Potty Training

I have been trying to potty train Anna Claire off and on now for over a year.  Nothing works for this kid.  She cares nothing about using the potty.  She knows what to do and when to do it because she has used the potty at home more than once.  I've tried rewards, sticker charts, letting her go around in her underwear {tried this twice and the same thing happened both times}, pull ups, asked her not to pee pee on Dora, the Princesses, Ming Ming, Minnie Mouse, Hello Kitty, etc....., pretty much you name it and I have tried it.  She started a few months ago using the potty at daycare on occasions.  They would get her to sit on the potty and sometimes she would go and sometimes she wouldn't, but there was no drama about it.  I had pretty much given up. I've been told more than once that she will go when she is ready.  She is a very head strong child.  She does what she wants, when she wants, and I cannot change that.  It's not that she's not smart enough, it's just something she can control.  {I guess she gets that from her Momma}

Well, she moved to the 3yr old class at daycare a few weeks ago and it has been a nightmare ever since.  We have been on a waiting list for a new daycare for a while because of past issues.  I thought it would get better when she changed classes, but that is not the case.  I was told when she moved that she was not the only one not potty trained yet and that my price wouldn't go down until she was potty trained.  No big deal!!  I am OK paying extra until she is potty trained because that is extra work for the teachers.  Anna Claire gets a sheet sent home every day that she is at daycare telling me about her bathroom visits, her meal and snacks, and her mood.  I no longer get snack updates, so I don't even know if she's getting 2 snacks a day and I'm not sure when she is using the potty and when she is not.  I only get a check mark on tried.  The 2yr old teacher would mark tried and then write used the potty or did nothing.  For all I know, my child may be holding her pee all day.  She has been at this daycare for over a year and I have NEVER gotten a sheet that was marked "easily upset" on it.  We have only had maybe 3 checks on "content".  All the other days she was always "cheerful" because that is my Anna Claire.  The past 3 or 4 days at daycare she has gotten a check mark on "easily upset" with the comment, "she cries every time we make her sit on the potty."

I handled this well the first few times, but yesterday was it!!   I was SO MAD!!  The teacher, who by the way has ZERO children, talked with me about Anna Claire crying when she had to sit on the potty last week.  I told her I had no suggestions because nothing seems to work with her.  I told her I was sure she would do it when she was ready and the teacher informed me that she was the only one not potty trained in the class and that she needed to get potty trained.  I just smiled and walked off, while in the back of my mind I was thinking "if the crying is an issue, stop forcing her to sit on the potty".  The note yesterday, for some reason, just got to me.  Anna Claire was ill when I picked her up and between her and the note, I was in tears on the way home.  This teacher makes me feel like a horrible mother because Anna Claire is not potty trained.  She has no children, so she had no clue what it's like.  I cannot make this child use the bathroom!!  There is NOTHING that I can do to force her to pee in the potty.  I can force her to sit on the potty, but I feel like they do that enough already.  I've read that forcing them to sit on the potty will only make it worse.  I don't know what they do or say to her to make her cry every time she has to sit on the potty.  Maybe she has to sit there too long, while the other children do fun things, I don't know!! 

I do know that she is unhappy there.  She told me yesterday on the way to daycare that she didn't want to go to that school anymore, which broke my heart.  This was suppose to be the best daycare in town.  What happened?

I decided to try underwear one more time last night, since I was so stressed about the whole potty training issue.  She wanted to wear her boots, so she had on her shirt, underwear, and her boots.  She kinda looked like the naked cowboy, only with a shirt on and she wasn't wearing her hat.  LOL!!

  I told her not to pee pee in her panties because if she did, it would get in to her boots.  She agreed that she would go use the potty.  I asked her about every 10 minutes if she needed to go potty.  The last time I asked her she said, "I know Mommy.  I won't pee pee in my boots."  About 30 seconds later she was yelling to her Daddy that she had pee peed in the floor.  I have to give it to her, she didn't pee pee in her boots.  I'm not sure what she was doing because she left a puddle in the floor, but her underwear were barely wet.  Maybe she did it on purpose to prove a point.  At this point, I have to just surrender to her.  When she's ready, she'll do it, until then I will continue to buy diapers and pull ups.  I will love her no matter what.

No Voice, a Dead Fish, and Ice Cream.........Oh My!!

