Potty Training - Take 2, and 3

We had tried potty training for about a day back around Easter when Kyler got his potty chair and some underwear. At that point, it became obvious that he didn't understand how to "turn it on." He would sit forever and not go and then be playing and oblivious to the fact that he was peeing.

At the beginning of June after he turned two, and had been showing signs of discomfort when he had a wet or dirty diaper. So I thought we would give it another shot. First I tried a method I read on potty training in a day where one of the things you do is run back and forth 10 times from the spot they had an accident to the potty chair saying "no potty on the floor, potty on the potty chair." This did catch his attention but he thought it was funny and didn't take it as a lesson. In fact, the second accident he has was when he was bare bottomed and he was smiling as he peed right in my kitchen. So I decided enough was enough and ended up scolding him and making him sit in time out. I know you're not really supposed to do that but I was pretty confident he knew exactly what he was doing.

At that point I decided to go back to the method I had originally tried around Easter. I basically tried to pay complete attention to him and look for signs that he needs to go. Once you do this, it's fairly easy to tell but you don't have much reaction time. I showed him his options for using the potty (his little one or a stool to stand on to hit the big toilet). He wanted his shirt off so he could see his equipment. Before I knew it he was running around in the nude... I figured whatever I am getting frustrated and tired at this point. He would stand by the door, then start saying "potty chair potty chair potty chair" while running to the bathroom and sort of pretending to go. He did this probably five times. I thought he was still thinking of me running back and forth with him. I was in the kitchen getting some stuff out for lunch when I looked over and he was standing up on the stool peeing like a big guy on the toilet. I got super excited and praised him like crazy, gave him his two jelly beans, and ran outside to get Brett for some additional praises. I continued to remind him anytime he would stand still for more than five seconds to go potty and poopy in the potty chair. He sat on the potty chair quite often and it would take a while but he would eventually go occasionally. He never did poop on the potty chair though, only once in the dog water bowl. We got busy once again (bought a house and moved) and weren't at home enough to reinforce this so ended up back in diapers.

In July, I took his diaper off one day to see how he would do. First thing that morning he peed in the potty chair on his own twice and then he pooped in it. We were so excited and he was very proud of himself. He kept asking for a diaper on though because he didn't want to be bare bottomed. I put underwear on him but every time I did that he would have an accident because he would forget that it was underwear rather than a diaper while he was playing. Day after day though, he would be accident free if he was bare bottomed. We sent him to daycare one day with underwear and they said he would not even go near the potty chair. Bummer! I also realized that I think he knows what he's doing when he wets his underwear because he would wait until I stepped outside or something like that before he would have an accident, and it would be right after I asked if he needed to go. It may just be a sign that he's not quite ready to make that big boy step yet. I think we'll give it a little more time and see if he's ready again.

Mama's Boy

Kyler has become quite the Mama's boy for some reason. It's been making me a little nervous with little brother or sister coming since I won't be able to always be the one to help him or read to him or cuddle with him. He is always wanting Mama to do things and it is sort of a challenge to convince him that Dada can do it too. It became very apparent the other night when Papa asked if he wanted to spend the night. He really really wanted to but then every time Mama and Dada would say goodbye he could get upset. He wanted us to stay the night too. Eventually he decided he just better come with us. I think we'll have to do some trial runs staying the night there before December hits.

There are also a couple more cute things he's said and done over the weekend. It's so fun that these moments are becoming more frequent. I have always enjoyed kids at this age with their big imaginations and expanding vocabularies. I was sitting at my computer while he was off playing when Kyler brought in a toy from the nursery. He didn't even look up at me. He just set the toy on my tummy and said "Here you go, Baby Pat." I held it there for a minute before setting it on my lap. He didn't like that and put it back on my tummy and moved my hand there to hold it. It was the sweetest thing and made me think he really is understanding this baby to be thing. The other funny thing was while we were watching Olympic diving. He saw one athlete dive and said "That was ahh-umm." I didn't even know he knew the word "awesome" before that.

Kylerisms: Not sure where that came from...

