Scooby Doo

One of my students, Tanner, & his mom gave David a basket of goodies, which included a coloring book, sidewalk chalk, a free one-time family pass to the zoo, and a Scooby Doo stuffed toy. David has never seen or heard of Scooby, but he immediately took to it. In fact, David kept saying, "Mama, puppy. AW! Wiggle, wiggle!" Then, David shook his & Scooby's entire bodies so they could "wiggle wiggle" like his own dogs' tails. Scooby has even climbed the ranks, and since that first night together, David, JoJo (his stuffed Curious George), AND Scooby sleep in David's bed. Too cute, and thanks, Tanner & Dedra!  ---Emily

Ahoy, Me Mateys!

(Thursday, March 26) It was just like any other morning. We got up & ready for the day, and David requested his favorite show, "The Backyardigans," to watch during breakfast. This happened to be a pirate episode. I heard sporadic growls throughout the morning, and then we left for daycare. On the way to Cathy's, his daycare provider, he continued to growl, and then I started to speak to him like a pirate. We continued identifying his favorite things (school buses, tractors, cows, horses, RV's) along the way, this morning, we spoke like pirates and laughed the entire trip. When we arrived at Cathy's, I explained why she might hear "arr's" and various growls throughout the day. Then she said (in her best pirate voice), "Good mornin' to ya, David!" and we laughed again. What a great morning!

Here are some photos of our little pirate as of our shopping trip to Target today. Also pictured is Captain Daddy, who provided pirate lessons, as well as David's newest toy, a kid trampoline/ball pit.  ---Emily

Don't stick your nose...

Well I never thought I would see the day when I would willingly put my nose within inches of a diaper and give it a whiff!!  Let me back up a bit...

Potty training has been going well.  David has only had one or two accidents this week.  This morning we got up and his diaper looked dry.  So I sent him off to the potty while took a closer look.  It was so hard to tell by looking at it that I had to smell the thing.   I am happy to report that it was dry, our first dry morning!!!  David was so excited that he was dry.

When I checked on him in the bathroom he was doing his best to imitate Austin Powers.  You know when you pee forever as if you had been frozen for 2o years.  The whole time he just kept saying "David pee pee in the potty."  

We are about to leave for Poppy and Granna's house, but what a great start to the day.

Kyle

Things That Go Bump In The Night

The last few nights David has not been going to sleep as quickly as he normally does.  We have heard him jabbering (on the baby monitor) about his day to JoJo for thirty minutes to an hour and a half after we put him to bed.  We never did anything because we figured he would go to sleep eventually, and it just means that he would have a longer nap the next day.  This is better known as the "it will catch up with him in the end" theory.

Well....  tonight Emily was at a scrapbook workshop, and I was settling down to watch the first game of the MLS season after I put David to bed.  A few minutes passed, and I heard a series of loud bangs coming from his room.  They stopped as soon as they started so I ignored it and continued flipping through the channels.  

About five minutes later the banging started again!  I got up, flipped on the hallway light, and opened David's door.  He was lying on his back at the foot of the bed with his feet against the wall.  When I opened the door, he flipped onto his belly to see who it is was.  His eyes got really big as I told him to go to sleep, and David scrambled as fast as he could to get back to his pillow.  

The whole situation got him pretty worked up, and we spent some time calming down and talking about how David should go to sleep when Mama and Daddy put him in bed.  This was all very cute, but I had to keep a straight face through the whole thing.

Kyle

Potty Training Weekend, Round 5 - Sun. PM

The weekend Potty Bootcamp is almost over!

2:58 pm - Up from nap.  Pull-up was dry and false alarm on the potty.

3:03 pm - Pee pee after naptime! One M&M, thank you.

3:15 pm - False alarm, but a #2 may be on the way.

4:10 pm - Let's go sit on the potty and claim to pee pee.

4:28 pm - Let's repeat this idea.

4:40 pm - Same.

4:50 pm - How many times can we say, "Potty!" then go sit on the potty and say after a minute, "Finished," when nothing has happened?

4:53 pm - At least one more time...I think he has gas.

5:28 pm - M&M time again! Hooray! He finally "pee pee in da potty."

5:49 pm - David asked to go to the potty...to trick me or score an M&M.

6:37 pm - Sat on potty before bathtime and nothing. Put him in the water, then he chanted, "Mama, pee pee. Mama, pee pee," so we sat on the potty, and he did indeed pee pee. He was so proud and delighted, especially when he received the M&M.

