New Year, New Update

Well, Leah's come so far in the potty training this past year. On New Years Eve she even went #2 in the potty all by herself without us having to prompt her. That's noteworthy!

We are also noticing Leah is saying more and more. Now it's not the same word explosion that I've seen with our other kids, because many of the words are still very "fuzzy", but some things have come out of her lately that really took me by suprise. Yesterday she brought me a piece to her puzzle and said "I got one Momma, Look." just as clear as day. I think that's the first time she's ever strung 5 words together. It's always amazing when your kids learn to talk, but with her it's even more so because we've been working for so long on it.

And she's saying words I never would have thought - like umbrella and blueberry. Dean said he wonders if there's a connection between her mastering the potty and her speech progress. We've heard there's a connection between the physical and speech.. you know first you learn to walk, then talk. Now that she's gotten farther along physically, maybe her brain is ready to move on with speech. Here's hoping this is just the beginning of a speech explosion.

On the diet front... I'm happy to say for the first time in 2 decades, I've made significant progress losing weight. (Excluding the times just after giving birth). Officially I'm down 17.5 pounds since I started sparkpeople.com in July. December wasn't a very good month for weight loss, but at least I didn't gain and I'm ready to plunge into it again now that the New Year is here. If you've always wanted to lose weight, and need a good [free] program, I highly recommend http://www.sparkpeople.com Then, REALLY commit to tracking your calories and excercise as suggested and you too can get there. There's really no big secret to losing weight- just a lot of committment and resolution needed. And some really good calorie tracking tools go a long way.

Other updates....well we finally gave in and bought the boys a Wii for Christmas. They were thrilled, especially Jonah. Now the only problem is how to regulate it so they don't spend all their time playing video games....

Deleting my Dr Phil's Potty Doll bookmark

Leah is making potty progress. I think this year has been longer than most because of our battles with potty training. We started April 1, 2008 and here we are in November. But I feel like we are definitely over the hurdle. She still has some accidents, but fewer and fewer. She hasn't wet the bed in over a month. She's only pooped in her pants once in the past month. It has been sooooo much harder with her than it was with the boys, but we're getting there!

I found I have to push her harder because she's so resistant to change. It's very tricky, because we can't predict when she has to poo, and she sure won't tell us. We've had to learn her signals of when she's feeling the urge or sometimes it comes down to when we see a streak in her undies (sorry to be graphic), then we have to make her sit on the potty until she goes.

MANY times I have felt like a potty cheerleader. You know "You can do it, You can do it!! Go! Go!".. I'll just leave it at that. We've had to bribe her with fruit snacks (her favorite treat) and withhold fruit snacks at all other times except for these special "events". But mostly it's just being consistant and getting her to learn that once we know she's got to go, she's going to be in the bathroom until she does. At first I wondered if I were being to hard, but we've pretty much been able to figure when she hasn't gone in a while and know that's she's gonna have to go, so it's worked....thankfully!!! Now we are spending less and less time in the bathroom. Hurray!

Oh and she's finally graduated from her crib. Turns out it wasn't as hard as we thought. She does need to feel secure though, so we modified a regular twin bed with a 2 foot wooden board down the length of the bed. The other side is against the wall. She took right to it. I wonder if the children's resale shop would give us anything for that crib...

Slow Success

I guess with baby steps comes slow success! I'm now on my 4th month with sparkpeople.com and I'm down 12 pounds. I haven't been at this weight (won't mention any numbers) since before Jonah (who just turned 11). I'm starting to get into a rut though and my weight loss is stalled, but I'm determined to stick with it.

I joined a "New Years Weight Loss" Challenge group at sparkpeople.com. All of us have have the goal of wanting to get through the holidays and come out with a weight loss! It's great to have other people going through the same thing you are. I have to keep thinking about the benefits I'm seeing... more energy, confidence, and I've gone done 1 pant size (woo-hoo!!). I'll post my "before picture"- which is actually before this particular weight loss challenge starting, at the beginning of September. I've lost 6 pounds since then.

baby steps towards success.

I've set out on a new weight loss adventure sparked by a website of all things. http://sparkpeople.com One of the more encouraging things I'm picking up from this website is to start with baby steps towards a better lifestyle (eg. healthier eating, better fitness). If you plunge in all at once you're bound to fail and give up, but if you take baby steps and transition yourself there, you're far more likely to succeed.

