Swimming Lessons

I am a huge advocate of swimming lessons, and children learning to swim at a young age. Valerie has been taking swimming lessons since she was two months old! She loves the water so much, and she is getting really good at it. I am still a bit protective of her in the water though, and still want her to wear floatation whenever she's in the pool. Its important that she knows how to swim without the floatation, but I want her to have it on just in case. I never let her swim alone either, I am always right in the water next to her. Depending on the situation, I either prefer a floatsuit, for when we're in the pool and I am around, or a US Coast Guard approved life jacket for open water.

Last time my niece, Beth, came to visit last summer, I found out that she didn't know how to swim! I couldn't believe that! I had to take Valerie to her swim lesson at the community center, so I took Beth with us, to see if I could get her signed up for a class. It turned out that the only class available was for infants, up to two years old. I asked if they could make an exception for a fifteen year old. They had no problem with it, but warned me that Beth probably would not like some of the class requirements. I was told that the children were to be dropped off at the community center daycare 30 minutes before the swim lesson time, since many of the other kids in the community daycare already. Once all of the swimmers were at the daycare, they are loaded into a large, 8 seat stroller and taken to the pool area, where the attendants change each student into their swim gear, and then take them out to the pool area. The attendant reiterated that Beth would be in the crawler class of the daycare of half an hour, before being strapped into a stroller, and taken to the locker room where she would be undressed, and changed by a daycare attendant. Then, she added the kicker. The students were required to wear a one-piece floatsuit and a swim diaper. After the lesson, the children would be bathed, re-diapered and dressed, before being taken back to the daycare. I told her that I had problem with that. She gave me the forms, and signed Beth and Valerie up.

I knew this was going to be an exciting experience for Beth, so I instructed her to write down her experience in her a journal after I picked her up and took her home. Here is an excerpt from her journal:

My aunt made me go to swimming lessons today with my one year old cousin. I wasn't sure what to expect, but my aunt asked me to write down my experience, so I would never forget what happened, although I don't think I need to write it to not forget it...

Auntie Veronica dropped me and Valerie off at the Community Center daycare. A very nice lady named Chloe picked up Valerie, and took my hand, walking me back to the "Crawler" room of the daycare, usually reserved for children between six months and eighteen months old. I knew that nothing good was going to come of this as soon as Chloe had called me "little one." She was only five or six year older than me! Anyway, the half hour before we went to the pool wasn't bad. Valerie and I were given blue ankle bands to signify that we were part of the swim class. She was placed in a playpen and I was told to just relax until it was time to go. I ended up just standing and chatting with the three ladies who were in charge of the daycare class. They said that their shift would be over before I got back, so it would be a different set of people who would be watching me after swimming. Before I knew it, I was told to stand at the front of the room. Soon a large, eight seat stroller was wheeled in. Since I was the largest, I was lifted into the one of the rear seats and strapped in with the five point harness. It was a little tight, but I managed to fit. They strapped Valerie in next to me. Once they had the other kids loaded up, they started to push us to the pool building. 

I want to say that riding in a stroller was an interesting experience, but it wasn't my first time riding in one recently... When we got to the pool area, the attendants took us to the women's locker room, and straight to the baby changing area. They started from the front, taking the babies one at a time, out of the stroller, laying them on the changing table. They would strip them down to their diaper, then change them into a swim diaper, and dress them in a one piece bodysuit with floats sewn in. Every time the Attendants would change a diaper, they would coo to the baby about the state of their diaper. Once they were in their swim gear, they were put back in their seat, and strapped back in. Soon it was my turn.

Chloe put the baby in front of me back in his seat, before turning her attention to me. She unstrapped me, and instead of letting me stand, She lifted me up by my armpits, cooing to me that I'm such a big girl, and laid me down on the changing station. Without even saying anything, Chloe started to undress me, starting with my t-shirt, and bikini top, and then she laid me back and started to take off my shorts. leaving me in just my bikini bottoms. I will never forget what she said next! "Oh my, this wont do at all? What was your Auntie thinking sending you here without a diapee? What if you made an oopsie in your pants?" 

I literally died.

