Egging our bushes & Alicia visiting

Loralynn and Daddy hang colored plastic eggs on our trees and bushes at the start of the Lenten season.

I think we may have hung our eggs a little too early this year (March 8, the weekend after Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday which is when I thought it was supposed to be done). I didn't see most of our fellow villagers putting them up until this week. So now it is fitting to post our pictures of the little family affair in our yard.

Tana hung all her eggs as low as possible.

Loralynn really enjoys decorating. Our bushes are very weedy and pokey to get to so Tana was a little iffy about the egg hanging. It was also difficult for Tana to get the ribbons around the branches. Perhaps next year in our new home we can hang them again, but more concentrated on a better bush so that they show up more.

We also had our niece, Alicia, visiting for the weekend as her YWAM discipleship training school in Herrnhut finished the Thursday before and she was flying back to her parents' home in California Monday. She must have made quite an impact on the girls during her first visit in August/September because they adored her company and wanted as much attention as they could get from her.

It was a fun weekend with great weather and we took advantage of it with our egging and going to the park downtown for a picnic.

Our final Hambach home egg decorating is complete. Will we have a place to hang eggs in our new home next spring? 

Potty training Tana day #3

We are all happy about Tana's awesome potty-ing abilities.

Today was the big dump day! I actually didn't expect Tana to do her first poopy in the potty when it came time so I was jumping for joy when it happened in the toilet after "nap time." In fact, I think she never went to sleep because she was anticipating it. Even so, she kept her bedtime panties dry that entire two-hour "nap".

Everybody shout for joy! These milestones are so exciting as a parent especially when great results come sooner than expected!

I feel like the remaining portion of the day was not much to speak of because the afternoon poop just out-shined the rest. I will recount anyhow.

Tana woke up with her bedtime panties soaked, as expected, but her bed was thankfully dry. We prepared for chapel this morning with no incidents. Her pee finally came after we dropped her off at watch care. The ladies were prepared, and we had left lots of extra panties and tights, so all was just fine.

Toilet paper is a great thing.

We went through only four damp panties today. She used the potty to pee twice at home later. I didn't attend to "watching" her like a hawk anymore, though I tried to stay close. She has started running up to me making an urgent noise and dancing her legs around when she needs to be escorted and gratefully it's before she lets it all go. I only see improvement ahead of us, and I'm stoked about this.

Tana's poop victory happened after reading several books together in the bathroom. Loralynn has provided lots of dialogue in the background as she listens to us-- especially when we're going through our baby picture books with our family photos in them. We proudly displayed the log for Loralynn to see afterwards. They both got treats, Tana put a big sticker on her chart and we called Daddy with the great news (yes, he was at work on a Sunday, too).

I would like to say that the official potty training is complete even though she will still need a lot of attention for her business for a while. But don't worry-- you won't be hearing much about it anymore until her bed stays dry all night.

I wanted to make note also, that we changed Tana's crib to a toddler bed a few weeks ago in anticipation of this. I haven't given her permission to exit the bed alone to go potty yet. I will wait until I feel like she has command of her potty-ing abilities before that's allowed. She went to bed tonight again without peeing during her three opportunities before her bedtime routine was done. She tried to use it as an excuse to go to the potty yet again, but I didn't let her.

I am super excited about not having to cart the pack 'n play and loads of diapers and wipes around during our travels. This has been an exciting new year for our little Montana Jaxi. Next to be ditched: the pacifier (but I'm not quite ready for that one yet).

Tana said, "I love it! I love it!" when she saw her new toddler bed. She was most excited about having a pillow. Since this picture was taken, Dan installed the front railings for the "bumper" effect a third of the way across on both sides.

Potty training Tana day #2

Day #2 potty training with Tana has been very encouraging!

I was dreading getting up this morning to prepare for another day of potty training and cleaning up messes. It started with Tana waking up crying in her wet bed (I would be, too!). "I don't like wet bed!" she cried more than once as I entered the room.

The day proceeded with breakfast of crepes with Nutella and banana which Tana wouldn't touch and Loralynn said she liked but didn't eat much. Tana's short meal times have made it difficult with this potty training because we normally let them down when they are finished. I can delay it only a short time without getting loud protests. Then Loralynn seems to be taking longer than ever to finish eating. I'm torn between giving Loralynn additional servings and trying to watch/help Tana with potty training. Remember: I'm not supposed to take my eyes off Tana for fear of missing her cue.

I let it go for about 10 minutes so that I could finish breakfast with Loralynn. Luckily, we had no accidents. Tana didn't pee much this morning at all. I wasn't pushing the liquids as much as I had yesterday because having two kids is more distracting than one (Loralynn was at Kindergarten for the morning yesterday) so it just slipped my mind.

