toilet training continued...and Sunday Roast!

We have now been toilet training for a week and a half.

It has been going well (I think - I don’t have anything to compare it too however). There were only 3 accidents in the first week, which was fantastic!! This included going to church with no accidentsand putting him on the potty in creche ( I went out before the sermon and put him on, then went out again after the sermon and tried again). After 8 great days we had family christmas on this weekend gone (Saturday). There was so much excitement (and I may have forgotten to take Ob to the toilet!). He had two accidents that day, which was the most he’s had in a day so far. Yesterday was church and he had another accident in creche. Today we had summerfest in the morning and no accidents so far :)

It is also exciting that he’s been going on the big toilet! YAY! Because its hard to cart around a potty and I hate cleaning it out! He’s used the big toilet so far at grandmas, the park, the shopping centre, summerfest and church. Very exciting! He’s also been asking to use it at home. So much easier than a potty!!!

Some things that I would do differently next time:

- STAY diligent in taking him to the toilet (and not expect him to go 3hrs between wees especially after the first week!)
- just have grapes as rewards (I tried to do smarties this time but Ob kept asking me for grapes instead!)

Some things I would definitely do the same:

- the wet/dry questioning! He really understands what its all about! I’m amazed at how quickly he’s cottoned on to what is going on :) Potty training 1-2-3 method is GOLD!

On Sunday we had our first Sunday Roast (hoping to have this as a tradition). It went SO well. I had a 1kg lamb roast and covered it in oil and garlic. Popped it in a pan and covered it in foil and the lid of the roasting pan. I cooked it at 150 degrees from 9.30 till about 11.45 (while we were out for church) and then upped it to 180 till about 12:30. I cooked the veggies in the microwave when we got home at about 11.45 and then put them in the oven for about half an hour to roast. I was so pleased with how it all worked together :) We invited 4 people over (as guinea pigs for the first roast) and it was a lovely afternoon :) Looking forward to many more Sunday Roasts!

Big boy bed update

Just an update on big boy bed...

He did start to get out and play with toys (and he still does) - so we usually check on him 5-10 mins after lights out to see if he's in bed or not. If he's not we have the talk - did mummy tell you to stay in your bed? Yes. Did you get out of bed? Yes. You disobeyed mummy so you need a smack. You need to do what mummy says. I usually give him the smack then out him back in bed, tell him to stay in bed and that we love him give him a kiss and shut the door. 

Some nights we don't have to do this, some nights we do. On the whole it doesn't happen a lot anymore.

The big boy bed transition really was not a drama at all. 

Toilet training and big boy undies!

Well....it's Sunday and as of Thursday we've been toilet training! What an adventure :) so far it has been.....easy? Not what I was expecting to say!! But true. I followed the principles of "potty training 1-2-3" by Gary Ezzo (same guy that wrote babywise) and it's been fantastic. It focuses on the child being dry, rather than on going to the toilet. Which makes perfect sense as we adults don't aim to go to the toilet, but we do aim to have dry pants!! 

So far we have had one accident (yesterday during lunch) - but the rest of the time has been smooth sailing!! 

Although OB hadn't had cordial or chocolates before, we figured this was the time (because the book said so!). And boy did it work a treat! Getting a smarty for being "dry" was an insanely massive incentive for OB (imagine tasting chocolate for the first time - great incentive!!). We got a new drink bottle (which wasn't necessary) and he drank loads of liquids and had lots of ewes to do. Every 15 minutes on day 1 I asked him "are you dry?" And he checked, if he was dry he got a smartie and then sat on the potty to "stay dry". If he did a wee he got another smartie. If he was wet (which hasn't happened) then we would just change his undies and continue on - no harsh words). Day #2 I asked him the question about every half hour to every hour. It was great. Mainly because I wasn't dishing out smarties every 15 mins (which did make for a pretty hypo child). 

I did put a nappy on him for his 3hr day sleep - but yesterday when he woke up his nappy was dry! Yay! 

Today we are going to church, so....he woke up at 7.45 (he still goes to bed at 7pm!) and did a wee on the potty (he asked for a grape as a treat so I gave him 2!). The we. Had breaky and I asked him if he wa dry as we finished breaky. He said yes, got his treat and then sat on the potty and did a big wee. So exciting! Now I will give him lots to drink, so hopefully he does his ewes before church and I'll stop giving him drinks about an hour before church. So the plan is to take him to the potty (after asking the question) at 9am, at 9.30am and then I'll take him when we get to church at about 9.45am. Hopefully he can last through church then!! We will see! I might go with him to crèche. And I'll probably take the potty with us!

So all in all...it's been such a pleasant experience so far! Looking forward to what the next few weeks bring :)

An update on OB's current routine at 2yrs 1 month old.

Wakes up anytime from 7am - 8am (we do get the occasional sleep in till 8.30!)

Quite a routine morning: breakfast, chores (he vacuums and can dust and sweep), calendar time (which is our learning time/focus time - we follow a program from www.abcjesuslovesme.com which covers manners, shapes, colours, letters, songs and the bible).

Then he has a 1hr room time by himself (which he absolutely loves - grew out of playpen time, which I would highly recommend doing from day dot). 

Then he will have upto an hour outside by himself playing  with the dog and his tractors and toys.

At 11am We have book time - he sits at the kitchen table or on the lounge and reads a few books I've selected (this time is tailored to him sitting when mummy says and reading what mummy says to aid in him sitting still in church on a Sunday).

11.30 is lunch time and then in bed by 12 for his day nap. I'm thinking of extending this a bit and putting him down at 12.30 but haven't done it yet.

Then he's up at 3. We have some outside time and just general free time. At 5pm it's quiet time - books, puzzles, whatever. Then a bath at about 5.30. If there's time between dinner and bath he can watch approx 20 mins of DVDs (tractor tom or playschool or spot). 

Dinner is at 6pm.

A about 6.30 it's into his bedroom. We read one book together. Then it's lights out - but we've started doing 10 mins of quiet bible reading by himself or lights out (he always chooses bible). Then lights out and one of us lays with him for 10 mins just chatting about his day. These suggestions were from a brilliant book called "Creative family times" by Hadidian and Wilson (another great toddler resources is "what every child should know along the way" by Gail Martin).

Then by 7pm it's door shut and he's down for the night.

A well as being in his big bed, he now has no safety rail, which is sad because he's growing up way too fast!!

I think that's all the updates for now. Xx

Big boy bed!

Our little man will be 2 in December and today he slept his day nap and has gone to bed for the night in his "big boy bed". We have been thinking about this transition for a while and I was really nervous that it would be delay difficult.

But, this morning I made up his big bed and thought, why not? So at lunch I told him he could sleep in his "big boy bed" and made a bit of excitement about it. After lunch I took him in as per normal, and just sat him in his big bed, read him a story, told him he had to stay in bed, and left the room. 

I was nervous:

- that he would get out of bed and play - which is what I would do if I was him, but I'm honestly not sure if he knows he can get out! He hasn't even tried.

- that he would know that the door was open (because I usually put him in the cot and shut the door - makes it darker in there. But for big bed I left it open - mainly so I could see what he was doing. 

I peeped through the crack in the door and watched him. It was so hilarious. He roamed up and down the bed (we have one of those plastic bed rails that goes 3/4 the length) and tried to touch everything in reach - the walls, a PowerPoint, the change table and a window. Because I was peeping through the crack I could sternly say "no" everytime he touched something he shouldn't. He stopped touching them after a warning (we've been upping the anti with obedience lately and it's paying off - but that's for another post!). 

I was so excited that he fell asleep after about 15 mins at lunch and the same tonight. I'm worried he will wake in the night and not know where he is, but I'm sure I'll only half sleep tonight so I'm bound to hear him.

Anyway, if this is it and he's big bed transitioned I'll be amazed! It was so easy! I had so many people tell me it was easy and if this is it: it is! Will know by tomorrow though, the novelty might wear off. Not taking the cot down just yet because I'm nervous (although maybe tomorrow I'll get hubby to take it down because we need to be all in - and need OB to know that it's big bed time all the time.

Oh one other thing we did - I put the safety gate in his room so that if he wakes earlier than us in the morning he can't roam the house and get into danger, he's confined to his room (where it's reasonably safe!). 

So that's it for now! Xx

What have we been upto? Its been a while since I wrote a post so its time for an update.

Last week we went to Broken Hill. That is a 10 hour drive from our place. Quite significant with an 18 month old. We split up the trip - 4 hrs to Nyngan - stayed the night - then another 6 hours to BH.

I am one of those parents who doesn't let their child watch TV and would NEVER let their child watch a dvd player whilst in the car....oh how that has changed! A dvd player is basically an essential for a 10 hour trip (well...for a 4 hr trip or a 6 hr trip). I dug through our dvd's - and found two child friendly ones (a blinky bill one that I won in some competition and a Colin Buchannan one that I got from playgroup last year). I put them both on the ipad and thought I wouldn't need them but had them just incase. I am SO glad that I had them!!!

They were fantastic for after about 3 hours when OB was sick of looking out the window, we had finished the snacks, thrown the drink bottle on the floor, thrown all the toys away, pulled his shoes and socks off and was just full on red faced screaming. I attached the ipad to the back of the seat, put on blinky and bam...silence! He just stared at that screen for about half an hour! WOW. What a difference it made! It was great. I only ended up putting one of the 4 episodes of blinky on (im technologically challenged) so it went for 30 mins but that was enough time to calm him down into a relaxed state and he seemed to be fine when it finished.

We stayed with Joshs uncle, which was fabulous. OB slept each night 7-6.30am. Usually he sleeps till 7am but I think it was a tad colder in his room...not that i'm complaining - its still a great sleep! He did get a bit out of routine being away and being spoilt rotten.

