{Potty Training}

4 weeks ago today I decided it was time to start potty training Eliana. Every time she went #2 in her diaper she would run to me and proudly announce that she went potty and would point to her diaper. Since she understood that she was going potty in her diaper, I figured that she would be able to understand how to go potty in the potty chair. AND I was running low on diapers for her and didn't feel like having to buy another pack! :)

 I hadn't read any books on the subject of potty training, only a couple of blog posts- this was one I found on pinterest (BabySavers.com) and this one is from a friend of mine (Four Girls & A Daddy) so I wasn't sure what "method" to follow or what was the best way to potty train my 2 year old.

For starters, I purchased a potty chair and a book on potty training {for Eliana} from Amazon.
Here is link to the potty chair I ordered- Baby Bjorn Potty Chair and here is the link to the book I bought for Eliana- The Potty Book for Girls

I ordered that specific potty chair because the lady from the first blog post recommended it and it's super easy to clean, it's small, and it's convient and easy to travel with.

When the potty chair arrived, we let Eliana open up the box and she got really excited when she saw her "potty." She wanted to sit on it right away, but we told her that she could only sit on it if she was actually going to go potty. {I think she might of thought it was just a really cool pink chair :)} At first she was pumped about being able to sit on the potty chair but then after about a day of that, she started crying if I asked her if she needed to go potty or if I set her on the potty chair. I didn't want to force her into going potty, so we just took a break and didn't talk about the potty or sit on it for about 2-3 weeks.

On the Sunday before we started potty training, we picked up some Disney princess big girl panties for Eliana, but we told her she could only wear them if she went potty in the big girl potty. She seemed to understand and wasn't too happy that she couldn't wear the panties over her pants. :)
 I decided to reintroduce the potty chair to Eliana and she didn't seem to mind sitting on
it, in fact, she almost enjoyed it. I was hoping this was a good sign!

We officially starting potty training on Wednesday April 10th, 2013. Like I said before, I didn't know what the best way was to PT Eliana, so I just decided to go "all-natural" and let her run around buck naked. I knew we would have accidents and I knew I would have to clean up some bodily fluids, but I was hoping that if she saw when she peed or pooped on the floor that she would make the connection that those fluids coming out of her needed to go in the potty, not on the floor.

On day 1, she went potty in the potty chair 3 times! She had about 3 or 4 accidents as well, but I was so
proud of her for actually going in the potty chair!
Each day it seemed to get better, but the first 4 days were definitely the hardest and most trying. She would still wear a diaper at nap times and at bedtime. During the first two weeks, if we needed to go out or for nap time I started putting a pull-up on her, but we called them her "panties"...I didn't want her thinking it was just another diaper that she could pee in. She did really well with keeping her pull-ups dry, so I actually started letting her wear her real panties at nap time and she has woken up dry every time! So awesome!

As far as a reward system goes, every time she went potty, she was able to put up a sticker on her potty chart and she received a jelly bean. We're on week 3 of potty training and we're still sticking with the sticker chart because she seems to really enjoy seeing all of her stickers on the fridge.

Here are pictures of her sticker chart.

Today is the start of Week 4 and Eliana wears her panties all day now. She usually tells me if she has to go to potty, but if I know that she hasn't gone in a while or she is really into playtime- I'll ask her if she needs to go and she will tell me either yes or no and either sit on the potty or keep playing. We haven't had an accident in public yet, and for that I am quite thankful!


I'm so proud of my little girl for putting up with me during this potty training adventure. :)
I sure do love her!

Eliana's 2nd Birthday {Finding Nemo Style}

My favorite little red head turned 2 on March 22nd, but we celebrated her birthday on the 14th. The girls on the soccer team are like big sisters to Eliana and I wanted to make sure they were able to join us for her party- they were all leaving for spring break the next day.

