A bun...

Is in the oven!  :)  I'm not sure why I haven't blogged about this yet - but Will is going to be a big brother!  I am almost 15 weeks pregnant and we are due July 8th (or 11th - per the sonogram).  We are crazy excited as we had been praying for this miracle.  Thank you Lord for trusting us to raise another child.  We are blessed.  I had a check-up today and the heartbeat sounded great again.  I go on Monday, Feb 6th to find out if Will is getting a baby brother or a baby sister!  We got a cute shirt for Will that we used to share the news with our families back around Thanksgiving.  We would appreciate prayers for a healthy baby!

Random Thoughts

Am I the only one that secretly wishes that Jo from Supernanny would show up at my door?  I am?  Odd.  Well, I do.  I'm admitting it.  My amazingly precious son is hard at times!  His tantrums are rather impressive.  And I am rather struggling with handling them.  I've read and read and read about how to manage them and really - he is stubborn.  I know this is my happy blog about my cute kiddo, but sometimes I need to be real.  And there it is.  My random confession for the day.  Carry on.

Potty Update

I know you've all been waiting anxiously for an update (sarcasm here) so I wanted to make that happen. We are still going strong with the potty training! Will continues to do amazingly. He made it through all day of school yesterday with no accidents! His teachers were shocked! And I was definitely surprised, myself. We've had just a couple of small accidents since Friday at 5pm. I'd say that's pretty amazing. The good thing is he stops when he's having one and finishes in the potty. I think he's just forgotten or gotten excited a few times. And....even better...he has really gotten the pooping thing down! Yay! He went last night and this morning in the potty and told us both times that he needed to go. I'd say this has been incredibly successful! Yay for this!! Now, if I could figure out a way to curb all 2 yr old meltdowns, that would be a major victory. Still working on that one for now. :)

Potty Time!!

So I got a wild hair and decided that this past weekend was THE weekend to attempt potty training Will. I go back to work 40 hrs/week next week and it seemed like my last chance to really have an extended weekend to give it a shot. Honestly, I kind of had low expectations. When he moved to the 2 yr old room at school they made them wear pull-ups and they take them to the potty regularly. At first he was fairly interested in this and we would get him to go at home fairly often. Then a few months in - he was over it. We had a really hard time getting him to go. The fun had worn off, I guess. So I knew I had to take a more aggressive approach if we were going to really train him.

So I had read some different methods and I downloaded a lady's e-book that was basically a 3 day plan. The first two days were supposed to be pure torture, but by the 3rd day, they are supposed to get it. So here's how our's went...

Thursday evening I took him to the store and I had him pick out big boy underwear. We also picked out potty prizes. Yes, this method basically bribes your child into going - hey, whatever works. Clearly our potty dance had worn off.

Day 1 (Fri): It was as promised - hard. We did the big ta do Fri morning about throwing away our diapers and putting on the big boy underwear. He was pumped! He was so proud of them. We watched this (awful, low budget) dvd about pottying. Then I followed him around like a hawk all day. And I cleaned up pee off the floor most of the day. He also went in the potty about 6 times in total that day. So it was about 50/50. He seemed thrilled with the prizes. He had one big meltdown when he needed to poop and he wanted a diaper. He went searching the in the closet for them. But he couldn't find them as we had "thrown them away." He napped in his underwear and I went I went in and he was wet and he immediately said - I made a mess! However, that evening seemed to be a little better. He did great after about 5pm. No accidents. I put him to bed for the night in his underwear, hoping for the best but expecting him to be wet when I went in.

Day 2 (Sat): I run in the second I hear him Sat morning expecting a big wet mess. But...he was dry!!! So I ran him to the potty and he went. Shocking! And then - the entire rest of the day he didn't have a single pee accident. Not one! Now - honestly, we have not figured out the pooping in the potty thing. He went in his pants once on Sat. But I was pretty thrilled with the pee-less accidents. HUGE accomplishment.