I have been sick since about Saturday afternoon, not really sick bc I never felt bad, I just couldn't talk and when I did, it hurt.  Monday I went to the Dr and she said that I have/had {since it's much better now} Tracheitis.  It's basically an upper respiratory infection that caused my trachea to swell.  I got a shot and some antibiotics and went on my merry way, back to work of course.  I never really showed any signs of an upper respiratory infection, other than a sore throat that lasted about an hour.  I had a cough, but it was because I felt like I had something stuck in my throat because of the swelling.  Anyway, the shot worked and by Tuesday I sounded a little bit better.  Today, I sound much better, but there are still times when you can tell I've still got a little swelling.

Kerry called me Tuesday afternoon to tell me that Susie didn't look to good.  She didn't look to good because she was DEAD!!  Thankfully, Momma was in Murfreesboro Tuesday evening, so I sent her a text that said, "can you go to Pet Smart please?  Susie is dead and Anna Claire doesn't know it."  She responded with, "OK."  Later on Kerry put Anna Claire in the bath, so that I could get the aquarium cleaned out and get everything ready for the new fish.   About 9:00pm, Kerry went to the gym, Anna Claire went to bed, and I stayed up waiting on MeMe.  Now Susie was red, blue and green.  She was more blue than anything, but her long tail was red.  MeMe comes in with Susie #2 and I didn't know what to say.  Susie #2 was red and pink.  He was big and lively, so I didn't say anything other than THANK YOU!! 

Anna Claire noticed as soon as she saw Susie Wednesday morning that the blue was missing.  Kerry convinced her that Susie just turned pink.  {I wanted to tell her the truth, but he felt like she was too young to understand}  Susie #2 is much more lively that Susie #1 ever was, thank goodness.  I never got a good picture of Susie #1 and as you can see, Susie #2 came and stayed next to the glass, so I could take his picture.  I think he only did it with the hopes that I would feed him.  So, I learned my lesson.............................No more fish from small pet stores.  Now on to something else.  : )

Wednesday afternoon I took Anna Claire to the Dr.  She had some cold symptoms and she was a little hoarse when she woke up, so I went ahead and made her an appointment because I had googled tracheitis and I knew it was normally an infection that children get and it is very hard on children because their trachea is so small.  {Yes, I got an infection that usually only children get and some how managed not to get strep throat when she had that in May.  My immune system is so weird}  Anyway, we go to the Dr. and she is running a low grade fever when we get there.  She checked everything out and asked if her nose had been bleeding because it was raw.  Bless her heart, she never complains about feeling bad or anything hurting, so I had to idea she was that sick.  I just went on my motherly instincts when I made the appointment and I'm glad I did.  Anna Claire has an upper respiratory infection, that I am guessing I gave to her.  We dropped her prescriptions off at Walgreen's and then had about 30 minutes until they would be ready, so we went to Dairy Queen for a treat.  Anna Claire wanted chocolate ice cream in a sprinkle cone.  I had to explain to her that we were going to Dairy Queen, not Ben & Jerry's.  She settled for a regular cone with some soft serve vanilla ice cream.  She ate all the ice cream off of the top and wanted more.  I explained that there was more ice cream in the cone.  She refused to eat the cone and requested a spoon to finish her ice cream.

Let me tell you about Susie........

Last Thursday I decided to go buy Anna Claire a fish tank.  They have two fish in her class at Barnyard, or they did, until she moved to the 3yr old class on Friday.  She seemed to love the fish and was excited to see them every morning that she was there.  I went to the Pet Planet here in town to get the aquarium.  I, for some reason, just figured Wal-Mart didn't carry aquariums anymore since they don't have fish.  Anyway, I walked in to Pet Planet and the smell about knocked me down.  Thankfully, after a few seconds you got used to it.  It was your normal pet store smell.  As I am trying to pick out an aquarium, which it's not like I had a lot of options, I kept having to watch behind me bc I knew they were getting a snake out of its aquarium thing on the back wall.  I am a little scared, OK, terrified of snakes!!  I go back and forth for about 10 minutes and finally decide on a desk aquarium.  It's cute, yet classy, matches my living room, and will fit perfectly on the end table.  It looks very easy, as there are no pumps, filters, heaters, etc.... to mess with.  I bought a little light that fits on it, but other than that, there was nothing to plug in.  It came with the gravel, decorative rocks, the conditioner that we needed, and a little pack of fish food.  What more could you ask for?  I checked out their Betta fish while I was there, to see what they had because I decided we would start with a Betta fish, since they are usually hard to kill and I'm not good with plants or fish.  We set the little tank up Thursday afternoon, so it would be good and ready for the new fish.  I promised her that Friday afternoon when I picked her up that I would take her to Pet Planet to pick out a fish and that, I did.

