Potty Training Continued...

About 20 years ago, or what feels abut that long ago, I posted about how we were venturing into potty training. Oh how optimistic and naive I was. I knew that potty training wasn't easy, I have more than enough friends who have struggled with it and worked with enough children in Daycare and Early Learning settings to know that it can often be a long drawn out process. But I think like many of us, I was tempted to hope that we would take a different route, one where suddenly she would wake up and be completely potty trained and I would smile proudly and we would carry on happily. That did not end up being the case. Being pregnant with Sy when we started the process I was hoping to have it all wrapped up long before he was born, the idea of needing to assist her and constantly question her need to go on the potty while caring for a newborn had very little appeal. So we kept at it, until one day she whimpered and said, "Mommy I can't do it." I questioned her a little bit and found that she seemed to have become overwhelmed by the whole process. So we took a break, stuck with the Pull-Ups and tried to keep her familiar with the idea of it at least, waiting for signs she was ready to try again. Sy was born and she was slowly starting to show a little interest again but as I feared I found it challenging to keep up with it during the 24 hour nursing stage. But we tried to stick with it, finding things that we could entice her with as rewards. We had been keeping at it mostly because we thought it was important to move past this stage until we realized that we had a different goal, she needed to be potty trained in order to attend the Preschool we had her registered for. So that has weighed on mind heavily this summer. However, Henry and I remained confident that like all other milestones with Zoey, she would likely just suddenly get it, we were just hoping it would happen in time for Preschool.

Jumping to this month, I will admit to starting to feel a bit discouraged and overwhelmed. I allowed myself to wonder if it was something I was doing wrong? Was she actually going to miss out on the start of Preschool because I wasn't doing this right? Good heavens was Zoey going to be sort of shy AND not potty trained? (I'm obviously kidding with the last one :) In hindsight, she may have picked up on my stress as she had a few rough days and meltdowns, which can be typical three year old behaviour but was quite unusual for her. Finally I talked to Henry about it and we agreed and admitted that we had been praying very little about it. I wondered why I had fooled myself into thinking that God wouldn't care about this issue? Or perhaps in my infinite lack of wisdom, I thought I could handle it. We agreed to start praying for wisdom for us and even that it would just work like most things had for Zoey. I also made a choice to have more confidence in Zoey herself. We started to see more progress over the course of a week or two but still not quite the consistency we needed to be able to say she was fully potty trained. Finally this week I decided reach out to our amazing Small Group community and asked for prayer on this issue. Literally the next day we had a near 180 change. Bailey was over and was able to get her to wear undies which up until that point, she had declared to be yucky. Once the undies were on she has been consistently asking to go on the potty and kept them dry for the last two days. We even went to the library and Daddy's soccer game without any accidents.

Anyone that has been involved in potty training knows that this is no small thing, it is a huge victory, and for me personally an exercise in faith. I have been reminded that my God cares about all things in my life, big and small. He has has constantly shown Himself to be unfailingly faithful to me, and I must do a much better job at doing the same in return. Perhaps this whole process has taken longer than I would ever have hoped or initially wanted, and I definitely felt discouraged at different points, but I feel that this success is that much sweeter right now because of the entire process. I have very few answers as to how God works, and this may seem like a very clichéd idea but I know right now, in this experience I am so grateful for prayer and a God who cares about my children and our lives in every area.

I know this process isn't necessarily over yet, we'll likely have some challenges ahead yet, but I'm so excited about how far we've come and I'm so proud of my sweet Zoey.

Catching Up With Sy...

I've failed at keeping up with updates on our life in general, nevermind specific updates on Sy. If I look back I was fairly consistent with monthly updates for Zoey. I suppose that's second child

Syndrome, but in my defence both of my children's baby books are up to date. So there is that at the very least. 

What's new and exciting for Sylas Josiah? Well he is six months old already!! It's cliqued to say, but mercy what happened, it's only a couple weeks ago that I was snuggling my brand new baby in the back of an ambulance. The fears I had before he was born about how to manage two children, logically and emotionally seem like distant memories. Life before him seems to never have existed, he fits so perfectly into our lives and family. He's so different from his sister, yet they are showing some strong similarities. Sy has been praised for his lack of shyness (another post for another day) which is true, he is more comfortable around others than Zoey was or is generally. However, he still shows he is most comfortable with familiar family and friends. He would automatically flash a smile at anyone who approached us but lately he is more inquisitive and takes in his surroundings first. But that mega watt smile is right around the corner. Added to his smile as of July 11th is his first tooth! He's been a trooper as two of them push their way up, but as the first cut its way through he woke up screaming in the night. Once it popped through he slept content the rest of the night. There is one more ready to come through in the next day or two and then hopefully he gets a break after that!

Summer has been a month of firsts for Sy, he's had his first solid food, began siting up on his own, along with his first tooth. 

We don't think it will be long before Sy's crawling around. He's rolling all over and is just starting to army crawl to toys just out of reach, particularly his sisters toys that she has moved purposefully out of his reach.

Zoey and Sy are really starting to interact.

He looooves his big sister and she loves him (as long as he leaves her toys alone).

Zoey went for a play date with her Auntie and as we drove away after dropping her off he whimpered and stared at her empty carseat the whole way home. Any time she looks at him he has a special grin just for her. If he's sad Zoey makes funny faces for him and 9 times out of 10 it cheers him up.

I love that they have a special relationship already. I know for a fact they will drive each other bonkers but our prayer for them is that they will have a relationship of love, respect, and a shared appreciation of their crazy parents. I'm grateful that they will always have each other. I may be biased but I think they both lucked out with the siblings they have.