Desperately Reading Potty Training Advice... From Myself and also Others (Sponsored)

This post is brought to you by Quilted Northern Soft & Strong® which is sort of the light at the end of our potty-training tunnel. Thanks, Quilted Northern. You are as soft as you are strong.

First off. Whoa comments! Thank you all for your sage potty-training advice, holy cow! So many great tips and tricks and ideas and advice and constructive criticism et al.

It just so happens, Archer's mom DID in fact come through with a response to my letter. And this is what she wrote:

Dear Fable's Mom, (or if you prefer, "Pee-No in WeHo," which I'll admit is kind of weak. You could have done A LOT better with names but whatever. I forgive you because we're the same person.)

But let's start again:

Dear Fable's Mom,

You silly goose! What in the H-E-double-hockey-sticks are you carrying on about? Fable is TWO. Two years and two weeks old. We didn't even bring a baby potty into our home until Archer was two and a half and even then, it's not like he used it for a toilet. Don't you remember anything, Fable's mom? We used that sucker to store bath toys for like, months.

In fact, we didn't even begin to start worrying about potty training until Archer was three because Archer, like Fable, showed no interest in potties at age two whatsoever. And when he finally did? We got one of those sticker charts as incentive but never once used it. Because once he decided he wanted to pee on the potty, he totally peed on the potty. And that was that. So, my dear confused Fable's mom, HEAR THIS: Chill, woman.

If Fable has no interest in peeing (or pooping) on the potty right now, fine. She will. And then that will be that and before you know it she'll be in Kindergarten waxing poetic about death and the art of eating string cheese.

Here's the thing, Fable's mom. If Archer has taught you anything, it's that every child is different. Some children walk at eight months, some wait until they're two. Your kids are late bloomers, always have been. And even if they weren't, who's to say when anyone is and should be ready to do anything? Not me and I would hope, not you either.

Oh, Fable's mom. I know you look at Fable and see this giant child who wears 5T jeans but she's still a toddler! A wee babe! A small fry! A micro mini machine! So lighten up and let the girl do her thing. You never pressured Archer to potty and guess what? He came to it on his own. One day he just did it, Nike style, and he never looked back.

Okay so that's not ENTIRELY true. He had accidents every now and then, and yes there was a poop-in-public incident that might have scarred us for life, but other than that, potty training was relatively painless. Want to know why? Because you didn't put a time stamp on it. It was a process and you went with it.

So. If you're still there and you're listening, my potty training advice to you is this: leave the baby toilet out where she can see it. Call it a "porta party" and let Fable use it when she's good and ready to sing "Poop! There it is!" In the meantime? Leave her alone. And leave yourself alone while you're at it, you crazy lady. She's TWO, yo.

And when she's three, we can revisit this conversation.

Deal?

Good.

In the meantime, continue to encourage but don't you dare push. You will know when Fable's ready. Right now? She's not. The end.

Love,

Archer's mom

AKA, "Worry not about the pot"

***

I'm closing comments on this post because I can only pick one winner (Quilted Northern is hooking one lucky reader up with a year's supply of toilet paper as well as a $50 Visa gift card) so please feel free to comment AGAIN, here. I'll pick one winner via random.org this Monday, December 6th to announce on both posts.

In the meantime? Be excellent to each other. And potty on, dudes.

GGC

And now a word from our sponsor: For opportunities to win free Quilted Northern Soft and Strong® and help make the taboo talkable, join the conversation at www.facebook.com/QuiltedNorthern or on Twitter @QuiltedNorthern.

***

EDITED, Monday, 12/6: Congratulations to #105 semipseudo! You just won a year's supply of toilet paper and a $50 gift card c/o Quilted Northern! Thanks to all for participating!

Gone Style: Good Wear Days (Week Six)

hint: bag

Hey all and thanks for participating in these last two weeks of Good Wear Days. Had tons of great entries this week and thanks again to all who participated! Going to keep plugging away for another couple-a-posts before parking the ol' "Good Wear Days" Winnebago on bricks. In the meantime, game on!

This week's winner (who gets to snag THIS gorgeous Moonshined Designs Marine Layer necklace) is... #51 Mary of Finding Magnolia who posted these adorable looks! Hooray! Mary is one of my current blog crushes. She's AMAZING! If you're not familiar with her blog you should click here asap on the double. Congrats, Mary! To everyone else, thank you so much for participating these last two weeks and good luck snagging this week's awesome giveaway! (See below.)

A few things I wore this week when I wasn't freezing balls in my Ugg boots and long johns:

dress: thrifted

belt: anthropologie

hat: barneys outlet

jacket: found @ estate sale

leggings: american apparel

boots: thrifted

"Hi. Your room's a mess!"

This outfit inspired by Archer's BFF who wore two-sided tights to school the other day. Yes, I copied a kindergartner. But she's a damn fashionable one so there you go.

tights: american apparel

boots: nicole

shirt: zara

skirt: anthropologie

glasses: Oliver Peoples

scarf: borrowed from my sister (zara)

bag: Ellington

This scarf is amazing. It can be worn in so many ways and looks fab with all black. I was just in a bit of a court jester state of mind when I got dressed yesterday.

dress: anthropologie (had this thing forever!)

belt: christopher collins

tights: american apparel

legwarmers: no idea, had since high school

shoes: nicole

This is pretty much my uniform. I wear some version of this at least once a week:

boots: jeffrey campbell

leggings: American Apparel

tee: fluxus

cardigan: splendid

scarf: randomville no idea

hat: Hal's

Yes, sometimes I wear leggings as pants. Don't yell.

boots: Salvatore Ferragamo (Nana's hand-me-downs)

leggings: American Apparel

Blouse: vintage Issey Miyake, thrifted in NYC circa 2000

vest: thrifted last week at Melrose Trading Post for SEVEN DOLLARS, SCORE!

