Score!

Usually I hit the outlets every year after Christmas to purchase a few items for Jessica's wardrobe for the coming year. This past year I did not because I was pregnant with John and absolutely exhausted. Recently, I discovered that both of their winter clothing options were a bit lacking, so today I took the kids to JCPenny to spend a $25 giftcard we were given when John was born. Jessica is most decidedly in a size 3T now and at the rate she is growing, she may not stay there long! Typically, Jessica wears her summer dresses with a turtleneck and tights/leggings underneath. If we are going out and about then we add homemade leg warmers, a sweater, and/or coat. I already had 4 turtlenecks in a size 3T that I had ordered online at the end of last year for about $10! So.....drumroll please......I bought an adorable dress for $12, 4 pairs of microfiber white tights, and a $5 pair of jeans (that won't fit till probably next year but they were marked down from $30!). I spent $23, saved $45, and have Jessica completely ready for our mild winters!

Jessica obviously approved!!!

John is not following sizes the way Jessica did. He is already in a size 6-9 mos and will soon be in a size 12 mos!!!! He has several sleepers, a couple cute outfits with jackets, a sleep sack that will serve as outerwear, and a pair of overalls. The only thing I need to get to round him out for our mild winters is some long-sleeved onesies. I am trying to find onesies that match the clothes he already has. I found some online at Carters that would do the trick, but I didn't like the price. Perhaps a trip to a Carters outlet may be in my future... :-) I also need to make him some more booties soon. It's still nice and warm here so I might make a pair of crocheted crocs and then a warmer pair next month!

Christmas on $20: Stocking Stuffers

I have been busy working on creating (and purchasing a few) items for the kids for Christmas! I am having a great time creating their Christmas, and I think they are really going to like it!! Looks like we are also still on track to spend about $20 on John and Jessica for Christmas.

Recently I purchased 3 Care Bear figures for Jessica on ebay for $6.50 (which is a great deal if you haven't been watching the price of Care Bear figures on ebay)! Jessica loves taking a bag of figures with her when we go places. We already have: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Sesame Street, Cars, and Thomas the Tank Engine.


I also made John a "taggie blankie" out of some scrap fabric and ribbon! Most babies seem to love playing with tags!


I think these will be perfect stocking stuffers along with some food items!

Children Learn What They Live

This poem used to hang in the pediatrician's office where I used to go as a child. I have plans to one day print this up nicely or cross-stitch it and hang it on the wall in my hallway to remind me to be loving, patient, kind, etc to my children, even on days I don't feel like it because how I treat them is how they will learn to treat others. I've copied it below. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! Unfortunately, I think I will have to wait on getting it up on the wall until another day....off to tackle my to-do list!!!

Children Learn What They Live

If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn . . .
If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight . . .
If a child lives with fear, he learns to be apprehensive . . .
If a child lives with pity, he learns to feel sorry for himself . . .
If a child lives with ridicule, he learns to be shy . . .
If a child lives with jealousy, he learns to feel guilt . . .

BUT

If a child lives with tolerance, he learns to be patient . . .
If a child lives with encouragement, he learns to be confident . . .
If a child lives with praise, he learns to be appreciative . . .
If a child lives with acceptance, he learns to love . . .
If a child lives with honesty, he learns what truth is . . .
If a child lives with fairness, he learns justice . . .
If a child lives with security, he learns to have faith in himself and those about him . .
If a child lives with friendliness, he learns the world is a nice place in which to live . .

WITH WHAT IS YOUR CHILD LIVING?

- Dorothy L. Law

Bible School

Like most parents there are things we feel it is important for our children to learn before they leave home. Things like: how to cook, how to do laundry, basic sewing skills, how to use a gun, how to defend yourself, how to drive a car, how to fix a car, how to fix a computer, how to manage money, how to clean, a good academic foundation, etc. We also think it is important to have a firm grasp of both the Constitution and the Bible. The Constitution is the guiding document for how we live in this country, and the Bible is the guiding document for how we live in general.