She took off my bottoms and grabbed a baby wipe, taking my ankles in one hand, and lifting my butt off the changing station, and wiping it thoroughly with the other. Once I was cleaned to her satisfaction, she reached into the bag of Pampers Splashers next to me and pulled one out. She showed me the diaper before threading my legs through the holes, and pulling it up my legs and over my hips. She reached into Valerie's diaper bag and pulled out one one-piece bodysuits. She threaded me into, and and zipped it up. I could see the bulge of the swim diaper around my waist. I felt like such a baby. Soon I was strapped back into the stroller and we were all wheeled outside to the pool.

I was eventually placed in the water, but was held by the swim instructor the whole time, who was pretty much just floating me around. It was actually a big calming. I don't think I'm afraid of the water anymore, if thats the silver lining of all of this. Just when I thought it was getting better, it got worse. 

When we were done in the pool, we were handed off to another attendant, who carried us into the locker room to where a baby bath was set up. I was stripped out of my bodysuit, and stood there, while attendant, this time an older woman in her 50's, pulled open the back of my swim diaper and cooed at me for being all clean, before ripping the sides of the diaper, letting it fall to the floor. She lifted me up and sat me in the bath. I was almost laughing because I barely fit in there, but I was too embarrassed.  I sat there as the woman washed me from head to toe, before lifting me out of the tub. She quickly wrapped me in a towel, and laid me on the changing station, next to multiple open bags of diapers. Once I was laying down, she used to the towel to dry me off before letting it fall to the sides. She looked me over and reached into one of the packages. I was about to say something, when she pushed a pacifier into my mouth. I watched in horror as she unfolded the diaper and grabbed me by the ankles, sliding the diaper under my butt and pulling it up between my legs, before taping it. I wasn't expecting a baby diaper to fit me, but it did. She smiled at me as she put my t-shirt and shorts back on me, and placed me in the final open seat in the stroller. Once I was strapped in, we were taken back to the daycare. 

Thankfully Auntie Veronica was there to pick us up right away, and I was able to take the diaper off. Strangest experience of my life!

Elizabeth Costello 8/3/2018

If she still doesn't know how to swim, you can bet she's going for another class! Good to know that Baby Dry size six fit her as well, since she's still struggling with her bedwetting. I think thats enough for today! Have a good weekend, and see y'all monday!

-Veronica

Halloween!

Tomorrow is Halloween! I just wanted to wish everyone a safe time out there with their little ones!

Don't let them eat the candy! Replace it when they get home with store bought, or a healthier treat!

I would also encourage children with weak bladders to wear protection under their costumes, to prevent accidents from scares, or from long outings between potty breaks.

Good luck out there! Sorry for the short post, but I have a lot of prep to do before Beth comes on Saturday.

See y'all tomorrow!

-Veronica

Potty Training regression and our upcoming trip

I have a two part post for you all today!

The first part was inspired by discussion with Katherine, about potty training regression.

What is it you ask? In a nutshell, potty training regression is a condition that is most common in children who are recently potty trained, start to back track, when a baby or toddler or introduced into their life, either a younger sibling, cousin or playmate. The children start to have daytime or night time potty accidents, in an attempted to get more attention, more specifically, the same type of attention that the baby is getting. While there is a general consensus on the cause of the problem, the potential solutions are highly contended. Some people believe that you need to do everything you can to stop your child from slipping backwards. I don't understand why some people are so uptight about potty training? Like the people who freak out if their baby is not potty trained by the time they're one year old. You should NEVER force a child do anything they don't want to do. If your child is still having accidents, thats fine, it just means that they're not ready to use the potty, and they will do it on their time. You, as a parent, just need to be supportive and patient.  I can not understand why there is such a negative stigma around wearing diapers?

Like I said, earlier, this behavior is most common in children ages 3-6, but can present in children as old as 18. A great example is my friend Ruth, and her three daughters. Her youngest, four years old, started having potty training setbacks, due to her not being ready to train, and had to be put back into diapers. Her oldest, seventeen, started having accidents soon after, and had to be put back into diapers as well. I am confident that both girls will be out of diapers and using the potty again, when they feel they are ready.

I think that this also a good explanation for Bailey's behavior. She see's Valerie, and wants to get the same attention she gets, so she had an accident on their first playdate, and then never objected to diapers or any other "babyish" treatment since then. And thats fine, she needs to grow at her own pace, and if that means taking steps backwards every once in a while, who am I to argue?


