Our Eventful Week

This was a week of milestones.

Milestone #1
I am very happy to announce that after 2 and a half months of accidents and frustrations, Diego is now fully potty trained! (Except for at night. That'll take awhile.) After weeks and weeks of constantly asking him, "Are you dry? Do you need to go potty?" he finally decided to tell me on his own. It started with him wanting to go by himself, "No Mommy, I go by self!" And then, all of a sudden, he was telling me every single time and his pull up was always dry. (Yes, I wussed out and used pull ups instead of underwear for awhile.) Last Wednesday, we were in the car for over an hour, stuck in traffic during a downpour, and for the last half hour, he kept telling me, "I need to go potty!" I told him we couldn't stop, and to just go in his pull up. When we arrived at our destination half an hour later, he was still dry and went on the potty. I couldn't believe it. Yesterday, we spent the day at Sea World, and again, dry dry dry. I was totally shocked. He's been dry all week. It finally clicked!

But....there is still one more test. Grandma's house. Tomorrow will be the final test. At home, at my house, at the store, at a restaurant, even at Sea World, he tells me. But at my mother-in-law's house, he's always too busy playing with his cousins. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

Milestone #2
Marcelito is walking!!!! He started walking on Wednesday, July 16th. That morning, he walked two steps, maybe three. My parents saw him and said he'd probably walk in two more weeks, just in time for his birthday. Well, after he woke up from his nap that afternoon, two steps turned into twenty. I got it on video but I can't find the plug for the computer to upload it. Diego thinks it's hilarious. "Maceito's walking!" (He calls him Mah-say-ee-toh) It's been very different from Diego, though. Diego walked when he was 11 months and 4 days old. The day he started walking, he just kept going and never stopped. He would crawl a little here and there, but for the most part he just wanted to walk. Celo on the other hand, walked a ton the first day, then for the next two days, he walked less, like maybe 6 or 7 steps at a time. And then today he was back to 10 steps at a time, but he still prefers to crawl. Maybe the difference is that Diego never really learned how to crawl right, lol. He did kind of a one-legged crawl, whereas Marcelito is a little speed-crawler. Anyway, I think it'll still be a few weeks before Celo decides to walk more, but for now it's just exciting to see his wobbly little body taking steps, with his chubby little arms straight up in the air for balance. So cute!

I have tons more to write about our eventful week and lots of pictures to post, but I'm just too tired right now. So for tonight, just one more story before I forget it.

On the car ride home tonight, I was chatting with Diego, telling him that the sun had gone to bed. This was our conversation.


Me: What comes out at night when the sun goes to bed?

Diego: I don't know.

Me: The moon comes out!

Diego: Oh.

Me: What else comes out with the moon?

Diego: I don't know.

Me: Stars!

Diego: Oh. (Long pause.) OH! I get it!!


The way he said "I get it" was so cute. Marcelo and couldn't help ourselves and started cracking up. Oh, he also learned how to play hide and seek tonight, thanks to his cousin's Ani and Isabella. He loved it.

Okay, goodnight.

Teeny Tiny Undies

Diego has been wearing teeny tiny undies for over two weeks now. I kept a detailed account of the potty training experience in my regular journal, so here's the condensed version.

Diego started showing a lot of interest in the potty towards the end of April, and had gone a few times. So one morning in May, I decided I should go all or nothing. I had just spent $40 on diapers for both kids and I thought to myself, that's the last time I buy two boxes of diapers. So I woke up one day and put undies on Diego. For the first 2 days, he had a lot of accidents. By the third day, I figured out when he needed to go, and started asking him in time.

For the whole first week, I was the one initiating it. I would ask him if he needed to go potty, and sometimes he would say yes, and other times he would say no. If it had been a couple hours and he still said no, I took him anyway. I tried to make the potty fun, by singing to him and reading to him while he was on there, and making it a huge deal if he went. He ate more candy in that first week than he has in his whole life.

In the second week, he started telling me when he needed to go. Most of the time, I still initiated it, but he started telling me a few times a day. I was afraid to take the plunge and take him out in public in undies, so I put a pull-up over his underwear. To my complete shock, he told me he needed to go at Target one day. (See Victory in a Target bathroom.) After that, he started telling me whenever we were out in public. Honestly, at first, he was better at telling me when he needed to go in public than he was at telling me at home. I think it was because he figured out that if he went pee pee on the potty in the store, Mommy was going to buy him a new racecar. Smart boy.

