Party With Your Pants Off: A Guide To Potty Training From One Overstimulated Mom To Another

Molly and Meg kick this episode off with Molly's overstimulation crisis and quickly get into planning Reese's life as a spinster. The ladies are passionate about doing things for themselves and this week Molly started a new mom book club and Megan got some much needed organizing done at her house. 

Then the ladies dive into their chosen topics for the week. Molly discusses using open communication to help a newly postpartum mom and encourages anyone going over for visits to remember the mom as well as respecting boundaries around the baby. Megan discusses the trials and tribulations of potty training, enough said. 

Join the ladies as they review their weeks with their littles and a few topics requested by you guys!

Topics: Responses to overstimulation, Libby app, book clubs, baby bib recommendations, Blippi, Chan with the boys, How to support a new mom, potty training

Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Welcome to the Mom Sense podcastwith Molly and Meg.
I'm Molly. And I'm Meg.
So I was going to tell you that today, not today, sorry it was
yesterday. But in the last couple days, I
have been so incredibly overstimulated that yesterday I
put my hair up in like a slickedback bun, but my front pieces

(00:31):
were driving me so crazy that I literally leaned over the
kitchen trash can and cut them off.
Yeah. So if this part is a little too
blunt, it's because because I cut it off and my scissors are
cardboard cutting scissors, not in any way hair cutting
scissors. That's not at all what I thought
you were going to say. And you're getting your hair

(00:52):
professionally cut in a few days.
And so when you go in, you have to tell your hair stylist the
same story with the same level of excitement that you just did
because that's going to get her through the day.
No, it's a guy. I have a brand new hair stylist
because I've never met him before.
He's going to be like this lady is unhinged.
I've never been to a man before.Yeah, still unhinged.

(01:15):
Yeah, yeah. I was having a moment.
It was like, wow, she needs somealone time.
You're tiptoeing along the linesof Britney Spears in 2000, and
what is it? Nine, you want to know?
What's even scarier is I've had the impulsive thought to cut the
rest off. Dude, I just didn't you OK,
Thanks for. Telling, I'll tell you later,

(01:38):
no, but I was like. So that's a real story.
Seriously, I was so frustrated with my bangs.
From here, they look right. Don't take it farther than you
already have, OK? I know I'll try not to.
I mean you guys won't see because by the next time we
record my hair will have been professionally done.
But I'll try to take some pictures if I end up doing
anything crazy like. You should.

(01:59):
Yeah, it was very uncharacteristic.
I was just having a moment. My hair has been driving me
crazy. Just gets in the way and Petty
pulls on it. Her hands get tangled in it like
it's gonna be gone. I'm so excited.
Yeah, it feels so good. And I'm just praying that it's
easier to keep out of the way. It's just frustrating.
Yeah, yeah, I hear. Yeah, whatever.
I'm excited. What I just realized is the fact

(02:21):
that we have a episode in the tank like always ready to go.
I don't know and we haven't edited it yet.
I don't know what you cut from that.
So when I say you'll just have to keep a mental note of that,
like what you cut and then if I bring it up in the next one, add
it to your list or to do. Yes, seriously, you don't have
number 541 of things on my To DoList.

(02:44):
Usually if you do reference something, I try to keep it in,
but we'll see. Yeah, I watched the episode so
many freaking times that by the time I send it to you, I forget
what I watched and cut out and what I watched and left.
So I'm always second guessing when I make a reference or when
you do in the next episode. Like, did I leave that in?

(03:05):
But I know you know if I did because you only watched the
edited version. But yeah, I mix it up.
Yeah, no, same here. Happens to me all the time too.
By the time I get to Wednesday, because usually I'm still
editing a few clips, I am so sick and tired of looking at
myself and whatever I'm insecureabout in that episode.
I'm like I don't care, I don't care.

(03:26):
I don't care if I botch some edit in this thing, get it away
from me, I don't care. And if somebody else on the
Internet hates it, it's engagement.
Yep, and I probably agree. There's a reason why when I send
it to you every Monday morning or Sunday night or whatever and
say pay special attention to thelast 15 minutes, it's because
the last 15 minutes I'm, my brain is dead.

(03:47):
I'm so incredibly frustrated by that point that I'm like,
whatever it is, it is. And so I do need you to like
make sure it's not horrible. It never is, by the way.
For for everybody that doesn't know, which nobody knows because
who would know this? Our episodes are transcribed.
So we just highlight and delete like words or phrases or

(04:09):
conversation that we don't want on the episode.
Yeah. So I watch a few minutes, then I
go back and delete the stuff I don't like.
And after every single time I delete anything, whether it's a
pause, whether it's an, whether it's a, like it buffers for me.

(04:29):
So I get, I delete buffers for awhile, and then I can listen to
the next sentence and then it buffers again.
So like I have so much bufferingthat I get so frustrated.
Like imagine watching your favorite show on TV and every
sentence it buffers. So I have been saying this every
week since we started. So what is this episode like 9

(04:50):
or something? I'm going to call AT&T and ask
about that because it's really frustrating.
But I can guarantee when I see you guys next Thursday, I will
not have called. Not like be honesty.
I wouldn't either, by the way. No, it's just so annoying.
I'm on hold for freaking 30 minutes.

(05:11):
And by the time you've waited forever, like pennies in the
background shrieking, and you'reso overwhelmed that you're like
I, weaker. Wasted an entire nap time and
I'm like dude this is me time. Yes, yes, yes.
For that exact reason, I don't want to make a phone call.
Sometimes I just impulsively do it.
If I don't do it now, they'll never do it from a month.

(05:32):
OK, I had family come over this week.
It was really fun. We had lunch and they played
with Penny and saw all the new renovations and stuff, but it
was really fun. Yeah, that's so fun.
When was that? On Saturday.
No, that was on Tuesday. Oh, and we went to the zoo.

(05:52):
We did go to the zoo. Yeah, I was like, we had, we
didn't get to recap on it. That was fun.
I thought it was great too. I was a little disappointed
because I thought going to this particular zoo would be great
for Penny because the animals are close up.
Yeah. Didn't matter to Penny.
No, she didn't care. Penny did not care, not even a
little. The only thing she really even

(06:13):
looked at was the giraffe because the giraffe was
literally towering over her like.
But I mean, she wasn't fussy. She had a great time watching
Reese and Brooke. She had a good.
She was very engaged with Reese and Brooke melted my heart.
And Brooke, yeah, Brooke did really good with her too, which
is good. Like I pointed out on our

(06:33):
Instagram post, if 4 1/2 ish your age gap between her and
Reece is not a deal breaker ever.
I'm putting my bet on Brooke to hold this friendship together.
Like if her and Reece work it out, great.
You know her and Brooke are a lot closer.
Brooke did great. Brooke actually spoke to her,
made hogged her. Do you remember?
The hog from behind, like the one you were like, whoa, whoa,

(06:56):
whoa. Yeah, it's a little close to the
neck. It was so cute.
Yeah, yeah, which is, which is great.
Let's show Penny a little bit ofthe admiration that you show
behind closed doors. I thought that was a little
weird. Cute.
I thought that was so cute. She adores her.
Like, adores her. There's not another baby in
Brooks like that, Brooke references.

(07:18):
And she knows other babies. Yeah, it's super sweet.
Like girls had a good time, it was fair and I like that zoo.
But like, it's very easy to get around.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a good time.
It was nice. It was so fun, I'm so glad.
Glad you had fun. Me too.
Me too. And then today, Fillion on,
today later. But today was the very first

(07:39):
time that we were having breakfast and Penny gagged so
hard and so aggressively that she puked everywhere.
I'm more concerned for you with.That, yeah, me too.
Her. Yeah, me too.
No, it was like it was, I knew it was gagging because she was
like every once in a while she'dmake like a Wretch sound.
But between the wretches she wassilent and like struggling.

