DIY Playdough: Messy, yet fun.

I'm always looking for new things to do with IV and at our last Toddler Art class he showed a lot of interest in the playdough they had out.

So I found a recipe to make our own. I wanted to make it instead of buying it for a few reasons.

1. IV loves to help cook, bake or just hang around while I'm in the kitchen.

2. I love trying to new projects.

3. Learn, learn, learn. Our toddlers brain is like a sponge.

4. Each night before IV goes to bed, I tell him what I have planned for the next day. He absolutely lights up when I tell him about a trip we are going on, a class we are attending, someone we plan to see or whatever. So last night I knew he'd get excited about baking/crafts/colors.

What you'll need:

1 cup flour
1 cup warm water
2 tbsp cooking oil
2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp cream of tartar
1 pack of 3oz Jello

Choosing which color to do first

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl or pot then place on the stove. Stir over medium heat. Once it forms into a ball, place on a floured cutting board to cool. Cooling takes about 20-30 minutes. After it cools, kneed with flour until you have the right consistency. 

The fun begins

We had plenty of other colors, as you can see...but to be honest - 3 was plenty. Once these get full of food crumbs, dog hair and whatever else IV puts in them...we'll make a new batch. 

Super fun, messy and lots of learning. Just how I like our activities. 

*********************************************************************************

And...as a bonus: 

After we cleaned up the kitchen, we went outside for a walk around the neighborhood, checked the mail and played on the front porch. Seeing I had my big girl camera out - I snapped a few pictures of my boy who just so happens to be a BIRTHDAY BOY today.

 Happy 27 Months, sweet boy! 

27 Months Old

Potty Training my 26 month old

I decided to jump into in the diaper free world. I had put some thought into it for quite some time now, but was never ready to make the switch. I knew it was going to be stressful and a lot of work...but I was ready and IV seemed ready.

We had introduced the potty to him when he was about 18 months. He loved it. We sang a song every time he'd use it after his bath. Some nights he did...some he didn't. We left it up to him, but we wanted the "potty" to be around...visible as something that wasn't scary or stressful.

So last Monday I re-read the pdf on 'The 3 Day Potty Training Method", purchased a few "rewards" and dug out the Old Navy Boxer Briefs I had purchased a while ago.

Monday during IV's nap, I made a chalkboard potty chart and a bucket full of "Potty Prizes".

books, a foam airplane and Easter eggs with a few M&Ms in them

Monday night I explained the "process" to him, telling him that in the morning we were going to start using the potty and he'd not be wearing a diaper anymore.

The Method suggests that you throw out or get rid of all diapers, wipes and anything associated with diapers. I did not.

I kept his changing table as is, kept all diapers and all things associated with it. Just my choice.

That method may work for some people - but IV doesn't need that "stuff". I tell him something and he (normally) just gets it. It's hard to explain. But I knew I didn't need to do all that. And to be honest, I really only made the chalkboard chart because I had some down time one day and was sort of on a roll. I knew for a fact, IV wouldn't care about it. I was right.

Tuesday morning is D-Day: (Diaperless Day) Day One: 

Wake at 7am, go grab IV from his crib (yes, we are still in a crib).

Change him out of his diaper, explain the big boy undies and to "please tell Mama if you need to go pee or poop." I showed him the potty which I put in our 1/2 bathroom just off the kitchen.

*The potty: We have two. One small, stand alone potty that he had been using and the little seat that goes over the toilet. We stuck with the small one.

7:15am - we are sipping coffee and milk, doing our normal morning routine...today just happens to be in undies with lots of fluids (per the 3 Day Method). I'm offering a lot of milk and juice/water, you name it. Anything to get him going. I tried to give him salty type foods to make him thirsty - but that's just not for him. When he's not hungry...he won't eat. I can't force him.

"Stew, do you have to go pee?"

"Stew, are your undies dry?"

"Stew, tell Mama when you have to go potty"

By 10 am we have two accidents on the floor. I'm literally right next to him. I see it coming, scoop him up and put him on the potty. No yelling or scolding, just a lot of positive reinforcements and lots of love.

Finally around noon I ask yet again and he finally says "Yes" - off to the potty we go.

He did a small amount of pee and jumped off. I take him to the chart and the prize bucket. All is good.

A few more of these potty runs...with very little pee. He does just a bit and then jumps off. No biggie, I think, we'll work on it.

By the end of day 1. We have 12 pees, 1 poop and 5 accidents. Day One...done.

*A side note: The 3 Day Method recommends waking your child during naps and night time to potty. I chose NOT to do that. I explained to IV that naps and night time, he'd wear a diaper incase of accidents. As I mentioned, he is still in his crib. There is no way he could hold it or get out of bed to use the potty on his own. He takes a 3.5-4 hour nap A DAY and sleeps from 7:30pm to 7:00am. I'm not waking him every few hours. 

I'm exhausted. Physically and mentally.