On to my other topic! Vacation time! Vinny is planning to fly us to Chicago for a few days next week so that he can get some cross country navigation time for is instrument rating. The flight time from Marion to Chicago, Midway is about two and a half hours in a typical single engine general aviation (GA) aircraft. We will be gone from the 7th to the 10th, so there will be no post on Thursday next week.

I noticed that there aren't a lot of blog posts about traveling on GA air travel with kids, so I will do some research and share that with you all in the coming days. My niece, Beth, is also coming to stay with us starting Saturday, so we are going to have to take her into account when we are traveling as well.

Stay tuned for more on that! See y'all soon!

-Veronica

Weekend Update

First of all, sorry for missing Friday's post. Fridays are really tough for me, since my husband, Vinny, is off work on Fridays. I think, moving forward, I will just be posting Monday through Thursday. If that changes, I will let you know.

Okay, time for the weekend update! This was a pretty busy weekend, between Valerie and Bailey going to the zoo on Saturday, to my second weekend at the church nursery.

I was keeping a close eye on the weather for the zoo, since the early forecasts were calling for rain. Thankfully, it ended up being a pretty nice day, with temperatures in the lower 60's. I started the day a bit earlier than usual, feeding Valerie her breakfast before Bailey was going to arrive.

When Bailey did arrive, I sent her to play with Valerie in her room, while I had a quick chat with Katherine.  I asked her one more time if it was okay for me to diaper Bailey for the zoo, she said it was no problem. I told her potty training regression is common for older kids who spend time with younger ones, and asked if has been a problem at home. I was relieved to hear that it wasn't an issue, and that she was interested to do further research into that condition. I told her I would write a future post about it. Katherine gave me a change of clothes for Bailey, just in case, which I put in Valerie's diaper bag that I had pre-packed.

Once Katherine left, I went to Valerie's room to check on the girls. I put Valerie up on the changing table and changed her out of her wet diaper. Then I got Bailey up on the table and put her into a diaper for the day as well, something that she seemed excited for. With both little ones in dry diapers and ready to go, I herded then down to the car and got them into the carseats. I put the diaper bag in the passenger seat, and set off for the zoo.

The zoo was pretty fun! We got to see all sorts of animals. Bailey seemed to have no problem being a toddler for the day. She didn't put up any fuss about riding in the stroller.  Even when it came to using her diapers, she seemed to have no problem, she never told me when she went potty, so I had to check her whenever I would check Valerie. Bailey wet just as often as Valerie, and even made a stinky at one point! Bailey is so easy going! It was a joy to take care of her for the day.

When we got home, I changed Bailey back into her panties, and let her go play with Valerie. I told her to let me know if she had to use the potty this time. She did, but being eight, I let her go on her own. Katherine came and picker her up before dinner time. She was happy that Bailey had a good time, said that we should do more of this in the future.

On Sunday, I worked another day at the nursery. Nothing interesting happened, except that I was asked if I could help out in the nursery next Saturday for a wedding, I agreed, thinking that would be fun.

Hope everyone else had a good weekend! See y'all tomorrow!

-Veronica

A Surprise Playdate

So, yesterday, Katherine surprised me with a phone call that she had to work late, and go out with clients, and was wondering if I could pick up Bailey at school and watch her. Ever since we met at the park on Saturday, Katherine and I have become fast friends. We have been chatting almost every day. She is a real estate agent, so her schedule is very flexible. We have been able to get coffee and chat almost every day. She has told me that she would be interested in writing some posts on the blog some time, or starting her own blog. When she asked if I could help, I told her that I was delighted, and Valerie would be happy to play with Bailey after school. I figured that this would be a good dry run for Saturday as well.