(08:01):
So I was panicking a little bit,and I got the the high chair
table thing off. But then she puked everywhere
and started, you know, like making noise again.
So I just looked better now. Yeah.
OK. So I just had to clean
everything up. And then we did yogurt instead,
choosing pancakes. So we had something easy to eat.
After that. I was like, all right, you have

(08:22):
to have something else, but we're gonna have something that
doesn't make Mom almost pass out.
Was that this morning you said? Yeah.
OK, so how did dinner time go then?
It was fine. Well I gave her a pouch for
lunch. I have started introducing lunch
so I gave her AI gave her a likesweet potato and apple pouch.

(08:42):
Then for dinner, I gave her salmon.
OK, Yeah. Yeah, Salmon, it does not make
me nervous to give her because you can make it such small
little pieces. And she finally has the pincher
grasp so she can put small pieces in her mouth really easy.
So good for her too, that that one feels good.

(09:03):
Yeah, what was your week like? I don't know, I feel like I've
lived 1000 lives since we've recorded last.
We have been busy little bees. Honestly.
The day before we saw you, we had a play date with our
neighbors and that's always great.
I think I've said that they havea six year old and a almost 4

(09:27):
year old and so it's great. They all play together really
well. So play date with them.
They came over here and the kidsplayed in the basement and then
I saw you on Friday and then on Saturday we took the kids to the
museum because there's a new shark exhibit.
And I'm not saying this lately. Reese is assessed with Marine

(09:49):
life lately. Yes, she told me that.
She has every Disney character, Tony possible and the ones that
she's gravitating to, when I saygravitating to the only one
she's using are the marine life ones.
And she happens to have a marinelife camp next week.
So it works that well. We took her the shark exhibit
and the museum's really cool. And then that night we went to

(10:11):
the car show. They have a huge, huge, huge car
show over at our library, and sothat's fun.
We go to lake, I don't know, probably 2 car shows a month in
the summer. Big car show.
Yeah, I kind of hate it, honestly.
I love the car shows, I love thecar shows.
I think it's super fun. But Colton is unintentionally

(10:33):
making future race, future teenage race irresistible to
teenage boys and I am not excited about it.
She loves cars, old cars, wants to look at the engines of the
cars. And he has her watching
football, basketball, hockey, loves all those things.
We'll go to a game without question.
He took her to a baseball game on Sunday.

(10:54):
I'm like, let's get her into like, I don't know.
Yeah, yeah. Let's let's find some weird
quirks for her, shall we? No, he's bringing her out to the
shop with him and having our work on stuff for them.
Let's knock this off. Let's make her weird, OK?
That's our job. We want her to be the girl that

(11:14):
gallops through the lunchroom because she thinks she's ours.
And it would be so easy to make her that person because she's
the most theatrical human being I've ever met in.
My life. Oh, like maybe she'll meow in
public or something. I'm hoping so.
I'm hoping. Yeah, it's not like good.
Anyways, we went to a car show that this car show is like

(11:36):
really, it's fun because it's huge.
Usually we go to like the little.
They have, like a car show everyThursday in our town and a deep
night as well. Anyways, this one's like a big
one. And her best friend's dad has to
do, like, voting or whatever. So they're always there.
And then all the kids get to play and it's great.
And so, yeah, we did that on Saturday night.

(11:59):
Sunday, Colton took the girls toa baseball game and I stayed
home and. That was your uninterrupted kid
time. That's why I texted you and I
was like. Give me something to.
Do give me something to do? Yeah, exactly right.
Anyways did. It go well for Colton.

(12:19):
It went great. It went great.
He looked up the bathroom situation ahead of time, found a
unisex bathroom and its locationso nice.
That was, like, really the only thing to worry about.
Yeah. He's always on top of that
stuff. Yeah.
He just, like, he's a planner. And then Monday we went and
signed up for summer reading at the library, which is fun.
That's just like I'm motivating.And tomorrow we're going to

(12:41):
Lewis Farms. I have you ever heard of that
place? No.
It's a new era and it's like a petting zoo meets splash pad
meets like little rides, big slides like like a corn barn
where they can like sit and playwith corn and go down.
It's like it's. That's cool.
Yeah, you'll want to go when Penny's older.
We'll take you. Yeah, Yeah, we're doing that

(13:01):
tomorrow with her Co-op. It's like a field trip.
So cute. Yeah, I'm going to want to just
like sit in a corner at home andlike, I don't know, decompress
because it's so cool. You were talking about making
Reese weird and Penny will do this thing where she'll like
toot, right? I don't call them farts because
farts are like big toots are little dainty.

(13:24):
Feminine. Curly.
So anyway, she'll do that, and then she'll laugh like she'll
giggle. Taylor always says, girl, you're
not gonna get a boyfriend doing that.
Good, good. She's gonna be too pretty.
There's got to be something like.
That Oh my God, that it's so funny.
Like I can't believe it. She literally like Toots looks

(13:47):
at us and it starts to giggle and I'm like tell.
Taylor to shut up like ha ha ha like encourage.
It Yeah. Come on.
Oh my God, it's so funny. That is really funny.
You want to update us on the other bullet points?
Oh, for anybody who uses Libby, which is an app that is

(14:09):
connected to your library, if your library has Libby, you can
rent books, audio books, magazines, whatever.
It's usually a little bit of a pain because of the popular
ones. You have to wait.
You could have to wait a long time.
Anyways, it's still worthwhile. I heard about a loophole a while
ago and I found the loophole works.
So if you have a Kindle and you rent a book through Libby, you

(14:30):
can only have it for whatever 14days I think it is.
If you're a slow reader like me,which by the way, I don't, I
don't, I'm not not like a slow, slow reader.
I just have kids, to put it frankly.
Anyways, 14 days is not enough for me nowadays in my life.
If you, if you rent a book and you read the book on Kindle, you

(14:52):
have to send it to your Kindle, not in the app or whatever.
You send it to your Kindle and then when you are running out of
time, you drop your Kindle into airplane mode.
It returns the book. So the next person gets the book
and you you still get to keep the book on your Kindle and you
can read it for as long as you want.
And then when you turn it off airplane mode, does it go away?

(15:14):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow, cool.
I'm not reading fast, right? So I don't need to download more
books. There's no reason for me to
throw it out of airplane mode. So I can keep this book for as
long as I need and the other people still get to read it.
I'm not, to my knowledge. I'm not hindering anybody else.
Yeah, that's nice. Cool, Yeah, I need to download
Libby because I still don't use it.

(15:35):
You need to download Libby and you need to download Hoopla.
But I don't use my kindle like ever.
But maybe this would make it on your.
Phone and in audiobooks you listen to audiobooks.
I do listen to audiobooks, all right.
At the moment I need to play most of my audiobooks on Spotify
and they're free there anyway. That's what you said, but it
must be because you have the toptier version of Spotify because

(15:59):
I can't get over. Yeah, I pay like 10 bucks a
month. Me too.
Every time I go to look at a book, it says I have to pay
$27.00. And I'm like, what?
Get it on my Kindle With Libby, you have to play the long game,
which is unfortunate. Like you, you, you put your hold
on a book and like one, you're just hoping in several months
you're still interested in that book.
So that kind of stinks. But when it does, when you get
that notification, oh, what a rush.

(16:21):
Oh my goodness. With it, your hold is now
available. You're like drop everything I
have going on right now. See I would struggle with like 1
still wanting to read it becauseI feel like I go to the store, I
buy a book intending to read that next, I'm so excited and
then I end up reading something else next because I'm more
excited about that. Or what if I'm reading something

(16:43):
currently and then it becomes available and then I have to
juggle 2 books? I hate juggling more than one
book. Me too.
OK, well then we are going to get into mentally strong moms
make for mentally strong kids because we hold each other
accountable for doing something for ourselves every week so that
we can be better moms. Today I had two ladies and their
kids over to my house for a playdate.

