We are pregnant!

In case you missed the news on FB: Caleb is going to be a big brother!! I'm due Aug 21. We had the 12 week screening ultrasound today and things looked GREAT! Super duper cute! Here's some pics and ALL the videos!

I love this one b/c you can see the long line of the spine and the long legs bent at the knee!

Waving the little arm over the head!

Cute little foot and toes! Caught mid kick!

And a whole bunch of short videos from the ultrasound! I love the video b/c I think its easier to see whats what when its in motion instead of a random image freeze. 

Potty Training - Finale

Just for the record: Shameless bribery works.

2 M&Ms for trying to potty. 4 M&M's for Number 1. 6 M&Ms for Number 2.

Keep underwear on him at all times (except for nap time and bed time) no matter where you're going and he has to try before you leave the house and take M&Ms with you so you can reward him for trying when ever you're out and about. He has to try every hour on the hour. If he doesn't go on the hour wait 30 mins, try again. After 30, if nothing happens, try every 20 until it happens to avoid accidents.

It was intensive at first and we did a lot of extra laundry but ya know what its worked beautifully (*knock on wood!!!*) and he is doing GREAT.

Our next road trip we're gonna keep him in underwear and maybe just line his carseat w/ a puppy pad type something JUST IN CASE so we don't back track him when we travel.

Potty Training: The Saga Continues

So things were not.... going so well.

The 3 day, naked bottom thing initially worked very well and he definitely got the concept but trying to transition to underwear wearing was just.... failing. If I put something on his bottom he went it in it. This wasn't helped by the fact I put him in a pull up any time we left the house (which he treated like a diaper) and he also refused to use the big potty at all (even with a seat adapter).

So basically he was perfectly potty trained as long as we were at home and he was naked from the waist down (not including naps and bedtime). *sigh*

And this was the status for months b/c I'd try underwear and he'd go through 5 pairs in a day and while he doesn't object to wearing a wet diaper, Caleb STRENUOUSLY objects to wearing wet underwear (not that I can blame him) and he associated the underwear w/ being uncomfortable so he'd scream and cry if I tried to put it on him.

Then in August I went to visit my family in Texas for 2 weeks and between the 2 day road trip and then I forgot the potty chair at home and he refused to use the big potty at my Mom's house and at my sisters house I was afraid to let him run around naked on her nice carpet in case he had an accident and so he spent the two weeks in diapers.

Then we got back home and Caleb just plain didn't want to use the potty. He'd yell if we tried to make him go and while I can work with that what I couldn't work with was the fact he started holding it ALL DAY until either nap time or bed time (when he'd get a diaper put on him), unless he had an accident which was just oh so fun to clean up and I was scared to death that he would get a bladder infection or something. *head desk*

So we decided to just back off for a while. So for the last almost 2 months we just went back to diapers full time.

And then last Tues Caleb got up from his nap, we were out of pull ups anyways and the one he wore for nap time had overflowed w/ poopie that got on the rug in his bedroom and he'd tried to clean it up himself w/ wipes (so I had poopie wipes all over the floor and the poop was now ground into the carpet *vomit in my mouth a bit remembering that*). And I decided it was high time he started using the potty again.

And this time he's ONLY using THE BIG POTTY (with the adaptor seat) and he's wearing underwear full time. I don't want any more crappy transitions I have to deal with. And I'm shamelessly bribing him.

He did NOT want to wear the underwear at first or use the potty but I was able to sweet talk him into the underwear after bribing him to pee in the potty by telling him he'd get M&Ms if he did it. Yes I'm going to bad Mommy hell for bribery but if you wanna come change poopie diapers until he's 18 you can be my guest.

So we started w/ 3 M&Ms for a pee pee and 5 M&Ms for a poopie. And I've been hauling him in there every hour. If he doesn't go then we do 30 mins, then every 15 until he does. He got a little frustrated with his play time being interrupted (and had a couple accidents b/c when he's busy he doesn't want to move). So we've changed his reward schedule. He now gets 2 M&Ms just for trying to go potty (he will now happily jump up and run in there every time, no complaints), 4 for pee and 6 for poop.

He's doing much better. He pulls down his pants all by himself and likes to wash his hands.

We tried doing underwear for nap time and explaining that he could come out of his room if he needed to go. I don't know if he didn't understand or just doesn't have control when he sleeps yet (his diaper is NEVER dry in the morning), but yeah that was a BIG mess a couple days in row so now we just do diapers for nap and bed time.

He still hasn't got poop in the big potty. He saves that for the diaper, but at least he's going pee in the potty several times a day and wearing underwear and those are big steps for him. So we will see how that goes. I'm not sure how church is going to go tomorrow. Its 3 hours long and in the middle of nap time (so I usually have to change a stinky in the middle of church) so I don't think I'm brave enough to put him in pants but we'll see. I think we'll keep bribing and then this week start taking him on short outings from the house wearing underwear and see how it goes.

Wish us luck. I'm praying hard we can get this to work this time. He's 3.5 now. He can hold it for HOURS so I know he has the control. He just needs to learn to recognize and respond to the signs.... Or be willing to do so. I really want to be able to keep him in underwear when we leave the house. I think that was the downfall of our last try.

Potty Training

Warning: If the title of this post wasn't enough  - I'm discussing potty training. If you're not a parent and don't wanna be scarred w/ this I understand if you skip this post.

So we've been working on potty training for a couple months now and as long as we are at home with Caleb naked from the waist down, he is perfectly potty trained. Its been a month or so since I last tried to put underwear on him but it was just an unabashed failure (FIVE pairs of underwear in ONE day) that I've been scared to try it since. But eventually its gonna have to happen and I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and be prepared for the mess.