Bag: Ellington (THIS WEEK'S GIVEAWAY! TRIPLE SCORE!)

Yup! This beaut is all yours if random.org says so. You have one week to post your good wears in the comments below and next Thursday AM I'll pick a winner and post it on the next Good Wear Days post (December 9th!) Happy wearing, lady friends!

Style Blog of the Week: Sea of Shoes

(I know I've linked to Jane's site before but I can't help linking it again. It's by far and away my favorite style site. She blows my mind. Especially her most recent posts. Pure genius.)

GGC

Eat Well (with the) LBD of the BLD

Hey, you guys. It's me (GGC) this week. I know, sorry, but it's been a few months since I showed my face in my own "Eat Well" section and my poor mother needed a bit of a break. (She'll be back next week with more goods now don't you worry.)

I thought, because everyone is so mad hat right now with holiday craziness (speaking of. I keep forgetting to link to my Hallmark holiday card video so, here is that) it would be fun to do a post about my favorite quinoa three-fer that's ideal for house guests and very little time. It's also a healthy alternative to the caloriefest that is the Holidays. (It took me six months to lose the ten pounds I just re-gained in the last six days. Whoops.)

Anyway. Lots of quinoa buzz 'round the web these last few months so I thought I'd post another quinoa quickie because although my mom is a wiz in the kitch, I am capable of some serious kitchen magic when it comes to everyone's favorite protien-rich grain AKA quinoa AKA the "LBD of the health-cuisine circuit"... That's right. I'm going to show you how you can prepare tomorrow's BLD in 20(ish) minutes!

(If you're looking for other "quinoa quickies" go here and here and here and here. Oh! And this (quinoa stuffed peppers) is from a couple weeks ago but it's one of my absolute favorite dishes in the 'verse.)

Okay then. First. This is what we'll be making:

B. is for Breakfast

L. is for Lunch:

D. is for Dinner

.

GGC'S LBD for BLD RCP

This works best when cooking for (tonight's?) dinner and using leftovers for tomorrow's brekkie and lunch. So let's start with dinner and go from there, or "DBL" if you wish.

You will need (and forgive me, my directions aren't very precise):

1. A bunch of leeks (two? three?)

2. Yellow onions (one large or two small or whatever.)

3. Green onions (a bunch - I picked a bunch from the garden. two large handfuls?)

4. Zucchini (one large)

5. Mushrooms (as many as you'd like)

Throw them all in a giant pan with olive-oil, lemon pepper and a splash of white wine. Meanwhile, grab some chard and throw it in the wok. With a splash of olive oil and more lemon pepper. This is what your stove should look like:

(The chopped cilantro + parsley on the side is for later. Which reminds me, you will also need cilantro and parsley for this. Unless you don't like cilantro and parsley. In that case, just, you know, whatever.)

Moving on.

Go ahead and turn on your stove and cook your veggies. Meanwhile, you should have your quinoa RINSED (don't forget to rinse your quinoa, you guys. Otherwise major stomach upset may occur) and cooking in your veggie broth. (I use low-sodium organic veggie broth from Trader Joes because that's my jam. You can also use organic chicken broth if you're into that sort of thing.)

So. Now that you have your quinoa simmering on the stove, your stove should look like this (please pretend the quinoa isn't already cooked):

Notice that chard is not cooking. That's because we cook our chard + mixed greens (did I mention you can substitute chard for whatever the hell you want? Well, you can. I happen to fancy chard because I'm currently harvesting my own in my vegetable garden but I also like to throw in some spinach, mustard greens and broccolini which is a real steal at the Farmer's Market for $1.00 a bunch. Boom.) Anyway. Wow. Hi. My mom is much better at these posts than I am.

Moving on...

So. Your veggies are cooked through, yes? Good times. Do they look like this by chance?

Solid. Now go ahead and mix them into your cooked-through steaming hot quinoa. Like so:

Get it allllllllll in there, baby. Yes.

...And stir until mixed and even. Uh huh.

Now you can cook up your chard + spinach (or whatever greens you feel like cooking):

Be sure to stir. Five minutes is all it should take for your greens to look like this:

As you can see, my chard has holes. That's because I enjoy sharing my vegetable garden with the local insects. It's a fair trade because now I get to tell my friends, "my meals are holier than thou."

That was for you, dad.

So... chard. That's done. Now go ahead and add your freshly cooked, steaming hot quinoa onto the chard and top with fresh cilantro + parsley (if you want) and crumpled goat cheese and voila:

THE. END!

PSYCHE!

That's only dinner.

Now?

We get to work with leftovers!!!

This is what your leftover quinoa + veggies will look like after cooling on the counter for an hour in a bowl:

Tomorrow morning, when you wake up, go to your fridge. Retrieve the bowl and do this:

+

=

+

(goat cheese)

=

Mmmmmm! A hearty breakfast! (for non-vegans) (obviously).

***

Now for lunch!

+

+

(goat cheese and lemon pepper)

Okay so this is BASICALLY last night's dinner without the chard. But it's an amazing lunch and can be served cold and hot as you wish. Enjoy! And don't worry, my mom will be back next week!

In the meantime, hope you enjoy your LBD! And your BLD!

xo,

GGC