Potty Training Adventures

When we first introduced the potty seat to AJ, he was scared of it and would have nothing to do with sitting on the potty. Then, he began sitting on the potty ever so briefly and saying, "I did it," without ever actually doing anything. Then my dad suggested I put him on the potty and put his hand in warm water. I tried this and AJ had a great time playing in the water, but never peed. For about a week, he'd ask for the bowl of water just to play. Next, we started playing with toys and reading books. We still do this as well as bribe him with infant fruit puffs (he still loves them) whenever he actually goes pee pee on the potty. This has finally been more effective. He is both peeing and pooping on the potty at least a couple times a day, but we are definitely not potty trained yet. However, he will stay on the potty a long time now. He is highly motivated to get puffs and will sit and sit and sit hoping to go so he can get puffs. I don't think he actually has good bladder control yet. When he goes, I think we are just getting lucky. AJ's newest infatuation is Spiderman. We have one Spiderman book. If I tell him I want him to see if he can go pee pee on the potty, he will say okay and the proceed to go get his Spiderman book to take in the bathroom for me to read to him. I really need to get a new Spiderman book. I am getting tired of reading the same one sooooooo many times a day.

Clothes, Shoes, and the Color Yellow

AJ's favorite color has been yellow for a long time now and continues to be so. If he colors or paints pictures, he always wants the yellow. (He already used up the whole yellow bath crayon) For the last couple of months AJ began having an opinion regarding what shoes he wants to wear each day. Some days, it is a struggle because he has a pair of rubber rain boots that he wants to wear more often then not. They don't really go with most outfits. Now, AJ is getting more particular about what socks and clothes he wears too. He is tall enough to see into his sock drawer now, so he picks his socks most days (whether I want him to or not.) Unfortunately, that leaves me trying to pick an outfit to coordinate with the socks he chooses. This is not easy. If there are a clean pair of yellow socks in the drawer, they WILL be worn. If there are not a pair, he will still ask for yellow socks and will only consider another pair once he is sure that all the yellow socks are in fact dirty. After that, I feel like a salesman trying to convince him of the outfit I pick out. If he eyes a shirt with Thomas the Train or Elmo or Spiderman, or one with a firetruck, then he'll want to wear it. Otherwise, I have to convince him that he wants to wear a plain blue sweater today. He also does not like to wear layers. Some very cute outfits he has have a short sleave shirt and a long sleave light jacket or something to wear over it as an outfit. AJ won't have it. He will wear the first layer, but won't keep on the second. My goodness, if he is this opinionated at 2 years old, what are we in for?

AJ's Masterpiece

AJ was in the bathtub the other night and had these bathtub crayons and was coloring on the sides of the tub. Usually he just scribbles and that's it. This time while he was scribbling, he told me he was "making shapes." I asked him what shapes he was making and he told me he was making circles and triangles. (The picture with less scribbles) Then he switched sides of the tub and kept scribbling and said, "Mommy, I draw daddy." After I oowed and awed over his drawing, he said, "I draw mommy. I draw AJ." I had to take a picture of the completed work since this is AJ's first family picture that he has drawn for us.

AJ's Work

Dave decided that AJ needed a train table for Christmas, but of course could not wait until Christmas once we got it, so put it together and neatly arranged the track and pieces. Dave wanted me to get a shot of it before AJ got to it. So I took a before and one picture 30 minutes after AJ woke up and started playing with it. In his defense, the table was pushed against a wall and he could not reach the back of the track, so he climbed on top of the table to get to the back and ended up tearing the track apart on accident. So, Dave put it all back together and then glued the track together. Oh, and we moved the table out away from the wall so he can walk all the way around and move the train through any part of the track.

More Thanksgiving pics

Here are some pics from the visit with my side of the family. AJ still loves his cousins Josh and Ellie and of course grandma and papa. I would have liked to get a nice picture of Uncle Barry with AJ, but AJ is still scared of Uncle Barry. I said the kid had a good memory. I think he is still traumatized from the snow sledding incident from last April. We need to welcome Aunt Paula to the blog. We have many pictures of her in photo albums and in frames in our house, but this was the first digital pic I had of her. Welcome to AJ's Aunt Paula.

Thanksgiving 2006

Well, it's almost Christmas, so maybe I should get in a post about Thanksgiving real quick. We had a great, but all too short visit to Kansas. We tried to cram in as much family time with everyone as we could. AJ loved his time with all the grandparents. We also got to meet AJ's newest cousin, KayLeigh. AJ loved the baby. He kept asking to "hold it." He held her a lot and kissed her. We got lots of great pics in KS of all the family. Here are some with the baby, and the rest of Dave's side of the family.