We have been home for 3 days now and he is SLOWLY getting back to normal. We have had a few tantrums since getting back - mainly due to food. Because we were on holidays we just couldn't be bothered to be good parents and just let him eat whatever (and by that I mean muslei bars, babycinos, muffins and a few biscuits). And I think the main downfall was letting him eat WHENEVER. Usually he only eats breakfast, lunch and dinner so having snacks and eating whenever made him quite demanding for food and not so keen to eat his main meals (because he was full from snacks). So we are getting back to normal. It was really hard to stretch him out today when he was pointing to his char (obviously hungry) at 5.30 and we dont have dinner till 6. Luckily hubby distracted him and we were able to drag it out and he ate all his dinner (lots of veggies yay).

Well thats where we are at the moment. OB gets his 18 month needles tomorrow. Hopefully they won't affect him (none of the others did).

All in all - holidays are great. Having OB sleep all night and behave in the car (there were about 2 outbursts over the 20hrs of driving) made a big difference, I can't imagine how exhausting it would be if that wasn't the case.

OB at 17 ish months

OB is 17.5 months old and routine is pretty awesome. Lots of time to get things done (during his room time, outside time and 3hr sleep).

I have attached the routine that lives on the fridge.

I have also made up a chart so that we can focus on one area of his character training per week - as it was getting overwhelming trying to cover everything everyday!

OB learnt to ride a skateboard this week which was pretty exciting! We also got him a scooter that clips on to the pram so he can practice his skating as we stroll around town (it conveniently folds up when not in use and doesn't affect the use of the pram).

Day sleeps are going really well. He often wakes with a dirty nappy half way, so we just change him and then put him back down. I leave him in his cot until 3 - even if he's chatting away to himself.

We have finally weaned him off his sleep music! We decided not to play it anymore and he just went straight to sleep without it. It's sad he's getting so big but exciting how he has learnt to just lie down and go to sleep. He now lies down as soon as I put him in the cot and snuggles in. It's exciting because he is getting ready for a big bed. He now has his night time and lunch time milk at the table after his meal. This saves having it later (or in the bedroom).

He has somehow learnt the word "no" which is going to be a challenge. However as we don't say "no", we say "not for you" it doesn't come up overly frequently yet.

Will do a post on daycare soon :)

Holidays :)

We have just had a week away over Easter to my brothers place in Canberra and then last night at the bro/sis in laws place. OB can settle in other beds :) finally. Yay!!

In Canberra he slept in the porta cot - in a separate room to us - and had his exact routine as at home. And straight to sleep :) one night hubby & I went to a wedding and OB was put to bed by my wonderful sis in law and he went straight down. So proud of him :) and then last night he was in his cousins cot and had about 5 mins of crying and then was asleep.

I now feel confident to go on holidays and be able to sleep :) yay!! Being on more holidays!!!!

Oh and he travelled so well. It took us 9 hours to get to Canberra. OB slept his nap in the car. Then had awake time. Then dinner and into pyjamas (and to sleep with the seat backwards). It was awesome. Once he went to bed at 7 we could drive till we arrived.

On the way home he was great too. He got a little bit fidgety about 3 hrs from home (but we forgot he didn't have much lunch) - so we have him some food and he was great the rest of the way! Such a fun toddler age!!

Dropping one day sleep

Yesterday OB went from two day sleeps to one. His routine now looks like this:

7.30am wake up

11.30am lunch

Nap

3.30pm Arvo tea (if he's a bit fussy. If not i won't give it to him). It's often a "slinky apple". He loves them!!!

6.00pm dinner, bath

7.00pm bed

Daylight savings ends next week so we will see how that goes....

Weaning

I spent a whole Thursday deciding how I would gradually wean my 14.5month old off breastfeeds...I even made a plan - I wrote it on paper. I was set - to start in a few weeks, when I was emotionally ready. That night I went to feed OB as usual, nope, he didn't want it. He just wanted to smile at me and touch my face. After trying for 5 minutes I asked my husband to get a sippy cup of milk, which OB also declined. So I red him his usual story and put him down. Straight to sleep. I sat on the verandah hoping he would need me to go in and feed him. He didn't. I was devastated. But at least I still had the morning feed, right? Wrong! He slept from 7pm until 6.30am as he usually does and when I went to give him a feed he just wanted to be up, he walked to his high chair and wanted to sit in it. He knew exactly what he did (and didn't) want. He hasn't had a feed since. His nighttime routine now looks like this:

6pm dinner. Bath. Sippy cup of milk in kitchen. Say goodnight to leppy (stuffed toy). Story. Cuddle. Lights out. Prayer. Place him in bed. Put his music on and walk out the door. We rarely hear a peep out of him.

I assume that means he was ready to wean.

Our day routine for 13 - 15 months looks like this:

6.30 - 7 am wake up (if he's not up by 7 I wake him)
7am breakfast as a family

10am - nap #1

12 - lunch

3pm - nap #2

6pm dinner, bath etc

7pm bed

This age is just amazing :) he can obey instruction such as "OB can you bring your shoes to mummy" and "please stand at your chair for breakfast". It's amazing to see him develop these skills. He will sit for "book time" in his high chair for upto 45 minutes after lunch (which is amazing considering he couldn't do 5 minutes when we first started at 10 ish months.