diapers, potty training and bathrooms...oh my!

I have 2 friends who are pregnant with their first baby.  And for some reason they seem to think I know what I'm doing because I have three kids so they ask questions (although the real secret is I don't know what I'm doing most of the time).  But it got me thinking about how much life changes.  I was thinking about what they don't tell you when you are about to become a parent for the first time.  Like how bathrooms and bathroom related issues play such an important role in everyday life.  The sheer amount of time and energy I've spent on bathroom issues in my almost 12 years of being a Mom is mind boggling.  And it's not just the fact that once you are a Mom you are willing to shove your nose right in the bottom of a young child to see if they are stinky, or that you just accept calls of "I need help wiping" as a part of daily life.  The bathroom stuff just seems to take over your life once you become a Mom.

First there's dealing with newborn daily pee and poop schedules (and cleaning).  I remember the chart I brought home from the hospital when I had Kyle, to keep track of feeding and diaper changes.  Being super-keen-on-top-of-everything-new-mom I added extra columns because once it ended I felt I still needed to track each little incident.  That's the first child...with the second and third it was more of a "eh, they seem to be eating well and I'm changing enough diapers".

Then we move onto toddlerhood, aka potty training.  Oh boy, our first foray into potty training was a doozy.  The second time was much easier, Jillian was fully potty trained shortly after turning 2 years old (through absolutely no effort on our part, it was all her doing).  And of course the potty trained preschooler leads into one of my least favourite stages of parenthood, the visit-every-public-washroom stage *shudder*.  Thankfully I'm mostly out of that stage, although Leah does enjoy keeping me on my toes when we are out at times and remind me I am at the mercy of a 5 year old sized bladder.

There was the one (and only) time I decided it would be fun for us to drive Jeff to the airport and drop him off before going on a business trip.  With a 7 year old, 3.5 year old and newborn.  Yes, I'm serious, I really did think this was a good idea.  My main memory of that trip was keeping the kids from running off in the airport, then finally getting everyone back to the van, getting the newborn secured into the infant seat and hearing those 5 little words "I have to go pee".  Fantastic.  A bathroom trip, and 30 minutes later, I finally got everyone back to the van.  Never again did Jeff get a family drop off at the airport.

The kids get older and they are self-suffient in the bathroom...you would think.  Why is it I can tell my kids the same thing over and over and over again but for some reason the sequence of "flush and wash hands" is too difficult to remember?  Even better is the fighting over our mainfloor powder room.  It is the smallest bathroom but by far the most popular out of the four we have in our home.  It's amazing the arguing I hear from a desperate child who tells me they MUST get into that bathroom right now, they can't hold it, their brother/sister really must come out this instant because they need the bathroom NOW.  They'll spent a good 2-3 minutes explaining to me why it has to be this bathroom and they simply cannot make it long enough to use the one a few seconds away at the top of the stairs (the bathroom which is literally in my sight while having this insane discussion).  And of course the phrase "wash your hands for dinner" usually instigates a stampede and someone being slighted or having the door slammed in their face with them shouting "not fair! I was first!".  They really do love each other but apparently all's fair in love, war and the mainfloor powder room.

I've saved my favourite part about bathrooms and parenthood for last.  The always lovely "MOOOOOM!" that I hear when I dare go to the bathroom.  And it's always super urgent stuff that couldn't possibly wait a minute or two...things like "can I have another bookmark to paint?", "my pinky finger hurts", "can I have a snack?", "how many days is it until Christmas?" (I'm not making any of these up).  For some reason Jeff doesn't seem to be fair game to the kids under the same circumstances.  He has often asked why I lock/barricade myself into our bedroom to use the ensuite in the evenings when he's at home.  I explain it's because otherwise they feel welcome to just come on in!

Maybe one day I'll be sad about being all alone in the bathroom with no-one yelling for help finding their pink sock.  Just kidding! This is one (and possibly the only) stage of babyhood/childhood I'll be happy to leave behind.

happy Monday

I've had a few discussions with people lately about how superficially wonderful our lives seem on facebook & instagram...pictures of homebaked muffins and happy children.  I'm guilty of this as well because hey, who wants to hear that I mopped the floor and scrubbed toilets?  Baking muffins just seems more sharing-friendly.    Who wants to see pictures of my kids glued to the tv/ipod/laptop?  A cute picture of them smiling is so much nicer!  I would hope all of my friends know when I post these happy and fun updates that I'm sharing the fun side of life and I'm not trying to portray that I live my life 100% in that happy place.  But just to be sure here's a glimpse into my morning from today - an average morning in this house.