(17:06):
However, our kids are too young to play so it was more like a
mom play date. I think all of us moms needed
some friend time. It was me and Penny and then my
friend, friend and her 13 month old and then my friend and her
newborn who's just over a month old.
She also has a 2 year old. But the two year old was at

(17:28):
daycare today. But we had fun.
We had coffee and pastries and hung out with the kids and it
was good. It was much needed from all of
us. And while we were talking about
what books we were reading, I was like, we should do a book
club. I'm part of a really small
family book club and I love it. So we should do one, the three
of us. And we're all friends from

(17:49):
college, so we've known each other for forever.
So when we get together to talk about the books, we can either
bring the kids and have a play date, or we can leave the kids
with our husbands and do it without them.
Or all of us can get together and the guys can hang out and
we'll hang out. So yeah, we started a new mom
book club. I'm very excited.
That's very exciting. You guys have the similar taste

(18:11):
in books? Not really.
I mean they do. They both are very much like
fantasy books people and I don'tread fantasy, but I told them I
wouldn't be opposed to reading it.
I just need like to know where to start.
So we went through our Goodreadsand looked at what we all have
in common on our TBRS and we're going to read Remarkably Bright
Creatures 1st and I know you love that book.

(18:34):
You liked The Wish by Don't don't read into this question,
but you like The Wish by Nicholas Sparks, right?
Yes, I loved that. OK, you will probably like
remarkably bright creatures. Not because because the
storyline is similar, but because it's more like character
development to like, like learning about their stories
with stuff like that. And then, yeah.

(18:55):
And when people tell you that Marcellus the octopus is like to
die for, just like one of the best characters you've ever had,
I fully agree with that. And you don't get a lot of him.
So you're like, kind of craving him because one of the
characters, for good reason, andyou find out why and all that
stuff. He's a little insufferable.
Yeah. I'm excited for you.
And do you think that you're nota fantasy person or do you think

(19:17):
of that it's that you compare everything to Harry Potter
because you're such a die hard for Harry Potter?
I don't know, the one fantasy book I read was A Court of
Thorns and Roses, literally the only fantasy book I've ever
read, and it wasn't bad. Like it was three out of five.
It wasn't fine. I didn't like it enough to read
the rest of the series, but it wasn't like a waste of my time

(19:38):
and I flew through it. So I wasn't like upset by it by
any means. I think it's just that I don't
read the back cover of one of those books and be like, I have
to read this, whereas I do for other kinds of books.
So I think that if I read 1, I would have to have a reason to
read it. Like if someone in my book club
was like, we're gonna read this,I would read it without
complaining about it or anything.

(19:58):
I just wouldn't choose it off a shelf, OK?
You should, and the bummer here is that your friends probably
have already read the series. But you should read the second
book in that series before you call it quits because that one
is the best one. Like if you're if anyone reads
those books and they're going tolike one of the books in that
series, it is the second one. I know I I have heard the second

(20:22):
and the third ones are way better and I do have the second
one on my bookshelf so like I totally could read that one.
Okay, I got you. Yeah, but either way, I'm very
excited. I love a good book club.
Yeah, good for you. Okay, my stuff.
I don't like what I have to deliver this week, but I'll be
honest with you. So when you become a parent,
especially a stay at home parent, your world gets small,

(20:45):
to put it frankly. So with that disclaimer being
said, some of the things I'm about to share might not sound
really impressive to people, butthey feel impressive to me.
OK, so first thing, I have this like weird rigidity to my
schedule for a multitude of reasons.
But one of the things is that I will not dive into like a big

(21:07):
house anything unless I have Colton around because.
It. Usually I dive into something
and I do not know where I'm going and I cannot handle the
extra stimulation from my children.
I can't do it. But being home so much, my
environment really affects me, Really affects me.

(21:28):
So the two places in my house that have been overwhelming me
is this closet right here in front of me.
Brooke has been getting into this closet and she does
stickers or whatever. Anyways, it has gotten so
overwhelming. I had to say they had plans to
go out today and to go do stuff with the kids and I canceled
those plans and I reorganized this closet as well as the other

(21:50):
thing that's been stressing me out and I let the kids just
figure it out. Like I have this, I know it's
bad, I know that boredom is goodfor kids, it helps creativity,
blah blah blah blah blah. I know.
But I struggle so much with not being the source of
entertainment because frankly, when they're bored they're more

(22:12):
annoying to me. Yeah, no, it's so.
Much harder. Yeah.
Anyways, I put all that aside. I let them figure it out.
Spoiler. They did figure it out and it
felt good. I did something I needed to do.
I wasn't waiting around for someone else to be available so
that I could do it. And I feel weight off my
shoulders, weight off my shoulders.

(22:33):
It feels so nice. Similarly, I said my neighbor
came over and all I did downstairs is I repositioned the
play structure that we have. Everything else is the same.
I mean, I had to move AV back chair because of that, but
everything else is the same. And the girls were like the
Reese's friends. They're like, why'd you move
this? I said, oh, just because.
And then I looked at her mom andI was like, I needed something
to be different. It didn't matter what it was.

(22:55):
I needed a change in my environment.
Like I'll just like shift thingsaround I feel like.
Like a new. Person.
Person. Yep.
Why is that? I don't.
Knowledge when I would get stressed out, which anyone that
was close to me in college knew.I mean I ran on stress like my
entire personality was stressed out.

(23:16):
I, I did like double the creditsof anybody else for no freaking
reason. Anyway, so I was always losing
my mind all the time. And I feel like once every three
months I would move my furniturearound my bedroom and I felt
like refreshed. So yeah, I did it.
I used to do that all the time. Yep.
If anyones feeling out of whack,rearrange your furniture.

(23:37):
It does a whirlwind of different.
Yeah, it really does. Anyways, I thought that today
was going to be terrible and by the end of the day I was going
to be so frazzled. And that's the other thing is
that I build this up in my head that if I don't have the
dedicated amount of time that I need to do this, what's going to
happen is one, I'm going to be interrupted the entire time that
I'm doing it, and two, I'm not going to complete it.

(23:57):
And so there's going to be shit everywhere in my house because I
didn't get everything back into where it needs to be.
And I I can't handle that. I can't have my environment be
messy. On top of the that, the little
humans that I created create it's way too much anyways.
Kind of done. They they played together.
They didn't bully one another too much.
Everyone survived. Everyone, you know ate on time.

(24:20):
I did my job good. And then on on Tuesday, Reese
has her first camp and I have tostay in the area because it's
too far for me to go back and forth.
And I did not want to just go find something for Brooke to do.
I'm like something to appease Brooke.
I wanted to find something that I wanted to do.
So I found a little restaurant that has brunch.

(24:41):
So we're going to go there. And then I found gift shop slash
bookstore. So we're going to go there
after. And yeah, I'm going to make it a
positive thing because I'm goingto have to do this every single
week, same location, when the school year starts.
So I need to make myself have a positive association with it.
Why do you have to go there every week during the school

(25:03):
year? Cuz we've resigned up for a
Co-op for socialization. Yeah, well, that's it.
Cool. It'll be that one-on-one time
with Brooke that you crave and that you don't get very often.
Yeah, yeah, IA 100% and I look forward to it for that.
Usually what I do during those windows is I take her to do
something that is kid focused. And here's the thing, Brooke is

(25:24):
the most flexible human being inthe world because she has been
going to story time dance since she was a week old and so she's
become very flexible. So I'm going to do something I
want to do and bring her along and she won't care.
No, she won't. I love that.
I love that There's a park with trails that I went to last week
for a walk with Penny, but across the street is like a

(25:47):
beach on a lake. I've never been there but it
looks fairly nice. So I was thinking, Penny doesn't
swim. I'm not going to like take her
swimming necessarily, but we could like put a blanket out
under trees because there's likepicnic tables and trees and
stuff too. We could sit outside.
It's doing the exact same thing we do at home all day, but

(26:07):
outside in the sun with the fresh air, which would be way
better for me. So I might do that.
That's something to keep in mindas she gets older too.
You'll hear this advice if you haven't already, and it's the
God's honest truth. If your kids are acting out, get
them outside or get them in water.
It fixes everything, I swear instantaneously.
Water can be a bath, by the way.Yeah, it's.
So helpful. All right, let's move on to our

(26:30):
next segment. So we cycle between things we're
loving stuff we Googled, and then the anonymous submission.
We ended up pulling people on Instagram and everybody said
that they wanted us to rotate between all three.
So we are following suit with that.
And we did make an anonymous submission form.
It is LinkedIn, our bio on Instagram.