BUT my favorite part for right now is when Caleb randomly bolts up from whatever he's doing, grabs his little butt cheeks with both hands and RUNS to the bathroom while shouting, "Go Potty! Go Potty!" over and over all the way in there. And then once he sits down on his little toilet he starts hollering for me to come turn the light on and close the door for him.

Normally I'm not allowed to turn lights on and off ("No! Me do it!") but if he's on the can its my job. Then I'm supposed to close the door and go away until he's finished at which point he'll start calling for me down the hall. "Mooooooooom! Mommmmm! All done!"

Then I come back, he opens the toilet, I dump, he flushes. Then its time for the washing of the hands and while he's not quite tall enough to turn the water on while standing on the step stool, I am most definitely NOT allowed to do it for him. I am to help him reach that last inch to the handle by lifting him up, then squeeze the soap on his hand and wait until he's done rinsing at which point his majesty allows me to assist him to turn the water off again and hand him the towel.

It can be kinda annoying if I'm in the middle of something, BUT the great news is that I'm not changing a diaper and that grab-the-butt-and-run-while-screaming-"Go Potty!!" bit is PRICELESS.

Caleb Moments

So in an effort to blog more frequently - and b/c I want to document some of this in an easier to look back on format than FB I'm going to start posting little mini post of whatever thing Caleb is doing thats making me giggle, stress or snigger about now.

For example:

This kid cracks me up. Whenever he has a full blown melt down (once or twice a week usually) I've found the best way to deal with it is to just put him in his room and close the door and let him just calm down for 5-10 mins and then he's fine. (If you try to talk to him or anything when he's that bent he just gets MORE angry). Well now whenever he gets mad at me - he runs to his room and shuts the door to throw his fit. LOL Some how I'm completely cool with this behavior. Kid sends himself to his room. lol

Also Caleb's phrase of the moment (ever since we got back from our trip) is "Oh no! What happened? Oh! I broke it!" He says this ALL the time and sometimes I just have no clue why.

He's so adorable. He's catching on to manners so now he tells me "Bless you" when I sneeze and "Thank you" and "You're welcome" at the appropriate times. Its really darling.

Easter Egg Hunt 2012

This year Caleb was big enough to really enjoy an Easter Egg Hunt so I mentioned it to my Aunt Lorri who sweetly organized a really awesome one for Caleb and his cousins. I only got pics of Caleb b/c Mom was following him around with the plastic bag for the eggs in one hand (I forgot a basket) and the camera in the other. Oops. lol But they're still super cute. 

He was so excited! He kept chanting "Egg! Egg! Egg!" the whole time.

"See Mom!! Egg!!"

 In the bag it goes...

And we're off to find another one. Kid was focused and mission oriented lemme tell you!

 Two at a time!

Running back to the bag w/ the egg!

And counting out the loot w/ the cousins to make sure we found them all! It was a great time and Caleb really, really enjoyed it!!

Progress on the Yard 2

So its been a while and things are looking better in the back yard. I'll up date you on the front yard after I get finished w/ the post-spring clean up. But hey compared to the thigh high weeds and dirt when we first bought the place this thing has come a LONG ways!!

Don't mind the strip of dead grass in the middle. I learned that my electric lawn mower is not macho enough to handle stripping things short enough to over seed winter rye so we're gonna officially file that task under: best left to a professional. The stripe should go away soon enough. The bermuda is coming out of dormancy and I just fertilized everything yesterday.

Here's the little gardenia I planted along the shady back fence. She's kept blooming like mad (smells amazing) so I'm hopful she'll do well there. 

Yeah I still haven't moved the cactus in the play ground area. I need to get to that too... Also the tree on the right there needs some serious clean up. Lots of dead branches.

I used some of that "Ground Clear for 1 Year" stuff on the path on the left side there to test it b/c I was afraid the run off would kill my grass but its only killed a couple little 6" or so patches of grass there so I vote thats a go in my book. Its done a great job of keeping the weeds out of the bricks.

Ahhh my little side alley. 2 of the 3 vines I planted turned out to not be able to handle the heat here in Phoenix. I was very sad. I really wish plant info tags has a maximum temp rating and not just a minimum. It would be really helpful here. AND the 3rd vine has been a learning experience. Did you know that jasmine comes in 2 varieties? Mounding and Vining. I wanted a vine to climb up the wall so guess which type I bought? Thats right mounding. Ahhhh sweet learning experiences. Also jasmine really likes her sun so while she lived, she did not thrive. So I dug up all 3 plants, disposed of the dead ones and transplanted the mounding jasmine over by my rose bushes for some ground cover. I've replaced all 3 vines with bouganvilla that I scored for a song at Costco a few weeks back.

 Yup theres the cactus that still needs moving. But it has crazy beautiful flowers in spring so I really want to try to keep it alive if at all possible. Wish me luck.

Isn't it crazy how much that rose bush in the back right has grown?! That thing was 3 sticks and 2 leaves and mostly dead in the shade by my front door when we bought this house. I transplanted it, pruned it and said if it survives the shock it should do fine. I think its doin pretty okay personally. Also the mini rose there in the front is crazy! That thing like exploded back from its pruning and is COVERED in buds. I love it. The green thing in the front left is the mounding jasmine which will hopefully be much happier soon, and you can't see it hardly at all because of the shade but in the rear left there is my newest tiny little rose bush that I got for 3 bucks and has the most amazing ruffled, fragrant lavender blossoms. I'll get you pictures as she grows up and gets gorgeous.

Also can just say that I really miss mulch?! Everything looks so much better w/ a nice thick, dark layer of mulch but no you can't use that here b/c it turns to sawdust in a single season (or so I'm told) so what you do is rock. And well lets just say that while rock might last forever the start up cost is prohibitive. *sigh* So I'll just keep battling the weeds for my dirt patches I guess. *sigh*