At two in the afternoon, I woke Valerie up from her afternoon nap, and changed her into a fresh diaper. I put got her dressed to go out. I put her in a pair of jeans and t-shirt. I got her into her carseat, and we drove off to pick up Bailey from school. I saw her standing at the curb. I parked near her and got out. She came up to me, saying that her mom had called the school to let her know I was coming. I smiled at her and opened the back door, after taking her book bag. She came over, but stopped short of getting in. I asked her what was wrong, and she blushed, asking if I had a booster seat. I told her no, and she reluctantly climbed into the carseat. I smiled and strapped her in with the five point harness. I got back in the driver's seat, and looked at the two girls in the rearview mirror. I could see that Bailey was a little embarrassed. "Sweetie, thanks for being a big girl and not putting up a fuss. Valerie is still a little girl, and our rules for her friends are also, more or less, geared for a younger audience." She looked at Valerie and smiled, and said that she understood. I told her that she was a good girl, and drove home.

Once we got home, I parked the car in the garage, and got out, letting Bailey out of her carseat first, followed by Valerie. I led the girls into the house by the hand. I asked Bailey if she had any homework to do. Bailey said no. I asked what the girls wanted to do. The girls said that they wanted to play outside. I suggested we could go to the park, but I needed to get some things done first. I put Valerie in her playpen, and turned the tv on sprout. I noticed that Bailey, was kinda just standing there, unsure of what to do with herself, so I lifted her up and put her in the playpen with Valerie.

I went about my usual chores, putting away laundry, and straightening up the house. When I got back to the living room, I saw Bailey standing in the playpen with wet pants. She looked a little embarrassed with herself. I asked her what happened, and she told me that she was too distracted playing with Valerie, and didn't realize she had to go until it was too late. At first, I wasn't quite sure what to do. Bailey didn't have a spare set of clothes with her. Valerie is pretty big for her age, and Bailey is pretty average, so maybe she could fit into something of Valerie's.

I lifted Bailey out of the playpen and took her by the hand to Valerie's room. I took a deep breath and told her that this was not a punishment, but we needed to get her in something dry, and that meant, as far as underwear was concerned, one of Valerie's diapers. She honestly seemed a little too excited about that...but maybe it was just me. I asked her if she wanted help getting undressed, to which she said yes, so I took off her jeans and panties, since only those were wet. I lifted her onto the changing table and set to work cleaning her off with baby wipes. I grabbed one of Valerie's Pampers Baby Dry diapers from her stacker and unfolded it. I grabbed Bailey by her ankles and slid the diaper under her, pulling it up between her legs and taped it shut. Not a bad fit. I checked the leak guards and lifted Bailey off the table. I went over to Valerie's closet and searched through it, until I found a long sundress. I pulled that out and went to dresser and pulled out some white tights. I took Bailey's shirt off and put the dress over her. On Valerie to comes down to her mid calf, on Bailey, it was just above the knee. I sat her down on the changing table again and worked the tights up her legs and over her diaper. Once she was dressed I got down on her level and told her "Bailey, now that you're wearing a diaper, that means you don't need to tell me when you need to use the potty. Just go in your diapee and I will check and change you when I do the same to Valerie." She just smiled and nodded, I gave her a pat on her padded bottom as I walked her back to the living room. It was a little cute to hear her crinkle the whole way. I threw her clothes in the wash before going to get the stroller ready.

The thought had occurred to me that maybe we should put Bailey in diapers preemptively for our trip to the zoo on Saturday. While she and Valerie were chatting through the mesh of the playpen. I went and grabbed the diaper bag and put it under the stroller. I picked up Valerie from the playpen and strapped her into the stroller before having Bailey sit down, and strapping her in as well. Since she was wearing a dress, the straps made it ride up, and showed off her diaper, I tried to fix it, since she's an older girl, but it just wasn't working, so I gave up on it.

The park was pretty uneventful. Both girls ended up wet after a while, but I just changed them when we got home. By the time we got back the washer was done, and I put Bailey's clothes in the dryer. The dryer was done before long, and I had Bailey dressed back in her regular clothes, and big girl panties.  When Katherine came, I told her what happened, and apologized, but she said its fine, and I did the right thing. I asked her if she would be okay with Bailey wearing a diaper for the zoo trip, to which she also said no problem.  Glad my maternal instincts were right!

See y'all tomorrow!

-Veronica

Preparing for Family Outings

Hi everyone!

Today is going to be a short post. I want to talk about what you need to do ton prepare for an outing with your little ones. I am going to use Valerie and Bailey as an example for this, since I am taking them both to the Columbus Zoo this Saturday.

