So after being out of work for an extra couple of days due to Irene, I'm back on the job. After being away for almost a week AC did not want to see his parents leave, whining, crying, tantrum, and I always hit a wall of not knowing what to do. I don't know whether to intervene and make him cry a little more but ultimately getting him to calm down or should I let his parents take care of. So there I was a seasoned nanny frozen like I didn't have my sea legs back yet, ultimately I took him outside with his mom and he relaxed. After they left he was back to being his normal bubbly self. Anyone else ever feel like they are dealing with two different kids? AC is one type of kid when I'm there and then acts like a complete other crazy out of control child when a parent is there. I can never gain control of him when we're not alone. But luckily for me these last couple of days we've been alone which is good because we've also been without electric so it would've been horrendous. Nothing around us is open parks, YMCA, zoos, playgrounds everything is closed due to hurricane Irene, so Tuesday was difficult at first but then we ended up going to a flower shop and looked around, picked some flowers, it was nice. Nap time was a little difficult because of it being so quiet that every little noise seems sooo loud. Today was much better but since everything was closed we stayed home and just played outside. Anyone have any fun activity suggestions? We played outside, watered the flowers, had some water play, went for a walk, did some sidewalk chalk, arts and crafts, and of course some imagination play but then after those I ran out of ideas! Potty is still a battle with a huge accident today that ended in a change of pants but overall its been pretty good week. Tomorrow my week should end unless I end up having to work on Friday, but either way I'll keep you updated!
XoXo Nicole
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
Tips for Potty Training
Since this is the second day I haven't been to work because of hurricane Irene, and I have no interesting stories to report I figured I'd share some of my personal secrets for dealing with difficult toddler boys or toddlers mostly potty training. I've faced many an uphill battle with AC whether it be potty training which is still a work in progress, cutting the TV addiction, or trying to stop him from storing food in his cheeks much like a chipmunk. These tips and tricks are what really helped me, and no I didn't read them in some fancy book, website, or old wives tales I used my own common sense and brain. This time I'll mainly focus on potty training.
1. Potty training- This is still a work in progress but its been a long time since AC has had any type of BM* in his diaper. First it should be clear that the child is ready, they understand that their going potty in their diaper and they have the verbal cues to be able to vocalize when they need to go. If they can't tell you, how can they learn? Anyways what I started with was leaving the door open when I would use the bathroom, which seems strange yes butttt it invited him in and let him know that the bathroom was a "cool" place and even I used it. Children that typically are not invited in or don't see someone using the bathroom won't know what it is, and maybe they only see the bathroom as a fun place to take a bath etc. Next when I would be able to tell that AC was having a BM I'd put him diaper, pants and all on the toilet so he started to understand and make the connection that he should be in the bathroom and on the toilet when he needed to go. At first he hated being on the toilet when he was having a BM so occasionally I'd let him just stand in the bathroom so he still understood that he needed to be in there but I didn't want to make it a traumatic place for him. Many mistakes that I've seen parents and others make is getting mad or frustrated when their child doesn't understand or isn't doing what they ask, but pushing a child to go especially in a bathroom when their not ready could potentially cause that child to dislike the bathroom, which could cause additional difficulties that might not have been present before like a new hate for the bathroom as a whole making bath time especially frustrating for child and parent. Eventually AC started making the connection and would just walk into the bathroom when he was having a BM or urinating, that's when I started using the toilet insert instead of the mini potty. Mini pottys are fantastic don't get me wrong but I just wanted to skip that whole step of transiting AC from mini potty to big boy potty so toilet insert was excellent, and using a mini step stool so AC could feel like he was doing everything on his own including setting himself on the potty. I place AC on the potty in the morning as soon as he woke up, before and after breakfast/lunch/dinner, and before and after nap time, basically 3-4 times an hour for 5-10 minute increments. When he did go I would freak out clapping and continuously saying good job and we had a rewards system that for every time he went he would get 1-2 M&M's depending on what he did. Even when he wasn't going I would still congradulate him saying great job and high-fiving him. Then when he would be all done I would make him say all done, or ready diaper change. Then we had a routine he would get himself off the potty, flush the toilet, we'd walk into the room where he would get a diaper change, lastly we'd walk back into the bathroom and wash our hands while singing a song (We always washed our hands no matter what), something like soap soap soap, lather lather lather rinse rinse rinse dry dry dry JUMP and I'd help him jump off the step stool. The next step was moving onto pull ups which he is still in, pull ups let the child be proud of themselves we called them "big boy undies" being able to pull them up and down, and feel very independent. AC still has accidents but he is basically fully potty trained, he goes without any reward and hates having a wet or dirty pull up.
