Potty Training: It's Only the Beginning

We've been trying to get DS1 to use the potty for a while now.  He likes to sit on it, but that's about it.  I made him a really awesome potty chart with a train on it and even laminated it.  We hung it up in the bathroom and he sees it all the time.  He knows that when he makes on the potty he will get a sticker and after 5 stickers, we will buy pull-ups (just like his friend L has at daycare). 

He's always so excited about getting a sticker, until he wants to come off the potty.  Then all of a sudden he doesn't want a sticker anymore.  Same results with offering cookies.  I figure that when he's ready it'll all happen, but it's hard not to get frustrated with out snail-like progress. 

I just came across an article about the 7 annoying things people say about potty training and it made me feel much better.  I'm not alone and I'm not the only one who gets secretly annoyed when people make the same comments over and over and over again.

As a working mom, one thing I was super concerned about was how I'll find the time to potty-train.  We get home at 6pm and DS1 goes to bed very soon after.  That only leaves the weekends, which are pretty busy too.  So, I spoke to daycare and they were willing to take DS1 to the potty with the other kids.  I feel better already knowing that daycare is partnering with me in this (sorta yucky) endeavor. 

How did you find time to potty train your kids?  Was it as frustrating for you as it is for me?

December 2011 KosherOAMC Menu Plan

Since my first KOAMC cooking day went so well, I decided to keep doing it. My most recent cooking day was super organized and I made a ton of food. 

See my guest posts on Kosher on a Budget to get the details:

Part 1:  How much did this all cost??
Part 2:  Menu, cooking plan, labels
Part 3:  Recipes

Main Dishes: BBQ Chicken Cranberry Chicken   Maple Glazed Chicken   Mushroom Scallion Stuffed Chicken	Side Dishes: Apple Kugel Broccoli Kugel Carrot kugel Quinoa, Black Bean, & Corn Salad Zucchini Kugel
Soups: Lentil Soup Vegetable Soup	Desserts: Cinnamon Swirls Orange Walnut Cake

Strictly on Schedule

I never thought people would be insulted by my awesome parenting skills. That is until last night when we attended a Chanukah party that was called for 8pm. My kids usually go to bed before then. If I would've brought them, they would've fallen asleep in the car and would've been zombies at the party. And then I would've had to be the one who took care of them in their zombie-like state. Not fun. So, I decided to leave them home so DH and I could attend the party and the kids could get a good night sleep. It seemed like the reasonable thing to do.

Wow, was the hostess of our party insulted. How dare we not bring the kids! It's Chanukah! They should be allowed to stay up late for Chanukah! All I did was nod and smile. Nod and smile. Nod and smile some more. If my child was 5, maybe I would've brought him, but bare in mind that my oldest is only 2. We left the party at 11:15pm. I couldn't even imagine what my kids would've been like after staying up so late. On the way home, all I could think about was how I really was thinking about the well-being of my kids and that ALWAYS has to come first, no matter what anyone else thinks.

Chanukah Rush with a Boat-Load of Traffic

I hate, hate, hate when my kids are the last ones at daycare. I cannot wait for all the holiday traffic to be over. My commute is long enough without it. It can take me 45 minutes to get from work to daycare and yesterday it took me about an hour and a half.

Even more bothersome than being late was that it was the first night of Chanukah. I didn’t want Chanukah to start out as rushed as it did. Of course our menorah was not set up the day before and by the time we got home, everyone was starving (including me), which doesn’t make for a pleasant mood. On top of all of this was that it was bath night.

While rushing to prepare the menorah, I gave my kids their plastic dreidels I had bought for them and fed DS2. Immediately after candle lighting I put DS2 in the bath and DS1 soon joined. After DS2 was sleeping, we finally all sat down to dinner. Why was my 2 year-old eating dinner with us past 7pm?!?! I couldn’t put him to sleep hungry, so he ate with us. He was in bed by 8, but wow, was it a struggle to get there.

