Congratulations, Chase!

A few weeks ago Chase started waking up in the morning with a dry pull-up, so about two weeks ago we told him he could go to bed in roos (what they call underwear). Know what? He's woken up dry the majority of the mornings! There were a couple of times last week when he had a ton of water just before bed and woke up soaked in the morning, but other than that he's been good to go. We're so proud of our big boy and are hoping the other two follow suit soon!

Speaking of bedtime (sorta), we have some new sleeping arrangements. They're less than ideal, but it works for us. Bed time has been terrible here. We would put them down between 7:30 and 8 (usually closer to 7:30 if I was in charge) and they would proceed to party it up in their room for 2-3 hours! Nick and I were constantly ushering a child back to their room, holding the door shut, going in and telling them to lay down and be quiet, breaking up fights, etc. You get the picture. Lots of fun.

I asked a wise triplet mom I know (her boys are a couple of years older than mind) what she did. I knew her boys shared a room, so I wanted to know if this was just my boys being terrible or a 3-boys-sharing-a-room thing. Turns out it was a sharing a room thing. She shared a piece of advice that has changed our night time chaos dramatically...

We put them to bed in separate rooms. Just like at nap time, one sleeps in their room, one sleeps on the futon in the playroom and one sleeps in my bed. After they're all asleep we move them back to their beds. Now, instead of goofing off for 2-3 hours they only goof off for 30-45 minutes and sometimes it's shorter than that. Much better!

See, by 7:30 I am done with dealing with these boys. D-O-N-E. Adding 2-3 more hours of misbehaving was not making things better and after 4 months of room sharing they clearly weren't "learning" how to share a room at night. This set-up is not ideal, but it's an improvement. In a few months we'll let them try sharing a room again, but for now Nick and I can relax a little bit sooner at night.

A Big Cat, A Big Whoopie Pie and Improvements All Around

That's probably an excessively long blog post title, but it's all I could come up with to describe the recent days here!

Friday night I successfully pulled off a surprise 30th birthday party for Nick. At the party the boys chased around a very large cat named Bubba. Tyler especially loved him. I think by the end of the night Bubba was not a fan of the boys.

For the birthday cake I decided to try something new... a GIANT Whoopie Pie! It came out beautifully and I'm willing to sell them to folks here in Kansas City (if I can figure out how to ship it I'll gladly sell it online).

In addition to a fun Friday night, we've seen some improvements this weekend in various areas of life. Here's the run down on those!

Potty Training: We've started having boys (namely Chase and Jackson) waking up dry in the mornings! The longest streak is 2 days (Chase), but most mornings one of them is dry. That gives us hope that potty training is almost complete. Woohoo!

Staying in Bed: We've seen vast improvements lately in this department. The boys still aren't perfect, but at least if they act up it's only for 10-15 minutes instead of 2 hours. I like to think this new found obedience is due to a nice mix of wearing-out activities during the day and bribery. The boys are collecting money for a mission project at church, and we've started telling them that if they're good boys and stay in bed they'll get more money to put in their Rice Bowl (the special bank they got from church). It's working pretty well!

Swimming Lessons: The boys have now completed 6 weeks of swim lessons and Nick and I are quite impressed with their new skills and bravery when it comes to water! Last week, during bath time, they kept putting their faces in the water. In class they've learned how to "walk" along the side of the pool with their hands, they've learned how to go completely under water, they've learned to use a kick board and this past weekend we saw them learning how to kick and move their arms. It's been a blast to watch! I can't wait to see how confident they are in the pool at my parent's hotel this week. Did I mention my parents are in town? Hooray for grandparent time!

Tyler (I think) trying out the kick board for the first time

Jackson under water - and Chase putting his ear in the water for some reason.

Quick Jackson! Wipe that water off your face!

Winners!

I had the fullest of intentions of writing all the entries on little slips of paper and having the boys draw the winners yesterday. However, I was distracted by the sight of Peeps and Reese's Eggs, so instead this morning I used the random number generator at Random.org to select the winner.