Day Two: 

You can go ahead and just re-read my Day One. Seriously, it was more of the exact same. Except at this point, IV is starting to get annoyed with me asking him. He's constantly saying "Noooooooo, Mama" every time I ask him. I saw him getting frustrated and annoyed more and more as the day went one. I literally asked him 30 times and he responded "Noooooo" each time. He at this point is playing cars, I'm sitting on the floor watching him. He looks at me and pees...cries and stands there. I again, scoop him up and take him to the potty.

So now we have two accidents. Four false alarms. And the minute he sits on the potty he cries. I've realized he's now holding it until nap time and refusing to drink. Smart cookie.

Day Two ends with a lot of doubt. I'm doubting I picked the "right" method for IV.

Day Three: 

I'm exhausted and I have a very frustrated and annoyed toddler. I can tell. I can see it on his face. He's annoyed with this process. But it's ok...we are moving forward with more of the same. Keep in mind, we haven't left the house in three days.

11:00: we have an hour until lunch. I grab a bunch of books and ask him if he wants to sit on the couch and read with me. We do. We go through at least 10 books. I'm asking him if he needs to potty every few minutes...all "No mama" answers. I grab another book and feel something warm. He's sitting on the couch next to me and pees. I lose it. Sadly, I picked him up and yelled at him. Not in scary, crazy Mom yelling kind of way...but more of a "Nooooo buddy. This is not good. You cannot do this" kind of way. I'm in tears. He's in tears. I didn't want to tell him it was ok. Because it's not. It's not ok at all to sit next to me and pee after I asked him a 893 times. Seriously. I scooped him up again and asked him to finish on the potty. He's got nothing left in the tank. It's all over the couch (leather) and now dripping onto the floor (hardwood) I feel like I failed. I yelled at him and didn't stay positive and now I'm faced with a toddler who is basically refusing to tell me he has to go and is refusing to go in the potty.

My sister shows up with M&Ms and flowers. It's 7pm and IV is off to bed. Another day is complete.

I feel defeated. I consult with Sarah from Nurse Loves Farmer. She gives me some much needed positive feedback and I'm feeling a little better. I calm my nerves over a glass or two of wine and start thinking about tomorrow - Friday. We have FitGym on Fridays. What was I to do?

Friday Morning I wake and decide we are going to Gym class. Accidents or not...I/we need to get out of the house.

I decided to try a different method...slightly. I would ask him to potty and "try" to potty today. We leave for Gym class (which is 30 minutes away) without a diaper. This is the first time we've left the house in 4 days. Before we leave, I asked him to potty. He says "No". I sit him down anyways and he goes. I win!

We arrive at Gym class dry. I take him to the potty there (they have a small one like ours as well). I sit him on it and he says "No, Mama. No pee-pee". I told him "Ok, buddy. Thanks for trying". Off to gym we go.

15 minutes into class I can see him start squirming. I said "Buddy, let's try to go potty again and then come back and do the balance beam". Off to the bathroom we go. I sit him down and he goes. WOW! I'm in tears. Happy tears. He sat, he did it...I was psyched.

Gym class is over and the rest of the day is full of peeing on the potty and ZERO accidents.

After the initial 4 Days I've realized a few things:

1. IV didn't need prizes. He just needed a few "Good job, Buddies" and he happy.

2. He didn't need all the "Do you have to potty?" or "Tell Mama when you have to potty". He just needed a few days for it all to "click" and for me to ask him to go. I was asking him too much in all different ways - I was annoying him and I could see him pull back.

3. Don't give up. It's hard, it's exhausting and there were times I wanted to put a diaper back on him and say "we weren't ready". But don't...they are smart and they will "get it" within a few days.

4. Pick a time when you aren't too busy. I knew the week we started, work would be slow for me and we had and have no big trips planned.

5. Take time at night to relax. The next day starts all over again.

6. Let your child pick their undies. I picked ON Boxer Briefs and they didn't fit well at all. I took IV to Target this week and he picked Thomas the Train regular underwear. Cute. Adorable and he loves them.

Update: 

So it's been exactly 7 days. We are 4 days without a single accident. He is in undies all day except for his nap and bed time. We now go out to the mall, grocery store, to my parents...you name it. No accidents.

He tells me when he has to go and I ask him throughout the day - but I don't pester him. Before we leave the house - we potty. I put him on it whether he says yes or no. Sometimes he tries and doesn't have to go. Sometimes he does. The minute we get home - he goes straight for the bathroom. It's amazing. I'm so proud of him and me. I did it. We did it.

So, if you are looking to read the "3 Day Potty Training Method" you can do that HERE.

If you have any questions - always feel free to email me HERE. If I have enough questions, I'll put them up on a post for all to see my answers and hopefully give some insight and help to everyone getting ready to start potty training.

Finding my happy "pace"...

On July 4th, Stew and I ran our first 10K (6.2 miles) race. It was something we had been training for - for the last 4 weeks.