In the last four days, he has made huge progress. I've forgotten to ask him if he needs to go pee pee because he's been telling me every time! On Saturday we drove two hours away for a family party, so I put a diaper on him thinking that he wouldn't tell me in the car. Well, he told me! He said, "Uh oh, I need to go pee pee." So we pulled over on the side of the road and he went in the grass! About an hour later, he told me again! I couldn't believe it. When we arrived to our destination, he had a dry diaper. On Sunday he told us at church. And yesterday, he told us at Sea World! Today, I didn't have to ask him once. He's told me on his own all day. He's well on his way. I know he's not 100% trained yet, but we're getting really close. Hooray for that unopened box of diapers I bought for him!

Here he is in his Go Diego Go underwear. (Oh and that's Mr. Bear. Some days Diego doesn't want to let go of him.)

I love seeing him in his little tiny undies!

Victory in a Target bathroom

It happened! We were shopping at Target this morning and Diego said, "I need to go pee pee." I've never made it to the front of the store so fast. I had both kids in the cart, two big boxes of diapers, a big pack of wipes, and some miscellaneous items. The sign on the Family Restroom door said, "Please do not bring unpaid merchandise past this point." So I put the cart in only halfway, so that it was propping the door open and I could keep an eye on Marcelito while I put Diego on the potty. I covered it with toilet paper because, ew. Then I sat him down and heard the most beautiful tinkle. I was so proud of him! He was pretty proud of himself, too. We cleaned up and headed back out to the store, where I promptly bought him 3 new Hot Wheels.

We'll see if he keeps this up. I hope so!

A Day in the Life

Ever wonder what goes on in the daily life of a mother of a baby and a toddler? I do. I wonder all the time how other moms fill their days. Mostly because I need ideas!! I love to hear how other moms entertain their kids, keep up on their house, and just how they make their days productive.

I feel like Mom of the Year today. Well, not right this second, because right this second I am letting my 8 month old scream in his crib. He will not go to sleep. It's naptime. Doesn't he know what he's supposed to do during naptime? Sleep. So Mommy can have a break. Just a tiny break. Please, please ,please, go to sleeeeeeeep.

Back to why I win Mom of the Year today. Diego and I had so much fun today. I planned a day jam-packed full of new and fun things for us to do together. I had fallen off the creative mom wagon for awhile and wasn't feeling good about how we were filling our days. Too much tv, too much trying to do other stuff and letting Diego run wild doing whatever he wanted (which usually meant just following me around the house whining, asking me to stop doing whatever I was doing so I could play with him..."Stop it Mommy!"). I was feeling bad about not teaching him much. My excuse was that I was busy with lots of other things, and I was sick to boot. But now I'm back. I'm trying to really organize my days again.

Wait.....Yes! Marcelito stopped crying. Woo hoo!

So this was our morning:

