30 Months

As I've mentioned before... one of the purposes of this blog is to keep our friends and family up to date on our little man and to serve as a "memory book" sort of thing for myself.  With that said... my little boy is officially 2 1/2 (30 months) so here are 30 facts about him...

1. He's quirky to say the least. He likes random hats (the more bizarre the better), sunglasses, goggles... you think quirky... and it fits him to a T.

2. He loves to ride his bike.... and he ask to do it about 50 times a day. But how can I say no when he looks that rockin in his shark helmet and shades?

3. He finally.... at 30 months... has all of his teeth! This boy didn't get his first tooth until he turned one.... and only had 8 until about a month ago... and bam... they all came in at once!
4. He is a wild man for sure. 110% little boy. Wrestling and racing are some of his favorite activities. Luckily he has figured out that those games are more fun when Daddy is home so most of it only takes place in the evening when I can run and hid.
5. He, for the most part, is really, really easy to discipline. He doesn't argue much and will usually only protest once ("I don't want to clean up") but as soon as we tell him that's not a choice and he has to... he does. Hopefully this personality trait stays around for awhile longer!
6. He has a huge, huge heart. I can so much as look at him wrong and his heart just breaks. Precious boy.
7. He's potty trained!!!!  Almost...   He's been in underwear for a week now and is doing awesome. The only issue is with #2... which is typical for kiddos. He's even waking up to go potty and is telling us when we're out running errands and he needs to go.
8. He requires a lot of accessories at night time.... music box, puppy light, cars blanket, pillow, nahnees, cup of water, and usually 2 small toys.
9. He still loves his "nahnees"  (his blankets he's had since he was born). I hope this doesn't end for a very long time. I love it.
10. He also still loves being outside. He would stay out all day, every day if I let him. You can bet that when spring gets here I will.

11. He is starting to become a daddy's boy. I love it and I'm pretty sure daddy does too. He still wants me most of the time when he's tired or hurt...  but he certainly thinks his daddy is pretty awesome.
12. He loves anything Cars.... but just sort of loves the movie. It's the personification of the cars that intrigues him a lot.
13. He always has been and still is a little chunker. He has some major thunder thighs (thanks to a mommy and daddy who both had them as well). We actually have to go up a size in underwear (he has 2T/3T but we're going to have to get 4T) because his little booty and legs are so big.
14. He still has the strange fascination with school buses.
15. He's starting to come up with great excuses lines... like saying "I'll love it tomorrow" when he doesn't like something.... "My tummies full of ____" fill in the blank with whatever activity he doesn't want to do (pottying, cleaning, sleeping, etc).... and "______ said I need to" fill in the blank with Mommy or Daddy or Sophie (our dog), but really no one told him anything. This last one happens usually when one parent tells him no to something.
16. He's really goofy..... yet cautious and a thinker too.
17. He loves making his toys talk. They have really deep conversations with each other
18. Loves to fish (he's mommas boy for sure!)

19. Likes to pretend he's an airplane and "fly" around the house. He usually has mommy or daddy doing it with him. I make sure the windows are closed when this is happening.
Favorites:
20. Color: Orange
21. Food: Pizza
22. Fruit: Blueberries and Watermelon
23. Veggie: Corn on the cob
24. Book: Dinosaur Diner & Goodnight Train
25. Show: He is limited on TV still... but he really likes Bob the Builder and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Mommy doesn't like either of these so I try and encourage Barney. He loves Barney.
26. Drink: Juice (ugh).. he's limited to one small cup a day.
27. Song to sing: Wheels on the Bus... again with the bus fascination
28. Toy: A wooden Cars track he got for Christmas, unit blocks, and puzzles.

29. Animal: Dogs... he loves his "sisters"
30. Place to go: Mall and Reasors (grocery store with race car shopping carts)

Well that's my boy.... he's growing way too fast and it makes me super sad....

"Maybe" was the Winner

So update on the last post.....  In the Potty Training vs Maybe battle.....  Maybe won..... this time.

