Potty Training The Toddler

Ever since Sanju was months old I would get pressure from my superior woman-being (my mummy) to potty train him. She would worry that he will be forever passing motion in his (cute and pretty) cloth diapers and I will be running after him to clean him up.

On and off we had trained Sanju to poop in the potty like on certain schedules. But due to me being a full time working mother, it was difficult to keep it up as my babysitter was not that cooperative for potty training. Once I was pregnant with my second baby and started to work from home, I found it a good opportunity to train Sanju on the potty once again, at least for his morning poop.

This went on good, with some hiccups in between when we went back to my parents house for the delivery and you know the long story. A few months back, I started to get him onto the potty again. It is usually right after his breakfast that he gets it going. By sitting on the potty, he can complete his daily quota at one go. Otherwise if he poops in his (cute and pretty yet again) cloth diapers, he does it in little bits, 2-3 times in a day.

Then about 1 month before his 2nd birthday, I decided to let him go diaperless in the day. And the gameplan was to make him sit on the potty to pee every 30-45mins, till he gets the gist, and starts telling me when he needed to use the potty.

The first day, I was like a broken record making him sit there over and over again. By second day he was able to tell me with his baby words and signing that he wants to pee/poop. And by the 3rd day he was completely accident free, and alert whenever he needed to go. In the first week itself we were visiting in laws, and even there he was able to control and let us know when he needed to pee.

For the last 2 months he has been diaperless at day time, except for naps. He even can withstand his pee on short outings like to the market. However at certain times of excitement and busy days of playing, some accidents do happen. The key is to remain calm and remind him to use the potty instead. And for the past one week I have started letting be diaperless even for naps. This is very risky, but with proper precautions (extra layering on the mattress and remind kid to pee before and after nap) I have been able to contain my patience. The next step would be being diaperless for long outings and also bedtime.

It is important to access if your child is ready to be potty trained, and accept that not all kids are the same. Some learn it earlier, and some only later. As long as you are willing to take it slow and endure some accidents here and there, it is all a part of the game. Parenthood, that is.

Here is Sanju sitting on the heirloom potty, passed down from his youngest aunty.


There is another picture of Sanju on his green throne here.
And the best part, cloth diaper laundry has reduced significantly!

Man vs Food vs Us

This is by far my most exciting food blog post ever. Who am I kidding? Food blog posts are always exciting! This is about the biggest burger you would have ever imagined possible. As I shopped for groceries to buy the ingredients of my challenge, I was grinning to myself hoping to be able to recreate what I saw. Let me get into some background before I get into details of the burger..

My better half is the most adventurous foodie ever, and that is why I often refer to him as my 'hungry' half. Thanks to his insatiable appetite and taste, I have turned from a boring diner into an adventurous eater and cook myself. Man v Food is hubby's favourite prime time television show. Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Food is a close second. No prizes for guessing what and why, it is simply the variety and size of the food.

As we watch Adam Richman on his episodes of Man v Food on TLC, the size of his servings are amazingly gigantic, and I often wonder if it is real time eating. My adventurous half, on the other hand, wonders if he can take those challenges on his own.

On last Wednesday's episode, we saw him eating this humoungous burger, probably 2 pounds worth of patty. As hubby was drooling, I gave him the typical Indian line, 'I can do it at home for nothing'. And the challenge was on.

I mentally made notes of the ingredients needed and headed out to shop. To make things simple, I got the minced chicken meat, almost 1kg of it. I got some french onions, mushrooms and red capsicum to be sauteed for one layer. For the rest of the ingredients, I got tomatoes, lettuce, sliced pork and cheddar cheese. I even made the sauce from scratch, using bottled items (what an oxymoron). And since we are healthy folks (more like I had no other choice in getting large sized burger buns), I got the wholemeal bread slices from Lavender.

I marinated the minced meat in some herbs and spices, Indian and Western, and some grated ginger. I made the patty of the size of a capati, say about 6 inches in diameter! The moment hubby saw it on the pan, he could not believe patty of that size was actually in his own kitchen!

Here are the items arranged on table, before we got on to layering it into a huge burger.


And once put together, this is how it looked like.


Another view of the burger.


And an artistic view on the burger, next to my slightly smaller version.



Since huge in size, this burger proved to be a real challenge in handling and eating. Hats off to hubby dear for helping me in taking pictures of the burger although he was more eager in munching and eating the burger in record time. The conclusion, man won over the food, yet again! Eat this Adam Richman, literally!

Solids for Jeev

It feels like several hours ago Jeev was born, and I was having separation anxiety with Sanju and now Jeev is a 6 month old ready to taste his first solid food! I gotta admit that I did pray time passed slower so that I could delay solid preparation and all those works for the baby.

His solid feeding progress is divided into 2 parts because in between he was down with running nose and mild fever thanks to his brother. Yes, these boys share everything, from their toys and rocker to their illness.

For the first feedings, I followed my guidelines from my earlier experience. The menu for first feeding is Holle rice cereal.

Part 1:
Day 1 - Got mom and my little sister to assist me in getting Jeev to sit supported. Once I fed the first spoon, Jeev made a weird face, but came forward for the second spoon, even grabbed my hand to eat. However he was not good in swallowing due to his thrust reflex.

Day 2 - Jeev made weird face again, and this time gagged a little when swallowing, especially when I fed him plain water.

Part 2:
Day 1 - Jeev made a super cute weird face after every spoon. Halfway through it Jeev toppled his bowl over. I saw Sanju looking interested in the yummy-looking-white-gooey stuff. I decided to let him taste one spoon, and guess what, he did not come back for more!

Day 2 - Jeev cried after I fed the first spoon. My spirits just dampened thinking this boy is not enjoying his solids experience so far. I just tried my luck again and fed the second spoon when he stopped crying and started eating. I got the message, Jeev was like 'don't stop feeding'!

Day 3 - Good progress, at times Jeev gets so excited that he tries talking with his mouth full.

Day 4 - Good going and this got me all geared up to add variety for his menu.

At this point Jeev is progressing well in taking fruits and vegetables with cereal. I just can't wait to start on the other varieties of baby food on him. I try to feed Jeev the same time Sanju is semi-self feeding. It gets both excited with their respective meals. And oh, I really forgot how messy can feeding an infant get... need to get the wet wipes ready everytime we eat.