Weekend Recap

We had a pretty good weekend...busy yet relaxing!

Wednesday night we had a family over for dinner that arrived here just a couple days earlier. They moved from Canada and John met them while he was swimming with Peyton earlier in the week. They have three girls and it was so nice to be able to have them over for dinner, dump all of the wealth of knowledge we have been given. They are a sweet family and we enjoyed having them over. John told me how much fun he had and I responded..."duh, they are Canadian so they have to be awesome."

Thursday we went shopping and took our car to Khobar for the first time. We didn't make it to the party supply store in time but did manage to get to the hardware store, toy store and a baby gear store to buy a portable/travel potty (more about that later) and then we headed to the grocery store. A very successful day and our car worked out great! Lots of room for me to sit in the back between the kids which is a most when you are driving an hour each way.

Our kids are adapting so well and are so good when we go out. They both go with the flow in their own way. Peyton runs around the mall, is loud but listens. Graham just hangs out in the stroller, plays by himself and just chills out until it is time to eat and he grunts at you. They have such different personalities and are such different babies.

On our way home we got to use the portable potty seat which is pretty much a requirement for surviving here with a potty training toddler. As we were heading home in the middle of nowhere Peyton yells that she has to go potty. We pull over, take out the potty seat, put in a liner that has an absorbent pad at the bottom and we have a potty. It is great! A huge help when there are really no bathrooms you want to stop at anywhere and it will be a must have when we drive 8 hours through the desert to see my sister in Abu Dhabi!

Thursday night John left again and headed back to Khobar to take a friend that we just met to buy a TV and other needed items. They had a successful trip and it was so nice to be able to use the car to help out another family and bless them with transportation to get the needed supplies.

Today I woke up early with Peyton and while John and Graham snoozed we headed to the beach to look for sea shells which turned into swimming with her clothes on. We had so much fun!

Then later we worked on painting Peyton's room a bright, beachy blue! It looks fun and I can't wait to see her curtains and rug in there. She helped out and it was fun hanging out with her and working together!

Off to another week in Saudi....one with friends coming back from vacation (YEAH), hopefully our shipment clearing customs and getting closer to our house, planning Peyton's party and our trip to Abu Dhabi!!

Potty Training

We have been meaning to start potty training because I have felt Peyton was somewhat interested and I figured we needed to do something before Graham arrives but it has been consistently been put off for various reasons. First, I was never really in a rush (minus knowing that it would be best to not have two kids in diapers yet I still didn't feel the urgency) or ready because I didn't want to deal with the whole potty/mess stuff and I was sad about Peyton not being a baby. Second, I was horrible sick for the whole first trimester plus and then in pain for much of my second. Third, Peyton would get sick or be miserable cranky the weekends we planned. So...since John was off all this week, I am not in as much pain, Peyton is healthy and she has no school, gymnastics or other commitments, we decided to jump in and start.

So, if you are interested....I don't blame you if you are not.....here is how our week has gone very briefly with no pictures or gross details!

We did a variation of the 3 day potty boot camp....first, I am not attempting to potty train at night or at naps. She sometimes makes it through a nap but never wakes up dry from night time. I am fine with having diapers at sleep time and in no way want to wake up and deal with sheets etc. I figure she will develop more and more control and we will slowly work on that. Second, when we go to my parents house or other places we do use pull ups. Peyton thinks they are like her swim diapers which she LOVED to wear and I always call them her big girl pants and she tends to keep them drier and more accident free than panties. We wear panties at home but I know that she will have to wear pull ups at school and I don't want to have her have an accident on someone's couch so we do use pull ups. Some people say it is confusing for kids but so far for us it is working and she wants to keep the "princess" big girl pants dry.

Sunday we told Peyton she was going to be a big girl and use the potty and that meant no more diapers. We put a pallet of towels and blankets down in front of the TV and were prepared for a long day of movies and cartoons. Well, as luck would have it, I felt awful after having no sleep the night before and being sick to my stomach multiple times throughout the night and ended up having to sleep for three hours and poor John was left on potty duty. We waited and waited and finally she had to go but she had an accident. Pretty much there were LOTS of accidents on the first day, her not wanting to go even try to the potty and by the end of the day no progress. I was really questioning whether or not she was ready and if we just traumatized her instead. We did end up giving her a candy reward for trying at the end of the day because I wanted to end on a positive note.

