Potty Update

I'm so glad to report that Jasper has made tremendous strides in potty training and though it was a (very) rough process, after 2 weeks he was doing great without any accidents!  We had many frustrating days and nights where we didn't know what to do for him and he couldn't tell us what he wanted or needed.  I'm sure he was very confused about it all, but eventually we got a good routine going and things started to become easier.
While Mimi was here visiting, we were still trying to get him to be more comfortable with going #2, but that eventually got better after she went back home.  We had a few encounters with public restrooms that hadn't gone perfectly soon after, but when we went to Six Flags on April 1st, he did great and had no issues!  That's what I officially declared victory.
That was almost exactly 3 weeks after we had started. Looking back, it was definitely a more stressful process than it was with Harper.  Infinitely more stressful, in fact.  However it was a mere fraction of the time it took with her.  Which way is better?  I can't say.  But I am still in awe that my little just-turned-2 year old boy is already in big boy underwear!  When he decides to wear it, that is.

Just a few funny things to remember about this time.  Jasper has changed his word from "booot" to "poppoty"and he is usually saying it with such urgency while holding himself.  It makes Jon and I laugh every time.
We have an potty seat that is inset to our regular one and attaches by a magnet.  When it's his turn to go, he gleefully shouts "Jasper's seat!" as he pulls it down for himself.  And no one else is allowed to this except for him. Otherwise you will be met with a "noooooooo!"
He also now prefers to pull down his own pants and underwear, though he can't pull them back up quite yet.
He is still too short to stand while going, so sits and straddles the entire seat.  In order for him to do this, he usually has to have one leg out of his pants.  This makes for interesting experiences in public restrooms, especially.  We certainly are able to make it work, but I look forward to the day he can start standing!

Potty Talk

This post is merely for posterity's sake.  It's not that I enjoy publicizing my kids' personal business.  But I know one day... ONE DAY... they will thank me.  And look back and be able to laugh.

So it wasn't necessarily our decision to potty train Jasper, nor was it his.  His teacher at school brought it up when talking about him possibly moving up to the next class soon.  He just turned 2 and that time is come.  Apparently the next teacher is not so active with potty training, so it would be a while until we had the full support from his class where he is at most of the day. 

We started last weekend which happened to be great timing because it rained all weekend and we had no major plans to leave the house.  We went straight to underwear and had a pretty bumpy time at home.  To our disbelief, he caught on very quickly that he needed to learn how to hold it.  And though it took us at least a day to figure it out, he has a word he uses to let us know he needs to go to the potty.  It's boot, but it sounds like foot.  I have no idea why it's that word, but he continues to use it and we make sure to ask "potty" and he then repeats that.  So strange! 

The weekend was very exhausting and frustrating for Jon and I.  I really didn't mind the few accidents he ended up having.  It was the constant having him sit on the potty and have him be upset about trying to go.  He was getting frustrated and we were spent from helping him! 

By the time Sunday night came, we knew there was no turning back.  We didn't feel like it would be smart to take him backwards. 

Though our main obstacle now is trying to get him to actually "go" and not hold it.  He continues to sit on the potty, but gets frightened with the prospect of actually letting it all go.  I'm worried about a bladder infection for the poor guy! 

He's doing really great and I'm seeing improvements every day.  I can't believe he just turned 2 and we are looking at the prospect of him being fully potty trained already!!  We have a bit of a way to go until it clicks for him, but hopefully we continue to see improvements.  It's a very different method we took with Harper, and he's a boy and much younger than she was, so it's a whole new world.  I will wait before I get too excited about not having to buy diapers ever again. 

Here are a couple pictures from our funny adventures.

Jasper found Harper's butterfly headband, and it made for such a funny picture as he sat on the potty.

Harper has been a great encourager for Jasper.  Here I enlisted her to help read his books with him so he wouldn't get lonely (and I could do my makeup before church!)

Here they are watching their personal home theater system (Netflix on my old iPhone) in the bathroom.  It was meant for Jasper and Harper just ended up there too. 

February 2012

February was full of so much fun for us!!!  Here is a quick recap with lots of pictures! 

Jon took Harper to Chick-fil-A for their Daddy/Daughter Date Night.  She was sooo excited and he even took her for ice cream afterwards.  She got blue (her favorite color) and her entire mouth was still blue by the time they got home. 

Harper discovered she could pick Jasper up easily.  You can't tell from this picture, but they both think it's hilarious.  She had better take advantage now while he's still smaller than her. 

We went to a fun birthday party at a gymnastics facility.  Jasper didn't so much enjoy being in the pit of blocks, but he did enjoy stacking them. 

Jon and I went on a date night!!!

Jasper and Daddy are roaring like lions with Jasper wrapped in his lion towel.

Jasper stuck this red sticker on his nose on the way home from school.  He thought it was so cool, he left it there for hours.  Then he put on his sister's headband and played with his toy car.  Our silly kid!

We went to the kids school to attend their Valentine's Day party.  Here is Harper enjoying her treats in class.

Harper helped me make cupcakes for Nana's birthday and was sooo excited.

The next morning Jasper and Harper helped decorate them.

We took a day trip down to Dinosaur World in Glen Rose, TX.  It was a bit underwhelming, but we are glad we checked it out for ourselves.

Harper and Jasper reading books they got from Chick-fil-A. 



January 2012

(I took several pictures with my cell phone in Jan which explains the poor quality of some of them)

In January Jasper liked to show off his superb kissy face...

.. As well as his impeccable style.

I enlisted the help of the kids and one of their Christmas presents.  It turns out shopping carts make great laundry transporters! 

