Potty-training brings out the advice-givers in all of us who’ve been through it, and thank goodness!, because other moms love to hear these ideas.  Since we’ve had a couple more suggestions on potty training that were e-mailed after our post, I want to pass them along for those of you still in the throes of toddler-hood.  If you have other ideas, please continue to leave them in the ‘comments’ section, so you can help other moms who are desperate to ditch the diapers.  Here’s what our friends had to say:

When my third child was ready to potty train, it was simple.  His oldest sister, Brittany, looked at me and said,” Why don’t you just tell Timothy you don’t have any more diapers?”  And then she took them and hid them under Bethany’s bed.  That was it.  Done.  Simple.  Just thinking about it brought me a smile.  (Rena)

We bought Caleb a fishing pole and told him when he didn’t go in his diaper for 3 days, he could open it and play with it.  He eyed it with anticipation and it was a few weeks later when he started letting us know when he had to go (thanks to Elmo’s “stop what you’re doing and go” slogan).  When I had realized it had been 2 days since going in his diaper, we put on his big boy underwear and he graduated that day.  That was over 2 weeks ago and he’s only had 2 accidents (both times when we were busy and not reminding him).  We also have transitioned from jelly bellies to pennies in the piggy bank as a reward. (Erin)

Today I’m also posting over at Midwest Parents, where you can read about my wanderlust and my admiration for the Granger family, who took a plunge few other families ever will.

-Kirsetin

Ha, ha, ha!  The Blog Blast for this week is oh, so interesting.  They’ve challenged us to write about gift-giving grandparents.  They want us to dish the dirt on grandparents who give noisy toys, shirts with dinosaurs, and hideous plastic nonsense.  They’d like us to share how we handle this dilemma and guide them towards wooden blocks and designer duds.  I’m sure you know what I mean.  So here are my thoughts:

I will admit that when my children were younger (okay, occasionally this still happens), I dreaded the shirt with the _____ (insert any type of figure here).  Anyone who ever looked at the clothes my toddlers wore could plainly see that I favored overalls, preferably plaid or khaki.  My children didn’t wear sweatpants around town and certainly not shirts with dinosaurs on them.

Until they got some, that is, as a gift from grandma.  Thanks, Grandma, I really appreciate that.

The children, however, loved them!

When my kids’ faces lit up and they put on those shirts I realized that their gifts aren’t about me at all.  (I can be a bit slow that way.)  Grandma isn’t buying what I like, she’s buying what they like.  And I can’t fault her there.  Isn’t that what gift-givers are supposed to do?

Now does this mean I hope for shirts with decals, noisy instruments or big, plastic randomness?  Oh, no, I still selfishly dream away. 

But I love that my kids’ grandparents love them enough to buy what they’d like and that they expect me to be big enough to deal with it.

Thanks for all the gifts, grandmas, and even more, the love that comes with them. 

Check out the Grandkids Gift Guide for all sorts of gift-giving ideas.  To read what other bloggers have to say about gift-giving grandparents, peruse the posts at the Parent Bloggers Network.