Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Potty Trained and Potty Party!

I am now ready to say that Luke is officially potty trained. YEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHAWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!

I was looking for two specific things to be consistent before I was ready to officially deem him potty trained: (Ready for this – I know you’ll be shocked at my potty training criteria!) =)

1. Consistently* going #1 in the potty

2. Consistently* going #2 in the potty

*(By “consistently” I mean doing this for 7 days straight without regression. Accidents are accidents, and they didn’t really count in this. However, if he knowingly went potty in his pants or diaper, I started my day count over.)

Now, Luke has had minimal accidents. In fact, I can count that number of accidents on one hand (and believe me, I know how lucky I am to be able to say that.) After the first few days of training in January, he pretty much had the #1 part down. He quickly progressed to the big potty and all was good.

Our biggest problem was him going #2 in his diaper in the morning (or sometimes in bed at night) before he was changed into his big boy pants. (We still put Luke in a diaper right before bed at night – his bladder isn’t quite ready to go all night long yet.) So though he’s been doing fantastic going #1 in the potty for quite some time now – and he had been doing moderate going #2, I still wanted to see the habit of going #2 in the potty consistently formed before calling him potty trained. I am pleased to say he has now been going #2 in the potty for almost 2 weeks straight now – without any dirty diapers! YEEHAWW!!!

We had told Luke from the beginning that when he was potty trained, we would give him a potty party and a toy. In the middle of the whole process, we also threw in Chuck E. Cheese for additional motivation.

Yesterday he finally earned the end goal! He was super excited to be going to Chucky Cheese for the first time. Later that day he got a few toys and a book (thank you Uncle Randy and Aunt Jamie for the cute book!) and cupcakes for dessert. We were very very proud of him!

On the way to Chuck E. Cheese!





They were a little overwhelmed at first, but it didn't take long until they were all over the place.



Way to go Luke!


Will peeking out of the play area.


They loved these little games, this was their favorite.


Down the slide!


Taking a ride with Chuck E.


Luke loves air hockey!


Yehawww!


Will attempting a shooting game.


Weeeeee!


Fun times!


This is as close as Will would get to this huge mechanical rat, er mouse...is it a rat or a mouse?


Luke wanted these very specific space toys...he picked them out a LONG time ago...and we bought them a long time ago, it was nice to finally be able to give them to him.


Yummy cupcakes!



Julianne enjoying the fun too!

Learning Time

I’m not as consistent and organized as I’d like to be for our Learning Time, but I am always amazed and proud of the boys’ progress when we do get a chance to sit down and focus on learning. Luke is doing an amazing job learning his letters and numbers. Will is beginning to learn them as well! It’s so much fun to see them blossom.

I hope to implement a more scheduled Learning Time for both of them in the very near future.


I love these little write and wipe books. (If you live in the area, you can get these REAL cheap at Ollie’s) It's so nice to let them practice and draw to their hearts content - then clean up is a breeze...just wipe it all off and you're done!


Luke drew a person the other day! I was so proud of him!

Here is Will's person drawing (I think!)


Learning numbers and letters...


Happy Valentine’s Day!

The boys enjoyed putting together valentines this year (well, Luke more than Will.) I can’t believe this is the only picture of Valentine’s Day we have, but I guess it is!


The boys each got a special little bag of goodies for Valentine’s Day and Chris and I exchanged a small gift and card and then enjoyed a movie and dinner the following night (thanks to Steve and Judy for babysitting the kids for that!)


Here are the boys making out their valentines!

Finding Nemo

Earlier this month, we were able to go to Disney’s Nemo on Ice show and it was fantastic! The boys were mesmerized! I thought they did a great job telling the story and the costumes and set were phenomenal. It was a great show and a great experience for the boys!

The set was fantastic!

The boys were mesmerized...




Chris was amazed! =)



Julianne loved it too!


Bruce the shark!


"Dude!"

"Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine."