We have really enjoyed our one-day a week Preschool! I have been meaning to add a Bible component at some point, and I finally did it this week! Jessica, John, and I had a lot of fun doing it!! We are using some church nursery curriculum that my mom wrote on the Creation in conjunction with some hands-on activities and crafts. I plan to continue using nursery curriculum and focusing on what God made until Jessica is ready to move on to doing a different story every week using storybooks, videos, felts, puppets, etc. I used to love writing Sunday School curriculum, so I am having a blast with this!! I don't know who is having more fun....me or Jessica!!!!!

Parenting

We think that as parents, we are defined by our parenting style: baby wearing vs. travel system, disposable vs. cloth diapers, breast-fed vs. formula-fed, stay-at-home vs. working mother, homemade vs. store-bought baby food, time-out vs. spanking, limited vs. unlimited tv, scheduled vs. unscheduled, public vs. private vs. homeschooled, etc. I could go on all day...BUT what truly defines us as parents is whether or not we love our children and let that love guide our actions. You can read all kinds of arguments about why this parenting method is better than that parenting method, but in reality, we will ALL make mistakes. What truly matters is that we love our children and do the best we can to let our love guide our actions. As a child, you can't ask for better...there are plenty of children out there whose parents do not love them and treat them quite badly. Arguments and posturing over parenting styles and such just serves to build some people up by tearing other people down. Parents are hard enough on themselves without the "help" of others. Perhaps instead it is better to be thankful for parents that love their children.

Christmas on $20: Part 1

Christmas is a mostly homemade affair at our house: 1) to save money but 2) we enjoy it! The real trick is in the planning. If I give myself enough time to plan and create our children's gifts, then (I think) their Christmas looks every bit as good as those of their friends (except much cheaper)! This year it looks like our total cost for Jessica and John will be $20 (maybe a bit more if David needs more wood).

First up: Jessica's American Girl-Styled Doll for $10. Jessica has been fascinated with dolls that have hair (all of hers are bald). I wanted to get her a doll about the size of the American Girl Dolls because they are so easy to find clothes patterns for, but I did NOT want to spend $95! The Springfield Doll carried by Michaels was perfect at the 50% off price of $10! It is not nearly the quality of the American Girl Doll, but it will be perfect for an almost 3 year old! If at some point we want a better quality doll, we might consider the My Generation Doll carried by Target. It retails for $35 and is supposedly a little better quality than the Springfield Doll.


Next up: John's Shakable Containers for $0. A friend of mine made some similar to these when her little girl was about 6 months old. Both her daughter and Jessica loved them! I used empty cranberry juice bottles and...


things I found in the kitchen: rock salt, oatmeal, beans, and rice,...


things I found in the craft closet: bells, sand, and star and moon confetti,...


colored water with beads, confetti, sequins, etc,...


and oil and oil & colored water!


See? It kind of looks like the surface of a lake!


Since some of these items are choking hazards, I used my husband's epoxy to secure the lids. There is no way the kids can get in those containers, unless they get access to a knife!! My friend suggested coming up with a container to keep them in. What do you think? Do you think I need a container? If so what kind of container would you suggest? I do not plan to leave these out around the house....just in case Jessica finds a knife and manages to open the containers.....it shouldn't be possible, but you can never let your guard down with Jessica around!

Tutorial Coming Soon!

Front view

A few weeks ago I made John an adorable "chappy hat," otherwise known as a newsboy cap, for when he went to meet the family. My siblings and cousins (on my dad's side of the family) like to wear them to go get coffee and talk the entire time in a British accent.....in case you couldn't tell, that side of the family tree grows straight up! Once I perfect the design with a second cap, I will post a tutorial. I think he is going to rock the little old man look this winter with his bald head!!! Definitely a better look for a baby boy than the ever popular preppy or skater look!

Side view

What I did with the rest...

of the helicopter fabric:


Pee-Pee Tepees!!!! Yeah, I know I could just use a rag or be prepared and change the diaper super quick.... But this tutorial was super easy and I had just the right amount of fabric leftover from the Car Seat Swaddle Blanket!

