It's the most wonderful time of the year!

October & November have pretty much completely come & gone at this point...I had no idea how crazy things were going to get after my last blog entry. My former job was experiencing a very high amount of turnover and I kept hearing about other opportunities that may be out there, so out of curiosity one night I found a part-time opening at a local hospital.  I applied online really thinking that nothing would ever come of it...because honestly, the employers who are willing to deal with my scheduling needs at this point are probably very few and far between (hence the reason I had stayed at my old job). But anyway, a week or two went by, I had pretty much forgotten about the whole thing and then I got a phone call saying they wanted to interview me.  This was 2 days before we left for 2 weeks of vacation in the lower 48. I was shocked and again thinking nothing would come of it since I couldn't see anyone agreeing to my schedule. I went to the interview the same day we flew to Chicago.  Let's just say it was an extremely hectic day. I laid out to them what I could do and left thinking, "this is my dream job and it's never going to happen". This hospital has a decent pediatric unit, small NICU, and a 3 bed PICU.  So we went on vacation- and had a great time getting to visit our parents & families - and then I came back and still had not heard anything from the hospital. I emailed in a few days later to see how things were going and later found out they were offering me the position.  By now it's early November.  I put in my notice and 2 weeks later I was sitting in orientation.  So far I am loving it though the learning curve is steep and I'm having to relearn and recall things I had stored away in the file cabinet of pharmacy school.  It's a great opportunity to keep my mind fresh in hospital pharmacy and especially peds and I really felt like God handed me this on a silver platter (and trust me a lot of prayers have happened over the last year in this regard). My hours are basically whatever I want to work and are flexible around Derek's schedule.  I'm back working primarily in peds.  Seriously. Dream come true.

So that's been the majority of the last 2 months.

Skylar has been growing by leaps & bounds as far as speech, independent play, and expression. She is starting to speak in 2 and 3 word sentences, can count, knows colors, and recognizes written letters A, B, and C. We introduced her to Christmas when we put up our decorations this year and have read a story about the birth of Jesus every night before bed and have been singing songs about Santa (she says "Anta" and "ho ho ho").  She also knows some of the main words to "Up on the Housetop" and can help you sing it.  She is also doing hilarious things like blowing bubbles in her cup, laughing when she passes gas (she says she has "bubbles" in her tummy), and playing ring around the rosie.  Summary: Fun age!

We recently booked our January vacation to Hawaii when we know we will be more than ready for warmth and sunshine for a week!! We already have nearly 3 feet of snow on the ground and November is not even over...we have been lucky to see temps above 10 degrees the last few weeks (though the notoriously horrible weather forecast is predicting us to be up the 20's this week- hooray!!).  Hopefully soon we'll get some time to hit the ski slopes.  Skylar will be too young this year to be on the mountain, but we have her out in our yard practicing for next year.

And a small update on potty training:
We have been what I would call "fully involved" in potty training since mid- September. Skylar wears a diaper at bedtime and that is it- the rest of the time is undies (or undies with a pullup over the top if she's in an outfit that I don't want to change or we'll be in the car for a long ride or whatever).  Most days are either accident free or have 1 accident that happens because she waited too long to tell you she needed to go (too busy playing or distracted). The potty watch we got as a part of the Potty Time DVD (from the people who make Signing Time) has been a fun addition since it reminds her that she needs to go (esp. helpful when she's busy playing or we're in an unfamiliar environment like out shopping, at a friends' house, etc).  I'm not sure when I'll attempt night time training, but it probably will not be until after her birthday in February, which is probably also when we'll convert the crib to a toddler bed.

That is all for now - hopefully my next update will not be 2 months from now!!

What a difference a weekend makes...

Last time I wrote a blog entry, I was struggling with myself on the decision to start potty training Skylar and was super frustrated with how well she was doing at home vs. the multiple accidents a day at school.  It even got to the point where she was refusing to sit on the toilet at school last Thursday. I was oh so close to throwing in the towel for the time being.  I was actually fully anticipating her to continue to refuse to use the toilet at school and had it set in my mind that we would go back to diapers if she wasn't making huge strides this week.

Of course, just when I'm ready to throw in the towel, she throws me a curve ball. I spent most of our 3 days home together trying to get her to use unfamiliar toilets (like in public) vs using the baby potty chair.  Yes, I even bribed her with multiple m&m's just to get her to sit on the toilet on Friday.  By the end of the day Friday it was as if she never had an issue.  What is with this Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde phenomenon of toddlerhood??!! At any rate, she had an amazing potty weekend and I still had a fear that come Monday AM, she was going to fight it at school again.  When I went in to pick her up on Monday I expected to find the usual grocery bag loaded down with soiled laundry, but instead I got a backpack full of clean clothes and a note saying she was eager to use the potty and her teachers were beaming saying how awesome she had done all day with TELLING THEM she needed to go - who is this child?? haha.  Not one to get my hopes up, I didn't expect her to hold on to that theme for another day, but then again today I show up to no dirty laundry, proud teachers, and a giggling little girl...