Today in one of their many words of encouragement came a newsletter talking about the steps of success. Step 15 struck a cord with me today, here it is:

15. Be passionate: Striving towards a goal without passion is like a fire which slowly runs out of fuel to burn. Get excited, this will mean that you will love what you are doing. Methodically check your behaviors against impassioned dreams developed as a child. Always share the child within amongst your peers; the dreams of the child can help shape the creative force of the adult.

frustrated

Up until recently, I've avoided thinking of our 5 year old daughter as a special needs child. After all, she can walk, feed herself, drink, play & most recently even use the potty (we're not completely there, but really close). I guess I've always thought of "special needs" as physical disabilities such as not being able to walk.

It's only when I began to think of taking her places to be under the care of others that I began to see, hey she does have some "special needs" because other kids her age don't have need this or that. For example, other 5 year old kids can sleep in a bed instead of a crib and can sit at a chair throughout a meal without getting up and having to be constantly re-directed. Others can run and climb stairs without falling... and of course other kids can be taken out to the store or to church without fear of them running off (or walking very fast) the minute you let go of their hand.

I don't know where I'm going with this thought, just writing it down as it sinks in. Of course I love my daughter just the way she is, but sometimes I wish we didn't have these little "special needs".

June 2008

It's summertime- hurray!! No more coats, cold weather, bleak short days. Hello crocks and flip flops that make getting out the door with 3 kids about 5 minutes quicker!

I've added a new slideshow featuring scrapbook pages from our recent Myrtle Beach trip. I wish you could read the writing on my pages, but I'm afraid it's a bit small. Basically Timmy was totally amazed by the awesome wonder of the ocean. Leah was horrified by it. Too much sand moving under her sandals and throwing off her balance I think. Jonah, who told all of us repeatedly how much he would hate the ocean, stepped onto the beach and didn't look back. He literally did a 180.

Somewhere along the line I'll be back to add pages from Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon (totally missed that one).

When I'm not vacationing, I'm busy scrapping away all my pictures. I'm still a creative team member for Alma Townsend, who now sells exclusively at Scrapbook Elements.

My gallery at SBE:
http://www.sbelements.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=3338
Alma's store at SBE:
http://store.scrapbook-elements.com/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=127


She keeps me busy creating scrapbook pages, but it's great to be busy that way! Some of the pages I've created with her kits are for sale. How amazing that other people have used the pages I put together!

For now I'm off to pay some bills.

About 12 years or so ago I joined in the scrapbooking revolution. I loved it, but sometime after we had started having kids (now 10 years ago), I realized how cumbersome it is to store and find space for all those scrapbooking supplies. For years I tried to work on scrapbooking the old fashioned way when I could get a few hours, but I spent about 1/2 the time finding the supplies and putting them away.

Then about 2-3 years ago I began to learn about scrapbooking on the computer. At first I thought it would be "second rate" and a compromise to traditional paper scrapbooking, but then I discovered how realistic so many digitally made scrapbooking elements are. It's just amazing to me what you can do with a computer program. Also since I began exclusively using digital cameras (circa 2001-2002), digitally scrapping my digital pictures just really made a lot of sense. I can still print out my finished pages, plus I can easily post them online to show others. Also now I've gotten into the fun of online scrapbooking challenges. I've joined the "Creative Team" of designer Alma Townsend and I have just started my own challenge I host on her website.

Several different people have since asked me about how to get started in this, so I decided to post some great links that helped me get started. If your interested, check out the introductory e-book available at the Scrapgirls website. It's a great way to learn more. Also, several of the links on the right of this blog under "Great Digital Scrapbooking Websites" have FREE digital scrapbooking kits you can download. Of course there are many digital kits that you can purchase as well, but I would suggest starting with the free ones- there's some great ones out there!

As far as scrapbooking software goes, there are many different options. Most of the major ones offer free trial periods so you can check them out. I personally use Corel Paint Shop Pro x2. You can trial it for free here: http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1184951547051
If you need additional software help, scrapgirls.com offers downloadable video tutorials that are very helpful. These are not free, but I eventually opted to buy one of these.

Good luck to you. If you're anything like me, you'll find this hobby rewarding and enjoyable.