Potty Training on the Go Without the Puddles

Well, Jessica's heat rash has come back with a vengeance this year...even with the use of our Bumgenius cloth diapers! She has been potty trained around the house for a while now, with only the occasional accident. However, since her verbal skills are still pretty minimal (although growing daily), I have avoided letting her wear training pants when out and about. This latest round of heat rash though has convinced me otherwise, and I have come up with a brilliant solution to "Potty Training on the Go Without the Puddles!" I found a free pattern for fleece shorties that I can put over the training pants to give us a few more minutes to find a bathroom without leaving a trail behind us!


Fleece is very breathable, but it will also keep any accidents from leaking through....at least for a little while! Although the pattern was intended to be worn over a cloth diaper, I have been very pleased with using it over training pants while out and about! The large size seems to work just perfectly with the size 2T training pants! We gave this a test run last night while we were out and about for 2 hours, and she managed to hold it until we got home! Now to make some more for backups when we have accidents...

Rice Dying Tutorial

As promised, here is the tutorial on how I chose to dye my rice for our sand/water table. There are several different tutorials out there, but this method suited my purposes (and my quantities) just perfectly! And just being I am so pleased with the end result....another picture of the sand/water table!


First I put about 4-5 pounds of rice in a large bowl. Then I added about 1 cup of water and couple tablespoons of vinegar. Finally, I drizzled food coloring over the bowl of rice and stirred. If you are using "Easter colors," then I recommend starting with about 30 drops of food coloring. Last I dipped the rice out onto baking pans and baked them in the oven on 200 degrees Fahrenheit for a couple hours stirring once in the middle. It worked out perfectly!


Today we turned it from a rice table into a water table (because Jessica kept pouring all of the rice onto the floor...)! Still absolutely darling!


By the way, I added a bit of vinegar to the water to help keep the water from getting gross (as I can't empty it by myself right now in my very pregnant state). I am trying to make sure that everything that goes into the sand/water table is safe for consumption....as you never know what my child is going to try next!! Sorry I did not get a picture of Jessica playing in the water table; however, as I am sure you can imagine, she was completely soaked!!! We are going to have a lot of fun this summer!!

Preschool Passover

Lighting the Candles. You will have to excuse my hair...I meant to be wearing my head covering to avoid showing off my awesome hairdo!

It has been about a month since I last updated you on our neighborhood preschool group, and yet again we are up for anything wild and crazy!! This month we took a spring break and an extra week off as we will be loosing 2 students due to their dad being deployed very soon. We spent time this month learning about the letters F and G, St. Patrick's Day, the color Green, the shape square, and sequencing. This week, we had a Preschool Passover! We had a total of 6 kids ranging in ages from 2 to 5 and had a great time!!

Blessing the children and tasting the bitter herbs dipped in salt water to represent the tears of Israel.

One of my hobbies is genealogy, and as I have mentioned on here before, some of David's family is Jewish. While we attend a church, I have spent time studying Hebrew and Jewish beliefs and holidays to better understand my genealogical research. One thing that has struck me over and over is the excellent teaching methods used in the Jewish faith. While Christianity does use some hands on learning, it is not anywhere close to the extent the Jews go to. Everything is all about eating, drinking, moving, participating, etc in learning about your faith. There is very little of the "sit down, be quiet, and listen" approach that is so very often prevalent in churches today. As everyone in our preschool group follows the Christian faith, we used the Preschool Passover to teach some of our own beliefs, and the kids seemed to have a great time!

Breaking and hiding the matza. Getting ready to color and do the sedar plate!

