Southeast Asia

This morning the girls and I put Jonathan on a plane to Southeast Asia. Well technically not true. This morning we went to Dunkin Donuts drive-thru on the way to Denny's parking lot where J got in a car to ride to the airport with the other people going on the trip. The point is we sent him off. You know its a long trip when you board the plane on Thursday and you deplane on Saturday.

We are thrilled that God put together such a cool intersection of Jonathan's passions: basketball, Jesus and Asia (not necessarily in that order). But we are also amazed at the way He provided the money for this trip.

We were talking about sending support letters to some close friends and family. While I don't have anything against support letters, I just wasn't at peace sending them out this time. I kept stalling Jonathan and finally I proofed a support letter. That very night we found out we were going to receive an unexpected amount of money. More than enough to pay for the trip. So we nixed the letter and wrote the check. Thank you Lord.

When you are brushing your teeth or commuting to work, would you take a moment to pray for J's trip?
Pray for:

• safety in travel and in Asia
• unity of purpose among the 6 who went
  
• opportunities to share the Good News- the Word that lives forever
• open hearts in the Southeast Asians
• surrender to the Father whatever that looks like
  
• open doors to return at a later date

Thank you! I'm hoping J will guest post about his trip after he returns.

Cleaning Up

3:15pm Wednesday

Kiran: "What are you doing, Mommy?"

Mommy: "Cleaning up."

Kiran: "Daddy coming home?"

Mommy: "No, not yet."

Kiran: "Friends coming over?"

Mommy : "No, not today."

Kiran looks at me quizzically, "You just...cleaning up?"

Imagine that.

Making Baby Food

Most of you know that I make the majority of baby food for my babies. And if you didn't, well, I make most of the baby food for my babies. I admit that its easier and quicker to buy already-made baby food but I want to prepose that making baby food doesn't not require that much skill or time.

Here are a few ways to ease the work of making baby food.

1. Move to a third-world country and hire a house helper who will make all the baby food for you. No? Ok next...

2. Make sure your baby has reflux and all kinds of intolerances/allergies so that introducing new foods is a long and drawn out process. You'll won't have to make as many different foods during the baby food phase thus saving you time.

3. Delay starting solids until at least 6 months. There is some research out there somewhere that proves that there is no nutritional reason to start solids before 6 months old (unless advised by your ped for reflux, weight issues, etc). Starting early just prolongs the baby food phase. Breastfed babies do need extra iron in their diets starting around 6 months so its a good idea to introduced an iron-fortified baby cereal at that time (which of course is not homemade because I don't know how to fotify something with iron).

4. Get your sister to have a baby within a few weeks of you. Then every time one of you makes baby food, make a double batch and share with your sister. Twice the food for (almost) the same amount of work.

I hope those have helped you simplify the process of making your own baby food!

NCAAs

Its March Madness.

The Fitz Fam held our annual drawing of the teams Sunday night immediately following the Selection Show.

I drew:

California
Dayton
N Dakota St
Maryland
Memphis
E Tenn St
Texas
Gonzaga

I'm down to Memphis, Gonzaga and Dayton with Memphis and Gonzaga claiming their Sweet 16 spots and Dayton playing tomorrow. That's not too bad considering my dad was almost eliminated in the first round. Thankfully he had Wisc (12) and Cleveland St (13) to save him. Jonathan racked up UNC, Duke and UConn.

I didn't fill out a whole bracket this year. I just waited too late. How are you doing with your bracket?

Jonathan's Late Night Debut

Two posts in one day. Call me crazy.

But we just saw Jonathan is going to be featured on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. And by featured, I mean you can see him in the background of Jimmy's tribute to John Shulman.






Best Line: "Don Juan of the SoCon"

Question?

What do

• 4 hours in the car
• a stomach virus
• organic carrots
  
• a trip to urgent care
• bagpipes
• Iron Chef America marathon
  
• Sienna screaming half the night
• the most delicious pound cake
• Army honor guard
• Fitzgerald Annual Selection Sunday Drawing
  
• saying final goodbye to Jonathan's grandfather

all have in common?

Answer: our [exhausting] weekend

Potty Training

I dreaded potty training. I was imagining puddles, racing to the toilet, pulling over on the side of the road, gobs of laundry. Not my idea of a good time.

I finally realized that I needed to get on my game because my daughter was ready. I had heard good things about 3 Day Potty Training so I bought the ebook and took the plunge.

I don't think I'm Supermom and I realize that this method will almost definitely not work for any of my other children but it worked so well for Kiran. She had already gone on the potty both ways so this method trained her to recognize her body's signs. The bulk of the work was done in one morning.

I would recommend actually buying the ebook for a few reasons. I thought I knew what it would say, and I did know most of it, but there were a few key ideas that I think really mattered. For example, you never ask the child if they need to go potty but instead you remind them to tell you when they need to go. It puts the responsibility on them to learn when they need to go. It also gave me the confidence to try to go without diapers at naps and nighttime even though Kiran had not been waking dry. Kiran started off beautifully at nights and naptimes. We've had a few setbacks but she's bounced back. When she was fighting off an illness a few weeks ago (remember when she was taking those long naps?) she was waking up wet every morning, even when I took her potty right before I went to bed. I *almost* put her back in diapers for nighttime. I really wondered if I had pushed too hard or was expecting too much. I contacted the ebook's author and she gave me a few tips to try plus the encouragement that illness really can cause a setback and sure enough Kiran went right back to staying dry. That's the biggest reason I suggest buying the ebook- you get access to the author. I contacted her twice with two different problems. I received timely advice that worked both times.

Kiran has done really well lately with few accidents but TODAY was a big milestone. This morning around 5 am, Kiran got up and went to the potty on her own before she wet the bed! Normally she sleeps all night and wakes up dry but today was the first time she went to the bathroom in the middle of the night. She sat on the toilet and yelled until I came but she avoided an accident. I'm so incredibly proud of her.

There's our potty training story. I'll be glad to answer any questions you have about our experience. I just wanted to throw out another method of potty training that worked for us.