Pre-Kindergarten

James has advanced to the last daycare room before he hits REAL school. His new teacher is Ms. Melissa (another one). I have yet to figure out the other assistant's name. It's so confusing all this movement and staff turn-over.

With this new move, we are telling James that he is a BIG BIG boy. After our vacation we are giving up nighttime pull-ups! He is actually pretty excited about that.

We are always working on the potty training. He is doing really well during the day now but it's still something that we adults have to monitor.

Sometimes when there is a POOP involved, I monitor from a distance :)

Determination

Not to tell you James' business, but he was on the potty for about 35 minutes tonight. Constipated. He locks himself in the bathroom lately so I had to get him to open the door. I kept my ears open, wondering what was going on. I eventually heard soft whimpers. Poor baby.

He ended up giving up but I told him that tomorrow the poop will come. I gave him big hugs and told him I was proud of him. He's a good little boy.

What's James Doing NOW?

He's insisting on pooping "all by myself"! I don't dare interrupt and take a picture for this post.

He just came out of the bathroom. He helped himself to a chocolate sucker. Good boy!

September 11

Bundled up and ready for a walk to the playground! And oh yeah, chocolate sucker for a successful poop! Ha!

August 8

"Do you have my chocolate sucker?". His reward for ummmm, #2!

El Lago (the Lake)

I haven't blogged for a while, besides my short posts from my iphone (which is very cool that I can do it "on the go"). I didn't describe my trip to the Lake with James late last month. It was a pretty hot day so we drove over to the new beach. I was prepared with his sand toys, his golf clubs, his towel and change of clothes, a snack and water, everything I could think of. I slathered him in sunscreen and watched as the crowds arrived. That beach gets BUSY. We were there pretty early, like at 10:30am, and it was already really hot.

We drove but it is still quite a distance from the parking lot to the beach so I loaded James up in the wagon.

At first James only wanted to golf on the sand. The sand was really super hot so he did give up and ask to go in the water.

Here's an early shot of the beach at like 10:45. It got way busier as the morning turned to afternoon.



I ended up putting my camera down and enjoying the day with James. We played and played. We waded in the water, he watched the older kids "swim", and we did end up golfing somore more.

There is always a public bathroom poop and James didn't disappoint me this day. It was a little more trouble than usual juggling the wet clothing and the excited boy. He loves the poops lately!

What's James doing NOW?

Pooping! I think.

Great fun!

First, my child is wearing the same shirt from the last post. This is three days later. We do a lot of laundry around here lately because of accidents. The potty training is going well but lately he's been having pee accidents. It's like he suddenly forgot how to pee in the toilet! Some accidents are slight, still requiring a change, but some are just all out wet undies and shorts. It's weird but we hope we find a solution soon. Anyway, same shirt as three days ago. It is clean :)

First round of fun- light saber battle with the dust bunnies coming in through the sunny window! (Sorry Grandma Rosie, we do have dust.)





Second round of fun- wagon ride to the playground! Finally! A nice day to walk to the playground for some great play time.

Blanket for comfort? Check. SW ship? Check. Water bottle? Check. Change of SW underwear, just in case? Check. Did I forget anything?



Playground.



James started doing his little pee dance. I asked if he needed to go potty and then he said, "I have to poop! Hurry! It's coming!" So we ran to the portapotty, to my distress.

Success!! A poop in the porta potty! So what did I forget? His chocolate sucker. Darn! So he became focused on the sucker and we left. We only made it 10 minutes at the playground before we hopped back into the wagon and went home. Oh well. Good effort! And a very good reason to go home :)

We picked a flower on the way home.

Third round of fun- baking cookies for Mommy! We found some plates and cups for the cookies and milk. (The cups were from Grandpa Larry, they make them at his plant. They are hologram Toy Story and Wall-E cups!)

James thinks the second batch of cookies are done! He was very careful to use his oven mitt. I honestly don't know how he knows about oven mitts. I guess he watches me more than I think :)

"I think I need to cook something else for you."

So I mentioned that we've been having some potty accidents. Naptimes are the most iffy part of this potty training. If we can get him to pee before naptime, then maybe maybe he sleeps the entire two hours without an accident. I praise the heck out of him if he makes it. For the most part he's been successful. On this day (6/18) he did pee in the bed. I stripped him of all of his clothes and stripped the bed when suddenly he said, "I have to pee in your bathroom!" And he took off running. It was so cute and I took a picture.

I think the rest of the day was a better potty day.

Loot

This was a while ago but I think the pictures are cute. (6/10/10)

On this particular day James did poop in the potty and then promptly said, "I get a new Star Wars toy!" We scrambled to find something in the house since we didn't have anything set aside. Jim found this R2D2 in HIS collection and James was happy. (We're glad not to give SW toys for poops anymore, that could have gotten expensive! TBJ for Grandma Rosie's chocolate suckers, again!)

The C3PO folder in the picture is something I salvaged from a box of junk I inherited from the retiring librarian at work. I think she was a hoarder and she kept giving me stuff from her office as she found it. The SW folder was actually something that I got excited about because I knew I could take it home to James! Who knows? Maybe it's actually from the 80's! For real.

What's James doing NOW? Special Father's Day edition

James just earned another chocolate sucker! He told me "Dada will be so proud!". We're waiting for Dada to get out of the shower to tell him of this extra special Father's Day present :)

James' tshirt says "Daddy makes me LOL". (Laugh Out Loud)

June 13

Mini golf at MOA. There was also a great poop at MOA, but let's concentrate on the golf cuz thankfully there were no pictures of that mad dash to the potty!

