maybe the best advice ever

I've been trying for months (nine at least) to potty train Allie Grace. We'd get into a good routine with it, and then something would happen and she would have this huge relapse and we'd have to start over. This happened at least four times. She had almost gotten it in June and then ended up with an awful case of strep throat and she wasn't drinking enough to go on a schedule so we ended up back at square one again. I decided to give her a break on the process (more for me to regroup than for her).

At the end of August, I was starting the process again, but she just wasn't wanting to do it. We had a group of women from the Teen Challenge Women's Center in Brandon come speak/sing at our church on August 26. After lunch, I was speaking to the leader and she mentioned her trick for her daughter. She said the stickers, candy, money, etc. didn't work for her and she had been ready to pull her hair out when her grandmother mentioned the best piece of advice for potty training. The advice was to take your child to the store and let her pick out a doll. Explain that the doll belongs to the child if they use the potty in the potty. If they use the potty in their panties, the doll goes up on a high shelf where the child can see it but not play with it until the next time that they potty.

I wasn't sure if it would work for Allie Grace, but we went that afternoon and she picked out the toddler Dora doll. I explained the whole process to her and she said she didn't want to lose Dora and would use the potty. She even asked to go potty at the store! She has only had a handful of times of losing Dora; even those times, she has been super upset and has tried to get her back quickly (as in usually gets her back in under 30 minutes). It's been about a week since she lost her at all.

I have been amazed at the quick change. Allie Grace went straight to panties after getting Dora and we only put her in a pull up at night or when we're going to be gone for a long time and aren't sure if we'll be able to get her to a bathroom quickly. She may not always tell us if she needs to go, but she has definite signs now that she's out of pull ups. She never says, "I need to go potty." It's always, "I don't want to lose my Dora." She also gets really mad when I make her wear a pull up now and tells me they are for babies.

becoming more social

I've been taking the girls to story time at our library for several months now. Both girls have slowly been coming out of their shells around "strangers" and people they just don't see all that often. They both are actually talking and interacting with others instead of fussing or hiding behind me/wanting me to hold them.

I've also been trying to get them more involved in other activities. They are having a blast in their Sunday School class...I love hearing the stories that they share after church. They both stayed with their SheShe so that Kevin and I could go out for our anniversary. We went to pick them up and they both cried because they wanted to stay the night. That has NEVER happened before!

This week has been a super big week for them. They were invited to go to Princess Camp. It has been a week full of princess fun. Monday was dance day...some teenagers dressed up as the Disney princesses and taught the girls a simple dance. Tuesday was movie day...they had popcorn and drinks and watched Tangled. Wednesday was photo shoot day...all the girls dressed up as princesses and got to take pictures with each of the teenagers. Today was art day...the girls all got to paint princess crown canvasses. Tomorrow, they're having a tea party and learning princess manners. Tomorrow night they're going to a princess ball. Both girls have met new friends and have gotten to do things we don't always get to do very often. Check facebook and instagram for pictures from the week.

ML is asking if she can start school. I guess I'll be calling about a couple K4 programs again...called about one and no one would answer the phone and I'm fairly certain the other may be out of our price range. She's becoming a little social butterfly and wants to be around kids her age more. If any of you have kids in the 2-5 age range and want to have play dates, let me know.

so I'm not very good at keeping up with a blog...

I know it's been a really long time since I've posted anything on here. There have been several times that I've wanted to write something, but it wasn't at a time that I could sit and write (so I'd forgotten by the time I could do it). I miss writing...I'm hoping that I can do better at actually posting.

There's no way that I could update on everything that's happened since my last post. I do want to update anyone who might actually read this on a few things that have happened in the last few weeks.

We're in the throes of potty-training AG. She does great when she wants to...otherwise, I feel like I'm constantly cleaning her up where she's had an accident. Rewards haven't really worked for her and there have been days where I've wanted to pull my hair out trying to think of something that would help her.

ML lost her first tooth on Saturday morning...at 4 1/2 years old. I'm not sure if I should be excited for her or cry because this whole process started way before I was ready for it. She asked if the tooth fairy could bring her a light up toothbrush...kid loves toothbrushes. She also got a "fairy dollar"...a gold dollar painted with glitter paint, and a teensy little letter from the tooth fairy that was also coated in the glitter paint (fairy dust).

