Toddle Along: MAKE THE SWITCH!! [to EC]

Thanks to Toddle Along Tuesdays I've found great new mommy blogs which have kids near in age to Blaine. Lots of new followers around here too which is awesome. Since some of you are new to my blog, I thought I'd do a series of posts to update you all on something I have yet to see on any other "Toddle" Blogs: Elimination Communication. A topic I feel VERY strongly about!

Lots of "Toddle" Bloggers have been talking about "making the switch" to cloth diapers now that their kids are a bit older. That is so great! But I'm hoping after reading this, a few of you will "make the switch" to putting your child on the potty!

When pregnant, I had no idea what EC was or what it was about. I discovered it on a blog and was skeptic of it working, but figured heck the potty is $10 and it would be great to possibly have 1) less diapers to change and 2) have baby potty trained earlier.

I have been doing EC with Blaine since he was two weeks old. The very first time I put him on the potty he peed in it. No joke. I was in disbelief and so was my whole family. Things only progressed from there and by time he was 4 months old he was using the potty for almost 95% of poops and the lots of pees. That is still where we stand. I probably only have to clean a poopy diaper once or twice a month. [Wouldn't that be great for all you cloth users!].

FAQ (and excuses):

• "I work fulltime so can't do EC" - Kids relieve themselves after every wakeup. Even if you only put your child on the potty once in the morning when he / she awakens, you will start teaching him what the potty is used for and have one less poopy to change. In fact, Blaine usually only poops once a day and it is in the potty when he first wakes up. [and it is a HUGE poop].



• "My cloth diapers are just too cute" - Yes I heard this as an excuse on why not to EC. To do EC you don't need to go "diaper free" like some of the books say. I have carpet and Blaine is RARELY diaper free unless he JUST pooped and peed and I'm for sure for sure he won't go soon. So keep on using those cute diapers!



• "It is too much time" - It takes no longer to put the kid on the potty than it does to change the diaper. Just start small. At all wakeups. Kids dont pee / poo when sleeping, only when first awakening. When you take your child to the changing table after a nap or in the morning, just stick them on the potty to see what happens!



• "I don't know why 'sign' my child gives when he / she needs to go" - NEITHER DO I!!! LOL. I just put him on the potty and go "pssssssssssssssss" and he goes when I tell him to!

So my challenge to you, "make the switch"! Put your child on the potty once today after he / she first wakes up [or hold them over a sink or tub], say "psssssss" and see what happens!!!

P.S. There are books and websites on the topic if you google "Elimination Communication" or "Infant Potty Training". I have never read one book about the subject.

Farmchick's Friday Farm Pic Blog Hop

My little country boy. [who won't sit in strollers, carseats, shopping carts, highchairs, OR swings, but would sit in his wagon by the garden allllll dayyyyyy longggggg]. In fact just this afternoon I had him in the wagon and took him in when it started raining and he threw a fit when I picked him up out of the wagon to go home. LOL.

Mummy Walk

I love this 'early stage' of walking thing. The way babies walk with their legs stiff and their arms straight out; just like some sort of zombie or mummy coming at ya on Halloween. SO. FREAKIN. CUTE. Thank goodness my sister finally caught the "Mummy Walk" on video. Everytime I get out my camera, the kid won't perform. You know how that works!

Happy Father's Day!

One day late, but I just didn't have that perfect picture that I totally LOOOOOVED until this afternoon. Nick's "First Father's Day" was filled with Blaine, swimming, gardening, and mulberries. :)

My New Bedtime

9 pm. Yes that's right I'm back to be "exhausted mommy". Blech.

Blaine has been up every 3 hours for the past several nights. Before you all shout "TEETHING", let me explain that Blaine got his first tooth June 6th. AND THAT WHOLE WEEK HE SLEPT FROM 8:30 pm - 6:30 am. [ie a personal record for him]. And then I'd nurse him to sleep and he'd sleep another hour or two after that! CRAZY! I do have a theory: I'm on my period. So maybe my milk supply has dropped that much and caused him to be hungry that often? I have been going in and nursing him but I fear developing a bad habit we will have to use CIO to break like we did a few months ago. Let's just hope this ends soon and he's back to waking up only once a night!

11 Months

Oh my. Only one more month until the big 1.0!!! YIKES! I love this kid so much it hurts when he's away from me; you know, like when he is in his bed sleeping and I'm here in the living room! LOL! I could squeeze him all day everyday and it wouldn't be enough.

~ Weighs about 18 lbs 8 oz. MY LIL SHRIMP!
~ Always always ALWAYS on the go!
~ Had a "vocab" explosion a few weeks back but still no real words
~ Had a walking explosion this week and will walk up to 15 ft at a time, but still mainly crawls when he means business
~ Climbs every thing he can figure out how to climb
~ Still hates the carseat
~ Loves riding bikes
~ Loves anything with wheels or a steering wheel
~ Loves all fruit especially freshly picked (by him LOL)
~ Loves peas from the garden (cooked first)
~ Despite mommy applying sunscreen all the time, has a "farmers tan" everyone seems to be commenting on (pics to come later this week)

~ Has one tooth (June 6th)

~ Still nursing lots. I think I have finally decided to introduce cows milk at 1 yr and then have a goal of him "being weaned" by Christmas.

We celebrated today by going hiking in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, eating Mexican (the kid loves his tacos) and going swimming in a big pool for the first time ever. HE LOVED IT ALL!

My Strawberry SHORTcake

I better get used to laundry emergencies with this kiddo!

