New Job

So every now and then, money stresses me out. I mean, if everyone is being honest, money stresses everyone out at some point or another. Leaving the security of an amazing job after Lyla was born, was just a tiny bit scary!! I know it was the RIGHT decision for our family, and my husband works AMAZINGLY hard for our family, so I do not want to belittle any of that in any way. Satan certainly knows which buttons to push for me though. He knows just how to get me. I LOVE being at home with Lyla. I could not imagine someone else spending the bulk of the day with her and getting all those moments with her. I am SO thankful for the opportunity to have this special time with her.

Being a stay at home mom is the best, most difficult job in the world, however, in the recent months, I have found that I have the second best job in the world....being a nurse. Becoming a nurse was seriously the best decision I could have ever made at such a young age. It truly is such a stable job. Everyone will always need nurses. You can float in and out of the profession as your lifestyle requires. AND it is SO versatile!! A nurse was WHO I WAS before I became a momma. It was how I defined myself, I found my self-worth there, and I LOVED what I did. And then I became a mom and loved that job even more!!

Now, I get to do both!! I was approached back in November about re-joining the Northside team, this time in their Mother's First Department. I was a little nervous about "going back to work", but after Adam and I discussed it, A LOT, and I spent lots of time in prayer, we decided that it might be a good opportunity. And I must say, it has been such a neat, exciting, great decision! I am teaching Northside's "Baby Essentials" class. I was a little unsure about standing up in front of a room of adults, teaching them, public speaking, if you will. I do not like attention, I do not like all eyes on me, I do not like speaking in front of people AT. ALL. I am in NO WAY a teacher. I mean, that's why I became a nurse, right?? Everytime I had to do it growing up in school, I just remember feeling sick to my stomach. I would get hot, sweaty and get all red in the face. I would stumble over words, and just read directly from my paper, never looking up at the class staring back at me.....Not really teacher material, right?

This has definitely been a new growing experience for me. The best part, well there are several best parts otherwise I would not be doing this, so I will tell you: 1. The class is three hours long and they are offered Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. There are two classes offered on Saturdays (9am-12pm and 1-4pm) (Tuesday and Thursday are from 6-9pm) So GREAT hours and hours that Adam is home, so no child care needed. It gives Adam and Lyla easy one on one time together. Plus, not only do they offer the class at the Atlanta campus, but also the Alpharetta (CLOSE to home) and Forsyth. 2. I am only gone from home a few short hours, and if I teach during the week, which I definitely prefer, I am only missing bedtime. No super early mornings!! 3. The group of teachers I work with is amazing! Everyone wants to help each other out, especially if there are scheduling problems. 4. I am only teaching 4-6 classes A MONTH!! In a busy month, I have taught 8 classes, but still, amazing!! 5. I get to teach NEW parents what I am most passionate about, becoming PARENTS!

It took me a few classes to get into my groove and to find my place as a qualified instructor. Really I am just a mom helping parents prepare as well as they can to enter the journey of parenthood. I pretend I am discharging these parents into the world of becoming parents and try to help them feel a little more confident about being responsible for these new little members of their family. It has become so much fun. I am by no means "an expert" but giving these parents confidence on the basic parenting skills brings so much joy. Even though I am out away from my baby big girl, I am able to use my experiences with her, whether my mistakes or things I have found that work. I am able to laugh with these parents as they change a diaper for the first time, encourage breastfeeding, and empower them in those moments long hours of fussy babies.

Since I had been gone longer than a year from Northside, I had to go through orientation all over again. I did this right before Christmas and then oriented after the new year. I watched one class, yes only ONE class, before I was observed teaching my first class. Talk about being intimidated! After that, I was on my own. I have loved getting to meet these parents in all walks of life, all stages of pregnancy, and hearing the unique stories of getting to this point in their journey. There are adopting parents, parents that have surrogates, and there are parents that are carrying their own babies.