I told Kyler the name of someone who was at our house doing some work because he kept asking "What's Somebody doing?" A little later he comes up to me and asks "His name is Helmet Tractor?" Um, no. His name is not Helmet Tractor you little weirdo! Then after a bit he again asks "His name is Tractor Pull?" I have no idea where he came up with this stuff. There was not a helmet or tractor in sight at the time. One thing I can tell you is that we won't be taking his advice when coming up with baby names for his little brother or sister.

At breakfast today I asked him what he wanted to eat. He wanted macaroni and cheese. (He ended up settling for toast.) When he sat down at the table for lunch he told me "I want birthday." When I asked him if he said he wanted it to be his birthday he said, "yep, I want motorcycle." Apparently he thinks I am going to throw him a motorcycle birthday party every quarter. After I gave him his sandwich for lunch he was pretending to eat something else off the table. He sees me staring at him and says "that's worms." Awesome, you are eating worms.

Again I have to ask, where does he come up with this stuff?!?!

Counting and Cutting

My baby is growing up fast. And he is learning new things every single day. He can now actually count to 10 without skipping over numbers. It's not always the entire sequence and sometimes he starts over in the middle but he does know how to count to 10. When he's playing I will often hear him counting - whether it is the numbers on the phone or just counting things in a book or counting his toys.

He has also had a strong interest in cutting. He always wants to cut his food with a fork or knife after he sees me doing it. And he is very interested in scissors. I bought him a pair not long ago and today he wanted me to help him so we sat down together and I taught him how to hold them and cut properly. He did really good even though his hands are small for the kids scissors. I gave him several small squares of paper and he fringed the edges of every one of them. It was really cute and he was proud of himself.

We also started to try to write the letter "K." He really tried hard but he doesn't quite get it yet. Hopefully with more practice he'll have that skill mastered too. Besides that, our next steps are to be able to identify the remaining letters that he doesn't already know, to say the ABCs, and to identify numbers. He has colors mastered for the most part. We are also working on potty training again and hope to have that checked off the list within the next couple of weeks.

Answering Questions

Kyler can answer some basic questions about himself. He can tell you his first and last name, how old he is, and where he lives. He also knows the names of his parents and his doggie.

Kylerisms: "We're Home!"

Ky is pretty imaginative which I have read is a good thing. Today he was playing with a couple of remotes and "driving" them around on the table and couch. I didn't know what he was doing until I heard him say "We're Home!" He has over 100 Matchbox-type cars as well as tons of other vehicles yet he uses remotes as cars. I think it's just because they were close by and this little boy has a one-track mind. He is all about anything with a motor.

Kyler Update - Almost 26 Months

It's been a while since I did an update on Kyler and what he's been up to. He's almost two years and two months old now. Time is just flying by and we are amazed at how big he is getting every day. It seems like he is doing a new "big boy" activity each day.

We haven't gotten back to potty training since the move. We have some stuff going on this weekend and next so maybe at the end of the month I will be able to refocus on this. I think the reason I haven't been all over it is because it really limits us being able to go places and do things. So even though summer is a good time to be pant-less, it's not that realistic if we ever want to leave the house. I'm pretty confident that he will get it if I just spend the better part of a week on it, but then I have to make sure we have a bathroom all the time so he doesn't slip.

Ky is sleeping in his big twin bed pretty much all the time now. The past several nights he has been waking up in the middle of the night and I have to go in and settle him back in. Hopefully it's just a short phase and we will be back to peaceful sleep soon. He has also been waking up much earlier than normal which is probably not a bad thing (or it wouldn't be if his pregnant mama would go to bed a little earlier). He sleeps with his stuffed monkey and giraffe most nights.

Something new that Kyler has started is a lot more singing and dancing. He sang a pretty good "Happy Birthday" to his grandma at the beginning of July. And he can be found singing "Wheels on the Bus" quite often, hand motions and all. He also likes to sing that silly name song where you sort of rhyme different peoples' names into the song. It's pretty cute and amusing. He can count (sort of). He starts off with one, two, and then goes to seven, eight, nine, ten. We are working on the missing numbers.

Ky can run pretty fast, he does a great job driving his tractor (rarely hitting anything), and he's started sitting on the seat of his Strider bike when riding it rather than just standing and straddling it. He has been able to jump with both feet on the ground for a long time now (since early spring I think). He's gaining interest finally in playing with balls. He likes to throw and kick but hasn't figured out the catching part yet.