First we had the kids clean up the toys for Passover. Then I hid piece of bread around the house for them to find, and we made a big to do about throwing all of the bread out of the house! (As you are only supposed to have flat bread during the 8 days of the Passover celebration.) Then we lit the holiday candles. (I actually got to use the candlesticks a relative had brought David's grandmother back from Israel!) I recited the candle lighting blessing in Hebrew and English. Then we had our first glass of grape juice. Then we blessed each child present. That was the last of the blessings we included (since most of our crowd was 3 and under)! Then it was time to wash hands and tell the story of why we celebrate Passover. I made a tent and dressed up in clothes similar to a Jew during the time of Passover (The costume wasn't exact, but it was as close as I could get in my very pregnant state).

Jessica coloring her sedar book, and me explaining the sedar plate.

In the tent we told the story of the 10 plagues and how Pharaoh finally let the Israelites go. I have to say, you don't realize it until you are telling a bunch of two year olds, but it has quite a few gross and sad details. We also had snacks and tried bits of parsley (that was not popular). We also broke the matza and hid a piece for the kids to find later. Then it was time to wash our hands again and head back to the table for coloring our Passover booklets, snacks, and yet another cup of grape juice! At this point we also went over the different parts of the sedar plate and what each symbolizes. Then the kids got up to search for the hidden piece of matza in hopes of earning a prize! Then we had a little outside play time while lunch was finishing. We had Matza Ball soup, Israeli couscous, Mediterranean crackers, matza, as well as an American appetizer platter. The kids were a little unsure about the Jewish food, but it was a good experience. Finally we had the after dinner prayer, more grape juice and matzah, and all shouted "Next year in Jerusalem."

More pictures of the kids attending so well!

It was a lot of fun and a great way to teach Christian children about the Bible and the Jewish traditions/holidays they read about so often in the Bible. It is also an excellent opportunity for me to teach my children about the traditions and beliefs of one side of our family. Preparing for our Preschool Passover also further impressed on me the significance of the Passion Week events. For example, Jesus (Yeshua in Hebrew) came into Jerusalem (the Triumphal Entry) on the day that Jews would have been selecting their lambs to sacrifice. He was crucified at the time of Passover (exact times tend to be up to interpretation). He rose from the dead on the Day of First Fruits, when the first of the harvest is coming in, and His Spirit came to dwell with his disciples after the Counting of the Omer, on Shavout, which commemorates the giving of the 10 commandments. If you are interested in learning more about Passover or Christian beliefs relating to Passover, I read information from many different sources and many different branches of Judaism; however, from a Christian perspective, my favorite site is www.hebrew4christians.com

Disclaimer: I am not an expert on Judaism so there may be errors. I would also like to add that there is no disrespect intended toward anyone.

Just Ordered....

I just ordered Jessica's Stingray Swimsuit tonight! Isn't it just too darn cute???


It also covers everything but her face, lower arms, and lower legs, providing her entire trunk with protection from 97.5% of UVA/UVB rays!!! I've said it once, twice, three times, etc, and I will continue saying it, "Protecting our kids from UVA/UVB rays is a HUGE priority for me!" I find my paranoia completely understandable considering that I am a melanoma survivor! However, I have also made an effort to make sure that our children do not end up looking like complete dorks. I go to great lengths to find cute, well cut swimsuits that still offer great protection from the sun! Hence why I actually ordered this swimsuit from Australia... Just so you know....I did get a good deal: free shipping made this suit about the same price as the one offered in the United States that was not nearly as cute!! I am hopeful that this suit will last 2 years....cross your fingers for me!!!

Cute T-Shirts!

Well, after the success of last night's iron-on transfers onesies, I decided to make more tonight using some t-shirts! The first one is for me using one of my maternity shirts! It says, "I'm so crafty, I make people!" How cute is that?


These next two are kimono-styled shirts Jessica wore in the hospital that I dressed up with some Veggie Tales pocket logos!


Finally, I started working on Jessica's Big Sister t-shirt. I definitely plan to do a little embellishing later...so check back later to see the final product! It says "Don't let this shirt fool you... I'm a... dirt digging, truck pushing, furniture climbing, rough and tumble playing Big Sister." I think it suits her just perfectly!!

Cute Onesies!

