65 posts tagged “toddler”
Stephan LOVES Christmas. He sees the displays go up in stores and gets excited. We were walking through Kohl's a couple weeks ago and he saw their Christmas area and exclaims, "mommie, it's Christmastime here!"
Friday night I was out with a friend and we stopped in Target (the one near me is attached to the mall), I found a small tree that was $9. Didn't quite want to get it right then, but I knew that Stephan would probably love to have "Christmastime" in his room. I talked to Andy about it and we both agreed the tree was worth it. So after nap I said I wanted to go to the store and get a surprise for Stephan. He of course wanted to know what it was. When I told him I wanted to get him a tree for his room he didn't seem super enthused about the idea.
However, as he realized what I was saying he got a little more excited about things. When I showed him the little tree he got very happy and decided he wanted colored lights. We usually have white ones on the big tree, and I figured the colored ones wouldn't be as bright to leave on at night when he's going to sleep. We found the tree, the lights, a mini tree skirt and a few ornaments.
When we got home, the first thing we had to do was set up the tree, and put on some Christmas music. Stephan's a riot.
Everything always seems so much livelier through the eyes of a toddler.
Some days, I'm super duper thankful for nap time ... even when I don't take one myself!
We've had a good weekend. Stephan has been 100% dry since Friday and we've all been enjoying the perks. We went bowling Friday evening and all had a blast. Andy and I got to try out our shoes for the first time.
Saturday we went to the museum to pick up a birthday and Father's Day gift for my FIL and then drove up to Loveland to celebrate.
Andy and I attempted to put Stephan down for nap and then go on a mini-shopping date. While Stephan didn't get any rest, we still got some shopping done. First stop, the Coach outlet. I wanted to find a wallet to coordinate with the purse I got for my birthday and we ended up finding one for Andy too. Everybody has a water buffalo ... though Andy's is not exactly a pet :)
Sunday of course brings church. Andy taught our class and then I taught the 2yos. Service went LONG. About 30 minutes long. Thankfully, we didn't have too many kids and it wasn't chaos. Several parents picked up their kids early too. Still sucks that we didn't get home till almost 1pm, and Stephan got down for nap late ... and is now a mess attempting to go to bed. He did accomplish staying dry during his Sunday school so we once again went bowling this evening. We decided to get some pizza this time and make an evening of it. Stephan even enjoyed the pizza and ate a few bites like mommie and daddie.
While you aren't supposed to count your chickens before they've hatched and all, here goes nothing.
For a few months now I've been wanting to be able to be more consistent with the potty training thing, but while working and sending Stephan all over the place it just wasn't feasible. Last week we went to Gunnison, which entails a 4+ hour drive, and once again getting more serious with potty training was put on hold. (I did take underwear, and he did keep them dry, but we only wore them around the hotel.)
Over the weekend, we determined that we were finally just going to take the leap and nix pull-ups for everything but sleeping. I took one of our waterproof mats for use with the car seat ... not perfect, but it does the job .... and so far he's been making significantly more progress!
Monday evening he stayed dry and we were out for a couple hours. He had one oops-I-crapped-my-pants incident at the gym that morning and that was his first time at the gym in undies, so not bad.
Tuesday he stayed dry all day and after dinner we were out driving looking at a dining table we found on craigslist. On the way home he wanted to go to the park. We decided sure, we can do a few minutes at the park. When we got him out of the car he was wet. Stephan was not happy we put him back in the car and went home, really not happy. We reiterated that he needs to stay dry or we have to go home.
Wednesday there were a couple errands I needed to run and he again mentioned the park. We didn't get out of the house till late, but I told him that if he stays dry, we could indeed go to the park for a few minutes before going home for lunch and nap. He. Stayed. DRY! The only time he was wet was after nap and since I put a pull-up over his underwear to minimize my clean-up it wasn't too big a deal.
This morning, he stayed dry the whole way up to nana & papa's house, for an hour in the car!
I'm so stinking proud of my big boy!
He's finally getting there. I'm no longer as stressed about him being able to start preschool in the fall, especially since I know he can stay dry at naptime, it's just not quite 100% yet. I think the external motivation of not being able to do fun things (like bowling, going to the park, spending time at Elitch's and free movies at the theater) unless he stays dry, are working much better than potty candy. He does still ask for potty candy on occasion, but it certainly doesn't hold the same power as not being able to do something he finds REALLY fun.
We just might have to take him to mini-golf sometime soon ... and get that refurbished iPod too. (Which I'm secretly super happy about as it should make our flight to Chicago much easier if he can watch movies and shows on his own iPod and not mine.)
We decided to indulge Stephan's love of "the rides" and capitalize on the fact that he's gets in free ... and bought season passes to Elitch's for the summer.
With Stephan free, we just bought passes for Andy and I and a parking pass. With the deal they had at Sam's we got the parking pass for $10. We took Stephan this afternoon after nap and had some FUN!
And to wrap up an exciting afternoon ... Sonic.
Stephan has some BIG news.
