Potty Training Central

Oh me oh my! We are finally down to only one set of diapers in this house!!!
About nine months ago, just before Chloe was born, I posted a blog about Connor finally being ready to potty train. We even went to the store and bought two packs of underwear. Well, no such luck. His interest changed before we could even get started. We were really disappointed and discouraged. We were hoping he would be trained before Chloe arrived or shortly after. Over the last nine months we have asked and encouraged and he just didn't want to. We did not want to force him, but we knew this needed to happen soon. Finally, out of desperation, I asked some local moms if they had any advice to offer. One mom posted a link to another blog that she said was a great help to her. After reading it, I felt like a weight had been lifted. It made so much sense! We discovered that part of the reason Connor did not want to potty train was because we were not excited about it. I mean, let's be honest, who is excited about constantly asking their child if they need to pee, or cleaning up when they don't make it to the potty in time. He is definitely old enough and we knew he would catch on pretty quick, but our lack of excitement was not helping. Another thing her blog mentions, is letting them pick out their own undies and constantly talking about undies. Once we decided to go forward with this, we picked a weekend that Cary could take three days off, and everyday until then we talked about undies, with over-the-top, bubbly excitement, I might add. We told him he could pick them out, we told him how his friends and family members wear undies, we wear undies, etc.
Finally this weekend came. Thursday night after dinner, we headed to Target. Connor got to pick out two packs of undies. He chose Angry Birds Star Wars, and Lego Star Wars. We also let him pick out a new movie to watch for peeing in the potty. The blog said to have some rewards set aside just for going potty. Now we were all set for the next day.

Friday
As soon as we got up, we took off the last diaper my boy would ever wear! He picked out his first pair of undies to put on. We showed him how excited we were about him wearing big boy undies and going potty and the rest of the day was spent asking him if he needed to go. It turned out much better than I expected it to. We only had three accidents, one was our fault. He was at the table eating lunch and we asked if he needed to go and he said yes and we asked again to be sure and he said no. We should have gotten him up and let him go. By that night, he was really starting to get the hang of it. We put Pull-ups on him at nap and nighttime. We put him to bed that night and told him we were so proud and he was doing such a great job. He smiled from ear to ear. After about 10 minutes, he called for me. I went up to see what he wanted and he said he had to go pee. I have read that this can be a difficult situation during potty training because children say they need to potty just to get out of bed. No my boy! He called for me three times that night to go potty and he went EVERY. SINGLE. TIME! Overall, the day was huge success!

Saturday
He completely surprised us that morning. We got him up and let him go potty and had breakfast. A little bit later, without either of us asking, he went to the bathroom and tried to get up on the toilet all by himself!! We were both amazed and so proud of him! We praised him big time and showed him how to put his stool up to the toilet so he could climb up and go. We repeatedly asked him throughout the rest of the day, but there were several times when he would just go on his own. We only had one accident that morning. By the end of the day, we was going all by himself.

Sunday
By this time, he was a pro! We still ask him occasionally, just as a reminder, but mostly, if he needs to go, he just goes. I cannot say enough how PROUD I am of him. This weekend went so much better than we had expected. Other than a few dribbles in his undies, we did not have any accidents and we haven't had any since.

We are still working on pooping in the potty, but we've got the first step down!

Pad Thai

I don't know about you, but I love some good Thai food. Really, just about any kind of Asian food is good. My all time favorite, Pad Thai. The saltiness of the peanuts and sauce, mixed with the fresh lime and cilantro. Simply, amazing. Sadly, I cannot remember the first time I ever had Pad Thai, but I do remember the first time I had it at Pei Wei. Life changing! It was so delicious and the portion was big enough to make two meals out of it! I would eat there at least once a week if I could. Since we do not have the money for that, and eating at home is always a healthier option, I decided to try a recipe I found on Pinterest. It turned out way better than I expected and it was so simple! I have always thought of Pad Thai as this really intricate and  complex dish. I guess that is why I have waited so long to try this recipe. I'm glad I finally did.

Chicken Pad Thai 

1 1/2-2 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 1/2-2 inch strips (cut them kind of thin)
1- 8oz box Thai kitchen brown rice noodles (these will be in the Asian isle)
4 Tbsp brown sugar
6 Tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
4 Tbsp lime juice (I used the bottled lime juice and it tasted fine, but fresh would work too)
1/2 tsp hot sauce
3 eggs, well beaten
2 cloves garlic, minced
5 green onions chopped, whites and greens separated. Whites chopped thin, greens cut into 2 inch strips.
1 lime, cut into wedges
Small handful fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped

