Potty Talk

I actually did a quite lengthy post on potty training on my other blog, but I wanted to record some of my potty memories here as well. I don't know why I'll WANT to remember this stuff, maybe so I can cheer myself on and say, "You can do this!" when I have to potty train Tyson.
The day we started potty training was the.hardest.day.of.my.life. Harder than finals, reading recovery training, writing my master's thesis.. maybe even harder than having a baby... at least they give you drugs for that. Potty training is so physically draining... running to the potty, cleaning up accidents. It's mentally draining.. am I doing this right? Should I do some research? But mostly, it's emotionally draining. That KID has just peed on the floor for the 3rd time in a row. Doesn't he know to use the potty? I can't sweetly encourage him to do it ONE.MORE.TIME!!! When I hit that point, I usually threw Logan on Greg's lap and left the room. Thank goodness for a patient and helpful husband!!
We used the Dr. Phil potty train your child in one day method. As I said on my other blog, unless Dr. Phil's Days are like The LORD's days... you know one day is like a thousand days... Dr. Phil is lying about the one day thing. However, all other aspects of his program seemed to work for us.
We got a doll that peed, put him on the potty, had a potty party. We did dances. We did stickers. And when Logan had an accident, I put him on the potty 10 times in a row to build muscle memory.
It's kind of boring to sit on the potty 10 times in a row. Even for a 2 year old who loves repetition. So, we had potty relays. We would run, sit on the potty, and run back. We also skipped, jumped, hopped, danced, twirled. It took a while to warm up to the potty, at first Logan would say, I don't like it. NO, NEVER! But after all the parties and dancing, he gave in and decided to like it.
After about a week, he would tell me when he needed to pee on the potty. He also was able to go out in public, keep his pull up dry, AND use the public restroom.
At first, Logan didn't want to poop on the potty. In fact, one morning he came and told me, "There a dirty diaper in the room." Hmmm, since Logan wasn't wearing a diaper (or any underwear) and Tyson can't take off his diaper, I had to go check it out. There was no diaper but it was dirty!!
The second time that happened, I remembered to pick it up and show Logan that I was putting it in the toilet. I showed him how to flush it away and he LOVED it. He thought it was so "cool" (his favorite word right now) that "The water clean it." He stood over the toilet and said, "bye, bye poop." Then he wanted to flush everything else down the toilet as well. So, the next time he had to go, he was super happy about putting it into the toilet and waving bye-bye. Since then he's been telling me when he needs to go and he's been going on the potty. We just started wearing underwear (yep, I let him run around naked!) and learning how to get to the potty and take the pants/underwear off in time. Next we have to conquer naptime and someday we'll handle bedtime... oh, and before he is 5, I'll try to be brave enough to take him out of the house without a pull up!!
What a journey this has been. I had a million reasons for NOT doing it but Logan was ready and I'm glad we did it. I hope he doesn't regress at any point but if he does, I'll just revisit this blog post and tell myself YOU CAN DO IT!

Logan-isms

Logan has many interesting things he says these days:

• At dinner he will say, "This delicious."
• After he tackled me one morning, he stood over me and said, "You gonna take that, Momma?"
• When he was playing on the couch the other day he said, "I in the ocean. I go to Wal-mart."
• He often tells us where he would like for us to take him. When we were leaving for church the other day he said, "I want to go to Target."
• One of his favorite sayings lately is "NO, Never." So if we ask him, "Do you want to go potty?" He replies, "NO, Never." LOUDLY!
• He also likes to express his opinions on a wide variety of things. He loves to say, "I don't like it." So if we're listening to the radio and he doesn't like a song, he'll say, "I want the wuderone (other one)  song, momma. I don't like it."
• He also has gotten tired of the extreme heat this summer (haven't we all). He will tell us, "It too hot outside. I don't like it!"
• We may watch too much dinosaur train in our house because lately he yells, "Tickets, tickets please." And then comes around to collect tickets from me.
• He likes to put daddy to sleep. He'll close the door to our bedroom and say, "Night, night, sweet dreams, daddy. See you 'morrow." Then he' ll come in and tell me, "Daddy sleeping" and run back and yell, "Daddy, wake up!"
• When I put Tyson down for a morning nap he told him, "See you tomorrow, Tyson."
• Tyson does some babbling and sometimes it sounds like he's saying, "I love you." Without missing a beat, Logan will say, "I love you too, Tyson."
• Logan begs to go to the library. He's always saying, "We go library, remember, momma?"
• After church on Sunday we came home and Logan was yelling, "SIT! SIT AT THE TABLE!" Hmmm, wonder what happened in Sunday school?
• I asked Logan if he wanted to be a daddy someday. He said, "NO, I want to be a pa-pa." Smart kid! I think he has noticed that daddy has to do an awful lot of work!!
• Logan will sing a song too me and afterwards say, "That a good one momma."
• He also follows me around the house while I'm cleaning and says, "Good job, momma."
• When he wants to leave a place he says, "I'm ready to go!!"