To refresh everyone's memory, Valerie, is my daughter, she's two years old, and still very much rambunctious, active toddler. Bailey, is Valerie's new friend. She's eight years old. Not to state the obvious, but the biggest difference between Valerie and Bailey is that Valerie is still in diapers, and Bailey, according to her mommy, has been potty trained since she was three. With that in mind, let's start with packing Valerie's diaper bag.

The first thing in the diaper bag should be diapers, obviously. My caveat to that is that since I am bringing two girls to the zoo, even though one of them has been potty trained for years, I would still want to bring enough diapers for both of them, in case of accidents. Accidents can happen to a child at any age, so it's best to be prepared. If we were going somewhere where there would be a lot of waiting in line, I would suggest putting a child like Bailey into diapers preemptively, but since its just the zoo, we'll just keep them as a backup for now. As a side note, if it was going to be more than an hour drive, I would also suggest diapers for an older child, but since its about 50 minutes from Marion, I don't think that would be needed either. It goes without saying that a changing pad, and wipes would also be required.

I would bring a sippy cup for each child, which can be refilled at the drinking fountains, to keep the little ones hydrated. One pacifier and pacifier clip for each child, in case they get fussy. I know its controversial to give an older kid a pacifier, but I feel that immature behavior requires an appropriate response. If Bailey acts like a fussy toddler, then I have no problem treating her like one, not that I expect her to be a problem, she's a sweet girl. Finally, I would bring a fresh set of clothes for each girl. I prefer a sundress, since it's simple, and it's just one item to pack, as opposed to a top and bottoms. I will make sure to have a back up dress for each girl. I also still like to put a bib on Valerie whenever she eats to protect her clothes, so I would bring an extra for Bailey too. I would also throw some snacks in there for the two of them, as well as some distractions. Finally I would also bring sunscreen. Sunburns are no fun.

Itemized list:
-Diapers (At least 4 per child)
-Wipes (Both Baby wipes and sanitizing wipes)
-Changing pad
-Bibs (One per child)
-Pacifiers and Pacifier clips (One per child)
-Sippy Cup (One per child, plus one spare)
-Extra Dresses/Clothes (one for each girl)
-Snacks
-Distractions (toy, or coloring book/crayons)
-Sunscreen

Other considerations

I am used to entertaining Valerie's friends, both at home, and on outings. We have a double wide stroller that we use for when we go on outings with Valerie's friends, as well as two carseats installed in my car. I am going to bring the double stroller, just incase both girls get tired of walking. Bailey should have no problem fitting into either the carseat or stroller.

I know this, because my Niece, Beth, who is now sixteen, fit into both when she was fifteen, and was throwing a tantrum before we went to the mall. Like I said earlier, I am a firm believer that kids should be treated how they act. Since Beth was acting like a toddler, I treated her like one. I popped a pacifier into her mouth, and clipped it to her shirt, before I strapped her into the carseat for the car ride to the mall, before strapping her into stroller once we got there. I told her that if she was going to throw tantrums like that, she could suck on her binkie quietly while the grownups do their shopping. I have to admit that theres a little part of me that likes to embarrass her. At one point, Valerie made a stinky, and I could smell it. I pushed the stroller to a family restroom, and waited in line behind a couple other mothers. I walked to front of the stroller and pinched my nose, looking right at Beth, saying "Did somebody make me a present?" I unstrapped her and leaned her forward, pulling out the back of her shorts and panties, and peeing inside, before announcing, "Nope, no stinkies back here!" I strapped Beth back in before checking Valerie the same way, announcing to the other mothers around, "I found the stinky butt!" I got a few chuckles out of it. Figuring Beth learned her lesson, I let her out of the stroller, and took her pacifier back. She was well behaved for the rest of the shopping trip.

Sorry for the tangent.  The stroller can also double as Sun protection for the little ones. Just strap them in and pull the cover down! Its pretty easy.

Well, I hope that helps anyone who is taking care of two little ones, at different stages. I will let everyone know next week how things went with the trip to the zoo!

See y'all tomorrow!

