The Potty Diaries

Man. How many times have I asked myself, "Why did I ever decide to potty train Caleb this week?!" I know I'm not supposed to compare kids...but Ethan was strangely easy to potty train. Just a few pee pee accidents and we were done. Then there is my sweet Caleb. Here is week one of potty training. I think there will be several more to come.(The potty chair he wanted...couldn't find it anywhere!)

Day 1: We went to the store and bought a potty chair and underwear and went cold turkey. He had about 10 pee pee accidents and one poo accident. By that night I thought he was clearly not ready and wanted to give up.

(The potty chair we ended up with. Still cool but he isn't really into Cars.)

Day 2: It's a miracle. He woke up with a dry pull-up and we went straight to the potty...and he peed! I don't think I made him sit long enough because he had an accident about 5 minutes later. He still refused to use the potty chair to poo.


Day 3: He woke up dry again and went straight to the potty and peed a lot then I put him in his underwear for the day. About 30 minutes later he finally pooed...in his underwear. Disgusting! I won't go into any detail but it was a bad scene. I tried to stay positive with him and told him where he needed to go next time and he looked at me like I was crazy. The rest of the day he was accident free in his underwear. Then we decided to go to Six Flags. He has a huge fear of using public restrooms. Just walking toward the door will send him into a huge screaming fit. So I decided to put a pull-up on. I asked him several times at Six Flags if he needed to go pee pee. He said he needed his Cars potty. Then we went out to eat. I tried to force him into the restroom and showed him that no one was in there so it wouldn't be loud. No flushing. It resulted in screaming. Later, he came up to me at the restaurant and whispered in my ear that he went pee pee and I needed to change him. Ugh! I told him that he would have to wait until we got home and that's why he should've gone in the restroom when I took him. As soon as we got home he went straight to the bathroom and peed a ton.

Day 4: Woke up a tiny bit wet then went straight to the bathroom and peed a lot. Stayed dry the whole day and we even went to the store with his regular underwear on. Once we got home he had a poo accident. Gross. I was a little tougher on him and we had another discussion on where he is supposed to do that. He looked like he didn't care.

Day 5: Woke up pretty wet but went straight to the potty and peed a lot. We were planning on being out of the house most of the day so I opted for a pull-up. We went to the movies and he seemed uncomfortable like he needed to pee but he refused to go to the restroom. Then we went to a restaurant. He was really cranky and didn't want to eat...or go to the restroom. I had to take him out while Mondo and Ethan finished eating because he was screaming. He fell asleep on the way home so maybe he was partly tired. We woke him up about 30 minutes later and his pull-up was wet. I put him on the potty then changed him into another pull-up. Then we went to Six Flags. After we were there for about 45 minutes he had about a 10 minute screaming fit. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. Then I noticed he was sitting weird in the stroller. He had peed. I took him to the restroom (which was nasty) and had to take off his shoes and pants to put another pull up on. I was so frustrated at that moment I told him he was going back in diapers because Mommy was not going to do this every day. (Of course, I now feel extremely guilty about that.) The rest of the Six Flags trip was uneventful. We went home, he peed a lot in his potty, then we put his regular underwear back on. I could tell that he needed to poo but he refused. He went to bed without going so we will see what happens tomorrow!

So in summary, he is doing well...with the peeing...at home. He is probably 99% trained in peeing at home. I guess the poo with just take a while. The main issue I have with him is his crazy fear of public restrooms. I really don't know how to make him get over that. He has been that way his whole little life. Every time I take Ethan into a public restroom Caleb cries and freaks out. This isn't a new development. Any suggestions???

Caleb's Birthday "Party"

Poor Caleb didn't get a "real" birthday party this year. His first one was cancelled because Ethan was sick. So we re-scheduled for the next weekend. Then Caleb was sick. So we decided to scrap the whole thing and try again next year. Luckily we could get away with it since he is still young. That is, if Ethan would stop asking when Caleb is getting his birthday party!

We started a tradition for the kids on their birthdays that they get to go out to eat wherever they want on their birthday. Luckily we took Caleb on birthday because that turned out to be his party! He chose to go to Christina's. It's a yummy mexican restaurant where he always gets tacos. Strange request from a kid who now only eats bologna.

Ethan tried to go to the restaurant like this. That request was denied.

Coloring like a big boy while waiting for the food.

He also played a little drum solo with the silverware.

This is how he eats his tacos...with Daddy feeding him. He gets so mad if he holds the taco himself and if breaks. He screams, "It's broken!" and he won't eat it. Also, it's much cleaner.

We also feed him the rice. Yes, he can feed himself but eating rice is a disaster on his own! More of it ends up on the floor or in his lap than in his tummy.

Ethan needed a pic of him eating his mexican food, I mean, mac & cheese and fries. That's what he gets every time we go there.

Blowing out his birthday candle. They gave him fried ice cream that he didn't eat. We didn't eat it either. It was covered in coconut! Way to ruin ice cream!

He did sample some whipped cream off the top.

