The Christmas Miracle to end all miracles: Abigail Jordan Strongin is (mostly) considered potty trained (during the day)!!!! Yes, folks, you read that right. My 3.5 yr old child who adamantly refused to so much as sit on the potty a week ago, is now wearing underwear during the day and telling mommy and daddy when she needs to pee! My dreams came true!
Here's how it all went down: On Thursday night, Dec. 23, the Diaper Fairy (aka mom) sent Abby a box that containted Kandoo flushable wipes & Pull-Ups, with a note to Abby that she was to take those items and put her diapers and wipes in the box to send it back to the Fairy to receive lots of great presents in return. So Abby threw her remaining size 4 diapers and wipes in the box and left it outside for the DF to pick up that night.
When Abby woke up bright and early on Christmas Eve morning, Jason "answered" the door to find the huge box from the DF with a million "B" and "C" presents in it (more to come on that). It also contained a letter from the DF, a potty chart and sparkly star stickers. Abby put on her big girl underwear around 7:30 am and we waited. And waited. And waited. The 3Day Potty Training lady told us to tell her to say "Tell mommy when you need to pee" and wait for her to have an accident and then rush her to the potty. By 1:30 pm, she still had not peed! Then, she had her first accident and we did as we were told. Some crying ensued as she did NOT want to use the potty, but we convinced her (ok, an M&M convinced her) to at least sit on it. A little while later, she told us she needed to go and lo and behold, she went and peed on the potty! OMG. And guess what - she did it 1 more time that first day and had one more accident, but 2/4 isn't bad for Day 1.
Day 2 came around and she only had one accident and made it to the potty 3 successful times! I have to say, this kid has a huge bladder - she held it in for 4-6 hours each day! Every time she'd pee in the potty, she would get an "A" present - an M&M, hershey kiss, chocolate-covered raisin, etc. and a star on her chart. 6 stars = a big "C" prize. The "B" prizes were for poops.
Day 3 - no accidents, more stickers and finally a "C" prize! Still no poops.
Day 4 - no accidents, more stickers and finally a poop - in her underwear. Another "C" prize!
Day 5 - no accidents, more stickers and another poop in her underwear. Another "C" prize!
Day 6 (today) - no accidents, more stickers, no poop and another "C" prize.
You see where this is going?! We are almost out of "C" prizes but still have LOTS of "B" prizes for when she decides to poop on the potty eventually. We even sing her favorite "pooping on the potty" song (thanks to Clara & Emma for that!) and she knows where she should do it but seems afraid to. But regardless of the poop issue, I am beyond thrilled that she is in underwear ("nighttime underwear" or Pull-Ups, are for night). Hopefully she will figure out that pooping in her underwear is not so fun and will try to go in the potty. And hopefully, the transition back at school next week will be a smooth one.
Not to neglect my second child - happy 8-month birthday, big guy! Zach got shots today and barely cried, weighed in at 17 lbs, 13 ozs, and finally decided to roll over from his back to his tummy (about time, dude!).
As we come to the end of year where we became a family of 4, welcoming a baby boy into our world, I recognize that it was a great year. Abby became a big sister and transitioned to a big girl bed; Zach was born and has spent the last 8 months of his life laughing and smiling and I became the mommy of 2 amazing kids and can only dream of what's in store for 2011. Happy New Year!
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Monday, December 13, 2010
'Tis the Season
How is it possible that we are halfway through the last month of 2010 already?!?! The month has flown by for us, mostly because we have a lot going on!
Cora started last week and got off to a good but slow start. She is coming off a job she's been at the past 23 years, so this is all new to her. But thankfully, Abby took to her right away as if she'd been with us for years (relief!). While she gets up to speed with Zach and our house, Jason and I have been around a bit more to guide her. I hope that this will be our last nanny for some time!
Surprisingly, Laura paid us a visit last week as well. I wasn't home at the time (lucky for her!) but Jason said she and her son knocked on our door at dinner time, came in and made themselves at home with her son going to play with Abby and she went to hold Zach right away. She apparently had tears in her eyes and asked how the kids were doing with our new nanny. She implied that her new job wasn't all that it seemed to be and she wasn't so happy. Jason didn't know if she was coming by to see if we'd offer her the job back, or to see if she wanted to come back or just to say hi, but he felt it was awkward considering she didn't feel it was necessary to tell us she'd be working in such close quarters.