* I hit snooze on my alarm 4 times (Jeff often asks why don't I set the alarm for the time I will get up but I just don't know if I can physically get out of bed now without hitting snooze 4 times)
* woke up to Kyle and Jillian both dressed and fed (see, I'm creating self-sufficient children, that's a good life skill for them!)
* tried to wake up the 4-almost-5 year old but she grunted at me and rolled over (can't imagine where she gets that from?)...left her in bed to go make lunches and figured she'd get up at some point
* at some point while making lunches I yelled at Jillian twice - first time because I had to ask her several times to turn off the tv (yes, my kids watch tv in the morning).  Second time was unneccesary I'll admit...she insists on saying "I did that already" when I remind Kyle to do something and I find it annoying so I yelled at her
* Kyle needs to take supplies into school to make an airplane, I had told him I'd go to the dollar store for a metre long stick yesterday but did not (did however spend the morning at a birthday party and the afternoon at the farm for Jillian's riding lesson so it's not like I was just hanging out on the couch).
* I tried to pawn off some other materials but he found fault with all of them.  I cannot go to the store this morning and drop it off at school because I'm babysitting a cute one year old for a friend this morning...Kyle did take in some other long sticks I found and said he'll try to make it work
* made lunches, including leftovers for Jillian in her thermos since she really does not like sandwiches (that goes in the plus column, go me)
* while making the lunches I had to ignore screams of help from Leah because Kyle and Jillian needed to get out the door to make the bus on time (hmmm, this is where getting up earlier to make lunches ahead of time rather than 5 minutes before the bus comes would be beneficial...)
* Kyle and Jillian out the door on time WITH lunches and supplies to make an airplane
* tried to dress Leah but she was crying about wearing the snowman shirt so I found a clean dress and leggings (a miracle considering how far behind on laundry I am) which made her happy, she told me "I'll wear the snowman shirt another day when I'll be playing in the snow", well okay then.
* while packing Leah's backpack she reminded me we did not read her levelled reading book (to make this even worse we've had it at home for a week because she was sick last week), I told her I forgot but it's okay because we read other books (she seemed skeptical...)
* adorable one year old has showed up to play with me for the morning and keep me occupied, he's happily digging into the duplo lego as I finish typing this up and doing really well considering he's never been to my house before, looks like we'll have a fun morning together (and I might be able to make a dent in the mountain of laundry if he continues to be this good at keeping himself occupied with lego for a few minutes at a time)

So I won't be up for mother-of-the-year award any time soon but the kids did all get to school on time with lunches and art supplies, I consider that a win for a Monday morning.

I'll finish with a little thing that gave me a chuckle this morning...I came down to see Kyle had added a word to my scrabble magnet board, can you guess which word is Kyle's?

30 hour famine

I'm very proud of my 11 (almost 12) year old son.  This past weekend he participated in World Vision's 30 Hour Famine along with the youth group from our church.  We set up his donation webpage and Kyle picked a nutrition program in East Africa for his donations.  And he was thrilled to reach his goal of $100 (thank you very much to our wonderful family!).

Jeff set his alarm for 5:30am to get up with Kyle for his final meal before the famine started.  At 6:00 it started and Kyle didn't eat again until noon the following day!  And he was adamant about the rules, he wouldn't even let me put a banana into his lunch smoothie, I had to use liquid yoghurt and juice only.  Later in the day Kyle headed to church to spend the evening with the youth group.  They had an evening of fun, games, discussion and oh yeah, hunger.  Jeff received an email at 2:19am from Kyle so they were up late.

Lack of sleep and food definitely caught up with Kyle, the following day even after having some food Kyle was sluggish and had trouble concentrating.  It was a good lesson for him, I reminded him many children around the world need to get through days feeling like that...including walking long distances and getting through a school day.

It also made me think about all those mothers around the world who struggle to meet even the most basic needs of their children.  All day I kept wanting to give Kyle food because it made me sad to think he was hungry and his body wasn't getting the nutrients it needs to grow.  My life may be very different from those other mothers but we all love our children the same.  How difficult it must be for these mothers to wake up knowing they don't have enough food to feed their children that day.