I guess this was her way of reminding me that there are bumps and potholes in every road and though it would have been easier to give up, I knew that she was ready and that she could do it - I'll stay hopeful she continues to be successful and I'll know that when there are setbacks (and I know there will be setbacks), just to keep pushing on.

And next time I'll try not to write about going to the bathroom :)

Adventures in Potty Training

Our adventures in potty training actually started accidentally right around when Skylar turned 1. She kept pooping in the tub EVERY night, so I bought a little potty and every time she strained to go in the tub, I would take her out and put her on the potty. While it was just a convenience at the time (who likes cleaning poop out of their tub EVERY night??) - it slowly evolved into her going in the potty BEFORE she got in the tub. I started doing some reading and asking around about potty training when she was about 15 or 16 months.  I knew our daycare wasn't set up to do potty training before she was moved to the toddler floor (18 months+) and I knew that kids have very little bladder control prior to 18 months anyway. So we just kept at it, encouraging her to go on the potty every night before bath and rewarding her only with praise when she was successful.

After she turned 18 months and made the transition at daycare to the toddler floor, I read through all the information and policies the daycare had on potty training. They require the child to initiate the process, a parent-teacher conference, no pull ups, and a pre-potty training checklist to determine readiness. Skylar had all but 2 of the items on the readiness checklist marked off (the 2 she didn't have were that she doesn't ask to wear underwear and that she can't independently undress herself). On days when I am home with her (4 out of 7), I was asking her to go to the potty every 20-30 minutes for about 2 weeks.  It seemed like she really had the whole thing under control and was having zero or 1 accident on most days. The 3 day weekend before I asked the daycare to start the process, I had her in underwear with no diapers and things went well.  I was really hopeful the successes would continue in a different setting.

That bathroom setup at her daycare is 2 miniature toilets hooked up to the plumbing.  At home we have 1 bathroom with a seat on the adult toilet and the other with your standard plastic kid potty. She probably uses them just about equally, some days preferring one over the other. She has struggled with expressing her need to "go" - often times just grunting instead of saying the words "pee pee" or "potty" - so in order to encourage her to use the words (because really, in a room with 12 kids, her teachers aren't going to be able to hear her grunting that she needs to go like I do when it's just her and I),  I started rewarding her with 1 m&m every time she would use the words to get my attention instead of grunting. She has really improved over the last few weeks with this and forward progress is good, right?

Over the last 2 weeks she's been having anywhere from 1-3 accidents on the days she's at school. She has yet to have an accident-free day. At home she has 0-1 accidents per day.  Again, I attribute this to the fact that the teachers have 11 other kids to attend to and she's not exactly consistent about letting you know she needs to go.  Well, today she started to throw me a curveball. Her teachers told me she is flat out REFUSING to sit on the toilet.  As stubborn as she is sometimes, I took their word for it.  I even stopped in the bathroom on our way out the door to try to get her to go and she reproduced the refusal behavior for me  to see.  Very strange. I asked her if she wanted to go in the small potty I keep in my car before we drove home and she said yes...but she didn't go. So into the car seat she went and home we drove. When we got to the house I told her she needed to go, put her on the potty seat, and she sat and did her business with no problem. She went on her potty at least 5 times between when we got home and when she went to bed.  I'm hoping this day of being out of sorts at school is just a fluke because all I am seeing at home is success 90% of the time...talk about frustrating.

This whole potty training thing reminds me of when you introduce solid foods to your infant - it adds a whole different dimension to the way you go about your day and it's certainly more complex than just nursing or making a bottle when the baby is hungry! The days of putting a diaper on and forgetting about it until it stinks or the kid complains are over...packing 5 sets of clothes, going back and forth to the potty 50 times when they tell you they need to go, but really don't need to, and washing lots and lots of laundry are in! Everyone I've talked to has said it has taken a solid 2 months or more to really "have it down" - so here we are about 2 weeks in and I am worn out!

I've always wanted a blog...

So, I've never had a blog before.  I've seen lots of friends' blogs, I've helped friends make their blogs, and still I haven't bothered to cross the threshold to my own until now. I've really enjoyed reading some blogs lately and feel like I need an outlet for a lot of what goes through my brain.  I think I'll blog about my passions: being a mother, finding good shopping deals, car seat safety, and pharmacy/drug related issues.  Yeah, that's a bit all over the map isn't it...well we'll just see where this goes and if I can actually stick to it or not! Happy reading!