We migrated upstairs to the playroom which I was more concerned about because it's carpeted up there. Sure enough she had two sizable accidents on the carpet before lunch. I have to admit that I was loosening up on my "watching" her because I was growing weary of it, so I just contented myself with being in the same room as her. I've been folding lots of laundry the last two days, and I also dashed out of the room a couple times to put stacks of clothes in appropriate rooms. I figured the best time to dash out was right after an accident happened and we finished changing panties and cleaning it up.

I was getting down about the whole thing by nap time. We had gone through many panties just like the day before with minor dampening in addition to the two bigger pees on the carpet. She didn't go before nap time and I decided to put cloth bedtime panties on because I'm tired of washing beds and it bothers me too much to know that she would be sleeping all wet and yucky.

To my great delight, she woke up from her nap two hours later completely dry! I decided to keep Loralynn in quiet time a little longer so that Tana could have some peace in the living room just after her nap. We went to the potty and she was determined to stay on it until something came out. This 3-day method I'm using strictly teaches not sitting on the potty for any length of time if they can't go right away. I decided she wanted some time and we read some books together.

"My pee pee is coming out!" she looked up excitedly at me. I wanted to go crazy right at that moment, but I tried silent enthusiasm until she finished all the way (she had a full bladder!) and then I exploded in rejoicing! I wanted to give her all the candy in the house as a reward, but I held back and just gave her a dum-dum sucker and a big sticker for her chart.

We called Daddy to celebrate (he went into work today even though it's Saturday).

My guard let down a lot after this, and I wasn't so concerned about being in the same room with her all the time (so I could finally clean the kitchen). Close to bedtime she went pee in the potty again! She had two damp accidents in between time.

We visited the potty twice during our bedtime routine to no avail. I put cloth bedtime panties on her for bed to hopefully give her a better night's sleep.

Who needs tonsils?

This is Loralynn the night before her surgery.

At the high recommendation of Dr. Rainer Burlein, ear/nose/throat (ENT) doctor in Schweinfurt, Loralynn went into surgery February 12 to remove her adenoids and tonsils and also insert tubes into her ears. We checked into Krankenhaus (hospital) St. Josef February 11 and checked out seven days later on February 18.

Loralynn slept after her morning surgery.

Loralynn is closing in on 4 1/2 years old. I noticed a year ago that she seemed to get sick in the fall and stay sick for nearly the entire winter. She had a clogged or runny nose most of the time, long-lasting coughs, plugged/popping years, and it seemed as if she couldn't hear me well. She often wanted me to turn off music even if it was fun kid songs. Our German pediatrician told us to wait to get her hearing checked until the winter sick was over. By summer time, she seemed cleared up and fine. When September rolled around this year, the same thing was happening. The pediatrician said the same thing, and I realized that I wanted Loralynn to be able to hear in the wintertime during the sick season and something needed to be done. I decided we'd ask an ENT's opinion.

I made a visual countdown of the days.

December 19, Dr. Burlein said her tonsils and adenoids were twice as large as they should be and should come out. Her hearing was indeed greatly muffled by mucous-- he said she was hearing as if someone stuffed wet cotton into her ears. He recommended tubes be put in as well to drain her ears. The type he used were aluminum and lined with gold and would fall out of their own accord in six months.

Surgery went smoothly even though I was traumatized when she was delivered back to the room with spots of blood on her face and coming out of her nose and ears not to mention her pale white and swollen face. She was awake, upset, wanting to cry but didn't have it in her. She slept for several hours after surgery. Once she awoke and ate some ice cream she was very chipper and ready to play.

She was happy in the afternoon after eating.

That night she was incredibly tired by 8 p.m. and went right to sleep. She woke up around 2 a.m. and stayed awake until nearly 5 a.m. before finally falling back to sleep-- I think the extra sleep after surgery were the cause of this because she didn't seem in pain or uncomfortable at all, plus she had a dose of pain medication in her.

The next nights we slept fine and she no longer snored as before. Initially I thought she wasn't breathing because she was so quiet, but, no, she was just sleeping softly.

We packed many activities, books, music and more for the hospital in addition to getting two care packages (from Oma & Opa Gosnell and college roommate Sara J.). But the days wore on with lots of rain outside. When the sun was out, we disobeyed hospital policy of only going to the hospital

We were ready to go home after seven days in this room.

gardens (which was super boring and small) and walked across the street to the park and playground. On the Monday holiday, Dan and Tana met us there and we walked all through downtown and got ice cream-- that was so refreshing and needed.