(26:51):
So if you don't follow us on on Instagram, please go to that or
just go over there to find the link or if you have some sort of
superior audio processing, then I'll say the link and if you
remember it, you are better thanme.
It is bio bio dot site SITE backslash mom sense pod that will

(27:13):
give you the link to everything about us.
Our submission link is going to be on top there, but every
single place you can listen to us is linked there.
All of our social media is linked there.
So you can do that. Also, if you listen to this or
watch this on YouTube, I'll makesure it's down in the
description moving forward. So those are the locations on
Instagram. I screenshotted what the

(27:33):
submissions look like just to prove to everyone.
I swear on my children's life, we won't know what's you.
You can just tell us something because you want to get it off
of your trust and you want to hear like an outside perspective
on something and we'll give you our outside perspective, but we
will never know what's from you.Like Molly could go in and
submit each week and I will never know.
I will think it is a loyal fan. Who is submitting.

(27:56):
I will never know so. Please feel free so you didn't.
It'd be great. What are you into?
Do you? Have anything to speak?
No, I don't have much. Oh wait, I am a huge advocate
for the long sleeve bibs. Like the like the smocks?
Yeah, the things that are like shirts, but they don't button in
the back. They just go over the front and
on the arms and then they Velcroback here.

(28:18):
Those are genius. I don't know who made those, but
I have two because I had just like normal bibs, but those
things suck. Like compared to these things.
I can just put it on her. It goes all the way up to the
neck and it covers the arms. All I have to do is wipe her
hands off. Take that off.
Her clothes are not messy. Food has stained her clothes

(28:41):
significantly more than poop ever did.
Yeah. So anyway, huge advocate for the
long sleeve bibs. I think those things are
superior. Yeah, you would be amazed the
clothes, the things that stainedclothes, applesauce stains
clothes. And when it here's The thing is
when I say stained, like sure, you'll get it out.
There will always be a little circle though.

(29:03):
It doesn't go go away and you notice it as a mom, you notice
it. Your husband doesn't cause your
husband just puts it on them andyou're like well what about this
thing? My aunt.
Or Obama. My aunt went to London and she
brought both of the girls back T-shirts, like London T-shirts
or whatever. And she gives them to us and
she's like, I'm sorry. They, for whatever reason,
didn't have any other color but white for kids shirts didn't

(29:26):
make sense to me either. But you know, I wanted to get
them something. Here you go.
And I'm like, great, thanks so much.
I mean, I'll just be mindful of it.
Brooke had applesauce this week.I had her in it and Monday had
applesauce on it. She stained the collar.
And so I was like no problem, take it off or whatever.
I wash it. I don't do anything to it
thinking it's going to be fine. And I'm folding laundry the next

(29:47):
day and I look at it, I'm like, that sucks.
Like so. Anyway, the bibs are great.
OK, wait, so question bibs, I'm guessing do you have bibs like
that or do you have the siliconeones?
No, I use the bibs that you're. Well, I have both because I, you
know, drill and air as a parent.But when I got smart, I started
using the ones that you were just referring to.
OK. Do you put those in the washer

(30:09):
like? No, the washer and drone No, but
you probably could now that I. I mean, I do, I do, but I was
just wondering if that's how you're supposed to wash them
because like, they're not silicone, they're like vinyl.
What material is it? Yeah, vinyl.
No. Well, I don't know if the hell
vinyl is, but it sounds right. It's like raincoat material.

(30:29):
Raincoat material. That's exactly right, yeah.
Yeah, so I just assume we can wash it, but I guess I don't
know. That's why I asked, because I
don't know if that's how other people do it.
Do you just rinse it off in the sink?
I did, yeah. Yeah, OK, I'll just maybe I
should do that. Yeah.
OK. Tell me what you're loving.
OK I'm going to do my one that doesn't use them with first
which is Spotify DJ. I love that man.

(30:52):
Do you have you ever use that? Nope.
Oh my gosh. Do it next time you're on
Spotify. Is the reason I'm really
enjoying it is because do you know how at the end of the year,
your Spotify Wrapped? Yep.
Well, your Spotify rap is gonna be that single song.
It's gonna be like you had $4000of the magic song from Penny.
Whatever. That is yes it is.

(31:12):
Yes, it give your. Space.
Explain to us what that is really quick.
So I mean, anybody that has a young kid in design social media
knows about this song. But I was at brunch with Bree,
who we talked about all the timeback in January, and Penny was
still in her fussy phase. And when we go to brunch, we get

(31:34):
something to eat and then we go to the Barnes and Noble or
Target. We always drive because Penny
has her car seat. So we go shopping and then I
drive us back to wherever we parked.
And Penny was in her fussy phase.
So as soon as we got in the car to get her back to her car,
Penny was crying and Bree had mentioned like, oh, I saw this
song on social media, you shouldsee if it works.

(31:55):
And it's called the happy song, literally what it's called.
And it's I mean, I played it instantly, Penny stopped crying
and she fell asleep. And she was 3 1/2 months old at
this point. Ever since then, whenever Penny
is fussy, whether she's in the car or she's not in the car, if
I play that song, she's totally calm.
Bree. Deserves an alarm.
Yes, I know, it's literally magic.

(32:17):
Any infant mom try this song when they get fussy and just see
how it goes because I still use it in the car.
I used it at the zoo. Let me paint a picture.
Penny was eerily chill the entire time we were there.
Like not not so much as a blip out of her.

(32:38):
Until we get to this one point and she starts to get a little
fussy. We're making adjustments with
the wagon or whatever to see if this will work.
And you're pretty calm about it.I'm thinking like, OK, there's a
chance Molly's going to say, allright, I got to call it.
We're going to have to go back to the car or whatever.
At this point. I'm waiting for you to say that

(32:58):
I'm OK with it because like, I've been there so I could
anticipate maybe it's coming. You're not saying that.
And we're moving in the direction of a path that is
going the opposite direction of the exit.
And you have to finish follow this path to fruition.
Committee. And you're just going down and
I'm like, OK. And then you pull your phone
out. I didn't notice what you did on

(33:18):
your phone. And then all of a sudden Penny
goes silent and you, you were like, so calm magic song.
And I'm like, what the hell is that?
And cheers, do do do, do do do. By the way, I'd never heard of
it. You said everyone on social
media knows, but I'd never heardof that.
Never. So that'd be a lesson.
If you think about not sharing something on this podcast
because you think everybody knows, chances are that's not

(33:40):
the case. Yeah, that worked.
For I know. Forever for it worked for so
long. I think I played it on a loop
for like 45 minutes and it worked the entire time.
She never fussy when that song is playing no matter how long we
played it. I can't tell you how many times
we played it on our way to and from Myrtle Beach.

(34:01):
I think Taylor and I listened toit for like 3 hours on a loop.
Yeah, anyway, so my whole point of even bringing that up is that
like at the end of your year when you become a parent with a
child who listens to music, yourSpotify, you, you hand over your
Spotify rap to them. It's unfortunate, but anyways,
the DJ, Spotify DJ, they, I don't know what algorithm like

(34:25):
sort of AI thing they have goingon there, but they separate the
2. So you'll get songs for you and
then every once in a while they'll drop in a song for your
kid. And it's like in sections.
So you can just skip the sectionif you don't want to listen to
it. But sometimes what I do now is,
you know, we get in the car. Reese is like, I want to listen
to the Mufasa soundtrack. Looks like I want to listen to

(34:46):
the freaking Excavator song by Blippi over and over and over
and over. And I say Nope, we're leaving it
up to Spotify DJ and I will justplay whatever and then every
once in a while a song for them will come up and I'll throw him
a ball and let him listen to it.And then, you know, Reece is

(35:07):
like, you know what? I want to listen to this other
song and Brooke's like I'm listening to Flippy song again.
Nope, let the DJ play. I love this.
She wants to listen to the same.Thing over and over.
Yeah, do ya? It's funny.
It's so freaking annoying. And we live in Michigan, right?
In Michigan, it's a huge joke that the summer, the flower,

(35:31):
whatever is a construction cone because our roads suck and all
year, all summer long, they're fixing them.
So we drive by excavators. Every time we're in the car, she
remembers because the freaking reminders.
I never introduce your kids to Blippi, never do it.
And then the other thing I'm really enjoying.
I'm just going to do me today because I don't have anything

(35:53):
great for the girls. I am really enjoying a
influencer on TikTok and she's on Instagram as well.
Her name is Chandler. And then I think her handle is
Chan like Chan with the boys, something like that.
I think if you looked up Chandler Chan with the boys,
something would populate for you.
Anyways, the reason that I'm really into this girl is because

(36:14):
one, she's so Chan, I might be putting words into her mouth.
I feel like she said that she was kind of losing her mind
because she has three little young boys.
I have two little girls. And so I can only imagine a
little bit because I have seen little boys out in the wild and
they are a different breed than what I have.

