My toddler and I have two things going on right now that seem to be frustrating us both. He is a little over three years old now and two new developments are throwing us for a loop…speech therapy and potty learning.

My other two kids were both fully potty trained before age 3 so I am in new territory with Parker but I knew I would be since he also never really started talking either. It was because he could not communicate with me about eliminations and because I could not tell if he even understood the concept, that I held off with introducing him to the potty. But we are giving it a go anyway and so far it is very frustrating.

We got a little person’s potty so I could put it in the great room where he spends most of his time. The bathroom is just too far away. He really likes the Boon potty bench with its drawers for his potty book and cloth wipes. I also got him a dozen or so training pants since we won’t be doing disposable pull-ups. I also armed myself with Elizabeth Pantley’s book The No Cry Potty Training Solution. The book is really awesome by the way, very thorough and gentle on kids.

My toddler though looks confused whenever I put him on the potty, like he is not sure what I want him to do. BUT he is also refusing to wear diapers more and more. He will actually take off his diaper and lay it open on the floor and go play. Then when he has to pee he will return to the diaper and urinate on top of it. It is incredibly cute but also frustrating. Of course my mom will tell you that is why I am having these troubles…cause everything he does is so darn cute and I can’t lay down the LAW. Hehe.

Speech therapy is also not going so well. I will share yesterday’s details with you. We arrived at 9:30 am and went into the classroom. Parker immediately ran to a toy wagon they have there and was mad when I pulled him away and sat him at a table. He half heartedly answered some flash card questions for about 5 minutes. Then the speech lady decided to let him play in the gym with other kids for about 15 minutes. He LOVED that. One kid slapped him in the face for no reason and another kept taking a ball away from him but he didn’t even care, he was so happy to be playing in a cool new place.

After 15 minutes I took him back to the classroom which he was not happy about but he went without too much fussing. They gave him some watercolors to paint with and he did that for 10 minutes but he had trouble following their directions… dip brush in water, then in paint, paint, then dip back in water and rinse, then back in paint, etc. Obviously they didn’t want him mixing the colors but at home I could care less… they can make a mess or mix up paints to their hearts delight. He didn’t like his artistic expression being squashed or having the speech therapist’s hands on him the whole time as she made him follow her instructions.

I want to point out though that my 5 year old daughter was also sitting their painting and she did not mix the colors or make a mess and I have never taught her that he HAS to paint that way…it is something she learned on her own as she grew…that her art work would be prettier if she didn’t mix the colors or get the paper all splotchy. You do not have to have all these rules like that IMO…they will learn from experience and practice. Pride in their work will eventually lead them to mess free painting.

Anyway, the therapist wasn’t having much success with the paints so she took them away. All hell broke loose at that point. I have honestly never seen him throw a fit like that EVER. His face turned all purple and he was shaking like a leaf.  He REALLY does not like this therapist and he was furious with me for making him sit there with her. He bit me at one point and if I didn’t have my jacket on, it would have been bad. Even still I have a painful bruise on my arm today.

At that point I kind of took over. I set him on my lap and she gave him play dough. I helped him make some animals with cookie cutters and I asked him to identify all the shapes and he did identify most. The therapist was happy to get some results she could write about in he folder and he was just plain happy again. After about 10 minutes he looked up at me and said… “Go to Car”. This meant it was time to go.

The therapist kept asking me if he has behavioral problems at home but the answer is no. He has been in a hitting phase lately but nothing major. When I told my hubby that she asked me that he responded simply ”No, because we don’t  make him do things he doesn’t want to do.” Amen to that…I am not in the habit of making my kids nuts.

When I told a friend what happened though she responded in way that placed blame on me and my husband. She said that we NEED to make him do things he doesn’t want to do to teach him that life is that way…that he will be forced to do as others say and he has to accept it. But I don’t want to teach my kids that they are powerless like that. I don’t want to teach my kids that other people get to call the shots and they can’t possibly know what is best for themselves just because they are kids. And why in the heck would anybody deliberately want to create dissent in their family like that? I will not try to “break” my son’s spirit to make him more docile for teachers. He is only three for cripes sake! He is supposed to be wild and free.

Anyway, that is where we are this week. I hope his next few sessions get better because he does need the help with his talking. As far as the potty learning goes, I guess we will just take it slow. Any tips and advice on that front?

Have a great weekend all!

I am super excited about a new movie being released on Earth Day. The kids and I have been seeing in-theatre trailers for months and we plan on spending a portion of Earth Day in theatres this year.

This movie is the first release from the new Disneynature label. Earth is narrated by James Earl Jones, and tells the remarkable story of three animal families and their amazing journey across the planet we all share.  Directors Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, the acclaimed creative team behind the Emmy Award-winning “Planet Earth” series combine forces again to bring this epic adventure to the big screen, beginning Earth Day 2009.  

I am a big fan of Disney films already so I love that they are combining some of my favorite things into one awesome package…movies, family fun, and the environment. And is it just me or does everyone get crazy goosebumps whenever they hear James Earl Jones??? Plus, Disneynature recently announced that it will plant a tree in the highly endangered Brazilian Atlantic Rain Forest in honor of every person who sees the film its first week.

