27 Months (yesterday)

Our little boy is well on his way to 2.5 years old in just a couple of months. I have mixed feelings about all this growing up stuff... Tonight he walked around the house in the cutest Mickey Mouse underwear you have ever seen. Underwear! I swear this is not my kid---there is no way I have a kid old enough to start potty training.

I have a friend who has a little boy that is also going through potty training right now too....today she sent me a text that her little boy woke himself from his nap to go poop and she added, "only you would understand this excitement as much as I do." This is so true---I honestly think this is one of the greatest excitements I have in life...Oh how you can totally tell I am a mom. Over our mini vacation I had to change my FB status update that read, "Harrison pooped on the potty, vacation success."

Obviously this whole potty training thing won't be completely smooth. He is still having accidents at home (maybe 1-2 per day). He doesn't verbalize when he has to go pee (only poop). At home we let him run around in his underwear and freely let him go on his potty as he desires (sometimes he asks to go on the BIG potty). Sometimes he is OK with us asking him to use the potty other times, he gets mad when you ask him. Daycare is another story---potty training is not happening there. He will sit for them, but that is far as it gets. Honestly I think if he didn't go back to daycare after his 6 days at home, he would already been potty trained. Being at home makes a HUGE difference. I am hoping our 3 day weekend with kick start him back into full potty training mode.

I've probably already talked too much about potty training...but hey, that is the news at the Kelley household.

I finally decided that I will end monthly blog updates (like this one) when Harrison turns 36 months (I just hate saying 3, it sounds so old). There will be plenty of blog entries, but probably not focusing so much on the monthly changes.

This month:

Favorite Food: Cheese
Favorite TV Show: Mickey Mouse Club House & Chuggington
Favorite Animal: Sheep
Favorite Color: Green
Favorite Toy: (Old) Digital Camera (and no, I am not making this one up)
Favorite Game: Elefun and Elmo Letters on the I-Pad
Favorite Phases/Saying: "What's that?" "A bite" and "No more monkey's jumping on the bed."
Favorite new word: Sully (that's one of our cats)
Favorite Books: Llama, Llama Books (the author really needs to write more) and "The Little Blue Truck."
Favorite Song (to sing): "Twinkle, Twinkle" and "ABCs"
Favorite Number: 2
Favorite weight: 25 lbs (he has been at that number for 4 months now)
Favorite Holiday: Christmas (he still asks where Santa is on a daily basis, apparently Santa left a lasting impression. I hope the Easter Bunny can shake the Santa thing).
Favorite helpful thing to do: washing things
Favorite habit: still using a plug (pacifier) and home and carrying around his "key, key," blanket everywhere---we have a Linus on our hands
Favorite time to wake up: 6:40 am on the dot
Favorite new skill: blowing bubbles in milk
Favorite thing to do with daddy: Count trucks and buses driving in the car
Favorite thing to do with mommy: bake (and have "A bite")
Favorite naughty thing to do: running away when asked to do something
Favorite thing not to do: sleep through the night
Favorite new trick for mommy and daddy: Reverse psychology
Favorite memory of the month: Mini vacation to Great Wolf Lodge


I think I could probably create a whole blog for the changes that occurred this month. It's been a roller coaster of potty training, an explosion and imitation of words, a whole lotta love and lots and lots of tickles. I seriously need to get his tickling on video---it's SO adorable, but then again what doesn't he do that isn't adorable?

I snapped these during bath time tonight for this post. Bath time has to be my FAVORITE time to photograph him.

Bubbles. Splashing. Smiles.

 Amazement with bubbles.

 No...he didn't cut himself shaving, it's a battle wound from daycare.

 He loves these lotion smiley faces after bath time.

The Potty

Hope.

Reverse psychology is wonderful thing. Thank you to my co worker Amy for suggesting that I use it for getting Harrison to do things we WANT him to do, that bring us to the potty.

During bath time Friday evening I took a look at Harrison and took a look at the potty (collecting dust) and thought, "tonight, I am not taking "no" for answer when I ask him to use the potty." At first I made it a game... I pretended to sit on it and told him that "it's my potty." You see to Harrison, in his eyes EVERYTHING is his. "Mine" is his favorite word. So in saying this too him, this prompted him to get me off his potty and he sat down on it. I about died. For the past 5 months Harrison wouldn't even sit on the potty, barely touch it---I had to reevaluate the situation and convince myself that this really happened. And no, he didn't actually go to the bathroom, but he sat down, a HUGE accomplishment. We are using lots of positive reinforcement, LOTS of high fives. Harrison just eats up these praises, hopefully this isn't short lived.

From Friday on, he has done WONDERFUL with sitting down. I think he has been on it a good 8-9 times. Only once since Friday has he been a little hesitant and that was this morning (and I think it's because he was still tired). He has yet to actually make pee or poo on chair, but once he gets more familiar with awareness, that will come. And for Doug and I, we need to work on better timing, in 2.5 days it's hard to learn his signs and when to actually take him. As Harrison speech improves, this should improve as well. Tonight he walked in to the kitchen and looked at me and said, "I pooped," and then he walked away. I guess thank you for the announcement?

Tomorrow begins "sitting" at daycare. I am trying to be optimistic that he will cooperate the same for them as he does for us. What actually causes me some anxiety about this whole potty training process is public outings. So many of the toilets these days flush automatically, which can scare the heck out of a child (heck, depending on where we are, it can surprise me too).

Hopefully this is a beautiful beginning to a diaper-free household.