Friday, June 19, 2009

Escape Artist

Good news! Lucas went through the whole night with out pull ups and didn't have an accident. I got this instructions off line and it said that you restrict fluids 2-3 hours before they go to bed, then you take them before they go down, then wake them an hour after they have fallen asleep and then an hour before they officially get up. So that is what we did last night and he did not have one accident.

So really weird thing happened this morning. Beau sleeps in the kitchen and we have a leash that we attach to him so that he can't leave. This morning he was barking because he wanted to go outside and Sean was procrastinating taking him out. All of a sudden Beau showed up next to me. I looked over and Sean was still in bed. Some how Beau got loose from his lease (with out breaking his leash or getting his collar off) and made it to our room. We have no idea how he did it. We have a Houdini dog!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Potty Training Update

So I know that everyone probably doesn't want a play by play of my son's bathroom occurances but since I have no other adults to talk to the blog will have to do. I almost gave up on potty training yesterday. It seemed that eveytime I put Lucas on the potty he screamed bloody murder and wanted to get off. I got really frustrated and had a few tears but after praying for strength and patience I decided to finish off the day and put Lucas in his room to go to bed at 6pm (which he didn't really fall asleep until 830pm). But I needed my sanity. As I sat in the bathroom I kept telling myself I have never give up on anything and I am not about to start now. I potty trained Beau and kept at it even though it got really really hard (the 30th day of waking up to find a poop covered dog was when I was reaching my breaking point). I taught Lucas about time out, they say a minute for every year so at 1 year when he did something naughty he got warned but then if it continued he got stuck in the time out chair. The first few times were hard but everytime he got up his minute started over again. Finally, it really didn't take that long, he got the hang of it and if we tell him to go and sit in his time out chair from another room he knows where it is and we know when he gets there because we hear this whine of definace. And lastly, we were having a very picky eater for a while. It drove me crazy because he never wanted to eat what I cooked and I never wanted to cook him a special meal. Now I am not some crazy parent who will make their child eat for breakfast what they didn't eat for dinner, but I do expect my children to try the food in front of them. Again, we learned a bite for every year old, so Lucas was only expected to eat one bite of what ever was in front of him. Now I have a strange child who would love to eat fruits and vegetables but refuses meat. The first time we implemented the one bite per year rule it took me 20 minutes and finally force feeding my child to try a bite. It slowly got easier from there, very slowly. There were many time outs and tears on his end but he learned if he just took one bite then he would be off the hook. Then one bite turned to two bites and so on. Now, Lucas will eat pretty much anything, however I do respect his tastebuds and if he is getting sick of the dinner I don't force him to finish his whole plate. I am also happy to report that he is eating meat with little to no struggle. So, with all that under my belt, I just knew that yesterday I could not give up.
I am happy to say that today went a lot smoother. He actually went into the bathroom himself, moved his stool to the toilet and started to climb up when he needed to go potty. I had to help him the rest of the way but he went potty with no struggle. He has also told me on numerous times that he needed to go potty (the word he uses unanimously for pee or poop is "poop"). I hopefully can teach him the better words for when we venture out into the world so I don't have a child screaming "POOP" in the middle of the store. I have to say to all those out there who are changing poopy diapers, it is so nice when they go into the toilet. Lucas pooped on the toilet for the first time today and that was such a relief!!! I am hoping that by the end of the week Lucas will be pretty much potty trained. We have come so far in just 3 days!!!
Keep your fingers crossed for me that this is successful and I maintain my sanity!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Family Vacation

So recently we just got back from MI where we visited my grandfather. My sister flew in and my dad just happened to be in from leave and my baby brother was also there. We drove to MI on the 5th and got back on the 13th (btw I hate Chicago, talk about bad traffic and no fun!) It rained a lot there so we weren't able to do as much as we wanted to but we had fun catching up with the family and I loved seeing my sister and neice and nephew.


Here are the cousins in the car getting ready to go somewhere. There is Lucas, Grace and James. Lucas is 5 weeks younger then Grace.













Here is Lucas and Grandpa on Grandpa's motorcycle. FYI that face is a common recurrence in all his pictures. He hates sitting still for anything much less a picture.














Sean, James and Lucas at the Detroit Zoo. Pretty much the only place we went the whole week. The last day we were there the weather decided to be nice and be sunny and not rainy for once.
















My child has a tendency to run away from me and not follow directions so we got this nifty Monkey backpack for him. He really didn't mind it much...














So baby number two is growing. I don't know why but I feel smaller then I did with Lucas. It might be that I am now at the weight that I started with Lucas. Or maybe this baby is just smaller. We find out the sex on June 29th so keep posted because I will let people know. I finished the baby quilt that I started when I was pregnant with Lucas (I was smart I knew how long quilts take me). It was my first attempt at applique and I will have to say that it isn't too bad.

Hopefully we have a girl because the quilt is alittle girly.

So as of yesterday June 14th Lucas has started the long journey towards potty training. Yesterday he only peed in the potty once, but things today have been better. It is 6pm and he has peed 3 times, however while I was making dinner he pooped on the floor, but all the joys of being a mom right?! I just have to keep telling myself that I can't quit. I never quit at anything so this shouldn't be different. I am hoping that I will only have to be on basic house arrest for a week before we can actually leave and venture out into the world.

Beau is doing well. His pooping has gotten under control. We have the best Vet Clinic in the world. Here is our big puppy!

6 Months old!