Potty Training & New Diapers

We have been attempting to potty train Noah for quite some time!  We bought him his first toilet for Christmas when he had just turned a year old.  That was a big mistake because he was teething and the one we bought had a foam seat.  He decided one day to chew on it and bite large pieces off...needless to say, the seat was a bit worthless after that point.  He had been interested in training, but he didn't fully understand the concept at the age of one either.

Noah has always showed that he knows when he is about to go to the bathroom...if he was running around naked he would look down just before he was about to pee!  I actually have a video that is quite hilarious of that happening, but I don't think it would be appropriate for me to share here unless I were to have the appropriate editing tools!  If he was wearing a diaper and was about to poo he would just stop in his tracks, stand still and make silly faces while pushing.  Then once he started talking more he would tell us every time he was dirty, because he would want changed immediately.

You would think with him hating being dirty (he is a bit OCD about this..not just with diapers), that he would want to learn to potty train!  It is the cleanest way to go to the bathroom that I know of!!!  ;-)  So, now we are into our third year with our son and I decided he wasn't going to have it his way anymore.  It was time, he knew when he was going and that was that.  Diapers are quite expensive and I honestly didn't want to pay the price for them anymore!

I took away the diapers, hid them in a closet, and told Noah they were all gone.  He accepted his underwear just fine when he knew there were no diapers at hand.  I would still put a diaper on for nap, bed, and if we were going out for a very long time during the day.  Slowly I took the diaper for outtings away and soon enough he was telling us when he had to go!  Of course he did have his accidents, but Mommy always packed a spare clothes bag so it was no issue and was always told IT IS OKAY TO HAVE ACCIDENTS!  He would get so upset!

About a month ago I bought some cloth diapers (that had been my original intention for Noah, but I didn't have the money upfront for them...).  We invested in two different brands, Bum Genius and Lovely Pockets.  They work differently, but overall are PERFECT!  He LOVES his new diapers and I love not having to buy any more diapers!  Plus it is better for the environment which I am huge on!  We have a total of 21 diapers and have no issues rotating dirty and clean of course because he only wears them twice a day!

Now, the issue that we have run into is that Noah has randomly started to hold his bowel movements until when we put a diaper on him.  This wasn't a previous issue and we are curious to know if it is to get out of sleep time.  Usually if he goes once he has already layed down it is extremely difficult to redo his normal naptime routine again with it actually having him fall asleep.  I am certain this phase will pass, but for now it is what it is!

I am certainly happy that he is potty trained by day!!!  He also has taken a few naps in the car without urinating and one nap in his bed he had a dry diaper as well.  So, possibly we can take away the diaper for naptime soon too!

GOOD JOB NOAH!

It's Been A While

We have had time pass before our eyes and watched our little baby boy grow from a small fetus to a handsome three year old.  He has attitude, tantrums, and makes our house look as if a cyclone hits it on a daily basis.  But the truth is, as every other parent would say, "it's worth it!".

Our son has had a delay in his speech, some would voice their opinion as, "he's autistic", "what's wrong with him," and so forth.  We decided to wait it out and see what happens.  He has never attended a daycare, been with a regular babysitter, or around multiple children every day.  We joined a playgroup a few months back to see if the interaction would help and sure enough it has.  We have since left the playgroup after finding some amazing friends to keep for life. 

Noah now has interaction with his friends, which he enjoys and his speech has come along phenomenally!  Every day that passes there is something that comes out of his little mouth that I have never heard him say before.  When I pulled up to the gas station the other day he said, "mom, you need gas?". I had no idea he knew "gas".

Of course, with the speech coming along he has many more opinions about what he should get.  So, as his parent, I have to work on not giving in to his every plea!  Also along with these verbal changes comes a bubbly happy boy with a funny personality! 

He makes my spouse and I laugh every day!  The other day Daddy wouldn't let Noah take his big truck out to eat...leading to a very disappointed child who wailed for about 15 minutes.  When we got into the car he said, "No pizza!  I can't smile, smile's broken, I'm sad!". Steven and I just looked at each other and tried so hard not to bust out laughing.  (Noah is uber sensitive so we have to be very careful of that!)

Okay folks, I think that is enough for you to read today, but there is plenty more to come!  :-)

~Snowtober~

Earlier in the week it was predicted that we were going to see some flurries over the weekend.  Yesterday, the forecast changed to a winter storm with a chance for 4-6 inches.  Last last night, it updated to 8-10 inches!  I showed Noah before he went to bed that it was snowing and he was thoroughly excited!  He definitely wanted there to be some accumulation.  It had already begun covering the grass by the time I actually was heading to bed late last night. 

