Camila

Often times I find my brain thinking about random "C" and "K" names for potential future children (I know, SO lame to have our names all start with the same initial sound, but I can't help myself!)

Anyway, one name that has been floating in my brain a lot lately is Camila.  I had no idea why, but it kept popping up.

Awhile ago Cathleen told me about a child she is sponsoring in Columbia through a Christian organization.  I told her that I would LOVE to do that and vowed to check out the website.  Well, as usual, everyday life with a toddler happened and I didn't do it.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, Cathleen told me she had a gift for us.  She went on the website and found the MOST PERFECT CHILD for us and began the sponsor relationship!

Meet Camila:

As you can see, she was born on Callie's birthday.  She is from a small town in Mexico, near Mexico City. She lives with her parents and doesn't have siblings.  Her father is a farm laborer.  The information we got on her says she likes to play with toys and helps at home by "being good."

According to our welcome packet: "Your sponsorship will help provide Camila and her community with access to quality health care, better nutrition and improved health practices.  In addition, your support provides agricultural training and will help to launch small business enterprises so parents can raise the standard of living for their families.  Finally, through Christian witness and bible study, these precious ones will have the chance to know the love and grace of God."

The last part is especially important to us, as Callie has the opportunity to start Sunday School this fall at our church.  It is an opportunity we know is not available to so many children and we are so thankful that Callie will be able to go.

We shared the pictures and information with Callie, so now she talks about Camila, her "friend from Mexico."

We sent off our first letter to her and am excited to hear back in a couple months.  Thanks Auntie Cat, for bringing Camila to us!

And speaking of helping out children in need, you also you probably noticed the new blog design and format.  Thanks to Nikki from Blogs for a Cause for the new design.  She works to help special needs children in other parts of the world.

Weekend Wrap-Up: The I-Thought-We-Had-This-But-Not-Quite Edition

I apologize for the amount of potty posts there have been this week, but get ready for one more.  This is what "Life with Baby Goose" has consisted of.  All. Week. Long.

And seeing as this has been potty training week, we kept the weekend low-key.

Things had been going great since Wednesday.  I was all psyched to report here that we had been diaper-free since Sunday and accident-free since Tuesday.  We are still diaper-free (if you don't count pull-ups at nap and night time), but unfortunately today has brought accidents back into the game.  But I'll get to that in a second.

Friday

The bike helmet was a hit...bike not needed.  It was especially fun to wear the bike helmet while blowing bubbles.

And then she granted me an interview.




While I went out with my friend Bethany on Friday night, Callie and Chris played a little golf, ate some dinner, and had some quality daddy-daughter bonding time.

Saturday

We headed downtown in the morning to check out the Mill City Farmer's Market and hang out with Boom and Bops.

Mmmm...mini donuts!

The view from the condo deck

Chris had police reserve duty on Saturday night, so Cal and I had mommy-daughter bonding time.

Snuggles!

Sunday

Ugh.  Sunday.  Officially one week since we started potty training.  And apparently the way to celebrate one week of potty training is to regress 5 days.

After not having an accident (during the day in undies...there have been a few wet pull-ups at night) since Tuesday morning, she was on her third pair of undies by 10:00am this morning.  AND, she hadn't pooped since Wednesday evening.  That's like FOUR DAYS of not pooping.  But she had been complaining about it the past two days, saying she had to go, and then refusing to actually do so.  SO fun.

And thus, a QOTD from today.

Wrapping up a discussion about how everyone goes poopies...from Disney princesses to Dora.
Me: You know, Callie.  It is okay to go poopies on the potty.  Everybody does.
Callie: Everybody NOT go poopies!
Me: No?  Who doesn't go poopies?
Callie: I don't go poopies!

So we got her going on prune juice and raisins...and nap time came.  In the big girl bed.

The thing about the big girl bed is it allows little people to be sneaky.  The past two days, when checking on her after a couple hours, I found her out of her bed playing with the iPad.  She is somehow quiet enough getting out of bed that we don't hear it over the monitor. 

