Working on a Bit of Early Potty Training

Much as I love my cloth diapers over disposables, I do sooooo look forward to being done with diapers altogether.

I mean really. I’ve been dealing with diapers almost continuously since my oldest was born, about seven and a half years ago. Small breaks between each baby, but not enough. Really, not enough.

How I wish we had discovered the delights of cloth diapering sooner.

In the early days, my husband wouldn’t hear of it. It was a tv show about how much waste the things we use produces that showed it for disposable diapers that finally got him on my side. Now he wishes we had done it throughout.

But I’m really ready for potty training. Selene may be only 10 months old, but we’re doing some gentle work with it.

What got us started was noticing that she tends to pee after she and I take a shower in the morning. Bringing her in is just easier than waiting for her to nap, and I obviously cannot leave her in the charge of her older brother, who is only 4, and my oldest daughter is generally at school at the time, and really not ready for that responsibility either.

So, noticing a trend, out came the potty training seat.

She promptly quit peeing right after a shower for a few weeks.

But now she’s doing it again, and yes, in the potty. She doesn’t have it down yet, but she is becoming more aware that her body is doing something and that she gets praised for it. She gets a bit of praise just for sitting there, of course. But I’m getting some awfully big grins when she realizes that she has done something more in there. And she claps for herself.

We’re not aiming for complete training at this point. With three kids it would take more time than I’m up for to do a complete job. I’m just aiming for a relatively young potty training with her getting comfortable with the idea now.

I hope.

My mother likes to talk about how my grandmother always had babies trained by six months old. Of course, disposable diapers weren’t so common then, and I would imagine washing diapers would be a bit more time consuming. That would certainly be motivation, no matter the number of kids.

People do potty train young like that still, and I understand it works. The currently popular name is elimination communication. But I wasn’t ready to go for it then, and am still not ready to go for it now.

Green Books for Christmas Gifts

I love to read. It almost doesn’t matter the topic if I have the time. It’s just a little thing I do.

So of course, recommending books comes naturally to me. And with Christmas being a great time to give books as gifts, here are some ideas:

Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder

I got a review copy of this many months ago. While it’s not about going green, it is about something that should be important to all parents… getting their kids to appreciate nature. After all, if they don’t appreciate nature why would they want to protect and preserve it?

Getting out into nature is also vital to children’s development. Video games just don’t cut it. They need to get outside and deal with the dirt, climb some trees, get wet and just have fun. That means more than just sending them out into the back yard.

Get this one for your favorite parents of school aged children, green or no. It’s great food for thought.

Feeding Baby Green: The Earth Friendly Program for Healthy, Safe Nutrition During Pregnancy, Childhood, and Beyond

For the green mom to be. Making homemade baby food is something I’ve really gotten into. So much more flexible than using jarred foods, and my baby already has a clear preference for what I make. Those rare times I resort to jars she is not too happy with me and seems (in my opinion) to eat less.

Sewing Green: 25 Projects Made with Repurposed & Organic Materials

For the green crafter in your life. Sewing is a habit I meant to pick up last summer, until we moved on rather short notice. There’s so much you can do with fabrics you already own.

Grow Your Own Tree Hugger: 101 activities to teach your child how to live green

Kids love to do crafts and do projects. Encouraging them to do ones that get them thinking about the environment is a great idea.

This may come more naturally to some kids than others. Mine have been raiding the recycle bin for reusable items, and bringing in all kinds of natural things from outside to work with. It’s wonderful to see, if a bit messy. I like the idea of encouraging them to do more.

Easy Green Living: The Ultimate Guide to Simple, Eco-Friendly Choices for You and Your Home

Your home is one of the easiest places to have a green impact on your environment. This book offers green cleaning solutions, personal care items and other things you use around the home.

Wake Up and Smell the Planet: The Non-Pompous, Non-Preachy Grist Guide to Greening Your Day

For the person who needs a lighter approach to going green. This book doesn’t present everything in a serious manner, which can be helpful in getting some people to pay more attention to what it’s saying.

A Quick Break From Baby Food Making

What a week it was last week! Thanksgiving is always a crazy time of year, but my dear eldest daughter had to make it more interesting by coming down with a rather nasty stomach bug.

And passing it on to my husband and son.

Fortunately, the baby and I did not get it. It took a lot of effort to keep things that way. Keeping kids apart who normally play together much of the day is rough, and the baby really loves her Daddy.

So what does all this have to do with baby food making?

I’m picky about the conditions under which I will make baby food. A house full of people who have been throwing up is not what I consider good conditions. Too worrying that maybe there was something in the kitchen either causing the problem or that had come into the kitchen with one of the sick people.

Naturally this hit right when I was just about out of baby food cubes. I’d been planning on making quite a number just after Thanksgiving.

I had to resort to jarred baby food!

All right, so it’s really not all that horrifying. Glad I had a good stock on hand. I use jarred food for when we visit family.

Fortunately, they’re all well and I’ve done some serious scrubbing to be sure that no one spread anything too bad around the house while they were sick. So I’m back to making baby food. And very grateful that whatever the virus was, the baby didn’t get it.

Giving the Gift of Time for Christmas

One of the best ways to green up your Christmas gift giving is to give time rather than things. This works for many of the people in your life.

Time for the Kids

It’s easy to let day to day life mess with the time you have available for your children. Make a part of your gift to them be some special times together, doing something they love to do or share one of your interests.

Camping trips can be good for helping kids to really appreciate nature, for example. Winter’s not the best time in many areas perhaps, but it’s not too early to start thinking about where you’d like to go. Even just heading out to a local campground can be an adventure if you don’t camp a lot.

Hiking is another good choice that is rather less time consuming. Find a beautiful, natural place in your area and start hiking. It’s a great time to talk with your kids too.

You can also plan activities around the home. Do a craft, build something together, play a game, just talk.

Time for Your Parents

If your parents are still alive, and reasonably accessible to you, make the most of it. You can give them time with you to just talk, or you can help them with running errands. You can even combine time with your parents with time with your kids and go camping or hiking as an extended family.

Time for Your Friends

If your friends have young children, giving them the gift of time can take the form of offering babysitting for their kids. What parents don’t appreciate the chance to get out without the kids for a bit?

Just Remember… It’s Not All About THINGS

Giving the gift of time is a great way to remind yourself and the people you love that there’s so much more you can give one another than just things. Clutter.

The gift of time can have so much more meaning than almost any other gift you can give.

Reuse Glass Jars – Green Step By Step

Washing out and reusing glass jars is not only easy, it can be habit forming.

The glass bottles I use the most of are spaghetti jars. They’re great for holding things that I buy from bulk bins, such as popcorn or flax seed. They hold a nice quantity of these products and I find them easier to organize.

Having a baby means that I occasionally buy baby food. Not often, since I make most of mine, but store bought is easier when traveling. And that means baby food jars.

Some people like these for crafts. I’ve given some to my kids to keep some of their smaller craft supplies in.

Larger jars don’t come around too often, but sometimes they’re really useful. The really large pickle jars are nice for holding coins if you like to keep your change until you have a bunch to bring in.

Jars that are bigger than a spaghetti sauce jar but not too big are nice if you like making sourdough starter. I tried this my first time in a spaghetti sauce jar, and there just really wasn’t enough room to work with, even throwing a lot out regularly.

It’s always important to remember that reuse comes before recycle and after reduce in priority. You’re pretty likely to buy some foods in jars. Make the most of what comes with the food and reuse jars when you can. Recycle the rest or find a friend who needs jars.