Potty training Day 2

Day 1 ended with 4 hits, 7 misses. One of the hits happened after he ran over and sat down on it by himself.

Day 2, it's now noon and we've had 4 hits and 1 miss. Two of his hits were him putting himself on the potty again! They were also very small amounts of pee, like he was squeezing it out just because he enjoyed doing it and me cheering and then taking it to the big toilet to dump it.

But he's been putting himself on the potty and going, and I'm very excited about this. I think it's huge progress, and it looks like he's actually getting the hang of it! Instead of it just being me watching him like a hawk for signs that's he's going to go and then rushing him to the toilet.

It's nap time now, so he's back in a diaper. Hopefully he'll keep running to the toilet on his own this afternoon!

Potty Training!

Hi there. Remember me? The long-gone, horribly blogger that runs this little shin-dig? I felt like blogging. So here I am.

Noah is just over 20 months old now. And today, we started potty training! He's been showing signs of readiness and interest, so I figured we'd give it a shot.

We're doing the 3-day potty training method, and I know there are a lot of skeptics out there who are laughing at the idea of potty training in 3 days. But people have had a lot of success with this method.

So far today, Noah has been enjoying running around naked. He's had a couple misses, and a hit. It's nap time now, so he's back in a diaper. When he wakes up, the diaper goes back off and we'll keep doing what we're doing. Supposedly by the end of the first day, there are supposed to have been lots of accidents, but he should be starting to get the hang of it. Day 2, less accidents, and really getting it. Day. 3, he should be good. For the next 3 months following these 3 days, he'll probably have an occasional accident. But that's the very general premise of it. If he's not taking to it, we'll stop and try again in a few weeks. But so far he's doing well! Hopefully it keeps up.

Quiet Book!

(This is an old post that I started {eh... In... March} and never finished... Here it is now!)



It is finished (er... almost)!! I have been working on this project for about a month (and thinking about it for 4 months on top of that) and I am now happy to say that it is done! Except for 1 eyelet. 1! Why would they put 19 eyelets in a package? Would 20 really have been that hard? Ugh.

Anywhoozle. I'm not great at implementing the picture in my head and making it turn out right, so some of the pieces in the book aren't quite right. But I did my best. And Noah's not going to care.

The goal of the quiet book is to keep Noah occupied and at the same time be educational. There are things to promote fine motor skills (using zippers, tying shoes), things just for fun (finger puppet zoo, mr. Potato head-type thing, fishing), and educational things (matching colors/shapes, numbers).

He's played with a few of the pages as I was finishing them and he really seemed to like them. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Maybe I'm just euphoric over finishing such a big project, I dont know. But if he likes it, then it serves it's purpose and I'm happy. Even if it's not perfect.

The pictures were taken before I finished, so it turned out a little different than what's shown here, but you get the idea.

A little blurb for Old Navy

I've been part of this community called Crowdtap for a while, and every so often, they have opportunities for people to sample things with different companies. I got to sample some Old Navy clothes for free, which is something I always love. I got a free tee shirt and tank top. I love Old Navy's tee shirts. If you know me, you know I dress pretty casually, and Old Navy tees are one of the things that I usually wear. They're so comfortable, and they hold up to all the dirt and food that Noah smears all over me well.

So that's my little blurb. If you're looking for some basic things to add to your wardrobe that are both functional and look good, I'd recommend the Old Navy tees. Super affordable and they're so comfortable. I love them.

Goodnight gorilla

I'm rocking Noah to sleep right now and he's holding his bear tight and has a very sullen look on his face. It's very cute. He hasn't had his pacifier in 4 days now. Tonight he's missing it. I can tell by his grumpy face. He makes the funniest grumpy face. He glares and furrows his brow when we say no. And rolls his eyes. It's hilarious and adorable now. I hope he outgrows it before he's a teen.

Potty Training!

We have officially "begun potty training!" And by potty training, I mean we bought a potty seat and we're going to sit Noah on it when he wakes up, after naps, and before bath and bed time. We're just letting him get used to sitting on his little chair. No pressure. If he goes though, I'll be super excited!

So that's as much potty training as we're doing right now. In a few months, we'll be more intentional about it, but right now, it's just kind of fun and maybe we'll have a few less diapers to change. =)

That aside, we're settling in here. Noah turned 14 months yesterday. He love love loves having dogs around. He keeps pointing at them and saying "da," which makes me very excited, thinking he's going to start talking soon. But "da" seems to be his new favorite noise, so maybe he won't be talking just yet. I don't know. I'm excited for it to happen, anyway.

I've been looking at Pinterest a lot, and I have so many ideas for projects I want to do. One is to make a quiet book for Noah (2, actually). It'll have numbers, letters, some stuff to help with fine motor skills, a couple games... I'm really excited to get it together! However, I have no money with which to buy my supplies. Sad day. Pinterest is bad for my wallet.

And now.... A certain little boy needs my attention. =)

Goodbye Missouri!

I haven't posted in a while, so I don't think I've mentioned anything about moving. Our lease for our place ended at the end of October, so we moved all the way out to Chino, California. Whoah. Big change, right? We had our move-out inspection Monday morning, then Zach spent a couple hours tetris-ing everything into our car. Ran a few errands, and then headed out. We drove all night because Kansas sucks, and then got into Denver around 5 or 6 am- I'm not sure when, I was asleep- and we hung out at a McDonalds for a while. We wanted to wait until it was light out to drive through the mountains, since the drive through the Rockies is just beautiful.

After lots of driving, a two hour stop at Urgent Care for Richard (he was pretty sick), and a random snowstorm that left us with almost no visibility, we made it to Bryce, Utah Tuesday night. There we set up camp and snuggled up under a ton if blankets. It was so cold! The low that night was 12 degrees. Seriously. Cold. We had Noah bundled up, and he slept between us in the tent, then we had 4 or 5 warm blankets on top of us, with a crocheted quilt I made covering our heads. It was too cold without having our faces covered! Mali slept in the tent with us, she was snuggled by my legs for a while. If the ground hadn't been so cold, we would have been fairly comfortable. Apart from where we were touching the ground, we were warm. But anyway. We woke up pretty early in the morning, went to look at a few neat things around Bryce Canyon, and then drove on to Zion, Utah. It was beautiful! We stopped a couple times to hike to a few different interest parts. From there, we headed to Vegas. Stayed the night with Justin and Krista.

Thursday we hung out and Noah and Jake played. That afternoon, we went to visit Zach's mom at her new school. =) we left Vegas that evening and pulled into the driveway in Chino around 1-1:30 am.

And that brings us to today. We briefly introduced Mali to the dogs. It didnt go well. Merle chased her into a corner and she cowered and hissed at him. Thats going to be interesting. =)

Zach and I still need to unload the car and get settled in our room. So that's pretty much what's been going on with us. I'm pretty excited about this new adventure we're starting. I love that we can step outside and see the mountains. And we're an hour or less drive away from the beach, which I'm super thrilled about. =)

I was going to add some pictures from the trip in, but most of them are already off my iPod. All I have is a shot of the sunset in Henderson last night. So here's that. =)