1. In a small bowl, stir together brown sugar, soy sauce, lime juice and hot sauce. Set aside and stir occasionally to help sugar dissolve. You want to it to be dissolved before you add it to the pan.
2. Fill a large pot with water, boil and add your noodles. Set a timer for 4 minutes. If they cook too long, they will be mushy. Once cooked, drain and set aside.
3. While you wait for the water to boil, heat a wok, or large non-stick pan over medium heat and add some oil. Saute' chicken until cooked. Transfer to a plate.
4. Using the same pan, add a little more oil. Add garlic and onion whites and saute' for about 30 seconds, just until fragrant.
5. Add in your eggs and scramble them with the onion and garlic. Once the eggs are cooked, transfer to a plate and set aside
6. Once again, in the same pan, add your drained noodles, onion greens and sauce to the pan. Stir it around and let cook for about a minute. Turn the heat down to medium-low.
7. Add in the reserved chicken and scrambled eggs and stir to coat. Cook another minute or two, just until the eggs and chicken are heated through.
8. Garnish with peanuts and cilantro. Squeeze a lime wedge over and mix well. Enjoy!

Here is the original recipe that I followed. I changed a few things to my liking and I doubled this recipe.
http://browniesfordinner.com/2010/05/11/easy-pad-thai/

Update: Mullen happenings

Well, I've managed to do it again. It's been almost nine months since my last post. I do not intend to use my blog as an "update only" on our lives, but as with everything, if I don't make it a priority, then it doesn't get done. But since it has been so long, here are some pics that capture the last several months.

September: Our sweet little girl, Chloe, was born. This was the day we took her home from the hospital.

October: Chloe ditched the paci and chose her thumb. 

December: Christmas time! Here is our tree and stockings

Our gifts. All but two of the kids gifts came from Bayleaf's Toy Chest. Such a blessing!

January: We took our annual trip home to see family. This is Connor and his sweet cousin, Ryleigh.

I just really like these next few pictures.

I'm going to get this one framed.

Sibling love. 

April: We went to my mom's for Easter. Here are all the eggs we dyed, which later became deviled eggs for dinner!

Since we were so close, we made a dinner date with these crazy kids. Love them and their family so so much! Lifelong friends for sure!

Me and my bestie!

May: Cary's little sister graduated from MTSU. We decided to go and surprise her for her special day. It was really great to see family and spend some time with them.

We have some close friends in Murfreesboro who just bought a house. It worked out nicely that we got to stay with them and visit with them for the weekend as well.

My other bestie. College friends for life!

Chloe also turned eight months in May.

Not only did Chloe decide to start crawling

but she also decided to start pulling up!

For the first time, since we've lived here, sadly, we FINALLY went strawberry picking! It was so much fun. Connor had a blast. Chloe, not so much. It was pretty windy that day and she was not a fan.

June: I'm only one week away from finishing my C25K. I got some nice new running shoes to keep me going!

Connor vs. Chloe

I thought it would be interesting to write down the differences between my two pregnancies so I can share it with my kids one day. I figured now would be a good time while it's still fresh in my brain.

Connor

This sweet little boy was a total surprise! When Cary and I first moved here, we had not even been married a year. Before we moved, we decided that we wanted to wait about three years to start having kids so that we could have a few years to ourselves and so Cary could get two or three years of school behind him. Well, as usual, God had other plans. In October of 2008, we went to the Outer Banks with some good friends of ours. They left their girls at home and it was just the four of us for three days. It was awesome. Little did we know it would be our last trip alone. I was approaching that time of month when we left and figured I would start while we were gone or when we got back. When nothing happened I, of course, got suspicious, and scared. After waiting a week, I finally decided to take a test. Yep, it was positive. I wasn't sure whether to laugh, cry, or scream. So I did all three. I was excited, nervous, and wondering what Cary was going to say. It was a whirlwind of emotions. I waited three days and took another test just to be sure. So we made a doctor appointment and thus the journey began.

Here are some highlights from my pregnancy with Connor

-I was four weeks when I found out.

-I was seven weeks at my first ultrasound

-I started having "all day" sickness around week six and it ended around week ten. It was right before we went to my mom's for Thanksgiving. I was so grateful that I could eat again! Whoever started calling it morning sickness really had no idea!

-Cary did not want to know the sex of the baby, but I just had to know. I am a planner and I wanted to know pink or blue.

-I didn't really have any specific cravings, other than tacos, but my sweet tooth grew into a three headed monster. Cary and I had recently changed our diet and cut out a lot of sugar. We didn't drink our tea as sweet and we really cut back on desserts and such. However, with Connor I wanted something sweet ALL THE TIME!

-My only real aversion was to milk. I could not just drink plain milk. Even the thought of it made me feel nauseated. I could drink chocolate milk and I was ok with it in my cereal, but once the cereal was gone, any left over milk went to Cary or down the drain.