Abby's been enjoying some fun kid-friendly activities such as a friend's holiday party, the off-broadway production of Annie and this past weekend, we took her to see the Radio City Rockettes. She loved taking the train to the city and being among the gizillion tourists in Rockefeller Center and along 5th Ave.
While we have been asked "who's that?" with regard to Santa, we haven't gotten the "why don't we have lights and a tree" question yet. If not this year, I am sure it will come next year!
Abby (and we) have something exciting/scary to look forward to in the coming weeks: The Diaper Fairy (younger sister of last year's Paci Fairy)will be paying us a visit to take Abby's diapers away once and for all when school lets out for the year. Our adorable, smart daughter is as stubborn as they come and refuses to use the potty, so Miss Diaper Fairy will be coming along to show her the way. We anticipate a rough few days (weeks?) but hopefully it will pay off and we'll just have one size of diapers to buy!
Cora started last week and got off to a good but slow start. She is coming off a job she's been at the past 23 years, so this is all new to her. But thankfully, Abby took to her right away as if she'd been with us for years (relief!). While she gets up to speed with Zach and our house, Jason and I have been around a bit more to guide her. I hope that this will be our last nanny for some time!
Surprisingly, Laura paid us a visit last week as well. I wasn't home at the time (lucky for her!) but Jason said she and her son knocked on our door at dinner time, came in and made themselves at home with her son going to play with Abby and she went to hold Zach right away. She apparently had tears in her eyes and asked how the kids were doing with our new nanny. She implied that her new job wasn't all that it seemed to be and she wasn't so happy. Jason didn't know if she was coming by to see if we'd offer her the job back, or to see if she wanted to come back or just to say hi, but he felt it was awkward considering she didn't feel it was necessary to tell us she'd be working in such close quarters.
Abby's been enjoying some fun kid-friendly activities such as a friend's holiday party, the off-broadway production of Annie and this past weekend, we took her to see the Radio City Rockettes. She loved taking the train to the city and being among the gizillion tourists in Rockefeller Center and along 5th Ave.
While we have been asked "who's that?" with regard to Santa, we haven't gotten the "why don't we have lights and a tree" question yet. If not this year, I am sure it will come next year!
Abby (and we) have something exciting/scary to look forward to in the coming weeks: The Diaper Fairy (younger sister of last year's Paci Fairy)will be paying us a visit to take Abby's diapers away once and for all when school lets out for the year. Our adorable, smart daughter is as stubborn as they come and refuses to use the potty, so Miss Diaper Fairy will be coming along to show her the way. We anticipate a rough few days (weeks?) but hopefully it will pay off and we'll just have one size of diapers to buy!
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Love Thy Neighbor but Don't Covet Thy Neighbor's Nanny
Since last posting, Laura has left us...and started her new job just around the corner from us at our neighbor's house!!!! Yes, you read that right, and if you are even somewhat as appalled as I am, you understand my frustration. Here's the background:
As Laura's last day with us the week before Thanksgiving approached, I started finding out more about her reasons to leave, 99% of which had to do with her thinking she was working too many hours and not getting paid enough. Now I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure we are still in a recession, and last I checked, I don't get a raise from my company after just 6 months of employment! But apparently Laura's husband wasn't working so much and she needed to make more to support the family. So she told us that she had found an afternoon job working 12-6 pm 4 days a week so she could do housecleaning or something else in the mornings to make extra money. I felt badly and gave her a nice going-away present: products from work, some extra cash and a big hug with a "we'll call you for babysitting!" send-off.
Thanksgiving week came and went (my mom came to town, we ate a lot, played with the kids and had a fun week) and I stressed out over the nanny situation. I was still considering Laura's friend, Silvia, for the job, but I had reservations about her (as Laura's friend and she was asking for more money based on her previous job). I continued to field calls and screen candidates, and then, a small glimmer of hope: I was speaking with another nanny at Abby's gym class, Patricia, who Laura had become friendly with. I told her that I was looking for someone and gave her my number should she know of anyone. I got a call the next day from a woman named Cora, who said Patricia had passed along my information. With the holiday the next day, I took a few days to call Cora back but when I did, I couldn't believe I had waited so long.