-Veronica

Bedwetting Solutions, focusing on the symptoms first, then tackle the cause

Let’s talk about bedwetting for a bit. There seems to be very little consensus as to how to deal with children with bedwetting. It seems like people are too concerned with finding the root cause of the issue, instead of taking the necessary steps to limit the damage of the symptoms both to the child’s bed, and to their self worth/self-esteem.  It also seems that people tend to try and consider age as part of how they solve the problem. For instance, "My child is 10 year old, they're too old to be wetting the bed." This is not true, and it doesn't natter if your child is six or sixteen, the solution should not change.

For example, for very young children, it’s considered a just fact of life that children will take longer to get night time trained, vs daytime trained. This is why you see some children up to five or six years old still wearing diapers or pull-ups at night. 

When kids get older, we tend to second guess our instincts as to how to handle night time accidents. We try bedwetting alarms and medications. Age should not be a variable that needs to be considered in this equation. If a child is wetting his or her bed, they should be first and foremost protected. Its much better for the mental wellbeing for them to wake up with a wet diaper, than a wet bed. 

We need to stop telling our kids that diapers are for babies, and should be something that they should feel embarrassed for wearing. This is the opposite of the message we should be sending to them. Diapers are nothing but a tool, there should be no positive or negative connotation to them. I read blog posts and articles about how parents are potty training their kids at insanely early ages, to get away from diapers. A child will use the potty when and only when they are ready. Not when you are ready.  You don’t want to change diapers? Then don’t have kids. 

I asked my Brother, Robert about Beth’s bedwetting, and he said that so far its only been sporadic, and has wet the bed now 4 times in the last month. I asked him what he was doing for her. He said nothing. If she were my daughter, I would have had her back in diapers at night after the 2nd wet night, but that’s just me. We’ll have to see how things are going when she comes to stay with us. 

My little girl, Valerie is two. She has no interest in using the potty any time soon, which is fine. She still has plenty of time to figure out when is ready. Until now, she hasn’t been exposed to any potty trained friends, so her playdate with  Bailey should be interesting. 

In other news, the story that Mary told me on Sunday, has got Vinny and I talking about thinking of adopting a brother or sister for Valerie. We haven’t really thought too much about it, only that it’s worth looking into. I am going to do some research and see where that leads me. 

Well, I think that will do it for today.

-Veronica

Weekend Update

Hi everyone! 

I hope you all had a blessed weekend! I surely did!

I took Valerie to the park on Saturday and she made a new friend! A little 8 year old girl named Bailey. At first I was surprised at how nice she was, playing with a younger girl like Valerie, but they really got along well. I went and sat down and got to know Bailey’s mommy, Katherine. She was very nice as well. It turns out, she live just a block over from us. I asked her if she thought that Bailey would like to come and play with Valerie some time, since there is quite the age difference between the two of them. She said that she didn’t see a problem with that. 

I warned Katherine that since Valerie was much younger, and still very much a toddler, that we weren’t used to having an older kid around the house, and Bailey may have to follow some rules that she may be too old for. Katherine didn’t think that would be an issue. I told her to make sure that Bailey had an extra change of clothes with her when she came to play. We are going to have her over on Next Saturday to go ton the Columbus Zoo. 

In other News, my husband, Vinny, has his private Pilot’s license, and has been working towards his instrument rating! He is almost done with his training, and will be be completing the required hours soon! When that happens, we will start planning some family vacations where we can fly ourselves! ! Wont’t that be fun.  Stay tuned for some posts about General Aviation flying with children, and how to cope with long GA flights, as soon as I get some good ideas! 

Vinny and I are pretty involved with our church, and Like I mentioned earlier, I wanted to start working in the church Nursery, to get practice for when I open my home daycare. This was the first weekend that I would be working in the nursery, and it was great! 

It was myself and one of the other mommy’s talking care of 6 little ones, including Valerie. I don’t know how other parishes run their nursery, but ours is very relaxed. We don’t have any set age limit for the little ones. The only requirement is that any child, regardless of age, who is placed in the nursery, has to wear diapers, and go through the same routine as the other little ones. The little ones are dropped off at the nursery, and are either put in playpens or rockers if they’re under one year old. If they’re toddlers, they get to play in the main area. We give the little ones a morning bottle of formula, and morning nap. The older kids get sippy cups of juice. Everyone gets a morning nap. We have enough cribs for 8 little ones to have their own space. Some kids get picked up after services. Those who stay longer, while their parents are in bible study, get a lunch, followed by another nap. We only have two highchairs, so we start with the youngest first, and work our way up to older kids.  The younger ones get another bottle formula before being put down for an afternoon nap. 

