Peeing on the potty (or not)

Pretty much all Little Sir's peers in playgroup and school are potty trained now. For the past few weeks, I've really been talking to him about it a lot. All last week, we sat on the potty at least twice a day. Unfortunately, he always wants to sit on the potty AFTER he's peed or pooped in his diaper. He is very motivated to sit on the potty, though, because he gets treats if he actually goes. Yes, I realize that we aren't supposed to be motivating with food but don't worry, he never goes, so it isn't an issue.

There was one exception: one day he peed on the potty TWICE in the SAME DAY. And you better believe he got 2 lollipops.

Sitting on the potty on the Day He Peed Twice

However, he has not repeated it since. He has not peed once since then.

The last few days we've been traveling to East Texas and I've just sort of let it slide. I mention going to the potty but I don't press it and he always says, "No potty". Honestly, he has always consistently said "No potty". I have just been putting him on the potty anyway.

I do think it's good to let him sit there and for him to understand how it works. He has told me, unprompted "Pee and poop go in the potty". And "Big boys go in the potty".

I bought him one pair of Gerber training pants and one pair of BumGenius Flip cloth training diapers that he can pull up and down. He hates them both and refuses to wear them. We have talked a lot about going to the store to get big boy pants. I have pointed them out to him at the store. He says "no big boy pants" and to the training pants he says "want a diaper". When he finishes sitting on the potty, he immediately asks for a diaper.

I really hate that he is clearly the very last kid that we know to potty train, but at the same time my gut feeling is that he is not ready. I believe he understands the concept. He just does not want to do it right now.

He is 29 months old now. Not even 2 1/2. I have heard there is something magical about 2 1/2 where their comprehension and communication takes a big leap forward. If there was not so much outside pressure to be like all the other kids, my gut instinct would be to wait until he hits that milestone before trying to potty train for real.

I think we are going to try and hang in there casually sitting on the potty for at least one more month, maybe 6 weeks. Then we might try the Potty Training Boot Camp method or we might do a few all-day-naked days. I am not even going to go into the complication that having a sister who crawls everywhere throws into that approach. CRAWLING INTO PEE. Yes. Fun times.

Little Lady's first steps

About 2 days ago we thought maybe Little Lady made a few shuffles from standing... but we weren't sure. Last night, she was a little stuffy in the nose and grumpy from teething so I kept her home from church while the boys went. After she got bored of cuddling (she tolerates cuddling more than Little Sir did, but her patience with it is still limited), she went to cruising the furniture as usual. When she got to the edge of the couch, she started doing her trying-to-stand-unsupported thing.

Weirdly, she usually does this in the bathtub. Which is probably the least practical place to practice standing, and surely hurts her bottom more when she lands on it because she's not wearing a diaper! But she looooves to practice standing in the bathtub...

Anyway, here's the really bad video I got of her taking some steps. Sorry, I was trying to hold my hand out to her while filming and I couldn't see what I was aiming at. {video here}

Little Lady 1 year stats

We had Little Lady's one-year checkup on Monday and so far she's looking good, although significantly lighter than her brother was at this age (and still not walking at all):

• Height: 29.75 inches (75th percentile)
• Weight: 19 lbs. (25th percentile)
• Head: 45.25 (75th percentile)

Musk ox & I love yous

Little Sir's favorite stuffed animal is a stuffed musk ox that Nanny and PawPaw brought back from their trip to Alaska. I am proud to have such an unusual child.

As mentioned before, he has a blanket named Greygee that he is very attached to. The other day he said this to me:
"Mommy, I love Greygee. I love it."
"Well I love you, buddy"
"I love you Mommy!"

This is the second time he has told me he loves me! So sweet! I just love it!

Happy Birthday, Little Lady!

I know I'm posting these birthday wishes late, but I'm going to backdate the post so that it shows on the correct day for our 2012 blog book...

Wow, I can't believe our Little Lady is one year old! Time sure does fly, much moreso with her than it did with Little Sir.



We had her birthday party a day before her "actual" birthday, because that was when all our family could make it into town.

The theme was hearts because she is our little sweetheart... and Valentine's stuff was totally on sale :-)
Aunt Meredith came and decorated our house for the party, because I am terrible at that sort of thing:







Cupcakes!
 

The favors - heart plates and cups that we ate our lunch and cupcakes on (after I washed &' wrapped them):
 

I got lots of pictures of Little Lady eating cupcakes, but none of her opening gifts because I was helping her do it!

Yummy cupcake!





 
And, of course, Big Brother got some too! He is obsessed with pumpkin bibs right and refuses to wear any other kind of bib...
 


We love you, Little Lady!! You are our little sweet sunshine and we are so happy that you are part of our family!

Potty learning readiness?

Seriously, all of Little Sir's friends are potty trained or potty training. I am starting to feel like he is waaaay behind. I guess it doesn't help that, due to his birthday, he is in MDO class and playgroup with kids that are older than he is. Still, changing his diaper is starting to be epically painful and violent. He is a very strong little boy and he fights and kicks and screams and shrieks every time it's time to change diapers. I am not going to lie, half the time I let him soak his diaper and pee on his clothes because I just don't want to have to wrestle him down to change diapers. Every single time, we talk about how if he doesn't want a diaper change, all he needs to do is go to the potty. Every single time, he says: "No potty. Diaper change". And then proceeds to kick me in the stomach while I am trying to change him. We don't spank, but he got a swat on the bottom for that this week. He was unimpressed, as usual.

We do sit on the potty nearly every day. Nothing ever comes out. We talk about Big Boy pants and which ones of our friends go to the potty. He has watched the Potty Power DVD so many times that he goes around yelling, "Potty power!", which clearly has NO meaning for him at all. We have some Flip training pants which he enjoys pulling up and down, but he uses them just like a diaper.

I'm ready to start potty training, but I do understand that I am not supposed to try until he is ready, because he is a very strong willed little guy. Any suggestions?

The elusive teeth

Little Lady now has probably 4 upper teeth and 3 lower teeth. For the longest time she had only the two bottom middle teeth and one eyetooth, which looked reeeally kinda weird. But in the last month she has been simultaneously growing the other 3 upper teeth and one more on the bottom. I am sure some of her sleeping issues have to do with all these teeth.

Christian finally managed to get some pictures of her mouth with at least the top teeth showing!


Strange expression, blurry picture, but here are most of the teeth on top!