Matthew 6:34

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:34

This is going to be the motto of my life for the next 4-5 months that's for sure.

Our calender is quickly filling up with award dinners, match day activities, commencements, graduations, etc...

And then there's Valentines Day, birthdays, and graduation gifts... 

And don't forget things like our lease ending at our current house in April, not getting to close on a house (in who knows where) until late May/June, packing our entire house, finding a storage unit, changing addresses and accounts to a completely new state....

oh, and there's this little person that depends on me 24/7 to take care of him and teach him... can't forget that...

also the fact that Daniel is getting ready to start a rural rotation where he'll be gone M-F.... leaving just me and said little person....

 

and last but not least... the stress that the "unknown" has on me... a person who likes to have a set plan all.the.time.

So if we're ever chitchatting between now and the end of May... or you just feel like sending me a sweet message, comment, or email.... please remind me to enjoy the process as well. To take each moment day by day. And to not worry about tomorrow. Thanks friends

Take that Mom

Dax gave me a big fat slap in the face this past week. Not literally a "slap in the face" (which I may not put it past him) but instead a slap that put me back in my place and reminded me of the things I was taught in collage.

Our boy.... who can count to 20, tell you every shape possible, remember things you told him once 3 months ago (he seriously does this... must be his fathers son), explores nature, and can question and reason with the best of them still does not know his colors. Two. Two colors is all he knows. Orange & Purple. Really? What kid learns orange and purple before all other colors?  Daniel thinks he's color blind.... but that's another post. I think he's stubborn. We shall see.

But starting out this week I was ready! I was ready to tackle colors head on. We were going to learn those colors and have fun doing it!  We did puzzles with colors on them...

we painted and talked about the colors...

and I even swiped come color chips from walmart and played a "drive your car to this color" game...

which he enjoyed.... but could only get orange and purple. 

But then he slapped me in the face real hard. There's a show on Netflix that he likes called "Super Why" about letters and this week he got really into it and it hit me. 

Stop with the colors... he's not interested.... his window right now is letters!

I was quickly reminded that you have to let children lead their own learning. This is something my classrooms revolved around.... but getting wrapped up in the day to day business at home I forgot to do it with my little boy.  So now we're exploring letters full speed! I saturated the house with letters and am pointing out environmental print even more to him. I wrote letters on his dry erase board, put the letter magnets for his name on the door, and changed his table around in the living room to look like this...

He is pointing letters out everywhere now and is naming a few letters and making the sounds for some as well. All in just 5 days. Because he wanted to learn those skills right now. Right this very minute. Not because I wanted him to or because he "should know those by now".  We went to the store today and he got so excited when he saw "yetters" (mind you he still cant say his L sound) on the outside of the building. When he's playing independently he is pointing out letters to himself. He even created this game tonight on his own....

(pick a letter and let the train run over it while saying, "watch out letter N! The train is coming!")

And it's amazing. The amount he has grown in just 5 days with his early literacy skills is unreal. We'll keep going with letters as long as he wants and see where it takes us....

one day we'll learn colors.... just not right now.

Linking Up

I'm a big reader of blogs that are written by medical wives since we're right smack dab in the middle of our journey. Well a blog that I recently started reading, Medicine: A Love Story has started a link up on Thursdays.... and I decided I wanted to try to take part in it! I"m hoping to start writing more about our medical journey as the next 5 years are about to get nuts-o so I figured this would be a good starting point.... so here goes nothing!
  

This weeks question: What's the most interesting medical fact you've learned vicariously?

Being married to someone in medicine you learn a lot. I mean let's face it.... you're basically a doctor too (Daniel loves it when I say that). A few things super interesting, some things helpful, a lot of things you could care less about, and a ton of things that just make you say "ew". I'll start with a helpful fact I learned.... and then move on to something more exciting.... and "ew" fact.

Helpful fact: As I'm sure most moms were (unless they happen to be in the medical field too), my mom gave Tylenol the second my temperature got to 99.9.  "Got to keep that fever down!"  "Don't want to have a seizure!" Ideas that that were common in my house/family in general (and I still hear them anytime I tell them my little boy has a fever). But since I've been on this medical school journey I now know that fevers are great! Yeah, they mean you're sick, but you want a fever. I means your body is doing what it's suppose to and fighting the infection. So as long as you don't have a history of seizures, you're not in pain, and you're not rockin a temp of over 104..... it's probably safe just to wait out on the Tylenol.  Cue, "You're a crazy lady, I'm given my kid Tylenol right now" faces.  For me that's great knowledge since I don't like using medicine for myself (or little one) unless I absolutely have to :)

Now onto the part you've been waiting for.... my "ew" medical fact.  This will be short and sweet. Because I don't like to think about it....
While eating dinner I was putting butter on some corn on the cob (sometimes it's just necessary to make your healthy food a little less healthy) and Daniel, out of no where says.... "you know what cauterized fat looks like?"  and before I could even say "No...  I rather not know"..... he  splurts out "butter".
Nice babe, nice.

