Hell to the NO. My family is huge. Every single couple has 4-5 kids. Not to mention the moochers who never contribute any sort of dish or at least help out cleaning up. And these are the people who are very well off, which makes me so disappointed. It's always the same aunt who always hosts or my one sister. That's between my aunts and uncles. And then there's my cousins , too, who are flaky as hell. They have been married and living on their own for years and have never invited anybody to their house. Their excuse is that they are busy and can't afford it. I've already had people over at my apartment several times. No thank you.
I'm thinking though, I might bake a whole chicken for just me and hubby and we can have a romantic Thanksgiving together! The more I'm thinking about it, the more I'm liking this idea.
@homemake I shred the potatoes add some salt and pepper, add some diced onions, use eggs and matzo meal as the binder and put them with oil in the frying pan. And I top them with applesauce.
@homemake I shred the potatoes add some salt and pepper, add some diced onions, use eggs and matzo meal as the binder and put them with oil in the frying pan. And I top them with applesauce.
Me too! But I actually do ketchup for dipping instead of applesauce. I'm not a big applesauce person. It's more like a hashbrown with the ketchup. Still good though!
We just got the holiday crate and barrel catalog and it makes me wonder. How do people have so many items per holiday. Like Christmas mixing bowls? Where do you store that shit the rest of the year?
Hell to the NO. My family is huge. Every single couple has 4-5 kids. Not to mention the moochers who never contribute any sort of dish or at least help out cleaning up. And these are the people who are very well off, which makes me so disappointed. It's always the same aunt who always hosts or my one sister. That's between my aunts and uncles. And then there's my cousins , too, who are flaky as hell. They have been married and living on their own for years and have never invited anybody to their house. Their excuse is that they are busy and can't afford it. I've already had people over at my apartment several times. No thank you.
I'm thinking though, I might bake a whole chicken for just me and hubby and we can have a romantic Thanksgiving together! The more I'm thinking about it, the more I'm liking this idea.
welllll no wonder no one wants to host. But if you're in charge, you could just invite a couple of friends, or just parents, or whatever. Or a romantic Thanksgiving for two
@PerraSucia packed in boxes/color coded plastic totes stacked in my basement like the warning signs of a hoarder. My husband says his favorite part of the holidays is when it's time to put everything away because it's like playing hide and seek to find everything.
@cantalopes24 what is this basement living you speak of? These color coded bins are the dream in my heart for the garage but I mean that's not enough space for a whole different set of dishes each holiday.
@PerraSucia packed in boxes/color coded plastic totes stacked in my basement like the warning signs of a hoarder. My husband says his favorite part of the holidays is when it's time to put everything away because it's like playing hide and seek to find everything.
This makes my organizing loving heart go pitter patter. Sadly my desires do not often match my laziness....
@PerraSucia, our basement is unfinished and it's the whole underneath of our house. I am the most scatterbrained, unorganized person in every aspect of my life except holiday decorations. I fully acknowledge it's weird and it's a joke in my marriage. My husband's family is the opposite and gives no fucks about holidays so it took a few years but he loves it now. It also helps he's no longer a retail manager so holidays aren't hell for him. I have serving stuff for 4th of July, Christmas, Easter, and Halloween. I have bar ware for Christmas but I keep that in a kitchen cabinet and hutch in my dining room. I even have coffee mugs for Christmas time. We're working on a 12 piece set of Christmas dishes now that we have a place to store them.
We are hosting Thanksgiving for the first time this year, both sides of the family will be together for the first time. We always had to split, but my grandma, who is 97, decided this year to let me take over hosting.
We will have something crazy like 30-60 people. I am working on a headcount and what everyone will bring.
My Christmas decorations go up after Thanksgiving, always, but especially this year!
Married - 7/29/06 Ben and Maggie - 4/10/09 Mia - 6/16/11 Surprise! due 2/23/17
I am off this Friday for Veteran's Day and fully intend to put up my inside Christmas decorations. And I have no shame at all We go to my aunt's house for Thanksgiving, so no need to wait to put them up!
We are hosting Thanksgiving for the first time this year, both sides of the family will be together for the first time. We always had to split, but my grandma, who is 97, decided this year to let me take over hosting.
We will have something crazy like 30-60 people. I am working on a headcount and what everyone will bring.
My Christmas decorations go up after Thanksgiving, always, but especially this year!
Wow! That's so many people! How many turkeys will you do?
@cantalopes24 I am so jealous of your holiday spirit. We accidently bought cool lights instead of warm so a plane could land on my house. But that's about it.
