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Category Archives: tips & tricks

How We Potty Trained our 3 Year Old

1 / 19 / 19

How We Potty Trained Our 3 Year Old | Mama Papa Bubba

Welp, we’re officially through 10 full days of potty training and I have to say – it’s been much easier than I expected it to b {yay!}  At this point Sam’s back to wearing bottoms at home, we do the school run and things like grocery shopping without any worry (I’ve even forgotten to bring along the diaper bag and a change of clothes several times – eep!), he’s happy to use a regular toilet both at home and while out, and we’ve only had 3 accidents throughout the entire process (2 of which have been this weekend while we’ve had family staying with us and I’ve had my hands full with other things / he’s been off running around with his cousins). That being said, number twos still definitely cause some anxiousness, but I think we’ve discovered what makes them easiest for him.  We’ve been snacking on a few prunes each day to keep things…*ahem*…’soft’, and some privacy seems to allow things to happen, so we’re going with it.

I’ve had soooo many people over on Instagram ask me to share exactly how we’ve done it, but before I do, know that I am absolutely not an expert or medical professional for that matter. I’ve never even read a single potty training book in my entire life! I did successfully help Miss G to use a toilet at a very young age and I have helped several families I nannied for potty train their kiddos – but that’s the extent of it.  Also, every kiddo is truly different.  What worked for Miss G {and had her completely out of daytime diapers by 13.5 months old – check out how little she is in her underwear} absolutely would not have worked for Sam.  Our method is simply based on what I felt would be best for Sam, and it’s definitely not a one-size-fits-all sort of situation.

 

Potty Training | Mama Papa Bubba{this post contains affiliate links}

 

With that said, here’s what we did do:

– We started talking about using potty, we put potties out in the bathrooms, and we started ‘sportscasting’ our own potty processes (sounds soooo silly, but never underestimate the power of modelling!) months in advance just to get the conversation going and ‘normalize’ the process.

– We waited until Sam was 3 and we felt he was truly ready. He was at the point where he would be going in his diaper and proudly announcing, “I’M PEEING!!” and was also completely open to the process. In fact, when I thought he might be ready back in October and put the feelers out, he became super anxious and resistant and I immediately knew it wasn’t our time just yet.

– We decided on a day and got prepared the day before. We didn’t need anything we didn’t already have in order to start the process, so this was as simple as letting him know that the following day would be the day and chatting about it in a really fun and positive {but genuine} way.  “Tomorrow morning we’re going to start using the potty.  I’m so excited for you!”

– On the big day, we put potties out in the main rooms of both floors of our house and got a big bucket of water with our favourite cleaner in it out and ready to go.  When we were all set up, we took off his diaper and started with sitting on the potty right away, which earned us our very first ’success’.  On that day (and for the next few days), we kept the house warm and Sam naked from the waist down, we stayed super close to home, and I just reminded him that when he had to go, the potty was there and I was ready to help.

– When he went, we danced, cheered, and highfived in celebration, then we’d dump the potty into the toilet and he would say goodbye and flush. (We really only had one accident in those early days, but when he did, we didn’t make a big fuss about it – we simply said, “Oops! We waited too long – next time we’ll get to the potty sooner”, and then cleaned it up and moved on. All things potty were kept light and positive).

– On day 2, things were going so well that I gave Sam the choice as to whether he’d like to do the school run in a diaper or in underwear, and he chose underwear!!  In this case, I asked Sam to sit on the potty ‘just to try’ before helping him put his undies on and we brought the potty along with us in the car too.  I let him know that we could stop any time he needed to go and I made sure to keep our trips as brief as possible (30 minutes max). By day 4, I felt like he was ready, so we began doing longer outings like music class and grocery shopping (again going before leaving and taking the potty along with us in the car). And on day 7, Sam went from being naked from the waist down to wearing underwear at home…  I wanted to give him a good long run with being naked a) because it makes getting onto the potty and using it successfully so much easier (one less step!) and b) because I feel like wearing underwear must sort of feel like wearing a diaper, which of course has the potential to lead to accidents.  Overall, I think the most important thing through the first week was keeping the process really positive and taking small steps forward when I felt like he was ready. 

 

Toddler Potty Training | Mama Papa Bubba

Now…  Here’s what we didn’t do (but obviously no judgement to anyone who has done these things or feels like they’re the way to go – I know they’re often common practice):

– We didn’t get rid of diapers during sleep… At nap times and bedtimes, Sam tries going on the potty and then we put on a “sleep diaper” before he goes down.  They’re the same diapers we’ve always used but they’re now specifically called ‘SLEEP diapers’ and they come off as soon as he’s done sleeping.  I chose to only tackle awake times a) because our kids tend to sleep hard and for long periods of time and b) because we worked so dang hard to help him learn how to be a good sleeper and his sleep is still very easily thrown off, so I’m just not willing to mess with it at this point.

