Summer Reads

I haven't posted my books I've been reading this summer, so I thought I'd take a quick minute and fill you in on the books I've read the last month or so...

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Loved this book! It's a serious book about a woman diagnosed with early onset alzheimers. It's amazing. And really makes you consider life worth living.

Widow's War by Sally Gunning

I was in need of a book and just randomly picked this up at the library. It was a good read, I liked it, if you only read 1 book a year I wouldn't recommend this one but if you can't find anything to read it was good. It's a good historical fiction.

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale.

This book was way fun and a quick read. It was the book for my book group. It's juvenille fiction but I still liked it.

The Goose Girl also by Shannon Hale.

Since I liked Book of a Thousand Days I decided to pick up more books by Shannon Hale and I loved this one. I thought it was better then the Book of a Thousand Days. This book is just good fun fiction. You completely become lost in this land of royalty, I really loved it. I love a good book that takes you to far away places every now and then:)

How To... Potty train in 1 day!

So I told a couple people I would post my potty training in a day schedule. If you don't have a toddler in need of potty training then I would probably skip reading this post! But I am very proud to say my 3 year old is finally potty trained! Wahoo! Life is good:)

Step1: Pick a day
If you have other children this should be a day when the other children can go with daddy or grandma for the day. ( I didnt have this option so I just did it with Lukey and it was stressful but it still worked)

Step2: Buy 15 or so 1$ "prizes" from the grocery store or dollar store and put them in a box of some sort. ( I cut off the top of a used diaper box and put a sign on it that said "Isaac's Potty Prizes" )

Step3: Buy juice boxes or capri sun's or some kind of liquid they can drink through the whole day.

Step4: Buy underwear (multiple pairs! We went through 9 pairs the first day!) and it recommends a small potty ( I used a potty seat for the toilet and it worked fine, but I've heard a little potty works better? So it's up to you I suppose)

Ok here's what we did...
-Woke up, put on underwear! Wahoo we're going on the potty today!
- The key is Dont Ask Dont Tell! They have to tell you on their own!
-First Accident
you say:
Uh-Oh did you feel pee coming? Ok when we feel pee coming you (now do these steps and say them while you do them)
1. Stand up 2. RUN to the potty 3. Pull down your pants 4. Sit on the potty 5. Pull up your pants. Yay good job!
Then you repeat this 5 times!! Yes 5 times. and you DONT change their wet pants. So you go back to where you were playing when they had their accident. and you Say Ok when you feel pee coming you REPEAT 1-5 ! Yay so fun!!
-After 5 times you say Ok good job lets go look at your prizes. You pull down their prize box and say "which prize do you want right now?" and let them point or tell you and then you say "well too bad you didnt pee in the potty, maybe next time!" and you put the prize box back up. Then they get to put on clean underwear and pants, and emphasize how good the clean underwear feels!

-Repeat this HAPPILY (yes HAPPILY even after they've peed in their pants 9 times!) all day long:) and when they have a bowel movement you do the same thing! It's really terrible but we only had to do that once and it was enough for him! ( with the BM you clean out most of the poop and clean them up a little bit but not all the way trust me it's important! and then after the 5 times they can get in the bath and get clean clothes).

So that's it ONE TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, STRESSFUL Day but then it's over. Isaac was still peeing his pants right before bed and I was quite discouraged and quite sick of the steps by the end of the day, but the next morning he woke up, peed his pants one time in the morning and hasn't had an accident since! Wahoo!!

Apparently this is from a book, I dont know what it's called maybe Potty training in 1 day? haha that sounds sarcastic but I seriously don't know what it's called. My pediatrician gave me this advice and I loved it and I wanted to share. Because if any of you are like me I was pretty lost at what to do besides stay at home for a week or 2 and get him to go on the potty. Which I am NOT good at staying home for that long so that wasn't a good option for me and I loved this! Just one bad day and then all is well:) Let me know if you have questions and good luck!

Busy Days

Lots has happened the last month and a half as I've been avoiding my blog. Not for any particular reason, just haven't really felt like blogging. Well I mentioned Luke turned one and we had a fun little party for him. He's such a doll, I just love my little blondie:)

Then we had the wonderful opportunity to go to the Oregon Coast with the Soffe Fam. We had a great time playing at the cold beaches, and seeing the Redwoods:) I have so many memories of Oregon as a kid it was so fun to take my kids and Brock and let them see everything!

Isaac at whaleshead beach. He was in heaven:)

Luke had a great time too, I spent most of the time trying to make him stop eating the sand. As you can see I wasn't always successful:)

Our little family at the Tree's of Mystery. I love the redwoods and I really loved being there with Brock.

Then this little monster turned 3! and we had his cousins over for a fun little water party! I love this picture:)

He loved his slip in slide, this is a nice action shot...Then on his actual birthday we took him to the zoo! Then went and got some yummy dinner at Ruth's diner. Look at those silly brothers!

We also celebrated the 4th with the Murray Parade, a BBQ and lots of fireworks. And I went to girls camp which was great fun! and basically the rest of the summer is planned out a week at Park City, a week in California, 2 BFF's getting married... so much to do and I love it all! Hope everyone is having a fun safe summer:)