"Maybe" was the Winner

So update on the last post.....  In the Potty Training vs Maybe battle.....  Maybe won..... this time.

So come day 4 of doing great potty training.... someone had absolutely no interest any more. He was very emotional and whiny. He has 5 teeth coming in (two of which are 2 year old molars) and is also having ear issues so I'm guessing that was part of it. So I didn't push it and we'll wait until March to try again unless he shows interest on his own again (I'm saying March because teething should be over then, he will hopefully have his ear issues resolved by then, and daddy will be back from a month long rotation out of town.).

I was a little bummed because he was doing so good.... but I rather him be completely ready on his own than me push him. 

I'll let you know when we decide to try again :)

Potty Training.... maybe?

So the title of this blog sums up the last 2 1/2 days for us. We could possibly be in the official business of potty training.... maybe.... we'll see how it goes.
Friday morning I took Daxton's diaper off and let him run around the house naked. I didn't have any intentions on making it a potty training experience... just simply letting him get some fresh air. But when he started peeing while we were playing I hurried and carried him to the potty and he finished up there. From there I decided to try out some naked potty training. I thought "why not".... we have nothing better to do today so we'll see how it goes.
I was completely surprised (that's probably an understatement) at how awesome he did)! By the end of the day on Friday he had peed in the potty over 50% of the time and even got to the point where he would be playing, stop what he was doing, and run to the potty completely on his own.
Saturday morning we were at Target so I bought some underwear just to try out. We put them on him when we got home and quickly found out that naked was the way to go with Dax for now. If he had underwear on he would just pee in them and not think anything about it..... but if he was naked he would stop as soon as the tiniest amount of pee came out and run to the bathroom to finish. Needless to say, Daxton was naked from the waste down again all day Saturday. I was really shocked after nap when he was having snack at the table (still in his diaper from sleeping) and said "mommy i need to go pee) and ran to the bathroom! By the end of the day we had peed mostly in the potty and even went #2 in the potty completely on his own!! (As in came out of the bathroom saying "Mommy I poop").
We're now at Sunday morning and still doing great! As we speak this is going on....

 Someone wanted to watch Barney and I knew he wouldn't dare leave the TV long enough to go potty so I made a little set up for him in the living room.

I think one of the biggest reasons this has been successful is because he has had a potty sitting around the house for almost a year now that he has been able to get comfortable with and sit on whenever he wants. We also have a pretty open door policy when mommy and daddy are going potty too so Dax has been able to learn from that and realize that it's a natural thing. We also have never pushed going potty. This has to be something they're completely ready for themselves and the more you push the longer it takes.

So if you're thinking about trying out a little bit of naked potty training on your own then here are my biggest tips..
#1:  Try and do it over a few days span where both parents are home (or a parent and another adult). It's completely exhausting! You have to watch your little one 110% of the time so you can see cues that they're getting ready to potty. And there's lots of cleaning carpet, emptying potty seats, wiping up floors and legs. It's tiring.... very tiring. So try to have some support there for yourself!
#2: Have lots of these around...

 Stickers, paper towels, and carpet/surface cleaning product. You'll do lots of cleaning carpet and bathroom floors (especially with little boys).  And every little kid loves a good sticker after they potty. But for Dax the most effective rewards has been ridiculous singing and dancing on mommy and daddy's part while singing a pee pee in the potty song!

 New books and toys! Dax loves sitting on the potty and reading his new books and playing with toys! It makes the potty a fun, relaxing place to be!

 We we made this mistake of getting super excited and giving Dax candy after the first few times he pottied... well he quickly learned that making himself pee... even the tiniest drop... would get him something yummy. We ended up opting for a bowl of m&m's or sixlets and only giving him one or two little pieces each time. This was enough to satisfy him.

Potty training is a process and it's going to take longer than a few days to get it down. Dax is making baby steps. He has gone from just peeing all over the floor, to starting to pee and then stopping himself and finishing in the potty, to going in the bathroom all on his own and doing the entire act. And I'm sure he'll have good days and bad days.... but we're just taking it day by day. If this ends up being the starts of him potty training then great.... but if he decided tomorrow he doesn't want to go anymore we won't make him. We'll take a break and wait until he's ready. I'll keep y'all posted!