{sigh}

I didn't training hard enough.  Ignore that I said that. I'm being too hard of myself. I did train hard, but the heat and humidity really got to me. I couldn't have trained for that. It is what it is. (eww, I hate that saying)

I/we were doing well for the first 3 miles, after that - something went terribly wrong. My head felt hot, my chest felt heavy and I had an unbelievable cramp. I could hear the water I drank on the ride down - bouncing in my stomach. I started to cry. I said fuck...a lot.

Our paced dropped to a 10:30 from a 8:25. I was crushed.

The heat and humidity was brutal and I couldn't get through it. I thought about my family and my sweet IV, at home with my parents. I pictured him saying "More go, Mama"...something he says to me while we run and train together. But even with that...it wasn't enough. I couldn't get that fire under me.

But I did. I finished my first 10K race. Something I never in a million years thought I could do.

We finished in 59:45 - a 9:36 pace. Not what I had dreamed of. (I was hoping for finishing around 54:00)

Crossing the finish line. 

So where do I go from here? I have enlisted the help of my amazing sister-in-law who is an even more amazing runner - we are working on a training plan and I'm going to run another 10K in the Fall. Why a 10K? I don't know. It seems like a good distance for me. It's challenging enough - yet short enough. 

Maybe next year I'll go for the 1/2 marathon...but I'm not ready. I haven't found my happy pace yet...but I will and I'm going to enjoy this amazing journey. 

Move over Tyson Beckford...there's a new model in town

Tyson Beckford? Really? That's the only male model I could come up with. I even googled it and no one sounded familiar.

So for IV's first birthday, I purchased his "I'm Two" shirt from Room to Romp. Sandy was amazing to work with and ensured I received the correct size shirt and in time for his birthday.

Well Sandy recently contacted me asking if IV would model some of their clothing sets - allowing us to keep the clothes in exchange for photos of him to use on her website. How could I say no!?!?

Here are some of my favorites:

Adorable right? Super cute clothing sets, t-shirts...and amazing to work with. Make sure you go check out her Etsy shop!

Chocolate Covered Oreos: How to

Many of you have asked how I made the chocolate covered Oreos. Well, here you go:

First I purchased Oreos, chocolate and the molds at our local Bakery supply shop.

1. Cookie Molds and Star Molds

2. 1lb. white chocolate and 1lb. milk chocolate. Plus a small bag of red and blue for the stars.

3. One bag of Oreos

4. I bought cupcake wrapper because I thought the Oreos would look cute in them to display that the 4th of July BBQ.

All of the above items costs: $21 and made 30 cookies

The next few steps I didn't take photos of because I had to work quickly pouring the warm chocolate and freezing. But - the melting of the chocolate is the most important step.

You want the chocolate to be warm, not hot. A double boiler is recommended, if you don't have one...like me, use two pots...one larger than the other. Place warm/hot water in the bottom pot and chocolate in the top pot. Let the chocolate melt...keeping the bottom water warm/hot. DO NOT BOIL the water. Stir if needed. The water in the bottom pot should stay warm - keeping the top pot of chocolate a smooth consistency. It should never harden or get clumpy. Once my water was hot, I set it to "keep warm" on my stovetop. This worked great. If you don't have a "keep warm" setting, just the lowest setting should be fine.

Pour each mold 1/2 way, drop in cookie. Press the cookie down until it's almost hitting the bottom. Cover the rest with more chocolate. Once you are done pouring the warm chocolate in the molds...place in the freeze for about 10-15 minutes. When they come out of the freezer, you should be able to flip them upside down and each will fall out of the molds. If not, they aren't ready. But remember to not OVER freeze. Set a timer if you need to. I let mine sit on wax paper until I was ready to add the chocolate stars.

After the cookies are out of the freezer, you should leave them at room temperature until you're ready to eat them. No additional refrigeration is needed.

For the stars, I followed the same process. I used a bit of warm chocolate as "glue" to keep the small stars on top of each cookie.  I popped them back in the freezer for a quick hardening and voila. Done.

I didn't use any special tools for pouring the chocolate. I used one of IV's baby spoons to spoon the chocolate into the stars seeing they are smaller...I used a regular teaspoon for the cookies.

Enjoy!

Feel free to email me with any questions!

4th of July Week: Chocolate Covered Oreos...and some M&M cookies

IV and I had such a great day yesterday. The weather wasn't great and it looked like it was going to storm. We decided to head to our local bakery supply shop and pick up the supplies we needed for our afternoon of baking.

I knew I wanted to attempt "Chocolate Covered Oreos" and I knew IV would love making M&M cookies - so we did both.

Here we go...

He's clearly psyched that I let him eat and put that many M&Ms in the batch!

And our finished product: 4th of July inspired Oreo Cookies...

My greatest joy

Last night, Stew and I attended his Uncles marriage celebration after they returned from a destination wedding. We had a great time catching up with family and indulging on delicious Italian food and wine. 

These are a few of my favorites pictures that Stew snapped before we left. 

I just adore this boy. 

Happy Monday!