If you ever get a chance to see Nemo on ice, it's worth it!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Random Thoughts while Sick in Bed

Last night a spontaneous high fever hit out of the blue. The fever broke sometime last night, but it left a horrid headache and extreme fatigue in its wake. Thankfully Chris was home today and took care of the kids while I allowed my body to get the rest it demanded. Though I am feeling much better, I’m still a bit sluggish and weak – so here I am…in bed blogging =)

I thought I would blog some random thoughts…I can’t remember the last time I did that – and my goal for this year was to do a more variety of blogging.

Random Thought 1 - Recovery Service:

The other night, as I was walking through the house to check on the boys, I saw a sad looking dog sitting outside the dining room window….staring in with big sad eyes. I noticed immediately that it had a collar on – and hoped it had a number or some sort of identification attached. It was cold outside, and the poor dog looked quite pathetic. I took the dog and put it in the fenced in backyard and noticed it had a recovery tag, phone number and ID number. PHEW! I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with a stray dog otherwise! So, I called the recovery number who patched me through to the owner (which was a relief, but I felt bad that it was midnight…but I just kept telling myself – “I would want to know where Riley was at ANY time if she were missing.”) The owner was really nice and we were able to meet her and give her back her dog. So, why am I blogging about this? Just to encourage any pet owners out there to register your pets with a recovery service if you can. Though we never like to think of our pet going missing, you never know when they might get away from the house. This isn’t the first stray dog we have come across but it was BY FAR the easiest one to get back home.

Random Thought 2 - Donuts:

Earlier this week, I took Will to his 2 yr well baby check up. I always dread these when I know it’ll end with a vaccination. Will did great! His growth was on track and he checked out healthy (short of a small ear infection which the Dr. prescribed some antibiotics for.) Of course, Will was not excited when they gave him his shots – it’s always hard to see your unsuspecting child get a shot…and they look at you with those tear filled eyes that are screaming, “HOW COULD YOU?!” I promised him a donut after it was all over, and that seemed to smooth it over. Phew! =)

Random Thought 3 - Strangers: To trust or not to trust…

While Will and I were at the store waiting for his prescription and picking up a few groceries – the skies continued to pour out rain. It was miserable yucky weather. The store was practically deserted because no one wanted to be out in such a mess. In fact, the “less than 20 items” check out lady asked me to go down her lane because no one else was there! Anyway, after checking out, Will and I plunged out into the nasty rainstorm. To my surprise, just as I pushed the cart up next to the car, the young man who was gathering up all the carts outside offered to load my trunk for me. (Of course the first thing that comes to mind is “Trust no one…” and it’s unfortunate that has to be a woman’s thought in today’s world…but sadly it’s just not a safe world.) However, I was able to quickly assess the situation. I had seen this young man a million times working at the store and knew in my gut that he sincerely just wanted to help, and there were people walking in and out of the store very close by. So I accepted his help. By the time I had Will buckled in, he had loaded my trunk and taken my cart and was off to gather up more carts in the parking lot. As I drove away, I was thankful for his kindness. But it grieves me greatly that we can’t trust strangers in today’s world. It saddens me that –for a woman- going on a walk alone is dangerous. It scares me that a child can be abducted from the park – or even worse, from their own house. I am humbled that a complete stranger was willing to stand in the rain and load my groceries so I could buckle my little boy in - and that he meant no harm. If only we could trust all such strangers. Unfortunately, crime has proven time and time again that we can't trust just anyone. It's a shame.

Random Thought 4 - The Job Situation:

Ugh. It is a really tough time to be looking for a job...really tough time. So far nothing has panned out. This, of course, is frustrating. We have lived in limbo for such a long time now; it would be nice to be able to settle down. We are eternally grateful to Steve and Judy who continue to open their home to us. I know that God has a plan for us – a path for us to journey. So, as we continue to wait – and to hope – I continue to pray for God’s guidance.

Random Thought 5 - Coffee:

I love Coffee! =)

Random Thought 6 - LOST:

I am SO excited for the final season of LOST! It is, however, bittersweet. Chris and I got into LOST way back in KS. We have enjoyed trying to figure out where everything is going. Now that the final season is upon us, it’s kinda sad to know there won’t be another season. Oh well, I guess all good things must come to an end sometime.

Well, if you’ve made it this far in my Random Thoughts blog, I applaud you! =) Thank You for perusing my random thoughts.