Day 3 (Sun): Sat had went so well and he had been telling us when he needed to go, so we took a huge gamble and decided to go to church. I packed up a bag full of extra clothes and we gave it a shot. We went to pick him up from his class and believe it or not he was still wearing the same clothes we sent him in!! What?!? Shocked. Completely shocked. There are different workers during Sunday School than church but the ones that were there during church said he went to the potty twice with her. Have mercy!

So then we really took a gamble and decided to go to lunch with our Sunday School class. We're in a fairly new church to us and seem to always miss the social events. So we wanted to go. Why not - we were on a roll. He asked twice to go the potty. The first time he didn't do anything. I think he was weirded out that he didn't have his cute little potty to go in. The 2nd time, I made him go. We worked it out - pretty tricky since he's too little to sit on a big potty but he did it! So we made it through Sunday as well with not a single pee accident. He must be holding the poop, because he didn't go at all on Sunday. That - we need to figure out. He's done so well with the peeing that we even stopped giving him prizes and he didn't seem to care.

I went in this morning and he was dry again. I really am shocked at how quickly it clicked for him. I'm thrilled. He's spending the day today with his Aunt Kayse and G.J. - so I am hoping he does okay. I'll let you know in a few days how we are progressing! I am so proud of my little big boy! (He really looks SO little in his big boy underwear!!).

UPDATE: Just got a text from G.J. and he pooped in the potty!! Holy moly! I am one happy momma! What a big boy!!!!

Christmas Day

This year we spent Christmas Day over at my brother’s house. Thursday night we had gone over to Kevin’s mom’s house to celebrate. We didn’t get to celebrate with his sister as they have a sweet brand new baby and aren’t quite at the traveling stage, yet. We had a great day at my brother’s. Every year it cracks me up to see the mass of gifts we exchange. And funnier that we don’t all buy for each other. Goodness! My brother is really good at making sure we hear the story of the birth of Jesus before we open gifts. That is the reason we are even celebrating. Thank you Dustin for making this a priority for us! Watching these 2 boys open gifts is just a ton of fun! They are sweet boys and give hugs to all when they’re done. Addison & Ian checking out their gifts Will got a table this year! Mom bought it and Lindsey decorated it for us. It does have legs and chairs – they just weren’t brought in. He was pretty content with out them!

Hat and scarf ladies! Tricia found this fun crazy ball thing that you unravel and as you do there are little toys in it. Dylan scored a stash! :) I wish I had taken good group shots like I did last year, but I didn’t. I’ll have to make sure that happens next year!

Christmas Morning

The entire Christmas season is just so much more fun with a 2 year old! His enthusiasm is honestly infectious! Looking at Christmas lights with this kiddo is heart warming. He gets so excited! He was so proud of the lights on our house, too. He loved singing Jingle Bells and to hear it will melt your heart. He loved our Christmas tree. I have a plate & towel in the kitchen that say Happy Birthday Jesus! He knows that’s what they say and when he would see it, he would yell – Happy Birthday Jesus! So sweet. We do Santa at our house. While we don’t want it to be the focus, it is a fun tradition! Instead of wrapping up gifts from us, we just put them all out from “Santa.” He doesn’t know the difference.

Here he is with the milk and cookies he put out for Santa. He loaded him up with cookies! He looks like he’s in pain, but this is a weaker version of his cheese face. Santa came! This smile says it all. The happiness we feel as parents having this precious boy in our lives. I love it! He ended up getting several Toy Story toys – kind of just ended up that way. He was loving on one of the soft ones above and flying Buzz around below! He calls this his “motorcycle!” Hilarious! Though, mommy bought the wrong one because I can’t steer it from behind and he isn’t quite ready to steer either. Ugh. We took a stroll around the block and it required me pushing with one hand on the back and leaning down steering with the other. Work out for mommy – especially uphill!! What a fun Christmas morning!

Will in his Christmas Outfit

I just love this little outfit on Will. It was his official Christmas outfit! Thank you Ally for the cute sweater – so appropriate and perfect! This little boy has suddenly become a ham. I don’t know where it came from. Over the last month he’s finally decided to cheese it up for the camera. And I love it!! Here he is at G.J. & Neille’s house. And here he is at our house! He even wanted to take the pics. Love this phase and love this little boy!!