 This morning Noah woke up at 6:00 AM, "MOM!  DAD!  SNOOOOOW!!"  He ran for his shoes, "Boot, boot, go outside, snow!"  He was desperate to go outside and play.  We had already accumulated about three inches at this time.  I definitely did not want to go outside when it was still dark, so, I convinced him to lay in bed and watch some Halloween cartoons.  Seven-thirty rolls around and he couldn't wait any longer.  He had been patient with us and allowed us a little more time in bed, but it was far beyond time to go play in the snow...now over four inches accumulation.  It took me forever to find everything because I was most certainly not prepared with his snowsuit and gloves during October!  Unfortunately, I realized his snow suit and jacket are 2T (he wears 3T), but luckily enough it suited him just fine!  He was dressed and ready to go by 8:00 AM!  He was immediately frustrated when he realized it was much harder to "mow" when there was a couple inches of snow on the ground!  But, he managed to content himself with grabbing snow and throwing it at me.  He is much better with snowball fights this year than the last!  Oh my, he got me good!  Right in my face!  He was giggling and playing so hard!

Then we went to the store to pick up some flashlights in the case our power went out.  When you have snow in October the trees are not able to hold up all of that snow!  Soon we realized there were trees everywhere...on houses, cars, in the street!  I guess that is the price you pay when you tick mother nature off with all this lack of conservation our society has grown with.  We had planned on taking Noah to "Halloween on the Square" downtown this morning, but obviously the festival was cancelled!  We were fortunate to hear that they were still hosting the trick-or-treating at the local businesses though!  So we got home and got Noah dressed in some layers and his Halloween costume.  Noah was much more excited to put his costume on this time because he thought we were going to another Halloween party like when he had it on the other day! 

We got downtown and immediately Noah was being complimented on his costume....I mean really, who couldn't compliment my one-eyed monster with orange spots on his belly?  He is adorable!  He was extremely shy and nervous to walk up to strangers, but once he realized they were giving him candy he was fine.  Some of the places he would hide behind me and push me over to the person with the candy; I just laughed.  Aiden was definitely bringing his Husky to town today; he just kept pulling and pulling Steven everywhere!  He also got a lot of compliments for being a beautiful dog.

By 1:15 PM we were done and ready to go home for naps.  I told Noah, "when we get home it is nap time."  He didn't seem to have any issue with the phrase today.  Thank goodness because Mommy and Daddy were exhausted!  He is gratefully napping peacefully right now and I am currently raiding his candy!!  Yummy!

Oh...and it has finally stopped snowing with about 8 inches in our yard.  What a lovely Snowtober it is!

Harrisonburg Playgroup Hosts Noah's First Halloween Party

Hello everyone!  I hope you are enjoying any fall festivities in your own towns!  This week is full of adventures for Noah and he is absolutely loving every minute of it!  Last night we attended our first meeting with the Harrisonburg Playgroup.  We joined about a week ago and it was well worth it!  Steven and I got to meet a ton of great parents in the area while Noah got to meet some new friends.  We even recognized a friend from Kinetic Kids Gym!

We arrived a little skeptical about how the event was going to go and wondering if we would "fit in" with other parents.  Often times we are judged because we had a child at the age of twenty.  Well, the first step into the door all worries were set aside!  The head of the group came directly up to me and knew who I was from seeing a picture beforehand.  Noah was extremely clingy and wouldn't let me put him down.  He got excited when he started to realize there were children with costumes on.  Slowly pointing out, "a bee, dog, horse, a bee..." and so forth.  There were many ages there as well:  infant through four years I believe.  The head coordinator's daughter is just a week or two off from Noah!  

Eventually Noah warmed up and started to interact with the other children.   They went outside and played in the leaves for a bit, running around and throwing them at each other.  Indoors, there was a craft table where they could color pumpkins or ghosts and use foam stickers to decorate!  Noah was immediately attracted and spent most of his time there. While Noah was doing his crafts Steven and I got to talk with some of the other parents and realized how nice it was to talk to people who had children!  We have had such a hard time meeting people in the area since all of our college friends left and it seems this group is the perfect fit for us!

Needless to say, the Halloween party was a blast!  We even won the jar of candy corn to take home....but, of course that led to Noah wanting it for breakfast this morning!  Oh, toddlers!