While I love my life as a mom, this new part of my life gives me something that is just mine. It gives me piece of mind where finances are concerned, not that I am bringing that much in, but it has become our fun money. Lyla loves asking about the babies, "teach babies momma?". She has been up to the classroom several times and is in baby heaven with all the baby dolls the parents practice with. I feel good about only having to leave Lyla for a little bit, and it is the best when I come in her room in the morning and she squeals "Momma home!!". It gives me an adult interaction outside of our playdates. And I am actually kinda good at it. I mean, it is something I am passionate about. I love hearing that parents feel better walking out of the class, where their baby is concerned, than when they walked in. Now, I know better than anyone, that nothing can prepare you for what is to come when that baby is born, but they will find that out when they get there ;)

Potty Training and Other Growing Up Updates

I never updated the blog on Lyla's stats from the pediatrician from her last two appointments. I want to have them recorded on here, so here they are :)

18 month appointment -- Weight: 24lbs 14oz (75-85%), Height: 32.5 inches (75%), and Head Circumference: 48cm (85-95%)

2 year old appointment -- Weight: 27lbs 13oz (75%), Height: 34.6 inches (50-75%) and Head Circumference: 49cm (85-95%)
At her two year appointment, she had shots, blood drawn, flu-mist and her eyes checked. She was such a champ and never cried at all. She was too excited about the "bam-baids" (band-aids) and the "tickters" (stickers)!! Haha.

She is SUCH a BIG girl. I was telling Adam the other day that over the last few weeks, every time I look at her, she is no longer a baby or a toddler. She truly is a BIG girl now. What does that make her? A preschooler? She is starting school in the Fall and she could not be more excited to go to "my tool" (my school). What does that make me? Sad. I love how she is growing up and that she is so smart and funny and pure joy! But it is just going TOO fast.

In other big news my BIG girl has accomplished the potty training phase. This is one phase in her life that I was ready for, nervous about, and had NO CLUE what I was doing. This takes SO much patience!! It takes trust. It takes time. It takes patience. It takes "teats" (treats). It takes lots of trips to the bathroom. It is boring! And did I mention it takes patience?? I did not do a whole lot of reading/research on the subject. I just listened to what friends had done and kinda ran with it.

WE I attempted potty training Lyla when she was around 18mo old....Definitely was not ready AT. ALL. She had NO concept of what was supposed to happen or what she was supposed to do. We were still in the condo at this time, so I had her confined to the kitchen with just a t-shirt on (nothing on the bottom). She would drink lots of juice and I would sit her on the potty. After getting off the potty and immediately having an accident on the floor three or four times, I quit before lunchtime.

We I attempted again right before Lyla turned 2 years old after we moved into our new house...so somewhere around 22-23mo....This was a short lived attempt as well. I gave up before lunchtime, because every time I looked away for one second, she would have an accident....even if she had just sat on the potty. Not ready!

Lyla wanted to wear big girl panties on Wednesday January 30th, 2013 after she woke up, so I let her...It was a week where we really had nothing going on, so I thought, why not? We would be home anyway, let's try it. So I brought the potty down in the play room, filled her sippy cup up, turned on some music and we just played all morning. She was dressed in just her panties and a t-shirt. I set the timer on my phone so that it went off every 10 minutes. She knew that when it went off she had to sit on the potty. Then I would re-set the timer for 2 minutes and that is how long she had to sit on the potty. Every time she actually went, she would get one treat (a m&m). We made it to lunch time and she had gone on the potty several times and not had a single accident. So after lunch I put a diaper on her for nap time, but as soon as she woke up, she got to put her panties back on. Wednesday and Thursday we were home ALL DAY LONG. We did nothing but drink juice and go to the bathroom :)

Friday, we went on a lunch date to Chick Fil A with Nicole and Tripp. I was really nervous about leaving the confines of our house, but Lyla blew me away and did not have a single accident!! She did so awesome!

Sunday we went to church and we were so nervous about sending her in her panties. But we knew we had to bite the bullet at some point, so we did. 5 days in and we did. I took her before we left her. We asked the teacher to take her half way through and they did, but during the last five minutes she had an accident. So they changed her and every thing was fine. That was the ONLY accident she has ever had at church! Yay Lyla!