Winner of the Pull Ups - Comment #14 The Lane Family

Winner of treats from my Etsy Shop - Comment #56 Renee and Agua Family

Congrats ladies! Just send me an e-mail to threetimesthegiggles (at) gmail.com and we'll coordinate getting prizes to you! If I don't hear from you by Wednesday night I will pick an alternate winner.

Tomorrow I'll show you some pictures from Easter! I may have to do some head swapping in some group pictures... wouldn't it figure in the one picture where all three boys are looking at the camera my husband decided to cross his eyes? Here's a little picture to hold you over until tomorrow though...

Jackson

For now, I wanted to comment on some of the potty training questions that we asked in the Pull Ups giveaway!

1. What do you think is better: a potty chair or a potty ring that goes on the seat? Nick and I opted for the toilet ring, simply for selfish reasons... We didn't want to be emptying a potty chair (or 3) 100 times a day! The ring worked great at first but then I started having the boys sit backwards on the toilet (no ring) once in a while so that we'd have a way to use public bathrooms with them feeling comfortable. Before we knew it, the boys all preferred just sitting backwards!

2. In hind's sight, would I potty train the boys all at once or one at a time? Definitely one at a time! It was stressful enough watching one child for signs of an impending accident that I can't imagine trying to watch 3 at a time! Staggering them a week apart really was the best move for our family.

3. What are the signs of readiness? Are we talking in our children or the parents? ;) In all seriousness though, I've seen long lists of signs of readiness and if I waited until my kids showed each and every one of those I probably wouldn't have tried to PT the boys until they were 4! Here's what we looked for in the boys: telling us when they needed their diaper changed, increased curiosity of when Nick or I were going to the bathroom, ability to wake up dry from a nap and asking to sit on the potty. Chase exhibited those items most often so we chose him to go first, then the peer pressure took over for the other two!

4. On whether or not to wait to PT after a week long vacation next month or just do it now if he's ready... I say now! If he's ready and excited about it the process should go fairly quickly and I'm willing to be he'll have a pretty good handle on it by next month.

Now, as for the regression question I have no clue because we haven't gone through that. Questions like that and other questions you may have about PTing can be asked on the Pull Ups fan page on Facebook! Each week they have a Potty Training Expert look through the questions posted on the wall and they answer them. To join the Huggies Pull Ups Fan Page, click HERE!

Why 2 Year Olds Should Not Stand To Pee

*sigh* I knew this day would come. The day I'd really be annoyed that my loving husband decided to teach our darling boys how to pee standing up. Let me back up a bit though... Almost 2 months ago, while I was away for a short 36 hours, Nick decided to teach the boys how to pee standing up. Needless to say I was pretty annoyed when I called home and Nick told me what he was doing. I believe I whined something like "But Niiiick! The mess is going to be terrible!" He assured me the boys were doing a good job hitting the toilet but I was skeptical.

Turns out Nick was right. Chase and Jackson have been awesome at it! They rarely miss, so the mess has been minimal. Tyler hasn't really cared for the whole standing thing, so I haven't pushed it. In the last week though he decided he wanted to stand too. He seems to have a problem though...

Tuesday afternoon was a gorgeous day and we were playing in front of the house. Tyler said he had to go potty and his brothers didn't want to come inside, so I took Ty's shoes off at the door and sent him inside. He'd been gone a long time when I leaned in and said "Do you need help TyTy?" I could somewhat see him crouching on the floor of the bathroom, so I figured he was struggling with putting his clothes back on (something he likes to do himself). I took a few steps into the house so that I could get a good view....

Now picture if you will, Tyler squatting right in front of that dish towel and rubbing it in circles. I laughed. I had to! He had obviously pooped while standing to pee, and then realized that shouldn't have happened. Instead of coming to get me, he went to the kitchen, grabbed a dish towel and was trying to clean it up himself! I thanked him for trying to clean it up and told him to just leave it for me to clean. This all happened at about 5:15, so I made an executive decision: I was going to leave the mess for Nick to see, so that he'd know what he's "done".

Nick pulled into the driveway about 10 minutes later.

Me: I need you to go look at the bathroom.