Yesterday he went all day in the same underwear. I was so proud of him. We stayed home all day of course, which made this a lot easier. (Snowy days have to be good for something!) He even kept the pull-up dry during naptime!
This morning Andy was out cleaning some of the snow off my car and I was dealing with the laundry and I came back out the the living room and Stephan was on his potty. Said he went pee and poo and needed some help. FLOORED me. Even yesterday I had to push him to sit on the potty at times when I started noticing him do the peepee dance.
I know we'll probably have a few setbacks still, and I'm not yet ready to take him out in the car and to church and restaurants and stores in undies, but we are making progress which is good to see.
We are one step closer to no diapers and pull-ups.
Hooray for Stephan!!
Both have pretty much consumed my time over the past 24 hours or so.
POTTYS:
Stephan has been doing great. He kept his underwear/diaper/pull-up dry all day long yesterday, except for when I refused to let him use the potty at Sam's Club. Seriously, if you are remodeling a store, build new bathrooms, don't bring in temporary RV port-a-pottys. EWW. GROSS! So far, today is going great too. We went to the mall and the museum and to lunch. I'm so proud of him. We came home and before nap sat down and pooped in the potty! He's rocking this ... course we prompt him to use the potty every 30-35 minutes, but it's progress!
SHOES:
I've wanted a pair of cute boots for a few months now. Started with Crocs introducing Nadia for the winter. I had a hard time finding them and they were a little to pricey for Crocs. Then, this week I started searching for a pair of reasonably priced ugg boots and discovered some interesting things in my search. I did not know that uggs were a style of boots, not just a brand name. Nor that the brand name Ugg boots are made in China, not Australia. I like them, but still am not sure I'm quite ready to pay $116 for a pair of boots. Maybe this fall I'll take the plunge. If I do, I'll probably order from this Australian site. I will make sure that I get a pair that is actually made in Australia of Australian sheepskin. Might as well get something that is worth $100! We went to the mall to a store that sells Crocs hoping to get the boots and they were selling them for only 20% off. GRR. Oh well. I'm happy to have finally made a decision, and that my Nadia's were only $34.99 at the Crocs website. Hopefully, since they are shipping from Boulder, they will come on Monday or Tuesday. eBags sure gets things out fast from Greenwood Village.
Now, I need to go prep the lesson for the 2yos tomorrow morning.
I'm exhausted right now. I want to pull out the Wii Fit and get in some exercise, but I don't think I have any energy. This morning was a bit rough. I usually love Friday mornings with Stephan. He still wakes up pretty early, but will watch Praise Baby sitting in our bed and let mommie get some more rest. Some mornings include more rest than others, but usually it's a nice time ... and I get a few snuggle moments with Stephan too.
This morning he came and crawled in with me a little after 7am, and just wanted to cuddle. He went back to sleep. Then, after maybe 15 minutes, when I was just about to get to sleep myself, I heard Andy's alarm clock go off. Or so I thought. It sounded really odd, like no other alarm I'd heard, since usually he wakes to a cd. The sound was almost like the ring of a cell phone. Then I started to hear chirping. Different from the nature sounds on my alarm clock. The whole time I'm just thinking, "Please stop that noise. Don't let it wake up Stephan." Course then it starts getting louder. That's when I realized it was a freakin' woodpecker. And Stephan woke up. And was scared of the noise. I got him settled with a Praise Baby and some cheerios and cup of milk and thankfully, by that time, the woodpecker had gone on to torment someone else. I eventually did get some rest, but it wasn't the greatest of mornings.
Add to that Andy and I staying up late to play LEGO Indiana Jones and I started the day out a little wiped. I'm so glad that I went out yesterday to get what I needed for Andy's birthday. After a bowl of cereal (if you haven't tried the new chocolate mini mini wheats you sould they ROCK!), Stephan and I started work on "daddie's birthday." He loves to help in the kitchen and most of the time I enjoy his help. We made the batter, got the cake in the oven and then I washed all the dishes. It is his birthday after all, and who wants to do a bunch of chores on their birthday. I'm hoping that will make Andy happy! While I think the cake may have spent about 5 minutes too long in the oven, it looks great. Thanks to Pam spray with flour, the cake came out of the pan PERFECTLY! I've never been that lucky! After getting Stephan set up to decorate daddie's birthday card, the UPS man came with my package from Old Navy.
We then finished up coloring and stickering and started trying on all our new clothes. All the shirts fit me fine, I shouldn't have to worry about them shrinking in the dryer either, since they are all a little loose. The pants were another story. Usually ON seems to be small so I got the pants in a size 20. The good news is that they are quite large on me. I'm hoping that if washed in hot water and dryed on hot, that they will shrink and fit me. I'm glad they don't fit, but bummed since they were clearanced and I can't just order a smaller size and exchange them. If they don't fit me, even after the washing and drying, I'll pass them on to a friend or my sister and see if they work for them ... or maybe take them back to ON. I really hope they work though, since they are cute. I guess I could also try taking them to a tailor since one pair was $3 and the other pair $10. But I'm not sure if that would be worth it or not. Stephan loved trying on all his clothes too. We got him four shirts and three pants in size 4T for next fall/winter. He also tried on all the clothes we got on clearance at Kohl's. Should be pretty much set for next winter. We'll just need a warm coat and maybe we'll be able to find him some winter boots. He wanted to show everything to daddie, so I told him we'd do a show for daddie tonight.