Loralynn's healing progressed as normal. On day five after surgery (Sunday) Her throat "scabs" were just starting to fall off so the doc requested we stay an additional day to make sure bleeding didn't start again. Tuesday morning, he said 95% had fallen off and the new skin was tender, but healthy and we could go home!

Loralynn complained about pain only that first day home. She got some ice cream here and there for a few days and we continued to give her soft food for an additional week. The third week she started eating most foods again and now she's fully healed and eating better than ever. Her portion sizes have increased tremendously, so perhaps she's got a growth spurt coming on. We saw the doc two more times after we left the hospital and he said she was looking just fine.

Every morning she ate white bread with Nutella spread.

In addition to Loralynn eating a lot more and not snoring, she has tried a few new foods that she never would before, she is singing a lot and absolutely loves listening to music, she's generally happier, she is bringing more German words home from school, and she has suddenly become more snuggly especially with Daddy.

I believe overall this was a good decision to remove her tonsils and adenoids and get the tubes put in. I wish we would have gotten it done sooner. I have heard from other parents that they have had similar wonderful results from their children after the surgery.

Potty training second child

So now it's Tana's turn. She is 31 months old and very ready to leave the diaper stage-- or so it seems. She has been interested in using the potty for five months, and I have been allowing her to sit on it with her diaper on whenever she desires.

I've never been one to favor any sort of potty chair because I want to train on the proper toilet and get it done with since we won't have a potty chair whenever we're not at home. We do have an awesome travel potty seat that we used very often with Loralynn (and still use on long road trips when a rest stop isn't available). The sides snap outward to sit on the big toilet, too, so they don't fall in or have to hold themselves up!

As far as the big toilet goes, we made Loralynn learn all of it at once: to get on the stool, pull her pants down, sit on the potty with a trainer seat on, grab two squares of toilet paper and then flush all down the toilet. European flushes are a bit harder to do because it's a big button on the back of the toilet wall above the lid. This requires the toddler to reach pretty far to smack the flush button.

Anyhow, today was day #1 for Tana. I am approaching her potty training the same as we did with Loralynn but hoping for quicker results since she's got an older sibling to model. We have totally eliminated diapers and she is running around the house in a long-sleeved shirt and panties. My intensity will last for three to four days and then life will have to resume to normal because things need to get done.

The method requires me to watch her or play with her constantly throughout each day so that I can see when there is a pause, a shift in comfort, or any other indication that shows the pee or poop is coming on. Every 10 minutes I ask if her panties are dry and say, "Tell me when you need to go potty, ok?" When she pees or poops I run to the potty, pull down panties, and sit. "Yuck, your panties aren't dry anymore." We put on fresh panties and clean up the mess on the floor.

I started this morning before taking Loralynn to school. I thought about waiting until after we took her to school, but I wanted Loralynn to be there when we started. We ate breakfast, Tana still wearing her last diaper. She finished eating too quickly, so I had to let her down. Loralynn kept eating forever so while I was helping her finish, Tana did her poop in the diaper. I missed that opportunity. Oh well. Guess I just have to wait a while for the next one which didn't happen today again. I took the poopy diaper off and decided to start with the panties right then and had to put on pants too because we were going out in the cold. Before we left for school 10 minutes later, she was wet all through and we had to change. Missed the first pee, too.

I had a piddle pad in the stroller for the walk to Loralynn's school. Tana didn't have an accident at all the 20 minutes we were gone.

I settled down with her in the living room after that and caught all of her accidents. We must have gone through 15 pairs of panties today. She only had three big accidents and all the rest were just dampening the panties as we rushed to the potty. Nothing went into the potty-- though twice we rushed so quickly that I think a drop or two got in and I gave her a sticker for her chart and a Cheeto just so she could anticipate what would come in the future if she was able to go in the potty.

I was able to get her to drink two Capri Suns today in addition to milk and water so the pee was really flowing and we had many opportunities. Her biggest accident she saved for dinnertime in her highchair. It was a mess. The gross thing is that Nutmeg, our little dog, likes to clean up the messes, too. It's tough to manage a wet kid that needs to be rushed to the potty and redressed as well as get to the mess on the floor quick enough.

She told me two times during the day, "I closed my poopy." I'm not sure what that means. But, I believe she caught onto the fact that she needed to inform me when it was time to go potty because after the first hour of our training she started standing up in a sort of race position and waiting for me to ask.

She's sleeping in a soaked bed right now. I don't want to wake her to change it, but I put a dry blanket on her. She slept in a wet bed during naptime, too. I'm not very hopeful that nighttime dryness will come about anytime soon. Loralynn is 4 1/2 and still wets three to four times a week. We're stocked with nap and bedtime cloth panties so that we don't have to pay a ton of money for pull-ups.