I love having a two year old who is funny and entertaining... and also exhausting but it's worth it, right?

Incredible

We went to Incredible Pizza.
It was my Incredible Sister's birthday! (But I didn't take any pictures of her.)
We ate Pizza. It was sort of incredible! Ok, the Cinnamon rolls, those were incredible.
We rode incredible rides.

It was incredibly loud!

Logan kept his pull up dry AND used the potty in the restroom... incredible.

7 Months Old

Can you believe it? My sweet Tyson is seven months old today! He is just a fun, happy part of our family. Tyson wakes up every day at the crack of dawn (or before). He is an early riser but he is happy and snuggly in the morning. Tyson and mommy have a little time to play before Logan wakes up. He is very contented to sit on the floor and play with toys. He loves trying to get balls out of a bucket. He loves feeling different textures. He loves blocks and banging them together. He likes to read books with mommy. We read a lot of nursery rhymes. Some of our favorite stories right now are "The Runaway Bunny" and "Goodnight my Duckling." He trys to turn the pages and eat the book.
Tyson loves his big brother Logan. When Logan gets up, Tyson will squeal! Logan loves to rub Tyson's head and say, "He cute." Logan also likes to give Tyson kisses. Tyson loves to try and get Logan's toys. He will sit and rock forward with his bottom and his hands, often crashing on his head, as he reaches for Logan's megablocks or sippy cup. Sometimes when Logan is in a bad mood, he will roar at Tyson. It used to scare Tyson but now he just laughs!
Tyson loves trying to pull up with my hands. Whenever we practice standing up, Logan wants to try it too. Logan will sit down and have me "help" him stand up.
Tyson loves to watch TV. If there is a TV on in the room, he will twist and turn and squirm until he can see it! He also loves to watch Logan, even more than TV. He thinks Logan is quite hilarious.
Tyson is a good eater. He is eating fruits, vegetables, rice cereal, and a little meat. He is drinking whole milk from a cup or a bottle. He doesn't like cold food or drinks. He also has a little bit of juice at breakfast, which he loves (and will drink cold!)
Tyson loves when daddy comes home each day. He can be super fussy and when he sees daddy, he'll instantly cheer up. (Which causes Daddy to believe that Tyson is a perfect baby all day long.) He loves when Daddy tickles him and will belly laugh so hard.
Tyson goes to sleep around 7 pm and sleeps through the night until 6 am (usually, this week he has been up by 5:30 am).
He is the perfect baby for our family and we all love him so much. I'm so thankful that God gave us Tyson seven months ago today!!!

Yard Work

Tyson and I went to get an oil change in the van and took a trip to Wal-mart on Saturday. Logan stayed home with daddy to do yard work. He loved using his rake and shovel!

When I came home, I said, "Logan, did you do yard work?" as he was raking. He responded, "Yes, momma. Did you go to the store? Did you have fun?" I love how conversational he is becoming!!

I think Daddy loves how much he can help out now. Who do you think is doing all the work here?? 

Teething!

Tyson had 2 teeth before this new round of teething started. This time he is getting FIVE TEETH at once!! Here are some of the things that accompany a teething baby.
Drool and snot. And a nasty rash. Ewww!

Pain, Ouch!

Tiredness and crankiness, waaa!

An adorable new smile, awww!

Logan had to show off his teeth too!

Lookin' good buddy.

Extreme Makeover: Logan Edition

We gave Logan a buzz cut at home. Here is his "before" shot:

We sat him in a chair and let him pick out a movie- just like at the Hairy Elephant where he normally gets a haircut. However, he did not like his home haircut. In fact, he got so mad at us, that he started ROARING at Greg.

So we gave him a popsicle.

Which got hairy! And he got even madder. Of course, it didn't help that his mommy and daddy were falling on the floor laughing hysterically- partially due to stress, partially due to Logan's reaction, and partially due to the fact that a buzz cut looks BAD as it is going down.

After a while, he calmed down. We gave him a mirror and he just starred at himself but he did stop crying.

Here is his after picture. He looks so grown up. (But I think still adorable). I didn't get a great picture of the actual haircut because he wouldn't hold still. For some reason, he didn't trust us after that.

But basically, he's adorable and looks just like daddy!