(36:35):
And I fully acknowledge that as of now.
If anyone's offended by me saying that, remember, my days
are about to get a lot harder and yours are about to get a lot
easier. So I'm not talking shit, but
it's just true. Like they're different breeds
right now. And so she was, you know,
looking for ways to get out of the house.
Now her whole entire shtick is how to get out of the house and

(36:55):
how to do it without spending copious amounts of money every
time you go to do so. And she is so thoughtful of
things that she's pitching to you are like things that you
actually can do. She's just really chill.
And the thing I really appreciate about her is I don't
want to say she's like trying toD influence people, but
personally, just at this stage of my life, I'm not looking for
more things to buy and, you know, tangible things to

(37:20):
acquire. ANYWAYS, she had a big house,
new build, construction house inthe subdivision and they left
that house to go to a, in her words, very small house because
I had a lot of property for her kids to run.
So we have similar mindsets. I'm really enjoying her.
So if that sounds like somethingyou'd be interested in, you
should check her out. She's on Instagram and TikTok

(37:41):
for sure. And it's like Chan with the boys
or something like that. And yeah, I think you'll like
her. Like, one of the things that she
did with her kids was she said that she was going to forgo,
like, making breakfast at home and having it, you know, having
to deal with that song and dance.
And instead, she packed breakfast and they went to an
airport and watched airplanes. And like your kid, like, think
about as a child going through, having that experience.

(38:05):
It would be like core memory. That would be so cool.
Yeah. Because parents, sometimes you
think it's so much work to get in the car and drive there or if
they're not interested, blah, blah, blah, blah, I'm just going
to not do it. But she's like, what?
Why not? I need to get them out in a
space where they can run and I need to get out of this house
for me. So yeah, she's great.
Check her out. I like that mindset because I

(38:27):
know Penny's too young to reallyenjoy out of the house
activities anyway. But I frequently have that
thought pattern of like, I coulddo this today, but it's a lot of
work. Like I'd have to clean, like
load her up and bring all this stuff and we're probably only
going to go for 30 minutes. Like, might as well just stay
here. But one more day in the house

(38:48):
alone doing nothing is probably not going to help me in any way.
So I should just bite the bull. It's really not that much work
at the end of the day. Since having children, two days
in a house, I'm a different person.
I am easily agitated with everyone.
I feel like I'm it. I'm not myself and it has to be
something. It can't just be in our
backyard, too close to home. OK, we're going to move on to

(39:12):
our episode topic and I'm going to talk about how to support
your friends postpartum. We had a request for this topic
and it will start with like, personal preference.
This was all stuff that I preferred.
And then I'll get more into likegeneral stuff in case other
people aren't exactly like me. My mom would come over and she

(39:32):
would do my dishes and she wouldclean my house and she would
stay with the baby while I went to the grocery store.
And that was very different thanwhat I would have won from just
my friends. I think coming from a postpartum
mom, the things I wanted or company, like someone I could
talk to about the real stuff, like emotional stuff and

(39:54):
distraction. And then also for people to
like, talk about how cute my baby is.
Those are the things that I wanted.
Yeah. So.
I think because my experience was so difficult for me, I
craved like friendship and company.
And so having somebody come and just hang out with me was the
best. I felt like when you go visit

(40:16):
your friends, you never know howlong to stay, right?
People don't want to overstay their welcome.
And I think it's important to beattuned to that, like feel the
person out and see how they're doing.
But it used to cry every single time somebody would leave.
So like whether they were there for an hour or they were there
for three hours, I would cry after they left every time

(40:36):
because I never wanted people toleave.
And when I would have to feed Penny, if I like, went in the
bedroom to feed her, I felt likea lot of people took that as
like, OK, we should probably leave.
I would be so sad. So I think like, if you're close
enough to your friend, ask them like, how long are you hoping
that we'll stay? I think anybody should be able

(40:56):
to be honest about that. I would say while you're there 2
rules is only hold the baby if the mom offers it right.
Don't be like let me hold your baby because new moms most time
don't want you to hold their baby and make absolutely no
comments about the state of their home.

(41:18):
Yeah, I agreed. Agreed.
Yeah, absolutely no comment. Whether it's good or bad.
When I go, I feel like I'm a whole different visitor now,
having been a mom before I was amom, I would bring a gift for
the baby. I would go in, I'd see the baby,
I'd hold them if I was able to, and then we'd leave.
Now when I go, I bring a frozen meal, I bring something for the

(41:43):
mom, something for the baby, anda box of diapers.
So like I brought my last frienda frozen lasagna, a box of
diapers in a big size one that like you don't get at your baby
showers and stuff. I bought her a box of body
armors because she's nursing andI got her baby a little outfit.
So I feel like covering all the bases.

(42:04):
I think as a new mom, I found that you are now an
afterthought. Everybody cares about the baby,
which is wonderful. As a mom, all you want is
everyone to be excited about your baby.
This is not meant to be a complaint.
But no. It's.
Just you're second on the totem pole and nine times out of 10
you're going to get gifts for the baby, which is great.

(42:25):
Everybody wants new baby clothes.
Don't let people say they don't.They do.
But you also want people to think about you and how you just
pushed out a human being of yourbody, whether it's it's.
Nice. Through the passenger door or
out the sunroof. You just had a baby come on your
body, so people have to realize that.
I've never heard that before. Are you going to talk about your
idea on timing? Oh, like when they can come?

(42:47):
Yeah. It's hot.
Yeah, yeah. So it was hard for me because, I
mean, you guys know I have a freaking podcast where I talk
about everything under the sun. I'm a pretty open book.
So I was not shy saying, okay, we'll have visitors next week or
this week. Family only.
We'll see you guys next week. Whatever.
I was not shy. I know that that's hard for some

(43:09):
people though. So I set the like the first week
was family only and then like wewere open to having friends
over, but we didn't have any friends.
Like ask to come over for several weeks.
But also, like, people don't usually ask, you know?
I don't know how to act. That's why I said bring it up.
I don't know what to say. Like I want somebody to tell me

(43:33):
that they're ready because I'm chomping at the bit personally.
I want to see you, I want to meet your child, but I also
don't want to put pressure on you because that's the last
thing you need right now. But I don't know how to
communicate that effectively that it matters to me a lot.
And I also because once you say it, then it feels like you're

(43:53):
going to assume all of my under the communication stuff.
And so I worry, and I just want you to tell me.
Yeah. All right.
So I think what I do as a friendis after I hear the babies here,
I text and say like, Congrats, Ihope you guys are well.
I'm so excited to hear about your birth story.
We want to meet the baby. Let me know as soon as you're

(44:16):
comfortable. So I put my desire out there,
but then I always add when you're comfortable, so that it
could be a month from now, it could be two months from now, it
could be in three days, like whatever, whatever you're ready
for. OK.
Yeah. So I would say as the parent,
don't be afraid to tell your friends and family like we're

(44:38):
ready for visitors these weeks. Let me know which days if you
want to come meet so and so. And then as the friend, I would
say, find a way to let them knowthat you're interested without
adding any pressure. I think the way that I think
about communication is how I receive communication.
So like, I would be over the moon to hear my friends express

(45:01):
interest in coming to see me, coming to me, my baby.
And so I want my friends to feelthat way.
So that's how I communicate, butthat's how I am with everybody.
Like, I want people to feel comforted and supported by me
and like, I'm there. I would say don't expect to meet

(45:21):
a new baby in the first month. And if you do meet them in the
first month, that's to the parents, you know?
Yeah, yeah. It's like a you should be like,
oh, wow. OK, cool.
I was very protective at first of not how it wasn't necessarily
how I felt in the moment, but itwas a desire to be protect
because sometimes you make planswith people and you know, you

(45:42):
have to make your plans for whatworks for you as well as what
works for them. So sometimes you're making plans
in advance. And I was very protective how I
could potentially feel calm thattime because it's a roller
coaster at first. I was so incredibly anxious
about people being sick before people came over.
I would say like, are you feeling OK?