Grandma Rosie saves the day!

James received this great package in the mail from Grandma Rosie! She heard we needed more "chocolate suckers" and she hooked us up!

What's James doing NOW?

He's enjoying a "chocolate sucker" after a successful, massive poop! I'm so proud :)

Shiny and New

James had a haircut yesterday and he looks like a different boy. It's quite short but that's nice for summer. He panicked when we said we were going but then cheered up when his Daddy mentioned getting a "chocolate sucker". James thinks the brown, rootbeer flavored dum dum suckers are chocolate flavored. Hey, whatever works! So he sat very nicely through his haircut and was rewarded with the chocolate sucker.

My pictures aren't transferring from my iphone well, so here's just one picture of our new boy. He enjoyed his bathtime and I washed away all the little, itchy hairs from his head and body.


We had a burst of brilliance. We thought that since he likes the suckers so well, well we should find them and offer them up for poop/potty training. Target only sells the packages of 300 or whatever, and when I looked through the bag there were only like 3 rootbeer flavored ones in there. Luckily I hit the liquor store after that (sangria ingredients) and they had a bowl of suckers on the counter. I asked if I could take one for my son and explained why- she was nice and told me to pick out as many as I could find. I only find four in that huge bowl but I appreciate them! So today, when we were at the Mall of America, and this cute little boy told me that his poop was coming we RAN to the bathroom. I literally grabbed him up in my arms and ran. It was a crowded afternoon at the MOA, so the bathroom was crowded too. James was telling me "It's coming! It's coming!" yet we still had to stand in line. Finally we got to the toilet and James pushed out a very decent sized log of poop (TMI)! And I had a chocolate sucker in my purse! He was thrilled :) We were more thrilled that James pooped in the toilet, and not in his undies, but also out in public!

Yay!

Another accident free day! No poop again but who cares?! Actually, there was a poop but it was overnight/morning when he was still wearing his overnight diaper. He told me right away that he pooped in his diaper this morning.

We are moving out of the overnight diapers this summer. That's my goal.

And yay for Grandma Rosie! She is babysitting overnight tomorrow so the Tauers can let loose a little. Jim and I both have separate plans for Saturday night but maybe we'll have a nice breakfast before we pick up our SBN.

Booty

(picture from yesterday)


A no accident day! (Okay, no poop either but it still counts!)

Red Room

James officially moved into the Red Room on Monday! Yay!!! I love the teacher. Ms. Kathy is the best. She is slightly older than me (I think), a Mom herself, and she just LOVES James. I mean, she worked one on one with him the week or so before the big move so that he would move into the Red Room with her. I think we owe this woman a lot. She is not discouraged at all if James has an accident, I think she even hid that information from the daycare directors so that they wouldn't hold him back in the Orange Room.

So he's had quite a few accidents at daycare, mostly poop. He seems to hold his pee well enough and will go on his own to the bathroom mostly. I still ask him constantly if he wants to pee, and he gets a little annoyed :) The poops are our next hurdle. He just doesn't seem to want to ask to poop on the potty. We'll discover the poop in his Star Wars undies and yuck.

But no more pull-ups! We use an overnight diaper still but that's our summer project to get him trained overnight. Since he's started the hard-core training just recently his overnight diapers are lighter, he must be holding it more then too. Such a smart boy :)

Well, that's enough poop and potty talk. Really, we get enough of it at home. Just today we dealt with one major pee accident. Poor Jim looked traumatized!

Playground Poop

Thursday was a beautiful day and so we walked to the playground/beach. James likes the stroller so we were able to walk quickly and get to playing! He likes the dock and the water, so Jim took him out to see the fish.

I saw James pulling at his behind. A sure sign that he was about to poop!


We were lucky that the outdoor bathrooms were unlocked and that James was willing to poop somewhere other than home. It was comical because when I looked down his pull-up to see if he had already pooped, he started to frantically tell me, "Hurry Mommy! It's coming out! It's coming out!" I held his hand and we ran to the bathroom! I quickly pulled him into a stall, yanked down his pants, and plopped him down on the toilet. He had a tiny little poop and we were thrilled! He stood to pee too!

James tested the acoustics in the bathroom :)


It was a wonderful sunny day! James held my hand as we walked home and life was good.

What's James doing now??

Potty training in full force!

He is wearing Star Wars underwear only and taking potty breaks every half an hour! It is exhausting for me but so worth it every time he is successful and "takes a bow"! (Daycare must have taught him to take a bow to congratulate himself at the potty. It was so cute when we realized what he was doing!)

James has peed successfully every half an hour for the last three times!

I put him in the underwear right away this morning, with a pull up diaper over the underwear, and he peed once in the underwear. I put a 2nd pair of underwear on him and he did pee in the toilet once but the next time I checked on him he had already pooped in the underwear. We are on the third pair of underwear, without a pull-up like a big boy, and they have stayed dry for two hours!

I will have to come back tonight and blog about our other adventures- there is more to tell!

April 19

Bye poop!! (1st at home). Potty training success!!


I noticed James straining and I asked, "Are you pooping?" He told me no. I asked if I could check his pull-up and he said, "No!!" I knew that was a sure sign that he was pooping or about to. TMI but I could see a poop coming out. So we rushed to the potty. And soon after, PLOP! A poop!

It was his first successful poop at home. We made a big to do and he got the promised Star Wars toy for his poop.

And then during bath time he asked to pee on the potty. I pulled him out of the bath and let him stand at the toilet. He peed! Like a big boy :)