Over the next few weeks, we worked on really learning to "listen" to our body and tell mommy and daddy when she felt the pee-pee coming. It definitely took a few weeks to get this down, actually if I am being honest and remembering right, it was really FOUR weeks to get this down. And by that I mean that after those four weeks, we were not going to the bathroom just to "try", I was not telling her she needed to go, she was telling me, and there was no more letting the pee-pee come just a little bit (where her panties would get just a little wet) and then she would let me know. By week four she was perfect about telling me when she needed to go versus me just forcing her to try all the time. She never had any all out pee-pee accidents. The most she ever really did was get her panties wet when she would let it come a little before realizing she needed to go, but I think that is normal when a child is learning their body. There were a couple of times where she went enough to get her pants wet as well, but never anything horrible. I always carried extra clothes with me when we went anywhere and she always had to go before we left. She was also limited on her drinks in the car (this girl loves to guzzle her sippy cups in the car, so this was a hard one!). I always had to scout out where the closest restrooms where whenever we got to where we were going.

The pooping was what I was most worried about. I mean, I DID NOT want to clean up one of those accidents off the floor!! The first couple of days, she always pooped at nap time, so it ended up in her diaper. Then, that weekend she went poop on the potty! It was easy and not a big deal. She did have 3-4 times where she did have  poop accident in her panties, but I nipped it in the bud and made a H.U.G.E deal about how big girls DO NOT poo-poo in their panties. Momma doesn't, daddy doesn't and therefore Lyla doesn't. I also told her that she did not want to get her princess panties dirty, otherwise she would not be able to wear them. Plus, she would get TWO treats every time she went poop on the potty. After that, she never had a poop accident again! Thank goodness!! I was finding however, that she preferred to only poop in her little potty. Well that got old (for momma) quick, not to mention gross...I hated cleaning it out!! So the little potty went away and she was told that she could only go on the big potties. I never got one of those little toilet ring seats to go on the toilets. I am too cheap, plus I did not want to have to move it depending on what bathroom she was using or be confined to only using one potty in our home. So I just hold her so she doesn't fall in.

She is so amazing!! She blew through that potty training stage faster than I could have ever imagined!! It is hard work, but it turned out so much easier than I expected!! She tells us every time she needs to go and I cannot remember the last time I actually had to use the extra set of clothes I carry with me. It definitely was worth waiting until she was ready. That made the difference for us.

There are still a few things we are working through, one is how frequently she goes. She goes ALL the TIME. She will go to the bathroom and then 5 minutes later says she needs to go again. Sometimes she actually does go and sometimes she doesn't. But I always take her because I just don't know. I am not sure if it is because she drinks so much, she does not get it all out in one sitting or she just wants attention. But she KNOWS that if she says "momma, pee-pee", I have to take her and pay attention to her. Her other issue is pooping. She HATES to poop!! Like majorly hates it. Crying, tears, screaming, "no momma, no poo-poo". It is heart-breaking really. She says it hurts. She will tell me she needs to poop, and then she gets on the potty and decides she doesn't want to go. So we sit there and I "help" her and I hold her and I tell her it will be alright and she will feel better once it is out. I feel so bad for her. I have upped her fiber intake and give her prunes in hopes that it will help soften things and make it easier. That seems to help sometimes.

Can I also mention how nice it is NOT to buy diapers!!?? Well ok, she still wears diapers at nap time and bed time cause I do not trust her yet. She mostly wakes up from her naps dry, but still wakes up in the morning wet. NOT ready to cross that bridge yet. Not even sure HOW to attempt that process. So to buy diapers for those times is ok by me :) Although she did ask me at nap time today if she could wear her panties to bed....not yet little one. But maybe in the near future. Try not to grow up any more.

The first day of our "successful" potty training attempt!

Big girl panties on that sweet little squishy bottom.

The phone was our friend that day between the timer and watching shows.

"Its potty time!"

Such a big girl!!

Juice and panties.

Finding things to keep us busy.

Gotta get some things at the grocery store.

Love that bottom!

"Cheese"

Gymnastics 2012-2013 Winter Season

  I am sure my few readers as SO glad I am finally done with all of our Christmas blogs. With those out of the way and the pretty weather here, I can finally feel like Spring is HERE!

I have been so excited for Lyla to reach an age where she can start doing activities she enjoys in a structured environment. 

Since day one, this girl has LOVED to move. She is always on the move, doing something. I noticed how much she loved dancing, tumbling, rolling around and using pretty much anything as a balance beam. We moved in to our new neighborhood and since it is FILLED with mommies and kids, there were so many suggestions of where to take her and what activities were offered close by. We decided to start with gymnastics and see how it went. This girl was beyond excited to start her gymnastics class. She asked every day if it was THE day to finally go to class.