I feel blessed in so many ways, but knowing I can provide healthy food, education and a comfortable bed for my children without any struggle is by far my biggest blessing.

I'm proud of you Kyle!

science experts

If visiting a science centre equals becoming an expert in the field of science then my kids (and I) are experts for sure.  We have a membership to the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto and visited a little while ago when Jillian had her sleepover there with her Brownie troop.  Our OSC membership conveniently gets us into many other science centres for free including the Centre des Sciences de Montreal.  Alicia joined us for some science fun.  Last year she spent most of the time in her stroller during our visit, it was neat to see such a big change this year while she walked around and explored.  While we did enjoy ourselves, and it was fun to bring Alicia along on our excursion, I think I'm due for a break from science for a little while now.

This giant red thing in the front of the science centre is a constant fav with my kids who loves climbing all over.  This year Leah was able to climb up to the top all by herself (my little monkey).

building a bridge

The giant bubble maker is always a big hit with my kids.  Jillian managed to get it all the way to the top twice.

my three favourite girls!

Old Montreal

I absolutely love walking around Old Montreal...the stonework, cobblestone streets, tiny shops...it's like a tiny piece of Europe here in Canada.  I took the kids down to the science centre which is at the Old Port of Montreal.  Since the weather was nice I decided we could all have a nice little walk around the old part of the city.  Little did I know that after having more than enough energy to run and play in the science centre, my children would consider a 10 minute walk to be pure torture because they were exhausted.  Poor little things (just kidding, I told them to suck it up because Mommy wanted to walk around!).  Note to self: next time walk around by myself, not nearly as enjoyable with whiny children.

I told them in addition to the 10 minute walk I also required a few nice pictures of them in the old city, preferably with smiles.

happy children 

(happy they'll be heading back to the van soon!)

March Break in Montreal

March Break is here which means roadtrip to Montreal for myself and the kids.  There are only a few times a year I can take the kids to Montreal for a few days to visit my sister and her family, this is one of them.  As a bonus my niece's birthday falls right before March break.  Another bonus is it is NOT spring break in Montreal so the kids and I do some fun things without any crowds.

Happy Birthday Alicia!

The kids had so much fun visiting their little cousins.  We had birthday cake and sang to Alicia (can't believe she is 2 already).  Noah has already changed a lot since the last time we saw him, those darn babies are always growing and changing so fast!

It was fun to spend time in their new (old) house...a work in progress but they've already made a lot of amazing changes

Noah in his helmet

Noah has a fairly severe case of plagiocephaly.  When he was a few weeks old my sister noticed Noah had a strong preference for one side of his head, she had trouble getting him to sleep or lay down in any other position.  She also noticed a flattening of his head on that side.  After consulting with the pediatrician and specialist, my sister had the diagnosis of plagiocephaly for Noah.  In Noah's case it's likely caused from his position in utero.  The treatment is fairly simple, Noah was measured for a helmet designed to help his head grow into the proper shape.  He's only been wearing it for a month but I could already see a big difference when I visited this time compared to the last time I saw Noah.  Thankfully the helmet doesn't seem to bother Noah at all.  Although it does keep my sister busy with regular appointments with a couple of different specialists to make sure the helmet is always adjusted and working properly.

hanging out with Noah

Do you want to know my sister's secret to getting my kids excited about a trip to visit her in Montreal?  Sure there's the adorable cousins and fun roadtrip.  But the real trick is in the breakfast cereal...Christina always has Lucky Charms for my kids at her house (something we never have at home).  Fun treat for the mornings.

sisters

Is there anything more entertaining than a 2 year old dancing?  I don't think so.

Finally at the end of our visit I managed to get all five kiddos on the couch at the same time for a picture.  I took quite a few and this is my favourite because Noah looks beyond adorable sitting in between his two big cousins.

recap

It's roll up the rim time again, and I won a free donut...sweet!

It turns out Leah is a mini-mogul...she beat Jeff & Jillian at Monopoly Jr to become the lemonade queen.



Kyle is learning to lay the trombone this semester at school, fun!  He already knows a few simple songs.

We found a new farm for Jillian to continue lessons.  She's happy to be back in the saddle and meeting some new horses.  This is Breeze, Jillian rode him this morning.

Tomorrow is roadtrip time!  The kids and I are heading to Montreal to visit my adorable niece & nephew, can't wait to give them a kiss.