Harper chose a hat she loved.  It went great with her little poncho. 

In January Harper started helping Daddy make me breakfast.  She absolutely LOVES it and feels so big when he lets her get my sandwich ready.

We went to a birthday party for one of Harper's classmates and I snapped this picture on a yellow wall of my two guys.



December 2011

December brought a ton of fun!  I had my company's holiday party and we made a date night out of it.  I had never spent the night away from the kids, but we planned it so they could stay the night at Nana and Papa's house and Daddy and I stayed the night at the hotel.  It was great!  And just down the street from their house in case anything came up, which was great for this mommy's peace of mind.  We had a wonderful time and so did the kids.

We celebrated Daddy's birthday by going out to dinner in Southlake then walking around afterwards.  Dinner was yummy and I got the sweetest picture of the Birthday Boy and his baby girl.  It was verrrry cold that night so we bundled up and enjoyed taking in the sights.  We attempted visiting Santa, but the kids were having none of it (fine by us!).  We visited with the horses pulling the carriages and enjoyed looking at the fountains.  At one point, we walked by a couple just getting engaged!!  I butted in on the special moment, offering to take a picture for them to remember by.  I think (I hope!) they were happy about it and not annoyed. 

We helped out with distributing toys to children in a lower income area.  We are always looking for ways to teach the kids about serving others as Jesus did, and to be thankful for all the blessings we have.  Prior to the event, I was able to snap this picture which I used on our Christmas card.

I managed to squeeze Jasper into the Max pj's that Mimi got for Harper before she was born.  He loved them!

We each made our own little Christmas trees as a family craft on Christmas Eve.  Everyone enjoyed them!  In December Harper developed a rash that was a bit concerning for her doctors.  We had blood work done but thankfully everything came back normal.  It's still a bit of a mystery, though there are several theories about what caused it.  We probably won't ever know, and she might just always be our little mystery girl.

Christmas Day was a blast.  The kids opened their stockings then Nana and Papa got to our house shortly after that.  We opened presents, ate lots of food and played and played.  Here is a picture of the disaster the living room soon became, as well as the tower Daddy helped the kids make with Harper's new blocks.  They got so much stuff, we ended up converting the office into a playroom later that day.  The day after that, we went to Ikea for goodies to put finishing touches on the room.  It's been fun to have a room designated for all their toys! 



November 2011

In November, Jasper started wearing his Gabba pajamas I had gotten him a while back on clearance.  Here he is sound asleep with Brobee on one side and his Gabba blanket on the other.

The kids had their school pictures taken in November.  I thought they looked adorable in the morning, each in their own cute outfit.  However when I dropped them off, someone mentioned sibling pictures.  I was horrified because I had dressed Harper in brown and pink polka dots and Jasper in blue and black plaid.  They couldn't be more clashing if I tried!  The school pictures tend to be a little on the pricey side, so I decided to let it go and hope the pictures turned out horribly so I wouldn't feel like I had to purchase them.  Well.. a few weeks later I found out how ADORABLY PERFECT they turned out and ended up buying the electronic proof.  Oh well. :)

We went to the Thanksgiving celebrations at the kids school.  It's always fun seeing them in their daily element, interacting with other kids their age. 

We helped Nana and Papa celebrate 41 years of marriage.  It was a fun night at a nice restaurant with Karyn, Craig, Eddie and Nancy.

We had Thanksgiving at our house and had a really yummy meal. We were so thankful for all of the blessings we have! 

October 2011

After our family vacation, October was a fun month for us.  We didn't have any means of watching TV at the time, so we missed watching most of the World Series where the Rangers were playing for the second year in a row.  They ultimately lost (again!), but we enjoyed listening to it the "old fashioned way" on the radio.  By the end of the month, we figured out how to get better reception via the TV antenna by putting it in the attic.  Though we had survived fine without TV at all for 4 months, it was fun to have it back again. This time without any extra channels and no DVR.  And free! 

After our horribly hot and dry summer, Texas was really needing the rain.  We had some crazy storm clouds out in the distance from our backyard.  Daddy started doing a rain dance to get the rain to come, and here are the kids doing their version. 

We went back to the pumpkin patch again!  It was a bit muddier this time (thanks to the above-mentioned rain!) but the kids still enjoyed it.  This year they had a new set of cut-outs - Gabba!  This made both kids very excited.  I was also very excited to get their pictures taken at the same spot again so we could see how much they've grown.  That was so fun.

I celebrated my 33rd birthday.  Jon got me my favorite: an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins.  Though I told him I could do without that from now on - they are too expensive for the amount of ice cream you get and I'd rather just have a tub!  I got some cute pics with the kids and they really enjoyed the cake. 

Soon Halloween came and the kids (and Sarge) dressed in their costumes as a theme for the second year in a row.  I insist on doing this with them for as long as I can, ie: until they are old enough to protest.  Harper was a cute pink pirate and Jasper was her parrot!  Sarge was also a pirate - with a parrot in his hat!  Harper loved wearing the eye patch, which she did really great with.  She loved everything about her costume, especially saying "arrrrrgghhh! I'm looking for my treasure!"  Jasper also loved his costume, but I never could get him to make parrot sounds very well.  He walked around flapping his wings very happily.  We took them trick or treating to a few houses around the neighborhood, but the kids were tired and didn't last long.  We made our annual stop at our friend and neighbors Roger and Ann.  A few months prior they adopted a pot bellied pig.... and named him Jasper!!  So Jasper the boy finally got to meet Jasper the pig.  Neither one really knew what to make of the other, but I was very happy to get a picture of them together.