Potty Training

Oh my poor blog! What happened?? Well, I guess I should confess that I used to write my blog posts while "watching" my lectures for school. After a few months I realized I wasn't getting much out of my lectures and needed to focus (surprise! surprise!), but then I just couldn't find the time to blog, and I was tired of sitting at the computer.

Anyways, obviously a lot has happened since my last post (Thanksgiving!!). I never even talked about Christmas. Maybe someday I'll catch up, but right now I'd rather talk about potty training.

Never in all my planning did I think we'd be potty training Lily at 20 months. I was prepared to wait until after our trip back to the States this summer, and do it sometime in August/September.

Lily developed a bad diaper rash at the end of March that turned into a fungal infection. We tried every cream and prescription we could, but the only thing that made any difference was leaving her diaper off and letting her run around naked all day. Jim and I just so happened to buy a potty seat right before all this because it was on clearance, so we thought we'd start putting her on it just to see what she thought (and to reduce the number of messes we were cleaning up all day). I think it was the afternoon of the second day that she actually pee'd in the toilet, and we all clapped and cheered (Susan was here by then) and she LOVED the attention. I think she was hooked at that point.

That night we made the decision to dive in and do full time potty training. Up until then we were still putting diapers on her when we left the house, then taking them off when we got home. I think we stayed inside for about 3-4 days and finally the 4th day she was completely accident free. She's really done so good for her age, I'm shocked. In the three weeks we've been working on it, I really don't think she's had more than 10 accidents. Our only challenge now is with public toilets. Sometimes she obsessed with new toilets and goes a million times (she went three times at the pool in 10 minutes before her swimming lesson started on Monday) and other times she refuses to go. Those times are so frustrating! I know she needs to go, and she keeps telling me she needs to, but then we go to the bathroom and she sees the potty and says 'no' and leaves; 5 minutes later we do the same thing. I've just learned that if she starts doing this to just go home and let her use the bathroom at home; we're never far from home anyways and she'll get over it soon enough.

She's had 4 days of school since we potty trained, and the last 2 days have been accident free. I know she's still going to have lots of accidents, but I really don't think it could have gone better if we had waited 6 months. It was really stress free for me because I wasn't expecting much. I knew if she wasn't making any progress by the time her rash was gone that we'd just go back to diapers.

I think one of the best parts is now she claps for me and Jim when we go to the bathroom and says "Yayyy Mommy/Daddy!!!" It's adorable. 

Thanksgiving Recap

Well, I think our Thanksgiving dinner turned out great! My dad commented that it tasted almost like it would if we were home, so I think that says a lot considering we can't get all our usual ingredients.

We started off the day with a bang by setting off the fire alarm in the kitchen. Totally my fault; I was cooking bacon and let it get a little too crispy. The security guy showed up in less than 5 mins, which actually makes me feel good that they get here so quick.

Lily is going through a phase where she absolutely LOVES being in the kitchen, but throws a fit when she can't see what's going on. She wants to be held, but then gets mad when I pick her up and nothing is going on (because my hands are busy holding her). We set her up in the high chair in the kitchen so she could see, and that made her happy for a little while.

Jim was in charge of pancakes.

Jim told me he was taking this picture so everyone could see I had a cheat sheet. I'm pretty sure no one actually thinks I don't use recipes!

The turkey! It was delicious. The best part of the meal I think.

Dad and I admiring our work. Actually, we were debating on whether we really thought it was done, which we discovered it wasn't. The breast was done but we had to throw the legs back in the oven for a bit.

Our little helper! I think Lily ate her weight in turkey. She kept pulling on my sleeve and signing "more" for more turkey. 

Dad carving the turkey.

It's not easy making an entire Thanksgiving meal with one oven, but we figured it out. By the way, those rolls in there turned out awesome as well, and the recipe is pretty fool-proof. If you are an inexperienced bread-maker I would recommend it. (recipe in my last post)

We also had our new neighbors over, and we had a good time. They have a three year old daughter that Lily loved following around, so the adults actually got to talk for a while.

It was a lot of work, but we have enough leftovers to last a week!! 

Thanksgiving Prep!

Somehow this is our first time to plan a Thanksgiving meal since we've been married! The first year we had just gotten married and were at my parents house in Dickinson. The following year we had just gotten back form our trip to Australia and kept it simple. The year after that we were invited to our friends place in Taipei to celebrate. The next year I went on a girl's trip to Vietnam and Cambodia and Jim went to Colorado by himself. Then last year we were living in Houston and spent Thanksgiving at my parents again.