We started the week after Thanksgiving at All Around Gymnastics in John's Creek. Love this place, love the gym, love the teachers. We love everything about it. And this is the nurse in me, but it is SO clean.

It was an 11 week class, 45 minutes one day a week and for the money I thought it was so worth it. With it being cold outside, it was the perfect activity to do during the winter to get out of the house. We will definitely be signing up for another session. Lyla loved Tuesdays. After all that is the day she got to go to "Hop, Hop". Her gymnastics class was a mommy and me class. They have to be three years old to go by them-self, so I got to participate as well :)

"Hop, Hop, momma?". Her question almost everyday. Once we got started, she always wanted to know when she was going to get to go back. The "days of the week" lesson is HARD for a two year old!! She loved practicing in between classes, and always says "else, momma?" so that I will tell her different things for her to do and she will do them. The first day, it was just Lyla, me and her teacher Ms Laura. I had kinda hoped for other mommies and kids in the class to meet people and for Lyla to be able to socialize with. They promised me that there would be more people to sign up, but if no one else did, they would move us to another class. The next week, there were two other little girls and their mommies. After Christmas, two more little girls and their moms joined as well. So it ended up being a good size class.

Every two weeks, they changed the "theme". The songs and activities related to the theme, which kept it interesting. Since Christmas and Valentine's Day also fell in our session, they made sure to add those to the themes as well. One of the rooms they do class in is a Disney themed room. So it has all the characters, which Lyla loved and they incorporated them as well.

We always started off in a circle, stretching and doing more fine-motor skills, pointing toes, to a few songs. Then, Ms Laura always set up a circuit of things for the kids to do so they each had something to do and we would rotate through them at least three times for them to get the hang of them. The first circuit was always the bars. They got to hang on them, swing on them, pull up on them, flip over them, walk on them, and do the rings as well. Lyla proved to be pretty strong!

Then we would do a circuit with forward and backward rolls, holding their knees and rocking back and forth, hand-stands against the wall, cartwheels, tucks and jumping. 

Then we would move to the other room and practice on the balance beam. There was four of them, and Ms Laura would have them do different things on each one, like walking backwards, walking sideways, bending down to touch the beam, and jumping from one side to the other.

Then came Lyla's absolute favorite part. The trampoline into the foam pit. She LIVED for this one. They jumped feet together, feet apart, backwards, they got to run and jump. If Lyla could just do ONE thing the whole time we were at gymnastics, this would be what she would choose. I have a few videos posted below of her on the trampoline.

The first class was pretty easy, as far as Lyla paying attention and listening to Ms Laura. She was the only one and got all the attention. The next class was a disaster. It was horrible. She did not listen at all and would not do what she was told. So after we left, we talked about obeying and listening ALL week, until the next Tuesday came. I reminded her as we got out of the car she needed to obey and if she did not, we would have to leave. She was a perfect angel the entire class!! After Christmas break, the first class back, she had trouble listening again, but I think it was because she was just SO excited to be back. After that, class was so enjoyable and she really did SO well! 

It was so fun to do this class with Lyla. I know that she is growing up so fast and there are not many opportunities to actually share in activities like this with her. I will soon just be watching from the sidelines, cheering her on and being so proud of her and her talents. 

Here are some pictures from the last day of class. I did not get any of her on the bars, but recently she has been asking to go back to "Hop, Hop", so I see another session in our future :)

Listening to Ms Laura explain what to do at each station.

Back-roll.

"Ta-dah!!"

Point those toes.

Hand-stand

Cart-wheel.

Head-stand again.

Tuck.

Front-roll

"Ta-dah"

Balance beam time.

It was Pirate Theme week when these videos were taken, so that is why there is a "plank" to walk at the end of the trampoline :)

                                       
                                       
                                       

Foam-pit!!

Rock and roll.

Waiting patiently for her turn to jump on the trampoline.

All of the kids got to stand up on a platform one at a time and received a ribbon the last day of class. It was too cute. They had no idea what was going on!!

Getting her ribbon on the last day.

With Ms Laura.