Potty Training - Part II

Tools of the trade
 (I didn't notice my wine until after I took the picture -
I didn't see a need to retake!)

I've lost count on what day it is and am too lazy to look at a calendar. I'm exhausted. I love my son, but for all that is holy we need some time apart.  I blame toilet training - this kid has sucked down more juice than I care to admit.  All in the name of underwear. 

See, part of this 3 day potty training entails filling him with liquid - enough to make his eye balls float. I do want him to eat, so milk was kept at the breakfast, lunch and dinner intervals.  Water worked for the first day or so but then I had to bribe him with the J-word.  We rarely give A juice, I am even more convinced it won't happen after this week.  Yes we water it down, we even start with fairly low-sugar Coconut Juice, which he loves.  It's 7:45pm and he is hyped beyond belief and hasn't had a sip of juice since about 2:30.  Yikes! This has gone on all.week.long.

Okay enough of the downside. What's the up? Well - we have been in undies, as A likes to call them, all week.  Today we only had 1 accident and we were at the park, so while he said he had to go it was tough to get back home so quickly.  We've made small trips out of the house, to the park, the mall, in the car, to speech and back etc...he's been a champ.  He's a pro at going on a pubic toilet, after a scary first time (luckily it was at speech, where they have the pre-school size toilets). All he needed was the confidence to do it once and no he's fearless (as long as you're holding him, of course).  

I spoke with daycare today and we promised her a little extra green if she helped us out in this last month prior to preschool.  She seemed supportive so we look forward to Monday. Tomorrow is our first big adventure.  We have Teagan's 2nd birthday party in Golden Gate Park, so it will be a test of a longish (20 min) car ride and playing in the park.  Fingers crossed! 

Our "reward" chart

The bike is here.  We are debating when to give it to him. As you can see his poster is filling up! He likes to place like stickers on top of each other so you can't actually see but there are a lot on there - not following the road. If this was the Kentucky Derby of potty training all the stickers like to hang out in the infield. 

Bri's pumped to take it for a spin!

I only added this because our backyard looks great in the photo! HA HA

Potty Training - The first 2 days

So we're in the thick of it.  Bri and I are using a the "3-day potty training method" but I have taken the full week of work off, as the challenge of Anderson not being too vocal leads to mostly parent-led bathroom trips.  I want to get it down pat before I put him back in daycare, because to be honest, we're not going to get much support on that front.

How are we doing? Not too bad. We've gone through many pairs of underwear, as they get the tell-tale dampness before he figures out he has to go, but not once have I had to clean the floor up today, nor did we go through any sheets at naptime. Yesterday we went through two sets of sheets, and 1 pillow in efforts to nap without undies. Tonight is our first venture into bedtime without a diaper.  In fact Anderson has not seen a diaper since we took it off of him this morning.  

It exhausting - all we think about is pee and poop. I have to step back and remind myself how far we have come even since Friday as it's slow moving to the target.  On Friday Anderson would "pee" in his potty right before bedtime.  I say "pee" because it was more like a drop. Enough to get us excited and praise him but he did not empty his bladder at all.  Well we stopped praising him on the little ones and just kept placing him back on the potty even has he screamed in protest. It seems to have worked. Today he's filled the bowl each and every time - which is A LOT because part of this method is too fill your child with non-stop liquids.  This helps you able to catch him in the act as much as possible. Again, exhausting. However, we took a break last night and saw Harry Potter. It was our little reward.

Speaking of rewards, A really really wants a bike. So we got a piece of poster board, drew a terrible rendition of a road complete with a bike at the finish line and use this as his incentive.  We repeat no less than 50 times a day - pee pee and poop go in the potty. If Anderson does all of his pee and poo in the potty he gets a bike.  So each time we get a potty full of either A gets to place a sticker on the road.  The red balance bike is on order and arrives later this week.  I have a good feeling he might make it to the end of the road by Sunday. If not, the long term goal is the day after Labor Day. I'm not going to jump the gun earlier than necessary. It's an uphill challenge. I'm so proud of our little guy already.

Summer fun.

Good times caught on camera.

Splashing with Griffin

yum!

The watermelon photo is my new all time favorite. Love.