She loved the pet store.  I finally get her to where we need to be and she picks out her Betta.  There were $3.99 Betta's, $4.99 Betta's, and $11.99 Betta's.  Yes, you read that correctly, $11.99 Betta's.  Apparently people show their Betta's now days?  Thankfully, Anna Claire picked out a $4.99 Betta, even though the truth be told I would have bought an $11.99 Betta if that would have been what she chose.  She was so excited.  She told the lady at the front desk that she was going to give her new fishy a very good home.  We get in the car and I ask her what she is going to name her new fish and she says, "Susie".

I'm sorry, what?  "My new fishy's name is Susie."  Well, Susie it is.  Susie, the male Betta.  :o

We get home and I float the bag that Susie is in, in the tank to get her used to the water temperature.  See, I've got this.  Momma was big in to the Betta's in the bowls with the peace lily's when they were popular.  I helped make them and had one of my own, so I knew what I was doing.  Or did I?

After floating for about 10 minutes and listening to Anna Claire cry wanting to know when we could let Susie out, it was time.  I opened the bag, scooped out Susie, and put him in his new home.  You can't really tell, but the background is brown with the white vine flowers running up the back of it.  It was very pretty.

Susie did not seem to pleased, but I didn't really expect him to be.  He went from a very small little box thing to an almost gallon size home.  I'm sure it was culture shock, but he would get used to it.  Anna Claire was a very happy little girl.  She talked to Susie and fed him after a while.  She LOVED watching Susie eat.  At bedtime, she walked over and told Susie good night and that she loved him.

At this point, I knew I could never let Susie die.

The next morning we got up and Anna Claire greeted Susie and we got ready for swim lessons.  I noticed Susie looked even more unhappy Saturday morning than he did Friday night.  I expected just the opposite.  Anna Claire fed him and I removed the food when she wasn't looking because Susie did not eat it.  I knew at this point something wasn't right.  I felt like I didn't put enough of something in her his water because I remember when we used to make the vases we used 2 different products in the water and Thursday I only used one.  After swim lessons we came home and I watched Susie and decided I needed to go to the store bc Susie just wasn't right.  I went to get the other product to put in the water.  I came home with a new aquarium, fake plants, a heater (that I have since learned is not safe to use in the 1.5 gallon tank), a frog decoration, new gravel, fancy crystal rocks, the 2 items to clean the water, new Betta food, extra filters, and I think that is it.  I took Anna Claire with me, if you can't tell.  My $4.00 trip turned in to over $50.00.  I guess that will teach Kerry not to go with us.  : )  He just shook his head when we got home.  I set the new aquarium up and this one was much more difficult to set up because it has a filter on it.  I could only use the clear and purple crystal rocks because I knew the red ones would freak Susie out and I was afraid the pink ones would as well, so I gave them to Anna Claire.  I got the aquarium ready and let it sit for 24 hours.

At this point I have now spent almost $100 on a Betta fish that we have owned for 2 days.  Sunday afternoon we move Susie.  She He seems much happier in the bigger aquarium.  He is swimming around, coming to the glass when you talk to her him, he ate, and everything seemed good, but I noticed a little white spot on his tail fin.  I was hoping it was just something in the tank.  Monday night I noticed more white spots on his body and this morning there were even more.  Kerry even agreed that something was wrong with Susie.  After googling it, after all google has all the answers, I found that this expensive little fish has the Ick.  I will be going back to Wal-Mart this afternoon to buy some Ick treatment.  This also requires me to do yet another water change.  I am guessing the net used to move Susie from her little box to the bag we brought him home in had not been cleaned since moving another fish, possibly a dead fish.  I'm guessing things like that aren't important to them because they don't have to deal with child when or if the fish dies.

Maybe a fish was a bad idea.................

I'm going to complain...............

even though I shouldn't, even though I am not suppose to, and even if it's not the proper thing to do.  This is the 5th day that this has been weighing on me and I need to let it out.  I've told Kerry about it and it didn't make me feel any better.  I know the only way I am probably going to feel better is to tell these 2 people how I really feel, but I am trying not to do that.  I don't think that is a very good idea at this point.  Luckily, I have grown up and know when to confront and when not to confront.  Deep down I really want to beat this one person up, but that's just the 16 year old that still lives deep down inside me.  {sorry Bro Scott}

Thursday a co-worker called the office.  He said he was sitting at this location and had been waiting on either J or J to fax him some paperwork.  J and J, both, had gone to lunch.  He was not happy.  I sent the main J a text and told her that he was waiting on one of them to fax him some paperwork.  I sent her the text bc she is over the other J, her and I are closer "friends", and I wasn't sure what she wanted to do about it.  I was trying to let her know before he called back and talked to M.  I knew if he talked to M, a big scene would have been made {as usual} and both of the J's would have been mad.  I was doing what I thought any friend would have done, trying to keep M from having something on them bc she strives on that.  The main J replied with "OK".  I thought it was odd, but I figured she was probably mad bc the other J had left for lunch and not taken care of it.  She gets upset with J all the time for not completing her work.  I have worked with the main J for 4 years, so we're pretty close friends, I thought.  Apparently, I was WRONG!!

