A 2-year old and a Christmas Tree

I leave the room for two minutes and come back to find this.

Thankfully Blue Rock was not hurt and this year's Christmas tree is fake.  Otherwise that could really hurt having a Christmas tree fall on you. 

St. Nikolaus Day in Germany

Christmas in Germany is a lot of fun.  There are so many traditions and activities to do during the month of December.  On December 6th, Germans celebrate St. Nikolaus Tag (St. Nicholas Day).  The night before, children leave their boot outside the front door or outside their bedroom door.  While they are asleep, St. Nikolaus comes and leaves goodies in their boot if they were good.  If they have been bad they he leaves sticks.

Blue Rock left his rain boots out.  Thankfully he has been very good so he got a few goodies in each boot.

What's in my boot?

It's Gummy Bears!

Emptying the boot is fun!

Fun bendable track to go with my train set!

Our Town's Christmas Market

You can see the rain falling

This past weekend we got a lot of rain.  Friday evening I volunteered at an event called Holiday Magic, where my MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) group sold soup, bread, and gently used children's clothes. Santa Claus comes to this event, children from the schools sing Christmas songs, and different organizations set up booths to raise money.  It was raining and I had Blue Rock with me so I didn't take any pictures at Holiday Magic.

This weekend was also our town's Christmas market.  We went with our next door neighbors last year and we decided to go again with them this year.  We truly are super blessed to have such fantastic neighbors on both sides of us.  I brought my camera with me to this market and took pictures, even though it was still raining.

Our neighbors made pork sandwiches and European beans (kind of like baked beans but not really sweet) for dinner.  Then we walked downtown to the market with them.  Thankfully Saturday night it was just sprinkling.  Sunday, when Santa was suppose to be there, it was pouring rain.  So we didn't even attempt to go back to the market.  One difference between Germany and say Texas is, typically things you do in your town you walk to.  There is limited parking downtown and it's really only about a 5 minute walk.  Even though Santa was going to be inside the concert hall, we decided not to go.  Santa doesn't bring that much to our house but he is coming for St. Nikolaus Tag (St. Nicholas Day) tonight.  We'll put out a boot and see what he brings Blue Rock.  If you want to participate, leave your child's boot outside the door tonight and he will leave a treat, usually something sweet, in the boot if they have been good.  If they have not been good, he will leave twigs.

Here are a few pictures from our town's Christmas market.

Blue Rock enjoying the swing ride

My cute husband standing with our neighbors cheering Blue Rock on as he flies by on the swing

Me and our town's lovely Christmas tree

Jana and I enjoying a hot drink

Mannheim Christmas Market

Christmas in Germany is really nice.  There are a lot of Christmas markets.  After the visit to the specialist in Mannheim the other day, we went to our first Christmas Market this year.  Mannheim is a large city and their Christmas market takes place downtown next to the water tower.  It was a really nice Christmas market with lots of vendors, rides for the children, and food to eat.  We're going to try and go to several Christmas markets this year and I'll post more pictures as the Christmas season continues.

Beautiful water tower in Mannheim

Daddy showing Blue Rock his hat

Lots of people and lots of vendors

One of the toy vendors

Lots of stands to look at

Look at that sad face!

Riding the ICE train ride

Candy vendor

This time our family rode the carousel together

Mannheim Christmas Market

Fun Preschool Game

I love playing games with kids.  Before we left to visit Texas last September I ordered a few items from Barnes and Noble to be delivered to my parents' house.  One of the games was a Color and Shapes Bingo.  I finally opened it.  When I bought it a few months ago, Blue Rock was too young for it.  He still is kind of young for it but we gave it a go.  He loved it!  Blue Rock really loves shapes and lately has wanted to name every shape we see.  To play you spin the spinner which stops on a shape or color.  Then you place bingo chips over the shape or color pictures that match.  We didn't play the whole way through but he enjoyed playing it "right" for about 5 minutes.  Then he wanted to play with the Bingo chips and spin the spinner and just name the pictures, shapes, and colors of the Bingo cards.  I give this game an A+ and think we'll have more fun with it as he gets older.

Visit with the Specialist

Yesterday I had a doctor's appointment with a specialist in Mannheim regarding my miscarriages and the fibroid.  The doctor could not tell me for sure that the fibroid is causing my miscarriages or not.  He recommended I have it removed, which would require a 2-night stay in the hospital.  However, he said that there is a good chance I could carry another baby to full term while having it and have the fibroid removed later on.  Thankfully the fibroid is outside my uterus, so I think we're going to wait to have it removed.  It is hard to find childcare where we live and I don't have a lot of options for all day care for my son while my husband works.  My OBGYN is checking my hormone levels and we'll see if anything comes back from the blood tests.  Thanks for your prayers.