After that, and getting the wash started, I intercepted Stephan smashing my softened butter for the frosting, got him cleaned up and started on lunch. Made him macaroni & cheese and gave him some corn to munch on while that was cooking. Kid loves corn now. Frozen. Right out of the freezer. Cracks me up. I put some in the bottom of his bowl and he said, "mommie, fill it up." He certainly didn't need to eat a bowl full of corn, but I did give him a little more. He also wanted one of my baby carrots, so I cut one up for him.
Lunch ended with some chocolate for Stephan, he loves 3 Musketeer bars. We then made the frosting so it could chill in the fridge during naptime and while I cleaned up all those dishes, Stephan played.
Then he crashed for nap.
All that before 1pm. Phew!
I think I might just wrap this up and watch The City and maybe play Super Paper Mario before Stephan wakes up. Then I'll set him up on the Wii Fit and frost the cake and make sure everything is ready for dinner so when Andy's almost home tonight I can get that going quickly.
I hope Andy has a wonderful birthday. We love him so much!
For almost as long as I've been sick (I think I'm mostly better, but still have lingering cough and nose issues) I've been trying to track down a Wii Fit. My mom and Dennis gave us a gift card for Christmas and after convincing Andy that we really needed to use the gift card for a Wii Fit, we've been looking. Even looked in Chicago though it would have been interesting carting it back to Denver. No dice. They were never in stock. Anywhere.
Last week a friend of mine got a Wii and then, shortly after, also got a Wii Fit. I was a bit green with envy since I've been looking for so long with no luck. I called around everywhere on Friday morning and they were again nowhere to be found. We decided to wait and see if Best Buy or Target advertized them in the Sunday paper. They didn't.
This morning I went to a friend's house even though it was crazy snowing. Stephan got some play time in and I was able to finally get her the check we've been forgetting. On the way home I got a voice mail from another friend. She was at WalMart and they had a few Fit's in stock. I happened to be very close by and rerouted to head there. I was so excited. Never connected with my friend, but I did ... drumroll please ... get a Wii Fit. Finally.
I'm so glad I've been whining about not finding one because all my friends were looking for them for me!
Now I'm just waiting for Stephan to actually fall asleep for his nap so I can pull it out and play. I no longer feel bad about being lazy and not making it to the gym this morning.
Speaking of Stephan and sleeping, we are finally working on breaking him to the pacifier habit. While I'm fine with him having it just for nap/bedtime, lately it's become such an issue. He wants it all the time and has been a bit of a pill about the whole thing. So last night when we were putting him to bed we couldn't find it anywhere and he ended up going to sleep without it. Woke up several times crying for it, but we didn't cave. Even when Andy eventually did find the sucker once in the middle of the night. I'm continuing to tell Stephan I can't find it, even though it is in my dresser drawer. He doesn't need it anymore and I'll be glad in a week or two when he's totally not needing it anymore.
I think he's asleep. I'm going to go figure out my new toy!
While this was not fun, it sure was funny.
When I came home from work today I needed to work on getting dinner ready and straightening up a few things before a friend came over for dinner and to watch Stephan while we went to a planning meeting for our Sunday school class.
I was working on raw chicken, cutting it up, sucking up some of the moisture with paper towels. Fun stuff. In the process our trash got really full so I decided to wrap it up and take it out. Not all the way out to the trash, but in the stairwell so we could take it out later, when we left. I go outside, set it down and her the front door slam shut.
Unfortunately, Stephan's love of shutting the front door is not something I thought about. Our door is such that you can open it from the inside and leave it locked on the outside. Yes folks, I was locked out. We've put one of those things on the door knob that keeps Stephan from opening the door too, so there was no getting back in.
I had been talking to Andy on speakerphone so I told Stephan through the door to go tell daddie that he locked me out. Thankfully, Andy was only 25 minutes away, but that's still a long time to have a toddler alone in the house ... with raw chicken on the counter. Stephan went to the phone and told Andy, "I closed the door daddie, mommie's on the other side." When Andy called out my name and didn't get a response he figured something was up. I went to the kitchen window and got Stephan's attention and told him to go watch his movie. When he was over by the tv I went and sat down on the stairs and tried to get my feet warm, since I didn't have any shoes, and laughed.
After a few minutes I decided to try and get Stephan to open the sliding glass door. He so didn't get that. I freaked him out a little too I think. Finally, Andy came home and was very relieved to discover that I was just locked out, nothing more serious. We went in and gave Stephan a hug and then I got dinner all taken care of.
Everyone needs a little adventure right? And, now we know that Stephan can't get out of the house!
I know he's my son and all, but this is pretty cute.
