32 Month Update

Pretending to be the Little Red Hen.

Noah is 32 months old and it has been quite a month. Noah finally made the transition to his big boy bed after we moved into our new house and in just the past week he has made significant progress in potty training.

We weren't quite sure how to transition Noah to the big boy bed, so at first we made a big deal out of how cool the big boy bed was, and then basically treated it like a crib in that we just plopped him in and expected him to lie there and fall asleep like he did before. Obviously this approach didn't work. It was suggested to me that maybe he didn't need as much sleep anymore, but he's still pretty young and when I did finally get him to nap during the day it was always impossible to wake him up an hour or so later because he was still so tired. After many frustrating days of trying to get him to lie down and fall asleep, I decided I'd just lie down in bed with him until he fell asleep. It was already taking nearly an hour or longer every day to get him to go to sleep with countless trips in and out of his room trying to convince him to stay in bed so I figured just lying down wouldn't take much longer. The first time I tried this I said we'd read some stories for "rest time" and I told him that I'd lie down with him for a bit. He fell asleep in two minutes. Amazing. So now that's what we've been doing. It's still hard to wake him up from naps most days, and then he's cranky for about 20 minutes post-nap, but putting him down for sleep is a lot less frustrating on our end now.

This month has also brought a new thing to navigate: fear of monsters in the dark. Noah has started to become really scared of dark rooms, always saying that there are monsters or dinosaurs in there, and that they're going to bite him. He doesn't get really panicked, but he's definitely anxious about it and I think it contributes to him not wanting to go to sleep at night. He often wakes up in the middle of the night crying and one of us has to go in there and sleep with him so that he'll go back to sleep. He seems to be particularly scared of the sound of thunder. A few nights ago it was really windy I think and it sounded a bit like there was thunder and he not only needed me to lie down with him to sleep, he needed to hold on to my arm to go to sleep. I guess it was just a matter of time before these kinds of fears crept in. To be honest, I'm still a little afraid of dark, unfamiliar places. :)

On the plus side, Noah has made significant progress in potty training, just in the past week! A few nights ago, he actually had a bit of a poo disaster in the bath tub. Without getting into very gross details, he basically had a poo accident during bath time and was kind of freaked out by it. Although I was left with a pretty gross mess to clean up, the plus side is that he now tells us when he needs to go and only goes #2 on the toilet. He's making progress with #1 as well and has only had a few accidents since Friday, even staying dry through yesterday's nap. Noah still hates taking potty breaks, but he's been getting better so I'm hoping that he'll be done with diapers soon!

In general, Noah continues to grow and mature every day. He's made a lot of progress (I think) in playing with others. He no longer just plays alone or next to other kids, he seems to be actually interacting more. He loves preschool and loves bringing in toys for show and tell. Whenever we get in the car to go to a playdate or something he always says he wants to bring some toy to show his friends. His imagination is developing as well and he is engaging in more and more pretend play. I suppose this growing imagination goes hand in hand with the growing fear though. He loves pretending to play the piano like Elmo, sing like Elmo, "do work" with hammers and screwdrivers, "eat ice cream" like Curious George and the man with the yellow hat, fly like Buzz Lightyear, and make food in his kitchen. He's also currently obsessed with sharks. Whenever we have painting time he always makes me help him paint sharks and fish for the sharks to eat. He also loves hugging Sarah and giving her toys to play with or food to eat (the latter is a bit dangerous though). If she's crying, he tells me to go check on her, or he says he wants to go and make her happy. He loves asserting his independence and always wants to do things himself, or have things done a certain way. He is a handful but also so entertaining!

Potty Training Progress!

Today, Noah finally uttered the words, "Mommy, I need to go pee pee!!"  He had actually already peed/pooped in his pull-ups, but he kept saying he needed to go pee pee, so I put him on the toilet anyway, and he continued to pee and poop.  This was also the first time he'd ever pooped on the toilet.  So exciting.

On to the details...

I had put potty training on hold for a while because it was just too much to deal with since we'd just moved and moved Noah into a big boy bed.  This past month was all about moving & unpacking, and keeping Noah in his big boy bed.  We're still working on both of those things, but we've made some good progress.  I bought some pull-ups at Costco last week, and Noah has been wanting to wear the Lightning McQueen diapers, so I decided to try again.  He actually has been peeing pretty consistently in the toilet around bath time/night night time, but throughout the rest of the day either I forget to ask him, he forgets, or he doesn't want to go.  But this past week he's finally shown more concern about "keeping Lightning McQueen clean and dry."  This is how I've been trying to motivate him to use the potty.  He has real concern from Lightning McQueen when we are talking about it, but hasn't really wanted to take the time to follow through.  On Thursday he made some progress at school, actually telling his teacher that he had to go when she asked.  Since then he's been more vocal about wanting his diaper changed and showing concern about soiling his diapers.  This morning at church, he didn't quite tell the Sunday school teacher he needed to go, but after he'd peed already in his diaper, he told the teacher he wanted me to change his diaper, so they paged me to come to the classroom.  This afternoon there was poo coming down the pipes but I think he wasn't quite sure when it was coming so every time he thought it might be, he kept asking to get his diaper changed.  Finally the poo came, and after hearing him yell, "Mommy, I need to go pee pee!!" from downstairs, I came down to find him squatting in front of the bathroom door, pooing already.  Eventually I got him to go into the bathroom and sit on the toilet, and he continued to poo a bit more, and he peed, like he said he needed to.

Overall, it's been a good day for potty training!  I really feel like Noah figured out a lot about the pee/poo/toilet process today.  I'm hoping for more progress this coming week!!  Can it be that he might be out of diapers soon???

8 Months Old

Little Sarah is 8 months old!  She has made a lot of progress in mobility and sitting this month.  In just the past few days actually she has become a much more stable sitter.  Before she could sit for only a few seconds before toppling over and leaning forward to check out her toes, but now she can pretty much sit without tipping over.....at least until she gets distracted by something behind her and falls backward trying to reach it.  Sarah isn't crawling yet, but has been trying really hard to move around this month.  She has instead improvised by rolling and rotating...haha!  Can't turn my back on her for a second anymore!

Sarah is eating more solids now, like yogurt, bananas, pears, peas, and all other kinds of fruits and vegetables.  I haven't moved on to meats just yet.  She LOVES bananas I think.  Whenever she sees me mashing them in the little blue bowl I use for mashing food, she gets really excited.  The only other time she gets that excited is when she sees daddy.  She starts laughing/giggling excitedly until she starts wheezing, kicks her feet, and says "a-da!"  So, she loves bananas and daddy.  I tried giving her some puffs, to see see if she could eat those, but she's not quite there yet.  She actually choked on it.  Scary.  I think it'll be a little while before she'll be able to eat more chunky foods.  Until then, just more fruit, rice cereal, and yogurt.  Kind of like what Noah eats even though he's turning three in a few months and has a full set of teeth.  Sarah still has no teeth, but just yesterday started drooling more than usual, so maybe we'll be seeing some teeth soon.

As Sarah has gotten older, she's become a bit more resistant to naps, and she is still waking up at night for nursing.  But considering the fact that she has no consistent nap schedule, I guess I'm just thankful that she sleeps at all and isn't a total wreck all the time.  She's actually really calm most of the time and puts up with all of the errands I need to run all the time.  When Noah is throwing his tantrums, Sarah just sits peacefully and watches.  I hope this peaceful disposition lasts!