by mayberry on May 24, 2009
Three months ago, in a fit of pique (or defensiveness, take your pick), I listed all the potty-training methods that were not working on Opie.
Today, I am happy to report that we are halfway there. As in, he is now a champion toilet-pee-er. OK, maybe not “champion” if we are judging on accuracy of aim; but in ability to not soak his pants, gold star. He even stays dry all night long which, to me, is nothing short of miraculous.
We are, uh, still working on what our former dogwalker called “the solid treatment.” The current incentive is a Cars skateboard, spotted at W@lmart, immediately coveted, and therefore immediately seized upon by the parents as a Potty Prize. The deal is he must go seven consecutive days without an accident. So far, seven days he can do. But seven in a row? Not so much.
I think the accidents happen when he’s just busy or distracted. So the answer should be to remind him to go regularly, right? But the catch is he absolutely hates to be reminded (and yes, we’ve tried the timer and his response is the same). He will swear up and down that he doesn’t have to go, then have an accident just minutes later.
But the difference from three months ago is huge, even though it doesn’t feel that way when I am washing out a totally gross pair of underwear. (Even this has been alleviated a bit by Swistle’s awesome commentary on the subject of throwing away undies: “I buy ugly cheap children’s underwear on clearance. That way it isn’t painful to throw away a pair that got pooped in, and in fact it can be a real pleasure. See ya, ugly stupid animated character I hate!”
Now that is an attitude to be imitated.
Does this smell blog-blasty? You’re right! It’s in support of the Pull-Ups Potty Project–which truly is cute. Worth a click if you’re in the throes.
by mayberry on December 9, 2008
Ever wonder how the tradition of trick-or-treating got started? Author/illustrator team Lisa and Tucker Johnson have a sweet suggestion. In their book All Hallows Eve: The Story of the Halloween Fairy, they imagine a cute little fairy named Eve who loves candy, but can’t seem to produce any for herself with her magic wand.
I reviewed this book, plus two follow-ups covering the winter holidays (Christmas Eve: The Joy of Giving and Winter’s Eve: Love and Lights), thanks to the Parent Bloggers Network. Head on over to The Full Mommy for the full review.
by mayberry on November 14, 2008
Except for my mom, the rest of the grandparents (my dad, mother-in-law, grandmother-in-law, and oh god, mother-in-law’s gentleman friend) are very very very hard to shop for. I mean, I adore Great-Grandma Nonnie but she just turned 90 and pretty much never leaves the house. The same house she’s lived in for about 65 years.
Of course, we turn to the kid-crafted gift whenever we possibly can. Framed photos, paint-your-own-pottery–the classics. A couple of years ago my dad wanted a bathrobe. (Another staple on his wish list is always “seamless socks.” Thrilling!) I found one that met his specifications (he had several) but it was still such a boring present. So I thought the kids could doctor it up with little handprints on the pockets. Can you picture it, like I did, kind of subtle and oh-so-cute? Right! And can you also imagine how ugly the finished product was? So ugly I pitched it into the dress-up bin and started over with a brand-new robe.
It was such an obvious demonstration of how Not Crafty I am. The paint I bought was wrong, or my technique sucked, or something; anyway instead of cute kiddie handprints, we just had big blobs of paint. It looked like a dropcloth instead of a bathrobe. Fail! This is also what happens every time I try to follow a recipe for something that is supposed to be attractive-looking. The end result never looks like what it does in the instructions. NEV-ER.
Bathrobe 2.0 was slightly more successful. I traced the kids’ hands onto felt, cut them out and glued them on to the pockets of the new robe. They probably fell off the first time it went into the laundry but my dad has graciously refrained from telling me that.
This year, he’s getting plain seamless socks.
This crafty confession brought to you by Parent Bloggers Network and Klutz, publishers of very fun craft books and kits for kids. Fun because kids can play with them all by themselves. Seriously, I love them and not just because I used to work for Klutz’s parent company or because they are sponsoring a blog blast with darn good prizes. See for yourself.
by mayberry on September 23, 2008
I know it’s been all blasty, prompty, memey around here lately but I have to do this Mix ‘n’ Match, Pop ‘n’ Swap (warning, links to headless dolls! But they do seem to be a good solution to the typical Polly Pocket Problem) one too (via Parent Bloggers Network):
Because that picture just needs to be shared.
It’s hard to get a good look at the socks but they’re red with a yellow windowpane pattern and navy trim. Of course.
My kids pick out their own clothes every day and I pretty much never make them change. I won’t let them wear jeans to church or swimsuits to the grocery store, but I will let them wear whatever wackjob color/pattern combinations they come up with. I will let them wear pajamas under (sometimes over) their clothes if that’s what gets them out of the door smiling. I will let my toddler boy wear a tutu with his tool-emblazoned long johns.
