Our Week.

For the past week, the weather's been so nice that most of our time has been spent outside in the park or riding their bikes into town. David's excitement to ride his bike has faded somewhat, whereas Julia's has never been higher. We managed to make a few new crafts projects this week, especially since David, upon walking into the house, has a habit of asking "what are we making today?"

One day, on a way to school, David told me he wanted to make a house and have a soup for dinner. So, while Julia napped, I was busy chopping up ingredients for chicken soup, while I was trying to figure out how to put together a dog house for both kids to decorate later. Here's the result:

We also made some ladybugs - just because I thought they looked pretty cute!

We also made some jellyfish since 'J' was the "letter of the week" at his school last week.

I recently realized that David refers to the future as "tomorrow." Summer is tomorrow, his birthday is tomorrow, he is going to school tomorrow, etc.
Since his birthday party will be next Sunday, I decided to make a birthday countdown project to this day. Every night before he goes to bed, he takes off one of the rings and then counts how many days are left to his party. Unfortunately, I can't take credit for this clever craft, I came across it on here .

Surprisingly, David has been very curious as to how things work and as Seth obliges by taking out an Anatomy book. Tonight, Seth explained to David what happens to his dinner after it's swallowed, while David listened intently and occasionally interrupted with "what's that?"

Today we purchased David a belt since he's been wearing a piece of my yarn around his belly everywhere, calling it his belt. He figured out how to buckle it up, wore it all day long and already attached it to his clean pants for tomorrow.

The thing I am most excited about has to do with my crazy daughter. She's been wearing underwear for the last two weeks without having an accident and without being reminded to use a toilet. She goes on it by herself, takes her clothes off and then puts her underwear on by herself. She still has accidents at night, but at least we are done with diapers during the day. I just can't believe it took me longer to potty train her than David.

And after this long week, it looks like I'll have to come up with some craft ideas for tomorrow as the schools have all closed in preparation of a snow storm. Fun!

Are we there yet?

David turned two and a half years old last week and I decided to get off my a** and start potty training him (as per David's pediatrician, I should have done this before he was one year old). While it's true that he's been using potty for the last couple of months, it's only been when it was convenient for both of us. I've used up all of my excuses why David is still in diapers: a) it is so nice outside, so he should be playing in the park, b) I have an infant, so it is difficult to concentrate on potty training David, and c) we have a carpet and he can't be walking naked in the house and our backyard is not fenced in.
After realizing that most of the kids David's age are already out of diapers, I made a commitment of doing whatever was needed to get this kid to the next stage of a toddler-hood. So, last weekend we stuck around our neighborhood, didn't go anywhere further than a mile away from the house, but rather took advantage of what our town had to offer. The kids went to our library for a story time. We even flew a kite in a nearby park.




When David was boycotting the potty, he stayed home with daddy while Julia received my undivided attention at the park.


So, what have we accomplished if anything this weekend? David did have a few accidents and if it was up to Seth (who was the one cleaning all of them), you'd be reading all the glorious details about them. But since I want to maintain some of my child's integrity, all I can tell is that I've heard more disgusting potty training stories from other mothers. But otherwise, he did better than I had expected him to do. He went to the park wearing a pair of underwear and actually came home dry. He still doesn't ask me when he needs to go to the toilet, but at least he'll sit on it. Today, David's been wearing the same pair of pull ups all day long without wetting them once and even went on a toilet at the library while Julia was going through the garbage in there ... such is her life.
I feel as though this has been the most stressful and difficult part of the toddlerhood so far for ME. I don't know how long it will take David to get completely off the diapers, but for both of our sakes (as well as Julia's) it better doesn't last too long. If we're lucky, Julia will see how much David enjoys going potty and will quickly follow in his footsteps! (yeah, right!)

This blog has been brought to you bythe number 1, andthe letter P(ee)

This is a pair of underwear that's been lying in David's dresser for a few months now. Yes, I was very naive and hopeful that my son will be potty trained by the time he turns 2 years old. And I tried, unsuccessfully I might add. I'd spend up to an hour entertaining him while he would adamantly sit on his potty. Once I took my eyes off him to take care of Julia and he'd be gone! So, I gave it a rest... for a month.

Last month I decided to put him on a potty as soon as he woke up in the morning and after his nap. Seth or I jump out of bed as soon as we hear him in the morning and while sleep walking we bring David to his potty. I am very happy to say it's been working. As soon as David is done, which takes him a min or two, I'll scream "yay!" and dance around. I look like a total fool, but David seems to be amused. He insists on pouring it down the toilet, flushing it and saying "bye, bye" to it.

We are far away from David asking to go to the toilet or him using that pair of underwear, but slowly - very slowly - we are moving in that direction. But for now, I am off to Costco for 2 more boxes of Huggies; one for Julia and one for David.