Today, she was sitting on the stairs, playing the iPad in a very poopy pull-up.

Grrrr.  We're not quite there yet.  There's always next time, right?

It has been a sort-of trying day so far, so I'm excited to go out to eat and then take in the show Chicago tonight with my friend Adrea.

We have one final week left of summer vacation.

The weather is getting cooler and fall seems to be in the air. 

Unbelievable.

Not a Potty Training Post

This week may have seemed to be all about potty training, but we did manage to have some fun too.

National Night Out!

Wading pool with Adrea

Park with Mommy

Daddy got someone a big girl bike!

Playing with Sydney

Playing piano at Boom's house

The Most Important Gold Medal of All

I have one more gold medal to hand out.

This gold medal is the culmination of hours and hours of persistence, tears, potty treasures and treats, iPad videos and games, potty songs, and sheer determination.

The gold medal for THE HAPPIEST and PROUDEST POTTY GO-ER goes to...

CALLIE JOY!!!!

We did it.  We DID it!  WE DID IT! HOOOORAY!


We made it through the screaming toddler forest, across troll stubborn Mommy bridge, to the Land of Dry Undies and Potty Chairs!

(Any Dora lovers out there? This format seemed appropriate.)

It is a great place to be.

I know we aren't totally there yet, but we are so much closer than the past three days that I think we can call it a victory.

Thanks to all of you for the positive vibes and words of encouragement.  It means a lot to have such an awesome network of people who care.

Potty Training Olympics: UPDATED- QOTD

Sometimes if you don't laugh at certain situations, you'll just cry.  So since I've already done the latter a few times, I thought I'd lighten the mood and hand out a few gold medals.  Since it is Olympic season and all.

So...here goes!

The gold medal for the BIGGEST POTTY AVOIDER goes to...

CALLIE JOY!

The gold medal for the LONGEST TIME SITTING ON A STOOL IN THE BATHROOM WHILE SUPERVISING POTTY VISITS EVER goes to...

MOMMY!

The gold medal for the WEIRDEST POTTY SITTER goes to...

CALLIE JOY!

The gold medal for the BEST MOOD-TO-CLOTHING MATCHER goes to...

MOMMY!

The gold medal for the MOST STUBBORN GOSSELIN GIRL EVER goes to...

It's a TIE!!!

In all seriousness, this has been the most challenging few days I've experienced being a parent.  And the hard part is knowing what to do.  Some people say give up and try again later.  Others say suck it up and power through.  I don't know what the best thing to do is, but we're giving this thing all we got until we got nothing left.  

She has only had 1 accident in the past 30 hours.  She really does know how to stay dry.  She doesn't want to wear diapers again, I straight up asked her that today.  But she FREAKS OUT when she has to go and actually pee in the potty chair (irritatingly enough, she has no problem sitting there if all she has to do is watch a potty video on the iPad).  So it is just this weird physical or emotional wall we have to break through...that I'm hoping will just happen with trying over and over again.  Once she actually does the act of peeing, she is totally fine and relishes in the rewards (sticker on the sticker chart, sticker on the iPad chart, a toy from the potty treasure box, AND a treat...ridiculous, right?).

The poop may be another story, but we're working on it.

I have 13 days until I go back to work.  I need it...want it...desperately hope it will be done by then.

UPDATED AT 8:30pm

We made a breakthrough tonight!  She peed immediately after sitting on the potty chair WITHOUT freaking out, and then later POOPED on the potty chair...again without freaking out!!!!!

I can't even begin to describe how amazing that is.

As I was hugging and kissing her and laughing and smiling, we had the following exchange.

Me: Callie, I am SOOOO proud of you!!!

Callie: I'm proud of you too, Mommy.

Melt. My. Heart.

And check out the sticker she chose for her poop poster.  Out of all the "Way to Go!"s and "Great Job"s and "Fantastic"s, she happened to chose this one:

Yep, that says "Hope"

Okay, Potty Training Bootcamp Day #4 tomorrow, BRING IT ON.