You guys, I had a dream my water was breaking while I was up north visiting my brother for his basic training graduation but I was trying to hold it in and keep the water from coming out and no one knew what to do and my OB wasn't answering the phone. Then I woke up and realized I just needed to pee really bad.
For those that have gone through potty training already. About how long did it take your toddler? Did you use a potty chair or a seat on the toilet? Was your toddler interested at all when you started? How old when you attempted?
@homemake with my oldest we tried a couple different methods but the only thing that really worked was just waiting until he wanted to do it. He only liked the seat on the toilet. My youngest was in a preschool program twice a week around her 2nd birthday and some of the other kids were potty trained so they took the whole class to the bathroom with a kid sized regular toilet and I think seeing the other kids was what worked for her. She had been interested in it before and used a potty chair at home but not consistently until after she started preschool and she potty trained almost immediately once she started. I would not recommend starting until they are interested. The way I look at it, you can start and do it for months or a year or wait and be done in a few days or a week.
Sorry I'm late, but happy anniversary @NiceyMeany! Hope you guys had fun!
@LilyASF42, @cantalopes24, I do live in MA, but yeah the vast majority of my friends and neighbors growing up were Portuguese. Omg the food is delicious. The parties/going to the restaurants were the best. One of my closest and best friends who I miss so much (because I barely ever get to see or talk to her much anymore) is Portuguese. And it always used to drive her nuts when people would ask her the questions you both mentioned lol My sister's ex bf all through high school also was and she was around his family so often she actually learned the language and can speak it fluently.
@homemake, I'll be following this to see what people have to say because despite turning freaking 4 in September, my DD is still not potty trained. So I clearly have no helpful advice. My DS was about 3 1/2 and he didn't even need a potty chair or seat on the toilet because he's always been big for his age. At that age, he was the size of an average 5 year old. Now at 6, he's the size of an average 8 year old. My DD doesn't like her potty chair nor does she like the seat on the toilet. She is stubborn as hell. I told her I am not going to be happy changing the diapers of both a newborn and a 4.5 year old. She laughed in my face and said, "I really don't care."
One thing I have heard others say is not to try and train too close to the birth of a new baby because they may just regress once baby is born anyway. I obviously have no idea is this is actually true or not though!
@Jab3 The Ludlow festival is one of my favorites :-) I haven't been in a few years but hopefully if not next year the following year. It's all about those summer festivals and food! And of course our loud, in your business families :-D
@homemake We're not quite there yet. DD turned 3 in August. Last December we thought we would try thr 3 day method over Christmas and it did NOT work. She was a mess everytime she peed or pooped and even though we thought we were not pressuring her at all apparently we were wrong. By the end of the second day she was a complete barnacle and would not let go of me at all. Talk about getting touched out.
So we left it.
Then in June we were on the playground at a splash pad. She was in her bathing suit and suddenly decided she needed to pee. I offered her a diaper, she refused (of course. Toddlers). So I put her in the stroller and sprinted home and put her on the potty. Result! She has been amazing with pee ever since. Poop, not so much. She still requests a diaper for pooping, but that's one diaper a day, so I'm taking the same approach as with pee and letting her decide when she's ready for that.
As for potty seat vs toilet, she doesn't seem to care (actually, she prefers it when I hold her over the bushes when we're outside....)
@Jab3 I think the regression thing is true. I was 2.5 when my brother was born and my parents said they had just potty trained me but I decided that I wanted to be in diapers again like the baby. So I went backwards for a bit but they said it didn't take long for me to decide I didn't like diapers again. I obviously don't remember this but I ampretty stubborn so it does sound like me. Hopefully since your daughter is a bit older she won't regress though or she will bounce back quickly!
Me: 33 | DH: 34 Married: October, 19, 2015 EDD 2/22/17 DS1 born on 3/2/17 EDD 3/8/20 DS2 born on 3/10/20 EDD 11/24/23 (Formerly Marriedhamstermom Feb ‘17)
I am in the same possible potty training boat. Dd has a potty chair that she likes to sit on. The first night she sat on it for about 5 minutes and cried when we made her get off. I feel like she is close to wanting to potty train, but in certain aspects- like pulling her pants down on her own- she isn't ready.
My MIL told me we NEED a potty chair and seems to think she should be well on her way to no diapers by now. She turned two in September. I haven't even attempted because when we ask her or bring it up she says "no , I want you to change my diaper". I figured she isn't interested and I don't want to pressure her. I guess I could make an actual attempt, just wasn't sure what method would work best.
