Potty Training. Urgh.
I think I should just leave the post at that. We had that disasterous attmept back in July that resulted in our whole family pretty much defeated and in tears. Remember? We decided to wait and let Owen take the lead. That's what all the books tell you these days - don't push them, wait until they're ready, blah, blah, blah. Well, that strategy is not working at our house. I think we missed our "readiness" window early last fall. Owen was showing all the signs, but we were hesitant to try and train him 2 months before having a new baby - what if he regressed? Seriously? Would that have been so bad? Instead we've been changing diapers for a full extra YEAR.
All the books also say that the "old" method of potty training was too traumatizing for kids, but I'm really wondering? Are there any adults out there suffering PTSD from their potty training experience in the 50s and 60s? Maybe the "parent lead" method was a little regimented, but those kids got out of diapers WAY earlier than ours do. But I digress...
Regardless of the theory, I'm tired of changing diapers for a 3 year old. Especially one that will stop what he's doing, look me in the eye, and announce, "I'm peeing in my diaper." Kiddo, those diaper days are ending! The kids are staying with grandma/nana for a week starting next weekend, and Scott (and I) were feeling really guilty of sending them two kids still in diapers (espeically since one of those kids still isn't weaned and doesn't sleep well). Scott was musing, "maybe we should give the potty training a try again before we go." With nothing on the calendar today, I took a deep breath and decided to take a more forceful approach. No days of preparation, sticker charts, or pep talks. We just told Owen that today was potty day and that he wasn't getting a diaper. Tears, yelling, rolling on the floor, "But I WANT A DIAPER!" "But I Al-READY used the potty!" (2 months ago) and on and on and on. After an hour this morning, I was ready to cave, but I held on. We brought out the little potty for the downstairs bathroom.
After 2 hours, Owen was at least willing to play without pants on. He had one accident on the floor. We started pounding the gatorade. He started running back and forth to the potty every 10 minutes. He had one TINY dribble on the potty - 3 Jelly Beans! When I was upstairs putting Josh down for a nap, I heard a comotion in the bathroom then a toilet flush. Successful poop! 3 Jelly Beans. Now I had a proud, smiling kid. We called dad and grandma. The successes kept coming. The accidents happened too. But our count for the morning was 6 hits and 2 misses.
Owen is thrilled (and pretty hyped up on sugar from those jelly beans). I am thrilled - and feeling really nasty. This is a lot of bodily fluid to be dealing with.
I gave Owen a pull-up at nap time and told him that as soon as he wakes up, he should run to the potty. 45 minutes into his nap, I heard him crying and found him (still asleep) halfway out of bed, as though his body was trying to head for the bathroom. I tucked him back in - the pull-ups are there for a reason. Let's hope this continues this afternoon...
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Skip ahead to 10
o be in th
I have this little list of "things about Josh at 9 months," but the time for that post has long passed. Not to mention, most of the things that seemed pretty monumental a few weeks ago are so old news for this rapidly progressing baby.
Josh is taking a much greater interest in being a participant in our activities. He's no longer content observing and instead wants to be in the middle of the mix. More than once, we've had to use our ninja parenting reflexes to catch him as he dives out of our arms reaching for some unknown object.
Josh pushed his two bottom teeth through last month. I'm sure more are on the way.
My friend Shannon explains that baby's development goes in circles. They might work on language for a while, then suddenly start making great strides in fine motor, then rotate to gross motor or cognitive. Josh is 100% in the gross motor rotation! In the last two weeks he went from the "wounded soldier" dragging one arm along the ground while wiggling across the floor, to the "army man" with both hands pulling and both legs kicking, to taking his first crawling paces on Tuesday. At the same time, he's working on pulling up to standing, has started inching along furniture (only to the right!) and balanced on his own for several seconds this week.
All this work has come with an awful lot of frustrated vocalization, as he is not happy to be left on the floor, but we're being persistent because we know he's going to be SO MUCH HAPPIER when his efforts lead to real movement.
Josh has also figured out clapping - which brings him immense joy. He'll do a very tentative High-5, waves good-bye to the kids leaving daycare, and charmed grandma with his arms overhead "cheer" last week. We need to remember how much babies this age love repetition and keep working on these little skills.
Then the big questions: Eating and Sleeping
Neither are fantastic, but both are improving. Josh is legitimately eating meals these days. He's getting hearty purees and lots of crackers. He's a big fan of squash, sweet potato, and avocado. For the life of me, I can't figure out why he will devour goldfish crackers with no problem, but has trouble with easy fruits like pears and peaches. We're making progress and I think the scale was a whole pound bigger tonight than it was a month ago.
At the same time, we've decided to abandon the bottle and work instead on the sippy cup. It just wasn't worth the battle for our wonderful daycare teachers, and Josh would rather skip feedings than drink milk from a bottle. While he doesn't drink as much from the cup (yet!), Stephanie says Josh has been soooo much happier this week. At the same time, Josh is losing interest in nursing (too many other things to see!). Rather than work through it, we're going to start slowly weaning, since Scott and I have a week-long kid-less vacation next month. Hopefully his sippy cup skills will rapidly improve, so he can maintain the level of liquid calories.
Sleeping? Urgh. We have good and bad nights. We moved Josh from the co-sleeper into a full-sized pack-n-play, which helps because he now has room to roll over. This week, we're determined to disassemble the crib in Owen's room, so it can be moved into the guest room for Josh. Owen was in the crib on day 2 and Josh will get there at 10 months!