-I didn't feel Connor move until about 22 or 23 weeks. I know he was moving long before that and I just wasn't sure what it was supposed to feel like.

-I found out first hand what real labor pain feels like. My water never broke, but I was seven and half centimeters dilated when I got to the hospital.Thankfully, they were still able to give me an epidural.

-Connor was due June 23, 2009 so I mostly went through the winter and spring with him. It was just starting to get really hot when I had him.

-Connor was six days early. Born June 17, 2009 and was delivered vaginally

-I didn't have any problems with his pregnancy. During my second trimester, other than having a bump, sometimes I didn't even feel like I was pregnant.

-This one is hard to admit, but I gained 43 pounds with Connor. I lost all but ten pounds of that by the time I got pregnant again.

Chloe

This pregnancy was totally planned. We decided that three years between our kids was a good gap and we figured Connor would be potty trained by that time and we wouldn't have to be buying and changing two sets of diapers. We decided we would start trying around January of 2012 and hopefully be pregnant by May or June so I would not have to go through the summer pregnant. I have many mom friends who have done it and I just refused to be one of them. Cary wanted to start trying during the summer of 2011, but I was just not ready. I wanted another child, but the thought of having two scared me. After a couple months of praying and letting God have control, which is really hard for this control freak, we started trying at the end of August 2011. I knew this could potentially mean having a summer pregnancy, but we were both ready and there was no need to put it off. We were hoping to be pregnant by November/December so that when we went to my mom's for Christmas, we could share. No such luck. Funny enough though, I was pregnant, I just didn't know it yet and my brother and his wife announced that they were pregnant!! Can you just imagine if we had both announced it? My mom would've been hysterical!! In a good way though. Again, I knew I was supposed to be starting soon and figured I would while we were gone. When we got home and still nothing, I only waited three days and I just couldn't wait any longer. I took the test and didn't even have to wait two minutes. It started changing the second I peed on it! Here we go with journey number two!

Here are some highlights from my pregnancy with Chloe

-I was six weeks when I found out.

-My 'all day" sickness started at seven weeks and ended at week 18. Much longer than with Connor.

-My first ultrasound was at week nine.

-I started having pelvic girdle pain during my first trimester. I thought it was sciatica at first, but the symptoms were not matching up completely. I just stumbled upon pelvic girdle pain by accident when reading up on sciatica. The symptoms are almost identical, except for a few. With sciatica, you get shooting pains down your legs, and numbness in one or both legs. I was not experiencing any of that. I just had a constant sharp pain on my left side in my hip and butt. Sometimes it hurt so bad that I could barely walk. Sciatica usually doesn't come up until the third trimester, although it can begin sooner. Pelvic girdle pain can start in the first trimester and go all the way until the end, which was the case with me. I did not have any issues with this with Connor, except for the couple times he sat right on my sciatic nerve and my left leg gave out.

-My second trimester was not as great this time around. Mostly because I was almost halfway through it before my nausea finally subsided. Thankfully, it was right before Easter so I could enjoy a yummy Easter dinner!

-Cary and I both wanted to find out the sex this time. Mostly because we needed to know if we would need anything. If it was another boy we were set. If it was a girl, we would need clothes. We did have some gender neutral things that we could use for Chloe, but mostly we had to get all new clothes. Thankfully, my mom is still working at a thrift shop in Gatlinburg and since she has to sort through most of the stuff that comes in and she gets a discount, she was able get us most of what we need for really cheap. They have clothes come in all the time that still have the tags on them! She brought over two big bags when they came over for Connor's birthday.

-I had some specific cravings with Chloe. One night I wanted rocky road ice cream and waffles to eat together. My three headed sweet tooth monster reared it ugly head again. I also craved tacos again. I love Mexican food anyway, but for some reason when I'm pregnant, I want it all the time.

-My only aversion was to pork. I love a good pork loin with some apples and potatoes, but my nausea set in right after we had a pork meal and just the smell of Cary eating the leftovers made me want to throw up. So needless to say, I didn't have any more pork after that. It's funny how different my aversions were. After Connor, it was a long time before I could drink plain milk again, but with Chloe I craved milk. Especially in my third trimester. We were going through about two and half gallons a week because I drank so much.

-I felt Chloe move right around 18/19 weeks. Since I knew what it felt like, it made it a lot easier to know when it was her moving and not gas or something else.

-Chloe was due September 14, 2012. so I got the summer pregnancy that I really didn't want. However, compared to some of the other summers I have gone through here not being pregnant, I was pretty lucky. We really only had about 2-3 weeks of really hot weather. June didn't really get hot until the end. I was not looking forward to July or August, but for most part they were not so bad. Granted, I was still hot 95% of the time.

-Chloe was four days early. Born September 10, 2012 and was delivered via c-section.

