I’ll see how the next few months go but lately I’ve really been feeling like I should put this site on hold or possibly even take it down for now, at least until I can dedicate more time to it.

Normally the most that the kids & I are away from home (running around – in town) is 3 days a week, including Mass on Sundays.  However since the beginning of December we have only been home ab0ut 2 days out of the seven!  Yikes!  December was packed full of Christmas parties and Christmas preparations and January has been packed full of specialist, dentist and speech therapy appointments!

I’m exhausted & the kids are exhausted!  Is this ever going to end?!!

Every time I give him a consequence for his actions (losing a privelege) I always think “What privilege can he lose that I am going to follow through with?”  Like for example, if he is misbehaving and we have an upcoming event, I could take away the privilege of him attending the event – but is that something I’m going to want to do – not attend the event?  Or do I really want to take away his toys or ground him from playing outside etc.  I guess my problem is trying to determine which privileges he’ll lose.  I guess I just have to start being a little more creative in chosing privileges and consequences.

Well after potty training a boy and a girl, I would have to say that girls are easier.  However, that being said I also had two completely different approaches to potty training each child.  So you might say that either girls are easier or I’m just getting better at it.

I guess that’s the thing with parenting, some tasks get easier because you as a parent are getting better at it.  I keep telling people that my third baby was the easiest so far and they always tell me “No, you’re just getting better at it so it’s easier.”

Any way back on topic, as soon as my little girl made up her mind that she was going to pee in the toilet, she was done wearing diapers.  She kept asking to go in the toilet for about a month, so I would take her.  The real turning point though was when she asked to put on ‘real’ underwear.  I always gave her the options – diaper or underwear.  (And by underwear I mean the training underwear.)  One morning I gave her the options as usual, she said no to both and went to her dresser drawer and pulled out a pair of ‘real’ underwear.  That was it she was done training.  Surprisingly, even through naps and most night times, she wears underwear and doesn’t have an accident.

Now with my son it was a completely different story.  He was basically potty trained before his first birthday, I think around nine months.  However I went back to work and he needed to be in someone elses care during the day and had to go back into diapers.  When he was 18 months old, I was back at home full time with him and tried to get him back to peeing in the toilet.  This was however quite challenging as I had a newborn and was breastfeeding frequently.  It seemed like every time I would get the baby latched on, he would need to use the toilet.  It became quite frustrating for me.  But I was determined to get him out of diapers not matter what.  Looking back I don’t think he had made up his mind that he wanted to use the toilet, it was more me pushing him.  Which is probably why it took about 6 months to get fully trained.

So I guess all in all I can’t really tell you if girls are easier than boys, although it seemed that way.  I guess I’ll have to let you know how my second daughter potty trains and if we ever have another boy then see how that is compared to the first boy.