Well, our family has fallen into a better rhythm in which to function over the next week or so while my back is still out of commission, and I am truly thankful that I have only had one case of stage one melanoma and 3 pre-cancerous spots. While it does come with its frustrations, it could be much worse! Over the weekend, I was finally able to finish personalizing some newborn onesies for John with iron-on transfers! I love to sew and do other crafty things because it is one of the few things I do during the day that is not quickly undone!! Below are some pictures of the onesies I made for John.


You will notice that all of these shirts have non-sexual themes. (Apparently, sexual themes are very popular on baby boy shirts: Chick Magnet, Stud Muffin, Boob Man, etc.) I also tried to select neutral themes. They were very easy to make using a word processing program and clip art I found on the internet. The onesies were Jessica's when she was a baby; however, I bought a 0-3 months package of 5 white onesies at JoAnn's the other day for $5 using a 50% off coupon!! That is a little over $1 a shirt. You really can't beat that unless you made them yourself from an old t-shirt! Stay tuned! There are more fun projects to come, hopefully later this week!

Toddler Bed

We are still waiting to hear back from the dermatologist on the results of my biopsies. While we are hoping they come back normal, we are realistically planning for the possibility of another surgery in a week or two. As I could potentially not be able to move my back for 6 weeks, we realized we needed to do some thinking on our current nap time situation! Jessica has not started climbing out of her crib, and we had planned originally to let her stay in her crib as long as she was happy there (within reason). It is the safest place for her to be given her penchant for finding danger! However, I will not be able to lift her if I have surgery, and I definitely won't be able to lift her right after John is born. Therefore, we decided to set up the toddler bed.

The pieces for Jessica's toddler quilt all laid out!

I bought a used crib mattress for $15 on Craigslist a while back to use as a trundle under the bunk bed in her room. This way she will be close to the floor on a waterproof mattress until she is ready to move up to the bottom bunk. I also bought a waterproof mattress cover on sale for $7 at Target. I had an extra sheet for the bed from our crib set up. She has some blankets but is getting big enough that she probably needs a quilt. This weekend I cut up 5" squares from fabric scraps leftover from making her dresses and pajamas. I also cut 5" squares from the burp cloths and bibs that had her name embroidered on them (I don't plan to use them with future children). This is how her Toddler Quilt will look.

A close up of the squares

I plan to use a neutral backing so that when John is ready for a toddler bed, I can take Jessica's apart and use the backing for his quilt. I plan to enlarge Jessica's quilt at that point so that she will have a twin sized quilt with one side being made of scraps from things I have made her and the other side being a more neutral print so she can reverse it as she gets older, if the patchwork seems too childish to her at the time! There are plenty of uses for a twin sized quilt: your bed at college, curling up on the couch when it is cold or you don't feel good, and of course you will always have something practical that your mother made especially for you!

The burp cloth scraps awaiting serging!

And what did I decide to do with the leftover pieces of burp cloths? I decided to trim them, serge them, and use them as newborn pre-folds to go in John's diaper covers! Very practical and frugal if I do say so myself! How is the transition to the toddler bed going? Well, we tried one day of it, and it went really well. She was quiet, napped some, played with the socks in her sock drawer, etc. However, she did not get as good of a nap as usual. She would probably adjust over time; however, I do get nervous at the prospect of loosing any part of her 3 hours nap!! Therefore, we decided to use the same approach for transitioning her to the toddler bed as we did for potty training her: a practice day here, a practice day there, with plenty of "back to business as usual" days in between! We also realized that if she is not completely transitioned by the time I have surgery or have the baby (whichever comes first) we can move her crib close to the bunk bed so that when I let her rail down, she can climb out on her own.

Dilemma solved, a cute quilt in the works, and only out about $25! And did I mention I am already putting fabric scraps in a bag for John's toddler quilt? ;-)

Update

The post Boys versus Girls has been permanently removed. While I appreciate everyone's interest in the topic, I find that it is taking more time to review and respond to comments than I have to give at this time. I really feel that while open discussion is important, this particular discussion would best be had on a message board that is set up for monitoring posts frequently.

