Ky-An and Ai-Vy’s Potty training

Ai-Vy has been showing interest in using the potty so we encourage her.  She’s been following her big brother around and then every time her brother has to use the potty, she would claim she has to go also.  We knew she didn’t but we decided to encourage her, especially since she’s showing an interest.  Then on Monday she did her business in the potty consistently and we made a big deal with high-fives and a song and dance.  She thought it was so funny, grinned the whole time, and walked around bragging about her accomplishment. “Vy poo-poo in potty.”  It’s cute if you are a parent.  It’s gross if you are not. LOL.  She then progress quickly, as she has been with everything else so far, she asked to use the potty to go tinkle and that’s a big thing!!!  She then asked to go several times today at the babysitter’s house.  She still has a little way to go but I don’t think it'll be long and she’s be out of diapers pretty soon.  I’ve thought about starting with her since I’ve heard that training girls are so much easier than boys.  Never did I know it’s going to be this easy. Girls ARE a breeze to potty train. 

Ky-An has his own accomplishment.  We tried getting him out of diapers at night back in July but that didn’t go too well because Ky-An wouldn’t wake up enough to use the potty and ends up wetting the bed.  He has such a laid-back attitude that he was fine with us putting diapers back at him.  He protested at days claiming he’s a big boy now.  We told him he’s not quite ready yet and we will take off his diapers when he’s ready.  At the beginning of last week, we decide to go ahead and not give him his diaper because we can see he wants it.  He was so excited running into the room to tell me he is not wearing any diaper!!! 

Hieu carried him to go use the restroom before we go to bed and I decide to follow and help him out.  What I realize Hieu was doing is that he was leaving the bathroom too dark and didn’t allow Ky-An to wake up enough to use the potty.  I turn on the bathroom light enough to wake him up a bit and he went just fine.  He still wet the bed for the first two nights.  He managed to wake me up to tell me his pants is wet but not that he has to go to the potty..go figure!!! 

I was a little discouraged but we kept at it and he’s been dry for the whole week!!!  Yee-haw!!  The only thing is that we (mostly Hieu) has to set the alarm for about 12:30 to take him to the potty.  It’s still a long way from having to wake up every 3 hours to feed them right? :P

Cute kid moments

Ever since Hieu started taking over dropping off Ky-An, he has been treating them to a doughnut run on Mondays to help ease the transition. I am okay with the treat but made him pack toothbrushes along to brush their teeth afterward. :D So this morning Ky-An woke up and the first thing he said is: "Daddy I go to school today...and I get a doughnut!!!" I don't know how he knew today is Monday but somehow he sensed it and we thought he was getting excited about going to school but nope..it was the doughnut.

I usually put Ai-Vy to sleep first and then Ky-An come in 30 minutes later. Sometimes when he's really tired then I put them to sleep at the same time. Last night I had them both on the bed drinking milk while I run to the bathroom. I came back hearing giggling and found Ky-An covering the spout of his cup with his finger and somehow that got Ai-Vy hysterically laughing. It was always what I want to see among siblings because I remember lots of late night giggles with my sisters. It was very cute but I had to put on a straight face and told them to cut it out and go to sleep.

Week in Pictures

I don’t wanna go to sleep..I don’t wanna go to sleep..I play..

So happy that they were able to bang things together on Saturday morning:

Playing with a car I got as a filler at Walgreens:

Oohh..super SUV!

New mattress..or mattresses

Ai-Vy is still waking up several times a night. Sometime all she need is for me to put my hand on her chest. I'll have to stand next to her crib until she goes back to sleep. Other times she needs me to feed her and I feed her in her crib because picking her up will wake her. I end up not getting a good night sleep because I have to get up and out of bed every time she stirs. I often put my head down the rail to get some rest while I wait for her to finish her bottle.

It would've been easier if she's in the bed with me and I can just reach over to tend to her. However, our king size bed is barely enough room for Hieu, Ky-An, and I. Whenver I am too exhausted, I would wake up Hieu and he'll move to the floor so I can have Ai-Vy in the bed with me. After several days Hieu move to the floor because I needed some rest due to numerous night wakings whenever Ai-Vy stir. I feel horrible everyday because we get to sleep in this big bed and he has to sleep on the floor. In addition, when Ky-An woke up and didn't see his dad, he starts crying and wake up Ai-Vy.

Even on the king size and both kids next to me, the still manage to keep falling off the bed. One night I was fast asleep when Ky-An fell off the bed. I somehow jumped out of bed and look down to see him on the floor and he starts whimpering so I know he just fell and is in shock. He starts crying but everything seem okay. The next night I open my eyes to find myself aleady standing next to the bed and Ai-Vy crumpled with her blanket on the floor. As with Ky-An, she must have just fell because she starts whimpering as I pick her up and then fell back to sleep again. Everything look okay so I put her back t bed. Hieu heard about it the next morning and he was worry so he checked out every inch of her body to make sure it's okay.

It's at this point that I realize it's not working and we need a new solution. I had a great idea of getting rid of the crib and put another twin size next to the bed so Hieu can sleep in. The twin size bed can be Ky-An's when he's ready to move into his own room. We put the twin right next to Ky-An as a barrier and bought a bed rail to put on Ai-Vy's side.

Hieu just finished up a contracting job and got several thousand dollar. He wanted to get something nice with it and we are in desperate need of a new mattress. Our old one creaks so much that I wake up the kids everytime I change position. Even though we need one, I still feel financially irresponsible to spend extra money on a mattress instead of put them into savings. Hieu convinced me that it's okay to splurge once in a while so we went mattress shopping. Overall we bought 2 Sealy posture-pedic mattresses. One king size and one twin. We were going to get the memory foam that was on clerance but after testing it out, I decide I am not used to stillness. It would've been great because I could move around all I want the the kids wont't feel it. However, I am too used to the buoyancy of the spring mattress and hate the sinking feeling everytime I lay down. I am not too heavy so I don't sink much in the first place but it still gives me a funny feeling in my stomach whenever I sink. If the funny feeling in your stomach when you are taking a dip in the roller coaster.

Sealy supposedly control all the pricing on their mattresses so they can't give us any discount. We manage to buy a nice memory foam pillow for $120 and get one free. I've never heard of anyone spending $120 on a pillow though but Hieu said the nice down ones are already that much. We also got another contour pillow one for free that I gave to my parents. They gave us free delivery and an extra 10% off the twin's mattress.

We advertise the crib on Craig's List for $150. It sold almost immediately. There's this sweet old grandma who came to buy the crib for her grandson. She saw the bedding set I had and bought those for $80 also. Now we have a king size bed that the kids and I slept on and Hieu is in the twin right next to us. All is well in the world again. :)

I really love sleeping with the kids and woudn't change it for the world. I love climbing into bed and can watch both my kids peacefully sleeping and their angelic faces for as long as I want. I love to be able to lean over and hug them or give them a kiss. I especially love that I don't have to get out of bed to comfort a squirmy baby or make a nightmare less frightening.