It’s been a funny month at our house. It seems like people were sick, Mike was out of town, or we had doctors appointments (just checkups, not even sickness-related since we thankfully never got anything worse than a cold) the entire month. Actually, my normally-robust little boy is sitting pitifully on my lap as I type – not sure what’s wrong, but he doesn’t feel good.
I’ve been following along with Bethany’s Goal a Month – here’s how we did this month. My goal for February was to get Johnny eating solids consistently – for whatever reason, solid foods have always been a struggle for him. I did make some progress this month – he now eats pureed fruit with baby cereal – pretty elementary for a 14-month-old, but believe me, it’s progress. He has tasted several baby food dinner options (still struggling to get him to eat them), I even got him to eat the occasional bite of whatever the rest of the family is eating for all three meals.
My goal for March is to get more of a routine going at home. I’m talking a very rough routine, not hour-by-hour planning. I’m hoping that a little bit more structure will help me get more done at home… If any of you have routines you love in your homes, I would love to hear about them!
As for my goals for the year…
- Find places to keep all those odds and ends that get stashed in random places: I’m doing better at this. We have a half wall between our kitchen and living room, and this typically has junk sitting on it. I’m actually considering putting knick-knacks up there, just to make it harder to put other things there instead. I cleared it off completely earlier this month, and have actually managed to limit what got put back to grown-up library books and books on CD (also checked out of the library) that we want out of the kids’ reach. Next step? Make a place where the library books and CDs belong so they don’t get stashed there.
- Potty train Emma: I was beginning to think that I would have three kids in diapers this summer until right before Emma’s birthday. Emma had shown zero interest in potty-training, and books and videos were no help since they tend to emphasize that going potty makes you a “big kid” and Emma didn’t want to be a “big kid”. A couple days before she turned 3, she brought me some underpants and said she was going to use the potty. One week after this announcement, she went an entire day without an accident, and has been accident-free ever since. I do want to convince her that pull-ups are a good idea for bedtime, since she occasionally wets the bed and probably won’t grow out of that for a while yet. Besides, I have a bunch of perfectly-good pull-ups sitting on the closet shelf…
- Get Johnny to eat more solid food: work in progress…
- Be more patient with cooking/baking that involves a rolling pin: Still haven’t touched a rolling pin
- Take the kids outdoors more: We went on a walk around the neighborhood one day, and they played outside with Daddy one other day. There was another day when I really wanted to take them out (it was gorgeous), but we had a day full of doctor appointments instead…
- Get the kids to sleep through the night better: Emma will now fall asleep on her own, so long as the light is on in the room. I think both kids are actually sleeping better at night, but neither child sleeps through the night…
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
We struggleda lot with our oldest with solid food. Glad to say he loves to eat now! He was day time potty trained by 2 1/2. After his 3rd birthday, we took off the diaper at night, we used a mattress pad under him just in case. He had a few accidents, but after a week he was good!
I’ve known children who (in spite of never wearing a pull-up or diaper after being potty trained) continued to wet the bed for years after being completely trained – they simply slept so heavily that they didn’t wake up. Good luck! :)
Thanks for the suggestions/feedback! My daughter has actually never wet in a pull-up, during the day or night. I don’t know why she has less of a problem getting regular underpants wet… I hadn’t thought of getting one of those ultimate crib sheets, great idea!
I potty trained my daughter at 12 months. My recommendation is NOT to use diapers or pull ups at night – she will stop having accidents faster. The bulk of the diaper/pull-up remind them not to pee, but once you take it away, they often go back to having accidents because the bulky feeling isn’t there to remind them. I used an ultimate crib sheet (from Babies R Us) over our sheets (we co-sleep) and if she has an accident in the middle of the night, I just have to pull the crib sheet and go right back to sleep. I found that after a week, she woke herself up and asked to go to the potty and stopped having accidents. At 18 months, we still have occasional accidents on nights where she is super tired, but they are rare. My 18 month old is also a picky eater when it comes to veggies and fruits – she only likes them pureed. Makes for a lot of work for the blender. I like your goals. Gives me good ideas.
A few thoughts:*I have found that getting more of a schedule in my life has definitely been a baby-stepping process, but fortunately I can look back over the last few years and see a lot of progress – so hang in ther!*Rolling pins are overrated. :)*Our kids still take turns waking up in the night, as well. Fortunately for me (unfortunately for Peter) I sleep like a rock so I don’t even realize it most of the time.