We will let you know our thoughts of the movie on Earth Day but until then
you can enjoy a piece of it at home. Check out the official trailer before you go. It rocks!

Some of you already know this about me…but I am NOT a girly girl. I don’t wear dresses and skirts, I don’t wear makeup, and I my hair is cropped so short I don’t even have to brush it…ever. Even as a child I was the tom boy. I spent all day outside and I don’t even think I had any play makeup.

My mom though was/is very much that girly girl. She dressed to the nines, she wore makeup whenever she went out, she like to put makeup on me, even though I insisted I looked like a clown. She curled her hair all the time and loved to put me in curlers you wore all night. I would wake up and promptly brush out all the curls. Just about the only thing I liked her to do to my hair was french braid it..that way it was out of my face and out of my way.

Well, now I have a daughter of my own and she is just like my mom. They spend a lot of time together primping and beautifying. In the picture above you will see that my mom has already started her on the hair curling…which mystifies me because she inherited my naturally wavy hair. The other day though I was hugging her after one of her beauty marathons with nana and I noticed she had rashes on both sides of her face. Her skin was reacting to blush my mom had let her put on. Make-up in general has TONS of nasty chemical ingredients and carcinogens as outlined in the book Dying to Look Good. Last year my daughter got a pack of children’s play makeup from a family friend and the ingredient list made my skin crawl. It baffles me that looking a little better could be THAT important to anyone.

I do not want to be down on wearing makeup though. I am very glad that my daughter has someone to share this passion with because this is just one area that elludes my understanding and I want her to be herself…whomever that is. It lead me to the realization that I need to buy her some natural and safe play makeup for little girls but I am really having a hard time finding any!! So far she has non toxic nail polishes from Piggy Paints and lip balms from Jess Be Natural and Badger. I think I will pick up some Burt’s Bees Lip Shimmers for her too.

So that just leaves color for her cheeks and eyes. I have my eye on the Mineral Blush Powder in Apricot Dew and the Peach Shimmer for eyes, lips, and cheeks at Ely Organics. The stuff at Ely Organics is no natural you could probably eat them.

If a company were to create and market a very natural , organic line of children’s makeup I would be all over it. What about you? Do you have little girls that loves to play with makeup? How do you handle it?

I recently stumbled across an amazing video from TED. I love that site! The video (below) discusses how to increase the quality of your indoor air by choosing 3 particular house plants and having enough of them per person in the home. It gives all the reasons why these particular plants do what they do and the speaker also mentions studies they have done on this that span 15 years. By following this advice you may very well be creating measurably cleaner indoor air for your family and the third plant actually removes toxins from the air, like formaldehyde. I think I will be doing this when we move and get settled. Take a look:

Remember our discussion about toilet paper awhile back? The fluffy white stuff is generally very bad for the planet. Recycled TP is better and is what we buy as a family. Although in the back of my mind I knew that even recycled TP was not the BEST option for a green family… but the alternative known as “family cloth” really kind of grossed me out. And no it wasn’t really rational because I have no issue with cloth baby wipes and cloth diapers. When some of my lovely readers commented that they were using some form of cloth wipes in their household I knew I had to at least give it a try.

I am not willing to go whole hog at this point and frankly may never be but I am happy with our compromise.

So what is family cloth exactly? It is the name given to the process of using cloth wipes or rags instead of toilet paper. There are many families out there that have made this leap, choosing to ensure that no trees are hazed simply for their convenience in wiping their backsides. Cloth wipes or rags are easy to use, inexpensive, they last a good long while, and they are reusable. Reusable kicks disposable butt hands down.

Some of the moms who commented on my toilet paper post shared that they were either using family cloth all the time or part of the time. I chose to try using cloth part time as well. This means my daughter and I use cloth wipes for clean-up after urination and the whole family used recycled TP for solid waste. Since the females always use the TP and the boys only some of the time that means this switch cut down on TP usage by about 50%. This is a money saver and a planetary resource saver.

Not wanting to sew my own wipes (or dig out my old diaper fabric) I decided to buy from a mom owned store online. I bought a couple dozen, double-sided wipes with flannel and sherpa layers. I put all them in a fabric lined basket that we already had and put them on the bathroom counter. My daughter was thrilled when I explained what they were for. She loved the colorful prints and soft fabric. I imagine this is a much easier transition for a 5 year old girl than a tween or teen. ;)

Our process is pretty simple. We have clean wipes stacked on one side of the basket and when we go in the bathroom we pull one out. Used ones go on the other side of the basket and every 2-3 days when the supply is low I just drop them in the laundry with our clothes. Actually I think having to wash these every 2-3 days keeps me on a laundry schedule so that is a nice bonus.

The cloth wipes are infinitely more comfortable than paper. I have always thought the comparison of recycled toilet paper to sand paper was a bunch of bologna and I still do…but after using cloth, TP does seem seriously disadvantaged in terms of comfort.

I am glad I decided to give it a try even if I may never be comfortable enough to use cloth full time. I am comfortable with what we HAVE been able to do.

It may not be for everybody but if you can make the leap out of your comfort zone, I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

So what do you think? Practical, or green girl gone overboard?