SuperNanny Style Time Outs!

Yesterday I came to a startling realization. OK, maybe it was startling because it was something that had been nagging the back of my mind for months now, but it was a realization nonetheless.

I have done my poor little Kaitlyn a serious disservice by not disciplining her as stringently as I disciplined Mack at the same age. Mackenzie has gone through fazes of being in time-out multiple times a day in an attempt for her to learn the rules and understand how we expect her to behave not only in our home, but also in other places. With Kaitlyn though, I seem to have somehow messed that up for her and in being more lax with time-outs, have created a child who DOES NOT know how we expect her to behave and therefore is a little terror most of the time.

And not that she isn't a sweet girl, but she also has a little mischievous streak that comes out and often takes awhile to go away again. For example when she hits Mack or doesn't listen to me, I usually just correct her, tell her to apologize and then move on. With Mack in the same situation, she would have been sent to a time-out, and been expected to sit there (without getting up) for 2 minutes (or however old she is) and then would need to apologize for whatever behavior had gotten her sent there in the first place.

So in realizing all this, I have made a decision. Kaitlyn is about to start getting some tough love when it comes to discipline. I began last night with a true SuperNanny style time-out. Basically it took about 20 minutes before the kid actually sat in time-out for her whole 2 minutes without getting up. But you know what? It has ALREADY made a difference. The threat of a time out today was enough for her to correct her own behavior and follow my directions. We are about to have THREE children all under the age of 4 and if I can't get Kaitlyn to behave the way I need her to we are going to have some serious problems. I hope that I can stick to my plan, not get so upset about her not following the rules that it interferes with the plan, and get Brian on board! Wish me luck!

Yay Baby!

Well we had our first baby appointment today! I think it's crazy that here in Minot you can't get an appointment until you are at least 10 weeks. But oh well because we got to see a pretty good shot of the baby when we got the ultrasound done. I am 12 wks and 4 days and am due on April 22nd. Yay baby!

But not yay for the baby that just woke up from nap. Short entry today.

Caution: The following message contains POOP!

So the inevitable happened. One of the few disgusting things I had NOT had to deal with having two small children. But alas, Saturday night would prove that I could not handle the one truly horrendous thing would make me have to leave the room to prevent myself from throwing up all over the place. Kaitlyn POOPED IN THE TUB! I know, I know. Many of you have had to deal with this and some of you more than once, but I had been lucky up until this point and have never known the true horror of it til now.

It started out as an innocent bath. Girls playing and splashing and swimming. The usual. And then things turned ugly. I went to the hall closet (still within eye-shot) to get the girls towels out and upon my return I saw it. A disgusting grey turd (I never use that word, but it seems appropriate) floating right next to Kait. I didn't know it at the time, but as I was realizing that this thing floating in the tub is her poop, she is still squatting down in the water pushing out more poop! As soon as it all starts to click what is happening, I begin to freak out! Totally! I grab Mack out of the tub, not caring that she is soaking wet, crying and asking "to be warm", start screaming at Brian that there is poop in the tub, and finally get Kait up and out as Brian is coming up the stairs. LAUGHING! He's laughing! That jerk! Only he's not a jerk. He's a saint. Because after I get both girls out of the tub and take another look in the tub (BAD IDEA) I realize that the lack of morning sickness I've had throughout this pregnancy is about to begin in that minute if I didn't escape that room. I grab a towel, wrap Mack up, tell Brian I CANNOT deal with this and leave him in the room with the floater and the culprit. However, as I am leaving the room Kaitlyn seems to have also realized how disgusting it was that she pooped in the tub and starts gagging. Then to make my mommy guilt worse for abandoning her in her time of need she begins to throw-up. But fortunately for me, I put my mommy guilt in check, decide that I can at least take care of Mack and therefore still perform my motherly duties and take her to my bathroom to finish her bath. I'm not sure how Brian deals with the situation in the other bathroom but after about 5 minutes he and Kait join us in my bathroom so we can finish Kait's bath. After things calmed down, and we got the girls bathed, dressed, brushed, and in front of the tv, I attacked the bathroom with A LOT of bleach, making sure all their toys got a good soak before rinsing them all off. So needless to say, there is rarely a dull moment when dealing with small children. And I also know that if this happens again and Brian is not home, that floater will stay behind closed doors until he is.

Spacious White Home

So since my last post we have completely moved out of one house to a new one on our street! We have gone from a very small yellow duplex to a single-standing spacious white home! I am super excited about this transition and have been pleasantly surprised at how well the girls have been adjusting. Something that I probably wasn't as worried about as I needed to be. I told Brian the other day that as proud as I am that they have done so well with the move, I naively thought no less of them. I forget that change is a dramatic thing for most people, especially little tiny people whose worlds are so small anyway. I embrace most changes and find them exciting and fun. I suppose that is why I married a man in the air force. A life full of constant change. But again, to little people, it is a big deal!

But despite this, they have done an amazing job and we also put Kait straight into a big girl bed once we moved in. Now keep in mind, Mack was JUST moved into a twin bed the week before her 3rd birthday (Aug 7), so moving Kait so early is a big deal. But she seems to be handling it well and is still taking afternoon naps without too much fuss so that proves to us that she is old enough to handle it. Kaitlyn seems to handle things like this better than Mack did. We had tried to move Mack to a big-girl bed when she was 2 1/2 and she was NOT ready for it so we had to put her back in her crib. It broke her heart, but there was no way she was going to sleep in that bed without keeping herself and Kait up. And my little Kait is still regularly *trying* to use the potty. She has gone pee pee a couple times, but more than anything she just likes to strip off her clothes, sit on the potty and use toilet paper. But again, this is more than Mack does even at this point. After we get completely unpacked and settled into this house that will be my next task. Getting Mack potty-trained. Ideally my goal is to have Kait and Mack potty-trained by the time New-New Baby (Kait was New Baby) is born. But I am not going to stress myself out about it either. If I end up with three kids in diapers, then I will have three kids in diapers. Not a huge deal in my world. If I'm already changing one, then I can change the rest too. I will post pictures of our old and new houses and you can see why I am so excited for this house!