Kyler's speech is one area where he is probably a little behind. He talks a ton but it is very difficult to understand what he is saying. Since he's been saying more, there have been a lot of frustrating times lately where even I don't know what he's saying. Another thing we are working on is this bad habit he has of putting his fingers in his nose. He will stick a finger in each nostril and suck in. It is so weird and not something that you really want your kid walking around doing all the time. My plan of action for now has been to tell him "fingers on your tummy" to redirect the behavior. I don't think it's really working but I feel like I have to do something. He throws the typical fits and terrible two tantrums but probably not as often as I would have expected. Hopefully that doesn't change.

This big boy loves his step stool. I originally purchased it so that he could stand and potty in the regular toilet. Now he uses it most often for washing his hands. He loves to turn the water on and use a bar of soap. He isn't very good at remembering to rinse the soap off his hands though. It's pretty funny to watch him try to climb up to reach the faucet. The stool is often found in other places around the house too. He gets Baxter a dog treat from on top of the dryer and stands up to my desk to write with pens and pencils sometimes.

Ky loves to "hep you" with anything and everything. He's been my little cooking partner quite often lately. When I start something he pulls a chair up and stands up ready to help out. He is pretty fascinated with cutting with a knife or scissors. I let him cut is play dough or sometimes his food with a butter knife. We finally bought kid scissors for him but they are even a little big for him to be able to open and shut correctly while cutting. He also helps take Baxter out, sweep, throw trash away, and whatever else we can come up with.

He is constantly asking questions or repeating things. I should try to keep a tally of how many times he asks "What's that?" someday. A lot of times it is something he knows so I will say "What is that?" and he will just repeat me. During the fireworks show, all he cared about was where the firemen were. Even when we would say something about the pretty firework he would just ask "Where's fireman?" This went on for over 40 minutes during the show and he even mumbled it half-asleep when I put him to bed. Other times he will just repeat anything and everything we say. Once in a while we have to laugh because it may not be something we intended him to hear and repeat. One of my favorite things is when he will walk up to me and get pretty close to my face (and this happens multiple times throughout the day) and say "Hi Mama. How you?" It's so sweet.

Last night was the newest "big boy" thing. He tried dressing himself when it was time to put pajamas on. He got both legs into one hole so I had to assist briefly with that. And he did fairly well on the shirt, with just minor adjustments by mama. It really is hard to believe how fast this kiddo is growing up, especially since he looks and a lot of times acts much older than he is.

Some Summer Pics

Splashing after a rain.

I think he's shocked that I let him do this.

Watching a boat firework that we lit on the water.

Helping Mama make cookies.

Licking the utensils after we were done stirring.

Big boy in his cooking apron.

See his sparkler burn? Ouch!

He ate so much batter that he could only take one bite.

Happy Birthday, Grandma Tammy

Kyler is becoming quite the singer and actually did a great job singing "Happy Birthday" to his Grandma Tammy this year. I couldn't resist taking some video of it.

Big Boy Bed

Kyler has graduated from the baby bed. It was a little sad for his mama though. :( We just moved into our new house and we set up a nursery as well as a big kid room. I thought Kyler might sleep in the nursery for a while since that is where his bed was moved to. But he knew that was the baby's room and wasn't interested in sleeping there. So the first night we were in the new house I laid down with him in the twin bed until he fell asleep. He fell out of bed that night and ended up in the crib. The next night he didn't want to go down in the crib so I read him some books in bed and left him to fall asleep. Afraid he would fall out again, I moved him to the crib after he fell asleep. The third night I installed the new bed rail and he slept in his big boy bed all night long. How can my baby boy be this big already? His room has no indication anymore of being for a baby.

Last night was the first night he started sneaking out of his bed when it was his bedtime and we were still up. One time I walked back to the dark bedrooms to find him staring up at the TV in our room. He would know he was supposed to be in bed and run back in and lie down each time I spotted him. Finally he decided to stay put and again slept all night.

Now we just have one step to go to really have "big boy" status - potty training. I really think we would be there if it weren't for the move. It was too hard trying to train him while I was preoccupied with painting, moving, and unpacking so we went back to diapers. Once I know we will be at home a lot and I will have the time and attention to spend on it we will try to get that knocked out.