Weekend at Nama's

This past weekend we went down to San Diego to see Ryan's grandparents in town from Florida.
While we were there, we took Dylan to the zoo, as promised when he was 'potty trained'. Now I need to preface this and say he's not COMPLETELY potty trained, but Ryan and I are. We know when he needs to go and he's been wearing underwear pretty solidly for a few weeks. We promised he could go to the zoo with his 'Football Nandma' when he could wear underwear all day.
Dylan helping his grandma and great-grandma read the map at the zoo.
Ryan's grandma and grandpa.
Dylan as 'Aqua Boy' - spending record amounts of time in the pool, until his fingers were red, pruney, and raw from the concrete!
Swimming with daddy.
Ryan with his hair a bit grown out... I'm voting for him to keep it longer from now on.

Stop! Potty Time.

Some of you may be wondering what ever happened to our efforts to potty-train our two, nearly three year old. We haven't completely given up. It's just that with these past few months, it's taken a back seat to other things. Like, you know, bedrest.

But we're back in the saddle again I think. Dylan has seemed more interested in using the potty in the past week or so, and even MORE so this weekend. So last night we asked him what VERY special place would he like to go when he "uses the potty all the time and doesn't wear diapers anymore" -
We offered Disneyland. He declined. He thought a second and said, "The Zoo. With ALL the animals. The fighting hippos. Oh, and Football Nandma!"
So there you have the plan. Fighting hippos AND his Grandma. Now there's a treat!

On that note, one major success was just now after waking up from his nap. I hear a call for mommy from down the hall in his room and a request to use the potty. Not his potty, but "mommy and daddy's big potty." I brought him into our bathroom and sat him down. He peed. I cheered. Pretty loudly too.
I'm sure the neighbors wonder what sports event we've been watching with all the cheering going on today.

The littlest one

We had our first doctor's appointment this week. The fun part was seeing our little blueberry-sized baby on the ultrasound as part of the confirmation of the pregnancy. And as a bonus, we saw the heartbeat, which is always a good sign this early along.

We brought home this picture and showed it to Dylan, who immediately sat down with it and wouldn't let it go. Being two means he doesn't understand the fullness of what is going on, but he does get excited when we talk about the baby in mommy's tummy. Of course, with all my friends with new babies recently (3 so far, with another one due in two weeks!), he just might understand more than I realize.

One thing is for certain, I'm glad Dylan is making progress with his potty-training. He's consistently been using his potty chair at least 2-3 times a day (still with cues from mommy and daddy, but we are very proud of the progress)!
Who knows, maybe by the time baby #2 arrives, we'll be down to just one in diapers! I can hope now, can't I?

Love Thursday: TV Rediscovered

For those of you who know me, you know that I don't even know how to turn on our TVs unless Ryan is home to walk me through it (to my defense, there are about 4 remotes and it's a complicated ordeal and until now not worth the effort since we didn't have cable). But now we have Direct TV. Those days are over.
And Dylan and I are discovering the Sprout channel together, a PBS station for preschoolers. It's all the rage with 2 year olds. Now we are in the loop.
And after 3 years without cable, this is really going to take some getting used to. Plus, we have the DVR recording feature, which is the Direct TV version of Tivo. Thursdays are going to be SO awesome now!
And speaking of Thursdays, this week marks the start of a new season of our favorite shows: The Office and Grey's Anatomy.

(and for those like-minded souls out there, check out the Grey's writer's blog each week for their commentary on the episode here).

Oh, and guess who had a DRY diaper this morning after 12 hours of sleep? Then used the potty like a champ? And then later used it again before naptime this afternoon??!

whatcha eatin?

Dylan has 4 new teeth coming in: top two canines and both upper and lower right sided molars. And the amazing thing is how well he's been eating (which if you knew what a picky eater he is, you'd be impressed too)!

Oh, and he peed twice today in the potty! Go Dylan! (even though one of those times was on my leg because he was sitting a tad askew on the seat and... you know). And the fun part was the jelly beans. He sure loves those.

And tonight when I put him down in his crib, he looked up at me and said "night night" and then replied to my "i love yous" with a sweet little "aye oh" (which is his version of the same). Made my day.

And me? I'm eating rice for dinner tonight (the 'ol B.R.A.T diet) while my boys eat yummy treats, including some cookies. I'm jealous. But I'm not nauseated tonight, so I'm pretty happy about that.

Time for more rice. (hey it works for the folks on Survivor, doesn't it?)