Concerning the topic of circumcision there are many different opinions and many different research articles out there on both sides of the issue. Some of these are based in fact. Some are not. In the United States, it remains a subject that is open for further study and debate as even the American Academy of Pediatrics will not recommend for or against it. Even our legal system is not completely decided on who can legally request the procedure.

Obviously any decision concerning your child should never be taken lightly. Each parent should learn as much as they can and make an informed decision. In our case (as I said before), we have already made our decision to have the procedure done. Religiously and culturally it is a decision we both feel very comfortable with, and we would have only considered making a change if overwhelming evidence had forced organizations like the AAP to retract their current recommendations on the subject. That being said I have gone to great lengths to make sure that I am 100% informed about how and when this can be done to make it easiest on John.

I am sure that there are many people out there who will not understand this decision; however, I will not be accepting any comments on this subject in the future because I do not have the time to regulate and respond to them properly, while caring for my family. There are many message boards out there should you feel the need to continue this discussion further. Thank you again for your comments and interest!

First Day of Preschool!

Well, today was our first day of our neighborhood preschool using our own curriculum! I will admit I had very low expectations of how this was going to go! I expected Jessica's best friend to enjoy it, but I was very surprised at how much Jessica enjoyed it!! Many of her friends are very verbal, and Jessica is not. We do not find this surprising, since both David and I are also very spatially oriented; however, it does bother me when people comment on it or think there is something wrong with her because she is not terribly verbal. As a mother, it is always great to see your child excel at something, but it is even better when you have already seen at such a young age just how much differences can bother people. Not only did Jessica seem to enjoy the experience, but her mother received a much needed dose of confidence! Here is more about what we actually did:

It's a little empty now, but that will change over time! See the paper doll with her hat, coat, pants, gloves, and scarf I placed on the picture for January?

This is a picture of the vinyl shade I had David install in our dining room to use as our "focus wall!" The awesome part is that this can be used for years to come with multiple groups of children and multiple academic levels! I bought the shade, some foam letters and numbers (because they were on sale), and some stick on velcro. I printed out a calendar, used a picture from an old calendar, cut out some paper dolls I found for free on the internet, and cut out a circle using some extra foam sheets we had from another project. Overall, very low cost but very high durability! Also the shade can be rolled up once you un-velcro all the pieces! This was our lesson plan for the day:

Time	Activity
9:15-9:30	Calendar, Dress Paper doll, Introduce Letter A, box of A things
9:30-9:45	Letter A Rubbing with Sandpaper
9:45-10:00	Snack Time: apples and letter A cookies
10:00-10:15	Story about Trains, Poster for Types of Transportation
10:15-10:30	Sing Wheels on the Bus, play with electric train
10:30-10:45	Sorting circles by color
10:45-11:00	Cut and paste wheels on a roller skate

I went over the calendar as well as what the paper doll was wearing today. Then I showed them the letter A, and we explored a box of things that start with the letter A: alligator, anteater, ape, airplane, apple, avocado, angel, apron, and a letter A. We also took letter A's cut out of sandpaper and made letter A rubbings (Jessica really got into that)! Then we had a snack of apples and letter A cookies! I made the cookies using a recipe of my great-great-grandmother's for Tea Cakes. They are really good for using with small children because they are low sugar but high fat, which is great for developing brains! Click on the picture below to enlarge the recipe. I am guessing the recipe is older than that and was brought by my family to the New World from England.


Next it was my kindergarten teacher friend's turn to teach. First we talked about things that go, and she let the kids place pictures of different types of transportation on a poster of a landscape. Jessica insisted that all transportation belonged in the sky (We moved it later)! I told my husband we may have a budding Aerospace Engineer on our hands!


