Our Potty Training Adventure continues...

So on we go with our potty training adventure! We had a few bumps this week. Along with each bump in the road we had many more successes. My grandson is handling the potty like a pro when it comes to pooping in the potty. Any one who is in charge of changing diapers can attest to the fact it's much easier to clean up a poopy potty chair than to clean up a toddlers poopy bottom. The only time we put a diaper on my grandson is when he is napping or going to bed. So as far as we can see he is almost completely trained. This weekend we are going on a long trip. We are taking the potty chair with us in the car. When ever we stop to eat, stretch our legs, or get gas we will sit him on the potty. I don't expect any problems since he usually stays dry two or more hours at a time during the day.
Until next week. Wishing the best to all those who are working on potty training.

  

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Our Little Helper Making Scones

Today we made scones!

Scone Recipe

3 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

5 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup cold butter 

1 egg

1 cup milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 deg. 

Grease baking sheet very lightly.

Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Cut butter into dry ingredients. 

Beat egg, add milk and vanilla mix into dry ingredients.

Drop by spoonfuls onto baking sheet.

bake 12 to 15 minutes until lightly golden on edges.

Enjoy!!!

Color By Numbers WINNERS!!!

Thank you everyone for participating in my first giveaway! We have three winners!!!

Congratulations Terri !

Congratulations Oomph!

Congratulations Patricia!

I will be emailing everyone shortly!

Have a great week! 

Book Review: The Final Summit by Andy Andrews

The Final Summit is a Fictional Christian book with an interesting twist. The story may be fictional but many interesting historical accounts are scattered through out the book. David Ponder is the main character with the Angel Gabriel as his guide.  David is taken to a summit meeting by the Archangel Gabriel through time traveling. At the summit David meets with some of the greatest minds in history. A few of the characters he meets are Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, and King David.  They are asked a question put forward by Gabriel. The travelers to the summit have five chances to answer the question. The the correct answer will save humanity.   

  

 Although The Final Summit is a sequel to the Travelers Gift, I did not find it necessary to read the Travelers Gift first. The beginning chapters summed up the important details in the Travelers Gift making it easy to dive right into the story.  I really enjoyed reading this book. I am not particularly a fan of history but this was a fascinating addition to the story. The only criticism I have with the story is when the characters were conversing with each other over the various answers, the discussions were long-winded. 


If you enjoy reading christian fiction, and/or history The Final Summit is the book for you.  To find more books like this go to Booksneeze and browse through their complete selection.


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 

Baby Signs Awesome Giveaway!

Lemondrops Dream too is part of the 2011 Blog Bash. The prize package she is giving away is fantastic.
Anyone who is interested in teaching you baby with baby signs should enter this giveaway.  I love signing to my grandchildren. The first sign we taught my grandson was the finished (all done) sign. This helps him to let us know when he is finished eating, playing and taking a bath. He now knows at least 6 signs and is learning more everyday. I am off to check out the blog bash. Hope to see you there!

Color By Numbers Giveaway! Ending 6/26

Color It by Numbers is a computer application for Children ages 4-14.

Check out the giveaway here.

Our Potty Adventure continues...

I have been reflecting on my potty training experiences with my own children. I had not been able pin point any reason why I did not have any problems training my 4 children. I always felt very lucky. The way it seemed to me was as if they almost trained themselves.
This is what I remember doing. From birth until they were potty trained I let all my babies diaper free no less than one hour a day. In the beginning I would just leave them air out for ten minutes after each diaper change.  I would lay them on a water proof pad and put a cloth diaper under them. When my babies were able to sit up on their own I would sit them on their little potty each time I used the toilet during the day. I felt it was the best place to set them when in the bathroom. I never let them sit more than a minute or two. I did this with and with out a diaper. Then at each diaper change I would also sit them on the potty. My initial hope was to cut down on laundry.
My first son was very animated when he had to poop. So every time I would hear and see him getting ready to poop I put him on the potty. After a few times I realized it was much less work to put him on the potty than it was to clean poopy cloth diapers. Soon after that my son was letting us know he had to pee in the potty by holding him self. This was before he started walking. Then around 11 months he would wake me up at night to go pee. That is when I realized he was totally potty trained and we stopped using diapers altogether.

My next son was also this easy. The only problem I had with baby two was that he was not so animated about going poop. This took a little longer to figure out. What I did was when he started walking I added more diaper free time and still sat him on the potty often. I would put extra big shirts on him and no diaper or underwear. Usually size 4t or 5t would work for a shirt. I also put knee socks on him because we did not have leg warmers back then. It was not much more than two or three weeks and he realized what was happening and started using the potty consistently.
My last two babies had virtually the same potty training experience.
After thinking over the experience I realized when reading this article on Elimination Communication  this is what I was doing back 20+ years ago. If you are potty training I recommend reading the Elimination Communication article. Good luck to all you potty trainers. Until next week.

Great Giveaways

Check out these great giveaways! 

Wordless Wednesday

Peek-a-boo

National Potty Training Awareness Month

Did you Know June was National Potty Training Awareness month. I found this out while reading a very interesting blog. If you are Potty training or have a future potty training experience planned you should visit LemondropsDreamtoo. While you are visiting enter the giveaway for a Baby signs - Its Potty Time Dvd.

Forth of July Photo Contest!