J came back to the office about 20 minutes later.  She has to walk by my office to clock in and I got a dirty look.  As she was walking by, the main J was pulling in to the parking lot.  She walked by my office to clock in as well and never looked at me.  They have not spoken to me since then.  I am only assuming that the text is why they are mad.  I actually have no idea.  I asked D what their problem was on Thursday and he didn't know.  He just said, "oh, you know how women are."

Friday rolls around and they are still not speaking to me.  That is bad enough, but then they sucked M in.  They HATE her!!  She's an older lady and is always trying to get someone in trouble.  I cannot put in to words how badly they dislike her.  I made a comment to D about it on Friday and he was like, "yeah, I don't understand why she does that.  You either like her or you don't.  You can't kiss her rear when you're mad at one of us."  My point exactly!! 

I feel like I am in high school!!  Both J's are in their late 20's and have children.  The main J was homecoming queen when she was in HS and I think still wants to be in high school.  The other J came in today with pink and purple hair.  Do you see where I am going with this? 

The main J is on vacation today, so it is very quiet in the office bc she does all the talking.  The other J doesn't have anyone to talk to bc she only talks to M when the main J is here.

I should add that it is easy to get mad and not talk to me because I am not going to talk to you first.  {I know.  I know.  I need to work on this.}

If you're mad, say you're mad.  If I am in the wrong, I will apologize.  If I'm not in the wrong, then I won't.  As of right now, I don't think I am in the wrong.  This has made me re-evaluate my friendship with these two and it's sad because the main J's little girl loves to play with Anna Claire.

At the Circus.........Everything's a Surprise

Some days I feel like I live in the Circus.  Between Kerry, Anna Claire, and Harley, I never know what I'm going to come home to or wake up to.  We have lots of fun, needless to say.  You never know what Anna Claire is going to say and usually it is something that I find just hilarious, but her Daddy doesn't.  A few nights ago they were in the kitchen arguing, as usual.  She is already at the age where she thinks we are complete idiots and that we know absolutely nothing about anything.  Anyway, Anna Claire gets mad and walks off down the hallway.  I am watching her and she turns around, marches back in to the kitchen because her Daddy was talking under his breath and she heard him, and hollers, "listen here you crazy old man!!"  I LOST IT!!!  It had to be the funniest thing that I have heard in a long time.  Kerry failed to see the humor in her calling him old.

Monday night she pulled her shirt up and said, "look Daddy, my belly is big like yours."  I lost it once again.  For some reason, her Daddy is the only one that she does this too, thank goodness!!

This could be why............................

We will be adding a fish to the family tomorrow.  I bought the little tank today and I plan to take Anna Claire tomorrow afternoon and let her pick out a Beta.  {Beta tanks have come a long way since the vase with the plant in the top of it - LOL}  We are starting small and with a Beta because they are usually harder to kill.  Mommy does about as well with fish as she does with plants and that is not a good thing. 

Who, What, When, Where, and Why? Why? Why?

Seems to be the questions that I am constantly answering now days, especially the why? Why Momma Why? Other days she will sit in another room and call my name over and over and over and over. Momma!! Yes Anna Claire? Momma!! Yes Anna Claire? Momma!! Yes Anna Claire? She said it at least 25 times this morning. I'm used to it, but it drives her Daddy crazy. He said this morning that there was just to much estrogen in the house. I told him to go let Harley back in the house. She called her Daddy a crazy old man the other day and I just about fell out of the chair laughing. The more I laughed, the more she repeated it, and the redder Kerry got. It was a hilarious!!

We've been catching lots of lightening bugs this Summer. Lightening bugs are a whole lot quicker than they used to be. : ) Anna Claire will hold them now, but only for a few seconds. They usually fly to the top of her bug catcher, so she had to get out her flashlight to see them. {and yes, that is a Lightning McQueen sticker taped on her shirt. It would no longer stick and she freaked out, so MeMe taped it to her shirt}

She started taking swim lessons on June 5th at the Rec Center. She loves Bailie the Lifeguard and really only wants Bailie to work with her and no one else. I'm pretty sure she has a crush on the male lifeguard that helps with swim lessons. She doesn't really care for him to work with her, but she will bat her eyes at him and just smile. Saturday she turned around and said, "Momma, he is so silly." It was too cute. They get to go play outside in the big pool after swim lessons.