I absolutely LOVE birthday parties! My mom always made sure that our birthdays were a very special day that included a theme party and lots of friends and games. I would love to continue that tradition with my girls. Nate and I have talked about what sort of traditions we would like to do for a our girls, an when we talk about birthday traditions, I just get SO excited! :) :)

Finding Nemo has pretty much characterized the life of Miss Eliana Lou since she was 10 months old until about 4 months ago. We ended up traveling a decent amount after Eliana turned 1 and watching this movie was just about the only thing that would keep her entertained. I'm not sure how parents took trips without the technology we have available today! I am soooooo thankful for our iPad and for Finding Nemo- it has definitely kept me sane on quite a few trips. :)

Here are some pictures from Eliana's Party. 

I can't believe my sweet little girl is 2! She loved her party and two of her favorite gifts were her Mickey Mouse and Woody from us. 

My first attempt at a shaped cake. As long as Eliana knew who the cake was, I was satisfied! :)

Her Birthday Bunting

Nemo Cookies

You can't have a fish party without some gold fish...

Cupcakes. 

We "found" Nemo and he was sitting on the table to welcome the party guests. :0) 

The Table Spread with the desserts/snacks

My poor watermelon "shark" is missing his top row of teeth because I ran out of time, but I still thought it looked cool and so did my little nephew. :)

The blue jello jigglers even had fish "swimming" on them. 

One of my favorite parts about the party was the photo op. All of the party guests wrote Eliana a special message on the chalkboard and had their pictures taken with their message. 

Nate thinks he is so funny sometimes. :)

Our family at the photo op. 

A picture with my beautiful little 2 year old right before we sang Happy Birthday. 

The next two pictures were on Eliana's actual birthday. One of the traditions we would like to continue is to have birthday pancakes for the girls on the morning of their actual birthday.  

 

Eliana LOVES pancakes and she was super excited about the sprinkles and the "2" on her plate.

Since today is all about Eliana we took her out to eat at Pizza Hut since she loves pizza as well.

 {pizza and sweets...this girl is a mini-me!}

I am so incredibly blessed to have this sweet little girl in my life. All I can say is thank you, Lord. 

A year in the life of Eliana Lou

I can't believe my baby girl just celebrated her first birthday this past week. She has brought so much joy into our lives and I'm so thankful for God blessing us with this sweet girl.

It hasn't always been easy, but thanks be to God for his grace and leading in our lives to allow us to raise up this little girl for His glory. I pray that I will always keep raising children in perspective. It's not about me and how they affect my life. It's all about Christ and what He has called me to do. It's all about raising children who will serve Him.

Proverbs 22:6- "Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it."

The First Year of Eliana Lou...

Our family at Eliana's 1st birthday party!

March 24, 2012

3 Years and Counting...

Today Nate and I celebrated 3 years of "wedded bliss." I can honestly say that the past three years have not been entirely blissful. We have had our hard times, our arguments {wait, I mean disagreements:) }, our ups and downs, our fun times, our goofy times, our "laugh-out-loud" funny times, and I wouldn't trade any of them. Each trial and experience we have gone through has strengthened not only our relationship with each other, but our relationship with our Lord and Savior. I am so thankful for the godly man that the Lord has blessed me with. We have such different personalities, yet we are just so perfect for each other. We complement each other very well. I am a pretty balanced mix of Sanguine/Choleric where Nate is all Phlegmatic! It is humorous at times how different we really are. :)

Our Anniversary Dinner at Olive Garden

Ten Things I Love About My Nate-the-Great:
1. His beautiful, blue eyes
2. His ability to always make me laugh, even when I'm mad at him
3. His passion and desire to do what God wants him to do
4. The way he'll sit and listen to me ramble about "nothing"
5. The way he loves on our sweet Eliana
6. His love for soccer and how he wants to use it as a platform for the glory of God
7. How he always knows the right thing to say
8. His desire to be constantly growing as a Christian, husband, and daddy
9. His ever-improving ability to lead me and our family
10. His hugs and kisses:)

Eliana's 9 Month Update

My sweet, little baby is 9 months old. Sometimes I can't believe she has already been in our lives for that long, and at other times I feel like she has been here forever. I definitely couldn't imagine my life without her. She brings so much joy to mine and Nate's life. She is at such a fun age! She is mimicking everything we do, crawling everywhere, pulling herself up onto everything, and is learning things the hard way :).