2 1/2 Years Old

It's hard to believe that Nicholas is 2 1/2 years old now. He definitely keeps us on our toes. Here is what he has been up to...

Some of our favorite vocabulary includes:

Do it again - do din digain
Holy Moly - moly moly
Uh oh spaghettios - uh oh spitigos
Stephanie - nephie nephie
Lightening McQueen - Lightening Aqueen
Thumper from Bambi - Sumpers
Kangaroo - Kangakoo
Tater tots - Tootie tots
Whatcha doing? - Whatcha donut?
When he's hungry he says - Something a hungry?

He is now counting correctly all the way up through twelve, but then says fourteen for thirteen, fourteen and fifteen. His alphabet tends to skip around a bit, but it's too cute.

His favorite TV show at this point is Little Einsteins (aka Little Einteins). In fact, thanks to Little Einsteins and the portable DVD player, we had a very successful trip to Mobile for Thanksgiving (and will hopefully have a good one for Christmas as well).

Whenever he sees any female whether it's just a character on a TV show or an actual female Nicholas will say "Like you mama!" He does the same for Gabe when he sees a male. On the way to church one Sunday, Nicholas was looking at his kids bible and saw a picture of Jesus and said "Like you dada!" We got a kick out of that one.

Nicholas cracks us up when he corrects us with what we are saying. We'll say "look there's a dog." To which Nicholas will reply "No, it's a dog." One day I went back and forth with him because I pointed out a frog to him in a book and he kept telling me "No, it's a froggie." Apparently my proper term of "frog" was not correct.

He is also very independent. When I offer to do something for him, often times he will say "No - my do it." In other words, "I've got it mom."

We are really trying to be patient with the whole potty training thing, but I would really love it if he was trained by his third birthday. That being said, I've been reading up on tips and techniques. I purchased a jar which I promptly labeled "Potty Treats" and filled it with M&Ms. So far he just wants the treats and not the potty. So no M&Ms for Nicholas yet. Then I read about another technique to let kids go au natural around the house - the thinking behind this being that they won't want to pee or poop just anywhere and will want to use the potty. Well lets just say this REALLY didn't work with Nicholas. I basically let him go commando for about 15 minutes and had to clean up several different spots where the floor was sufficient and he didn't feel the need to use the potty. After this experience, I will keep Nicholas in diapers at all times.

We are really looking forward to Christmas this year. It will be interesting to see how Nicholas reacts this year compared to last year.

Big Boy

I've recently had a request to update the blog, since I've been slacking recently.  Well today was very momentous and definitely blog-worthy! 

To give a little background, I have read and heard from many different sources that children will potty train when they are ready and if you push the issue, it will just backfire on you.  We took this advice to heart and wasn't going to press the issue on Nicholas.  We have a potty seat, which we actually got at one of our showers - so thanks to whomever for that forward thinking!  We would occasionally put him on the toilet if he was willing.  We do keep some reading materials for Nicholas right besides daddy's reading material (Sports Illustrated) and would read to him while he sat there. 

Recently when Nicholas would have a dirty diaper, we would say that big boys go poo poo in the potty.  Not degrading him by any means, but just educating him.  Today, Nicholas was playing and he started to pull at his pants.  I asked him if he wanted to go potty and he said yes.  I fully didn't expect anything to happen and we just went about reading his books while he sat there.  After a while we finished all the books we had, so he requested some more.  I walked into the living room to grab a few more and when I got back I noticed that the front of the toilet seat and in front of the toilet was a little wet.  I could easily tell what it was and got so excited and cheered for him, etc.  We read the books I brought back and he requested some more.  I again went into the living room to grab a few more and took my time getting back to him because I could tell he was trying to go again (and with the sounds he was making I thought he was doing the other this time).  When I got back he was going again and he said "Look Mama!"  Again, I cheered him on for being a big boy.

I thought it was so funny (and rather appropriate) that we would try after I left the room.  Now, I'm not naive to think that it's all down hill from here, but was just excited to see progress being made.  I obviously would prefer him do the other so there would be no more dirty diapers to change, but I'll take what I can get when I get it.  I called up Gabe all excited and we were both hoping this was not just a one time occurrence.  Well a few hours later Nicholas made some other indication that he needed to go, so again I asked him if he wanted to go potty.  He said yes, so we did the drill over again.  Granted we had just about all of his books in the room, but I left to grab my phone and he went again!  Oh happy day!  Who knew I would ever get so excited over peeing in the toilet, but I'm ecstatic! 

To celebrate, I told Nicholas he could watch Bambi (recently his favorite movie) after his nap and that we could go to Chick-a-la (as he calls it) for dinner.  His exact reaction was "Oh Boy!" and started dancing.

It will be interesting to see where everything goes from here.  I know this can be a frustrating time for both parents and child, so I'm going to attempt to be as calm and cool about it as possible.

In related news, Nicholas is going to move up a class at Mother's Day Out.  Right now he is the oldest in his class and he will be moving to a class with kids that are closer to him in age and development (luckily with a few others going through the potty training period right now as well).  I know Nicholas will miss his teachers Mrs. Becky and Mrs. Kim and of course his buddy Colin, but he will be able to see them on the playground and during music. 

My little guy is growing up so fast!     

Toddler Vocabulary

It appears as though Nicholas has discovered how to really push his limits with Mama and Daddy (and I'm sure Mimi and his teachers at MDO too).  Some toddler phrases that he is now trying on us include:

• No mine!
• Move
• Give me that
• Why not?