This is her new favorite obsession, Barbie Mermaids. Yes, she has 9 Barbie Mermaids. We even have to put the 4 from McDonald's in the bath tub at night. We are now at 10 Barbie Mermaids because she got another one yesterday.

Saturday Anna Claire and I went to the pool at the Rec Center with a friend and her 2 children. I was very hesitant because I haven't been to the public pool in FOREVER, but it was very enjoyable. There were a few children that made me wonder where their parents were and a few adults that were playing or laying out in the kids section, but other than that it was nice. Anna Claire got to see Bailie and her crush while we were at the pool, again she just batted her eyes and smiled at him once she realized who he was. I think the sunglasses threw her off. She laid out during the 10 minute safety breaks every hour. {not to worry, all the Mermaids went with us} She passed out on the way home from the pool.

Sunday we had a guest speaker at church. Pastor Tre Faulkner did a great job. I was very impressed and I personally think he has been the best guest speaker that we have had. I will say that within the first 10-15 minutes I was wore out!! He is very energetic and passionate about his word. I recovered and he kept my attention the entire time. I didn't even mind being kept past 12:00pm. He was that good!! If you ever get a chance to listen to his word, please do. You will not be disappointed. While I enjoyed his service this week, I do look forward to Bro Scott returning next week.

Chattanooga

We were suppose to go to the Jeff Fisher and Friends Charity softball game on May 22nd. Everyone had new jerseys and Anna Claire had a pink miniature Titans helmet for autographs. After the Nashville flood they postponed the game to Sunday, June 13th. {Kerry's scheduled work night} We were very disappointed because we really look forward to this every year. I knew I had to come up with something for us to do that weekend, other than the Zoo because I decided last year that we will only go to the Zoo on a cool day. The past 2 years it has been in the 90's and it makes for a miserable day at the Zoo. Anyway, I decided we should go to the Tennessee Aquarium since Anna Claire has never been before. I checked on it and decided we should just make it a weekend getaway, so we did. We left Saturday morning and went to the Aquarium, spent the night in Chattanooga, and then Sunday we went to the Creative Discovery Museum , but not without incident. We went through Winchester to get to the interstate bc we weren't positive about the whole sink hole status. We got to the interstate and Anna Claire told me her mouth hurt and she wanted me to hold her. I gave her some sprite and she said it was better. We were almost in Chattanooga and she told me her mouth hurt again. A drink of sprite made it better. We get in to downtown and we can see the Aquarium and Anna Claire tells me that her mouth hurts again and then says "oh Momma" as she starts to throw up. I sling the seat belt off, turn around in my seat, grab her blanket, and try to catch what I can. Kerry was just trying to get us to a parking lot, until she projectiled all over me and I yelled for him to just PULL OVER!!! He pulled in to a fire lane and I immediately unbuckled her from her car seat and he stripped her down on the sidewalk. He starts to clean her up, as I try to clean up the car seat. Luckily, I had a little packet of Clorox bleach wipes in her diaper bag for emergencies like this. I was able to catch most of it, so the only place I really had to work on cleaning was one of the straps to the car seat. I had just enough Clorox wipes to get it cleaned up good. I know people thought we were crazy because they were walking by while we had Anna Claire in a diaper on the sidewalk. All of her clothes, blanket, Pups, another stuffed dog, socks, shoes, etc.... were just tossed all over the sidewalk. We managed to get her cleaned up, I got my shirt changed, and we proceeded on to the Aquarium. I am guessing she drank some sour milk because she was fine from there on out. I didn't check our milk because it was NOT out of date, but I have noticed that the milk has been going sour before the date on the jug here lately. The hotel had a laundry room, so I was able to get everything washed when we got to the room. We had a really good time and look forward to our next getaway, minus the sour milk. :0 You don't see this very often and this is the only proof that I have of being there myself, other than the picture that the Aquarium staff took.

The Penguins were her favorite!!

I enjoyed the jelly fish. I thought this one was really neat bc it looks like it has a cross on it.

This caused me to use outfit #3 on day 1, thus causing us to have to go to the mall to get her another outfit because I only packed 2 extra outfits for her. {lesson learned} I meant to put her swimsuit in the backpack and totally forgot.

Creative Discovery Museum

No words.......................

This was the music area, aka "Headache Central"

We had some Ben & Jerry's before we headed home on Sunday.

We found the Funkabuckets playing under the bridge at the Aquarium after our trip to Ben & Jerry's. They were awesome!! Look them up on Facebook and/or You Tube.