A Prediction

We are currently in Omaha for my sister's graduation from med school. knowing how owen does things that are supposed to be done under certain conditions (like the transition to his big boy bed for example), i predict that this is the week that he is going to decided once and for all to potty train. yesterday, he went at my mom's, at a rest stop, and at aunt michele's. this morning, he woke up bone dry and went right away. i think the key is to not have someone hovering over him. i've learned to set him on a public potty, and leave the stall, but stay right outside of the door. i set him on the potty yesterday morning (at my mom's) and left the bathroom - he went right away. same thing this morning.

owen is such a wonderful traveler. he has had two really long days in a row and has faired beautifully. all i have to say is thank goodness for portable dvd players. we even have done this trip without a stroller. we figure, if we need one at the zoo later this week, we'll rent one there. of course, i've learned to be really careful when crossing a wet crosswalk in my crocs. i have a lovely bruise on my right knee from a fall i took on monday - with owen on my back. we are both fine, and i'm really glad noone hit us as we were at the airport on the shuttle drop-off.

i wonder how my kids are doing at school...

overhaulin'

that was the theme in my room this week. the AP at my school approached me mid-week about the clutter and offered to help me get organized. i said, "sure!" and she came in on thursday morning after choir. we started getting shelves unloaded (not all, just some) and organized as we cleaned. that's my cleaning/organizing method of choice - make a bigger, central mess and organize as that huge pile gets cleaned up. then, the principal came in to help also. she started a list on my board of things to get that will help with the organization and make it look more like a montessori music classroom. i like that idea! i'm very grateful for the help i got this week. i really wouldn't have had the first idea where to start. i'll post pictures when it's all done.

owen is very much a two-year old. he's currently whining because daddy left to go mow the lawn at the tree lot. in a couple of hours, o and i will be meeting some friends at the waterfront to go walk. faye and i are being eachother's buddy for losing our baby weight. yes, i am still carrying mine. i'm not happy about it, either.

pt is still going. no major success right now. he's really in charge of this. one of the funny thigns from this past week was at bed time earlier in the week. i told him, "owen, go potty!" he looked at me and said, "no!" . I said, "excuse me?" to which he replied, "time out?" i agreed that that was a good idea so to time out we went. he sat nicely, for the most part, in the chair. when the timer went off, i let him know that he was in time out for backtalking mommy.

right now, the whining has stopped and o has on his captain's hat (wiggles) and has a drumstick and is pretending to be captain feathersword. it's really cute to see him pretending. what a big boy!!!

hard to read

anyone else have the issue where your 2-year-old doesn't know hwat they want? owen wants his sunglasses right now but when i hand them to him, he pushed them away. when i take them away (like i think he wants), he starts crying and reachign for them. it's really frustrating.

part of our problem might be the fact that our household lost 4 hours of sleep on thursday night. owen woke up around 12:30 and didn't get back to sleep until close to 4:30. i think he's still recovering, though the 11 hours of sleep he got last night certainly couldn't have done any harm.

i found a cool site thanks to some teachers at my school. i even found family there! it's a site from ellis island. if you have family who came over and went through ellis island you can see their entrance information, the manifest and a picture of the ship they came on. it was very neat to see my great-grandparents on there. however, there are some mis-transcriptions so it's not 100% accurate. for example, my grandmother's maiden name started with a D. they had her father listed as starting with a B, but the rest of the family was correct.

hilarity

owen just tried to get himself dressed after a potty attempt. pull-up went on upside down and with both of his legs through one leg hole, so it was basically just around his waist with the bottom being open to the elements. then came the pajama bottoms. they were inside out and both legs again went into the same leg of his pants. it was hilarious to watch him. i was laughing so hard. so much for not encouraging him... i couldn't help myself.

tall tower

o just brought some wooden blocks out of his room. they aren't the cubes with the letters, either. they're long rectangular blocks and he is stacking them on end. he's doing a great job, they are stacked almost perfectly. he also brought out some cylindrical blocks and was trying to put them on the tower, sideways. they did's stay too well... he was very proud of himself for building the tower.

timing

i think that's about it. he needs to figure out when exactly he needs to get into the bathroom and onto the potty. tonight he went into the bathroom and was getting ready to sit down, but his pull-up was already good and wet. i'm guessing it happened right as he was getting in there. i'm so ready for him to be done with the p-t.

oh, and i learned that pull-ups are waterproof from the outside. owen was playing with the new one in the sink and it is still good. just needs to dry on the outside.