– We didn’t do tangible rewards of any kind… No Smarties for each potty use, no sticker chart, no toy once fully trained. Truthfully, rewards in general just aren’t my jam.  One of my biggest passions as an educator has always been fostering intrinsic motivation, so extrinsic motivators (like candy and stickers) just don’t vibe with that personal passion. If you’re interested, Alfie Kohn’s Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes is a fantastic read.

– We didn’t aim to fill Sam with extra liquids in order to increase his ‘opportunities to learn’. I know this is SO common and many people go as far as to give their kiddos ’treat drinks’ (like juice and chocolate milk) in order to increase their consumption, but something about that just doesn’t really sit right with me… I feel like if I was learning something new and feeling slightly anxious / overwhelmed / whatever about it, the last thing I’d want is someone to artificially pile on and give me more to manage. Of course, that’s just my personal feeling.

– Lastly, we didn’t use timers. I know many people set their timers and sit their kiddos on the potty every 15 minutes for the first day, maybe every 20 minutes on the second, etc., but I knew Sam was ready and really wanted the process to be more child-led – more focused on him listening to his body instead of me telling him when to go. Instead, every now and then (and not a ton), I reminded him that the potty was out and ready when he needed it.

 

And that’s that.  While I anticipated that it would go fairly well, it’s been so much easier than I even anticipated and for that I’m thankful.

 

 

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Calm Down Kit for Kids

1 / 18 / 181 / 23 / 18

Calm Down Kit for Kids | Mama Papa Bubba

Oh my…  Have we ever been dealing with some big emotions lately.  Miss G’s always been a spirited kiddo who feels things deeply, but in the last few months it’s been at a whole new level.  Especially after school.  I’ve been doing my best to to not bombard her with questions immediately after picking her up, to not ask too much of her as soon as we walk in the door, and to make sure she’s got a big snack and glass of water once home, but even then – some days are just extremely emotional for her.

As frustrating and as hard as it can be sometimes, I’m trying to tackle it as we would any other difficult situation – by helping her find strategies to cope and get through it.  Things that help her work through her emotions. And so when I came across this anti-anxiety kit created by Sharla of The Chaos and the Clutter, I wondered if something similar would help Miss G in situations when she was feeling anxious, upset, or angry.  I asked and she was totally on board, so we began collecting the items for this little calm down kit together.

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How to Make Moving Easier & Less Stressful

11 / 30 / 172 / 3 / 18

How to make Moving Easier and Less Stressful | Mama Papa Bubba

If there’s one thing I’ve done a lot in my life, it’s  moved.  My gosh, have I ever moved.

One Christmas several years back, my brother and I got out a notepad and listed every single home we’d each lived in just for fun.  It started out as one list, split into two separate ones during our teenage years, and then came back together for several summers while I was in university. It was LONG.  And thank goodness I had Gar there helping sort it all out, because sometimes my memory is total crap.

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Simple School Communication Binder

9 / 18 / 1710 / 11 / 17

School Communication Binder | Mama Papa Bubba

I can hardly believe that we’re through the first two weeks of school and into mid-September already…  I know it’s such a ‘mom thing’ to say, but time just seems to pass more quickly each year.  Here in Vernon we’ve already had our back to school BBQ, I’ve attended the first PAC meeting of the year, and Miss G will have her school photos taken this week. {Spoiler alert:  I know what happens next.  We’re all going to blink for just a split second and when our yes open, it’ll be time to prepare for Christmas.  Time is cruel like that.}  The good news is that Miss G is really enjoying her new school.  She really likes both her teacher and the helping teacher in her class, she’s made some lovely little friends, and she already seems to feel quite at home there, which is more than I could have hoped for this early on.

Everything is coming along.

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5 Natural Ways to Avoid Back-to-School Sicknesses

10 / 6 / 162 / 3 / 18

5-natural-ways-to-avoid-school-sicknesses-mama-papa-bubba
I hate to even say it for fear of ruining everything, but my goodness – we’ve made it all the way through September and the first week of October without getting the dreaded back-to-school sickness. {Thank goodness!}  Several of Miss G’s friends have already fallen victim to the beginning of the year bug and I’m fairly certain that by this time last year, Miss G had been home sick twice {ugh}.  Well, lesson learned.  I’m smarter now.  And this year I’m being much more proactive about helping Miss G {and the rest of our family} stay happy and healthy this fall.

