mood: contemplative

Here are a few cell phone pix’s from yesterdays trip to the mall.
~ Caleb and I in an Ice-Cream truck
~ Caleb by himself in the Ice-Cream truck
~ Caleb in a helicopter
~ Caleb in a safari truck w/ boy
(This little boy came and sat beside Caleb… asked him “Hi little boy, do you have teeth?” and started looking at his mouth… and then said “Oh yup, you got teeth!”)

There was another little boy in the play area running around. I was sitting beside his mom and asked her how old he was (he was a lot better at climbing than Caleb so I was curious)… and she said 21 months. He is 5 months older than Caleb… yet Caleb was atleast 3 inches TALLER than this little boy lol. It was funny. She asked “how about yours?” I said… just turned 17 mo. she said “Whoa… really?” :-) Caleb really does look like me in the face more so than Travis… but he has Travis’ build forsure!

^ Who’s who? Thats a collage of Caleb, Travis and myself all bunched together. You can click on it for the full size view. I didnt have any good toddler shots of Travis. I need to find some next time we go visit his family. Most of the pictures I have he is like 5 or older.

mood: loving

Caleb has this Potty Elmo doll he got for Christmas. He really likes it. I think his favorite feature is when you put the sippy up to Elmo’s mouth he makes this cute little “gulp gulp” sound. Caleb think thats just good fun.

As most of you know I have been trying hard to get Caleb to go potty. I started trying this when he was about 11 mo. old. I was able to catch him before he went every now and then. He is notorious for making a special face prior to doing his business. So its easy to catch him for the most part.

Lately though I havent been waiting to see his “special face.” I have been trying to sit him on the potty after each nap and meal times. Or whenever I think he needs to try going. It has been wonderful.

It takes determination yes… and discipline to keep what Ive been doing up. But its so worth it.

I am getting Caleb use to the potty before he is even old enough to sit himself on the potty. I think its good to get them familiar with certain things far ahead ….rather than wait til its time to start something. It gives them time to adjust slowly. Rather than shocking them quickly with a new routine.

Any time I sit Caleb on the potty I sign to him “Poopie and Pee.”
He is slowly learning what these mean whenever he does go potty. Each time he goes I sign that very clearly to him… and praise him for what he does (he gets a cookie as his prize… he loves cookies).

We hit a new milestone recently though. It started last night.

Caleb came to me while I watched American Idol (ha!) and signed “poop” just as clear as he signs “more.” He then runs to the potty and stands beside it. He wanted to go potty! and he knew by signing that he would get to go. It was so neat!

I thought it might be a fluke… well today again he comes to me while I was cleaning the bedroom and calls me over to the bathroom (this time he didnt sign poop, but he made it clear he wanted to go potty). He then stands with his back facing the potty and tries to sit down.

I help him out of course… sit him on the potty. 20 seconds later… “plop!” he went.

I am just so proud that he is catching on so quickly!

Who knows he might be fully potty trained by his 2nd birthday. Wouldnt that be wonderful :-) We’d save so much money not having to buy diapers and wipes.

* Oh and on a side note: I havent changed one poopie diaper all week! He did go in his diaper once. And that one time was when I told Travis to sit him on the potty and he said he didnt feel like watching him sit… so he told me he’d change him if he did go in his diaper… heheh…. help yourself ;-) he did go in his diaper a few minutes later. *

mood: gloomy

Today I stayed very busy. I got up shortly after Caleb woke. Took a shower… let him sit on the potty a bit… gave him a bath… and then began organizing my closet. My closet was a total wreck. Clothes on the floor… shoes shoved here… blankets stacked there… it was pretty bad. I had trouble finding things so I decided it was time. Time to empty it out and completely re-do things. My bed looked like a mountain top of clothes and hangers. It was unreal.

I cleaned things out really good though. Put away summer clothes and maternity clothing (that hasnt been worn since Caleb was born)… and hung things by style and color. Organizing the church clothes… from the jeans… from the sweaters…etc..etc.. I even lined up all my flipflops… and seperated dress shoes from sneakers. Oh it looks fabulous now! I open my closet and I’m like “Ahhh… organization.” I even got rid of a big bag of clothes that I didnt wear any more.

Around lunch time we went to a town about 20 min. away to get our title on my car changed and get new plates. That took like 2 hours to do. ~_~

We got back around 3:30pm. I put Caleb down for his afternoon nap… and Travis went to buy a few groceries and household items with one of our students.

This evening I cleaned our bathroom really good. I dont know why I felt like cleaning so much today… but it is a relief to walk into a room and see organization and cleanliness.

Tomorrow I hope to get laundry done. We havent done laundry in like 2 weeks… I have atleast 3 loads to do.

This picture above is of Caleb and I on the computer. He discovered this elmo game on http://www.sesameworkshop.org/ . It has a cute little song on one of the games that he just loved. He’d just begin to grin as it played. I bet he played on that computer for a good solid 30 minutes.

Any how its 11:00pm… suppose I should go to bed. I decided to write this tonight to reflect on the day and get my mind off a few things. Seems like some nights you just want to vent but cant. I look forward to a new day.

~ Another Picture of Caleb on the PC.