Mother’s Day 2020

Mother’s Day was a day of beautiful weather! After we were done with church at home, we went on a bike ride. I always ask for a picture with my kiddos on Mother’s Day. They’re always so nice to say yes.

Hazel got a few extra haha. This little girl is scrumptious! I’m soaking her up.

Also did some nail painting and some park hopping. I’m so grateful to be a mom to these cuties and also so grateful for all of the mothering influences in my life.

Potty training Harvey

Harvey was very sad when the big kids started school. He really wanted to go and he really missed having playmates at home! So we distracted ourselves with potty training. I’ll be honest, I was really not looking forward to doing this again. I didn’t intentionally do anything different, so I’m not sure why, but it was SO much easier this time. The first morning was really rough, lots of crying and saying “I just can’t do it!” But after a nap something just clicked and he never went back. He got it so quickly! Below is his thumbs up for being a big boy.

He was not interested in the little training potty we used with Millie and Max, so we just went straight to the toilet and he has done great! So thankful it was a better experience this time around, for his sake and mine! Hooray for Harvey!

Screenshots

Sometimes I take screenshots of things that inspire me. Not really sure why I do that because I typically don't do anything with them, so I'd like to start. These are some things that have caught my attention lately.

I follow @simplyonpurpose on Instagram and have loved her parenting advice. She did a no-yell challenge recently and while I don't think I made it very far on that, I loved her focus on it and tools to help.

Above: she talked about focusing on the good things our children are doing instead of the negative. She also talked about ignoring "junk behaviors," or the things that are typical for their age and not harmful to anyone, but maybe just bothersome. Focusing on and praising the good (sometimes pointedly in front of a child doing the opposite) will fix the negative behaviors a lot of the time! Just something I wanted to remember.

And then I loved the quote in the middle of this:

Makes me want to master something seemingly impossible. Anyway, just some good thoughts I didn't want to slip away.

Father's Day

Since we were traveling home on Father's Day we didn't really give our wonderful dad a proper celebration that day, so we celebrated a few days later. We made a dinner he loves and the kids chose some of his favorite candies to wrap and we made him a little something too. Millie, Max, and Harvey are seriously blessed kids to have Tyler as their dad. He gives so much for them and is always thinking about them and how we can be better parents and help them. I've been spying a little on him recently and snapped a few pictures of his rockstar dad status.

The kids get SO excited when Dad swims with them. He can toss them around and he teaches them all the fun pool games.

This picture was right before he left to go out of town once. He went around the house and evicted the (several) wasp nests that had popped up. They are my least favorite and we were all so thankful.

The day he came home from that trip we were outside playing and waiting for him. He steps out of the car and one of the kids mentions an ant pile. Before he even took his luggage inside he grabbed the ant killer and treated the pile right then and there.

Tyler is a very intentional father. He makes sure to have one-on-one time with the kids. He talks with them about their strengths and what they can do to improve in other areas.

We're all smiles when Dad's around!

My favorite part of the day is when Tyler comes home from work. This is for lots of reasons but one big reason is that I get to see the kids through his eyes (and remember that they're cute and that I love them haha). He truly adores each one of the kids and being their father brings him joy.

Below is the little gift we made for Tyler. Thought we'd take advantage of Max's love of cars and put it to good use!

We love Dad!

Mother's Day weekend

Tyler got home Friday night and the kids were so excited to see him! They gave him his birthday presents when they woke up Saturday morning, since his birthday was on Thursday while he was gone. 

And then, in true Tyler fashion, he had spent the week of his birthday thinking about what to do for me for Mother's Day. Saturday included a massage and haircut for me! First haircut in almost 2 years. It was super sweet of him and so nice to relax for a while.

Above is the before and below is the after, though hopefully that is obvious!

Harvey "helped" me prepare my lesson for Sunday.

Tyler offered to let me sleep in on Mother's Day but that's kind of hard with 9:00 church. I did have him take some pictures of me and the kids though and I love them. If you can't tell by my crazy amounts of blog posts, I'm afraid of forgetting these crazy and happy times. I want to remember motherhood at this stage and these adorable kids and my relationships with them. I just love them all so much.

Being their mother is one of my greatest blessings! I hope to be worthy of it.

Potty talk, Max edition

*Millie edition back HERE

Max is a big boy now! We waited a bit longer to potty train him because he refused for a while. I talked it up and told him that when he's 3 and potty trained he can maybe do gymnastics or swimming like Millie does. Between that and some cool Lightning McQueen underwear we were finally in business!

