Babies and Undies

We have had one crazy busy week here at the Scadden Home. This week-end we went down to St. George to attend Grandma Steven's funeral. The services were lovely. I especially loved hearing Mom and her sisters talk about memories they had of Grandma. The musical number "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" was sweet. I only got to know her for three years, but in that short time she earned an enormous amount of love and respect from me. She was a beautiful woman.

Earlier in the week, my cousins daycare person left for her brother's wedding. So I was asked to watch the babies. For two days I had five little ones packed into my 700sqft house. It was loud and crazy at times, but I loved it.

There were the three babies Payslie, Jordyn, and Penny. They were so cute to watch. Penny was ecstatic to have other little kids around. So much so that I think she scared Payslie a bit with her enthusiasm.

We also had Abram's buddy Taylor with us. I use to watch her on a regular basis and they became pretty close. It was fun to watch them play together and get each other going. The house was pretty crazy for those days but I had so much fun. It made me feel good to know I could definitely handle five kids, though I don't think I would want them all to be under the age of three.

This week we also started putting Abram in undies. He still pines for his diaper (especially after this weekend with nothing but). He will at least put them on and he has only had three accidents while wearing them (that may not be good stats for some people but for me they are great).

We even attempted a short trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house in them. This pic is funny because my mom gave him a bowl of ice cream and, rather than sitting down to eat it, he took it into her room, laid down next to Grandpa, and ate it like he would have. Kids are like little mirrors.

I'm glad to see when my little mirrors reflect good things though. I'm so glad to see that my children love each other.

They seem to love each other so much they make spontaneous heart shapes in their sleep :)

Brides and Potties

A little bit ago I decided it was time to try potty training Abram seriously. In the past, I had made a couple of sad attempts only to conclude that he was not yet ready. This time I felt that he was really ready, but I wanted to go about it in the best way possible. So after story time at the library, I went in search of some potty training literature (hoping for something a little more scientifically grounded than tips on Pintrest). I found this book called Stress Free Pottytraining. It basically gives you the the universal strategies, the average ages certain skills are reached by boys/girls, and specific advice based on your child's personality type. (Abram fit almost perfectly the "impulsive child" personality).

So we went out and bought a little potty (Elmo is pretty popular around our house)stripped Abram out of his diaper and let him have some naked time. So far he is doing really well. He will go both number one and number two and has had very few accidents. The only down side I have found so far is, he doesn't like big toilets and he doesn't use it if I put him in a diaper. So we are still in diapers, but we are getting there. Eventually, Abram will be potty trained.

After a long day of potty training naked time, we got dressed and went out to the park to try and burn of  some energy (which he always seems to have a never ending supply). He was so sweet, he brought me a "flower" then he noticed Penny didn't have one so he brought her one too.

Today we had my cousin Katelyn's bridal shower. I was put in charge of games, which turned out to be more difficult than I thought it would be. I also was asked to bring bread to go with the chef salads.

These are the extra loaves (not as pretty as the ones I brought to the party). I made french bread (Thanks for the recipe Mom-Scadden). The other bread is a pumpkin pecan yeast bread. They both turned out very tasty. The whole shower was really nice.

I have to add a pic of my baby girl. She had had a rough day (she has started pulling up on furniture and trying to cruise, which leads to sever head bumps). Daddy had the day off so she claimed him for her cuddle buddy. So cute. (Just ignore the naked baby photo bombing here).