More Potty in the "Potty Chair"!!!

Faith went potty in the potty chair once yesterday and once today!!
She's been holding it until we get a diaper on her, which has been rather frustrating, but I think she might be getting the idea it's a good thing to go in her chair. Yesterday she told me she had to go, but refused the chair. I left the room for a little bit and heard her crying like she was in pain. She dropped a book on her toe and it scratched it good, as I approached her she started to go potty. Then she was scared because she was pottying. I took her to the chair and she cried harder saying "NOOOO!" as if it was a bad thing. She finished her potty and I praised her oh so much. Hoping it would let her know it was good. She got a graham cracker and a sticker on her chart too.
This morning after her bath she told me she had to go potty. So I put her on her chair with her baby while I did my hair. Pretty soon the chair is singing and she's lifting her leg to look inside with a smile on her face telling me "I potty, Mama!" Again she got rewarded with a graham cracker and a sticker. She seemed very pleased with herself so I'm hoping she is beginning to see the chair as a good thing.
I went and bought some pull-ups, the ones that are supposed to get cold if they wet in them. If anyone has used these please let me know if you had any success with them. She's only worn one so far during her nap and she told me she was potty afterwards.

VERY Sad:(

So yesterday was See You at the Pole. Noah had been encouraging the youth group to go and pray at their schools flag pole an hour before their first class. Some of the kids were worried they would get in trouble for missing their 0 period class and some were worried they would be the only one there. Noah reassured them that the schools couldn't get them in trouble for this and that is a Nation wide event so there will be many other kids. There was also a rally that the youth pastors in the community were putting on last night (a see you at the pole rally) and there are two rather large youth groups in the community (50 and 100 students=150) so Noah felt confident that the other youth pastors were telling their students about it.
Well, yesterday morning Noah went around to all the schools, 7 of them mid and high school, to take picts of our students there. One mom called Noah while he was out and told him no one was showing up at her sons flag pole. Another student called Noah telling him she was the only one at hers. As Noah drove around to all the schools, there was no one there. He was beginning to think that the day was wrong, but he checked on line and he confirmed the rally, so what was going on? He finally made it to his last school and there were about 20 students there, 5 of them from our youth group. Noah went back to the other schools to see if any more students showed and one of them had 8 students. Noah stopped here to check if any of them were from our youth group (none were) but as he stood there, kids were walking by teasing those praying. Some of the students finally looked at Noah and he told them "Good job guys."
Noah was quite frustrated with the turn out and wondering what was going on. We were both wondering what the rally was going to look like. Were the other youth pastors only telling their kids to show up to the rally? We got to the rally (at another church) the parking lot was packed, lines of cars waiting to get in and buses and multiple vans from other churches were there. This greatly disappointed us. The whole point of having the rally was to celebrate See You at the Pole. There were over 350 kids there at the rally. Yes the music was good, but only about 5% of the kids were actually worshipping. Kids were running all over the church, talking to each other, having no respect for those who were worshipping or trying to make it a mosh pit! Other than the mosh pit, no one was trying to keep the kids under control. When the kids were asked "How many of you were at the flag pole," quite a bit more than 28 kids said they were there.
I don't know if it's the schools who are trying to prevent kids from this event or if there is just no encouragement from their Christian leaders, but something is very wrong with this picture. Noah and I don't know what we can do. We know that there are some youth pastors in the community who have bashing sessions of other youth pastors in the community (in front of thier youth group) so probably trying to rally the youth pastors together might not be a great success. All I know to do right now is pray for the churches and the pastors in our community to take a stand and teach our kids to take a stand.
Sorry for this long vent session, it's just sad and heart-breaking.

Church Stuff

Noah just started a new schedule with the youth group and it seems to be working out pretty good. When we first came to the church there were only 10-15 kids showing up on sunday mornings and 4-6 kids on Wed.evening. Now we have 25-30 students on sunday mornings and 20 kids on sunday evenings (We switched Wed. nights to sundays). I think that made it easier for kids to make it since Sunday's don't mess with sports.
Sunday mornings the students used to break up in age specific small groups for Sunday School, now Noah teaches everyone Sunday mornings (He's in the process of getting a youth led worship band together for sunday mornings). Sunday nights the students are broken up into age and gender specific small groups, which seems to be working out for everyone pretty well. I have the Junior/Senior girls and it's been pretty fun so far.
Noah sometimes thinks that his ideas aren't good, but I tell him the youth group has more than doubled since we came here in June. So he must be doing something right. Even if the schedule isn't perfect (I think its working) the kids must like him if they keep coming back and bringing their friends.
Noah gets another chance to preach on the 15th. The church is going through Rick Warrens 40 days of Community, so he gets to preach on one of the points, which he's very excited about.
Well I have a crying child that needs tending to so I need to go.

Stubborn

Well, I think Faith may be a little stubborn. We have left her diaper off all day for the last 3 days (only putting it on for bed time and snacks, and of course when we leave the house which has only been once.) She's only gone in the potty chair that one time and I think it was because she was afraid to get off with the vaccum going. Otherwise she hasn't even had an accident. (Except for when Daddy got her in trouble for trying to go outside for the hundredth time today.) Her diaper will be off for 4 hours at a time and nothing. I know she has to go because she'll grab herself and tell me potty, but won't go when she sits on the potty chair. When we put her diaper on for a meal (It's on for no more than 20 min.) it will be soaked!! The little stinker just waits for us to put her diaper on to go potty.
A funny side note, Faith and I were sitting on the couch (She was sitting on a towel), Faith was snacking on some crackers and I was cross-stitching. All the sudden Faith got red in the face and started grunting and a few toots came out. I thought "OH HEAVENS!! She's pooping on the couch!!" But she just started laughing and that was the end, just a scare. But I wonder if she's holding that in too?
So now I'm thinking about getting her some big girl panties to wear around the house. She might go in them because there's something on and then realize it's not so fun, leaving the only option being going in the potty chair. She'll sit on the potty chair and read her books, I just don't understand why she won't use it to go potty. Oh, well. Just keep trying I quess.