The first two days were ROUGH. Zero success on the potty, just accidents everywhere. It was so stressful. We would try and try and then I'd stop to nurse Harvey and of course that's when he'd absolutely need to go. But finally at the end of day 2 he did it! Max chose jelly beans as a treat for #1 and Oreos for #2. We printed off a chart to fill with stickers and when he filled up the first one he got to pick something from the dollar store.

Lots of toy/puzzle time while we were stuck at home.

The hardest part for sure was staying home. Things just kept coming up that we had to leave the house for and I was never sure how to handle it - put a diaper back on, a pull-up, or just deal with accidents while we're out and about, etc. We spent all of soccer practice in the van with the froggy potty.

It was just hard for a couple days.

And it made him so tired! He hasn't napped for several months but almost every day for a little while he fell asleep at some point.

We kind of relaxed and put a diaper back on for some big events (zoobilee, the arts festival, etc.) but got back on track the next week. Max was super afraid of the "big potty" because "it has a hole in the bottom." I eventually told him that there are no more diapers. He could make a good choice to use the big potty (regular toilet) and we could start going places or he could make a wrong choice and we're stuck at home because he'll have accidents a lot. That seemed to click a little bit and he'll now use any potty! Hooray!

Our only mountain to climb still is #2. Any suggestions on that are welcome. 

Some transitions for Max

Max has been doing some growing up! Once we found out we're having a boy, I wanted to start moving things around to make room for him. Like I said, crazy nesting lady over here. As if we need to be ready right now. Anyway, we've been waiting for the right time to take Max's binky away too, so we decided to just make it one huge big boy change and do the binky and bed at the same time! So Max now sleeps on a bed (mattress on the floor until I'm not nervous about him rolling off) and is totally off the binky!

First night in the bed.

When I talked to him about these changes, I suggested a fun pillow to replace the binky and to use on his new bed. Lightning McQueen pillow, Thomas the Train pillow, whatever he wanted. He very firmly said he wanted a Lightning McQueen toy instead. Deal, buddy! So Max got a Lightning McQueen and Mater and happily threw his binky in the trash.

The transition has been awesome! He has asked for his binky a couple times, but only when he has been upset during the day (when he wouldn't have been able to have it anyway, since we've used it for sleeping only for a while). Never even mentions it at night or nap time. He does take longer to fall asleep but he is good about staying in bed (I have zero patience for kids getting out of bed and both of mine know it). He typically falls asleep with a book in his hand.

Thank goodness for this sweet boy who makes these changes easy on me! Hopefully Max adjusts to baby brother just as easily!

Summer routine

We have been off our game lately. Well, mostly just me, but you know that throws  everyone else off too! Even though my nausea isn't all the way gone, it is definitely improving and I have felt anxious to be "normal" again. I've never been good at being restricted or not well physically. Anyway, on the first Sunday in June I sat down with the kids (we had just taken Tyler to the airport for a work trip) and we talked about fun things we want to do this summer and having a better daily routine. We came up with lots of fun things and lots of good things we needed to do before the fun.

Mostly, I just wanted less TV. We had gotten in the habit of watching more than normal.

So our days look like this lately: breakfast, morning chores (get dressed, make bed, tidy room, hair and teeth), work on memorizing Articles of Faith/read from The Friend, a reading lesson for Millie or we all just read together, then the kids do get to watch a show while I go shower. 

Less TV means more creative play. They made a "campfire" and pretended to roast hot dogs and marshmallows!

We also do other chores as needed, like helping with bathrooms and folding laundry.

After the morning stuff is done we get to go to the park or pool (mostly pool!), run errands, or whatever else comes up. Below the kids were pushing a doll in the stroller while we made a return at the outlet mall. I think if I play this right these two will take care of the baby for me! ;)

The first week of our new routine happened to be when Tyler was in CA. One night when I got the kids in bed by 7:45 (amazing, but hasn't happened since haha) I found the best bed position with my head and feet raised and watched 2 movies. Ice cream might have become involved. Pushing these good habits with kids, especially after becoming lax about it for a bit, is not easy.

Some things we are still working out the kinks with: fitting in some time for me to exercise in the morning (that doesn't involve me waking up early haha) and how to handle sleepy kids. If we swim in the morning (which I like to) we come home for lunch and I put Max right down for a nap. Usually Millie plays or watches a show while I go shower and ends up falling asleep! Which then means she is up until 10:30pm. But if we swim in the afternoon and Max doesn't get a nap, we all really pay for it by 4 or 5. Not sure how to navigate this so any suggestions are welcome!