3-Day Potty Training

Well, we're finally really potty training.  I thought I would write about it since I have not found too many personal stories about how people have potty trained their kids.  Just how to do it, not how it went.  So here it is.  I will give another update later on.

About 3 months ago, Blue Rock was very close to being potty trained.  Then we went to the States.  After we found out why he was throwing-up, along with having to be on iron supplements, we decided to wait until we were back home, he was almost off iron (which causes black sticky poo), and we were not traveling anywhere before we got serious.  He used to wear cloth diapers until he got sick last year and was throwing up almost daily.  It got to be too much laundry so we went back to disposables.  Cloth is great if you have the time and a good washing machine.

We started the 3-day potty training method on Thanksgiving (6 days ago).  We had to make a few errands so we put him in a pull-up on Thursday and Friday.  Friday was the last day he wore a pull-up during the day.  Blue Rock used the potty out in public both days but had one accident in the pull-up.  At home, he has been bare-bottomed and is doing great!  When he's bare-bottomed he has had no accidents and makes it to the potty every time, even poop, which I was surprised and very happy about.  Yesterday we went to the grocery store and I put underwear and pants on him - I was so tempted to put a pull-up on him, but resisted.  He went potty before we left and had no accidents and I took him twice to the toilet at the store but he didn't need to go and told me he didn't need to go but I wanted him to try.  After we loaded the groceries in the car I asked him again if he needed to go.  He said, "no."  So we drove home and when we got home I took him to the bathroom and he went.  Yeah!  A little while later we went to the park.  He played for about 20 minutes and we came home, again no accidents.  I left his pants and underwear on and he didn't make it to the potty in time.  I read that they should be diaper free at home for 3 months.  That seems like a LONG time!  

Today I started the morning with just his pajama pants on, wanting him to get used to pants since he's doing so well at going to the potty.  He went to the potty twice but then didn't make it in time.  I tried putting underwear on him and he said, "no underwear.  No, no, no!"  So I decided to let him be bare-bottomed again.  Later this afternoon I put just underwear on him even though he didn't want to wear it.  While he was playing he peed in them.  The rest of the day he was bare-bottom and went every time in the potty.  The only time pee got on the floor was when I tripped over the potty trying to get a Kleenex to catch a drip of pee on his leg as he got off the potty.  I made a huge mess!  Pee went everywhere, including the couch which is such a shame since he's been doing so good, no accidents on the furniture, just from me.  I think we're going to rent a carpet/upholstery cleaner.  Thankfully I have some cleaner that I used and our microfiber couch doesn't seem to smell like pee.  I'm just a germophobe and the thought of pee left somewhere grosses me out. 

I am very proud of Blue Rock. He has done much better than I thought.  Everyday he has only had 1-2 accidents since we started.  My plan is to everyday let him try pants and/or underwear. I'd like him to always wear something on his bottom but he has an embarrassed look on his face when he doesn't make it to the potty wearing undies.  So, for the most part, we'll probably stick to bare-bottoms while home, at least for a little while longer.  He does very well with that has had 100% success rate when being bare-bottomed.  I think he's officially potty training and definitely knows how to use the potty.  We are no longer using day-time diapers, not even when we run errands.  However, we are going to keep using them at night, at least for a while.  For one, he's still in a crib, yes, we have a toddler car bed, very cool, that he slept in for a while, but after a while, he wanted to sleep back in his crib.  He's happy, we're happy, and he sleeps 11.5-13 hours per night.  When we travel he sleeps in a regular bed.  Every morning I ask him where we go poo and pee.  He says, "poopoo and peepee go in the potty."  Then if I have to run downstairs to do laundry or something I ask him again and usually while I'm gone he uses his potty.

Here's our potty training set-up.  We have a tall house, 3 stories (4 if you include the basement) and only 2 bathrooms.  So we have a few portable potties.  I keep one in the living room, which we'll probably move to the bathroom.  And one upstairs on our top floor that has no bathroom.  We also have a little potty in the bathroom on our middle floor and a step-up potty to the toilet.  Blue Rock usually sits to pee but in public he likes to stand.  Sometimes he wants to stand at home but I usually ask him to sit.  I'm no longer asking him if he needs to go unless it's been a while or we're out in public or about to leave the house.  He has gotten very good at just going when he needs to go.  I hope this helps if you're about to start potty training your child.