Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Potty Trained!!!!

You know, I have always had doubts about our ability to potty-train Matt. I knew all the "right" things to do, the "right" signs and everything; but couldn't shake the reoccurring thought of "how can I potty train Matt if I couldn't even potty train my dog?"
Doubts no more! Thanks to preschool, I can finally announce that Matt is potty trained! And it happened the instant he decided it was going to happen. Monday he went to preschool in a diaper and for the first time, kept it dry all day and went exclusively in the potty. We got him underwear and he went pee in the potty all the way until bedtime. He wore underwear all day tuesday, no accidents. And today, no accidents! He will go on a suggestion, but most importantly, he will get up and go whenever he wants to, without telling us/asking us! Yup. He just stops playing/eating, goes to the potty, wipes and flushes and comes back and resumes the activity.
I know he will have accidents, of course! And that's ok. But the most important thing is:

NO MORE DIAPERS!!!! EVER!!!!! (at least for Matt).

There's no looking back, no more going back to diapers. Yay!!!!

Monday, February 08, 2010

Preschool!

Today was Matt's first day of preschool! He absolutely LOVED it! He didn't even give Sean and I a backwards glance as he ran in. And he cried when it was time to leave. He was in a very good mood but didn't want to be photographed so the shots are not as "perfect" as they could be.

Here's him on the way. He was chattering nonstop about how much he wants to go to preschool and how happy he is.

Walking with speed toward the door...

"Come on, come on! Hurry hurry! We're here!"

Right before we left. As you can see he is just racked with separation anxiety.

His preschool!
When we went to pick him up they were still eating so we were able to get this candid shot of him through a viewing window. He didn't eat much of his casserole so I am guessing they put meat in it. It's ok, we gave him his normal honey and peanut butter sandwich at home.

Afterward he took a nap. It was later than his normal nap, but this will always be his normal naptime now. It went from 10:30-12:30ish to 12:30-2:30. We played with his dump truck outside

And had a lazy dinner. This is him striking a dinner pose:

They do potty training at the center, so tonight we officially started a more structured potty training regimen. We always ask if he'd like to go, but we did a few things to make it easier and with more sense of accomplishment for him. First off I removed the baby gate blocking the bathroom and got another Clevercat litter box so the dogs couldn't "go to the beach" as we call it. We are starting to use pull-ups, so now he can walk into the bathroom anytime he wants, undress himself and use the potty. We are also now using the ubiquitous potty chart.

He is extremely excited about the chart. Much more than I expected, actually. He went potty immediately after I put it up to get a gold star, then tried about 5 more times in a row and couldn't go. On the left are bad drawings of his prizes for every week. 1st week if he gets 5 stars a day he gets ice cream, the second is Starbucks, the third is chuck-e-cheeses, then a picnic and lastly the zoo!
So we will see how this all works out. I know in the end no matter what he will be a smart and potty-trained little boy, but the journey is still exciting. Look for a blog soon with all the cool pictures I found on my memory card of the trip to Idywilld with Joey, Matt and I!