I'm a little sad we didn't get to do all the fun pumpkin patch pictures with Lily or dress her up in turkey outfits. Remember this from last year?

Those legs!! What a chunk!!

Anyways, this is what's on the menu for our Thanksgiving:

For breakfast:

Pumpkin Pancakes If this recipe turns out well, this may become a family tradition. It's no secret I love everything pumpkin!

For Dinner:

Turkey. I'm using this as a roasting guide: click here

Stuffing. This is a source of conflict in our marriage, and I've been able to avoid it until now. I grew up with white bread dressing (aka the best kind) and Jim grew up with corn bread dressing. So, I think I found a compromise thanks to the wonderful Pioneer Woman: click here

Mashed potatoes. No recipe, this one is easy!

Green Beans. I'm keeping this one easy and using the traditional cream of mushroom soup version, but subbing bread crumbs for the fried onions because we can't get those here.

Rolls. I'm going to try Pioneer woman again on this one. I've read her recipe for dough several times and it seams easy enough but I've never tried it: click here

Deviled Eggs. A tradition for me and super easy: Eggs, mayo and dried mustard with a little paprika. 

Pumpkin Pie. Nothing fancy, just using the recipe that was probably invented by Eagle Brand: click here

It's pretty much just the basics since it will only be a few of us (and our first time to make a lot of these things). My dad is coming and I invited our neighbors over that just moved in (they're American) and they might bring something as well. I just bought our turkey this morning since we don't have the freezer space to store it, so it will immediately begin the slow thawing process in the fridge and then the counter top. 

Well, I was going to post a few random pictures of our own little Punkin, but blogger is telling me I ran out of space for more pictures! Tragic! I'll go fix that stat (i.e. call Jim).

I'll be sure and take pics of all the food and let you know how it turns out! Have a fabulous Thanksgiving!

Halloween

Better late than never! You can blame Colorado State for the lack of blogging the last few weeks. I'm taking two classes right now and they are taking up any free time I have. 

Anyways, this little munchkin got to dress up three times for Halloween! Lily didn't have daycare the entire week of Halloween due to the Eid holiday, so we tried out a different little daycare here in our neighborhood (because mama still had lots of work to do!). I've been wanting to try out this place for a while because it's so convenient, and I've heard from a lot of other moms that they allow you to just drop off your kid for a few hours in the afternoon. I need something like this for the times when both Jim and I are sick (that happened last month) or if I need to take an exam and my proctor can't do it during her day care hours. I found out they do a two day free trial, so Lily went on Halloween and wore her tutu! I figured they could just take the tutu off if it got in the way.

Later that afternoon I got her dressed up in her real Halloween costume...A Flemenco Dancer! Lily's Granny and Grandpa got this dress for her when we were in Spain this summer. She was definitely the only toddler flamenco dancer we saw :)

I got her dressed super early so I could take pictures, and she would not stand still, then she threw a fit because she wanted a cracker.

Lily and her friend Silas looking out at the construction. I never figured out why Silas wasn't wearing any pants...

We go to the playground almost every evening from about 5-6 pm. It's almost always the same moms/kids there everyday, and it's been nice to get to know other people in our neighborhood.

The mom of these two little Pooh Bears was trying her darndest to get a pic with her girls and Lily but Lily would NOT STAND STILL. Story of my life lately.

This is Lily and her friend Harry. Harry is in her class at daycare, and Harry's mom is my proctor for school.

The day after Halloween we had a party with some of our swimming buddies. I didn't take many pictures because I was barely alive. I had food poisoning the night before and was barely hanging on, but I really wanted to take Lily to this party and see some of the moms that I've become friends with. I made some pumpkin muffins for the party right before I got really sick the night before, and they were a huge hit. I even found some cinnamon chips to sprinkle on top! I don't think having pumpkin as a sweet/dessert is very common outside the US, so everyone was in love. Like seriously, I don't think I've ever had people rave about anything I've baked before like they did with these muffins.

Someone brought a ball pit to the party and Lily spent the entire time in it (here she is playing with her friend Callum). She was either in this pit or walking around stealing food off everyone's discarded plates the entire time.

It will be a few years before we get to go trick or treating, since no one does that here. In the meantime, I'm thankful to have found some friends to celebrate with!