Ember Image Photography is having a Facebook contest. If you live around the northern Ohio area you should enter the contest. The Prize is a free photo session, a free 8 x 10 of your favorite pose. Ember Image Photography will choose 1 portrait from this free session to be made into an advertisement for their Studio. You will also receive a copy of the advertisement in the form of a car magnet. Visit Ember Image Photography to get the details. This is the Ember Image Photography Face Book link where you will enter the contest.   If you visit please let them know that Grandma Bonnie sent you! Good luck to everyone.

Color It By Numbers Review & Giveaway

Do you ever let your toddler play with your computer? I just cringe every time one of our grandchildren try to play with my computer when I am working on it. It's hard to say no to their sweet innocent plea "Me help Grandma, pleeeeease". How can I say no to such good manners!

I now have the answer to this problem. Color It By Numbers has asked me to review their computer application, which is made for children. My review of the application was fun and interesting. I enjoyed trying out the program for myself. I wanted to make sure the program would be easy for my 4 year old granddaughter to use before playing with the computer.

I found it easy to explain to her how to use the mouse to select a color and to match the color number to the number on the picture. While coloring, if the wrong number is selected the correct color for the selected number jumps forward. I really like this feature as it helps the child work independently. There are many more features to the program that make it great for children to learn numbers while having fun. There are three coloring methods to choose from, color by number, color to make visible, and color it in your favorite color.

Another great feature is that the program is available in English, German, Spanish, Russian and French. My grandson is being raised in a bilingual household, so it's nice to see programs that offer a wider variety of languages.

When checking out Color it by numbers web site you will find three coloring book themes to choose from. 

The themes are Animals, Princesses, and Vehicles. The program works with Mac, Windows and Linux and is for children ages 4-14. 

I have to say the strongest reason to use this program would have to be that it not only teaches numbers, but it is also great at teaching computer skills.

Take a video tour here.

Buy the Color by numbers application here.

Color it by numbers is giving three of my readers a chance to win a free code for the Color by numbers application. There will be one winner for each coloring theme. Animals, Princesses and Vehicles.

CLOSED

So, it's giveaway time! 

*Mandatory Entry*


Follow Grandma Bonnie's Closet on GFC

Visit Color it By Numbers and tell me something you learned that was not mentioned in the my review.

Tell me which coloring theme you would prefer. 

Leave your contact information in your comment.

                                                                     *Extra Entries*

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Like Color It By Numbers on Facebook.  Leave a comment on there FB page letting them know Grandma Bonnie's Closet sent you.( 2 entries)

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Leave a separate comment for each entry.

This giveaway ends at 11:59pm EST on 6/26/11. The winners will be selected by random draw and will have 72 hours to respond to a notification by email before another winner is selected. This giveaway is open to US residents only. Please do not forget your email, if your email is not visible in you profile I will not be able to contact you.

Honest opinions were made in this post. The opinions in this post are mine and have not been influenced by monetary compensation. The product in this review was given to me free of cost by Coloritbynumbers.com

The Great Potty Adventure continued...

We are moving forward on potty training. I can hardly wait for the time when my grandson will be able to hold his pee for a few minutes in order to get to a potty. As long as we are vigilant with reminders and stay near a potty we seem to be on the right track.  He is great with poop. He has not had a poop accident at all in the last three weeks.  We are very happy with our potty training experience so far.  Until next time, have a great week!

Potty Training Update.

I wrote earlier how my daughter started elimination communication with my grandson around his first birthday.  Once my grandson saw that he peed in the potty, he HAD to every time he sat on the potty. He is very motivated and loves seeing the outcome...pee in the potty. My daughter puts him in big boy underwear during the day. At nap and bedtime he wears a diaper(he wakes up dry, but needs to sit on the potty soon after waking or else he'll have a wet diaper). She also puts him in a diaper when they leave the house.

At 17 months old he was having around 1-2 accidents(we really dislike to use this word) every few days. Now, at 18 months old he tells us when he needs to poop. Pee on the other hand has been a little more work. Once he realizes he needs to go...he needs to go NOW. So at home 95 % of the time he makes it, but if he is outside it becomes harder.

Today was his first official trip (besides the park) in big boy underwear. We went to the mall to pick up some shoes for him. Before we left my daughter put him on the potty. About 30 minutes later we arrived at the mall and put him straight to the potty. Before leaving we asked him if he needed to go and he said no so off we went. He did really well, and stayed dry the whole time.

My daughter was very hesitant to begin taking him out in regular underwear, but after the success today she will definitely be taking him out in underwear from now and on.

I will update next week on his progress.

Potty Training!

The time has come to start potty training my grandson. With two more grandchildren ready to start potty training in just a few weeks.  I am hoping the journey will be smooth. My daughter started doing elimination communication with him around his first birthday. It has gone very well and he caught on quickly. He is very interested in the potty and goes every time he sits on one.

I have been reflecting on my potty training experiences with my children. I was blessed with children that were very easy to train. I have to admit I did not have any struggles with this experience. I am not sure why! I just know that some parents have at least one or more problems while potty training.  So now that I am helping my children potty train their children I am not much help when issues arise.

The good news is there is much more help and information out their for all the problems that may arise as we make this journey together.

Any suggestions my readers have on this subject are very welcome.

Grandma Is Back!!!

I have been away for a while and just wanted to say I am still around. I am not going to bore anyone with the long story of what has been happening over the past few months. I am back in blog land and hope to hang out here as often as time permits.
So on with life and all the ups and downs of being a long distance grandma.
This month we are working on potty training. My daughter and I will be working on this together with my grandson. As our journey toward this great mile stone progresses I will keep you up to date.