Day Two

1. This cat is driving me nuts. Ryan is liable to come home to a cat-less household tonight if Thaddeus doesn't leave me alone!
2. Yes, I'm still nauseated, but it is getting better. I haven't had to take another Zofran yet today (anti-nausea medicine) and I'm actually debating putting some food in my mouth later on if all goes well.
3. I feel like such a slug with all this laying around, but each time I get up to walk to the bathroom I feel dizzy and nauseated again... which brings me back to bed. I feel awful for not being able to go to work again today, but seeing patients when I feel lousy isn't fair to them either. And this morning at 6:45am while I layed here debating that very thing, another wave of nausea hit and my mind was made up. So here I am. Day #2.
4. Ryan is my hero. (did I mention before that we both also have headcolds - and he has graciously taken on more than his fair share of the parenting while I'm sick?)
5. The internet (while it can be helpful in some instances) is a vessel for my worry. Ovarian cysts, diabetes, colon cancer? What ever could this be? I think I need a new distraction for my nausea.
6. This cat is driving me nuts.
7. Ryan thinks that Dylan said "i love you" while waving goodbye to me from the car as they drove off this morning for daycare and work. It brought tears to my eyes.
8. I need a haircut. Oh, and a shower. (maybe I should start with the shower and move up from there, you think?)
9. One of these days I will finish this book sitting next to me on my nightstand. It is a good book in principle, but I'm struggling to really get into it. Actually, it is pretty emotionally draining. I don't want to feel any more drained right now than I already feel.
10. Dylan hasn't used the potty since Friday afternoon.
11. The cat is asleep again. I think maybe I'll join him.
12. Nevermind, the phone is ringing...

Updates:
I finally got a nap.
Dylan ate a huge dinner tonight. He's getting a new tooth coming in (right upper molar), so I'm impressed with how well he ate.
Oh, and Dylan used the potty again tonight after his bath - with a little pee pee success. He got a jelly bean and shouted "yea" and clapped with me when I got excited for him. It was a good night for us over here - (I'm still zofran free, and only a little bit nauseated). Thanks for the prayers.

flush

For those of you who have expressed some jealousy for how quickly it seemed that Dylan was taking to the potty training, I have one word: DON'T.
Why you ask? Because I fear that I've created a monster over here. He's obsessed with flushing the toilet. Our plan was to reserve the rights of flushing just to those who actually used the potty. This plan was foiled at about 1:30 today.
I was trying to keep Dylan distracted so he could sit just a wee bit longer on the potty (and thereby buying me more time with hopes that something would come out of his little body as he happened to be sitting there)... so we read books and talked about the jelly beans that he can have when he makes a poopy on the potty. All of a sudden, his little hand slips behind his shoulder ever so casually and FLUSH. Moments later he does it again. I think he flushed the toilet 10 times in 5 minutes of sitting. FLUSH. FLUSH. FLUSH.
And he knows he is supposed to wait until mommy says he can flush it, but he wants to so badly!

And to update you all (because I know the world is just dying to know the potty trend in our household), he hasn't gone in the potty today. And yesterday he only peed once total. Maybe Wednesday was just a fluke day. I don't know. But I can't just ignore it now.

FLUSH.

Guess who can use the potty?

(And I'm not talking about Ryan or I here... thank you very much!)

Yeah, that's right, little D-man has christened the potty chair today. His first official poopy on the toilet, followed by an arching pee across the room (I SO need to get that shield put on the seat so that doesn't keep happening to him).
Anyhow, we were going upstairs for his nap and I totally figured his sudden interest in us going in the bathroom was due to him trying to stall. I was going to change his diaper before his nap anyhow, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to let the little dude sit on the toilet for a minute or two. No big deal really.

When he announced "ahh nah" which is how he says all done, I encouraged him to sit for just one more minute (to work on his tolerance for the potty each time we try). He sits there. Sits there. Then PLOP PLOP PLOP he went.
Yes, Dylan can use the potty!

Now I wasn't prepared with any specific prizes or anything for him yet, but we did place a fun little phone call to daddy at work while he still sat up on the potty. A toilet call to daddy. Very fun stuff.

And then I finally let him flush the toilet all by himself (because despite all his interest in the potty, we've made him wait to flush the big potty until he actually USED the potty). Now THAT was a fun moment for him.

Now don't go away just yet because there's more. Seriously there is.
Ok, so then after his nap, he woke up with a dry diaper (surprises all around for us here) and so I whisked him over to the potty and after a bit of deliberation and a little reluctance, he peed again. Go Dylan!

THEN tonight just before bedtime I thought I'd offer the potty again just in case he wanted to give it one last go around...
He wanted to and to our delight actually pooped again. This time daddy got to see it and we all celebrated and Dylan got a hershey kisses for a treat. Big moment. He's totally psyched about that now. Now all I need is a bag of hersheys or other treat that I can use. Any suggestions? I hear M&Ms work good.