So, a message to holiday traffic- please stop! You already ruined the first night of Chanukah and I’d like to be on time tonight.

Working Full Time and Sending to Yeshiva- Without a Housekeeper?

Is it possible to send kids to yeshiva and work full-time? 

I get home at about 6pm everyday and don't know what we're going to do with DS1 next year.  Right now both kids are in a non-Jewish daycare and I don’t think DS1 can go back next year.  Well, he can, but I don’t want him to.  He's already "different" with his kosher food and long hair, but next year is a whole different ball game with a kippa and tzitzis.  He's too young to feel like the odd one out and I want him to love doing these mitzvos without being self-conscious. 

I’m a big fan of daycare for a number of reasons and never felt comfortable with a babysitter in my house.  So, what’s a mom to do when school ends at 4pm?? 

As I see it, here are my options:

1.    Find a mom to take him home every day and watch him

2.    Get a babysitter in the house for after school

3.    Use school aftercare (not sure if this is an option for a 3 year old)

4.    Cut my work hours so I can be available (I would LOVE to do this, but don’t think we can afford it right now, so even though I listed it as an option, it isn’t a realistic option {insert sad smiley face here})

I don’t like any of these options (except #4, which isn’t really an option).  I have no idea what we’re going to do and for now, I’m just freaking out a bit.  Although I love the idea of homeschooling, it is not something I can/want to do right now.  Plus, DH isn’t a fan.

I apologize in advance.  I will probably be posting a lot on this dilemma.  It is on the forefront of my mind and I won’t be able to calm down until all arrangements are made and settled. 

So, for now, my plan of attack is this:

1.    Keep in touch with other parents who are in the same boat.  Maybe we can come up with a good solution that works for all of us.  Teamwork!

2.    Attend open houses for schools and keep on top of registration deadlines.  I already scheduled tours of the local schools and plan on networking at these events to see what other parents do.  I will also ask the pre-school directors what other parents do and find out more information on aftercare programs. 

I cannot possibly be the only one in this situation! So, please tell me I’m not the only one.  How do other working parents manage?

Zucchini Kugel- Super Easy, One Step

Although I love the zucchini kugel recipe I used to make, it was 2 steps. I had to boil the zucchini and then add all the other ingredients. It wasn't hard, but annoying to make. I like this new recipe, because you don't have to pre-boil the zucchini and it freezes really well too!

Ingredients:

6 medium zucchini, quartered & sliced (I used my food processor)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1-2 tablespoons onion soup mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup oil
salt & pepper

Directions:  Mix all ingredients. Bake, uncovered, in a greased 9x13 pan at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hrs or until set & golden brown

Shabbos Menu Planning With a Sudden Burst of Energy

Meal planning for this week’s Shabbos took me forever! We aren’t even having any guests! I think the reason it took so long is because I (desperately) need to re-stock my freezer. I see another cooking day on the way... Maybe I’ll take off a day next week, since it’s the end of the year and I have one more personal day to use. But more importantly, my family needs to eat! Our freezer choices have dwindled and I just don’t have time to cook an entire Shabbos.

 

Last night I unexpectedly had a burst of energy while DH was grocery shopping and made two fresh kugels. I found some frozen veggies in my freezer- broccoli and butternut squash- in case you were wondering… and had the rest of the ingredients on hand. I think I previously bought the veggies because I planned on making kugels a few weeks ago and never got around to it… story of my life. So, now we don’t have to buy store-made kugels.

 

I also found a recipe for chicken and wild rice - all made in one pan (if it’s good, I’ll include it in a future KOAMC plan), so that’ll be good for Shabbos lunch, along with some baked sweet potatoes. I think dessert will have to be store bought, unless I get my act together tonight and bake something simple, like brownies. Maybe I’ll finally get a chance to try the low-fat brownie recipe I printed out months ago. It’s been sitting in my bag and is all crumpled up by now, but it’s still legible. I want to lose weight, but don’t think I can survive without dessert on Shabbos (so many conflicts in life). Back to Friday night dinner- I found the last package of Meal Mart stuffed cabbage we had (a great Costco find) and think I’ll make some plain rice to go along with it.

