Tee-pees

Because I have girls, I have not encountered this personally, but feel that it might resonate with some of my friends (and my 2 readers out there). Apparently with boys, right from the beginning, there is danger when changing those diapers. If not timed exactly right, the moment the diaper comes off, a firehose erupts and gets EVERYWHERE.

     Now girls are known to pee on the changing table, too. And perhaps the frequency isn't any different between boys and girls. The biggest difference is probably the fact that with girls they flood the table and whatever they are wearing, but the person changing the diaper is relatively safe from getting wet. Not with boys. Boys have aim (or lack thereof), and so the stream will get everyone nearby, just like an unattended garden hose. 

     I have heard that the reason babies almost always pee when the diaper comes off is due to the rush of air. When that warm, wet diaper gets replaced with a cool rush of air, it automatically triggers them to pee. Not sure why, just that it does. So that would suggest there is very little you can do about preventing these episodes; the only thing to do is be prepared on how to handle them.

     And my favorite solution on how to handle these is the pee-pee tee-pee. It's a tiny little cloth cone (shaped like a tee-pee) that you hold in one hand while you remove the diaper. As soon as the diaper exposes the little boy parts, you drop the tee-pee on him and voila! The tee-pee will soak up anything coming out and protect everyone around. I have to assume they are machine washable, of course. Here are some you can check out from UnCommon Goods, although several online retailers sell them these days.

     I don't know if they truly are as effective as it sounds in theory. I'd love to hear from someone who has used them and whether they are realistic, but they are cute. Especially when they have them around the holidays and they're red with a little white ball on top, so they resemble Santa hats. If you have tried them, please comment below and tell me if they work. 

Please stand up

I have girls. And as we all know, girls don't stand up while using the potty. However, this is not something that they accept "just because." As soon as a little girl who is potty training learns that boys get to stand up, they want to try it. And boy is it a mess!

     Although frankly, it can be a mess even without standing up. I always thought that with girls there was never an issue about aim, and therefore it wasn't something I needed to think about. I was wrong. I have learned through countless wet pants and panties that girls need to practice aim as well. Who knew?

     Yes, even while sitting on the toilet, it is possible to miss the toilet bowl. So we have practiced lifting our knees and sitting up straight so we don't accidentally get our pants all wet even when we've made it to the potty on time. Thankfully it happens rarely anymore.

     And for those with boys, good luck! I haven't had to learn what to do yet, so I welcome any comments or suggestions to share.

The tinkle fairy

Well, we haven't made much headway in the potty training lately, but there has been one development. My toddler has started asking to go without a diaper overnight. Not every night, but at least a couple of times a week she asks to wear panties instead of a diaper. 

     Depending on our energy level, we usually protest and she stays in a diaper overnight. However, on occasion we have given in and let her go to bed without. And the couple times we've let this happen, we wake up to a wet bed. Interestingly, she seems to only wet the bed right before waking up in the morning, so it hasn't been a catastrophe. Plus, I have tried to be smart and either double make the bed (see my double it up blog post for details) or when sheets are in short supply I at least put an extra waterproof sheet and a towel down under her. That way a midnight sheet change is a quick effort.

     The fact that she's asking for this her self (vs us encouraging her), and that she doesn't appear to wet the bed throughout the night, makes me wonder if she really isn't ready. Maybe. Perhaps she'll master the nighttime tinkle fairy before she masters the rest of it. Wouldn't that be a kick?

     Who knows... life seems to be funny that way - it's never straight forward and never ever the way you think things ought to happen. Oh well, that's part of the adventure, right?

Walking wiggler

All kids go through it eventually. It's the dreaded diaper fight phase. For my toddler, she fought diaper changes from about 9 months to 18 months (at which point we started trying to potty train, mostly unsuccessfully). I'm just holding my breath hoping my baby doesn't start too soon.

     She already kinda is, but not too vigorously. She squirms a bit when we lay her down on the changing tab

le, but mostly because she has so much to explore that she does NOT want to be put in a prostrate position for any length of time. Even for a quick refresh of the soggy diaper, which I would assume is a pleasant thing to have changed. 

