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!

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.

Food philosophy

Food is probably my most divided issue. Eating is something I love. But my heart and my head are divided. My heart says to follow these principles...

*do eat fresh (fruit, veg, meat)
*drink water and tea (and coffee for hubby)
*limit milk (it's for little cows, not little humans)

*dont eat processed

And thats it. It really is that simple.

But my head (more my stomach than my head) says - look its easy, it's convenient, then do it.

This morning OB and I had dates and rockmelon for morning tea (with a cup of tea for me and a sippy cup of water for OB).