Here are 5 natural ways to avoid back-to-school sicknesses that we’ve been using on the regular…

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School Lunches Made Easy

9 / 30 / 1610 / 2 / 16

School Lunches Made Easy | Mama Papa Bubba

All school year long, I hear fellow mamas commiserate about one of daily tasks that comes with being a parent of a school-aged child… Packing school lunches. Complaints range from not knowing what to pack, to it adding to the morning rush, to kids not eating the lunches they’re packed and it therefore being a completely thankless task.  I get it.  I do.  …But truth be told?  I actually enjoy packing school lunches.  Like quite a lot.  {Insane, right?} In fact, when Miss G was just starting Kindergarten, I think it was the one thing about school that I was actually looking forward to – hah! 

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15 Mama and Munchkin Approved Ways to Use Essential Oils

9 / 22 / 149 / 27 / 14
15 Mama  Munchkin Appoved Ways to Use Essential Oils | Mama Papa Bubba{this post contains affiliate links}

By now, it’s no secret that our family is a slightly ‘crunchy’ one {even if Brad fights it just a little and despises that use of the word crunchy}.  We’re by no means the extreme, but we do our best to make things from scratch, eat whole foods, avoid unneeded chemicals and toxins, and generally live pretty naturally.  One of the things we use daily in our attempt to live more naturally is essential oils.  I’ve never been a huge user of traditional medicines, and since the arrival of Miss G four years ago, my  medicine cabinet has slowly grown more and more full of pretty little oil bottles with less and less traditional medicine to be found.

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Quiet Road Trip Activities for Little Ones

8 / 22 / 128 / 28 / 12

Tomorrow Miss G and I head out on a little Mama and Bubba road trip.  A good friend of mine is getting married this weekend in my hometown in the Okanagan, and since Brad is in his final few days of work at his current job before transitioning over to his new teaching position, Grae and I are on our own.  While the two of us have done the 5 or 6 hour drive sans Papa before, I must admit that I am a little nervous about it this time around (despite the fact that Grae was basically born travelling and has successfully made the 36 hour journey to Kuwait and the 36 hour journey back to Canada – if she can make it through that, she can make it through pretty much anything, right?)

The thing is, at nearly two years old, Miss G is more active than ever.  She loves to be on the go, naps in the car happen very rarely (they’re something we try our very best to avoid, so can’t blame her on that one), and without a second set of hands, there’s no one besides me to handout snacks, pass toys, or retrieve dropped items.

So, with all of this in mind, I decided to put together a little collection of simple, car-friendly activities to keep my busy body baby happy during our time on the road.  Here’s what I’ve collected…

IMG 87741. A Crayola Color Explosion mini notepad.  I was actually on the hunt for the old-school colouring pads that came with just one white marker when I was little, but no luck on that front.  While I don’t normally buy into all of the “gimmicky” products Crayola makes, this was the next best thing.  One colourless {and therefore mess-free} marker with only one lid to potentially lose, but with the fun of all the colours in the rainbow? Yes, please. Sign me up.

IMG 87712. A mini sparkly scratch notebook.  Sparkly, fun, and virtually mess-free.

IMG 87803. A magnetic pipe cleaner sensory bottle.  Quiet fun + the easiest thing to put together ever = win!

IMG 87844. A magnetic paperclip sensory bottle.  Even better than the pipe cleaner one, and while it could be a little noisy when shaken, these plastic-coated paperclips don’t make that much noise.

IMG 87875. Stickers and a notebook to stick them in.  Pure magic in our house.

IMG 87916. A homemade 3-in-1 travel board.  Very easy to make and packs a big punch as it provides 3 activities all in one.  All I did was spray an extra baking sheet I had on hand with a few coats of paint (this makes it prettier, but certainly isn’t necessary). Then I free handed three coats of chalkboard paint on this side, letting it dry well in between each coat.  Afterwards, I conditioned it by rubbing a generous amount of chalk all over the board before erasing it.  Voila!  This side is not only a perfect lap-sized chalkboard, but it also doubles as a magnet board too.

IMG 8789For the other side, I cut out a piece of felt, glued it onto the baking sheet using craft glue, and cut out some felt dress up girls by modifying the patterns found here.  Of course, the felt activity you create can be personalized to your child’s age and interests.  Cutting out the letters of your child’s name so he or she can practice spelling it, creating felt pattern blocks, or making a matching game like the ice cream cone game I made previously are just a few ideas.  

I’ve tucked all of the pieces for this travel board into separate containers  so I can hand them out one at a time tomorrow and get the most use out of this board as possible.

IMG 87827. Snacks.  Lots and lots and lots of healthy snacks, each in small individual containers so they can be handed out one at a time.  Dried fruit, nuts, dry cereal, fresh fruit and veggies, healthy bars, and freeze dried treats… All of Miss G’s favourites.

In addition to these things, we stocked up on new CDs from the library earlier this week, so we’ll have those to listen to too.  Of course, I’m hoping for a nice long nap along the way, but if it doesn’t happen these goodies should take us through a 6 hour trip, right?

Wish us luck!

♥

 
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