I'm So Proud?

Malia came up to me earlier to day and declared, "I found a yellow tardis!"

Apparently she really is an itsby bitsy Whovian.

Positive Peer Pressure

Peer pressure parenting may not be a good thing for us, but it appears that party time potty training is. We spent a good portion of the day at my parents' house so Malia could play with Kate, her cousin who is 2 1/2 months older than she is. Both girls were completely dry the whole time we were there and I don't know about Kate, but Malia was dry the entire rest of the day as well.

I told my sister Rachael that I might need to borrow Kate for a couple of weeks. :-)

The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave

Sometimes I think we take for granted the fact that we live in a country that is built on the concept of freedom. I know that I do. But sometimes, like today, I found myself pondering on those freedoms and being enormously grateful for the blessings I have as a citizen of this great country. Sure, we have our problems, but overall we have it pretty good.  It is reassuring to know that I can live where ever I want, do whatever kind of a work I desire, worship in the way that feels best for me, express my opinions without fear of punishment, the list could go on and on.

I’m not sure how it is in other parts of the valley, but from where we live we can look out and see fireworks exploding across the entire valley. There are so many people shooting off fireworks in our neighborhood that it literally sounds like a war zone. As we sat outside this evening listening to the cacophony, it brought to mind the fact that the freedoms we have were gained because there were many willing to give up everything for the concept of freedom. All those, past and present, who are willing to serve in the armed forces have my respect, my admiration and my gratitude. May we all take a moment to honor them and to give thanks for all that we have.

So here is a glimpse of how we celebrated this year:

My mom and my sisters and I got patriotic pedicures.

Our favorite 4th of July beverage

Stompin' Poppers

Synchronized Popper Pelting

Sparklers for Beginners

Omega Bright Neon Sparklers for Big Boys

Nathan AKA: The Evil Wizard

Seriously, these sparklers were bright!

Spinning Sparklers Make Fun Pictures

Playing with Ice Cubes After a Couple People Burn Themselves

Here Comes the Parade!

Like many high schools, our high school has a marching band. And they are great and invite all the middle schoolers to participate. Most of them don't but it is an option if they are interested. Daniel has loved band so much that he was super excited to participate in summer band. He rehearsed  four days a week during the month of June and marched in numerous parades over the past month. His last parade was this morning. He has enjoyed it so much that he’s already planning for next summer. I’m thrilled that he is finding his happy place. And making connections with other musicians. And getting to know the high school band teacher. And generally loving the whole music thing. :-) 

Itsy Bitsy Whovian

For those of you who are not familiar with Doctor Who, this video won’t mean much. For those of you who are, listen closely:

Yup. That’s my not quite 3 year old singing the Doctor Who theme song. When Matthew was this age, he was singing “Popcorn Popping” and “Once There Was a Snowman.” I’m not saying that Malia doesn’t sing those songs, because she does. But she also sings “Star Wars Cantina” and “Bad/Fat.” (think Michael Jackson/Weird Al Yankovic) This is further confirmation that living with three older brothers has some pretty interesting repercussions. 

I think it’s kind of  hilarious and if nothing else, when she’s a teenager she’ll know how to talk to boys…

Peer Pressure Parenting

Today was the first day of serious potty training. Malia started showing readiness earlier this year, but I was so mired in daily migraines that I just couldn't give potty training the time I knew it would take. So now that the headaches on definitely improving and preschool starts in two months, today was the day to get serious.

I'm not a huge fan of potty training. I'm not sure that anyone is, but having a couple of kids who were enormously tough to train has really made it unpleasant for me. Which means I've been pretty stressed about the whole thing. I don't want any repeat performances of the power struggles and drama that accompanied the training of some of my boys. I've had tons of other moms tell me that the "naked weekend" approach is super and works like a charm. All the mommy bloggers I've come across rave about it and go on and on about how pull-ups are the epitome of evil. So I figured I'd give it a try.

This morning we got Malia all dressed and into her brand new big girl panties. She is seriously excited about the panties (Anna, Elsa, princesses, and even Olaf!) so this was a big deal. We set a timer and headed to the bathroom about half a dozen times with no results. So we sat her down, fed her breakfast (lots of juice included) and I figured we were on our way. I was prepared for lots of accidents so the first one was no surprise to me. But Malia was a bit upset and once we cleaned everything up, she asked to have plastic pants on top of her panties. That should have been my first hint that things were not going to go well...

We reset the timer, but Malia did not even make it ten minutes before she was wet again. And she continued to wet herself every 5-10 minutes.I know that she can stay dry longer than that, so I was a bit concerned about how things were progressing. One hour and six pairs of panties later, she asked for a pull-up and I was happy to oblige. My normally happy and chatty 2 year old was totally stressed out and anxious. When I get totally stressed out and anxious, one of the results is that I have to pee every five minutes. And I suspected that I was seeing the same thing in Malia.

Once she was in the pull-up, we reset the timer and 15 minutes later Malia was back in the bathroom, still dry, and peed in the potty. Forty-five minutes later, we had a repeat performance. And Malia was smiling and laughing again.

After we switched tactics, Malia did better. She was dry more often and her mood was greatly improved. We have a long way to go seeing as this was only the first day, but she’ll get there when she gets there. And hopefully that will be in time for preschool.

I'm sure that potty boot camp works for some kids and moms, but that is clearly not going to work for us. Sometimes slow and steady really does win the prize. It may take us a little longer to say Malia is actually trained, but I have no problem with that as long as my child is happy and her bladder is not doing a splendid imitation of a nervous chihuahua.

Celebrity Sighting

Kevin has been at his job for nearly a year now and we have discovered that there are some perks to working for Adobe. One of the many is the occasional family movie nights they host. They blow up a big inflatable screen and play a movie outside. They provide treats and it is just a fun time. Last night was one of those movie nights and somehow they got permission to play “Frozen.” Don’t ask me how. Last year they tried to get permission to show “The Incredibles” and were turned down. Anyway, Kevin took all the kids to see the movie and I stayed home to get some peace and quiet and to baby a migraine. Daniel was inclined to stay home as well seeing as he is 13 year old boy and not a 3 year old girl and therefore not completely in love with “Frozen,” but Kev made him go so I could have a little me time.

They did not actually end up seeing the movie because it was so windy they couldn’t set up the screen, but the night was not a total bust because Malia got to me a couple of very special people:

When they got home she told me, “Elsa hugged me!”

Sing, Sing, Sing

Nathan is our music lover. For the past two years he has been lucky enough to be able to participate in his elementary school choir. Several of the teachers volunteer their time to run the choir and another retired teacher comes back to play the piano. This year in addition to performing for the school and for the parents, the choir got to sing for the residents of a local retirement home which was pretty exciting for Nathan.

Tonight was the performance for the parents and one of the teachers made a point to come talk to me to let me know how much she had appreciated Nathan’s involvement. He didn’t miss any practices or performances even though he was off-track for half of the rehearsal time and all of the performances. His attitude was great and he was super excited about the whole thing. So here is a little taste of the concert, featuring Nathan in the spotlight: