Potty Training Update

After a few frustrating days, wanting to give up, then regrouping and starting fresh

over the weekend, we had a break through.  Owen is doing GREAT with potty training!!

We had a pretty busy weekend but I was determined to let him stay in his undies.

We started off on Saturday morning driving out to see our friends in Glen Ellyn, a 30 minute

car ride.  We arrived at our destination and his undies were dry.  Great start to the weekend!

While we were at our friend's house we kept him in his diaper just in case there were

accidents, but he kept it dry.  He even went on the potty twice at their house.  Later in the
day we went to Target and he stayed dry the whole time we were there too.

Sunday was a similar day.  We went to visit friends in the morning and ran some errands
in the afternoon.  A lot of time in the car and we only had one accident.  He tried telling us
he had to go but we were on the highway and couldn't get off fast enough. But the fact
that he knew he had to go and told us is huge!

We have a few little accidents here and there, but he is starting to tell me when he has to go

now pretty consistently.  We ventured out to the park today and twice while we were there

he came and told me he had to go potty.  Now it could be that I bribed him and told

him if he kept his undies dry we would stop and buy a squirt gun on the way home, but I'll

take it!  A win is a win no matter how you get there.  :)   

He continued his super day keeping his undies dry the entire afternoon from the time he
woke up from his nap until the time he went to bed.  What's even more exciting is that ever
since we started potty training and had our first poop accident on day 1, he has pooped
almost exclusively in the toilet.  I think he woke up with some in his diaper one

morning, but other than that he always goes on the potty which is awesome!

I'm so proud of him and so happy we stayed with it.  We might have deviated from the 3 Day Potty Training method a little, but I feel like it is important to adapt.  After observing him for a
few days, I realized that he gets so excited playing that he doesn't always want to take a
break to go potty.  So if it's been a long time since he's gone, I'm ok suggesting we try to use
the potty.  The book would tell me not to and that I need to wait for him to tell me, but I'd
rather have him in dry undies and risk the process taking a few extra days.

He'll get the hang of it.  He already is!  We have fewer and fewer accidents every day.
He seems like such a big boy now with his little undies on.  Way to go Owen!

Sleep...How I've missed you!!

It's happened...It's finally happened....Joe is sleeping through the night!!!!

I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for this day to come and it's finally here.

About a week ago I decided to help him into the transition.  He's doing well eating solid food

and there is no way he is still hungry during the middle of the night anymore. I was afraid

that if I kept feeding him when he woke he would form a habit, so I decided to let him be.

He cried anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour the first few nights, but that was it.

After about 3 nights he started sleeping straight through...Hallelujah!!

He typically goes to bed around 6:30PM and will sleep until anywhere between 

5:30AM - 6:30AM.  Sometimes he'll wake closer to 5:00AM and if I'm lucky I can feed him

 and put him back down for an hour or so.  Either way, I'm finally getting a full night's sleep!

YAY!!  Thank you Joe!!

Splash Pad with the Filwetts

Today we met our friends Annette and Guy and their kids at the splash pad.

As always, Owen had an absolute blast playing in the water.

And ever since Ryan gave him a taste of the ice bucket challenge, he just can't get

enough of dumping buckets of water over his head.  In the bathtub...at the splash pad...

he even asks me to pull up Facebook on my phone so we can watch the latest posts of

people taking the challenge.  This kid is hooked and he's got it down!

Joe steered clear of Owen's bucket challenge, but he ventured into the water a little bit too.

It was super hot and muggy out so the water helped keep him cool.

We had a great day with great friends and are enjoying the summer while it's still here.

 

Page Turner

Even though potty training has been taking up a lot of our time these last few days

I wanted to make sure not to leave out our littlest Kalita.  Last night one of my favorite things

happened...he started turning the pages as we're reading his bedtime stories.

Now I know that is something so little, but I think it is super cute.  I did when Owen first did

it too.  They are so young and small, but they grasp the concept of reading a story and I

love when their tiny hands grab the page and flip it over.  It's the little things.

In other Joe news, he's proving to be somewhat finicky with what solid foods he chooses to

eat, so I'm trying to get creative.  He loves waffles, graham crackers, baby goldfish and

yogurt, but aside from that everything else is a challenge.  If a kid could live on starches

and sugar, he'd do great, but I'm trying to add a few more healthy choices.  

I saw something on Pinterest that seemed healthy and simple so I gave it a try.  I took a

piece of wheat bread, flattened it down with a rolling pin, spread one of his purees on it,

and then rolled it up into a little log.  The idea is to give it to them almost like a teething

biscuit that they can just chew on.  It worked great!  It was simple to make and held

it's form even as he squished it in his hands and chewed at it. 

 

He didn't eat a ton of it, but that's typical with him the first time I introduce something to him.

At least it is something easy, quick, and if it ends up on the floor, as a lot of his food

does these days...no big deal.

Potty Training - Day #3

We started off day 3 with a bang...poop in the potty as soon as he woke up..bam!

Then, he kept his undies dry for nearly 2 hours. He kept holding it and holding it and I kept
watching and watching wondering if we were really turning a corner.

I finally checked to see if his undies were dry and noticed they were a little damp.  I know for a fact he did not have a full blown accident, but I think when he plays and jumps around it's 
hard for him to hold it all in.  This is where it gets tricky.  Do I leave him in wet undies and
continue waiting for him to tell me when he has to go potty?  Do I change his undies and put
him on the potty, even though by doing that I lost an opportunity for him to be able to tell me
when he had to go?  This situation happened a few times today.  One time I tried changing the undies without putting him on the potty, but as soon as I took the old ones off it was like the cold air triggered something and he started peeing before I could get the dry ones on.

I've decided right now I'm utterly confused, somewhat frustrated and a little defeated.  I get

into my own head a lot and I can't help but feel like maybe I am doing something wrong.

Maybe I am not positive enough.  Maybe my treats are not exciting enough to make him

want to use the potty.  Maybe I'm not doing a good enough job of hiding my frustration.  OR

maybe he really just is not ready.  It's hard not to blame myself though when the plan I'm

following claims anyone at least 22 months old can be potty trained in 3 days.

 

I try to be really positive.  I try to make it fun.  I even cut out PB&J sandwiches for him today

in the shape of a boy trying to go along with the whole "big boy" theme.

 

  
  For some reason though, he would rather pee in his undies than tell me he has to use the 
potty.  I'm not completely giving up yet.  With Ryan home for the weekend I have
reinforcements.  I'm going to run out tonight and grab a new and exciting selection of potty
presents and I'm going to have Ryan keep me in check to make sure I'm the most
positive mommy I can be.  By the end of the weekend if we're still not there, so be it.  It's
hard to give up entirely after today though when we have seen little bits of progress.
Come on little buddy....I know you can do it!!

Potty Training - Day #2

The start of day #2 was a little rough.  We had a couple of accidents right in a row.

From then on I watched him like a hawk.  As soon as I saw his telltale sign of crossing his

legs, I suggested we go to the potty.  That worked well and kept him dry for awhile, but I

figured I was doing more of the prompting than him actually telling me when he had to go.

So I stepped back and let him tell me.  The only problem was he didn't tell me.  I would see

him start to go, I'd grab him and run up so he could finish on the potty.  A little defeating, but

at least they were smaller accidents and I was hoping he was getting the hang of it.  Plus he

went poop on the potty in the afternoon, which was awesome!!

The true bright spot was at the end of the day.  We had given him a bath and Ryan already

had him in his diaper and jammies.  When it was time for my hug Owen told me he had to

go potty.  Part of me suspected it was merely a ploy to stay up a little later, but I couldn't

discourage him from wanting to go potty.  I took off his diaper and jammies and set him on

the toilet.  He peed, then told me he had to poop.  He sat there for 10 minutes, and pooped

a significant amount while Ryan, Joe and I all watched and cheered him on.  Not only

was it his second time pooping in the potty, but even with a diaper on he wanted

to go on the actual toilet.  YAY!!  Small victories, right?