     Perhaps some of her disinterest in diaper changes is due to the fact that she has now discovered how to walk. Yes, folks. My 10 month old has taken those first steps and now is overjoyed at her now found talent. She gets so extraordinarily excited when she takes 2 or 3 steps and lunges at the side of the couch. We get a victory dance each and every time.

     And we cheer like it's the Super Bowl. Because really, how can you not cheer for someone so cute and so incredibly proud? It's exciting even if it means my chasing skills are going to need some sharpening and the diaper gymnastics are going to step up to a new level of difficulty. It's all worth it to see her gigantic smile and watch her victory dance.

Snow suit fun

We got snow a few weeks ago. It was awesome! We were so excited, we even went out after dinner one night to go sledding in the dark, just in case something changed and the snow was gone by morning. Thankfully it wasn't.

     Of course, this experience with snow gave us the reality check that we are very ill prepared for snow. Just like the rest of the South that was crippled with a couple of inches of white stuff, we had very little of the necessary items to handle going out in the snow.  We have 3 full sized surfboards taking up space in our garage, but when it comes to gloves or snow boots, we are significantly lacking. Nothing waterproof for long exposure to wet snow.

     Yet we have wonderful neighbors. And those wonderful neighbors are from up north where they get snow often. So shortly after breakfast, they came by bearing snow suits for both girls. Amazing! And I have to say that the pink snowsuit looks absolutely adorable when it completely enveloped her.

     And she loved the snow. She didn't even seem to care when her little fingers turned red and cold (don't worry, we cared), she just wanted to keep playing. So cute!

     I will say though, that changing a diaper when a baby is wearing a snowsuit is not an easy task. You pretty much have to take the suit completely off of them in order to access the diaper. I guess it's a good thing they don't make snow suits like that for older potty-training children or they might not make it to the bathroom in time.

Great Job, Mommy!

I don't know how many people remember doing this, but if you are a parent, I'm assuming that you at one time or another cheered as your child used the potty. It's pretty much a given. There was a while there where we cheered for our toddler every time she used the potty instead of her diaper, and sometimes she even got a treat.

     Yes, we were those parents. We offered pieces of chocolate coins, chocolate covered pomegranates, candy corns, pretty much whatever small sized sweet we had on hand. And she got a sweet and a big cheer from both of us every time she even so much as tinkled into the toilet. And all of that cheering lead to a rather comical result.

     Because to our toddler the cheering section was a routine part of the whole potty going process, she assumed that everyone got a treat and cheers when they used the toilet. She had no reason not to think that. So if she ever happened in on me or my husband using the bathroom, she would whoop and holler, "Great job, Mommy!" when we finished. And then would insist that we got a sweet for going potty. It was rather adorable... 

     Alas, those days are over. Now she uses the toilet so often that the treats have gone by the wayside, as have the cheering sections. Although I'm hoping that my little potty cheerleader will resurface when it's time to start cheering for her little sister.

So much for date night

Sorry everyone, I haven't been very good about posting lately and had to use some older topics to fill in. Primarily this was because of the stomach bug. Yes, we all came down with the stomach bug. At the same time. On Valentine's Day.

The calm before the storm

Ugh.

     And not to bore you (or rather gross you out) with all the nasty details, I can say that being sick to your stomach is awful. But there's worse - being sick to your stomach and also having to deal with nasty diapers of someone else who is also not feeling well. It's torture.

     Not to mention, it smells wretched. Thankfully my husband was feeling slightly better than I was, so he handled a lot of it for me. I owe him big time. Plus, when the smell got really unbearable, he had the thoughtfulness to light some scented candles. It didn't take long for the candles (with an actually burning flame) to diffuse the stench and make it so I didn't have to hold my breath around the house.

     Like I said, I owe him. And in fact, we both deserve a make-up Valentine's Date Night sometime soon.