Cox Farm

When Steven found out his next job interview was at Tysons, we decided to plan to meet up with my family to go to a pumpkin patch.  I didn't know what would be best and on the way to his interview, but I knew that my family was on the way.....

We decided on Cox Farm, about 30 minutes away from where Steven's interview was to take place.  Perfect.  They opened at 10 AM, closed at 6 PM.  We arrived at 10:45 and soon found out that the GPS had taken my sister and mother to the wrong area.  After waiting for the GPS to behave itself...we finally got to enter the farm around 11:30.  While we waited, we walked Noah around letting him chase after some geese!

  Noah was getting very anxious and didn't want to wait to go into the farm.  He could see way too many exciting things and was beyond overwhelmed joy!  Since it was lunch time when we entered, that came first :)  My sister had driven quite a long way to get there and was starving.  

Noah got a hot dog with some french fries with apple juice.  I was really excited that he took to the hot dog with it on a bun, because normally he will only eat a hot dog plain....but after a second bite, I realized he was adorably only eating the hot dog in the middle!  I started busting out laughing and making sure everyone in the family stopped talking just to gawk at how Noah was eating his hot dog!

Shortly after this, a friendly bee decided to stop by our table.  Most children are afraid of bees, but my little man is not.  He thinks bugs are fun and nice creatures...that he can squash!  It landed on the table and Noah didn't think twice!  He took his pointer finger and squished the bee flat!  My mother, Grandma, was in complete awe!  She couldn't believe that Noah just blatantly killed the bee without being scared, flinching, or thinking.  It was funny!  

After we ate, we moved on to fun events.  Noah had done a little bit of walking around with his Uncle Gregory during lunch.  The farm had stuffed animals walking around....and Noah decided to hide in between Uncle Gregory's legs saying, "scared, scared" when the pig walked up to him!  Very cute!  We went down multiple slides and had a blast!  Noah got to see many animals, goats, pigs, cows, chickens and more.  There was a pig probably the size of a cow that was there and Noah called it, "cow pig" because it was so large!  He liked it a lot!  I think he was in shock!  

At 1:30 it was time for Steven to leave for his interview and Jennifer (my sister) to leave to head home for work.  Steven was very nervous about driving into McLean by himself, but I assured him he would be fine and the interview would go great!  

While Steven and Jennifer were gone; the rest of us continued to have fun at the farm.  Noah was begging and crying to go on the hay ride, "tractor, tractor, tractor!"  We waited in line for that, but it was well the worth the short wait!  I think it was about a 12 minute ride and they had all sorts of set ups for you to look at along the way.  

They had interactive parts where you talked to trolls on a bridge and clapped your hands to music through a tunnel!  Noah loved the hay ride so much that he did it a total of three times.  The third time was when Steven had come back and Noah had everything down, he started clapping before everyone else in the tunnel because he knew the music was about to come on!  It was precious!  We also went through the corn maze...which had some places that were a little too scary for Noah, but mostly it was a lot of fun for him to do all of the interactive set ups that they had throughout it!  Shortly after the maze Grandma, Pop, and Uncle Gregory had to leave....so it was just Noah and I waiting for Steven to get back from his interview.  Which didn't take long, I was quite surprised to see he had arrived back with enough time to do the hay ride (the 3rd time for Noah), along with slides and other activities. 

 I hope you realize this is the very short tale of the story, so be grateful this post is only this long!  Enjoy the few photos attached and if you would like to see me more just let me know!  We had a great time at Cox Farm!

Also....Steven's interview went great!  So hopefully something will turn up very soon!  As for now...it is back to chores and such for me!

Update on The Little Guy

It has been a while once again, but I assure you that I will tell you as much as I can!

Noah has his ups and downs with his behavior.  Now, we are having problems with him going outside then running off to our neighbors house.  We have tried explaining to him that this is unacceptable, but he still seems to just go any opportunity he sees.  So, once again we are trying to figure out a way to board up the doors...and now....windows!  I had left the upper portion of Noah's window open about two inches, he decided to climb on top of his toy box (using a stool to get on that) and pull his window open further, then pushed the screen out!  This is some dangerous stuff!  So, Noah's window is to never be opened again unfortunately, no matter how nice the breeze may be!  But...we are working on them and with his communication becoming much better they are slowly subsiding as he understands when something is does is wrong.

