Happy Birthday Austin (3 years old and 17 months)

On Austin's birthday, I took the day off to be with him.  Last year I took Sydney to school so I could have a special day just with Austin.  This year it felt right for Sydney to be home with us too.  They miss each other when the other is not around.  I took them to Chick-Fil-A for lunch.  They ate lunch and played on the playground.  They had fun.  Then in the evening Lisa, Keith, and Kaitlyn came over to celebrate with us.  We had a cookie cake and ice cream.  Kaitlyn wasn't feeling too well but she was very excited it was Austin's birthday.  Kaitlyn got Austin a lego train set.  It is awesome.  Austin loves it.  He has been playing with it every day.  We had so much fun with them.

Then on Sunday, my parents came over and we celebrated Austin's birthday with them.  Lauren made Austin an awesome Micky Mouse coconut cake.  She makes amazing cakes.  They got Austin a piano music toy.  He loved it.  It has a microphone and he was pretending to DJ.  His favorite thing to say is "Everybody dance!"  It is really fun. He likes to play music and wants everyone else to dance. They both really like music and dancing.

We have been potty training for over 2 weeks now.  Austin is basically potty trained for pee pee at home.  Until this weekend he absolutely refused to potty any where other than home.  That includes day care.  He will not go there at all either.  On Friday night we went to Kaitlyn's house and he went potty there on his potty seat.  Then on Saturday he went pee pee at Walmart again on his Micky potty seat because he wanted a donuts.  We bribe him with what he wants.   It is small steps but we are making progress.  He still has not gone #2 in a potty yet.  I can't wait for that to start happening.  He wants a play dough garage truck at Target.  We told him he can get it once he poops in the potty.  Hopefully it will be soon.

He starts in the preschool room this week at school.  In that room, Austin and one other kid are the only ones not potty trained.  We are hoping that once he sees everyone else going potty there he will too.  I really hate that he pees in his pants at school.  I feel bad for him.  When he is ready he will do it but it's hard knowing he could be wet at school.

Austin went to the doctors for his 3 year check up.  He is now 34 pounds.  When the doctor checked his ears he had an ear infection.  This was his 4th ear infection since June.  We had to see an ENT again.  Our last ENT left this area so we needed to find another one.  We got an appointment on Tuesday to see him.  He highly recommended ear tubes.  We really don't like him having surgery but don't like all the ear infections and antibiotics.  So we scheduled surgery.  Hopefully that will go well.

More Potty Training

Last week Brian dropped Austin off at daycare and his normal teacher (Ames) was not there.  He thought it was odd.  Then he saw a letter on all the kids' mailboxes.  He knew that his teacher had quit.  Austin had this teacher for over a year.  We really liked her and had been talking with her about potty training.  We were shocked and upset by the news.  We were worried about Austin and how he would react.  Ames was always there to comfort Austin if he was sad when Brian left for the day.  Now it was just not the same.

Part of me felt we should delay potty training even more because of this significant change.  The other part of me knew we were on our own and had to get this done.  After all, Austin is going to be 3 next week!  Austin's new teacher approached me about potty training.  She asked what we were trying at home.  The hard part was we were trying things but it didn't seem to be working. Brian and I talked that night and he said that I needed to stop putting Austin in pull ups.  I didn't like that but it was true.

So Thursday and Friday night we had him wear his underwear for a few hours before bed.  He had some accidents.  He was not a fan of this at all.  He would cry and not want to sit on the potty.  He wanted his pull ups or diapers on.  It was very sad.  They say you shouldn't force it but we had to get over this.  Saturday morning came and I knew that was the day no more diapers (except when he was sleeping).  I put on his underpants and tried to get him to drink as much as possible.  Brian was home and worked with him too.  He was fine after the initial fight of putting on the underwear.  He didn't like to get wet so that is why he wanted the pulls up so bad now.  Finally he started to "get it" and was great at being able to feel it coming, stop it, and make it to the potty.  By Sunday he was only getting his underwear a little wet (no puddles or anything).

Today is Tuesday.  We have worked with him for 4 full days now.  He really gets going pee-pee.  He's had an accident today after we got home from Walmart but that is about it.  Again he will still get is underwear a tiny bit wet but can stop it in time to run to the potty.  He really likes his frogy potty.  He initially liked the froggy potty by the front door but today he decided he liked it in his room.  He also will sit on his Mickey mouse potty seat on the big toilet but not as often.

