Stunning Summer!

It's time for the weekly recap!

Puzzles continue to be an almost daily activity.  He zips through them pretty quickly now.  Time to either mix them up a bit so that he isn't doing the same ones all the time (tricky since he likes these so much) or get him some more difficult ones. 

This week he wanted to play wiht his LEGOs again.  He hasn't used them in a while. One night he built a fence and then got the horses from his Little People farm sets to put behind the fence.  Cute! 

Silly glasses from school got played with.  Given how cheap they are and the fact that the lens from one is popped out, maybe it's time they got relocated to the circular file, but Bennett doesn't seem to mind.

For a while now I've been thinking about getting Bennett a child-sized carrier so that he can wear his dolls.  I wasn't sure he would be into it.  But then one night we wrapped George on his back with a towel while Bennett was on his way to bed after his bath.  Ever since then, Bennett wants George on his back after bath.  So maybe he would like a carrier after all.

I went ahead and got one for him and when it arrived he happily tried it on.  But then after a couple of minutes he wanted it taken off.  Apparently, in his mind, the Boba (this is the brand) is only for use at Sturbridge.  I guess this kind of makes sense since that's pretty much the only time that I wear him in my Boba.

So on Saturday when we went to Sturbridge we brought the Boba Mini and George along.  He was very happy to wear George!  He took George off for potty breaks and at lunch but then happily put him back on again.  Now we just need him to use the Boba at other times and maybe it will really have been worth the expense.

Speaking of Sturbridge, here's our traditional photo in the cut-out.

Doc and Blue, the two oxen shown below, were out and about when we arrived.  Bennett was very excited to see them and showed off his knowledge of which one was which.  We were told that they needed a bit more cart training, so they had the lovely task of hauling some manure. 

For months we never went in Cooper shop. Then a couple of months ago we went in and now Bennett always wants to go in and try out the draw knife.

Betsy had a calf her day before, right after closing time.  She was keeping her distance from everyone.

As we were leaving I put Bennett up on my shoulders.  The only thing that could make it even cuter would be if George was on his shoulders rather than his back.

We forgot to take this picture on Saturday so we were a day late.  (Which is better than I've done in some previous months.)  Bennett is now 33 months old.  I like that he has the Curious George book in his lap.  Very fitting of his life right now.  Thought about switching Paddington for CG but decided to stick with the traditional stuffed animal.  And since Bennett is such a creature of habit, he may not have even allowed me to make the change.

On Sunday morning we went to visit Mimi.  Before we left I was cleaning up the front hall and came across a picture of a giraffe that Bennett had colored.  I suggested that he bring it to Mimi since she likes giraffes.  He was cool with that and then he ran off to get a library book of his (Cecily G and the 9 Monkeys) since it was about a giraffe.

After our visit we came home for lunch and nap and then headed off to Auntie Mel's house.  The boys played outside for a bit and then we headed off for the pool.


I think I have this less than awesome expression on my face because I was getting splashed.  The downside of Bennett still being pretty young is that I had to get into the water more quickly than I wanted.  But he was rushing in, so I had to keep up with him.

 

He had a blast jumping off the side of the pool!  Sometimes I held onto him and sometimes we just let him jump on his own.  He kept jumping over and over again. 

After the pool we went back inside, got changed, played outside a bit longer, ate dinner, and then headed home for a late bedtime.  It was a great summer day!

Night time potty training

Day training is going well.  For the most part we are accident free, but some days/evenings are worse than others.  I think social gatherings might be a problem, but for the most part we're pretty good.  I did want to give a synopsis of how night training went for us.