6:45am - Marcelito woke up. Yeah. He NEVER wakes up that early.
6:45am - 7:45am - Brought Marcelito into our bed and gave him a bottle and tried really hard to keep him quiet so he wouldn't wake Diego.
7:45am - Diego woke up.
7:45am - 8am - After changing his diaper (okay okay, Marcelo changed it), put Diego in his high chair to eat breakfast.
8am - 8:30am - Let Diego watch cartoons, Marcelito played in his excersaucer, Mommy played on the computer and ate breakfast.
8:30am - 9am - Played in the living room with the boys. THEN, Diego said he needed to go potty, so I sat him down on the potty and he just sat there. I reminded him that if he went pee pee, he would get skittles. Still nothing. I said, "I'll give you Jelly Beans!" And he pushed out a tiny bit of pee. It wasn't much but it was SOMETHING! So he got jellybeans.
9am - 9:45am - Marcelito went down for a nap. Diego and I sat at the dining room table and played with dry noodles (to learn how to sort and count) and then glued them to paper. Diego loooved sticking his hands in the glue. I came up with the brilliant idea of writing numbers and letters with glue, and then making Diego tell me what they were before I would let him smear the glue around. I point at numbers all the time and ask him, "What number is that?" Even though he knows how to count, he doesn't always tell me the right number. That is because he never had a good enough reason to. Today, he did. Knowing that he would get to stick his chubby little fingers in the gooey messy glue made him tell me all the numbers and letters I wrote. I was shocked to learn that he knows the letters A-L (With the exception of H, I, and J.) Then we ripped up Parenting magazines to make a collage. Diego's collage consisted of "Mr. Bear", a car, Thomas the train, flowers, and stars.
9:45am - 10:00am Marcelito woke up. I gave Diego some sugary juice (for peeing purposes), then turned on some crazy music and we all danced around.
10am - 10:30am - I gave the floor a quick sweep, but then realized it was really dirty, so I moved all the chairs onto the carpet in a line (like a train) and had Diego play on it while I mopped the dining room and kitchen floor. He then helped to dry it by standing on a towel and moving it around.
10:30am - 10:45am - I asked Diego if he wanted to go pee pee on the potty. He said no. I said, "Do you want Jelly Beans?" He said, "Yes, pee pee potty!" So I took him in and he sat down, then got up, then sat down, then got up. I said, "Are you going to go pee or not?" He said yes, but then got up again. So I said, "Okay, come on, let's put on a diaper." He said, "Noooo! Mommy read a book." So I sat in front of him and started reading him a Winnie the Pooh book. I changed all the words to, "Pooh and Tiger and Piglet want Diego to go potty." He thought that was pretty cool, and after about 2 minutes, I heard the glorious sound of pee entering the potty. I acted like I had just won a million dollars and gave him a handful of jelly beans and skittles. I told him we were going to the store to buy more candy. Then I had him call Tata and Daddy to tell them the good news.
10:45am - 11am - I got the boys and myself ready to go to the store to buy candy.
11am - 12pm - Out and about buying candy, picking up prescriptions, etc etc. Diego chose sour worms and more jelly beans as his potty time treat.
12pm - 12:45pm - Played on the back porch with watercolors. Diego loved it. Marcelito tried to eat everything in sight.
12:45pm - 1pm - The boys played inside while I got lunch ready.
1pm - 1:30pm - Lunch
1:30pm - 1:45pm - Got boys ready for naps
1:45pm - NAPTIME!!!!!

It was quite a successful morning. Now I get to take a little time to myself. If I really want to win Mom/Wife of the Year today, I should stop playing on the computer and should tidy up the living room, kitchen, fold some laundry, and figure out what I'm making for dinner. Oh wait, nevermind. Dinner is going to be easy tonight. Leftover pasta, and then I'll just sprinkle some seasonings and lemon juice on a few tilapia's, steam some veggies, and call it good. I have enrichment tonight. It's Game Night. Should be fun.

I just re-read this entry and it sounds quite braggy. But you know what? I have soooooooooo many days where I feel like I did squat, and like a shlub, and like I could be doing so much more as a mother and a housewife! So why not pat myself on the back when I feel like I've done a good job?

Pat, pat, pat.

Diego went pee pee on the potty!

About two hours ago, Marcelo was playing with the boys in our hallway, while I was chatting on the phone with my mom. Diego said to him, "Uh oh, Daddy. Pee pee." And started tugging at his diaper. Marcelo asked him if he wanted to go pee pee on the potty and he said yes. He ran into the bathroom, took his diaper off, sat down on the potty and started going pee pee!!! Marcelo started cheering and called for me, so I came running in and started cheering and clapping. I put the phone to his ear so my mom could also go nuts. Then I hung up and ran out to the kitchen, grabbed a bag of Skittles, and went back to the bathroom to give Diego a handful.

I really really hope that when he wakes up from his nap, he wants to do this again. I've tried getting him to sit on the potty any time he's been interested in it, but all he's ever done is sit on it and play. I'm a tad bit sad that I wasn't in there with him when he finally decided to do it, but that tiny bit of sadness is overpowered by the fact that I'm soooooooo thrilled that he actually did it!!!! Yay!!!!!! We really think it has to do with the fact that he just saw his cousin Reagan go pee pee on the potty yesterday.

Half of me is like, YIPEE. But the other half is like, Aw man! Does this mean I have to hardcore potty train now? I am sooooo not looking forward to cleaning up a bazillion accidents. Oh well. Bring it on!