Speaking of potty...

We've been working on potty training Miss Sassypants for a while now. She does really well peeing in the potty but has pretty much always refused to do the rest of her business. She would wait for the nighttime or naptime diaper and do it then. Gross! However, we cut out the naptime diaper this week and that seems to have propelled her willingness to do her business on the potty, thank goodness!! I would have taken away the naptime diaper a month ago had I known that!

Today when she did her business and we cheered appropriately she asked her daddy if she could have a "prize". She has been begging here lately for, and I quote, "Daddy, I would like a princess bike, with princess seat, a princess helmet, some princess pads, and princess training wheels, with a princess basket and a princess water bottle." Are you seeing a pattern at all here??

We found such a bike set and made an agreement with her that if she can go 30 days with no accidents, then we will buy the princess bike with the princess helmet and the princess...well you get the idea.

She has seen a chart on the little show she likes to watch "Olivia" so she gets the concept of marking things off on a chart. She actually suggested, "Mommy, I think we need a chart." Well all righty then. I went in and started pulling out the scrapbooking materials. She added plenty of input so I finally had to wait until she went to bed so that I didn't have a supervisor the entire time. LOL She said, "It needs to be bancy (fancy), Mommy!" Ok, a fancy potty chart it is:

I had some old typewriter letter stickers, some antique flower stickers and some scrapbooking paper and the "bancy potty chart" was created. I already added a sticker to day #1 since we had no accidents today. I'll keep you updated on the progress of the process as we go along...hopefully we will be trained once and for all, then we can get the youngest started!

Mom Time...

Mom time comes in small spurts...naptime if I can get them to nap at the same time...after bedtime...very occasionally I wake up early in the morning before they get up and enjoy a hot cup of coffee on the screened in front porch. The early morning one doesn't happen very often because I am NOT a morning person in the least.

Top 5 things I like to do during Mom time:

1. Read. Right now I'm between books but I just finished Alice Sebold's "The Almost Moon". It was a good book but a little bizarre for me to read because of a history of an awkward relationship with my own mother. I'm a sucker for books. I love them. My bedroom is stacked with them. Recently I've attempted to part with a few by signing up for www.paperbackswap.com. I LOVE this website and it is a great money-saver, which is great for our family of seven.

2. Scrapbooking. I love to do this but I generally don't do it much during "mom time" because it involves a process of dragging out all of the supplies, actually accomplishing something and then putting all the supplies away again before little people come and start rifling through it all. For scrapbooking time I try to set aside a time when Daddy is home, invite my good friend Diane over and we set the baby gate up and block off the dining room so we have the whole table to ourselves without little hands "helping".

3. Sewing. This also has the dragging out of supplies issue. Although this one isn't as bad because my daughter knows when I drag out the sewing machine I am generally making something for her so she wants to help and watch. She is also very good at saying "No no, brothers! This is for GIRLS!"

4. Glass of wine and mindless TV. I like white the best but will go for an occasional red. My mindless TV choices lately are my old standby's "Grey's Anatomy" and "Private Practice" (which I am watching as I type this). I've also been watching "Modern Family" and "Cougar Town". I am also into the HGTV channel, "Ace of Cakes" and the Food Network. If there is nothing interesting on, I am a CNN junkie. My afternoon guilty pleasure is "One Life to Live". And no you don't have to tell me how lame that is...I already know.

5. A long hot shower. This has to be done while children are sleeping. I never shower in the morning and here is why. Small children banging on the door, small children stripping off their clothes and hopping in the shower with me, the older boys turning the water off and on in an attempt to scald me, or the husband hollering through the door for me to hurry up because the children are going crazy. (I often ask him what would happen if I died - he assures me he and the children will all move in with his mother. I wonder if she knows this? She would go to any lengths to keep me alive at all costs, that's for sure. lol)

What are your favorite things to do during "mom time" (or dad time, such as the case may be)??