We started night time potty training at the end of April, which was about a month after we started day training.  After about 2.5 weeks of night training I was feeling as if things were a disaster and wrote this post in response to someone else on a forum who was having trouble with training.:

• He'll pee before his bath around 7:45/8:00. Sometimes he'll pee again while sitting on his potty hearing his bedtime story.
• Then after being put to bed, about 10 minutes later he's calling again for the potty. He's one of those kids who stays in bed due to the "magic forcefield" and won't get out on his own. Sometimes he calls 3-4 times, but usually only pees one of those times. Not sure if it's a stall tactic or what.
• 10:30/11:00 ish- whenever we go to bed we put him on the potty. Usually dry when we go in and he will pee on the potty.
• 1:00, although recently we started pushing this time a little later. To begin with he was often wet when we went in to him, but lately he has been dry. If not wet, he will pee on the potty.
• 3:30-4:30 - We've played with the timing on this one a bit, trying to get to him before he wets the bed. This is probably the trickiest for us. Lately he's been dry a bit more, but I would say in the 2+ weeks we've been doing this, it's been about half wet, half dry. Again, if he's dry he'll pee on the potty, but not if he's already wet.
• Wake up between 6:30 and 7:00. I'd say this is also a 50-50 split of wet and dry. Depends if we wake him up versus him waking up on his own.

It's exhausting and frustrating and I wish there was a magic wand to wave to either keep him dry or convince him to wake up and pee on his own. He can hold his pee 2.5-3.5 hours during the day but won't do it overnight. Like you, our son is in daycare so we really don't know how much he drinks there. He doesn't drink a lot at home in the evenings. We are lucky that when he wakes up overnight he goes right back to sleep. I'm also lucky because my DH and I alternate going in to him overnight so it's not one person doing all the work.

 

As much as I want this to be figured out quickly, I don't think it's an easy process. Jamie says in her book, "I usually stress that night training comes 2-6 weeks after day training." So I keep reminding myself that this could take a while, which helps with not feeling too discouraged about the lack of "success". And for us, day training went pretty quickly and easily, so it's hard not to expect night training to also go well. But it is harder since he's not awake and thus not aware of what his body is doing.

3 days later, I wrote this post:

So just when I thought things had gotten just about as bad as I could handle, we saw some improvement!

For the past 3-4 nights now my son has stayed dry! We're still going in and waking him up multiple times a night, but we haven't had to wash sheets, which is fabulous!

1 night I slept through an alarm and he woke up about an hour later needing to pee. But the sheets were dry! Woo hoo! On another night when DH put DS on the potty he didn't pee, but then woke up an hour or so later having to go.

I think we might be ready to lengthen times between wake ups or try not setting alarms and just let DS wake up when he needs to pee.

Huge news on 5/21 (about a month after starting):  Last night he slept through the night (well, we put him on the potty around 10:30) and he was dry when we got him up at 6:30 in the morning!!!  Woo hoo for staying dry for 8 hours!!!!

About a month after starting night training Chris and I went away for the weekend.  We weren't sure what would happen when we were away or when we got back.  Apparently while we were away he woke frequently during the night (5-6 times?!) and would pee each time.  So when we got back we decided to not set any alarms.

Ugh!  We had wet sheets multiple times that night.  The next night, when I went in to check on Bennett before going to bed, he was covered in poop.  Yuck!  And it had been there a while, so Chris had to give him a bath (at 10:30 while he was half asleep) while I cleaned up the bedding.  Luckily he fell right back to sleep. 

Since then we've been setting alarms again, but weaning off the frequency.  And on 6/2 he slept through the night from 10:30-6:15.  And proving that he's awesome about going back to sleep, when Chris put him on the potty at 6:15, he told Bennett it was still sleepy time and we got another 30 minutes so that we could get ready before we had to wake him up- at which point he said, "Go away Daddy!"

As of today, June 18th, we've had about a week or so now of dry sheets!  We still wake Bennett and put him on the potty before we go to bed but we aren't setting overnight alarms anymore.  Some nights Bennett wakes up in the middle of the night needing the potty but other nights he sleeps all night.  If I had to guess, I'd say it's a 50/50 mix.  And I've stopped keeping a nighttime pee journal, so I guess that means things are going well.  We've also re-introduced PJ bottoms (we took them away after the first couple of nights) and things seem to be going well.  Can I officially say that we're done with night training?

Happy Father's Day

This week was pretty light on the photos until the weekend.  I kept thinking that I should pick my camera up but I just never got to it.