(46:04):
Is everybody feeling OK? Like, and I was so nervous that
people would say like, oh, I'm just coughing because I have
allergies. It's the fall.
Like, I don't care if you have atickle in your throat.
I don't care if you have a dry throat.
You feel anything other than pristine.
I don't want you to come here. Right, you're right and that but
then you're going into the you have to navigate every the wide

(46:27):
spectrum of what people yes constitute is sick.
What they aren't disclosing. I was sick.
I had a fever yesterday, but I'mfine today.
I don't want to see you. You or I've been coughing all
weekend, but it's Tuesday and I haven't coughed since Sunday.
It's like, I don't care. You coughed recently.
Yeah. Like I was in two weeks.

(46:47):
Ago, but I still have a cough. I'm like, have you ever heard of
bronchitis? Seriously, all the people that
are like, oh, I just have a lingering cough.
It's like linger over there. Right, right.
And then you like, you might, maybe, maybe you do, maybe you
don't experience this. But then I'm like Oh my God, now
you're judging. Like being too overprotective.
Oh yeah, I do get nervous about people thinking that.

(47:08):
Oh. My God, let's all just not judge
other people's how they navigatestuff like that, OK?
That's deeply personal. If you're being judgy then
you've never dealt with a sick infant.
Having a under 4 month old have any kind of respiratory issue is
terrifying. I know they don't have to be

(47:30):
hospitalized after two months, but Penny was like just freshly
3 months. She got sick for the very first
time and it was the most terrifying week of my life.
Like I didn't sleep at all. I just listened to her breathe
because I was so nervous that she had more going on.
So during the fresh newborn phase, I was very anal about

(47:53):
people being sick. I was so nervous all the time.
All about to say, be respectful and mindful of the new parents
comfort level when it comes to illness, sicknesses and hygiene
when you enter the home and whatever your opinion is of that
matter. Understand and respect the fact

(48:14):
that you might have differing opinions, but it's not your baby
so. Yeah, and I'm going to say this,
and it doesn't need to be said because every single person in
the world knows, but no kisses for the baby.
Just their head. That's just the back of their
head. No, no, no.
Back of the head, no. To put it simply, you are an

(48:35):
adult. You have big germs.
They are a newborn. They have no nothing, no
protective measure. So please don't do it, and don't
make us tell you not to do it. Yeah, please think the mom will
never forget that you kissed herbaby.
Just so you know, 10 years from now, ask a mom who kissed your

(48:56):
newborn baby. She'll be able to tell you,
actually. Yeah, right.
Yeah. So I think that when you go
visit, be very upfront about whether it's you or the mom,
when it's appropriate. When you do go, be there for the
mom as much as you are for the baby.
Like don't forget that the mom just did a miraculous thing with

(49:19):
her body and then ask how long it's OK to stay.
In my case, I did not want people to leave.
However, my husband didn't feel that way, right?
He didn't want visitors all day long, but I needed the support.
I try to like keep that in mind that my experience might not be
every mom's experience. Yeah.
So Molly covered all bases when it comes to what to bring.

(49:40):
If you feel compelled, if you feel like you want to bring
something, if you aren't going to cover all the bases that
overachiever Molly is covering #1 if you feel like you want to
bring something, but it's going to be one thing, what would you
say that one thing should be? And then I'll tell you you what
I think that one thing should be.
Coffee. OK, like I that's nice.
When I phrase it to other moms, I say like, I'm going to these

(50:02):
places, the grocery store, Starbucks, lunch place.
What do you want? I don't say can I get you
anything? I just say I'm going, what do
you want? If you don't tell me what you
want, I'm going to get you something that you probably
probably won't like. You might as well tell me what.
You want? Yeah, right.
OK, So my answer for a first child in that family that you're

(50:24):
going to visit, whatever is meaningful to you personally, if
you came with nothing, I would never think twice about it.
No obligation whatsoever. Right.
Right. Of course.
Of course. This is just like as a person
who's planning to go visit if you feel worse giving ideas.
You want to get something so that.
Right second. So when I had Brooke, for
example, second child in the family or you know, 3rd, 4th,

(50:47):
5th, whatever, some sort of frozen meal because the I have
another child to feed and thinking about creating a dinner
because I can eat chips and callthat dinner and I am OK girl
dinner. But yeah, when you have another
kid to care for, yeah, it's important.
Like you want, you have to thinkabout those things.
And so to not have to if someonegifted a dinner or whatever.

(51:12):
So helpful, so appreciated. I loved when people would bring
me frozen meals. It was the best to know that I
had a good meal that I could eatthat night.
I don't have to spend money on takeout.
I wasn't cooking. I didn't cook for like the first
month. Yeah, I had so much frozen
meals. I prepped frozen meals prior to
having Penny so I would have a lot of stuff to eat.

(51:33):
Yes, I think that anything edible.
I mean, you know the parents aren't sleeping.
So if they're caffeine people, Iwould bring caffeine.
Keep in mind like some moms are a little iffy about amounts of
caffeine that they drink if they're breastfeeding.
So maybe ask like what they wantor if they want coffee before
you bring it, but they might askfor just decaf or something.

(51:56):
So keep that in mind too. I do think that if you're going
to visit a family with more kids, try your best to entertain
those kids. Engage with those kids.
Yeah, I so agree with that. Great point.
A kid needs it. Yeah, they want one-on-one
attention, and the mom could useprobably a break from watching

(52:18):
them and the newborn. Yes.
So yeah, just try to entertain them.
Give the mom 5 minutes to breathe.
Yeah, as a mom who has two children, I never forget the
person who comes to my house even now and pays attention to
Reese because it's easy to pay attention to the younger 1, you
know, easier to engage, stuff like that.

(52:40):
And also, as kids get older, they're more chatty.
They talk about things that maybe you don't care about.
I get it. I get it.
I totally understand. It just it means a lot,
especially in those early days. Yeah, I agree.
I can mean all right. What do you have for me?
What's your topic? OK, so my topic came from
someone who had said something to Molly about being interested

(53:02):
in hearing my perspective on potty training.
So thank you to that person justbeginning.
Suggestions. You did it early with both of
your kids. Only one?
How old was Reese? Reese's 3.
OK, I didn't think she was that old, but you did Brooke at like
2022. Something like that, Yeah,
before 2. Yeah, just before 2.

(53:23):
Okay, all right. Okay, So what we did and you can
find so much information on this, I did not follow any sort
of instructions. I just kind of got glimpses like
bits and pieces of information and what other people did and I
tried it. So this is my system and you can
find like probably something more detailed in line with this
if you are interested in this. But essentially what it is is

(53:45):
you stay in the house for three to five days.
That's a lot of in the house time.
That's a lot of in the house time.
I'll share my opinions on all ofthis later yes, it's three to
five days. If you have a quick learner,
less time in the house. If you have a kid that needs
some more support, more time in the house.

