A Very Quick Update

L had his 2 year check up last week and is doing great. This was the first appointment I wasn't able to make (Daddy took L) and it was the first one that didn't result in tears after the vaccinations. He is getting so big!

Stats:

25 pounds 13 ounces

33.75 inches tall

N never told me his head measurement, but he's still in the 25%.

I have so many things to update on, but it's going to have to wait a little while, I just wanted to share his stats before I forget!

The Countdown to Two

My baby is going to be two.

No, I still can't seem to wrap my head around that.

He has been growing up so fast, it's amazing/sad/scary/wonderful/some-other-adjective. That being said, I am really loving this current stage (minus the tantrums, of course.) He is so clever, so active, so lively and I love every second I get to spend with him. Ok, maybe not every second, but you get the idea. Since it's been awhile since my last post, I'm going to go ahead and update now. I'm not really awake enough to write a fun and witty post right now.

Potty Training: The problem with bragging is that it usually turns back on me. I know better than to jinx myself, but I just couldn't stop myself. The day after my post on our PTing success, L got sick. And we're back in diapers. Still. He goes to the actual potty a few times a day, but if he's really into something, he doesn't bother to tell me. And forget going number 2 in the potty. I'm hoping to try again this summer when I have the time to really focus on it... if he waits that long.

Going, Going, Going: this kid has so much energy, it's insane! He runs, climbs, explores, tumbles, and play non-stop. Not to mention, he's absolutely fearless. I honestly don't know how he does it. Thankfully, it also means that he's still taking an afternoon nap. I'm not quite ready for him to outgrow that yet.

Blah, Blah, Blah: Boy can this kid chatter. He will talk your ear off if given the chance, not that you'll understand the majority of what he's saying. But by the hysterics he breaks into, you know it has to be funny. His vocabulary has grown so much these past few months. He repeats a lot of what he hears, so I'm not going to count every word he "says"just the ones he actually understands.

Names: Momma, Daddy, Grandma, Grandpa, Nana, Abby (the new dog- poor Artemis and Herc), Logan, Um (what he named his stuffed panda), Mater, Lola (his nana's dog)

Words/phrases/sentences: yes, yeah, no, hi, hey, hello, that's right, gotcha, uh oh, oh no, ok, sorry, thank you, please, red, blue, bread, juicy, strawberry, block, car, I don't know, are you ok (asked if someone sneezes or coughs), puppy, kitty, snake, yo gabba gabba yo (he always adds on the extra "yo" because of the theme song), down, good night, good bye, nose, eye, mouth, brow (eye-brow), get down, stop it, be quiet (the last three he says when he's yelling at the dogs... which he got from me yelling at the dogs), shoe, oh my God (how many bad juju points do I get for teaching my kid to take the Lord's name in vain?), and dammit (oops).

Every morning and night we ask him where all of his body parts are and he points to them, he just isn't saying them yet. He also understands a lot of what I ask him to do (like if I ask him to go get something for me).

Finally, and perhaps one of the best things that he's doing now, he has discovered a love for books! I was so worried that he was never going to get into them, but for about a month now, he will just keep bringing me books to read to him throughout the day. And he likes to go to the library so he can pick out books. He seems to like books in spanish, but that may be because I sound so ridiculous when I read them. Now if only I could get him into stories in Old Norse...

Party Time: On Sunday we're throwing an Angry Birds themed birthday party for him. I love planning parties, but I am a little overwhelmed right now. I had a research paper due this week, so I've spent the last couple of days trying to get decorations put together and cleaning like a crazy person (something I would have liked to have more time to do...it is spring after all.) On the plus side: we had our carpet cleaned yesterday and it looks amazing! For the first time since we've moved in, our carpets aren't stained! Which just goes to show that even though they were cleaned often, I am not nearly as good with a Rug Dr. as an actual professional is. I also had the couch cleaned. I can get up most of the water stains (microfiber) with some rubbing alcohol and a sponge, but it takes forever and I just don't have the time for that now. The couch also looks amazing. The hard part is going to get L to not bring his sippy cups into the living rooms.

