Potty Games

I have a feeling that a lot of coming posts are going to be about potty training. If you don’t have children you should read these anyway because when you do have kids you’ll need the reference. For if that foolish lady can do it, you can to.

One obvious hurdle we are going to have with potty training is dealing with Kaitlyn. She wants to be a part of everything Teagan does. Every time we go to the potty Kaitlyn flips out that she cannot sit on it too. I don’t mind too much because her jealousy of Teagan’s special attention gets me extra Kai-Bear hugs throughout the day and they’re just fantastic.

I’m not one to incite moments that can be easily diffused. So I let Kaitlyn sit on the potty. She will just sit and hum or talk in her gibberish. Teagan does not like it but at the same time Teagan will not be as melodramatic as Kaitlyn would if I denied her.

Something has happened that has made me confident that letting her sit there is a good idea.

Bath time can be ruined very quickly by a poopy. We can all agree with this yes? Yes. And Kaitlyn is 99.9% of the time the culprit. Lately she has taken to getting out of the tub to do the pooping so at least the tub is not tainted, just the bathroom floor.

I see the little bear climb out of the tub. Sneak over to the little potty and sit down. She sits for a bit and gabs then gets up and walks back to the tub. I immediately come over and see that she has pooped in the potty. My 18 month old has pooped in the potty. I gave her a high five, congratulated her and did a little dance. Even Teagan said “Good job.”

I might have to go get another ten dollar potty and train both bears at the same time. Below is Kaitlyn "playing." I'm sure she will hate me or have to go to therapy from me posting this picture but it's too damn cute not to.

Life is Learning

I post this for the Hubby as he has now found a new random shout-out word.

“Turd!”

This is what Teagan yells as she runs into the kitchen, naked, as she had up to that time been in the tub.

Me “Did she just say turd?”

Hubby “She doesn’t know what a turd is.”

I grab the cleaner just in case and head to the bathroom. Just as I see Kaitlyn’s naked butt run out of their bedroom and back into the bathroom.

On suspicion I check their room first. Sure enough my little angel (Kaitlyn) has crawled under her bed and pooped. Why under her bed? I don’t know I am just thankful she hasn’t been more creative with it as some kids can be.

“1, 2, 3.” Did I tell you Teagan can count? I don’t think this was the best time for her to show off her math skills but life is a learning environment.

Camping With Bears - Post 2

This was not the first camping trip for the bears. It was, however, the first camping trip where both were mobile.

The main rule when taking children of any age camping is you have to be resolved to the fact that they are going to get dirty. Very dirty. Within minutes of arrival Kaitlyn was covered in mud, eating rocks and trying to wander away from camp. Luckily it stopped raining and I didn't have to deal with mud the entire time but the first night's clothes are ruined. When either Kaitlyn or Teagan felt that their hands were too dirty they just wiped it on their shirts. A habit that has to be broken.

Camps do not have bathtubs. You are lucky if they have nice showers that do not cost money to use. Our camp did have nice free showers but that point was lost on the bears. They HATE showers. Now I tried to prepare them for this for a couple of weeks before we went. At home it was okay because they still had the bathtub to be in while the water came down. Not so much love at the camp shower. We used the handicap stall because it had a pull down bench which I sat them on as I scrubbed them down. Both girls screamed, not cried, not whimpered, screamed the entire time the shower was on. As they were being dried off. And basically until I opened the main door to leave the restrooms. The next night it was seriously considered to just let them be dirty. Unfortunately I wouldn't have been able to live with it so I decided to use our dish tub. Daddy boiled some water and added it to lukewarm water in the tub. Kaitlyn was first and complained a little to the sponge bath but sucked it up rather well. Teagan even stood by the sidelines and tried to help scrub her down. When I put Teagan in she just plopped her butt down and assumed it was her little bath. Certainly not an ideal way to get them clean but neither is being partially deaf because of their caterwauling.

I've never had a campfire around the bears as I felt they were not old enough to give it respect. They now understand "no" and listen to it as well as a 1 and 2 year old will, so we made a campfire. They stayed away because of the smoke even more than me telling them to be careful.

You know having a campfire means you have to have s'mores. Teagan and Kaitlyn were completely under foot as soon as the chocolate bars came out. "Chalkit? Chalkit?" over and over. Hubby toasted the marshmallows to a golden brown, took out the graham crackers and put down the chocolate to make little s'mores for the bears. They didn't even get a full bite into them before they spit it out. Not marshmallow lovers. So I took out the chocolate and left it at that.

Overall the girls were extremely well behaved and listened to us. I gave them more freedom to roam and play than usual so it was a give and take adventure that I think they understood as well. But we ran them everywhere. Up mountains, into gorges and down rivers. But that’s tomorrows post.

The special moments I’ll remember the most are morning bottles in their director chairs, the girl’s first watermelon slices with rinds, huddling in one bed to watch Monsters, Inc. on a laptop and witnessing the exploring spirit budding in each of my little bears.