Josh has hit a mommy stage. Thankfully, he's happy with other people as long as I'm not around, but the minute he notices me in the room, he's making his preference known. I can't complain though - do you see this precious dimple?!
Current Favorites: Standing, clapping, the bath, balls!
Current Tortures: Being left alone, diaper changes
Current Nickname courtesy of Owen: Josh-a-bee
I have this little list of "things about Josh at 9 months," but the time for that post has long passed. Not to mention, most of the things that seemed pretty monumental a few weeks ago are so old news for this rapidly progressing baby.
Josh is taking a much greater interest in being a participant in our activities. He's no longer content observing and instead wants to be in the middle of the mix. More than once, we've had to use our ninja parenting reflexes to catch him as he dives out of our arms reaching for some unknown object.
Josh pushed his two bottom teeth through last month. I'm sure more are on the way.
My friend Shannon explains that baby's development goes in circles. They might work on language for a while, then suddenly start making great strides in fine motor, then rotate to gross motor or cognitive. Josh is 100% in the gross motor rotation! In the last two weeks he went from the "wounded soldier" dragging one arm along the ground while wiggling across the floor, to the "army man" with both hands pulling and both legs kicking, to taking his first crawling paces on Tuesday. At the same time, he's working on pulling up to standing, has started inching along furniture (only to the right!) and balanced on his own for several seconds this week.
All this work has come with an awful lot of frustrated vocalization, as he is not happy to be left on the floor, but we're being persistent because we know he's going to be SO MUCH HAPPIER when his efforts lead to real movement.
Josh has also figured out clapping - which brings him immense joy. He'll do a very tentative High-5, waves good-bye to the kids leaving daycare, and charmed grandma with his arms overhead "cheer" last week. We need to remember how much babies this age love repetition and keep working on these little skills.
Then the big questions: Eating and Sleeping
Neither are fantastic, but both are improving. Josh is legitimately eating meals these days. He's getting hearty purees and lots of crackers. He's a big fan of squash, sweet potato, and avocado. For the life of me, I can't figure out why he will devour goldfish crackers with no problem, but has trouble with easy fruits like pears and peaches. We're making progress and I think the scale was a whole pound bigger tonight than it was a month ago.
At the same time, we've decided to abandon the bottle and work instead on the sippy cup. It just wasn't worth the battle for our wonderful daycare teachers, and Josh would rather skip feedings than drink milk from a bottle. While he doesn't drink as much from the cup (yet!), Stephanie says Josh has been soooo much happier this week. At the same time, Josh is losing interest in nursing (too many other things to see!). Rather than work through it, we're going to start slowly weaning, since Scott and I have a week-long kid-less vacation next month. Hopefully his sippy cup skills will rapidly improve, so he can maintain the level of liquid calories.
Sleeping? Urgh. We have good and bad nights. We moved Josh from the co-sleeper into a full-sized pack-n-play, which helps because he now has room to roll over. This week, we're determined to disassemble the crib in Owen's room, so it can be moved into the guest room for Josh. Owen was in the crib on day 2 and Josh will get there at 10 months!
Josh has hit a mommy stage. Thankfully, he's happy with other people as long as I'm not around, but the minute he notices me in the room, he's making his preference known. I can't complain though - do you see this precious dimple?!
Current Favorites: Standing, clapping, the bath, balls!
Current Tortures: Being left alone, diaper changes
Current Nickname courtesy of Owen: Josh-a-bee
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Summer Events - Camping
At the end of June, we ventured out on our first camping adventure as a family of 4. The Donnelly's joined us for a one-night experiment out near the Metolious. It's amazing how much gear we managed to pack into our car for 20 hours away from home, but it was well worth it to get away from a buzzing phone and just breath in the best Central Oregon has to offer. Even better, Owen and Hazel had a great time exploring together, leaving us adults with nothing to do but sit around and chat by the fire.
Josh had been exceptionally cranky in the weeks leading up to the weekend, but we went for it anyway. Turns out, all he needed was some quality time in nature. Josh LOVED watching the trees, the bugs, the fire, the sky. And, he ate like a champ out in the open air and actually slept fairly well (aka not any worse than normal) in the tent. More nature time please!
Josh had been exceptionally cranky in the weeks leading up to the weekend, but we went for it anyway. Turns out, all he needed was some quality time in nature. Josh LOVED watching the trees, the bugs, the fire, the sky. And, he ate like a champ out in the open air and actually slept fairly well (aka not any worse than normal) in the tent. More nature time please!
Summer Events - Kids' Crit
Summer 2010 catching up...
Owen participated in his first bike race - the NWX Kids' Crit. It was quite the site to see hundreds of kids lined up on their bikes. Owen was really excited... until it was time for the race to start. Then, he really didn't want to move one inch unless Josh and I were walking next to him. Thankfully, about half the kids in the 2-5 year old age group were in the same boat, so our race turned into more of a parade.
And all the "winners" got ice cream at the end, and we enjoyed an evening in the park with our friends. What could make a more complete summer evening?
Owen participated in his first bike race - the NWX Kids' Crit. It was quite the site to see hundreds of kids lined up on their bikes. Owen was really excited... until it was time for the race to start. Then, he really didn't want to move one inch unless Josh and I were walking next to him. Thankfully, about half the kids in the 2-5 year old age group were in the same boat, so our race turned into more of a parade.
And all the "winners" got ice cream at the end, and we enjoyed an evening in the park with our friends. What could make a more complete summer evening?
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