Nick: Why?

Me: Just go look.

Nick: Which one?

Me: The boys'.

A few minutes passes...

Nick: What happened in there?!

Me: I believe Tyler was standing to pee and didn't know what to do when he suddenly had to poop too. I think you need to give him a little pep talk.

Nick: Oh dear.

Me: Did you see the dish towel?

Nick: Yeah. Why did you cover some of the poop with that?

Me: Oh that wasn't me! That was all Tyler! Apparently he was trying to clean it up.

Laughter from both of us

Me: You stay out here and play with the boys while I clean up the bathroom and finish dinner.

Nick: Feel free to toss that dish towel. 

End of an Era

Last night when I was out with a friend I received the following text from Nick: "Jackson just visited me in the living room twice". I immediately called him and said "are you telling me he climbed out of his crib?" and Nick said "yup". After further questioning it came out that there was no loud crash like Jackson fell out, rather he climbed out quite stealthily. He also was quite proud of himself each time, as evident by the huge grin on his face whenever he ran out to greet Nick.

This morning at 6:10am I woke to "mommy potty!" and as I sat up I watched Jackson swing his leg over his crib rail, scale the side and drop to the ground (I have a clear view of part of his crib and all of Chase's crib from my bed). He walked out into the hallway and just stood there, looking down out into the dark living room. I finally hissed "Jackson!" and he ran into my room and grinned at me. Little goober!

After taking him to the potty as he requested (where he did nothing I might add), I walked him back to his room and reminded him that it wasn't morning yet because the sun still wasn't out and he needed to lay back down and be quiet. He never went back to sleep, but at least he stayed put.

So it appears we'll be making the toddler bed switch sooner than we thought. I know as soon as Chase and Tyler watch Jackson climb out a couple of times it'll be a free-for-all in there anyway, so they might has well have less of a "danger" aspect when misbehaving.

I'm really glad Nick and I decided to start collecting beds and bedding now "just in case". We had hoped to make it to this summer before doing the switch, but we also said if we made it to 2 and a half we'd just switch when they climbed out (instead of buying crib tents), and we're at that point now. I have two toddler beds and 3 bedding sets I snagged at Target a week ago, so now I just need to find a 3rd bed.


Now a question for you been there, done that moms! Remember what I said about night-time PTing not being done yet? Well, last night Tyler woke up asking to pee 3 times. He was slightly wet at 1am (his first time), so had his pull-up changed then. Then he got up at 2:30 and 4:30am, and he was dry at 8am this morning! So here's the question: is it better at this age to tell them they can only get out to go potty or say they have to call for us to help them before they get out of bed?

Finally Done With Daytime Training

Potty training has been a loooong adventure with a couple of the boys. When we started with Chase late last July (a month before they turned 2) and he picked it up right away (virtually no day-time accidents after only a week and a half) I thought for sure Jackson and Tyler would pick it up just as quickly. Boy, were we spoiled by Chase!

At Christmas Jackson and Tyler still weren't pooping in the toilet. Every once in a while they'd do it, giving us hope that the months of torture were almost over, but it never lasted. We finally decided to up the ante when it came to what kind of "prize" we would hand out for successful pooping. We told Jackson and Tyler that if they made it to the toilet in time that Daddy would bring them home a special treat. They never knew what the treat would be, but it was always (well, almost always) a hit. Jackson was hooked and started using the toilet on a regular basis in January. Tyler did it a few times and then lost interest again. ARGH!

About 3 weeks ago my sister came over one Sunday afternoon. She had with her a bag of Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs (Easter Candy). Yum! She gave the boys each a couple and they were a huge hit, especially with Tyler. The next morning Tyler clearly needed to poop but wouldn't do it. The constant back and forth to the potty went on all day long. I told him at one point that if he did it in the toilet I would immediately take him to the store and he could pick out his special treat.

Finally at 7:20, after he was already in his PJs, he pooped in the toilet. I kept my word, threw some slippers and a coat on him and took him to Walgreen's while Nick continued to get the other two ready for bed. On the way to the store I asked Tyler what he wanted for his treat. He immediately said "eggs Auntie Laura had!". We walked to the Easter section and I couldn't convince Tyler that a light up Easter toy was better than peanut butter eggs, so at 7:30pm I let my child eat a couple of Reese's Eggs.