We went through 12 pairs of undies today, but I honestly feel like we made progress.  I'm

keeping my fingers crossed for a positive day 3.  One of the hardest parts of this whole

process is being cooped up in the house all day long, but we're getting creative.  I have

blankets laid down to protect the carpets from any accidents and they just so
happen to double as great hockey rinks.  ;)

   

Potty Training - Day #1

Since Owen was pretty excited about going pee on the big potty, I figured I would give

potty training a try. I wasn't planning on doing it this early, but as long as he's having fun with it there's no reason not to give it a shot.  After talking with my sister and some friends

I decided upon the 3 day potty training method.   It basically has us confined to the

house for 3 days with Owen running around either naked or in his undies, and lots of 

positive reinforcement.  I wanted to make it super exciting so I enlisted Ryan to help me decorate the bathrooms last night with streamers and balloons.

 I was also fully prepared with tons of undies that Owen helped pick out, juice, 

prizes and treats for him to have when he successfully went potty, 

along with a potty chart he could put stickers on tracking his progress.

 

 When he woke up this morning I was so excited to get him started with his first trip to the 

potty and show him all the fun things we had in store for him.

He started out doing so well.  Every now and then I would ask him if he had to go potty to

get him used to going on the toilet.  Occasionally he came up to me and announced, 

"Mommy, I pee!" which meant he needed to go.  I'm not sure if it was the sour patch kids 

he received afterwards, or if he really has a small bladder, but this kid was

going potty every 15 minutes!  I think there are about 20 stickers on our potty chart and

there were quite a few times we forgot to even add a sticker.  And although we didn't have

a successful BM on the potty, he tried so hard in the hopes that he would get the

monster truck that awaited him in the Potty Prize bag.

We were all getting bored staying in the house all day so I figured we would get outside a

little bit to give everyone a change of scenery.  Our first outing was a walk in his undies. 

Then we played outside in the backyard, which turned into naked swimming.

 

 

 While it seemed like a great idea to have him naked outside instead of in the house, it 

backfired because he started peeing everywhere!  In the pool, standing next to the pool,

on the stairs waiting to come inside.  I ended up dumping out the pool and going back

inside just so we could work on our potty training again.  It was a nice break though.

 

To be honest, I am making this whole day sound like a great time when in reality it was one

of the most stressful and frustrating days I've had in awhile.  I was so excited to take this

new step with Owen, but I'm not 100% convinced he's totally ready.  We had our fair share

of accidents in the house, but it's not the accidents I care about as much as how they 

happened.  There is nothing more frustrating than asking if he had to go, him telling me no, and then coming back to find he had peed a minute later.  Or having him pee in his undies 

just minutes after he had been on the potty.  Add Joe screaming in the background for a

big chunk of my day because I had to leave him to fend for himself a lot more than usual, and it makes for a wonderful day.  The end of my day sums it up the best.

 

I had just finished giving Owen and Joe a bath.  I took Owen out, wrapped him in his towel

and told him I was going to let him dry off for a minute and then we'd try to go potty before

I put him in his pjs.  Seems easy enough, right?  I turned around to grab Joe out of the tub,

turned back towards Owen to find him standing there peeing straight at the side of the tub.

Anyone who has been in our bathroom knows that the tub and the toilet are literally a foot

apart from each other.  Not only that but I was right next to him so if he had to go that bad, he could have asked me.  Plus, I had just told him I was going to put him on the potty in

one short minute.  I could hardly wait to get his diaper on him for the night.  I was over it.

 

But no worries...one huge glass of wine, huge bowl of ice cream, and a little refresher course later and I'm geared up ready for potty training day #2.  I'm going to try to learn from

my mistakes, keep my cool, and be the best potty cheerleader there is!!  

