Potty Training

Well, when Jason turned two all of his friends of the same age seemed to be potty trained. I thought it was too early for him for a few reasons. First he had zero interest, second, he never wanted to be changed out of dirty diapers, and he didn't hide when he pooped, and finally he couldn't talk yet. He has been taking for a few months now, but still showed no interest, but I decided it was time whether he liked it or not. If it were up to him he wold just stay in diapers forever. I had a few trials, but they were always unsuccessful. I decided we would atleast put him in underwear for one week, and see what happened.

A friend of mine told me she threw a "potty party" for one of her sons. So that's what we did- for one week we kept telling Jason that he was going to have a potty party and that after his party he couldn't wear diapers any more. We watched a potty movie, read potty books, sang potty songs and ate his food of choice- cookies. We had the party on Sunday and just finished our first week in underwear. Every time he pees on the potty he gets one chocolate chip. When he poops I let hi choice a snack or a toy from the basement. Potty training is HARD- but the outcome has been better than we expected. At first he would go on the potty, but wouldn't initiate it himself. If I didn't make him go frequently he would have accidents. For the first few days we had some issues getting him to poop on the potty too. For the most part he does all of his peeing on the potty (is getting better everyday) and on day 5 he went poop for the first time on the potty. I used a peaches trick I hear so much about and watched him like a hawk. Sure enough I saw a look of terror in his face and rushed him to the bathroom... he did it!

Our next hurdle was how to take him out of the house in underwear. I'm not going to lie, we were scared. He only ever used his little potty chair and not the big potty, and obviously little potty chairs are not acattered throughout the city. Our fears were not realized. We have taken him out twice so far, and no accidents. He even went on the big potty at Wegmans!!! Now that it has been 7 days he even iniates going all by himself, and started to pull his pants down himself too. He now uses both pottys. This morning was his first morning waking up with a dry diaper (usually they are loaded). I think that means no more bedtime diapers soon. I'm so excited, and so PROUD of Jason.

We still have a long way to go (we usually have one accident/day), but I'm so glad we have come this far. Jason is such a big boy now. He is so smart and sweet and polite! YAY Jason!

Kids

Some new pictures... I think the one of Jason is so funny because he posed like that with out any prompting...

A new year...

The new year has brought a lot of new adventures our way. For starters, we are in the process of buying our first house! We found a house and fell in love with it the first weekend in January, and our offer was accepted and the contract was signed today! Next, since I can't seem to shake the baby weight on my own this time, I joined a gym. I absolutely love it- I take 60 min classes about 5 times a week! Mike is almost ready to take the second part of the CPA exam. He's been studying like crazy, and takes the test at the end of the month. It's almost tax time, and that means 60 hr work weeks for Mike. Can't wait until April 15th! We have still been struggling with potty training. Jason just isn't interested at all. I am going to take a break and try again in a few weeks. I figure it's better to potty train him in the appartment (for the inevitable accidents on the floor) than in our new house. I also started only giving Jason cups without lids this month. It seemed to coinside with these massive fits he started to through. I started letting him use lids in the morning and before bedtime, and low and behold the fits disappeared (thankfully)!

Here are Lexie's first shoes! So cute!


Jason has really started to like drawing. This is a picture he drew of himself! Isn't he tallented?


Here he drew a C! Yay for my Jason!


Lexie started to sit in her highchair last month. Here she is with some of her new toys from Christmas :-)

With her new found supported sitter skills came cereal eating. Lexie had her first taste at about 4 months. She gobbled it up right away, and has been eating it twice a day ever since! Unfortunately it doesn't make her sleep better. Her first cereals were mixed grain, and oatmeal. She even got to try squash a few days ago... she just loves to eat! She was in her bumbo eating in this picture because we were at her Grandma's house.

Jason got these cool connector blocks for Christmas, and just loves making creatures with them.

Here are Spike and Ben.

This is another first of Jason's... His first time ever falling asleep on the couch. The holidays really wore him out.