Potty Training

We refer to the No-Cry methodology for everything(including babymaking) and this time or topic is no different. It's not that your child never cries but it's the idea that you give him and yourself consistent education and realistic expectations to start with. (I'm going to use him cuz I've got a boy, it's subject to change) This particular book, the only one that I've actually read instead of just looking at the pictures(they commonly have kids sitting on the potty holding newspapers and such), uses a very simple idea, observe and educate before introducing the potty to your toddler. How do you know when your child is ready? You take the readiness pre-test.

We've taken the pre-test periodically for the last year, and we finally seem ready to begin. How did we know? We don't for sure but keeping all the pee and poop confined to diapers seems like a pretty restricted way treat it, almost inhumane. (Not that poop is human but after dealing with too much of it, it begins to take on it's own terminology and occupies alot of time)
Seriously, he started telling us more and more frequently that he was wet or poopy and needed a diaper change. In short, he's becoming uncomfortable with having a dirty diaper on his butt.

So, yesterday we embarked on our potty seat journey as a family. Dylan picked out his new Lightning McQueen and Mickey Mouse underwear and I paid for them. Dylan wore big boy pants for the first time, peed in them while on our couch and Mommy cleaned it up. I'm especially grateful for Tricia's clean-up part and very proud of my little boy for his understanding about what happened to the couch and who was responsible for it. He never got upset, from what mommy said, but did repeatedly point out the spot on the couch and describe it as pee pee spot.

Today, Dylan not only peed in the potty but pooped in it as well. Of course, we called mommy after each one to tell her how proud Dylan was of himself. Right now, my main objective is to offer the potty at diaper changes and introduce the underwear in the evenings, in between our normal diaper changes, when we are home to observe. Ideally, we can help him diagnose the need to pee or poop before many accidents occur.

R and R for the SAHD or

Bockfest 2008..... as someone said while waiting in line, "they should call it waiting-in-line fest". We waited 2.5 hours for 3 beers a piece(9 total), and two(6) of the beers were bought at the same time. You may think that 9 beers or 3 a piece shouldn't be enough to get you drunk, well then you should come along next year and try it yourself.

You can really only see the crowd that's under the awning, but know that the line is about five times as long in all directions.

Calm and collected in spite of the fish frenzy.

Of course you can stand on the table! How else am I going to catch a fish head or beads in this cup? Now stop taking pictures of me!

Me and the self proclaimed queen of bock.

Can you imagine 600 people (or more) standing in a group trying to catch one of these? What is it? The remains of a smoked chub, you see when the chub hits anything it disintegrates into thousands of pieces. Why? Cuz if you catch a fish head and take it to the bartender you get a free beer. (in the same cup as the fish head) Why? Cuz you're drinking Blonde Dopple Bock ( or apple box according to Brian) and you're drunk!

Brian and Betsy.

The Perfect Valentine

...it was an amazing idea. Order a pregnant lady Non-alcoholic wine for a present. How could it go wrong? Well, in the fine print, on the delivery contract is a contingency where the winery reserves the right to delay a shipment of NA wine if the recipients weather is inclement, preventing it from freezing. Which is very noble and makes sense. The winery is in California. Wisconsin is in the frozen tundra, or so it seems this year. When will the order arrive in Madison? Keep in mind I ordered it on the 12th of February. It's now the 22nd of February and there's been no sign of action despite a charge to my bank account. This has peaked my interest because I've been billed and becuase my wife really likes wine or a decent tasting NA wine. Oh, and Valentine's day was 8 days ago. Soon she will forget what the wine was for, please send the wine!!!

Maybe I can understand why the shipment was delayed if I knew the actual definition of inclement weather, so here goes:

Inclement - Courtesy of dictionary.com

1.(of the weather, the elements, etc.) severe, rough, or harsh; stormy.
2.not kind or merciful.

hhhhmmmmm...over 80 inches of snow, very cold(0-20 degrees), seems pretty severe to me and I'm living in it. Image hearing about this weather while you're sipping real wine and sunny yourself on the beach, the country east of the rockies is inclement. I don't think the wine will arrive until May and by that time our second child will be here and my wife will be drinking like a sailor again. I'd rather unthaw the frozen NA wine, broken bottle and all, than wait for the merciful weather to return. At least this way she'll remember the wine as a Valentine's gift instead of a huge letdown after all the waiting.

NA wine that tastes good??? part 1

I'm very skeptical of anything that's supposed to be alcoholic, like beer or wine, but is advertised as tasting good or award winning without the alcohol. We're(Tricia and I) going to taste some wines(and beer) and let you know what we think. Sometimes grape juice or root beer are the only viable alternatives and that sucks. (I've often thought that giving up alcohol during my wife's pregnancies, for support and suffering, would be a noble thing to do but then I really think about it and realize that I'm stupid and only one of us should be suffering. )

What we've tasted so far:
Wine -

• Fre' brand - sucks entirely, but can and will be drank if there is nothing else available (including water) This is available everywhere and if you like wine out of a box, in really large jugs, or you periodically confuse grape juice for wine....this is the stuff for you.
• Ariel - Tricia had a blush when we went out for dinner(that one time 6 months ago). She said it was the "best NA wine" she'd tasted, whatever that means. http://www.arielvineyards.com/index.html You can even order on-line if it's not carried at your local grocery or liquor store.

Beer

• Clausthaler - ***
• St. Pauli Girl NA - *
• Kaliber - **
• Odouls - *
• Odouls Amber - ***favorite of Tricia.
• My thought can be summed by saying, they all taste like apples.

* - passable depending on the mood
** - Tricia will buy this
*** - Typically have this in our frigerator, if it's time for drinking NA

Omega 3 and 6?