Next we sang the Wheels on the Bus song, and played with an electric train set! Finally we played a math game and created a math craft! My friend handed out colored circles to everyone and before she could tell everyone what to do, Jessica was already sorting the shapes! Next we did a cut and paste worksheet. I cut out the circles, but Jessica made sure to cut fringe around the edge of the page! (She is very into scissors right now!) Then without anyone telling her what to do, she took the circles and placed them exactly where they were supposed to go! I put the glue on the page and let her press them into place (I did not want any more mess than we already had!)

A picture from her first time using scissors!

I am teaching early reading for the rest of the month, and my friend is teaching math for the rest of the month. Tuesday we are going to see the Blue Angels practice! Friday we will have class again, and next week we are planning to go to a train museum! It should be fun!!! Sorry there weren't any pictures of the kids this time! We were a little busy figuring out how this was going to work!! Hopefully next time!

The Reason We Rarely Buy Her Toys

Officially Potty Trained (around the house)!!!!!!

All kids have different things they tend to focus more on. With some kids it is very obvious, while other kids are more balanced. Most of Jessica's friends are very verbal. While Jessica falls well within the normal range of known words for her age group, she is much, much more interested in how things work. She could care less what its name is and what it says. She just wants to know what it does! I believe she got this from her father. Although I too enjoyed taking things apart as a child, I also loved to talk (that may have been an understatement)! At any rate, while Jessica does not talk as much as many of her friends, she has learned to do all kinds of things her friends can't do: climbing a wooden ladder to slide down a big slide, opening doors, and our latest potty training! We have been particularly anxious to get her potty trained because she has so much trouble with heat rash (for 6 months out of the year at least)!

Starting at 16 months we set out a potty chair and started encouraging her to sit on it. Jessica loves to be clapped for so of course we had to do lots of clapping any time she sat on her potty. One time she accidentally went to the bathroom on her potty which was exciting for us, but she didn't really make the connection. Then we didn't do anything for a few months. When we came back to it, we would take her to the potty every 15 minutes (which only lasted for a few hours one day). But we continued to encourage her to use it. Eventually this weekend something clicked, and she got it! She hasn't had an accident all week around the house!!! We really didn't spend that much time or effort potty training. We spent a couple hours on 3 different Saturdays, but I think the big thing was making her aware of the potty and nudging her without pushing her.

There has also been no expense in potty training her (Well, except for lots and lots of paper towels!!!). The potty chair is a hand-me down. I thought we would be using candy to encourage her to use the potty, but it turned out to be unnecessary! We also have not bought her training pants or underwear yet. Currently she just runs around the house in a short dress and turtleneck and goes to her potty whenever she needs to. (The awesome part is that I rarely have to ask her if she needs to go potty! She remembers herself!) Later I do plan to get her either some training pants or underwear depending on what we are ready for at that point. However, I am currently happy as a lark to have her potty trained around the house so we can stand to wait on the training pants and underwear a little longer! We will also be taking her potty with us when we travel for Christmas. We will still be using some diapers, but it should make cloth diapering easier while traveling! So "Yeah, Jessica!!!!!" 21 months old and potty trained (around the house)!!!

Seeing Spots

Well, we are staying home and quarantining until we can get to the doctor Monday. Jessica's fever from earlier this week seems to be gone, but she has been fussy and has spots appearing all over her. Our neighbor across the street says it looks like chicken pox. I guess we'll have to wait till Monday to know for sure.

We have used a delayed schedule for getting Jessica's shots, saving the vaccines for less deadly diseases until later. Chicken pox is one of those. The reason for doing this is I just don't see any point in giving her a whole bunch of shots all at one time. While I do not believe it causes Autism (everything I learned in school and professionally tells me otherwise), I do think it may be possible to "overload" a small baby's system. All other kinds of things early on can overload them. Why not a lot of vaccines?

David and I both had the chicken pox as children, although we think I had the worse case. One of the benefits of us having had the chicken pox already is that we know 100% that our unborn child will be protected because of my immunity. With the chicken pox vaccine, there would still be some risk because it is not 100% effective for all people throughout their lifetime. Hopefully, if Jessica does indeed have the chicken pox, she will begin to feel better soon!