I've found myself getting a little emotional at times because my babies aren't babies anymore. I'm missing that stage a lot lately...guess I'll just play with all the babies around me until it's time for us to have #3 (which will most likely still be a while).

I can't think of anything else interesting that has happened recently...we're just all hanging out at home for the most part now that Kevin is on summer break. Maybe I can think of some good posts to write in the next few weeks.

finally some answers!

We've been dealing with some major tummy issues with Mattie Leigh for a while now...since early March at least. After being told to try a few things to help her feel better and several tests that came back normal, we were not closer to an answer at the beginning of the summer. I decided to try a few things on my own to see if I could figure out what was going on. The main thing I did was take gluten out of her diet as much as possible. We noticed positive changes to how she was feeling within 48 hours. We kept her off gluten for almost a month before letting her have some early in July...all the positives disappeared within 2 days and she once again felt terrible. I KNEW then that gluten was somehow involved in her stomach issues and took her off it again. Since then, we've kept her off for a few weeks and then challenged her system by letting her have a couple meals with it.

We were scheduled to see her GI in August, but her appointment was rescheduled to September 19. The nurse asked how she was doing since we last saw them and I explained what changes we'd made and the improvements we saw. The doctor came in and was surprised at how much better Mattie Leigh looked. In a few months time of being off wheat, her hair and nails are growing well again, her skin isn't so pale, the dark circles have nearly disappeared from under her eyes, her appetite is better, she's gained almost 3 pounds, her attitude has improved tremendously, and her stomach rarely ever hurts like it was for a while. The doctor decided right away that Mattie Leigh did have some form of gluten intolerance (even though the markers for celiac disease came back normal) and said that we need to keep her mostly gluten free for the next year when we can really challenge her system and reevaluate.

I *think* part of her stomach upset comes from her nerves. Kid is REALLY high-strung and gets upset very easily. I think she may have picked up more on the months that Kevin wasn't teaching than we thought she had at first...pretty sure that added to her already high-strung nerves and made her stomach issues worse. We shielded her from as much of it as we could, but since she's so smart, she still picked up on more than I wanted her to.

All that to say, that I'm so glad we finally have some answers to what was going on for so long with her stomach. Now I'm working on figuring out things that will help her learn how to let us know how she's feeling (other than losing it and throwing a fit).

Max and Ruby

***I totally forgot to write this post on Saturday.

Last Thursday, Eat Jackson let me know that I was a finalist for the Max and Ruby Bunny Party show tickets and Brent's Drugs gift certificate. As soon as the voting page was up, I let all our family and friends know to vote and tell all their friends to vote. I apologize for filling your facebook newsfeeds and twitter feeds with posts begging for votes.

At first, it looked like another girl was going to take the lead and keep it in the votes. She got a lot of votes right at the beginning. I got a little sad because I REALLY wanted our girls to get to go to the show. Max and Ruby is probably their favorite show to watch...they have a lot of "favorites" but this one is special to both of them.

Sometime Thursday night, we started getting a lot more votes. A lot of that had to do with my brother and sister-in-law getting the word out to vote for us...they got a bunch of people to vote. We got in the lead with votes then and stayed in the lead after that. I knew before Eat Jackson announced it that we'd won...I was glued to the voting page to make sure no one took a last minute lead!

We told the girls that we would have a special day on Saturday and that we would go to a new restaurant that we hadn't taken them to yet and then go to a special show. Mattie was convinced that we were going to see the Berenstain Bears...I have no clue how she came up with that.

We went to our church work day for a few hours and then headed to Jackson to pick up our tickets and go to lunch. Kevin and I got cheeseburgers, Mattie got a junior cheeseburger, and Allie Grace got a grilled cheese. We shared mine and Kevin's orders of fries and onion rings. Then, we got milkshakes (our favorite part of the meal)! We'll definitely be going back, especially for dessert.

After lunch, we headed back to the convention complex so we could get in our seats for the show. Mattie had seen the sign for the show outside but apparently didn't think much of it because she still thought we were going to see the Berenstain Bears. It wasn't until we got to the table where they were selling shirts/toys that she realized that we were going to see Max and Ruby. Her expression was absolutely priceless!