(54:07):
It's like a roulette three to five days.
So the first day one to three, no pants, no underwear,
certainly no diaper. OK.
And then day three to five, underwear only.
Or like in fact essential. I mean, you can do pants too,
but you just want to be able to pull down quick, you know what I
mean? During this time, I was not

(54:27):
focusing at all on my children helping with the pull down or
figuring out how to get on top of the toilet.
I was helping with all of that. And for my case, at the end of
this three to five day period, both of my kids were potty
trained. So yeah, at what point do they
tell you I have to go to the bathroom?

(54:48):
Or do you just put them on the toilet every hour and a half
like you do with puppies? Yeah, yes.
So in the early days of this process, I would set a timer on
Google. I think I did like every 20
minutes. And I would ask.
And, you know, eventually later in the process, they start to
tell you what you want them to do is you want them to notice

(55:11):
the feeling of needing to go to the bathroom.
This is like, you know, it takestime.
So at first there's accidents with no awareness that that's
going to happen on their end. Like it happens and they're
like, Oh my goodness, I didn't know this is going to occur
because they're used to going intheir diaper and they don't have
to be aware. And then it shifts over to they
have an accident and they they know that that's not what's

(55:33):
supposed to happen. And so they take note of that
and, you know, start to self correct as time goes on.
So I think your question was when do they notify you?
Yeah, I would say, like by the end of the experience, you're
expecting them to be like, OK, Ihave to go to the bathroom,
right. Yeah, yeah.
That's like, yeah. Because at that point they
should understand they've listened to their body.

(55:55):
You've taken away, I'll get intoall the extra stuff, but they've
listened to their body and then they're able to communicate like
go potty, right? And depending on your approach
and your bathroom setup and all that stuff, it can look
different on how they're communicating it to you and
what, you know, how much assistance they need versus what
you do. OK, so that's it, 3:00 to 5:00
in your house. No wonder where you want them to

(56:17):
start to understand and like like pay attention to their
body. So during this time limit
consuming distractions like things that they are all focused
in on. So we did not have the
television on. We don't do iPads, but if you
guys do iPads, I would suggest not doing that.
Nothing that's going to just like fully consume them.
And then my recommendation is tofind something that motivates

(56:41):
your child. So we did everything under the
sun free. Any suggestion you can find on
the Internet. We tried it.
We did a sticker chart. She did not care about that.
We did a dollar store grab bag where she got to pick a prize
only worked for so long or then she eventually wanted to see
what was in there so she could pick which one.

(57:01):
Like it didn't end up serving its purpose.
We also did like a candy, some sort of like treat that didn't
work for very long. The only thing that worked for
my child, it's going to be God'shonest truth.
I'm not proud of it. Was bribing her with 10 minutes
of the show. If I said OK, you start to tell
us when she was three, right, soI could communicate this with
her. This is not the same situation

(57:22):
for Brooke. She was three, I could say 10
minutes of a show. If you are paying attention to
your body. We have a successful bathroom
trip that worked for her. That was the motivator that she
needed. With Brooke, I did not have a
reward system at all. It was just like going through
the process. I do not know in terms of child
development and learning lessons, what is the right
approach, but I know for Reese, she is a golden retriever and

(57:46):
she needs a reward. Brooke, it was not that way.
So once you decide you're going to do this, do not quit.
It will set you back. And I personally am of the
mindset that children are intelligent and they can catch
on to loopholes or whatever. So if you decide you're going to
do this, I recommend doing what I did and look at your calendar.

(58:08):
Decide a three to five day window when you do not have to
leave your house, hopefully 3 days and commit to it.
Once you start, don't stop because it could potentially
make things a lot harder for youand drag out this process
longer. So commit to it if you're going
to do it like this. And then As for what you need,

(58:29):
so some form of toilet seat cover, more than one is
preferred. So you can have one in your
multiple bathrooms. Because I did not want to have
this like emergent situation where they need to go to the
bathroom and I have to run to another floor or to another
bathroom to get the seat. So in my case, I use something,
some sort of accessory that goeson top of the existing toilet in

(58:53):
the bathroom. You could also do the smaller
ones so they can sit. I'm sure there there's probably
pros and cons to both methods. My personal opinion was that I'm
already going through this situation.
They're learning. I don't want to have to repeat
learning process to transition them from small toilet to big

(59:13):
toilet. I would rather figure that out.
You don't have to clean the small toilet if you don't use
it. Right.
Yeah, of course. Yeah, that too.
So, yeah, we have, like, we had a thing.
They all suck though, by the way, because, you know, you
might have to get a stool. Your child's not tall enough
that they wobble. They say that they're secure.
They're not. You can get an attachment that

(59:34):
goes on your toilet, but it's not great until they don't need
any of that stuff. But find what is your preferred
method and go with that floor cleaner without saying, find
some sort of cleaner that you are comfortable with in terms of
the chemicals that are in it versus the cleaning power it has
and go that route. Did you have like both pee and

(59:56):
poop accidents on your floor? No, they unfortunately withhold.
Yeah, no, OK, thank God, many cases, at least in both my cases
and in the cases of other peoplethat I know how I trained the
kids will start to withhold. And so you have to like, yeah,
you. You deal with that when you get
there. But yeah, no, just we also have

(01:00:17):
the Green Machine on Amazon. It's also great just to make
sure that you're really cleaningstuff.
Now I take all the cushions off of our couches and I try to keep
our activities in a area that's not, you know, carpeted or has
cushions, whatever have their rewards prepped.
If you're going to go the rewardroute and then have a good ass

(01:00:41):
attitude and the expectation that tears may be shed by you,
not necessarily by that, and then also expect a regression.
In both of my cases, you know, they don't get it the first day,
they start to get it the second day and then you're like, Oh my
gosh, progress is being made. This is great.
And then all of a sudden there'sa regression and accident after

(01:01:03):
accident after accident, you're like, I want to throw in the
towel. I thought that we were making
progress. That happened to me old times.
I kept with it. Do not quit and all of a sudden
they wake up the next day and they're telling you they have to
go to the bathroom and you're like, I did it.
I'm going to write a book. Keep with it.
Don't don't fall victim to theiraggression and then optional
mobile toilet seat cover. So this is more so when you

(01:01:25):
start to venture out in the world, you go on Amazon and look
up reusable toilet seat cover. We have like a little we did
have a frog. I lost it when we went to the
zoo. I had to purchase an owl.
I'm so bummed they love the frogbut now we have a pink owl and
pink spare color. Anyways, it sits on top of the
toilet seat. And then teach your kids right
away hands and laps so they're not touching everything.

(01:01:47):
Those these bathrooms are disgusting.
You would notice that if you don't notice it for yourself.
You definitely notice it when you have kids.
So get one of those so you can put it in your diaper bag or not
diaper bag anymore. Those really helpful and then a
mini toilet. We keep one of those in our car
because when you do eventually start to venture out their
little bladders, lots of water. I've said this before, they're

(01:02:09):
going to tell you they have to go to the bathroom and what are
you going to do? You're going to make them squat
in the grass somewhere. Probably not.
So get it like one of these little mobile toilets, hand
sanitizer, toilet paper, a wipesand like like a Lysolic cleaning
wipe or whatever to clean it allout.
If you have all that you are good to go.
And then puppy pads for the car seat.
Unless you like stripping your car seat and washing it a. 100

(01:02:33):
times. Yeah, puppy pads for sure.
And then, of course, bring multiple pairs of underwear,
multiple pants. Bring socks as well, because if
they have, if they pee a ton, itwill go all the way down.
Have one backup shoe at all times.
And then you'll forget. Yeah.
And then you forget that you have all those things and you
open up your bag in the car and you're like, this is where I'll

(01:02:56):
have underwear went. I've been wondering why there's
three in her drawer. It's cuz you have a million in
your bag. Cuz every time you leave you're
like underwear, underwear, underwear.
There's just me. I don't know, maybe you'll be
more prepared. So I wrote down some questions
that I think people could ask. One of them was what do you do
when your child protests? Like when you ask them do you
need to go to the bathroom and they say no?