On Friday we went to a Father's Day cookout at Bennett's school.  It was an interesting dynamic of who talked to who, who left first, who stayed longest, etc.  Pretty much the infant families hung out together and left first.  Then the younger toddlers left, and then the older kids left.  We were there until the end (and pretty late!) just hanging out chatting and playing games/puzzles with one of the other families and with the teachers.  One of the teachers brought her teenage daughter who Bennett absolutely adores!  This was great for us because Emily got to try to corrall him to eat and then help him with the potty.  Good thing she was willing to help out!

The cookout is potluck with the school providing the burgers/hot dogs but then each family signing up to bring a side or a dessert.  Last year I baked these  cupcakes.  Apparently in the days leading up to the cookout various people were asking the director if I would be making them again.  Luckily she realized that they were a TON of work and that I likely wouldn't be making them again.  Instead I made cupcakes in ice cream cones.  I thought that they would be cute, but they didn't quite live up to last year.

Bennett helped make them the night before, and Friday morning he woke up asking to eat a cupcake.  We told him that they were for the party.  All day long he kept asking.  When we arrived at school that evening we had to put the cupcakes in the director's office so that Bennett (and the other kids) wouldn't eat them first.  He still tried running in there to get one though.

It was cute watching the kids eat them.  Many of them tried to lick them like an ice cream cone.  I guess it makes sense though since kids often only eat the frosting from a cupcake anyway.



A dad helping G eat her cone.  And then playfully shoving it in her face.  :)



I have no idea what this really is, but Bennett thought it was sunglasses.  Reminds me of Geordi LaForge from Star Trek: The Next Generation.



At least he was safe and put a helmet on, but now he just needs to look where he's going.

 On Saturday we went to Day out with Thomas at Edaville.  Last year we didn't go on many rides but this year we had a bit more time.  Bennett wasn't so sure about the carousel at first, but once it got going he loved it.  Of course it doesn't hurt that he likes horsies.

This video isn't sideways like the thumbnail would have you believe.

As we were walking past the hill with the gazebo Bennett surprised us by rememberding that it was where Sit Topham Hatt was when we visited 9 months ago.  Who knew it made such an impression!

I like his hands on the side holding on.  :)

As we came out of the gift shop we saw Sir Topham Hatt so we got into the line for a photo.  We weren't sure how he was going to do, but he did great.  Much better than last year where he ran away from Sir. Topham.



Maybe it's jus tme, but I think this Sir Topham Hatt looks a little creepier than the one last fall.




After taking the photo we got in line for food.  It was so slow!  Rather than make Bennett wait I stayed in line while he and Chris went on a couple of rides.  They rode the airplane and also went in a rocket.  Bennett couldn't figure out the control lever to raise the plane up, so he stayed down low.  Much easier to take photos though.  :)

After lunch we checked out a train engine that the kids could climb into and went on more rides.

The girl in the plane with Bennett must have younger siblings because she did really well with Bennett adn tolerated him wiggling the flying lever  back and forth.  And then after the ride she even undid his seat belt for him.

Soon it was time for us to go on our train ride.  The ride was fairly uneventful.  Last fall the coach had been empty except for us, but this time it was full.  After the ride we quickly got in the line for photos with Thomas.

Then we went on a couple more rides before heading home.  Bennett got a VERY late nap in the car and when we got home Daddy mowed lawn while Bennett played outside and helped water garden.  He also discovered that jumping in puddles is fun.

On Sunday we had a fairly un-exciting Father's Day.  We had a bunch of errands to run.  First stop was Brandeis for a little while.  Bennett decided that "Daddy make mess" so he grabbed a broom and did some sweeping.  What's funny though is that the shop was probably the cleanest that Bennett has ever seen it.  He also took some scraps of wood and threw them away.  When those were all gone he requested "Daddy cut wood".

We then had a couple more stops, another extremely short car nap and got home shortly before dinner.


We need to teach a corn eating method.  Lots of corn left on the cob when he was "all done".