He hasn't gotten the poopy in the potty yet though.  The last 3 days he has went in the underpants.  On Sunday, when he had to go I was changing Sydney's potty diaper.  On Monday, I was cleaning up after lunch and he got away from me and did it.  And today he did it during nap time in his pull up.  Hopefully he will get that soon!

My mom has been here both Monday and Tuesday.  That has been a great help.  Austin now doesn't want Sydney to bother him so having someone else here is huge.  Today she is bought him a donut for doing such a great job on the potty.  He was really happy.

I am home with him tomorrow so hopefully things will continue to move along nicely.  Potty training is hard and stressful.  I am so glad we are finally making progress.

Potty Training (2.99 years and 16.5 months)

Since we were both off over Christmas break, we hoped to potty train Austin.  It didn't go exactly as planned.  I was thinking he would just "get it" but he didn't.  Austin doesn't understand yet when the pee pee is coming.  We tried getting him to sit on the potty.  He would, but nothing would come out even after extended periods waiting on the potty.  This went on for several days.  We tried big boy underpants. That worked well except again he didn't really pee pee in the potty.  He would hold it until a diaper would go on for nap or bedtime.  We encouraged him to drink juice but wouldn't drink enough.  Finally Brian had a great idea to try chocolate milk.  Austin loves chocolate milk and it was easier to get him loaded up on it.  That worked great and finally he went on the potty.  We celebrated but he doesn't like making a big deal out of it.  He only likes one of us to be in the potty with him. And most of the time Sydney also needs to be sitting on her potty too.  We have had two days that he actually went in the potty. But now he is not liking the potty.  He gets upset if we ask him to use it.  But he will now finally wear pull ups so that is what we are doing right now.  Hopefully over the next several weeks to months he will get it.

New Years Eve we just stayed home and watched a movie.  We had appetizers for dinner and just hung out.  Actually over Christmas break we rented 4 movies.  We haven't rented that many movies all year.  It was nice to watch some movies and just relax.  I slept though some of them but I really like "We're the Millers"

Before Christmas Austin and Sydney only wanted me to put them to bed.  That was so unusual for Austin.  Brian always puts Austin to bed.  It was so nice for me putting Austin to bed.  He would read his books and then lay right now and I would lay next to him on the floor and he would go to sleep.  Sydney takes forever (30-40 minutes) to fall asleep.  If I put her to bed I usually fall asleep too.

That only lasted about a week and now both kids want Brian to put them to bed.  Austin usually wins and gets him.  Sydney tries really hard by grasping Brian's finger and trying to pull him into her room at bedtime.  Austin whines and cries more about it so usually Sydney settles more peacefully for me to put her to bed.  She is now okay with that for now.  The easiest way for me to get her to sleep is to let her sleep on the floor next to me.  After she is completely asleep, I move her into her crib.  It's not ideal but it's working right now.  We considered moving her into a toddler bed because we think she would like that better.  The problem is that when I am home by myself and neither child we go to nap, I have no where just to put Sydney.  We are planning to keep the crib for several more months.

Sydney now only gets mommy milk right before bed.  I am ready to give it up but she definitely is not.  I am grateful that it is just once a day now and only for about 10 minutes.  I stopped feeding her in the middle of the night right after we got back from Disney.  There were nights she cried it out but now she basically sleeps though the night.  It's wonderful.

I still don't sleep that great.  I am usually up at least once or twice a night for some reason even if it's not the kids.  I always end up on the couch.  Part of the reason is that I don't like our bed.  Austin also encourages it because he likes knowing where to find me, so if I'm not on the couch he'll get upset.  Brian usually sleeps in later than me so I close our bedroom door so he can get some sleep.  He doesn't go to bed until midnight or later so 6:30 am comes really fast (that is when Austin gets up almost every morning).  I use to hate getting up that early every morning but now I don't mind it.  I enjoy my hour or so with Austin before Sydney wakes up.  We sit on the couch and he watches his Kindle and I read on my phone.  I watch some videos with him.  The days I work I miss my mornings with him.  Sydney usually gets up around 8 am now.  And by 8am I am ready to play and so is Austin.   They both go to bed around 8:30-9pm.