-This pregnancy was much harder on me than the first. Not only did I have the pelvic girdle pain, which was very painful, I was sick much longer, and I had Braxton-Hicks this time around. They started around week 28 and they got more intense as my pregnancy progressed.

-I did a lot better with my weight with Chloe. I only gained 30 pounds. It was still a little more than I wanted to gain, but it is much less than with Connor and it will be easier to loose.

Here are a few comparison pictures

 My first ultrasound with Connor

 My first ultrasound with Chloe

  Sex reveal ultrasound with Connor

 Sex reveal ultrasound with Chloe

 

Connor's newborn picture

Chloe's newborn picture

Some of my faves...

About two years or so ago, a friend of mine shared a blog post with all of her favorite things. I thought it was such a fun idea so I decided to do the same. I meant to do this about two years ago when I read her post, but I just got lazy and never did it.

Sooo, here are a few of my favorite things.

Best movie series of all time. Period.

 Favorite tv show of all time. Cary got me the box set for Christmas one year and I've lost count of how many times I've watched the series in it's entirety, including commentary.

 I have a secret love affair with this place. It seems to be worse when I'm pregnant. I crave/craved tacos constantly with both Chloe and Connor, but it has always been a favorite of mine. Three of my favorite memories are tied to this place.  First, my mom and I would make several weekend trips up to my grandparent's farm in Missouri during the summer. We would always stop at this one Taco Bell that was right off I-55 in Arkansas. We always had to leave on Fridays when my mom got off work, so we would drive about half way and stop to eat. Secondly, in high school, my best friend and I would make late night Taco Bell runs all the time and then come home and watch movies. My third and most favorite memory is my first date with Cary. Andrew Peterson is one of my favorite musicians. There was a concert in Nashville that was featuring several Christian artists that we both liked, but especially Andrew Peterson. The concert was a total surprise for me. I had to work until 4pm the day of the concert and we had to drive from Jackson to Nashville, which was about a two hour drive. All I was told was that I needed to get home, get showered and be ready to leave at 5pm sharp! When Cary came to pick me up, he had Taco Bell waiting in the car for us to eat on the way! I loved it and it turned out to be an amazing night!

Couponing. I love couponing. Especially when I can get results like this. Groceries are expensive these days so anytime I can get a good deal, I go for it!

I love huskies. I've always wanted one. Maybe one day...

Fried green tomatoes. Need I say more?

I would eat sushi almost everyday if we could afford it. I never had sushi until I met Cary. I always thought it meant raw fish, but it actually refers to the rice. We have learned how to make it at home, which is much cheaper and a lot of fun.

I anticipate the arrival of this every fall!! It's one of those drinks that people either love or hate. There is no in between. I LOVE IT!!

I love puzzles. The more pieces and the more difficult it is, the better! Cary got this one for me for Mother's Day this year.

I've been a Chapstick lover for years. The peppermint was always my favorite. I got this as a free sample in the mail and I like it much better than Chapstick.

This amazing looking dessert is Black Tie Mousse Cake from Olive Garden. This is another one of those, I would eat it everyday if I could kind of things. Cheesecake of any kind is a winner in my book. This cake is dark chocolaty, cheesecakey, creamy mousse goodness!

In my opinion, these are the best cars ever! You can run them into the ground, fix them up and run them into the ground again! We are now on our second Honda and I still love them!

If it were not for fireplaces and snow, I would hate winter. To me, there is no reason for it to be 19 degrees outside unless there is fluffy, soft, frozen water all over the ground! Plus, what goes better with a snowy day than a nice cozy fire to snuggle up in front of?

 This, of course, is my favorite little boy, but I also love hammocks. This one even has a pad to cover it and a pillow to lay on. It is SO comfortable. This is where I relax when Cary is grilling, or where I read a book on a cool fall day.

As I mentioned earlier, I love Andrew Peterson's music. I could listen to this CD at least once everyday. I know every word of every song. No matter what kind of day I have had, even really good days, this CD will always relax me and help me put life into perspective.

I'm not much of a reader and I never have been. It's just been in the last year or two that I have gotten a new appreciation for it. Mostly for two reasons: 1. Cary is a reader. 2. I want my kids to be readers too. I figure one of the best ways for that to happen, other than to read to them on a regular basis, is for them to see the two of us reading on a regular basis. I read this book in high school for a book review and I fell in love with it! I bought a copy in college and I read it periodically.

 Another favorite book of mine. A friend of my brother's gave it to me as a gift when I graduated high school. It was not until my second or third year of college that I finally decided to read it and I was hooked! This is the only book, from which a movie was made, that I can say, "I read the book first." I really enjoy the movie and have it on DVD, but the book is SO much better!!

This is definitely one of my guilty pleasures. Without will power, I would probably consume at least two of these a day.

A few recent photos