After dinner we went for a walk.  I think the horrid nap was catching up to him because he was not in the mood to walk and kept asking to be picked up.  It was like pulling teeth to get him to walk.  If only Fiona had been there to take his hand and pull him along.

Walk Day and Graduation Day- warning, picture heavy!

A huge thank you to everyone who supported us as we raised money for Boston Children's Hospital!  (Official Thank Yous will be sent out in the next week or so.)  The walk was on Sunday and the weather was perfect.  We got there early so that we could try out the games, face painting, etc. and then headed out before the crowds.

The "official" team photo in front of the Hatch Shell.



I added our team name to the back of the shirts. 
Cutting out the stencils was a bit tedious, but freezer paper stenciling is pretty easy.



Bennett liked playing in the bubbles.

Getting his face painted for the first time.  He wasn't so sure what to make of it.



Hmm, would Bennett be a tortoise or a hare?



Bennett and Fiona pre-walk.




And we're off!



Perhaps the cutest moment of the day was when Fiona took Bennett's hand as we started off and then held his hand for the entire walk!   He asked a couple of times to be picked up, but we suggested that he take Fiona's hand instead and he kept on going!



Bennett and Fiona are just 2 of those 500,000 patients!


Another way they raise a little more money is by selling these "honor flags".  They are pretty inexpensive (only $20 each) so I'm surprised that more people don't buy them.  Alicia thought in the future there should be an "add-on" option on the donation pages so that donors might be able to more easily purchase them.

With our flags.

After the walk we went to the playground that was next to the start/finish line.  There was a climbing structure with a nice big slide.  This is not an easy climbing structure!  It got even worse at the top where you had to maneuver between two small platforms that had widely spaced netting between them.  Bennett kept wanting to go up again but Daddy couldn't handle it anymore.  I think twice was two times too many for his liking.

Instead the kids tried out this spinning disk.  Bennett seems to love all of these "thrill" type activities.  Can't wait to go to an amusement park with him!



Hugs as we said goodbye.

 Now let's review what happened the rest of the week.

I have a helper in the garden.  He also tried watering it one day recently by taking a microfiber towel, dipping it into his pool, and then dripping/squeezing the water out over the plants.  Not a very effective method, but it kept him happy.

He's also been very interested in puzzles.  Of course his favorites are a set of four Curious George puzzles that we have, but those are only 12 pieces each so they aren't very challenging.  We also have a few 24 piece puzzles that he enjoys.

I'm not sure how it happened, because I certainly didn't get any older, but Hanna somehow turned from the three-year-old that I first met into a high school graduate!



During the processional.  I wonder if they are smiling because someone else was taking their picture.  I was so far away they would have had no idea that I had a camera aimed at them.  (Yay zoom lenses!)

 And speaking of growing up, when did this happen?  He looks so much older to me in this picture.  (Taken during a mini run-around break during the ceremony.

A note to all people who will be on stage at a graduation, especially those who will be handing out diplomas or shaking hands with the graduates and thus having your picture taken:  Please be aware of the school colors and don't dress in conflicting colors.  The school colors were maroon and white.  The person handing out diplomas was wearing an orangey-coral.  It looked horrid next to the maroon robes!  (It doesn't look quite as bad to me in this picture, but in real life it was horrible!  Even Chris agreed.

Of course the wind picked up just as Hanna had to cross the stage, so she was fighting with her cap and her hair the whole time.

Throwing caps.  It looks really cool, but it must be a pain to try to find your cap again.  I asked Hanna how hard it was to find her cap and she said she only did a mock throw.  Smart girl!

In typical teenage fashion, after the ceremony locating the boyfriend was more importand than locating the family.  :)



With the proud parents.

The whole family.  Ooops, Uncle Kevin is stuck behind Hanna's cap.

Bennett walked back to the house with Grandpa. (Until Bennett had to take a potty break in some bushes.)

There's a tradition in town for families to hang a banner to acknowlege their graduate.

Let's not rush things too much, but here's my "graduate".

Hope you enjoyed seeing our week!