6:49 pm - David was playing in the living room and said, "Mama, la poo poo?" and I told him to go to the potty. I waited in the hallway to give him his space and a little independence. Then he started grunting really hard, he farted and then exclaimed, "Dare day go!" (which means, "there they go.") That's my boy!!! :) Funny moment but no poo poo.

8:00 pm - There were a few more empty trips to the potty.  Maybe we should hook him up to the heater to save some money on our gas bill!  Into the Pull-up and off to bed.

It has been an interesting weekend.  Hopefully we can get this potty training thing knocked out in the next few weeks.  Signing off from Farnham Potty Poo camp, I mean boot camp.

Kyle and Em

Potty Training Weekend, Round 4 - Sun. AM

Back to work.....

2:00 am - David woke up with a wet Pull-up and JoJo one the floor.  I am not sure that the Pull-up bothered him as much as JoJo being on the floor.

7:30 am - Got up to a wet Pull-up.  David went and sat on the toilet, but not a drop.  We're off to watch the Backyardigans.

8:15 am - The first false alarm of the day.

9:15 am - We have pee pee in the potty.  David was playing with his cars when he stopped and said "Daddy potty" while standing in the classic "I gotta go stance."  You know the one, where you stand ankles crossed with one hand over your bottom.  Also, there seems to be less surprise and more pride after he is finished on the potty.

9:45 am - All show and no go!  He went to the toilet claiming he had to poo poo.  He made a lot of noises out of both ends, but with little to show for it.  False alarm.

10:01 am - False alarm! Lots of grunting and not a terdle in sight!! :)

11:32 am - We have a "pee pee." David happily accepted his M&M ration.

12:20 pm - False alarm.

12:38 pm - What a champion! A poo and a pee! Two M&M's please!

Kyle and Em

Potty Training Weekend, Round 3 - Sat. PM

ding, ding, ding...

3:15 pm - Up and at em.  The Pull-up was dry (YEAH!), but there was no pee pee when we went to the potty.

4:10 pm - After a few false alarms, we have the post-nap poo and pee!  M&M's for everyone!  And he is off to play with his cars.  I can hear him down the hall repeatedly saying "David pee pee in the potty.  Good job David!"

5:00 pm - No messing around!  He said "pee pee, potty" and we went down the hall.  A few minutes later we had pee pee in the potty!  Awesome!  I think David has studied enough that he could pass a urine test.

5:45 pm - Dinner time and so far so good.  Let's see if we can keep this up all the way until bedtime. 

6:35 pm -   Another three point play.  David announces "potty," I say "let's go."  He gets on the toilet, I say I will be right back and that he should go poo and pee (I just wait in the hall out of sight.), and a minute or two later.... mission accomplished!  It can't be this easy!?!

8:00 pm - Bedtime.  We tried to go pee pee a couple of times before bed, but I couldn't get a drop out of him.  Oh well, it has been a good and I don't want to push my luck.

Until tomorrow,

Kyle

Potty Training Weekend, Round 2 - Sat. AM

And it begins.....

7:00 am - Up and at it!  It was a no go for the wake up potty time.  Time for breakfast and we will try again later.

7:20 am - Ooops!  We had a dribble of #1, so off we went to bathroom with a change of clothes.

7:50 am - Ooops!  Accident #2 with a #2!  David was playing with his cars when he got a little surprise in his pants.  More time on the toilet, but pretty easy for my first poo cleanup.

8:10 am - False alarm.  David said he wanted to go to the potty so we went and sat on the toilet.  Nothing!  I have decided to go with the naked approach from now on.  I know there is the potential for some pretty heinous cleanups, but I think I can handle it.  Also, this way he better associates what is going on downstairs with himself instead of the "what is this/who did that?" look I have been getting.

9:00 am - Another false alarm, but we are still dry over a hour now.

9:15 am - Woooo hoooo!  We have a poo poo in the potty!  I thought it was another false alarm and just laid in the floor after David got on the potty.  I just relaxed while David babbled about poo poo, pee pee, and potties.  Then all of a sudden his voice changed to higher pitch and I heard the trademark "ker-plunk"!  He was less surprised during this session and was excited to get two M&M's.  Yeaaahhh!

10:00 am - False alarm.  As annoying as these are, it is better than a mess on my floor.  Soooo, I guess I can put up with them.

10:15 am - Yeah, another #2 in the potty!  It was a ghost poo.  You know the ones, when you hear the noise, but little evidence is left otherwise.  (Sorry if that was a tad crude for your tastes.) However, I am 99% sure something happened.   I think he may be starting to understand a little or he likes M&M's more than I thought.