A Seven Year Fairytale

Once upon a time (on August 6th, 2005), two 23-year-old babies high school sweethearts got married.  It was a fantastic day filled with family, friends, and love, followed by a rockin' party.

Seven years flew by...

...and after a dog, a baby, and many memories later, they are still living happily ever after.

Even when, right after seeing the movie Ted about a teddy bear that is alive, the husband hides on the basement stairs armed with a bear (about the same size as Ted) and waits patiently for five minutes until the wife turns the corner to come downstairs only to be attacked by said bear/husband and almost pees her pants.

It takes some serious love to put up with those kinds of shenanigans.

But the wife looks forward to putting up with them for many more years.

The end.

Weekend Wrap-Up: The Big Girl Edition

This weekend was the start of some big new things for our self-proclaimed "BIG GIRL."  And her becoming a big girl has been...quite the experience...

Friday

We went to MOA with Jenna, Charlie and Baby Mabel.  The toddlers did a pretty good job staying in their strollers so we could get some shopping accomplished.  We let them free while Jenna fed Mabel in the Macy's bathroom.  They stayed happy with banana bread in hand.

CHEEEEEEEEESE!

On Friday night Callie stayed at G-ma and G-pa's house while Chris and I went out for an early anniversary date night.  Callie had a blast hanging out with them and Auntie cat...

While Chris and I enjoyed biking around downtown/north east, dinner (with 2-for-1 happy hour specials!) and a movie.

Cheers to getting a night off from the sleepy time battle! ;)

Of course, we found out that  Callie went down like a perfect little angel for G-ma and G-pa at 8:30.  Stinker... :)

Saturday

We spent the morning FINALLY converting her crib to a toddler bed.  After we picked her up, we went to Target to pick out new bedding.  She requested something orange, and we found cute stuff.

This was after the first nap in the big girl bed- a success!

Thankfully, the transition has been SUPER easy.  **knock on wood**

Saturday evening we met the Wicks family for dinner and play time at our house.

Watching Baby Kylie yawn!

Sunday
I think today might have been the longest. day. ever.  It was day #1 of our attempt to kick potty training's butt.

As you may recall, for about a month our potty training chart looked like this:

So today, as soon as she woke up, we were off like a shot to the bathroom and in the undies.  It was a rough day.  There were a few different points were I just wanted to give up and give in. 

The morning was ridiculous.  We spent SO MUCH TIME in the bathroom, but seemed to ALWAYS miss the actually peeing episodes.  By 9:30am we were on to the third pair of undies about 0 for 6 on the toilet.  I resorted to searching the iPad for "potty training" apps.  I found a pretty good one that has cute videos and a virtual sticker chart.

Despite our potty bag and iPad, failed attempts continued until nap time.  I was so done.  Thankfully, at the exact right moment, my friend Casey texted to check in (THANK YOU CASEY!).  Then she called me and gave me advice and some new ideas, including setting a timer and getting some little toys/trinkets as rewards.  So during nap time I headed out to Party City to pick up a bunch of cheap little trinkets and a cool new Owl timer. 

We put a diaper on her for the nap time, but as soon as we heard her rustling around we woke her up and got her on the pot.  She was excited about the different "Potty Treasures" and the new timer.

Finally (FINALLLLLY) at 3:15 we had our first peeing in the potty experience for the day.  Yay!  But after that til about 5:00 was THE WORST time of the day.  She would scream bloody murder EVERY time we put her on the toilet and would FREAK OUT every time she peed in the potty. 

But we stuck to our guns, stayed true to our plan and powered through the chaos.  It started to get better, and we had a lot more successes.

At the end of the day, she had 8 stickers on her potty chart(s).

Fancy iPad sticker chart

 She has a pull-up on now for overnight, and we'll see how it goes.  We made it through this day with smiles...

 ...and we get to start all over tomorrow. :)