potty training progress!

i feel safe enough to post this now, i think ethan is just about potty trained now. i hesitate to say he is completely potty trained because that might be bad karma for us. so, i'll just go with 95% now. and he is both night-time and day time trained.

it all happened by accident. we had stopped training and planned to wait until he showed more interest or after he turned 3. about 1.5 weeks ago though ethan got put to bed in underwear and he woke up DRY! so we decided then it was time to just get rid of the diapers and pull-ups no matter what.

while he has had a few accidents over night, he has actually done really well. we moved the frog potty into his room so he has that (mainly for naps when he is still baby-gated into his room) or he can go to the bathroom next to his bedroom (overnight). i guess having that independence has really helped him and he has been able to cut out almost all accidents (both poop and pee!) and he is now doing pretty much everything on the potty by himself.

i wouldn't have guessed the frog potty in his room would have worked as well as it did (and it was lance's idea - must give credit where it is due :) ) but for ethan, i think it was the turning point.

since it is so cold...

a flashback from last winter! i LOVED this little suit on miles. oh how i wish it would fit him again this year.

16 months

hard to believe that miles is 16 months already! for some reason i always think of him as my little baby. but he really isn't! he understands soooo much and even though he doesn't say much yet, he can easily follow directions and copies most things his big brother does.

sleeping: hooray, hooray, hooray! i think we are finally there and i can say he is STTN!! he consistently sleeps an 11-12 hour stretch now. bedtime is between 7:45-8 and he wakes between 7-8.

routine: same as last month. wakes between 7-8 with naps from noon-3. LOTS of playtime in between!

milestones: he is definitely trying to talk and if you listen hard you can start to hear him making out words. i remember ethan wasn't saying much, but around 18 months started saying a lot more, so i'm guessing something similar will happen. he has been getting teeth in like crazy! he is currently working on his left bottom molar (already has the top two in) and his two more front teeth on the top.

some of his favorites:

food: cereals of all kinds! he is a little snacker! he loves the gerber yogurt melts and those little freeze dried diced fruits. we did try raisins and dried cranberries and he loves both!

fruit: still the same favorites as last month watermelon, canteloupe, apples, red grapes, diced peaches and bananas. new to the mix is mango - he loved it! a few we tried that were not successful: kiwi (neither of the kids liked it) and strawberries.

veggies: finally a vegetable he'll eat! carrot sticks.

drink: well, i wanted to be bottle free by this time, but it didn't happen. we traveled over thanksgiving and i didn't want to mess with the transition then. this is the month though :) he still loves milk and iced tea. something new we tried at my sister's house is drinkable yogurt and both he and ethan love that!

toy: tractors and trains are still big. he also like stacking things. he does pretty well using the stacking cups we have and then his favorite part of course is knocking them down!

book: just started getting interested in lift the flap books. we tried out some at my sister's house and he had lots of fun with them! we also have this little train book with wheels on it that he loves. and still a fan of the ladybug book.

25 days of christmas: week two

here are our activities for week two:

1. christmas pancakes

2. decorate gingerbread house

3. eat ravioli

4. drink eggnog

5. pick out and decorate christmas tree!

and maybe if all is going well...

6. make a christmas ornament (i found a really cute kit to make felt ornaments!)

week one activites

here is a recap of my list - we did well and only had to make one minor chage:

1. listen to holiday music
2. bake holiday cookies
3. decorate gingerbread house BECAME - watch christmas parade
4. pick out coats to donate to local coat drive
5. pick out toys to donate to toys for tots

listen to christmas music: i located several of my favorite holiday cd's and have them in my car. i LOVE listening to christmas music. growing up my favorite christmas music to listen to was john denver and the muppets christmas together. my parents were big john denver fans so we always had his music playing. to this day, it is still one of my favorites. i hope that the boys will grow up and remember all the music we listened to during the holidays and make some of them part of their traditions.

bake holiday cookies: i helped baked cookies for a local bake sale earlier this week and it was hard (i didn't make enough to extras to eat!!!) so there will definitely be another holiday cookie event this month. chocolate chip cookies are one of my favorites and this is a delicious recipe, but i also tried these cranberry ones (substituting semi-sweet for white chocolate chips) and these might be a new favorite!

attend christmas parade: as usual we forgot the christmas parade was this weekend and were out running errands with the boys. we happened to be near downtown right around the start of the parade, so even though it was really chilly out, we decided to give it a try. miles loved being outside and enjoyed watching everything. ethan was a little bit more wary, especially since the parade started out with some large trucks and motorcyles which were really loud (he does not like loud noises) but he perked up when he saw the floats with santa claus and snowmen. he also really enjoyed the band. it wasn't a huge parade, but i think it will be a fun tradition to start with the boys. this was my first year to attend it as well.

pick out coats for coat drive: we ended up gathering 7 coats (some new, some used) and will be taking them to the drop-off locations later this week.

pick out toys for toys for tots: ethan is too much fun! i decided we'd pick out gifts for a girl because i thought it would be easier for him to realize they were for someone else and not him. we started going through the aisles and he was all over the girl stuff. he did pretty well, but did have a bit of trouble letting go of one of his choices. his final picks: a dora make-up kit (this is the one he wanted to keep!) and a strawberry shortcake car and dolls. it was so much fun letting him pick things out and we'll definitely keep this up each year.

26 weeks - give or take...

until we can expect baby #3 to make his or her arrival!!! i think i should have titled the post 14 weeks, which is how far along i am, though because that makes it sound like we have longer to prepare. even though 26 weeks is a long time, it sounds kind of short! and while i am nervous about having 3 (eeek!!), i am very excited that we'll be welcoming another little one to our home. i think the boys will make wonderful big brothers!

i am officially in my second trimester and am enjoying feeling better! my morning sickness lasted several weeks longer with ethan and miles, so i wasn't expecting relieft this soon. i am very thankful though, as this time around it seemed to be much worse. there were nights when i made lance eat in another room (or hide his food at the least) because i just couldn't stand it. in the past few days, really since thanksgiving, it seems like my morning sickness has almost gone away. i still just have a bit in the evenings, but that is a huge improvement from what was pretty much all day sickness since about 5 weeks.

nothing really to report, just a typical pregnancy so far. i did get to have an extra u/s at my last appointment because we couldn't hear the hearbeat with the doppler yet, so that was a fun bonus. the little one moves around like crazy though and that is why it was too hard to find...got to see all the kicking and movement and that was really fun. looking forward to when i can feel that again.

my next appointment will be the following week and hopefully we'll be able to schedule the ever exciting mid-pregnancy ultrasound. verdict is still out on whether or not we'll find out...

25 days of christmas

several others have been sharing their 25 days of christmas lists and i love the idea, but i know my limits :) there is just no way i'd be able to keep that up. so i decided for this first year, i'd do a weekly list leading up to christmas and see how that goes. i thought i'd stick with 4-5 items for each week...then i am not scheduled into anything, i have a tough time with that.

week one:

1. listen to holiday music

2. bake holiday cookies

3. decorate gingerbread house

4. pick out coats to donate to local coat drive

5. pick out toys to donate to toys for tots

i'll try to update at the end of each week and post a new list on sunday.