We learned the correct way to pick strawberries like a pro– grasp the stem just above the berry with your forefinger and thumbnail; then, flick your wrist ever so slightly and pull with a twisting motion. It’s all about the wrist flick.

Lots of love,

Amelia was ecstatic that Grammy bought her an iced lemonade while waiting for all the dutifully quiet members of our group to exit the pandas.

Grammy and Grandpa drove out from Utah last week to help with the girls and celebrate at their party this weekend, which basically meant I was on vacation (expect for those pesky last-minute party details).

The girls’ party was a blast and pictures will be posted as soon as I collect all of them from our friends and family.

While I was taking care of party stuff, Grammy helped out around the house and even gave Jake a break from bedtime story duty.

 It’s always nice having an extra pair of hands or two to help on walks. 

At one point the day before the party, I sent Grammy, Grandpa, Jake and the girls out of the house to the beach so that I could get things done!

 Happy birthday, Grammy! We miss you already!

Lots of love,

We are now going on Week Three since the girls have been in their big-girl undies and, while we are still taking things on a day-by-day basis, potty training is progressing. I didn’t plan on training the girls this early, except that they’ve shown interest for the past few months and I didn’t want to miss any window of opportunity. That being said, potty training these two girls is not for the faint of heart!

Samantha has shown interest in the potty since she was about 20 months old, but with the holidays coming up, I didn’t want to do any formal potty training until things had calmed down a bit. So, starting a few months ago, we read books about the potty to the girls, showed them how to sit on the potty, flush and wash their hands, and watched a few shows about the potty, their favorites being the Daniel Tiger potty episode and Elmo’s Potty Time.

Ever since she learned how to go in the potty, Samantha has alternated between being annoyed to going completely hysterical whenever she needed a diaper change. Sometimes she would literally grab a diaper and sit down on the ground!

Amelia was less enthusiastic about the potty, but followed suit after seeing Samantha. Thus, for the past few months, they’ve been going on the potty, but only as requested and not on a consistent basis.

The second weekend of February was a good time for Jake to take some time off to help with formal potty training, so we decided to bite the bullet and go for it!

Day 1: We took all the diapers in the house and put them upstairs so that they would only be used for nap and bedtime. I bought some cute Elmo undies and other undies with animals on them and made a big deal about how cool they were for the girls.

Then, we took off their pants and let them run around in their new undies all day long. We set timers on our phones to go off every 15 minutes and whenever the alarm went off, it was potty time! Having two people there to take twins to the potty (and keep each other sane) was an absolute must.

We stuck close to home on Day 1 and didn’t go anywhere, except to the little park in our neighborhood so that we didn’t have to deal with public restrooms. Each time the girls successfully went potty, we sang a little song and gave them a chocolate chip. Even with going every 15 minutes, the girls still had several accidents and we were all pretty frustrated by the end of the day!

Day 2: We stuck close to home again and the girls had fewer accidents this time. I still felt like I was constantly doing laundry to keep up with having fresh undies on hand and decided to order more from Amazon just so that I didn’t have to constantly be doing laundry. Soiled clothes times two really adds up!

The girls were doing great, until the the end of the day when we went over to Parker’s house to play and do crafts. Jake and I were distracted and not paying attention to consistently taking them to the potty, when Amelia had a huge poop accident! We had to wash her out in Parker’s tub and I ended up just throwing her undies away. Frustrating!

Day 3: Again, we stayed home and took them to the potty every 15 minutes. Samantha had one accident that day and Amelia had two, plus the girls finally seemed to start getting the hang of recognizing when they had to go. Jake and I were pretty tired at this point and felt like we had just spent three entire days in a bathroom.

Day 4: Moment of truth as I was on my own for the day. The girls had music class, so I stuck some pull-ups on them and made sure they went to the potty before we left, when we got to class and at the end of class. No accidents during music class and Amelia only had one accident the rest of the day. It was a good day overall, although being on my own with them was a lot harder than I thought.

Day 5: ZERO accidents this day, including no accidents while running three errands. Way to go, girls!

Day 6: No accidents during gym class and zero again throughout the day.

Day 7: First time using the park bathroom and I felt like we spent our entire outing going back and forth to the potty. The girls both had two accidents each at the park– argh!

Week 2: We had a few zero-accident streaks of several days and one or two accidents in between. Amelia was the champion this week with nearly no accidents, while Samantha regressed a little and seemed bored with the whole potty thing. Even treats didn’t excite her anymore, whereas Amelia got a little grin on her face and started chanting “Treat! Treat!” anytime she went potty.

Week 3: This past week, the girls switched and Amelia has been the one regressing, while Samantha is batting 100%. If I’m on it and remember to consistently take them to the potty (not every 15 minutes anymore, but pretty often), Amelia has been doing great. The times I forget and let her go a while, she’s had several accidents per day, including a big poop mess yesterday evening! I don’t know what’s going on with that girl, but it’s been a rough week with her.

Some unforeseen complications over the past few weeks have included increased instances of getting up in the night having to go potty. The girls are still in diapers at night, but will sometimes wake us up early in the morning, screaming to go potty– Samantha, in particular. She absolutely despises going in her diaper at all!

Another unexpected result has been total exhaustion on our part. With two potty training toddlers, I’m really wishing we had two bathrooms downstairs. When one has to go, the other usually does too, so I’ll set one on the downstairs potty and then run like the wind up the stairs with the other and put her on the potty, while then running back and forth between the two to keep an eye on both.

Even though we’ve wised up and now keep the wipes and toilet paper out of reach (we’ve had lots of clogged toilets, compliments of the girls), S and A still manage to find something to throw in the potty, or start turning on the sink and splashing water everywhere. At least I’m getting a good workout.

Also, I never realized how much extra TIME the whole potty routine takes. It seems like we’ve added an extra hour to prep time anytime we want to go somewhere! I’ve discovered finding/using public potties while out and about is so annoying! Diapers are much easier in many ways!

We’ll see where Week 4 of potty training “adventures” takes us.

Lots of love,