For the next couple of days Tyler pooped on the potty a couple of times a day, just to get 2 coveted eggs! Sweet! We'd found the right bribe reward finally! When the eggs ran out at home we went back to Walgreen's for another reward where he again chose candy (a Cars themed egg). Apparently we have a kid with a sweet tooth!

Anyway, we've been phasing out the rewards and Tyler is still rocking the pooping on the toilet. Woohoo! Nick and I are thrilled to have three, 2 and a half year old boys be fully day-time potty trained! Now I'm just hoping the night time happens naturally sometime soon here. I've been told by a PT "expert" that it often takes kids 6-9 months from the start of PTing to get both day and night time down, and we're at month 7 right now. Here's hoping it's soon! But even if it isn't, I'm just thrilled right now to not be cleaning out poopy underwear.

Random Bits

Videos: I got some simply hilarious videos of the boys this weekend! My dilemma? Which one to show you all first! Oh who knows, maybe you'll all get a bonus video this week.

Video Games: Nick is on my list this week. All last week the boys begged me after nap time to "watch Mommy play game". The game? Super Mario Bros. for Wii. Early last week I had been playing when just one kid woke up from their nap. They snuggled next to me on the couch while I played for another couple minutes and from then forward the boys wanted to just watch me play. I wasn't going to argue! It meant I could sit for a few minutes and they were highly entertained watching out for the bad turtles, penguins and caterpillars.

My lovely little post-nap routine was ruined Saturday afternoon by my husband. Nick had just gotten home, the boys were up from their naps and I was hanging out with some friends I'd had over. The Wii was on (because my friends and I had been testing out a couple of new games) and Nick decided to let the boys "play" Super Mario. Uh oh....

Guess what? Now they don't want to just watch! They want to play! And they don't just want to play after naptime... noooooo. I hear "play game right now!" all day long. Nice. I let them play for a bit with Aunt Laura yesterday afternoon, but no way are they playing today or probably tomorrow. Little gamer monsters have been created and now I must tame them ASAP.

Are You Needy? Yesterday morning I skimmed a couple of blogs I hadn't been to in probably a week or so. One post stuck out to me and even now, 24 hours later I continue to think about it. Usually The Meanest Mom makes me laugh. Yesterday she made me think. Check it out here: http://themeanestmom.blogspot.com/2010/01/needy_08.html

I think that post hit me even more because of a story that was shared in church this weekend. There's a 24 or 25 year old woman in our congregation who worked 3 jobs, while going to school, in order to buy a house in Africa and then fund the orphanage she started in it! Each year she raises the $50,000 needed to keep it running and staffed and has dreams of buying more houses and starting more orphanages. WOW! Shows you that just one person really can make an impact. If you're curious, her website is here: http://www.energyofhope.org/

Who Needs A Dog? This weekend Nick and I looked over at the table to see Jackson feeding Chase... Who needs a dog under the table when you have a Chase?

Potty Training Update: It's been a while since I updated you all on this little venture. We started the process almost 5 months ago now. Chase still rocks at it. Jackson and Tyler finally in the last 3 weeks have started doing #2 on the toilet. Hallelujah! They still aren't 100% consistant, but I'll take the 80% right now. They've been getting better and better at it. Next up to tackle? Night time training.

When we first trained, the boys all stayed dry at night. Then within a week or so they went back to wetting. Nick and I got tired (after a month of it) of changing the sheets on three cribs every morning, so we started putting them in Pull Ups at night. Occasionally someone will wake up pretty close to dry, but it doesn't happen often.

I need some insight from you moms who have kids trained at night... The last two nights Chase has woken up in the middle of the night (2:30 am and 3am) saying he had to go potty. The first night he was in a pull up, I got to him and he'd already gone. Last night he insisted on wearing his big boy underwear to bed. He again woke up saying he had to go potty. I bolted out of bed to get him and he'd already gone. I don't think he had just gone though because his skin was already slightly cool feeling. So here's what I'm wondering... is this his way of getting closer to night time trained? He never, ever used to wake up in the middle of the night to go. Or is this just a random fluke?