I hope this was helpful and if you have any questions, comments please feel free to comment! Good luck and happy potty training.
XoXo Nicole
1. Potty training- This is still a work in progress but its been a long time since AC has had any type of BM* in his diaper. First it should be clear that the child is ready, they understand that their going potty in their diaper and they have the verbal cues to be able to vocalize when they need to go. If they can't tell you, how can they learn? Anyways what I started with was leaving the door open when I would use the bathroom, which seems strange yes butttt it invited him in and let him know that the bathroom was a "cool" place and even I used it. Children that typically are not invited in or don't see someone using the bathroom won't know what it is, and maybe they only see the bathroom as a fun place to take a bath etc. Next when I would be able to tell that AC was having a BM I'd put him diaper, pants and all on the toilet so he started to understand and make the connection that he should be in the bathroom and on the toilet when he needed to go. At first he hated being on the toilet when he was having a BM so occasionally I'd let him just stand in the bathroom so he still understood that he needed to be in there but I didn't want to make it a traumatic place for him. Many mistakes that I've seen parents and others make is getting mad or frustrated when their child doesn't understand or isn't doing what they ask, but pushing a child to go especially in a bathroom when their not ready could potentially cause that child to dislike the bathroom, which could cause additional difficulties that might not have been present before like a new hate for the bathroom as a whole making bath time especially frustrating for child and parent. Eventually AC started making the connection and would just walk into the bathroom when he was having a BM or urinating, that's when I started using the toilet insert instead of the mini potty. Mini pottys are fantastic don't get me wrong but I just wanted to skip that whole step of transiting AC from mini potty to big boy potty so toilet insert was excellent, and using a mini step stool so AC could feel like he was doing everything on his own including setting himself on the potty. I place AC on the potty in the morning as soon as he woke up, before and after breakfast/lunch/dinner, and before and after nap time, basically 3-4 times an hour for 5-10 minute increments. When he did go I would freak out clapping and continuously saying good job and we had a rewards system that for every time he went he would get 1-2 M&M's depending on what he did. Even when he wasn't going I would still congradulate him saying great job and high-fiving him. Then when he would be all done I would make him say all done, or ready diaper change. Then we had a routine he would get himself off the potty, flush the toilet, we'd walk into the room where he would get a diaper change, lastly we'd walk back into the bathroom and wash our hands while singing a song (We always washed our hands no matter what), something like soap soap soap, lather lather lather rinse rinse rinse dry dry dry JUMP and I'd help him jump off the step stool. The next step was moving onto pull ups which he is still in, pull ups let the child be proud of themselves we called them "big boy undies" being able to pull them up and down, and feel very independent. AC still has accidents but he is basically fully potty trained, he goes without any reward and hates having a wet or dirty pull up.
I hope this was helpful and if you have any questions, comments please feel free to comment! Good luck and happy potty training.
XoXo Nicole
Sunday, August 28, 2011
The Beginning
Welcome to my first blog and post! This is where I'm going to document my life as a nanny, everything from my successes, fails, trials, venting, and experiences as a whole. This post will just be a little background of what led up to the present. So that being said I've been a nanny for a little over a year to a fantastic little 2 year old boy (who I'll refer to as AC), but it wasn't always fantastic, nor did I ever think I would become a nanny OR be great at it! Before nanny life I just worked at the regular kind of monotonous retail management job and the biggest thing I had to worry about was whether or not someone would call out and if I'd work with a bad associate. Trying to balance school, friends, family, and a 20 hour a week job thinking that life was hard and stressful. So what events led up to me being a nanny? Good question! I was a sales leader working a closing shift with a associate that was a mom she was telling me how she thought I'd make a great mom and nanny, and thats when she told me about this website where families hired nannies through, she also told me the type of money I could be making. I blew her off not really thinking about it much until one day my store manager and I got into an argument and I had it, I went home looked up the website made a profile and started applying to jobs. I got interviews right away and ended up getting the first nanny job I interviewed for which coincidentally wasn't the one I wanted, but was obviously the one I was meant to have, and bam I've been there since.