 

A lot of rice this Shabbos. That’s just the way it’s gonna have to be… Could be worse, right? So here’s a recap of what we’re having:

 

Friday Night:

• Mushroom and barley soup (freezer!)
• Stuffed cabbage
• Rice
• Butternut squash kugel

Shabbos Lunch:

• Chicken and wild rice
• Sweet potatoes
• Broccoli kugel

 

You might be wondering- why am I sharing all this with you? Well, I’m hoping you can commiserate with me, since I feel like I just slopped this menu together. The only recipes I even consider making are super simple. Oh how I wish for homemade challah… I really hate that I don’t have time to make a nice Shabbos for my family and everything is done so last minute.

 

So, to make myself feel better, I just think to myself, “I can’t possibly be the only one that feels this way!” Misery loves company, doesn’t it?

Laundry- The Never Ending Task

Want to know how I keep the laundry piles from growing?  Here's my "system"- in pictures:

dirty laundry goes into one of five places

Unfortunately, folded laundry has become a luxury in my house. One that we can only enjoy on special occasions, like long weekends.  So, sorting my clean laundry as it comes out of the dryer, saves me time finding what we need every morning.  It also makes it easier to sort the clothing as I fold them... when I have time to do that.  This might not be the best system, but it's what works for me!

What laundry system do you have?  Any recommendations to improve mine?

On My Way To Work

I almost made it to work this morning.

Let me explain. DS1 has been sick since Thursday evening. Yesterday, he was fever-free but I decided to take him to the doctor just to make sure everything was in check. The nurse took a throat culture and it was negative. So, we spent the day together and I dropped him off at daycare this morning, along with DS2. About 35 minutes into my commute I received a call from the doctor's office saying that DS1's overnight culture came back positive and he needs to be on antibiotics for 24 hours before returning to daycare.

So, I turned around and went to pick him up. What choice did I have?  (Side note- I was totally embarrassed to have to pick him up because when I dropped him off I gave the teacher a whole explanation about how the doctor said he could return to daycare.) Anyway, back to the story. As I was walking into the daycare I saw DS2's teacher (sarcastic yay...) Apparently, DS2 came down with thrush and needed to be taken to the doctor. So, I got DS1, made an appointment for DS2 and we were all off the the doctor (again).

From the doctor, we went straight to the pharmacy. By 10:30am everyone was on anti-biotics and I still had to sign into work, as I told my boss I would, since it's the 4th business day and pretty busy.

As you can imagine, I couldn't get much work done with both kids home, but I did manage to send out an important file and dial into a conference call. Not bad if you ask me.  Got way more done than I thought I would, but the absolute worst part of it all was that I was all dressed for work and didn't even go!

7 Questions You Should Never Ask A Working Mother - ABC News

I never really made a choice to be a working mom, it kinda just happened. When I was pregnant with DS1, I couldn't imagine just quitting my job and staying home. We needed my salary and I figured that it would be ok to work, since a baby doesn't do much all day. Did it really matter who changed his diapers?

When people learned of my intentions to continue working I got all sorts of reactions. Most of them were along the lines of, "don't you want to bond with your baby?" I didn't know how to respond to these types of questions, so I just smiled and nodded. What did these people expect me to say??

7 Questions You Should Never Ask A Working Mother - ABC News sums it up pretty well. I'm willing to bet that you've been asked one or more of these questions. I know I have and they left me doubting all the decisions I've been making for my children so far, even if the questions weren't meant to insult me.

For now I will just continue to nod and smile. At least this way they will think that I really can handle it all. Then I will run home, cry and tell myself that I am still a good mother even if I can't do it all. And then I will probably blog about the nerve of this person and the questions they ask.