Vote For Us! And finally, I need your votes once again.... Take heart though - you aren't voting just for me. You're vote also enters you to win a $25 Target gift card, and who couldn't use one of those! It doesn't appear there's a limit on how often you can vote. Voting ends on Friday, so vote now before you forget! The boys are # 27 http://www.kcparent.com/Giveaways/SnowPhotoVoting.aspx

Pumpkin Patch Fun

I realize today is Wednesday and that usually means "Video Clip of the Week", but I don't have a video to share! Here's the thing... Chase has really gotten into singing along with songs. He's quite good and remembers a shocking number of words to the 15 or so songs we listen to on a regular basis. The problem though is he doesn't like to be video taped or even watched for that matter! I'm trying to be sneaky and catch him on film... hopefully by next week.

Now before you all riot on me, I do have something to make up for it. Tomorrow I'll be announcing my biggest giveaway yet - valued at almost $250! Get excited people and make sure you check back tomorrow!

For now you can enjoy some pictures from the boys' very first trip to a pumpkin patch...

Tyler in blue, Jackson in red, Chase in stripes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm sorry to say those porta potties were a part of the trip.... Yep. The boys have now used a porta potty. Awesome. Why is it I always feel like I need a Hazmat suit when I go in one of those things? Ick!

Thanks for those of you who have voted for me for Blog of the Year over at Multiples and More! Voting ends at 9pm EST tonight and I'm only down by about 60! Considering I average about 200 readers a day and only have 90+ votes so far, I should be able to catch the leader if everyone who hasn't voted yet, does! It's easy - go HERE and then scroll half way down the page until you see the voting polls on the right hand side. Blog of the Year is one of the last categories. Thanks!

Laugh or Cry

When raising children one must often make a conscience decision. Do you laugh or cry at whatever just happened? I've been trying really hard to choose "laugh" lately, even though I want to cry (or get mad at the very least). Here are two recent examples...

Lately Jackson and Tyler have had a hard time making it to the potty on time between the hours of 4pm and 6pm. It's really quite remarkable how many times the two of them can pee on the floor in those 2 hours (we're talking 4-6 accidents between the two of them in a 2 hour span). I don't know why they have such a hard time in the late afternoon/early evening, but they do. As a result dinner has been late several times because of all the, uh, activities here.

This past Monday night I decided I wasn't going to let these potty time escapades get the best of me or my dinner preparation. My plan of attack? Start dinner at 3:30pm in hopes it was done sometime between 5:30 and 6. Good thing I did too because it took me nearly 2 hours to get dinner into the oven! In those two hours we had 10 trips to the potty, 3 puddles on the floor and I got to rescue a sippy cup from a toilet. All I could do was laugh. And be glad I started dinner when I did!

The next night Tyler did something that had Nick and me rolling with laughter...

Yeah. That would be a large piece of poo you see there on the floor.

We were in the middle of dinner when Tyler suddenly jumped up and frantically said "potty! potty!" so I grabbed him and rushed him in there. I could tell he was starting to poop (something we've been working hard at getting him to do in the toilet rather than his underwear) so I was frantically trying to rip off his pants and his underwear. As I was doing this he also started to pee, so he was spraying everywhere before I finally got him on the toilet. That had me giggling enough and then just as Nick came to see what I was laughing at I noticed the poop on the floor. That sent me over the edge and Nick cracked up too. We told Ty he was so close!

What will you choose to do today when your kid does something crazy/obnoxious/frustrating? Laugh or cry? I'm choosing laugh again; it seems to make the days better.

Clean Up In Aisle 1

In the last 2 months I've mopped up more pee off the floor (both carpet and tile) than I care to count or even acknowledge. Let's just put it this way - potty training 3 is rough on carpet! I feel like my house must perpetually smell like urine, which is why I'm currently arranging to have a cleaning company come deep clean our carpets. Sorry, I'm getting off track here!