Let's go Owen...WOO!!  You can do this buddy!!

 

 

Army Crawl

After I just posted in his 10 month blog that Joe wasn't too interested in crawling yet,

look who decided to prove me wrong.

 

 

 He definitely has the army crawl down.  Nice work Joe!

 

Pee Pee in the Pot-tay!!

Guess who went pee pee in the big potty last night??  OWEN!!

We haven't really started potty training yet, but I figured we were getting close so I decided

to buy a little potty.  It's one of the little seats that fit into our regular toilet seat and I have it
sitting right next to the toilet.  Now that he knows it's there, he asks to go potty.  I've sat him
on it a few times just to introduce him to it, but we never had any luck...until last night! 

I took him upstairs to give him his bath and I asked him if he wanted to try to go potty.

He sat on that little seat, staring down, practically willing it to happen.  And as Ryan and I

watched, probably willing it to happen just as much as he was....he did it!!  

He peed in the potty!!

And not only did he do it once, but after he got out of the bath he asked to sit on the 

potty again.  I'm not even sure how he had anything left, but he concentrated...

peed...paused...and then peed a little more.  It was like he was so excited 

with this new found skill that he was doing everything he could to 

push out whatever he possibly could.

What a big day for this little guy!!  First hair cut and first time peeing in the big boy potty.  

We are so proud of you Owen!! 

And with your new interest in the potty and random urges to take off your diaper,
I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more of our naked ninja.  Hi-ya!

Owen's First Haircut

Today was a big day in the Kalita household...Owen's first haircut. 

 

His hair is so cute when it's long with its beautiful red hue and little curls, so we were holding out for as long as possible.  Once he had to start brushing it out of his eyes we knew the time had come for a cut. Going in we knew we wanted to keep it long and just clean it up a bit. I was scared that if I took him to a kiddie cut place they wouldn't know how to cut it right

to keep it longer and still looking as cute as ever, so I took him to the girl who cuts my hair.

Anyone can imagine that walking into a nice salon with Owen in tow is a little daunting.

Truth be told, Ryan and I were terrified and fearing the worst. I was armed with a DVD player, sour patch kids, fruit snacks and a sucker.  I was ready!  A nice quiet Sautrday morning at Élan Salon and in walks the Kalita family.   As Ryan held Owen and I pushed

Joe in the stroller, we politely walked past the ladies quietly reading their magazines and

checked in.  Edith, my most favorite hair dresser I've ever had, came to greet us.

She walked us back to her chair and what happened next will most likely surprise you.

Owen did AMAZING!!!!  Amazing is actually an understatement.  If there was a word beyond

amazing, that is how he did.  He sat on Ryan's lap and did not make a sound the entire time

she cut his hair.  No cries, no fussing, no yelling, nothing!  He quietly sat there looking at himself in the mirror and letting Edith work her magic.

 

Occasionally he would give her a glance or pull his head to the side because he couldn't

figure out what she was doing.  I'm sure for a toddler it feels really weird to have someone

cut your hair.  Hearing the snip of the scissors, feeling the hair fall on your neck, but not quite understanding it all.  Even still, no protests, just inquisitive looks.

My favorite was when he started making faces at himself in the mirror.

 

 
Then Daddy joined in on the fun with him.

And while Owen and Ryan were making faces at each other in the mirror,

Joe sat quietly in his stroller watching all the action.

His haircut even ended in style with a fancy little blowout.  ;)

 

 

I am so proud of Owen and I could not have asked for a better experience for his first

hair cut.  Not only was he so well behaved and made it lots of fun, but Edith gave him a

great haircut!!  His hair looks just as cute as it did before we walked in.  A little shorter, but still maintaining his signature red curls.  Exactly what we wanted.

Awesome job Owen!!  You are such a handsome little boy!!

And don't worry because I saved us a special little momento to help us

always remember your very first hair cut.