I know this is a toddler rite of passage, but we are doing everything we can to remove these phrases from his vocabulary (except for "No" and "Why Not" if used appropriately).  He does have some cute words and phrases that include:

• Oh Boy!
• Goodness Gracious!
• Whatcha donut?  - AKA what are you doing?
• Opopus - AKA octopus

My favorite thing he has started recently is "talking to Gigi or PawPaw" on the phone.  He has my old cell phone and will randomly pick it up and carry on the following conversation every time...
"Hello.  Hey Gigi!  No.  Good.  Bye Bye"  It cracks me up every time I hear him do this.  I suppose he has heard mama say this a time or two.

Nicholas likes saying his ABC's but tends to skip over a few here and there (Ex:  X takes the place of S, so he says Q R X Y and Z.  He then says "now I know my A B C D..." so that he goes in a continuous loop of ABCs.  He will also sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  Gabe's favorite part is when Nicholas says "how I wonder what ya high" instead of "how I wonder what you are".  My favorite is the line "like a diamond in the sky" which for Nicholas sounds more like "like e diamond in the ky". 

Gabe and I also got a kick out of him last Sunday on the way home from church.  Nicholas was talking about a show on Disney called Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  He was talking about Jake and Captain Hook.  There is also a parrot on the show and I couldn't think of his name so I asked Nicholas.  He thought for a moment and then said "Scully" which was correct.  I love seeing his little brain at work.  My little guy is growing up!   

I cut his hair today and he always looks so old afterwards!  I was prepared this time with Teddy Grahams and Bambi dvd and had no crying or screaming at all.  Woohoo!  Mama was excited about that.

Sorry guys!

Most people that read this blog have already heard this story, but I need to blog about it so I won't forget later on.  On Wednesday, Nicholas and I went to "Chick-a-la" as Nicholas calls it for lunch.  We met up with my friend Amanda and her little boy Colin - who is also in his mother's day out class.  Nicholas absolutely loves playing in their playground area and I even found him sliding head first down the slide (luckily he doesn't even come close to the bottom of the slide when he goes down).  Amanda and Colin left but Nicholas wanted to keep playing, so we stayed a bit longer. 

There were three other boys also in the play area that were probably 4 years old.  They all were pretend shooting each other.  At some point they all decided that they were going to go after Nicholas and pretend shoot him.  Nicholas was apprehensive about this and I told him to shoot back, but he didn't quite understand.  The boys go off playing and Nicholas was fine just playing by himself and sliding.  Well the boys decided to go after Nicholas again while they were all at the top of the play area.  So they are up in his face "shooting" at Nicholas and I hear Nicholas say "Sorry guys."  It was the sweetest thing!  He thought he had done something wrong.  After that I told the little boys to back off because Nicholas didn't understand the game they were playing.  We left not long after that.  It is always interesting to see how kids play together.  To me this just shows what a sweet heart Nicholas has.  I am looking forward to fall when it is cool enough to go to the park and kids aren't so confined to small indoor play areas.    

Teething Again

After almost a year of not dealing with the teething issue, Nicholas is once again cutting teeth.  He felt warm last night and we were hoping that it wasn't going to be another round of fever virus like he had recently.  Then today he has hardly eaten a thing (except for freezer pops that feel so good on those gums) and he didn't nap well at all and is having a hard time sleeping tonight.  Of course he is drooling like crazy too.  My wish is that this time will be similar to the others and he can knock out multiple teeth at once.  We aren't sure which ones or how many he is working on, but just pray that it goes by quickly. 

It's weird to experience this again after such a long period of time (in baby world).  I almost went searching for teething rings, but since it has been so long I honestly don't know where they are.  It breaks my heart to see a genuinely happy toddler be miserable all day long (for the most part).  Our efforts to keep him happy included watching Toy Story 2 and 3 and old videos of himself (which he got a real kick out of).         

My cup runneth over

I fall more in love with my son every day.  Nicholas just cracks me up in so many ways and has such a sweet spirit about him.  Like tonight - I was giving him a bath as usual and out of nowhere he stood up, put his hands on my cheeks and kissed me.  He has never done this before and it was the sweetest thing ever!  And luckily we were able to get him to reenact it for the camera...

Then he wanted to give daddy a kiss too.

He is such a sweetie pie and always thanks Gabe and myself for getting him things.  He will hug his stuffed animals that he loves to play with and then slam them together or sit on them.  A sweetheart and yet still a boy at heart.  Some of Nicholas' recent phrases that I love are:

• "Oh boy"
• "Goodness gracious"
• "Moly Moly" - I said Holy Moly the other night for some reason and he thought it was hilarious, so he had Gabe and I repeat it over and over and his version of Holy Moly is "Moly Moly"
• "I fine" - this starts off with him wanting me to check on him.  He will say "Ok?"  and I respond "Are you ok?" and then the standard response is then "I fine"
• Singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - the cutest thing.  I heard him singing that to himself the other night after we put him down.  Although he is not a fan of others trying to sing it with him.  I guess he wants to have a solo act.    

As cheesy as this sounds, I feel like (and would venture to say Gabe would agree) Nicholas has made our lives complete and my cup has definitely runneth over... 

P.S. Happy Birthday PawPaw!  Hope you had a wonderful birthday!  We love you!

Baby Shower Gift

I told my mom that I would post pictures of the baby shower gift I made recently.  I found the carrier tote idea on my new favorite website Pinterest - very addicting!!  Granted my version isn't nearly as fancy, but I thought it turned out cute.  I basically covered a beverage carrier with scrapbook paper, ribbon and stickers with each name.  The baby side included soap, lotion and Boudreaux's Butt Paste.    

 Even though you can't see what's in the mama side, I included Bath and Body Works body wash/foam bath aromatherapy for Sleep, Energy and Stress Relief (every new mom could definitely use a little of each).

We can't wait to meet Lexy in a few months!