Date Night.........

We headed down to Provo for a date night. Started off the night with pizza from Nicolitalia. I love the place and had eaten there before but it was Layne's first time trying it. He said it was okay but I told him it was because we didn't try the deep dish! Oh well, that we will have to try another time!

Then off to the Marriott Center to watch the Cougars play. It's been awhile since we've both been to a game together. And we had really great seats, thanks to a co-worker of Layne's! It's always fun to watch a home game and hear how loud it gets in the Marriott Center. It was a great game. Thanks for a fun night Layne!!

Duck Pond.........

In an earlier post I mentioned the weather has been unusually warm for January. So we decided to try our luck at the duck pond to see if any ducks would be there and wow we hit the jack pot. There was still a lot of ice on the little pond but it had one big opening and a path open to one of the docks. I've never seen that many ducks.

This picture only shows about a quarter of the ducks because I couldn't get a wide enough shot on my phone. I love the duck pond! It's a hidden treasure.

Everyday Life..........

 January has been a slow month and a warmer than usual month. We've only had it snow once on Christmas. No snow since and it's been the 50's this winter. Strange. But we have ventured out and done some fun things this month because of Christian's potty training rewards. We went to Trafalga on a Monday night and played laser tag, glow in the dark mini golf, and some indoor rides and jungle gym. The kids love that place.

 Another reward for Christian was going swimming. It's been since summer since we have been swimming so the kids were really excited. It was in the middle of the week after school so it was deserted at the pool until swimming lessons hit. But it didn't get to bad. We always have a fun time at the pool. Both my kids are water babies, they love it!

 Christian helping me make popcorn in the whirlly pop machine

 I love when I find them sharing and just getting along

 watching a show or playing together. So peaceful and loving!

Julia just being her silly crazy self!

The Potty Problem..........

My kids love to watch Peg + Cat on PBS. Its about a girl and her cat that solve everyday problems. Pretty simple, right?! But along the way things get complicated and Peg starts to freak out and needs to be reassured (by Cat) that things will get better! In the end it all works out of course. Its a cute show. And very relate able to my problem, the potty problem!!!

Christian still isn't potty trained and I am beyond done wiping and cleaning poopy bums and underwear. He was potty trained at one point but went through a traumatic experience and just regressed. He just doesn't want to do it. We have bribed him, done the sticker chart and the candy jar. Nothing has worked. So I have been totally freaking out! (to quote Peg from the show) So Monday I started the arduous task of intense potty training. I made up my mind over the weekend that I will just sit in the bathroom until he goes. So that's what we did. And that's what I told Christian, we are not leaving the bathroom until you go to the bathroom. So he sat on the toilet all day. We read books and played a LOT of uno!We even made a sticker sheet. If he went once he would get ice cream. 2 times it was a trip to the "game place" Trafalga. 3 times he would get to go swimming. He also picked out prizes at the dollar store to put in a treasure box so after he went he also got a prize too. So he was excited about it!

Monday: He went all by himself while I was with him in the bathroom. Made a big deal about it. Put a sticker on the paper and picked out a prize. Went back into the bathroom and sat on the toilet. By 4pm I was done for the day had to make dinner and live my life. All of a sudden Christian disappeared so I ran to find him and he was sitting on the potty and cheering himself on saying, "Come on, you can do this!" He had gone all by himself, without being reminded. It was paying off!!
UNO games played 23:  Christian: 17   Mom: 6

Tuesday: More of the same. We got up and spent all day in the bathroom with no success. I was disappointed but it was great one on one time. More books and more uno of course. This time we ventured out of the bathroom and into the bedroom but he didn't leave my side. I had constant watch on him.
UNO games played 17:   Christian: 10  Mom: 7

Wednesday: By the third day I was going crazy! Again, this was intense potty training. I'm not joking when I say we sat in the bathroom all day. From 9 am to 3:30 pm for 3 days. SO not fun, but it had to be done. I knew I had to put in the time. I had had it with dirty diapers!! So again it was more of the same. We didn't leave until he went to the bathroom. And today he had success again! Which gave way to hooping and hollering, dancing and hugging! We got out the prizes and the stickers. We took a break for lunch and went down to get an ice cream for the prize from the first day! He was proud of himself! He even said, "Mom, I'm good at going poopy on the potty now!" I think he was finally catching on!
UNO games played 20:   Christian 11   Mom: 9

The rest of the week I just let him see if he could do it by himself. I told him I don't want you to be a sneaky ninja and go without telling me. So then that motivates him to be sneaky and go to the bathroom. He has done awesome with very little accidents anymore! I am so proud of Christian. I am proud of myself too, it wasn't easy, and I'm glad that's over!

So as Peg and Cat solve their problems they sing a little song:

Problem solved
The problem is solved
We solved the problem
Problem solved!