What's going with me a Nick? We're still in school and working our butts off. We put in a patio last month and learned the hard way that landscaping is a ton of work. But I got an awesome tan (and an injured hand) and Nick got to show off all his manliness by moving 20 or so 80lbs bags of concrete by himself (he's such a stud!)

Growing Up

Ok, maybe one day I will cease to neglect this poor little blog, but I have no idea when that day will come. A girl can hope.

So I'm going to fill you in on the past few months in just a few sentances. I had planned on dedicating posts to each major event, but I could never find the time or motivation, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. So Thanksgiving came and went- we hosted, cooked a 30lb turkey named Gordo, and it was lovely. Christmas flew by- L got tons of toys and he is still delighted with all of them. We went to Green Bay and Milwaukee for the New Year. We went to the Packers/Lions game on the first where Nick watched the game and L and I walked around the stadium (he did not want to stay in the seats.) We then spent a few days with family and, apart from freezing our butts off, had a great time. Valentine's Day was delicious. So there you have it.

It is so hard to imagine L as the little tiny (quiet) baby that he was not too long ago. Heck, I can hardly remember him being small and chubby this time last year. My baby is definitely no longer a baby. The realization first struck when I cut all of his hair off (and by "I", I mean a trained professional). He no longer has those beautiful baby curls-- which also means no more tangles and hair in his eyeballs.

Before:

After (not right after. This was V-Day):

As if cutting off all his hair and, thus, making him look years older wasn't enough, he is now mostly potty trained. Yeah, that's right. This weekend we potty trained. And it was rough. We used this method, and I have to say, it was pretty successful. We didn't follow all the "rules," but he tells us when he needs to go and goes in the potty 90% of the time. We are still working on pooping and I'm sure it would have been easier if I had remembered to start him on a high-fiber diet days before we started training. So maybe he's not completely potty-trained, just mostly potty trained. That being said, I am incredibly proud of my big boy and myself. 

I'm not going to lie, the first day was hell. 3 hours in and 15 underpants later, I was ready to quit. But I didn't. I knew that if I could get him to go in the potty just once all the positive reinforcement would get him to go in the potty again. And that's all it took. We still had plenty of accidents, trust me, and we ran through the 30 pairs of underpants that we have pretty quickly, but it had finally started to "click" for him. Today was day 3 and we still had a few accidents, but I didn't have to do laundry and that is way better than I ever imagined. 

I'm not the type of person who likes to brag (much), but I'm so proud of all of us for getting through this weekend. Also, I got so much crap about "starting too early" that I feel like I kind of have to brag about it (minus the fact that the people who gave me said crap don't read this blog.) I hate how so many mothers seem to get some sort of pleasure out of criticizing other moms, and I especially hate when they assume that they 1. know me, and 2. know my child. Is my son young? Yes. Too young? Not at all.

I'm not the type of mom who forces her kid to grow up too quickly and I certainly don't feel the need to compete with other moms. Unfortunately, these comments really made me doubt myself and I think that was part of the reason why that first day was so hard. And I strongly dislike them for making me feel that way.

So why did we start training him when he is only 22 months old?

-He was interested in the toilet. Not in that what-is-this-thing-and-how-can-I-play-with-it sort of way that he (and I'm sure every toddler) was from the moment he could crawl. He wanted to be on it (or maybe in it. He's kind of gross.)

- He started taking off his diapers to go potty. He wasn't taking them off because he was wet/dirty, he was taking them off before. Yeah, it was yucky. So I did my homework and a friend recommend the 3 Day Method. We felt that it was the best system for us since a. it involved a downpour of positive reinforcement and b. it was guaranteed to work quickly. The most reassuring thing about this method is that the person who came up with/ wrote it trained all her boys at 22 months. Coincidence? I think not. Or maybe, who knows.

So there you have it. To those friends of mine who will start training soon my advice is (and I'm no expert): be consistent and patient and stick with it. You know your child, don't let anyone make you question your decisions. Ever. 

To those who thought I was crazy: nana-nana-boo-boo stick your head in doo-doo.

How did this post get so long? Meh. I'm exhausted. It was a long weekend. And now my baby is all grown up.