I have been told that sometimes we get the some of the older children who are getting baptized, since they are supposed to be babies in the eyes of God, on the day of their Baptism, they spend the morning in the nursery with the other little ones, until its time for them to go to the Chapel to get baptized, then they come back and play unit their parents are ready to take them home. Mary, the other mother who works in the nursery, told me that last year they had a fifteen year old girl who was adopted from Romania, and she spent the day in the nursery. I was fascinated by this, I asked her to explain to me how that worked.

Mary said the girl was treated just like any other baby under one year old, she was in diapers, and a dress, with a pacifier on a lanyard clipped to her dress. She was placed in a playpen with a one year old girl. Mary said that the girl didn’t speak English, so it was just like any other baby that was babbling, and was responded to by cooing. She would check the girl’s diaper whenever she made her rounds. Ethel, an older lady who used to run the nurser, fed the girl a morning bottle of formula, before burping her. She was sent to the chapel for her baptism after her bottle. Mary said they the must have checked her diaper 5 or six times before she was wet. The girl was put down in one of the cribs for her morning nap after coming back from being baptized. Mary was the one to go and check on on her after her nap, finder her diaper wet. She carried her to the changing table and changed her, before putting her in a playpen again. Since her new parents were going to meeting with the minister after services, she was still there after most of the little ones were picked up. Ethel get her out of her playpen and into a highchair for lunch, since was technically one of the youngest. Ethel put a bib on her and fed her 2 jars of baby food, prunes and strained carrots, before giving her to Mary for her afternoon bottle. Mary said she remembered that she was a little fussy during her feeding, but eventually ate both jars of food. Mary said she took her to a rocking chair and fed her her bottle of formula, while rocking her. After burping her, she was put down for her afternoon nap in one of the cribs. Mary said that after 20 minutes, she heard the girl crying on the baby monitor, and went in to check on her. Turns out, the little one just had just made a stinky and needed to be changed. 

I couldn’t believe that! It must have been quite the sight to see! Mary said that its not very common for us to get baptisms that old. She said that the girl was only in the nursery that day, before going back to being a big girl. She’s learned English and is on the church’s youth group now. I wonder of I will ever get to see something like that in the nursery? 

In other news, it looks like my niece, Beth, is going to be coming to stay with us some time after Halloween. We are still trying to figure out how we are going to handle this, since Robert doesn’t know how long Beth is going to be with us yet. I will let you know as soon as I know more. 

Thanks to listening to my little weekend update! See y’all tomorrow!

-Veronica

Potty Issues in older Children

So, I wanted to take some time, in lieu of any reader comments to offer my opinions on some mothering situations that have come to my attention, either through friends or from the internet. 

The first one I want to talk about, is from a conversation  I had with one of my friends from growing up, Ruth. She’s a single mother, and has three beautiful daughters, 4, 12 and 17, now living in Ft. Collins. She is having the hardest time trying to get her 4 year old potty trained, to the point where she had to put her little one back into diapers again.  Ruth says that her youngest just doesn’t seem to care if her pull-ups are wet or messy, and only makes it to the potty less than half the time.  That is what I would have done too, if the little one isn’t ready, then its shouldn’t be a big deal to go back to diapers for a bit, and try again when the child shows interest. 

The middle daughter, 12, is a bedwetter, but I am told that she wears pull-ups to bed, and they do the trick. I think that wet pull-ups, or diapers are much better for a child’s self-esteem than a wet bed, so I think that Ruth is doing the right thing there; although, I would use diapers over pull-ups at night. Diapers hold more, are less likely to leak, and don’t cost as much. 

Finally, we come to her oldest, the 17 year old. She’s a great, and responsible girl, but recently, has started having wet and messy daytime accidents. Ruth told me that she said that she has had two so far, and has not seemed to care that she had a load in the seat of her panties. Understandably, Ruth was not sure how to handle the situation. I did my best to give her sound advice. I told her that she has to ignore how hold her kids are, since that’s not important. I told her to compare her 4 year old and her 17 year old’s behavior side by side. After she did that she realized that they were behaving the same way, so then I explained to her, why don’t treat the the problem the same way? After that realization she decided to put her teenager back into diapers alongside her four year old. I told her to just keep and eye on the two of them, and if they show interest in using the potty, then  she can potty train them both again, maybe even together.  Maybe she can get them both into training pants before Kindergarten and College starts. 