Potty training with my ds was pretty easy. We tried right before he was two and he did pretty well, but then dh left for boot camp and he totally regressed so I just backed off. Two months after his birthday I tried again and it clicked. He had a bit of trouble with poop and so one time I knew he had to poop and I sat him there and then had a crazy party when he went and it was smooth sailing from there.
Dd just turned two in October. She has all the signs of potty readiness but dear lord she's stubborn. I tried about two months ago and it just wasn't happening so I gave up and decided we'll try again in a couple weeks when ds is off school and we can stay in for a few days. I have both a little potty for her and a potty thing for the big toilet. She seems to prefer the little seat and sitting on it while we're going as well. She's peed a few times and pooped twice. So it's like she understands but just wasn't ready to make the full leap there. So we'll see how it goes soon. I want to get it done soon so it's not too close to baby so we don't have to deal with too much regression and I don't have to have two in diapers.
*to add- ds was three when dd was born and had been potty trained almost a year and he had a week when she came home that he had a couple of accidents, but I wouldn't really say it was a regression. More of a just- his world had been turned upside down and this is something he could do for control and more attention. We did some special things with him and just got in a better flow of having two kids and that seemed to help him.
I am so not looking forward to potty training. I think my dread and fear is stopping me from trying all that much with our son just yet. Then again, maybe I should just wait a bit longer until he's seems more interested. We have the potty out in the bathroom and he likes to sit on it but doesn't do anything (though he randomly did twice one day many months ago but that was an anomaly). He is kinda interested in the sense that he asks about the potty (but doesn't want to use it yet) and asks when we are going to the bathroom. So....we'll see. It would be ideal if he was out of diapers before baby girl is born (he'll almost be 2.5 years old then) but I am also expecting regression. So do I put the effort in now just to go backwards? Or just wait a little longer? I dunno. :-p
Following the potty training stories. DS is 2.5 and while people tell me he's ready, when I ask him he says no. We tried to start the 3 day last week, but he was full of tears sitting on the potty the first time so we quit. And since then, he's started lying about whether or not his diaper is wet or has a poop. So we are in full tilt regression. We still talk about potty stuff all the time and we have both the big toilet seat and the little fisher price potty that "flushes".
our son has recently started lying about poopy diapers lately, too. thankfully he doesn't resist the diaper change but he'll deny he needs one if we ask him (when he very clearly does). again, just adds to my trepidation of even starting potty training :-p I think I just need to suck it up and try it. then if it goes poorly just try again later.
DD started asking to poop on the potty right before she turned two. It was so random but I think she struggled with poo and it was easier for her to push when she was on the potty. She still pees in her diaper and is stubborn with it. I might try next month when we get home from thanksgiving to give it a try again.
I started trying at around 2.5 with my son but he was ready closer to age 3. We had a potty but he preferred the toilet. I transitioned him to Pull-ups even though in my mind I initially thought they were a waste of time and money. But I guess it did help as it facilitated conversations about not wetting his big boy pull up. He was pretty stubborn so I got books to read to him and used a reward system. I purchased a huge bag of little dinosaurs (he was and still is obsessed with dinosaurs) and he reall took to that. Eventually I transitioned him to training underpants and he eventually got it. He definitely preferred to poop in the toilet and always volunteered he had to do that so I guess I was lucky. He also always woke up dry after bedtime. Again,very lucky. Other than that just making sure I checked in with him a lot about having to go. Oh yeah! He also preferred standing so I did throw Fruit Loops in the toilet for "target practice". That was pretty entertaining for him.
I was planning a reward system, too. Our son loves stickers (and dinos, too!) so I got a large poster board that I was going to draw train tracks on, hang on the bathroom door and every time he went on the potty I could give him one sticker to place on the train tracks. This will either go wonderfully or will result in him constantly whining for stickers ;-p
Re: Weekly Randoms (11/7)
Me: 37 - H: 39
TTC#1: 01/2016
BFP: 06/18/2016 - EDD: 02/20/2017 - Born: 01/27/2017
My family is huge. Every single couple has 4-5 kids. Not to mention the moochers who never contribute any sort of dish or at least help out cleaning up. And these are the people who are very well off, which makes me so disappointed. It's always the same aunt who always hosts or my one sister.
That's between my aunts and uncles.
And then there's my cousins , too, who are flaky as hell. They have been married and living on their own for years and have never invited anybody to their house. Their excuse is that they are busy and can't afford it.
I've already had people over at my apartment several times. No thank you.
I'm thinking though, I might bake a whole chicken for just me and hubby and we can have a romantic Thanksgiving together! The more I'm thinking about it, the more I'm liking this idea.