Early last week we had a horrendous 45 minutes here... I'll spare you some of the details because quite honestly they may cause you to lose your mid-morning snack (or lunch or dinner depending on when you read my blog). Basically though it all started with Tyler making the biggest mess on the carpet that I've seen yet and then that mess getting spread by Jackson. After I finished cleaning Tyler up I went into their bedroom and shut the door in hopes of cleaning the carpet before "stuff" set in.

While I was in the bedroom Chase had to pee, except he didn't bang on the door or even yell to me that he had to go potty... no. He peed on the floor (carpet again) right in front of the door. I whisked him to the other bathroom (bathroom #1 was still out of commission following Tyler's mess) to clean him up.

When Chase and I rounded the corner into the living room we found this...

 

  

I like to think Jackson noticed it had been a particularly trying 45 minutes for me so decided to take initiative and clean up his own mess. It should be noted they have NEVER helped mop pee off the floor - they've only watched me do it a hundred times. I was shocked when I came out and found him like this! He even had gone into their diaper bag, pulled out the container of wipes and pulled one out to mop the floor with. Needless to say, this was the silver lining (and something to make me laugh) on this very dark, very big cloud.

A Giveaway! Easy Potty Training Guide

I'm so excited to finally be hosting not one, but two giveaways here on my blog! It is my hope that these are just the first of many giveaways to come here at Three Times the Giggles. A very special welcome to those of you stopping by from the Multiples and More End of Summer Blog Party!




Alrighty, let's get to the fun stuff! Giveaway number one is a free copy of the e-book Easy Potty Training Guide from EasyPottyTraining.com. This book is a $17 value and believe me, if you don't win this giveaway the $17 is money well spent.

The concepts and techniques laid out in the e-book are simple to understand and easy to implement. Six weeks ago or so I started potty training my boys using the Easy Potty Training Guide. I opted to do the boys one at a time for my own sanity (which I honestly think was a very wise move) and started with Chase who seemed to show the most promise. At just 23 months old potty training "clicked" for Chase 4 days after we started training and within a week and a half he was rarely having accidents. Wow!

Before you get all excited and assume all children can train that quickly (after all, the guide does say most can train in 3 days or so) Jackson and Tyler trained much slower than Chase did. They each took almost 2 weeks to have it "click" and Tyler still is not there completely. You know what though? There are days where we don't have any accidents or we only have 1 accident between the 3 of them and it's a glorious feeling!

Interested? Want to try it with your kiddo(s)? You've come to the right place! Here's how you can win your very own copy of the Easy Potty Training Guide:

• Leave a comment with who you're looking to potty train and how hold they are, or who you would give this e-book to.
• Become a Follower of my blog for an extra entry (or tell me if you already are a follower)

Leave a separate comment for each of those two items! Contest closes at 9pm CST on Sunday and the winner will be announced Monday morning. Winners will have 3 days to contact me with their e-mail address or we'll go to an alternate winner. Good luck! 

9.06.09 - The contest is now closed! Check back Monday morning to see who won!

Weekend Highlights and Lowlights

We had a fun, family weekend here and it was filled with some great things and some not so great things... welcome to the randomness that is our life!

Highlight #1 - I took Tyler grocery shopping with me on Friday so that we could have some one on one time.

Lowlight #1 - Tyler was great until we left the last store - he didn't want to get out of the car cart!

Highlight #2 - I had my monthly scrapbooking night at church Friday night! I love "me time" :)

Highlight #3 - We took the boys to the park Saturday morning and they had a great time running all over the place and Jackson even tried pushing his brothers on the swings.

Highlight #4 - Jackson had his first accident free day on Saturday, including spending time in the church nursery! This was also the first day in 3 weeks that Nick or I hadn't had to mop pee off the floor.

Lowlight #2 - Sunday afternoon I discovered the milk we had been giving the boys all weekend was 8 days past it's expiration. Everyone now: Ewwwwwww! No wonder poor Jackson was saying his belly hurt :(

Highlight #5 - Yesterday both Jackson and Chase were accident free all day! Woohoo! That's 2 days in a row for J-man!