He got a new Buzz Lightyear!

He was so excited! He has been playing with an old beat up one that doesn't have all of the features that this one has. He is a Toy Story maniac!

I made him a cookie cake for his birthday celebration at home. Good thing I did since that was the only "cake" he got. Poor thing.

He barely even ate it. Just picked at it. He was probably too full of tacos!

Ethan gobbled it up!

Here's a video of the pitiful mexican restaurant version of Happy Birthday.

My Tiny Baby is 3!!

I really can't believe how fast time goes by. Caleb turned 3 on the 9th and it seems like his baby-hood just flew by! I can hardly remember him as a tiny baby. Next thing I know he will be graduating from high school! But I'll have to get him out of diapers first...and that is another blog post all together!

He used to be my good eater. Now he has turned into his brother. His favorite thing to eat? Bologna sandwiches and chippies. Blah. He used to eat just about anything I put in front of him. Now he will say he wants something, I put it on the table, and he turns his nose up at it and says, "I want something else." It's totally annoying! He used to eat chicken nuggets like they were going out of style. Now he nibbles on the ends of them and says he's done. I guess I should've known the good eating wasn't going to last forever. At least he still eats tacos! That's his other favorite meal. I'll ask him what he wants for breakfast and he goes to the pantry and pulls out taco shells.

As far as sleeping goes, we haven't really tackled that issue yet. We (*I) still lay down with him to get him to go to sleep. Then at some point in the night he wanders into our room and sleeps with us. When Ethan was this age we had finely laid the smack down and made him go to sleep on his own. But, Ethan wasn't much of a fighter. Caleb on the other hand..... Maybe part of me doesn't want him to grow up. It's so cute to hear that tiny little voice say, "Lay with me in my bed" or to see him standing by my bed in the middle of the night holding his monkey and blanket. But it's totally annoying to fall asleep in his room and wake up and hour later and have to get everything ready for the next morning. Maybe I'll work on the sleep issue in the new year. :-)

It's so funny how polar opposite Caleb and Ethan are. I guess we all just expect them to act the same since they are brothers. Ethan is my social butterfly. Never meets a stranger...just like his Daddy. Caleb thinks everyone is going to get him and he must hide behind Mommy until proven otherwise. It takes a long time for him to warm up to people. But once he does, his little clown side comes out. He is my sweet little snuggle bug...that beats up his big brother. There's a lot of attitude in that little body but most people don't get to see the sweet side of my baby.

He is doing great at school. Still amazes me that he hasn't cried once. He marches right in every time and goes right to his table. He gets excited every morning that he has school. I really expected a lot of opposition to school. It probably helps that he has seen his brother go to school for the last few years.

I'm interested to see what the next year brings for little Caleb. Hopefully a little calmness. ;-) I love you Caleb-poo and am so lucky to get to be your Mommy!

Happy Turkey Day!

We had Thanksgiving at my parent's house this year. Mom got festive with her arrangements as you can see. Added a nice touch to the house. It was good to be with all of the family sharing a tasty meal, although it was sad to not have Aunt Lou there. I got there early to help mom get things ready. I saw the giant bowl of peeled potatoes for the potato salad and got sad. That's were Aunt Lou would park herself and peel potatoes all morning.

The usual family photo. The three of us looking...Caleb trying to get away. Maybe next year...

Caleb and Mommy decorating Nana and Papa's Christmas tree.

Ethan helped too.

A group photo of the grandkids.

Ethan and Pla-Shee decorating the tree.

Yummy!

Papa needed some help starting the fire.

Family bonding time after lunch.

Ethan loves his Hilari!

Caleb and Caitlin eating some Reindeer food (white chocolate covered popcorn and pretzels).

Caleb eating M&M's by the handful.

The older grandkids made a fort out of sticks in the backyard.

Picking lemons with Papa.

After the feast at my parent's, we had another feast at Mondo's sister's! Ethan and Caleb were so excited to see their other cousins. They played non stop! Here is Ethan and Momo.

Caleb played on these stairs most of the time...and I stood at the bottom the whole time waiting for him to fall!

Here I am parked at the bottom of the stairs.

Mondo, his mom, and two of his siblings: Christina and Abel.

Me and Mondie.

Another photo op of us.

The boys were so tired! They quickly fell asleep in the car on the way home.

Caleb's Thanksgiving Feast

Caleb also had a Thanksgiving Feast at his school. The kids were so cute sitting around their little table eating. The parents were able to come too and sit with their kids.

Their teacher said a prayer before the feast. How cute are they?!

My niece Caitlin eating her feast. We are lucky that her and Caleb got to be in the same class.

What do you think Caleb is eating? Yep, a chippie. That was pretty much what his feast consisted of.

They had an interesting feast. Donuts, raisins, turkey lunch meat, apples, cheese cubes, chips, and apple juice.

Mommy and Caleb. He was too busy eating to stop and smile.

This was the best pic I could get of the two of them. Caitlin didn't want to smile and Caleb didn't want to look. What two year olds! :-)