THANKS ANNA! BLOGIVERSARY!

Thanks to Anna, I realized that my first post ever was Friday June 13, 2008. And I didn't even celebrate today! ;) Life sure does change in 3 years and I'm happy I have something to go back and reminisce about, especially since I didn't journal or have a diary through pregnancy. So happy blogiversary to Kirby and Anna but also to Country is a State of Mind!

Flyin Under the Radar

So I sort of never mentioned that last Thursday was my 29th birthday and last Friday was our 5th wedding anniversary! NICK WAS HOME BOTH DAYS (!!!!!), which never happens, so we decided to actually do something fun this year. Nick kept asking me what I wanted to do, and I really had no great ideas (you know something we could go do in an afternoon and be home before Blaine needed to go to bed). Until an article I read plus a google search led me to Tree Frog Canopy Tours. I thought the nearest zipline course was 3.5 hours away but turns out there is one only 1.5 hours from here. We made reservations on our drive there! :) SOO FUN!

Did anyone else zipline on their wedding day? WE DID! ;)

NTS: The "REST" of the Story

I realized I didn't tell the WHOLE story about Blaine sleeping in yard on the blanket, until a few commentors posted about being "jealous" he would just conk out like that. (bwwwaaahaha, so far from the truth). We we had carried him around for about 2 hours while we planted, rototilled, etc etc etc. On a walk to my grandma's next door to grab the bean planter, he fell asleep in Nick's arms. We tried to transfer him to the blanket and he woke up (transfers never ever go well), so right then and there I whipped out the boobie to NTS (nurse to sleep; a cool acronym that I'd never heard of until babycenter about 2 weeks ago). Luckily my parents and grandparent weren't home so no one could really see the spectacle! LOL.

Honestly, I know I've created a monster with the NTS and it is a habit we can't break easily. But the truth is we've tried creating sleep associations (song, lovey, etc), and tried CIO (the kid gets tense and hysterical if you even approach his crib), but this is what has been working. There are definitely days it doesn't work and I have to let him cry, or go on a car ride, or take him in the backpack awhile, but you do what you gotta do for the naps! Hey I have a friend who has to put her THIRTEEN MONTH OLD in the infant carseat and swing it over and over with her arms until the child falls asleep for naps. SO IT COULD BE WORSE! LOL. But I know I don't have a kid who will ever fall asleep in his high chair while eating, that's for sure!




^^Nick getting ready for the tranfer. And below, me fixing the damage!

Garden Till Ya Drop

I really have no idea how big the garden is this year. Or what all the counts are on varieties of things. I just now it is BIG. And working in the garden sure does wear Blaine out! ;) That's right we were carrying him around with us while we worked and he totally zonked. What you see here is basically the size of a field. And that isnt' all because we've got our peas, fava beans, sweet corn, broccoli, califlower, asparagus, and sweet corn all in a separate places, a different field and a plot in the middle of the backyard (last year's pumpkin patch). If you look close you can see that we still have 4 hothouses on the giant pumpkin plants and the moveable chicken pen is on the far right of the picture. The chickens are getting big, and only have about 3 more weeks to live!

Blow that Whistle: Video

[errrr recorder I still have from 4th grade LOL]

Watch the video for Blaine's newest tricks. Don't know if you've ever taught a baby how to BLOW AIR before, but it is DIFFICULT! This came after months of me teaching him so I was darn excited!

Farmchick's Friday Farm Pic Blog Hop

Love an excuse to post a picture that looks country. Biggest tractor Blaine has seen so far! This beast came and raked the hay for my grandpa, and it's brother chopped it to be used by a neighboring dairy farm. My grandpa sort of "traded" with the farmer down the road for some square bales later in the season. Country bartering!

This & That

** still wanting to take garden pics so I can blog about that

** that being something turning out to be OUT OF CONTROL....

** wondering who will pick our 400 ft row of tomatoes ;)

** is having a child out in a thunderstorm warning just so I can take pictures of the sky count as child endangerment?

** don't worry I took Blaine err sprinted Blaine home as soon as the winds picked up and he loved it ;)

** never realized a child so young could be so obsessive (tractors LOL)

** still wondering if I've got a momma's boy or a daddy's boy; might it be possible he is both?

My Little Monkey

I'm totally loving the age. I sit back and watch what this kid can tackle, often amazed he can climb things (see step stool pic) that are taller than he is. Don't worry I'm always ready to catch him if need be!

First Bike Ride!

I bought this WeeRide Kangaroo Carrier on craigslist and it just figures that it didn't fit my bike. Well a month later, and a trip by my mom to get the "old crappy Walmart bike" from my sister, Blaine had his first ride. Most things that involve sitting and being strapped in turn out nightmarish. However, this was different and surprisingly, HE LOVED IT! Now I just hope Nick can either get the seat to fit my bike after all, or he can fix up the Walmart bike a bit because the brakes are grabby and it is a tough bike to pedal.

On a Hot Summer Night

I was going to make the title "In John Deere Green" but it appears I have done that before. Is that song in your head yet? The next line from the song that always jumps into my head is "On a hot summer night. He wrote Billy Bob loves Carlene....In John Deere Green".

LOL.

P.S. I cannot stand to listen to country music in the wintertime for some reason but now that it is summer I can listen to it again. Does anyone else's taste in music change from season to season?

In other news, MY ALLERGIES ARE BACK (!!). After a one year hiatus [I swear due to pregnancy], they are back and worse than ever. Sneezy, snotty, itchy, runny, miserable. Hopefully they will only go this bad through June and then get under control.