(01:03:19):
Or they don't want to sit on thepotty.
Like they don't want to engage with yes potty training.
Early in the process, I overridetheir objection and I have them
sit to try. As time goes on, I will
relinquish that to them to tell me after this five day process
and dependent on your child's age and their communication
styles, I don't want to hold allthat control myself, right?

(01:03:42):
Like I want them to have the ability to listen to their body
and know whether they're good ornot.
So even with Reese now, sometimes habitually Colton will
be like when we're going out thedoor, at least you have to go to
the bathroom, try to go to the bathroom before we leave.
Try, try, try. And I'm like, no, at this point,
she's five years old. She can check in with herself
and make sure that she's OK. And when we're constantly doing

(01:04:05):
that to her, I don't know, it's just us nagging.
We want to show her that we trust her with something like
this. Eventually get to this point
where you can pass that responsibility off to them.
It's going to depend on your kid.
Do you expect them to get through the night without
accidents upon finishing the potty training?

(01:04:25):
I do not. I do not know if others do.
I don't know what the right answer to this is.
Disclaimer in general on everything I say in this podcast
ever. I'm not an expert, but I do not.
So we get pull ups right away, like the overnight pull ups.
I put pull ups still on Brooke, I'm for naps and bedtime.
Am I prolonging the process by doing that?

(01:04:47):
Probably. With the Reese, what happened
was we, you know, started to slow down her liquids at night.
Like, she'd drink liquids at dinner.
And then we weren't like, just refilling mindlessly after the
fact. And so we'd stop at a certain
point and then she stopped having a wet pull up and
eventually we felt comfortable taking it off.
I probably could have done that in a more diligent way to, like,

(01:05:10):
make the process go shorter. Will I do that with Brooke?
I don't know. We'll see.
But yeah, she's still using pullups for naps.
And and bedtimes, sometimes the pull up sweat, sometimes it's
not and all just depends. And it was the same case for
Reese. We're going into summer.
I'm not going to withhold water when we're outside and it's hot.
What is the right age to potty train?

(01:05:31):
So I did one child a few months before she turned to the other
child just at 3. The reason I chose to do reset 3
honestly, because I was going tohave another baby and I didn't
need three of us in diapers. OK, I didn't want to change.
Three diapers. So that's why I did it, chose to
do it. Would I have pushed it out
longer? I don't know, maybe.
And then with Brooke, I did it early because like I've shared,

(01:05:53):
I was inspired by a mom at dancewho potty trained her 2 twin
girls ahead of being 2. And I was like, I'm going to
give it a try. I don't love Brooke being potty
trained. It's not fun for me really.
No, it's not fun at all. She has the batter size of a pee
constantly, constantly, constantly and she gets

(01:06:13):
distracted when she's in the bathroom, so she'll pee a little
bit and hold the rest in and then a few minutes later she
goes I have to pee and I'm like,there's no way, but I can't not
take her I. Listen to her.
I have. To so I bring her in Pee's a
gallon had no liquid in between a gallon.
I'm like, and I don't see an insight.
I don't see an insight. Car rides are the worst.
She'll go sit potty and I'll be like, do you have to sit in the

(01:06:35):
potty? And then she'll go no sit potty,
no sit potty. And then I'm like, what do I do?
All right, So I'm like, I don't want to pull over.
Yeah, I hate it. I hate it.
It's not fun. I kind of wish I waited a little
bit longer. So maybe the sweet spots too.
And 1/2. I feel like 2 1/2 to three years
old seems to be like the sweet spot where they can understand

(01:06:58):
you enough to grasp the concept,but they're not so old that it's
inappropriate. Right, right.
And I have a strong willed. Actually, they're both very
strong willed. They're both very strong willed
people. If I would have waited a second
longer with Reese, I think it could have been a disaster.
So find the sweet spot for you, trust or gut, but also you'll

(01:07:21):
know. Know a few days in if your child
is just simply not ready. Try to gauge that before you
start this because you don't want to quit like I said.
But you'll know a few days in ifyour child simply is not ready.
And if it is that they are not ready, not that they are just
resistant. There's a difference.
OK, so my wrap up for this is you are in house locked out

(01:07:43):
three to five days. Do not plan to go anywhere
because that's going to, you know, it just makes it harder on
you and there's so many additional distractions for your
child. I'm not going to lie to you,
potty training for me has been my, I'm not trying to be
dramatic or funny, my least favorite parenting experience to
date. I do not like it personally.

(01:08:05):
It could just be a me thing. Maybe you can think of things
that you can do throughout your day to give yourself a little
bit of reprieve or plan ahead and think about what you're
going to do to help yourself decompress after after the child
goes to bed. Because I think you will need
that. I needed that and I did not make

(01:08:26):
those plans ahead of time. That probably would have been
really beneficial for. Me, I'm not excited to go
through the journey but happy tohave a friend that has already
done it. Yeah, I'll give you a tip so you
can come back and listen to thisepisode.
Yeah, seriously. Sorry, I like I don't want to be
the person that's like, it's going to be fine.
You'll have a great time. And then I keep making slips of

(01:08:46):
how miserable I was during. I just I got to be honest about
my experience with that. I really hated it.
I hope, I hope that you have a different experience and then
you look at this podcast and sayMegan's so dramatic.
I hope that is the that would begreat.
So every time we finish recording, it's always 12/12/15

(01:09:07):
roughly. And I go out so excited to like
fill my water and get in PJ's and go and get to bed.
And then I realized I have to pump the pump and I freaking
hate that. Like, do I have to be up for
like 40-5 more minutes? I just want to go to bed, yeah.
A shower at night too so I don'tgo to bed right away.

(01:09:28):
OK, that's good to know. I woke up before Penny once this
week. It was awesome for like a whole
hour. Nice, isn't it Nice?
I got ready, I did the dishes and I mean started breakfast.
Isn't that so nice? Awesome.
Like best morning I'd had. I tried to do it this morning,

(01:09:50):
but I didn't roll out of bed until like 645 instead of 6.
And I like rolled over. Penny usually gets up like 7:30.
So I was like, I still have 45 minutes.
That's good. I could pump.
I rolled over and saw Penny likelaying there all cute and before
I flipped over I saw her flip over and start like talking to

(01:10:13):
herself. And I was like no, no, yeah,
seriously. So she woke up with me today but
I still woke up like 30 seconds before.
Yeah. So yeah, yeah, we're working on
it. I definitely will wake up with
her because we're going to bed so late, but hopefully this
weekend I'll be able to get backon track.
Yeah, fullest. I do not wake up at 5.

(01:10:34):
Actually, there have been so many times lately that I do not
wake up when I intend to wake up.
I've been up late very often because the podcast, which is
fine. But yeah, my 5 doesn't always
work out lately and there have been times that Reese has gotten
up early and I am, like I said, I still have the monitor.

(01:10:55):
It's not even because I need it in the middle of the night.
It's a lot. I I love it in the morning.
Yes, even when I'm bringing the laundry down to go get Brooke.
If Brooke wakes up early, I don't want her popping out of
the door without me being aware I will jump like I forget that
other people live in this house and it scares me.
Anyways, I'll add to my list of things I should talk about in

(01:11:15):
therapy. So I have the monitor, but if
I'll she'll get up, I'll hear her door, whatever.
And I yes just wanted to like drink 1/2 off this cup of coffee
in silence. And Reese is anti silent lately.
Really. Penny has been very loud lately.
I don't know why I didn't updateyou this in the beginning.
She said Dada. Let me say, three months after

(01:11:37):
she said Mama. But you know, she said Dada.
Finally. Penny's definitely like a verbal
kid. She talks and babbles None.
Yeah, stop. Yeah, you don't get a lot of
silence. They girls like to chat.
I was like a chat. I mean, Taylor and I laugh about
it all the time because I was like, she had no hope.
Like having me and Taylor as parents.
She's going to be a chatty little girl.

(01:11:58):
Both are girl. Yeah, Colton and I are both very
chatty as well. Colton more so than me.
And yeah, all right, cool. Let's wrap this up.
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(01:12:18):
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(01:12:39):
Well, we hope you guys have a great day and don't forget to
quarter your kids grapes.