So come day 4 of doing great potty training.... someone had absolutely no interest any more. He was very emotional and whiny. He has 5 teeth coming in (two of which are 2 year old molars) and is also having ear issues so I'm guessing that was part of it. So I didn't push it and we'll wait until March to try again unless he shows interest on his own again (I'm saying March because teething should be over then, he will hopefully have his ear issues resolved by then, and daddy will be back from a month long rotation out of town.).

I was a little bummed because he was doing so good.... but I rather him be completely ready on his own than me push him. 

I'll let you know when we decide to try again :)

Potty Training.... maybe?

So the title of this blog sums up the last 2 1/2 days for us. We could possibly be in the official business of potty training.... maybe.... we'll see how it goes.
Friday morning I took Daxton's diaper off and let him run around the house naked. I didn't have any intentions on making it a potty training experience... just simply letting him get some fresh air. But when he started peeing while we were playing I hurried and carried him to the potty and he finished up there. From there I decided to try out some naked potty training. I thought "why not".... we have nothing better to do today so we'll see how it goes.
I was completely surprised (that's probably an understatement) at how awesome he did)! By the end of the day on Friday he had peed in the potty over 50% of the time and even got to the point where he would be playing, stop what he was doing, and run to the potty completely on his own.
Saturday morning we were at Target so I bought some underwear just to try out. We put them on him when we got home and quickly found out that naked was the way to go with Dax for now. If he had underwear on he would just pee in them and not think anything about it..... but if he was naked he would stop as soon as the tiniest amount of pee came out and run to the bathroom to finish. Needless to say, Daxton was naked from the waste down again all day Saturday. I was really shocked after nap when he was having snack at the table (still in his diaper from sleeping) and said "mommy i need to go pee) and ran to the bathroom! By the end of the day we had peed mostly in the potty and even went #2 in the potty completely on his own!! (As in came out of the bathroom saying "Mommy I poop").
We're now at Sunday morning and still doing great! As we speak this is going on....

 Someone wanted to watch Barney and I knew he wouldn't dare leave the TV long enough to go potty so I made a little set up for him in the living room.

I think one of the biggest reasons this has been successful is because he has had a potty sitting around the house for almost a year now that he has been able to get comfortable with and sit on whenever he wants. We also have a pretty open door policy when mommy and daddy are going potty too so Dax has been able to learn from that and realize that it's a natural thing. We also have never pushed going potty. This has to be something they're completely ready for themselves and the more you push the longer it takes.

So if you're thinking about trying out a little bit of naked potty training on your own then here are my biggest tips..
#1:  Try and do it over a few days span where both parents are home (or a parent and another adult). It's completely exhausting! You have to watch your little one 110% of the time so you can see cues that they're getting ready to potty. And there's lots of cleaning carpet, emptying potty seats, wiping up floors and legs. It's tiring.... very tiring. So try to have some support there for yourself!
#2: Have lots of these around...

 Stickers, paper towels, and carpet/surface cleaning product. You'll do lots of cleaning carpet and bathroom floors (especially with little boys).  And every little kid loves a good sticker after they potty. But for Dax the most effective rewards has been ridiculous singing and dancing on mommy and daddy's part while singing a pee pee in the potty song!

 New books and toys! Dax loves sitting on the potty and reading his new books and playing with toys! It makes the potty a fun, relaxing place to be!

 We we made this mistake of getting super excited and giving Dax candy after the first few times he pottied... well he quickly learned that making himself pee... even the tiniest drop... would get him something yummy. We ended up opting for a bowl of m&m's or sixlets and only giving him one or two little pieces each time. This was enough to satisfy him.

Potty training is a process and it's going to take longer than a few days to get it down. Dax is making baby steps. He has gone from just peeing all over the floor, to starting to pee and then stopping himself and finishing in the potty, to going in the bathroom all on his own and doing the entire act. And I'm sure he'll have good days and bad days.... but we're just taking it day by day. If this ends up being the starts of him potty training then great.... but if he decided tomorrow he doesn't want to go anymore we won't make him. We'll take a break and wait until he's ready. I'll keep y'all posted!