Cheating Death Together

Clay surprised Laura and Detric one morning with a flying Date!  Clay and Laura have been wanting to sail the friendly skies together for a while now, but just haven't gone!  It has been....oh dear...maybe 11 years since we have flown together - so we were far from overdue!  We had a great time flying around Clovis - seeing our house from a new perspective, seeing the kids' school, spoting the cornmaze and the fun designs in it, and then flying to the edge of Tucumcari and back.  We had also promised Detric he could go flying with Daddy when he was a big boy and could go potty in the toilet!  Well, he has checked that box- and now he was flying with Daddy!  At first he wasn't quite sure about the whole thing, but as soon as we strapped him in and had his headset on and working, he was good to go!  Now, the rest of the kids are dying to fly with Daddy too!!!  Thanks for the fun, creative, and death defying date sweetheart! In Clay's words..."We cheated Death once again" just TOGETHER this time!!!

Detric's Potty Party

Potty training is Laura's least favorite parenting experience.   It has been awful for each of the 3 kids that we have already trained, so Laura was NOT excited about trying to train Detric.  Plus, Laura just watched 2 of her friends who have boys Detric's age - struggle with accident after accident with the attempt to potty train and ultimately giving up and going back to diapers until later.  The lack of success in her friends didn't help the situation for Detric.  However, with a new baby coming in February and Laura just getting bigger by the day, it seemed like sooner was better than later.  Then one day Laura went and visited a lady in the ward and the subject of potty training came up and low and behold, this woman had potty trained over 30+ kids.  Holy Cow!  Laura seriously considered offering this lady some money, handing over Detric and saying...PLEASE POTTY TRAIN HIM FOR ME!  But instead, Laura just begged for her secrets.  Laura followed this brilliant woman's advise, and let me tell ya- 3 days later Detric was potty trained day AND night.  We couldn't believe it!  It was a miracle.  We are a happy diaperless house (for a few months anyway!!!).  Go Big Boy Detric! 

When Laura asked Detric to take a picture by the potty and give a thumbs up, he pointed his finger at her - I guess we will have to work on that!  One skill at a time, and for right now, I'll take potty training over thumbs up any day!  Whoohoo. 

 This boy is funny too...he loves Mater, Lightening McQueen, trains, airplanes, etc.  However, when it came down to underware - we had all the fun briefs with the characters on them, but Detric refused to wear them!  He insisted on boring boxer briefs (with no characters) because he wanted to be like his big Brothers and Daddy!  It's hilarious what they notice or like the feel of - even at 2 they have an opinion! We also had to keep that throne meticulously clean - as more than hands touched the seat!  As you can see, it was quite entertaining for him to watch the magic happen!  

Karen Banisters's brilliant potty training advise:

**Giving credit where credit is due!

1.  Make it the child's responsibility.  They are responsible for the potty.  (no timers, no forcing them to sit on the potty...they are to tell you when they have to go, but they also have to clean up the mess to).  You can ask them, "Do you have to go potty?" But if they say no, don't force them.

2.  You make it a big deal.  Get underware at the store, they are excited about.  Talk about it for days before you start, prep them.

3.  Have the child THROW away the diapers, in the trash, out of the house,   Have NO diapers in the house and NEVER put them back on your child.  NOT at night, NOT at nap time, NOT ever!  

4.  Praise the child about being a big boy/girl and that big boys and girls go potty in the toilet, NOT in your pants.  We need to keep clean and dry.

5.  When accidents happen (and they will, they are learning), THEY clean up the mess, the floor, carpet, clothes, everything.  Pee and Poop - They are right there at the sink rinsing out the clothes while the parent helps and re-emphasizes EWWW, YUCK, this is gross...we go in the potty, not our clothes.  

6.  If you have help - it always makes it that much easier.  If you can plan 3 days where both parents are home or  older children are home so it is not all on 1 parent as it is exhausting work.

7.  Don't go anywhere for those 3 days.  Stay home and close to the potty, so when the child says, I have to go potty, you can RUN.

8.  We gave him fruit loops to shoot at, just to make it more fun.

9.  We also gave him treats when he successfully went in the potty (skittles) But it really only lasted about a week and then he forgot about them and didn't care.  Now after about a month of being trained, we are now giving treats if he does it on his own - goes into the potty, pulls down his pants, climbs on, and gets redressed on his own.

**Laura's point:  I think it makes a big difference when the child can talk to you and you can understand them, but according to Karen, she potty trained them as young as 18 months....so...?

**Detric had 2 nights where he was wet, and 2 days of nap where he woke up wet, but has been dry ever since!

Floating Bikes

The neighbors think we are crazy, but we think we think differently!!  Usually the verb "floating" is associated with boats, rafts, floatation devices, etc.  today the Ward Clan defied the usual term and floated their bikes on the flooding roads!  We had rain like you couldn't believe and it just called to some of the members of our family so strongly they couldn't resist - and so they didn't!  They embraced the rain and were soaked to the bone in the process, but had a great time doing it!  They rode up and down the street splish splashing as they went, stood under a flow of water from the roof, danced in the rain, stomped in the puddles, and purely enjoyed the wet flow that came!  Clay, being the kid at heart that he is, couldn't let the kids have all the fun and quickly joined in!  Laura on the other hand was quite content with Detric on the nice DRY porch where they watched, cheered, took pictures and enjoyed the scene, but resisted the urge to join!  It has been quite a wet fall so far this year!  Clay hopes this is a sign that it will be a VERY white and snowy winter, we shall see!

Lost and Bloody in the Corn Maze

Military Day at St. Bernard Farms means....we gather at the corn maze and have fun together!!!  We were sad that several spouses couldn't make it (working of course), but us 4 ladies: Kim, Laura, Shelley, and Julee plus Matt Nielsen (token male) tackled the corn maze (we saw our friend Jenn May at the entrance, so she joined us for the picture!)  The kids had fun getting lost in the maze, Preston found a way to get a bloody finger, we met some LARGE minions, balanced on a spider web, pedaled the balancing cars, rode the cow train, bounced on the air bubble, played in the play structure and just had a blast hanging out with friends starting the fall festivities off with a BANG!