First BFP: 12/16/13
EDD: 08/23/14
Baby BOY born: 08/29/14
Married: 10/10
EDD: 8/27/16 MMC 1/16
Rainbow Boy: 2/04/17
TTC: 4/18 BFP: 1/2/19
EDD: 9/6/19
Me: 37 - H: 39
TTC#1: 01/2016
BFP: 06/18/2016 - EDD: 02/20/2017 - Born: 01/27/2017
Me: 37 - H: 39
TTC#1: 01/2016
BFP: 06/18/2016 - EDD: 02/20/2017 - Born: 01/27/2017
We will have something crazy like 30-60 people. I am working on a headcount and what everyone will bring.
My Christmas decorations go up after Thanksgiving, always, but especially this year!
Ben and Maggie - 4/10/09
Mia - 6/16/11
Surprise! due 2/23/17
Married to my Soul Mate since 09/06/09
Then I woke up and realized I just needed to pee really bad.
...asking for a friend
@LilyASF42, @cantalopes24, I do live in MA, but yeah the vast majority of my friends and neighbors growing up were Portuguese. Omg the food is delicious. The parties/going to the restaurants were the best. One of my closest and best friends who I miss so much (because I barely ever get to see or talk to her much anymore) is Portuguese. And it always used to drive her nuts when people would ask her the questions you both mentioned lol My sister's ex bf all through high school also was and she was around his family so often she actually learned the language and can speak it fluently.
@homemake, I'll be following this to see what people have to say because despite turning freaking 4 in September, my DD is still not potty trained. So I clearly have no helpful advice. My DS was about 3 1/2 and he didn't even need a potty chair or seat on the toilet because he's always been big for his age. At that age, he was the size of an average 5 year old. Now at 6, he's the size of an average 8 year old. My DD doesn't like her potty chair nor does she like the seat on the toilet. She is stubborn as hell. I told her I am not going to be happy changing the diapers of both a newborn and a 4.5 year old. She laughed in my face and said, "I really don't care."
One thing I have heard others say is not to try and train too close to the birth of a new baby because they may just regress once baby is born anyway. I obviously have no idea is this is actually true or not though!
We're not quite there yet. DD turned 3 in August. Last December we thought we would try thr 3 day method over Christmas and it did NOT work. She was a mess everytime she peed or pooped and even though we thought we were not pressuring her at all apparently we were wrong. By the end of the second day she was a complete barnacle and would not let go of me at all. Talk about getting touched out.
So we left it.
Then in June we were on the playground at a splash pad. She was in her bathing suit and suddenly decided she needed to pee. I offered her a diaper, she refused (of course. Toddlers). So I put her in the stroller and sprinted home and put her on the potty. Result! She has been amazing with pee ever since. Poop, not so much. She still requests a diaper for pooping, but that's one diaper a day, so I'm taking the same approach as with pee and letting her decide when she's ready for that.
As for potty seat vs toilet, she doesn't seem to care (actually, she prefers it when I hold her over the bushes when we're outside....)
Married: October, 19, 2015
EDD 2/22/17
EDD 3/8/20
EDD 11/24/23
(Formerly Marriedhamstermom Feb ‘17)
Dd just turned two in October. She has all the signs of potty readiness but dear lord she's stubborn. I tried about two months ago and it just wasn't happening so I gave up and decided we'll try again in a couple weeks when ds is off school and we can stay in for a few days. I have both a little potty for her and a potty thing for the big toilet. She seems to prefer the little seat and sitting on it while we're going as well. She's peed a few times and pooped twice. So it's like she understands but just wasn't ready to make the full leap there. So we'll see how it goes soon. I want to get it done soon so it's not too close to baby so we don't have to deal with too much regression and I don't have to have two in diapers.
*to add- ds was three when dd was born and had been potty trained almost a year and he had a week when she came home that he had a couple of accidents, but I wouldn't really say it was a regression. More of a just- his world had been turned upside down and this is something he could do for control and more attention. We did some special things with him and just got in a better flow of having two kids and that seemed to help him.
I am so not looking forward to potty training. I think my dread and fear is stopping me from trying all that much with our son just yet. Then again, maybe I should just wait a bit longer until he's seems more interested. We have the potty out in the bathroom and he likes to sit on it but doesn't do anything (though he randomly did twice one day many months ago but that was an anomaly). He is kinda interested in the sense that he asks about the potty (but doesn't want to use it yet) and asks when we are going to the bathroom. So....we'll see. It would be ideal if he was out of diapers before baby girl is born (he'll almost be 2.5 years old then) but I am also expecting regression. So do I put the effort in now just to go backwards? Or just wait a little longer? I dunno. :-p