Potty Training

I have been wanting to potty train Athen for awhile now but we have been out of town and I didn't want to do it the week before we left for Utah. It can be exhausting. Day one he had 9 successful pees, 1 successful poop, 6 pee accidents and 1 poop accident. He woke up in the middle of the night all wet and we had to change his jams, underwear and sheets. In the morning he was dry when I woke him up. I quickly ran him to the potty but he is GRUMPY like his papa when he gets woken up. He would not sit down on the potty. Five minutes later he peed his pants.

The rest of the day was much more successful. He had 16 successful pees and 1 poop accident. He stayed dry all day long. Yeah Athen. Obviously I brought him to the bathroom many times and stayed by his side the whole day long. We set the kitchen timer so every time it beeped we ran to the toilet to go potty. That worked pretty good. It was a reminder for me and it let him know it was time to go potty. The 3 day method that I am using from the book says to bring them every hour and sit them down for 3-5 minutes. I think he needs to go more then every hour and he definately doesn't have the attention span to sit for 3-5 minutes, so we have altered it a little as needed.

For Athen's birthday we bought him a bubble gum ball machine to use as his potty treats. We filled it up with jelly beans. The first day he loved putting the pennies in the machine and getting his potty treat. However, by the end of the day he didn't want the potty treats any more. I guess he doesn't really like the jelly beans (I only gave him half a jelly bean when he went, the other half was for me. I did just as much work as he did so I was very deserving). I had to start bribing him with chocolate chips or mini marshmallows, which he seemed to like better. He got to pick which one he wanted and he would put it on his knee and then eat it after he went potty. It worked pretty good.




After we put Athen to bed tonight he knocked on the door and said he needed to go potty. I thought it was probably a stall tactic since he had just gone a few minutes before but sure enough he went again. We have had some sleep challenges over the last few days. I decided to take away his NUK which he uses at nap and bed time at the same time as we started potty training. The book recommend it since it was a big boy thing to do. So the first morning we collected all the NUKs and all his diapers and we threw them in the garbage and said good bye. The first day he cried for his NUK at nap and bed time but today he didn't mention it at all. Although he did still cry at nap and bed time he didn't mention his NUK.

Let's hope tomorrow we have another successful day.

Look at my cuties!

Look at these cuties! Athen is showing Crew the ropes.





I tried to order a give thanks tree advent calender from Pottery Barn but they were out of stock so I decided to make my own. I cut up some vinyl to look like a tree and stuck it to the back of our front door. I then used my Silhouette machine and cut some leaves and numbers. Each day Athen and I add a new leaf on to our Give Thanks Tree and talk about what we are thankful for that day.




Athen has really loved my Silhouette machine. He loves watching it cut and he loves all the shapes it makes. He was playing all day long with some scrap shapes I had made so I decided to make him some of his own. I made some airplanes, trains, birds, dinosaurs and cars. I also made him shapes, ABC's and 123's in several colors. I laminated them all so they would last a little longer. He can practices his shapes, numbers, and letters and colors as well as do sorting tasks with them. He plays with the cars and drives them all around and makes noises with them. I made a little emergency clutch from a pot holder to keep all of his little pieces together. It has been wonderful for church as well as when we go out to dinner on Friday nights. I just grab the little bag and he has plenty to play with.

Halloween pictures

Finally I am posting a few Halloween pictures. Athen was obviously a clown and Crew was a robot. Athen LOVED trick or treating with his cousin Alyssa and all her play group friends. He wasn't shy at all. He walked right up to the doors, knocked and said "trick treat". He kept on going for the dum dums and suckers. I will have to teach him for next year that the candy bars are much better. At the end of the night we tried to put him in the car and he threw a fit. He kept saying "next house, next house". That cute little guy. The best part about it was the next morning he didn't even realize that he had all that candy. He totally forgot about the whole stash.





There was a person dressed up like Tiger. Athen loved it. He kept on following Tiger around the neighborhood and was more excited to see Tiger than go to the next house.


Our little robot didn't enjoy trick or treating too much. He was fussy most of the time and didn't want to be in his stroller or the ergo.

Halloween weekend

We had a fun weekend this weekend. I don't know who was more excited Athen or I. I have been waiting for years and years to go trick or treating again and I finally have a little one to give me an excuse. On Friday night we went to a new Indian restaurant in Berkeley. It was delicious. Athen LOVES chicken tika masala and naan. He shovels it into his mouth like he hasn't been feed in a long time. (Totally off topic but a funny story, we get a call on Sunday from Rick's credit card company. They said there was some suspicious activity on the card and they wanted to verify some purchases. First suspicious activity - Friday night Indian restaurant in Berkeley - check, Saturday morning $100 at Babies R Us in Emeryville - check, and Saturday night $3 at 7-11 in Oakland - check. Yes we spent $100 on diapers and $3 on nachoes, all purchases ours! Thanks for checking Discover)

On Saturday we carved pumpkins and got ready for trunk or treat at the temple. It was fun. Athen was a little shy saying trick or treat but not shy grabbing the candy from the bowl. After the party we headed up to Cabot Space Center with the kids. It was our 4 year anniversary from when Rick proposed to me at that very place. Friday and Saturday night is free star watching night so we brought the kids up to look at the stars. There are several large telescopes there that are pointed to different things in the sky. We were able to see the moon which was amazingly beautiful, jupiter, uranus (which Athen called anus) the blue snowball, some clusters and a few other cool things that I can't remember the names of. It was a warm and beautiful night, perfect for star gazing. I must say, it wasn't as romantic as it has been in the past. Having two kids in tow some how killed the romance but at the same time filled my heart with so much love and emotion.


On Sunday afternoon we headed out for our normal walk around the lake. This time we decided to bring Athen's Y bike along with us. Athen loves his Y bike and usually only gets to ride it around our small apartment. Rick carried it on his back until we got to the lake. Athen road on for about 2 miles on the bike. He loved it. Check out the video below. Sorry it is sideways, you may have to turn your computer to watch it.



I will post pictures from trunk or treat and Halloween night next time. The camera is out of batteries.

Y Bike

Athen misses you so much he is being a snot!

Athen was eating breakfast the other day and he sneezed. I told Rick to hurry and grab the camera, I had never seen such a sight. I was cracking up and wanted to catch his face on camera before he wiped it away. I can't believe how much snot this kid had. My mom has been on vacation for the last week and so we haven't seen her in a while. I sent her a quick email with this picture attached. The email said "Athen misses you so much he is being a snot!" I still crack up laughing when I see this. I wonder if anyone else thinks my snotty nosed kid is a crack up.