold of the toilet paper "I wipe your bottom, just to make sure you don't get poo everywhere"... (is this what I sound like?)

As frustrating as toilet training is sometimes, and especially accidents, you've gotta look on the bright side.. it is kinda funny too, and face it.. you only go through it once.

Enjoy it when your time comes!!

i love a clean house, but hate chemicals......

check out this blog...

I haven't come across these products before but they look great!!

absolute balance acupuncture: i love a clean house, but hate chemicals......

Kids Websites

With the change in weather, I've been madly late-spring cleaning the house and yard.. it never quite gets done with two mini variables running around, getting sick and not to mention me getting side tracked playing in lil-L's kitchen or lying around on the trampoline with zaccy Zac.

I have however stumbled onto a few pretty cool sites lately while playing on the iPhone during those 3am feeds that I'd love to share..


www.kidstylefile.com.au - just a coool comprehensive site
www.picknicksbrain.com - great sleep website
www.5minutesformom.com - some nice mom things here
www.huggies.com.au - good old favourite
www.shoeszoo.com - my favourite kids slippers ever...
www.haggusandstookles.com.au - great kids gear
www.urbanbaby.com.au
www.thehipinfant.com.au

If you know of any other great kids sites please share them here :o)

Get Creative

Something I have decided to do next year and actually put it into my schedule, is to dedicate 5 hours a week to recycle and hand make things. There are so many gorgeous fabrics out there, so much stuff we throw out that we could reuse and so many things I just want my kids to have but seem to always be out of my price range.. my answer.. just make the things yourself!!

One of my favourite toys, which I still remember to this day, was a little basinette my mum made me from an old shoe box. She covered in wrapping paper and attached a couple of handles to it so I could carry my doll around everywhere with me. I just loved it so much that it travelled with us all the way from Austria to Australia.

The website that has inspired me to start creating is www.etsy.com. This is seriously the best site ever... an ebay style site for all things handmade and supplies to hand-make your own things.

If you know of any other great sites that either sell supplies, reasonably priced fabric, patterns or have some great ideas for recycling, I would love to hear about them...