Potty Trained (officially and completely)

Last year -- June 8th to be exact -- we blogged that Riley had a renewed interest in using the toilet after he started preschool. After seeing his classmates using the toilet, he had all the motivation needed to be day-trained. After a disastrous attempt to go cold-turkey about five months before, I'm glad I took the advise of moms that say to wait until your child wants to. Most kids till bow to peer pressure -- I mean, no kid gets on the kindergarten bus in diapers, right?

At that time, I didn't even bother with the night training, since he always had a wet diaper in the morning, even after I cut off his liquids late in the afternoon and peeing before bed. He's a very heavy sleeper and so it seemed he couldn't wake up during the night. No biggie -- one nighttime diaper was fine with me.

Fast forward to May of this year -- Riley began talking about wearing his underwear to bed and as he was sometimes dry in the morning, I began letting him do so. Initially, I was getting him up at least once or twice to pee, since he still couldn't wake up on his own when the urge was there. I was still having to change both the waterproof top sheet as well as the waterproof mattress cover, not how I want to spend my early morning hours. To avoid this, I would get him up just before I went to bed around 11p and again around 5:30a when Jonathan got up for work.

Then, at the beginning of June, I only got him up once, just before I went to bed. He continued to keep his pants dry for the rest of the month, except for one night when he was up late at a friends and his schedule was off.

He was doing so well that starting in July, I stopped getting him up at 11p to see if he could stay dry. Well, I'm happy to report he has been dry every morning since and has been able to wake up in the early morning hours when he's felt the urge to pee. We were putting stickers on his calendar and giving him a reward of two chocolate chips as something to look forward to. Here's a picture of his calendar at the end of the month:
















And as a reward to reaching such a big milestone, we took him and Kendall to a splash park in Denver called the Pirates Cove. Doesn't this look fun??

























Both kids had a blast and so did we! This is a city-owned park that has something for all ages. Several zero-depth areas for young toddlers as well as shallow pools and play equipment for Riley's age and older. After five hours they were wiped, but Riley was still sad to have to leave.

The only pics we managed to get were during one of our rest periods. Here Riley's drinking the rest of my sweet tea:














Kendall prefers Riley's water bottle to her own:














Note the man in the green shirt. Kendall was waving to him all afternoon. He said it made his day. My girl already knows how to "work it" with the men...














One of her many waves to Mr. Green Shirt:














and again...














I've said it before... I love seeing my kids grow up and mature. The expense of the diapers has never been a big issue for me (I buy cheap Target ones, for starters); I get great delight in seeing them reach milestones and this is a BIG one. I'm glad that I was able to let go and allow him to reach this at his own pace, rather than pressuring him when he clearly wasn't ready and making us both frustrated. Once he decided he wanted to be like his friends, it was really rather easy.

We're both so proud of our Riley-boy!!

(one down, one to go!)

Shelby

16 months

Now that she's 1/3 of the way through her second year of life, time again to report on how our baby girl is growing up and changing...

We mentioned that at 14 months, she started walking. Now she's zipping around the house and climbing up anything she can -- stairs, couch, beds, boxes etc. She's an active one and not one to stay in one place too long. My days of snuggling with her are over, it seems.













The latest milestone is talking. She says "mama", "dada", "no", "bye bye", "night-night", "ball" and "all done". She can sign "more", "please" and "all done" as well. We're working on signing "thank-you" at the moment. She will shake her head no or yes as well as grunt and point to let her wishes be made known. It's great to be able to communicate more with her now.

My girl LOVES the water. No fear of it whatsoever. She enjoys playing in Riley's pool as well as at the splash park downtown.



























She continues to prefer pureed foods over most table food, with the exception of mac-n-cheese, waffles, scrambled eggs and pasta with grated cheese on top. With the exception of bananas and blueberries, she only eats fruits/veggies if they're pureed -- like applesauce. She still gets at least 2 servings of yogurt a day which helps to keep her weight up. Dairy is a favorite -- she loves whole milk cheese & will devour a whole milkshake. She particularly enjoys the Peach shake from Chick-fil-A that's out right now (as so we!).

She's also got a taste for my sweet tea and asks for it every time she sees me drinking it. Since it's half-caffeinated, I've started hiding my glass from her. She seems to think anything that I have is better than what she has, it seems.

She still takes two naps a day, tho she can survive on one if necessary. She sleeps 11-12 hours each night, for which we continue to be thankful for.

She has had two additional teeth come in, for a total of 10. There's at least two more that are about to erupt. She was a little cranky for a couple of weeks because of it, but seemed to take it in stride for the most part.

She's had a number of first experiences in the past month, such as joining the family bike rides (in the trailer), going kayaking and having her first ice cream cone (loved it!).




























She's taken a great interest in the telephone and now grabs the one on J's nightstand and walks around babbling into it.














She also grabs her brush and comb and attempts to primp herself with it -- so cute.

I bought her a little baby doll and bottle and it's sweet how she tried to feed it and hug it.














Like her brother, she loves to be tickled and is quick to join in the family wrestling match.













We're seeing more of her desire to play with Riley and do what he's doing. Riley for the most part enjoys engaging her though he's quick to tattle when she messes up something or grabs a toy that he wants. Ah, the first of many, many years of refereeing their disagreements. Today, he announced that Kendall was his best friend, which put a big smile on his mama's face.

We continue to be thankful for the blessing of having Kendall in our family. She brings so much joy and laughter to our home. We love our Kendall Girl!