Counting Down

let the countdown begin. there are 45 days left of school. i only have 39. but who's counting, right?

"Pee Potty?"

he has said this twice in the last 10 minutes. both times, he's gone right into the bathroom with his pants down around his ankles. no success yet, but i think it's going to happen soon. i do think he's pretty much gotten the idea of what needs to happen when he feels the urge. now, if he could only act on it.

last night was a kid-less night for mommy and daddy. we had tickets to go see cabaret up in seattle. we had dinner in downtown seattle prior to the show. while we were waiting outside for our table, a huge police motorcade came down the street. and by huge, i mean an entire block was nothing but police motorcycles. then, a smaller motorcade with secret service men looking out the windows for people shooting with something other than a camera or cell phone. at the back was a van with some tibeten monks in it (from what i could tell through the darkened windows), including the Dalai Lama, who is in town this weekend for the Seeds of Compassion tour. i got a picture of the front of the motorcade. very cool. somethign to sort of cross off of my bucket list.

as i was typing the last bit, owen said, "pee potty" again, but this time with a sad voice. he had gone in his underwear. i comforted him and told him it was ok and praised him for knowing when he had to go and telling me when he had to go. then i told him he just needs to sit long enough to go and we'll be all potty trained and be a real big boy!

trying something

so owen is generally able to stay dry at daycare, with the exception of nap time. i'm putting him in real underwear at home in the evenings and taking him potty at least once an hour. today is the first day doing this. we'll see how it works. i think we're really close to be being potty trained. if we can get through most of the weekend with him in underwear and dry/clean, i may try sending him to daycare next week in underwear and ask them just to put him in pull-ups at nap time.

7:00 p.m. so far, o has done beautifully. ten minutes ago, i told him to go potty. he went into the bathroom, did the whole bit, minus actually going potty, and came back out. he is capable of getting his pants/underwear (or pull-ups) up and down, manipulating the potty, etc. on his own. that's one more big step toward being fully potty trained.

Spring Break

it's almost over, but it's been great. last weekend my mom was here. we had a good time. i tried on bridesmaid dresses for my sister's wedding in september. when i told jeff that i am going to be my sister's matron of honor, he said, "aren't you a little young to be a matron?" i had to explain that matron vs. maid had nothing to do with age and everything to do with marital status. so cute!

monday was spent getting my Box ready to go out the door for national boards. (check out my other blog here to read about that process.) tuesday was spent relaxing, wednesday held two appointments for me, thursday was another appointment and the zoo with friends. it was a gorgeous day. perfect zoo-going weather. on our way out of the zoo, my friend rob called to tell me that his wife, one of my best friends, had their baby that afternoon. carlie was five days late, but she is beautiful. see pictures at this link. peter, carlie's big brother, is good buddies with owen. he'll probably be coming over on wednesday mornings for a couple of hours this summer while mommy and baby sister go to mommy group at the hospital. owen and i went to see carlie and katie yesterday after his one-year check-up for his ear tubes - left one is no longer functioning, right one still is, but is well on its way out. both are still in, though the left one is really tipped, which is completely normal. we go back in in october for one more follow-up. things are looking good in that arena at this point. owen made his mommy so proud yesterday. one of the receptionists gave him a sticker as i was filling out a card to remind me to call in 6 months. immediately, and without prompting, he said, "thanks!" as he took the sticker from her. yay!!!!! i have a polite little boy! he was so good about using his manners yesterday.

once we got back from the hospital and seeing katie, rob, peter and carlie, our family went to seattle for the day. owen did beautifully, as usual. he fell asleep in the car on the way home, so we took the lo-o-o-ong way home. turned a 25 minute drive into close to 90 minutes. he got a good nap so it was worth it.

today we are having breakfast with a friend of mine from college. i haven't seen her since i was first pregnant with jacob. that makes it close to four years ago. wow. we'll get out the door in a little over an hour. o's still sleeping, which is fine. he had noodles with pasta sauce last night for dinner. first time for plain noodles with sauce at home. :-) slowly but surely we are getting past those food issues. at least we have a standard fare we can get him at restaurants.

yesterday, owen sang through the entire "monkey dance" song - and he did it perfectly! he is also very good at singing his abc's. i tried to get the monkey dance on video, but he was done and distracted by the time i got the video camera plugged in. oh, and his new favorite word is "ok". yesterday afternoon it was, "monkey? ok!" and he'd sing. ("monkey dance" is from the wiggles. gotta love those guys!)