Cora and I spoke briefly on Saturday morning via phone and I invited her to come to meet us that afternoon. By the time she left our house, I knew she was the One. Cora is a bit older - my guess is early 50s. She has worked at the same daycare in our town for 23 YEARS! She also babysits on the side and has a ton of references. She has been background checked, she has taken all of the childcare classes/workshops, is CPR certified, drives and lives IN MY town! Ours would be her first real "nanny" job but I know she is up for the task. We made Cora the offer and she very happily accepted and will start next week.
The day after we made Cora the offer, we found out that Laura is working for our neighbor. I also came to find out that she was soliciting business and trying to find a job at Abby's school - nice. And as if it isn't bad enough that she'll be working in my community and seeing my kids around, she won't call us back, presumably because she knows we found out and she feels guilty.
In the meantime, I let Silvia know that we couldn't hire her due to Laura's deceitfulness and I said I'd help her find a job because we did really like her, but it would not be a good idea to have Laura's friend working for us when Laura was working in the same small community. Hopefully, Silvia will pass along the message to Laura so she knows what she did was wrong - but judging by the fact that she won't return our calls and didn't come clean in the first place, she definitely knows she was wrong to do what she did.
All in all, I have a good feeling about Cora and our fresh start next week. So my kids won't grow up learning Spanish as their second language, but they'll hopefully be taken care of by a responsible, honest and caring woman who has more years of experience with children than us!
And may this be a lesson for all in the future: if you are in need of a new nanny, ask your neighbor's nanny for a referral for a friend, but don't hire their nanny as it certainly doesn't bode well for future run-ins in the neighborhood!
As Laura's last day with us the week before Thanksgiving approached, I started finding out more about her reasons to leave, 99% of which had to do with her thinking she was working too many hours and not getting paid enough. Now I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure we are still in a recession, and last I checked, I don't get a raise from my company after just 6 months of employment! But apparently Laura's husband wasn't working so much and she needed to make more to support the family. So she told us that she had found an afternoon job working 12-6 pm 4 days a week so she could do housecleaning or something else in the mornings to make extra money. I felt badly and gave her a nice going-away present: products from work, some extra cash and a big hug with a "we'll call you for babysitting!" send-off.
Thanksgiving week came and went (my mom came to town, we ate a lot, played with the kids and had a fun week) and I stressed out over the nanny situation. I was still considering Laura's friend, Silvia, for the job, but I had reservations about her (as Laura's friend and she was asking for more money based on her previous job). I continued to field calls and screen candidates, and then, a small glimmer of hope: I was speaking with another nanny at Abby's gym class, Patricia, who Laura had become friendly with. I told her that I was looking for someone and gave her my number should she know of anyone. I got a call the next day from a woman named Cora, who said Patricia had passed along my information. With the holiday the next day, I took a few days to call Cora back but when I did, I couldn't believe I had waited so long.
Cora and I spoke briefly on Saturday morning via phone and I invited her to come to meet us that afternoon. By the time she left our house, I knew she was the One. Cora is a bit older - my guess is early 50s. She has worked at the same daycare in our town for 23 YEARS! She also babysits on the side and has a ton of references. She has been background checked, she has taken all of the childcare classes/workshops, is CPR certified, drives and lives IN MY town! Ours would be her first real "nanny" job but I know she is up for the task. We made Cora the offer and she very happily accepted and will start next week.
The day after we made Cora the offer, we found out that Laura is working for our neighbor. I also came to find out that she was soliciting business and trying to find a job at Abby's school - nice. And as if it isn't bad enough that she'll be working in my community and seeing my kids around, she won't call us back, presumably because she knows we found out and she feels guilty.
In the meantime, I let Silvia know that we couldn't hire her due to Laura's deceitfulness and I said I'd help her find a job because we did really like her, but it would not be a good idea to have Laura's friend working for us when Laura was working in the same small community. Hopefully, Silvia will pass along the message to Laura so she knows what she did was wrong - but judging by the fact that she won't return our calls and didn't come clean in the first place, she definitely knows she was wrong to do what she did.
All in all, I have a good feeling about Cora and our fresh start next week. So my kids won't grow up learning Spanish as their second language, but they'll hopefully be taken care of by a responsible, honest and caring woman who has more years of experience with children than us!
And may this be a lesson for all in the future: if you are in need of a new nanny, ask your neighbor's nanny for a referral for a friend, but don't hire their nanny as it certainly doesn't bode well for future run-ins in the neighborhood!
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