YEAH! Potty in the "Potty Chair"!

Faith just went potty in the "potty chair". I've been leaving her diaper off while she walks around the house, leaving the chair in the dinning/living room. Hoping to catch her if she starts to potty. While I was vaccuming (she's scared of the vaccum) she got a book and sat down on her potty. When I turned off the vaccum I could hear the potty chair chiming. (It makes noise when something falls in.) I looked at Faith and she told me "Potty". So I looked in and sure enough she went potty! I praised her a lot, gave her a graham cracker and she got to put a sticker on her special Potty Chart. Now I'm hoping that she realizes it's a good thing to go on the potty and she'll want to do it more.

Changed the settings:)

Sorry guys, I didn't realize that I had to set the "comments" so that anyone can comment. Now I think it's fixed.

Potty Training

We have officially started potty training with Faith today. She's showing signs of being ready. She will grab her diaper and look at me with wide eyes and say "potty". She knows that potty goes in the toilet. And a couple times when she was just hanging out with me in the bathroom after a bath I would leave her diaper off and she went potty. She started whining potty. So she understands what potty is and where it's supposed to go, so here we go. Every hour, after meals, and nap times we sit on the potty for a couple minutes. Hopefully she will be potty trained (at least during the day) by the time the new baby comes. If anyone has any tips let me know.

A Tomboy?

So last night we went to the senior pastor's house for Monday night football. (Apparently it's a tradition the church does every year during football season. They meet every Monday night for football at Kevin and DeeEdrah's house.) All the guys are in one room watching the game while all the women are in the other room mingling and watching the little kidos play. (And there's lots of good snacks too.)
Anyways, there are about 3 little girls Faith's age and a couple boys who are 4 years old. Did Faith want to play dollies with the little girls last night? No!!! She would rather be "rough housing" with the boys, and I have to say she held her own pretty darn good. She was running with them, she was even trying to tackle one of them down!! The boy wasn't very small either. Faith did stop every once in a while to have some one read a book with her, but otherwise she just wanted to play with the boys.
When she's home she plays with her dollies all day, but lately Noah has been wrestling with her and playing rough, and she's a pretty tough kid. The other day she tripped and fell and hit her face on the ground and gave herself a bloody nose. Sure, she cried for a little bit, but really only a minute or two and started laughing.
Maybe it would be good if we have a boy next so Noah can teach him all the wrestling moves.
I will get some picts on my blog as soon as we can find our attachment to our camera that will allow us to put the picts on the computer. I'm afraid we lost it in all the moves. We may need to order one. If that's the case I'll have to go have discs made and then I can put them on.
Well I'm going to work out now, got to stay in shape you know:)

Finally!!!

Well for those who have been waiting for me to get this started, I finally did it. Now those of you who live down in Albany can stay up to date with what's going on with the Noah Winningham household.
Faith has just started running in a strange way. She was running before now, but now she runs like she's in a marching band and doesn't really go anywhere very fast. She is also testing us to see what she can get away with. It can be very frustrating at times, but there are times where it's hard not to laugh at her. She seems to like her dad more than her mommy right now. I just tell myself it's because he's gone all day so it's a treat when he comes home for work. I have to let her talk to "daddy" on the phone whenever we talk. Sometimes we make a call after naps because she's upset if daddy isn't there when she wakes up. I'm sure it's just a phase, soon she'll be asking for mommy, right?
Faith just had her "Well Check-up" on Thursday. She weighed 30lbs and is 31.5" tall. She's in the 100% for her weight (surprise, surprise) and in the 50% for her heighth, which really did surprise me. She had always been in the 75-90% for heighth. The Dr. said she's probably just beginning to even out now.
Mommy Cherish had an appt. this week too. I didn't see the actual Dr. yet, I had to see the nurse who screens the pregnancies first. I past!! The only problem was my blood pressure was too low, which mine is usually lower than average anyways, but that explains why I 've been feeling like I'm going to pass out (75% of the time) the nurse asked how much water I was drinking and what my diet was like. I'm drinking enough water and I've been eating like I have diabetes, since I had it when I was pregnant with Faith and it's a well balanced diet, so the nurse said it's probably just something that will pass after the first trimester. She told me she passed out everyday with her second and did everything right and had to just let it pass and it did after the first trimester.
I haven't actually puked yet, although if I would just let myself I would feel much better. No, most of my troubles this time around have just been the extreme fatigue and dizziness. I'm definitly showing, there's no hiding the belly. I get looks from people at church who didn't know I was pregnant and I can tell their shocked, but afraid to look at the same time. The belly literally came the week I found out I was pregnant. 4.5 weeks along and people could tell I was pregnant. In one way it's kind of nice because I totally skip over the whole "Is she just fat or is she pregnant?" scenario.
Well I'm getting tired and should head to bed now. I'll keep you in touch with all the news up here.