Choose your battles, mamas. Choose your battles.
by mayberry on September 22, 2008
by mayberry on September 8, 2008
1. My review of mom-blog-thology Sleep Is for the Weak is up today at The Full Mommy.
2. Speaking of sleep, my son is trying to kill me. No matter what we try, it takes an hour to put him to bed. An hour of hands-on shushing, corraling, returning-to-bed time. It just seems to take him that hour to wind down enough to fall asleep. Short of drugs (which believe me I have contemplated), what else can we do?
by mayberry on August 26, 2008
It’s a little eerie how these PBN products have dropped into my life so serendipitously this summer. First we had the Hanes underwear so perfect for a tender little waistline, and now we have Yoplait yogurt: another must-have for a post-infection, antibiotic-crammed little gut. We needed to rebuild the healthy bacteria in our 6-year-old’s body, and yogurt is the perfect choice. The only problem: Too much sugar, and we’d undo all the goodness of yogurt (hello, digestive unpleasantness).
Review (and giveaway!) over at The Full Mommy today.
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And! I’m guest-posting over at Mrs. Chicken’s. Click over if you want to hear about my idyllic childhood. Thanks to my lovely hostess!
by mayberry on August 16, 2008
And when I say dating myself: I mean in the “omg how old am I” sense, not the “dinner and a movie” sense.
Moving on. Waaaaay back in the day, when I still used floppy disks and a cassette-tape answering machine, I used to go to Kate Spade sample sales. This must have been in about 1993 or 1994, because the Kate Spade brand was just taking off. It was only bags, not all this other stuff they sell now. (And with each successive sale I went to over the course of a couple of years, the crowds got crazier and the prices got higher.)
Anyway, that first sale was the best one ever. I walked out with 7 or 8 bags (some for me, some bought on behalf of friends, some for gifts) and I don’t think I even spent $100. I got at least three of the classic, short-handled, rectangular purses–a black nylon, a brown suede, and a cotton plaid. I got a small, drawstring evening bag. I got a larger black bag with longer handles. I could have died happy that night.
These days, I am a lousy bargain shopper. I am all about convenience and I am usually happy to pay for it. I wish I could be a good thrifter like these amazing women. Instead, I keep my old, out-of-style Kate Spades in my closet, remembering the thrill of that first sample sale and waiting for those boxy shapes to come back into fashion.
Thanks, PBN, for inspring me to take this little walk down memory lane!
by mayberry on August 2, 2008
When I saw the Learning Cents bank on Cool Mom Picks, I wanted it for my daughter immediately. The bank has three compartments, so kids can earmark their money for spending, saving, or giving (tzedakah in Hebrew). And at only $20, I thought it was a very good use of my own spending money.
Now, on those rare occasions when we remember to give Jo an allowance–and on the much more frequent occasions when she receives a gift of money–she cheerfully deposits it into all three parts of her bank. It’s such a simple, clear way to show her that we need to prioritize saving and giving just as highly as spending.
(Opie gets an E for effort for his suggestion, during a recent discussion about giving away gently used toys: “I don’t really like my piggy bank anymore. We can give that to children who don’t have one.”)
Typically Jo uses her giveaway stash for the fundraisers that she participates in at school and child care (and we match whatever she contributes). But after her recent hospital stay(s), I’m going to suggest that we make a donation to one of the charities that helped her, or a similar one that benefits sick kids. On her first night at our local children’s hospital, her bed was made up with a quilt from Project Linus and a teddy bear from the Starlight Children’s Foundation. These small touches really helped an institutional room feel more friendly, and she snuggled up with that quilt every single night.
You know I had to participate in this Blog Blast from Parent Bloggers Network: It benefits Generation Cures, an online community for tweens designed to teach them about altruism and about medicine and science. The site was created by Children’s Hospital Boston.
by mayberry on July 29, 2008
ITEM 1: Going home today–maybe, probably, we hope so? Fingers crossed.
ITEM 2: This hospital has been awesome. The next time I get a Zagat survey for children’s hospitals I will give it consistently high marks. The only missing from our room is a reading light, for those (admittedly rare) nights when the kid fell asleep before the parents.
ITEM 3: Suggestion for basement inventors: Please figure out a way to make easily removable adhesive tape for medical use. Oh the screaming.
ITEM 4: When I agreed to try out (well, have Jo try out) Hanes’ No Ride Up underwear for the Parent Bloggers Network, I had no idea that we’d be subjecting the “Comfort Fit Promise”–a money-back guarantee!–to such a rigorous test.
Check The Full Mommy to find out how the Hanes undies fared against a sore post-op tummy (and two ways to get freebies for yourself).