At first nanny life was terrible and I hated it, I was over worked, over stressed, and had no idea what the hell I was doing. I had never changed a diaper before let alone cleaned up vomit before. My first day alone I put on a diaper backwards, had AC puke all over himself, the floor, and me, and got lost on my way from their house to the library! I wanted to quit the first week but I couldn't stand the thought of crawling back to my terrible horrible nazi store manager begging for my position back so I stuck it out. It didn't get any better for a while, I thought AC was weird and he wasn't the biggest fan of me at first and believe me the feeling was mutual, he use to do STRANGE things when I would call him "zombie baby," hate me all you want it was the truth. After a few months I finally started to figure out nanny life, and started changing things up. When I started AC was completely non verbal and had some non documented diagnoses of Autism, he didn't keep eye contact, was ADDICTED to the T.V, had poor motor skills, and always seemed very unemotional and emotionally detached. The previous nanny was a useless piece of flesh that did nothing but pop him in front of the TV. I honestly had no idea where to start, I just followed my instincts and started with his emotions for goodness sake AC didn't even know what a hug or kiss was! My first day without a parent home, and after the puke was clean I started teaching him I started with kiss. By the end of the first day he was the master of kiss, and once I realized that not only was he eager to learn but he could learn quickly AC and I started our learning adventures! In the matter of 6 months he was verbal, forming words, excelling in motor skills, knew all of his ABC's, 123's up to 15, was no longer being looked at as an Autistic child, I cut the TV addiction right out, and he was verbalizing his emotions! It was a great accomplishment and still is because everyday he learns something new and I'm helping him!!! Needless to say I am now loving, thriving, excelling, and crazy happy with where I am now and where AC is now in development. So that is what this blog will be about my life, my nanny life, AC's development, my nanny secrets for teaching, handling parent/child issues, and education secrets that worked for me! Hope you'll follow me on my adventures!
XoXo Nicole
At first nanny life was terrible and I hated it, I was over worked, over stressed, and had no idea what the hell I was doing. I had never changed a diaper before let alone cleaned up vomit before. My first day alone I put on a diaper backwards, had AC puke all over himself, the floor, and me, and got lost on my way from their house to the library! I wanted to quit the first week but I couldn't stand the thought of crawling back to my terrible horrible nazi store manager begging for my position back so I stuck it out. It didn't get any better for a while, I thought AC was weird and he wasn't the biggest fan of me at first and believe me the feeling was mutual, he use to do STRANGE things when I would call him "zombie baby," hate me all you want it was the truth. After a few months I finally started to figure out nanny life, and started changing things up. When I started AC was completely non verbal and had some non documented diagnoses of Autism, he didn't keep eye contact, was ADDICTED to the T.V, had poor motor skills, and always seemed very unemotional and emotionally detached. The previous nanny was a useless piece of flesh that did nothing but pop him in front of the TV. I honestly had no idea where to start, I just followed my instincts and started with his emotions for goodness sake AC didn't even know what a hug or kiss was! My first day without a parent home, and after the puke was clean I started teaching him I started with kiss. By the end of the first day he was the master of kiss, and once I realized that not only was he eager to learn but he could learn quickly AC and I started our learning adventures! In the matter of 6 months he was verbal, forming words, excelling in motor skills, knew all of his ABC's, 123's up to 15, was no longer being looked at as an Autistic child, I cut the TV addiction right out, and he was verbalizing his emotions! It was a great accomplishment and still is because everyday he learns something new and I'm helping him!!! Needless to say I am now loving, thriving, excelling, and crazy happy with where I am now and where AC is now in development. So that is what this blog will be about my life, my nanny life, AC's development, my nanny secrets for teaching, handling parent/child issues, and education secrets that worked for me! Hope you'll follow me on my adventures!
XoXo Nicole
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