3 for the Price of One Doctor Visit

Good news:

So the potty sticker chart thing is continuing to go well. Sofia has stayed dry 2 days in pre-school, pooped on the potty every day and even stayed dry for a 45 minute drive to San Francisco, both ways. I do have a little Baby Bjorn potty seat to keep in the car, just in case, fully prepared to have Steve pull over if necessary. We need to get one of those piddle pads to protect the carseat (making mental note).

Bad news:

I think we are giving the boys wayyyyy too much milk. Doc said no more than 24 oz per day and I thought about it and realized that between wake-up at 7, breakfast and coming to the docs, they'd each already had 24 oz by noon. Yikes. They eat a lot (well, mostly William does) but I suspect they might even more if I cut down on their milk intake. I think it's becoming a habit for them, sucking on the bottle. If we switched to sippies, they'd probably drink less milk. Then again,I don't want David to miss out on any calories, so jeez, what to do.

The problem is they refuse all sippies. I have tried every sippy on the market; Playtex, Nubies, Target brand, etc. They take a sip and throw the sippy on the floor. We even tried the Born Free bottles (kind of a bottle/sippy hybrid) that are $13 each and that one flying through the air too. I guess we're just going to have to go cold turkey on the bottles and they'll just adjust.

All had shots. The boys cried bloody murder, satiated only by a ba of milk, Sofia didn't.even.flinch. That girl is one tough cookie. (that's my side :P)

Their stats

Sofia (3 years, 2 months)
Weight: 33 lbs (66th %tile)
Height: 37.5 inches tall (48th %tile)

William (15 mo) my tank (these percentiles throw me because he's such a chunk and solid) Weight: 22 lbs 6 oz (19th %tile)
Height: 30 inches (14th %tile)
Head circumference: 51 inches (greater than 97%tile - no shocker there)

David (15 mo) - My little nugget
Weight: 20 lbs 3 oz (3rd %tile)
Height: 29.5 inches (6th %tile)
Head circumference: Can't remember!! But it was WAYYYY smaller than William's.

Our Little Date

So tonight, Sofia filled up her sticker chart again. I promised her we could go to the Bookstore and buy one book, so we had a little date. Twist my arm to go to B&N.

I felt sort of daring and let her wear panties on the outing. This is a big step for me, always fearful of an accident. I finally just tried to chill out. I mean, what is the worst thing that can happen? She'll have an accident? I brought extra shorts and panties. Changing a dipe is a pain in the butt, so if she has an accident, I'll change her panties, big woop!

We went to the bathroom as soon as we arrived at the bookstore and as soon as we returned home without any accidents. Yay!

Sofia mostly played with the train set they have there.

We sat and had a cookie and milk in the cafe in B&N. As I love any excuse to go to B&N, I think we may have to do this more often.

Cutest moment -- her announcing to the Cafe employee "I'M WEARING PANTIES!" at the top of her lungs. The lady got quite a kick out of that.

Another funny moment, a few weeks ago, I was sitting on the potty and Sofia was in the bathroom. She turned to me, patted me on my shoulder and said "Take your time, mommy."

Sticker Charts and Iced Cream

As of Saturday, we have instituted a sticker chart system in our house. Done out of frustration and admittedly, without much forethought, I didn't download any cute templates, just grabbed a piece of paper, made some stars for the stickers to be placed on and explained the system to Sofia.

The system is Sofia gets one sticker for every time she uses the potty. She can also earn a sticker for getting herself dressed, helping mommy, listening to mommy, etc. Fortunately, my little diva caught on pretty quick and was exclusively using the potty all weekend, including when we went out all day. Her diaper stayed dry and I could not have been more pleased.

Her reward for filling up a sticker chart is either going to the bookstore to buy a new book or going to get an iced cream. I'll let you guess which one she picked when she had filled up her chart by Sunday night!

We ended up going to dinner with all the kids and I let her order a Sundae. Of course, this led to her saying Sunday, Monday, Tuesday (makes perfect sense) which was pretty funny.

We now have a new sticker chart and she is only 2 stickers away from going to the bookstore for a new book.

I'm not naive enough to think this will work forever. Her being 3 and all, I realize that once the novelty wears off, I'm sure she'll lose interest, but I'm trying to keep it fun and keep her engaged, so we'll see.

It's certainly helped the potty training. She is now telling me when she has to go and wearing panties at home (no accidents). I do take her to the potty every 45 minutes or so, so it is requiring a lot of work on my end, but it sure was nice to only use one diaper the other day!!

Wish us luck.