She said that both her four year old and seventeen year old seem happier to be back in diapers. Both have been more engaged, and the 17 year old is actually playing with toys, like she’s a toddler again. Ruth even has the two of them on the same schedule to make her life a bit easier! Her twelve year old has really picked up the slack and become a mature member of the family, taking care of both her sisters. Responsibility can lead to maturity.  Ruth said that her bedwetting has even become less frequent now. 

The other issue I wanted to tackle was one that I found online. A Step-mother has taken in her fourteen year old step-daughter, after the girl’s father had gotten full custody of her. She seems to have some anxiety about using the potty for number two. According to her step-mother, she had an embarrassing experience where she had an extra large BM, and clogged the toilet, causing damage to the house due to some minor flooding. Since then, the Step-mother has been finding poop stashed all around the girl’s bedroom. 

I think we all can agree that sort of behavior is not sanitary, and needs to stop right away. When confronting her about it, the teen denied it, and played it off like she didn’t do anything.  I can’t speak to how this step-mother approached the situation with her step-daughter, but If it were me, I would do a couple of things. Firstly I would tell her that she’s not in trouble. That way she could be calm about the situation , and hopefully be more forthcoming and honest. Secondly, I would give her some alternate options to using the toilet, either let her go back to diapers until she works out her issues with her therapist that I would start to send her to.  Alternately, I would offer to get her a potty chair for her room, so that she could relieve herself, but not have to deal with the toilet.  Either way, I would reinforce that she is loved, and that I was there to take care of her, and get her through this. 

I hope that advice will resonate with y’all! I hope y’all have a good weekend, and I will be back to post about my first weekend in the nursery on Monday! 

See y’all soon!

-Veronica

Welcome to my blog!

Hi everyone! First post! Woo! I haven’t quite decided on a format for this yet (but maybe with some reader feedback we can figure something out). For those who didn’t read my bio, I have a baby girl of close to two years old, and an a stay at home mommy.  I want to eventually open a home daycare/home-school, since I have my degree in early childhood education.

Because of this, I often keep an eye on some of the other kids in the neighborhood. Because of my educational background, I am used to being a trusted source of information to the other parents on my street, which is why I started this blog. Please feel free to email me or comment with any questions I can answer for you. 

Now, down to business; I wanted my first post to be about diapers. Specifically, the debate between cloth and disposables. I have tried both with my daughter, Valerie, but I can say that disposables are still more convenient to our lifestyle, than cloth diapers are. 

That being said, I know some people are going to be like, “Hey Veronica, don’t you know that disposables are terrible for the planet?”  Of course I know that, but some times you need to do what’s going to be less stress on you and your family, at the expense of the environment. I have found that it’s too hard to cart around cloth diapers while we’re out, and bring them home to be washed. 

It’s just so much easier to throw away a wet or poopie pamper, than it is to carry around a soiled cloth diaper, in my opinion. Plus, less to carry means a smaller diaper bag. I call that a win!

Also, who likes doing laundry? I haven’t really thought about going the diaper service route, but maybe in the future I’ll try it out and let you know how it goes. 

On another note, less happy note, my brother is getting divorced, and his little girl is getting stressed out by the whole situation. I feel so bad for her, she’s such a sweet girl; so we may be getting an extended house guest! I guess that's the silver lining to the whole situation. 

My big brother, Robert, is in the middle of a very messy divorce, so my niece, Elizabeth, May be coming to stay with us as Robert and his soon to be ex wife work out their differences. Robert tells me that he things that Beth is a little stressed out. He’s caught her sucking her thumb when nobody is looking, and she’s been having sporadic episodes of Bedwetting, so far just twice in one month, but that is still a little concerning for a girl almost sixteen years old.  I think she just needs some love and care right now.

Anyway, thanks for listening to me ramble on! Please leave a comment for any questions you want me to answer, otherwise, I’ll see y’all soon!

-Veronica