Lowlight #3 - We started PTing Tyler (take 2) yesterday and that boy is giving me a run for my money. He's stubborn! He wants to use the potty but then as soon as I get him there he changes his mind. Or he'll happily sit there forever before naptime or bedtime... the boy is trying to play me!

See? Mostly highlights! All in all, a great weekend! Now here are some pictures for your general amusement.

Slow and Steady

I have another "Ways Identical Siblings Are Not Actually Identical" item to add to the list. Unlike teething, sleeping, eating and appearance, identical siblings will often not potty train the same way. Obviously after my experience a couple of weeks ago with Tyler I knew this was not the case, but I was kinda hoping Jackson would train as quickly and easily as Chase did, or at least close to it. No such luck.

It's now been a week since we started potty training Jackson. I'm happy to report he is making progress, it's just slow progress. Well, slower than Chase anyway. Yesterday he actually used the potty 3 times which was a record for him! I'm ecstatic and am hopeful things will really pick up speed this week. I think it helps I'm starting to pick up on his "potty cues". Jackson does that little kid dance (knees together, kind of hopping around) just before he pees - Chase has never done that. If I catch Jackson doing that and can get him on the toilet in time he usually will go for me.

Chase I'm ready to call "done" as far as day-time training goes. He almost never has an accident and Saturday night he did great in the nursery (last weekend Nick was volunteering in there so this was the real first "test" of going for other people in a public place). Night time is still hit or miss for him. I'm suspicious he's waking up really early (like 4 or 5am maybe) and not being loud enough when calling for us, or even not calling us at all. I'm tempted to put the monitor back in their room while we're doing this whole PTing thing just so I can hear them when they wake up (and I say "I" because Nick can sleep through anything, including the intense t-storm at 1am this morning).

1 Down, 2 To Go

Chase is doing great with his potty training! Saturday was his second completely accident free day and that included the 2.5 hours we were away from home (church and the 15 minute car ride each way). Yesterday he didn't have an accident until 5:30pm - so close to back to back accident free days! I rarely have to remind him to tell me if he has to go, as he's great at coming up to tell me. He's not 100% there, but I obviously feel pretty great about where he's at just 2 weeks after starting and at a shade under the age of 2.

Yesterday we started on Jackson! Let me back up though to Friday - that's when I took him shopping for his big boy underwear. The distracted mom that I am, I totally forgot to take pictures of him in the store! He was so speedy grabbing the Elmo package that I didn't even think of the camera in my purse. Jackson wasn't nearly as excited about the underwear though as he was of the new "gicky" (blanket) we were buying him!


Those who frequent this blog will remember that Jackson is a blanket sucker. He's very particular about which of the dozens of blankets he will suck on though, so his two blankets of choice are quite rank. Seriously. I wish I could convey smell on here, because the stench is truly horrendous. Look at these pictures.... The blanket on top is the brand new white one, while the two on the bottom are the older ones. Those old blankets used to be white and they used to smell fresh, but no amount of bleach or oxiclean can get them clean now!


It was a sigh of relief from me when I showed Jackson this new blanket in the store and he was ok with it. I asked him if he would like to eat that blankie and he nodded yes (and immediately upon arriving home and cutting the tags off he shoved the blanket in his mouth). Success! On the way to the checkout register Jackson stopped twice in the middle of the aisle, put the blanket on the floor and lay down with his head on it and said "Night, night gicky". It was stinking adorable but I feared for his life as many of the moms in Target seemed to be on a mission that day.


Day 1 of potty training Jackson (yesterday) went better than Tyler but not as great as Chase. He was the happy medium :) He went through 13 pair of underwear all day, which is the same number Chase went through on day 1 and did pee in the toilet once (5pm). He was only a little damp this morning when he woke up and he also stayed dry during his nap yesterday afternoon. I'm optimistic about today!


Oh and a quick Tyler update - this weekend we focused on getting a snack to Ty the minute he woke up from his nap and I'm happy to say the weekend was afternoon tantrum free!