Why are these so important? And, why is my brother-in-law pestering me about them? It's possible that he's concerned about my pregnant wife and his nephew. It's also possible that he's trying to make me crazy. Well, let's see what I can find out from the quickest research source for lazy people, the internet and my friend wikipedia.

Wikipedia says the Omega 3 fatty acids found in fish oil and also to a lesser extent in fish meat, in general, may have positive effects on anything from arthitis, cholestrol, infant immune development, memory loss, depression. To put it lightly, we need these.

Omega 3 essential fatty acids and a primary source there of:
DHA , EPA, Fish oil
ALA - most vegetable oils

Omega 6 sources - nuts, whole grain, eggs and poultry.
Omega 6 included the 3 fatty acids plus more. There are also Omega 9 fatty acids but these can be produced by our body and don't need to be part of our diet.

This is a bit disjointed but the research cited at wikipedia also says that too much of these elements will have negative effects on your health. (Including but not limited to the elements that it has positive effects on)

In short and after doing five to ten minutes of reading....go back to the rule with Alcohol or things in general.....everything in moderation. Eat a wide variety of foods in small portions. Wow, how anti-american, I'm almost disappointed with myself!

My brother-in-law and my sister have told me this before but sometimes, as the juvenile that I am, I've got to find it out for myself. I hope they're as accomodating about receiving advice as they are at giving it.

Biting......on the face or anywhere.

So, on Tuesday, Lois bit Dylan three times. All in the same situation, Dylan had stopped playing with a toy. Lois grabbed the toy and Dylan tried to take it back. Lois bit Dylan's hand. Lois was immediately sat down in a chair and told not to bite. Dylan was told not to fight over toys.

Today at playgroup. Everything was going fine until we started to put things away. From what I saw, which was the actual bite, Dylan was either pushing Lois or giving her a hug. I'm pretty sure he was pushing her and admitted to it later, but after I prodded him for it. Anyway, Lois bit him on the cheek. Dylan immediately started screaming and crying. He's fine but will have a scratch/contusion and a nice bruise.

So, I'm going to go over the suggested methods to stop a toddler from biting. This suggestion is from The Baby Book by the Sear family of doctors, they've written how to parenting books pertaining to everything from discipline, sleeping, ADD, and the successful child.

Here's what they suggest. (I'm assuming that most literature will say similiar things, but I'll look into it and edit this post if I need to)

• Teach Alternatives. Give a baby words and gestures to express feelings.

• Track the trigger. Keep a diary of what circumstances set off agressive behavior, such as fighting over toys and tiredness. Get behind the eyes of your child to see what trivggers the biting. What causes it?

• Tame the play. If you see a mean streak or an aggressive streak coming try and tone down the play. Talk about the difference betwen bear hugs (good for mom and dad) and bunny hugs (good for fellow toddlers). Overall, balance aggressive play with gentle play.

• Actively supervise. Keep an eye on the whole play situation, with others, so you can isolate the biter as soon as it happens. Reinforce the isolation with appropriate admonitions, such as, "biting hurts and it's wrong to hurt, and we're going to sit on the chair to think about why you should not bite". If a child can talk and understands, encourage an "I'm sorry". The child needs to connect biting with an immediate removal from the scene of the crime. Teaching that an undesirable behavior leads to undersirable consequences.

• Remove the spotlight. If the baby is biting for attention, channel baby into more socially acceptable attention-getting habits. Praise his good behavior and down-grade the importance of biting.

• Model, model, model. A baby that lives with aggression becomes aggressive. Example, a toddler hitting his mother, where upon she immediately lashed out, "Don't hit me," as she slapped his hand. It's obvious where the child is getting the behavior. Absolutely, don't bite your child back!

• Show and tell. If he won't take your word for it, here is a technique that parents have used successfully to make the point: press your child's forearm against his upper teeth as if he were biting himself, but not in a punitive, angry way. Reinforce his self-produced marks on his own arm with "see, biting hurts!" Administer this self-biting lesson immediately after your child bites someone, so that he makes the connection that biting hurts.

• Hurt relationships. It is important to get your child right about biting. It can potentially ruin your relationships between other parents.

TV viewing - monitor and limit

I think I knew this already and I'm disappointed with myself, in regards to, about the amount of unsupervised TV watching that I allow Dylan to do. That being said, it doesn't hurt to read some current articles here and there. All this reading does is make you feeling a bit nervous about the choices you're making as a parent. We all know that study's are conducted to contradict common practices. So, be careful not to jump on a large bandwagon without doing your own research.

One article, but far from the only one, at babycenternews.com entitled- TV and Kids: New study fuels debate, claims to have research that proves that watching over two hours of TV a day can and will cause attention problems in adolscense. Upto and under 2 hours of television watching per day has about the same impact. As you add each additional hour of tv watching the attention problems with these children increase. These findings are said to cross lines of social economics, gender, early attention problems, and early cognitive ability.

Other articles on this site offer suggestions that seem obvious as well. When watching TV, watch it with your child. Ask them questions about the content, to ensure there comprehension. But above all, be interested in what they're watching. The overall suggestion, make watching TV like not watching TV, make it an interactive, tactile, and sharing experience. Seems pretty cut and dried to me.


Yet, another study offers a link to dysfunctional families, childhood obsetiy, language development, violent behavior and early sexual activity. I think we might be reaching here, but the egg did come before the chicken. Right?

Wanna be enlightened too? .....if you dare. The more I read the less I want to know. I'm done reading up on the subject. Moral to the story - play with your kids!!

http://www.whitedot.org/issue/iss_story.asp?slug=ADHD%20Toddlers


http://www.umext.maine.edu/onlinepubs/htmpubs/4100.htm