Monday I decided to implement more of a schedule/interval and made her try every 15 minutes and worked up to 30 minutes by the end of the day. I made sure to watch only movies or cartoons on Netflix that I could pause so I could show her that she doesn't miss anything by going potty and I also put in a variety of different candies instead of just M&M's including lollipops (something she hardly ever gets) to make the reward jar more appealing. We had much more progress but still lots of accidents, pretty much she would start heading to the potty as she was going, she was figuring out the whole deal. The afternoon went better and we even ventured to Granny and Papa's that night for cookie decorating and made it accident free! Tuesday and Wednesday proved more and more successful (still having an occasional accident...I think one each day) and she even went on the big potty at Starbucks last night!

Today was the biggest test as we drove out to Katy for Christmas celebrations with John's mom. I didn't expect her to be accident free since it was an hour drive but she was and went as soon as we got there! The whole rest of the day was accident free and we even ventured to my parents for the evening and she watched a movie while we played a game and had no accidents! She is still not telling us if she has to pee but she is holding it until we take her (it helps being pregnant and me having to go all the time so she just comes with me). She does tell us if she has to go #2 which is great and is not scared of it like most kids are when learning to go on the potty! I am just so proud of her not having any accidents today at all and she is no longer asking for her candy reward. Many times I offer her the candy and she just says no and is content with the praise and being a big girl!

I will give a huge shout out and praise to John for his tremendous help and support. Although I am feeling much better than the earlier parts of my pregnancy, this is still super hard on my body and it doesn't help that I haven't been sleeping. He has been so amazing in serving me by letting me take lots of naps this week, taking a break from household responsibilities and then taking on the majority of the potty training. I appreciate him so much for using him time off from work to help me in this process and I am so thankful that we will have had a week of potty training before he goes back to work and then still another 10 days until Peyton goes back to school! I am very blessed to have John as my husband and partner in parenting!

Tomorrow we will be hanging out at home most of the day again (potty training has felt like house arrest almost) and then heading to church for Christmas Eve services and then spending the night at my parents so we can wake up there Christmas morning (yes, we live a mile away and we are still spending the night)! The next couple of days will be interesting with all of the excitement and business but hopefully John and I can stay consistent, have lots of potty breaks and continue to make progress!

Peyton's Busy Social Calendar

It seems like Peyton has had the busiest social calendar of all of us and the past couple of weeks have been filled with Christmas activities and we still have several more this week!

We started with a family Christmas party for Peyton's school. I tried to get her to pose for a picture before we left and this is what I got...what a ham!



We got our pictures taken with Santa and she was very excited about seeing him. The whole way there she told us she was going to a "Santa Party." We got a nice family picture and one of just Peyton but the school gave us hard copies and I haven't had time and I don't see myself having the time to scan them. After our pictures we did the craft tables around and made various things including a picture frame, nativity scene out of stickers and of course a cookie! At the end they had a kid geared play of the Christmas story which Peyton loved and kept telling me what was going on at various parts!

Throughout the week we have had lots of fun Christmas crafts and activities at home. We made sugar cookies and decorated them a couple of times, made Christmas cards for family including the pets and did various reenactments of the Christmas story and other fun crafts. Then last night we took Peyton to the Dickinson Festival of Lights and she LOVED it! She was having a hard time finishing dinner and I told her we couldn't go see Santa and the lights if she didn't finish...well she finished quickly and was so excited to go see Santa!

The line for Santa was super long so we just waved at him from a distance and instead made some sugar cookies. She made one for herself and one for mommy. She is getting to be a pro at icing cookies and is probably wondering why we do that so much lately!

And keeping with the cookie decorating theme...we had a cookie decorating play date at a friends house this morning and we made more and more cookies. She LOVED the gum drops but was really sweet about listening when I would tell her that was the "last one" for each cookie and listened well when I told her it was her last cookie to eat. She had tons of fun and made cookies for Granny and Papa....when I asked her if she was going to make one for Daddy she told me, "No...all mine." Hmmm.....sorry dad no cookies for you when you come home!

This week we have another Christmas themed play date, Peyton's class party at school and a party at gymnastics and then I think her parties are done and we head into the week of Christmas with just family get togethers! And Daddy is off all next week which I am so excited about and it also means that since it is a calm week next week,we aren't really going anywhere for Christmas and John will be home for help......we will be starting the joys of potty training! Fun!