Big Boy Bed

Anderson graduated to a big boy bed two weeks ago today. His crib did not convert and we decided to skip straight to a twin bed. We're shocked how easy it has been.  Sometimes he crawls out once or twice right after story time, but then he falls asleep and is out for the night.  No more middle of the night wake-ups (not sure if that was just because of his last 4 molars though) and even better when he's up in the morning he doesn't scream & cry. A stays in bed for the most part and says "dada?, dada?" until Dad comes to get him.  Yup, that's the father & son bonding time - I wouldn't want to start messing with it.

On the speech front, Anderson gets about 5 hours of speech therapy a week. 4 in a classroom setting and 45 minutes of 1:1 time.  We've seen a surge in vocabulary already and are hoping we'll start seeing some good 2-3 word phrases soon.

Odds & Ends

Anderson started speech class last week.  The EI system takes forever, so we 're happy to see him start. It's twice a week for two hours at time.  I think we've already seen progress in the 4 classes he has been to. Anderson now signs "me", because they require the children to say or sign me to take a turn. He's also added a few new words - avocado, shark, snack and a few I can't remember. 

He also tells us, " I stink", when something is going on in the diaper whether it's 1 or 2.  In fact just this morning he tells me "I stink" so I take him out of his crib, unzip the pj's and have him sit on the potty since I noticed his diaper was dry.  Low and behold he stands up, raises his arms and says "yay" - all for the right reasons! His first time going poop in the potty was a success.  I hope we can keep this up and really get him trained by September.  It's a bit a of stress point.

We're also looking at various stores to get Anderson his own twin sized bed.  I think this will help the potty training front and help him see the progression from baby (diapers) to big boy (underpants).

Happy 2nd Birthday, Anderson

We just love this guy to pieces.

Julius makes an appearance once again.

Handyman Birthday Party

For Anderson's 2nd Birthday we decided on a tool/handyman theme.   Bri and I have been on a little home improvement kick around the house and Anderson loves taking the hammer and using is it; he also knows exactly what to do with a wrench. As an added bonus he really digs watching some Handy Manny every now and then.

Since our house is in a perfect location for a party - hello, park - and we have a 12' trampoline it's only natural that his birthday parties will be held here until further notice.  One of the best parts of having a child is planning and creating a birthday party.  It's a bit ironic since I personally do not like parties for my birthday and this started even before that fateful day.

Invites I printed on #10 card stock

Finished product - hand cut

Instead of goodie bags I made goodie toolbelts! It is really easy and cheap! 

Toolbelt from Oriental Trading Co ($14.99/dozen)

Felt/Stencil/Yarn ($5 total from Michaels)

Cut a square and sew over the "Handy Dad" label 

Cut letter out of felt and glue to square. Ta da!
(Approx $1.65 per toolbelt!)

For less than $2 I have a great "goodie bag" that can be used over and over again for some creative play.  Now, I could have stopped here but I wanted some additional goodies for the kiddos to have.  Inside the pockets I've included tool shaped bubble sets ($5.99/dozen), an activity pad ($5/dozen), homemade tool crayons and a party toy ($2/dozen)

Crayons from ebay ($10)

Tool Chocolate Mold from Amazon ($2)

Melting down the crayons

Pouring the melted crayon into the mold

Finished! We made 6 tools in 8 colors.

The crayons were inserted into a colorful bag and then all the goodies were placed in the tool belt.  Here are the finished products!

Tool belts for all the kids!

Keeping with the theme I made some tool shaped chocolates to put on top of the cupcakes we were going to serve.  The chocolate molds were $2 on amazon and the candies were the one's Michael's sells. Michael's always has a 30-40% off coupon via email so sign up and go multiple times if need be.  One of my work locations is less than a mile, so I made frequent lunch time trips to maximize savings. I melted and dyed the white candies and painted them in the molds.  Once it cooled I poured the chocolate candy over it. Easy peasy, just a bit time consuming. 

FInished cupcakes with chocolate topper

I finished the theme off with some tool shaped sugar cookies, stuffed in Anderson's toy tool box and some construction hats.  Add a few colorful table clothes, balloons and some amazing weather and it was a recipe for success.  We enjoyed everyone's company and most important of all Anderson had a great party.

Dad surprised us with a great chalkboard drawing!
(yes, that's a door)

The party was such a success we took 3 pictures once it started. Hopefully Nan and Poa Poa will share theirs!

Happy (almost) Birthday, Anderson!