POTTY TRAINING!!

So the exciting day has finally come- potty training! As you may remember I started taking Carter to the potty when he was 4months old, doing the elimination communication method. It worked great until he started walking and began losing interest in sitting on the potty. So we didn't push too hard. The important thing was that he knew what the potty was and how to control his release. Lately he would pitch a fit if we tried sitting him on the toilet, which was very discouraging. So I decided to get him his own little potty chair that's just his size that he can use all by himself. It came in today!

I've researched and learned some handy little tricks and started as soon as we got it home. I gave him lots of juice and salty crackers to keep him drinking lots of juice. I then stripped him down naked and shut him in the living room so I wouldn't have to chase him all over the house. After a few mishaps (this is where it's great having wood floors instead of carpet) he's starting to get the hang of it. When it's time he'll say pee pee and go to his chair. We've had 4 in a row now (he's going every 5-15 minutes, so there are plenty of opportunities for success).

He's so proud afterward. He'll stand up, turn around, bend down and look in amazement at his pee pee in the potty, (something you can't do with a toilet- there's always fluid in there) and then he'll clap and dance.

I know it will take some time for this to become a regular habit that replaces diapers, but it's so great seeing him excited about going potty like a big boy again and knowing to tell me when it's time to go.

Anyway, it's only been 2 hours, so I'll post an update in a few days or so to let you know how he does when he has clothes on and isn't pumped full of juice. :)

Correction to previous blog post

One quick change from the previous blog that I wrote this morning. Apparently after correcting him so many times that an "O" is not a "D", Carter now knows the difference. His affore mentioned blocks have letters on them and he correctly pointed out both the "O" and "D" blocks this afternoon. He makes his mommy proud. :)

Big baby steps for our little man

There have been some big accomplishments this past month for our little man. His climbing skills have us going crazy trying to keep him off of things such as the kitchen table. We decided to beat him to the punch of learning to climb out of his crib and just switched him to his toddler bed this week. He does great and stays in all night and comes in to get us when he wakes up in the morning.

The vocabulary just keeps growing too. He’s using more sentences, like “where’d it go?”, “I want … (insert word)”, and my personal favorite “mama, boo boo elbow”. Of course I don’t like that he gets hurt, but the fact that he can put it together to tell me where it hurts is great. (He knows and can say all of his body parts, so we’re covered).

His new favorite toy is his blocks. He loves to stack them up and then knock them down. He can get them pretty high too. The biggest accomplishment with this has been counting. He’s only had the blocks a few days, but from the get go we would count his blocks as he stacked them and already he can count to 3 on his own as he stacks them.

He’s also starting to learn some letters. His favorite cartoon is Super Why, a relatively new series compared to most out there, so you may not have heard of it. They go into stories to learn lessons using the “powers” of the alphabet, to spell, rhyme, and read. He loves to “sing along” to their alphabet song and when it’s time to spell something he’ll repeat the letters as they say them, and then say the word at the end after they say it. Granted it’s all repeating at this point, but it’s a start. He also loves to answer the questions they ask, saying “yes” or “no” when it’s appropriate, and if it’s multiple choice he’ll usually say his favorite. I never thought I’d like letting my child watch cartoons, but he clearly is learning from them. God Bless PBS!! (FYI, we don’t watch nickelodeon and sponge bob type stuff. We try to stick to the educational stuff).

Carter’s favorite book at the moment is an ABC book of babies and their emotions. At the end is all the letters and he loves to point at them and say different letters. He insists that the O is “D”. It’s very cute and it’s amazing watching him trying to learn. Another note on books- he LOVES them. He “read”, (listened to and looked at), over 100 books for the summer reading program.

As of his 15mo check up (which was a month ago) He was 33" and 24.5lbs. Thankfully we don’t have to go back until he’s 2! (We have our fingers crossed he won’t get sick before then). According to our measurement and scale he’s now up to 34" and 25 lbs (which keeps him right at the 95% for height and about 55% or so for weight)

In not so pleasant news, we’ve had to start disciplining our little guy. He definitely is testing us to see what is and isn’t ok. We started using time out this week and for the most part it seems to be working. He already knows that when I say he’s getting a time out I’ll point him toward the corner and he’ll go stand in it with his head down while I count out his time (another opportunity for learning to count). It’s cute to see him do this all by himself, but a little frustrating. Sometimes it becomes a game, at which point the punishment changes to sitting on my lap without being able to move- he HATES that one.

In non-Carter news, Ryan and I have a new toy- a Nintendo Wii (although Carter likes to try to play, too). After 1 week with it I lost 4lbs! We just got Dance Dance Revolution the other night (which Ryan said he wouldn’t play) and we both love it. If the Wii Fit ever becomes available for its retail price we’ll get it too. (It sells for $90 in store, but they’re always sold out and they sell for double online- likely from the people who keep buying out the stores). Not that I’m personally trying to lose a lot of weight, but I’d like to lose some before we get pregnant again (apparently it’s harder to lose after a second one). Maybe toward the end of the year we’ll have some more news. ;)