11:15 am - Well the last hour has cleared things up for me.  It is all about the candy.  We have spent most of the time running back and forth to the bathroom.  He wants to get more of the M&M's, but I don't think he has put 2 and 2 together to figure out how got them in the first place.  Oh well, all of this running to the potty means less clean up for me!

11:45 am - We made it to lunch with no accidents, but with no pee or poo in the potty either and he has spent a lot of time on the potty lately. Now we are on the downhill slide to nap time and getting him back into a Pull-up.

12:45 pm - At the buzzer!!!  David has had some pretty serious looks on his face when asking to go to the potty, but nothing was happening.  I figured he was just holding it in and would go when he was ready and sure enough he did.  We were wrapping up for nap time when he asked to go again.  This time we got pee pee in the potty.  David was a little off put by it all, but after I reassured him that everything was O.K. and he received a few M&M's it was all good.  He just continued talking about it until nap time.  Even as I type this I hear him on the monitor telling JoJo that "David pee pee in the potty."

Round 2 is over.  I think I will rest some too.

Kyle

Potty Training Weekend, Round 1 - Friday Evening

3:45 pm - Everything is starting smoothly.  (Calm before the storm?) I changed his dirty diaper and we put on his new Cars underwear.  He was so pumped.  David just kept talking about how he had underpants like Makenzie and Grant from daycare.  We also ceremonially threw all his diaper and diaper accessories into the "trash."  Here's to a wonderful evening and weekend.

4:15 pm - That didn't take long.  We had our first accident, a #1 on the kitchen tile (Easy cleanup!).  That wasn't as traumatizing as I thought it would be, for him or me.  There were a few tears of confusion, but we just went and sat on the toilet just in case there was more.  We're ready to go again!

5:05 pm - We went and spent some time on the toilet.  No pee pee in the potty, but we still have dry pants.

5:40 pm - SUCCESS!!!  David was making a funny face so I asked if he needed to go potty and he said yes.  When we got his pants off his underwear was a little bit wet.  We set on the toilet and a little while later I hear that wonderful tinkling sound.  David was a little surprised by it all, and I quickly gave him a potty treat (M&M's).  He was so excited and kept talking about how he went pee pee like Grant and Makenzie. This is awesome!

7:00 pm - Alright, we made it to bath time with dry pants, but we had an accident in the bathtub.  (Again, easy cleanup!!)

8:00 pm - Bedtime.  Time to put on the Pull-ups and boy is he excited about the Pull-ups.  I guess the kids a daycare are wearing Pull-ups or maybe it is because there are cars all over them.

All in all it was a decent afternoon and evening.  I was grateful for the easy start to the process.  Here's hoping that tomorrow is just as smooth. (HA!)

Kyle

Potty Training Boot Camp

If you have any free time this weekend, spare a thought for me.  We have decided to give potty training a serious effort this weekend.  David has been routinely asking us to change his diaper, sitting on the toilet, and has become even better at getting out of his pants.

All of this has us trying the potty training thing.  The only problem is that Emily will be gone Friday evening and most of Saturday with a speech and debate tournament.  Soooo... it is up to Daddy!  I guess this is payback for all of the times David has gone to Emily to ask for his diaper to be changed.  

Updates to come....

Kyle

Another Beautiful Day

Our little one got to enjoy the beautiful weather again today and spent the afternoon after naptime playing soccer with Daddy, being introduced to the weed-eater, and blowing bubbles.

Oh, and here's a cute picture of our first haircut this year.

-Emily

Fridge Phonics

David's language continually expands as we are learning more and more every day. In fact, some recent additions to our vocabulary include the following:

• Eoghan (sounds like "Owen")--up until this last week, David called our youngest dog "O-ca"; however, as of this week, "Oca" is now officially "Eoghan."
  
• "Go away" and an elongated "Hey!"--These are probably lovely daycare phrases because Kyle and I don't use these. Now, whenever he doesn't get his way or like what's happening, he attempts to use these special new ones. :)
• "Groceries"--When Kyle and I leave to go somewhere in the car, David exclaims, "Daddy at donut" or "Mama at work" or "Daddy at church." He also uses these when he gets on his own tricycle and rides around the house. As of this week, he's added a new location to his destination list: "Groceries."

In addition to his new phrases, he's slowly learning his ABC's, numbers, and colors. He's also learning how to put on his own clothes and shoes.

Below is a picture of him with his new fridge "computer" to learn his letters. Notice the linear design of our little organized one.

-Emily