The show was great...it took a few of the TV episodes and combined them to make them something new. Mattie waved at Max, Ruby, Louise, and Grandma and talked to them like she was on the stage with them. Allie Grace jumped up and down in my arms...she was so excited to see them.

I have over 60 pictures that I took from the day...go to my facebook page to look at most of them.

This is when she first realized we were going to see Max and Ruby.

Waving to the characters...not a great pic but she was so excited

This is my favorite picture of the day! She was so excited she didn't know what to do. (I realize she looks pitiful...combo of taking a picture with my phone and the fact that she's felt awful for the last few months with her stomach.)

things I learned today

I wake up really cranky when I don't get enough sleep. (I guess I've been learning this for a while, but it really hit me today. Allie Grace was awake until after 1 no matter what we did to help her go to sleep. Then, she was super restless the rest of the night, so we got very little sleep.)

I have a little road rage...EVERYTHING and EVERYONE on HWY 49 was getting on my nerves this afternoon on our way to Mattie's GI appointment. People were going to slow in the left lane, people were passing me and then going really slow when they got in front of me, road workers placed cones way too far in the lane (my car was almost in the median a few times), people braked suddenly (and for no reason), and people cut in front of me with little warning.

I really should have gotten a degree in the medical field. The nurse practitioner that we saw today was asking me how I thought we should go about treatment. She asked how aggressive I wanted to be. I told her that I wanted to first do blood work and see what that showed before we gave her anesthesia and did a scope to look for what was going on. I also had to go through ML's whole history with stomach problems (from acid reflux as an infant to the tests/scope she had done at 1 1/2 to what I thought might be going on now). She ordered blood work to check for the markers that indicate celiac disease, anemia, h. pylori infection, and anything else that would show up in blood work. We'll get results to all but one test in the next 2 days...the other one will take a week to come back. If all the blood work comes back normal, we're going to treat ML for gastritis.

I could have a potential career in wrestling. I had to wrap my legs around ML's legs and bear hug her body and left arm so one nurse could hold her right arm and the other could draw blood.

playing catch up

First, I realize that I've been MIA on the blog scene for a while. I just haven't felt like writing lately. Life has been busy with lots of  everyday stuff and even more not-so-everyday that I'd like to be gone from our lives for a while. I'm going to try to catch everyone up as best as I can.

For three months or so, we were at the doctor's office almost every week (every week and twice a week sometimes) with Allie Grace's ears. She constantly had ear infections. We finally were referred to an ENT and she got PE tubes to help with the infections a little over a month ago. She made it a month before she had another ear infection. Our pediatrician prescribed ear drops that would have cost $165.99 without insurance...I'm so thankful that we have good insurance for the girls!

Just as we were finally getting Allie Grace's ears back to normal, Mattie started having trouble with her stomach. We had a couple appointments with our pediatrician about it and they referred us to her GI doctor. For the last couple weeks, I've been having to readjust her Miralax dose so that we can hopefully get her stomach back to normal. (I'll spare the details on what exactly was going on so that no one gets grossed out.)

Oh...if you didn't notice, Mattie Leigh is now just Mattie. She told us that she wanted to be Mattie because her doctors and nurses call her that and she'll get called that when she goes to school. I'm still waiting to see if this is a permanent change or if she'll go back to Mattie after a while.

Kevin and I are still looking for a new job (one of us HAS to find something soon). I'm finding that no one is wanting to hire someone that has a counseling degree but isn't already licensed (which is where I am), so I've been feeling that I wasted a lot of time and money getting my masters. Kevin has applied at every place that he can but has only gotten one call back...and that was for a job that was wanting lots of hard work for very little money. I'm really hoping that something opens up soon, because right now, money is so tight it's hard to take care of everything that we have to each month.

Needless to say, the last few months have been super stressful for me. I've been on edge and my temper has shown up more than it should. I'm working on that...I hate being so stressed and am really trying to not let all these stresses get to me. I could really use some prayers...that the girls would get back to their healthy selves, that either Kevin or I would find a new job soon, that our financial needs would be met until a new job happens, and that I would start managing this stress better.

I think I've caught up on the important things that were missed over the last few months...I'll try to get better about blogging again.