Now, for some good behavior!  Noah has been going in his potty every now and then!  It's a start!!!!!  He is pretty nonchalant about it though!  The first few times he got really excited and now he is just like, 'eh, I got this.'  It's actually pretty good.  He always says, "all done" with the sign language to go with it!  Yup, he is pretty awesome.  His speech is been coming along marvelously!  He has reached the point where he attempts to copy everything you ask him to say, unless he is in a mood of course.  My absolute favorite word of his is kangaroo, "Kai-na-noo!"  It is adorable!

Noah is still attending Kinetic Kids Gym with his Kinetic Discovery class.  He has aged out of his "walkers" group into the "runners" one; so, now his classes are on Thursdays instead of Fridays.  Last week they learned about shapes and how to make them with their hands.  I think his favorite is triangle.  He still watches his Baby Einstein movies as well; which he learns a lot of sign language and new words from.  I am really surprised at how long the Baby Einstein's have lasted for him!  I think they are fantastic!  I would much rather have him watching those than some of the brain-damaging shows they have on the television these days.

Also, Noah has been slowly opening up his diet.  We have gotten a few things here and there that he has been willing to try!  It is quite funny when I take Noah to work with me...he always opens the fridge, points at the eggs, and says, "chick-e," which is 'chicken.'  He has learned that eggs come from chickens and now calls eggs chicken!  I laugh every time he does it and I correct him!  Then he says, "yea, egg."  Too cute!

Well, I think that should be enough for the moment and I will give you more soon!  I hope you enjoyed it!

Kids Are Funny

Yesterday we went out to eat at Chili's with one of my best friends, Danielle.  At first Noah didn't want anything to do with sitting in the booth to eat, but after a while he warmed up.  Then...all of a sudden he is standing up and puts his arm around my neck.  Then his other arm comes around the other side and he is just hugging and squeezing me like no tomorrow!  It made me so happy and Steven was even able to snap a quick picture.



Of course after that Noah decided he wanted to be adorable....we were sitting in a back booth near where the servers come in and out of the kitchen.  Well, Noah turns his back to us and has both hands on his cheeks, elbows resting on the back of the booth and just watching them work with a smile.  It was so cute!

Lastly, we were trying to leave and it was raining a decent amount outside.  Noah, who recently got a pool, knows that usually when he is getting wet he has his shirt off...shower, bath, pool time....all have no shirt.  Well, as soon as he feels a drop of rain hit him, he strips his shirt off and starts running in the rain.  All of the strangers were laughing as I tried to explain we don't take our shirt off just to walk in the rain :)  Kids...they sure are funny, aren't they!?

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Our Child, The Escapist

Since we have moved to our new home, Noah has found it freeing to escape from the house.  This is extremely unsatisfying for Steven and I, as his parents.  We have two doors he can leave on the ground, and a sliding deck door off of our bedroom.  We bought numerous walk-through gates that are extremely sturdy and well put together.....and.....this is what we are looking at...

Noah has figured out how to get through the new gates....that are in multiple places trying to stop him from going places on his own.  He also knows how to unlock the sliding glass doors, so he can get onto the upper deck, and outside downstairs.  (We do not think he knows how to remove the key and stick from the glass doors....but he probably does)  So, unless the stick is down he gets out that way.  As for the front door, you have the usual door knob and then a dead bolt.  He takes a stool or a kitchen chair, grab the keys from the key bowl, and unlock the door.

Well, after numerous occasions, we knew we had to solve this problem.  Give him one minute to himself and he is gone.  Parents can't go potty, shower, sleep, run quickly upstairs while he is downstairs to grab something....no....because our son can escape our house in less than a minute.  So, we bought a chain lock to put at the top of the door and installed that yesterday.

Guess what.....??????

This morning Noah grabs the keys, and goes to escape....realizes there is an extra lock that he cannot reach.  So, Noah, 2.5 years old, pulls the door so hard that the lock comes out of the wall.  He escaped, and had both car doors open and had moved all sorts of stuff around....All while I was going to the bathroom.

The next solution...we are unsure.  Steven is going to home depot today to talk to them about the situation to see what we can do.  This is getting quite absurd and extremely unsafe for our little one.  He could have driven away today if he really wanted to.  He is quite smart and strong...don't you dare underestimate him Mommy...Daddy....or anyone else!

I know being a parents includes taking our child everywhere, but he used to be able to be left in the living room for one second, now...he cannot.

Please feel free to comment on this post.

Smurfette

You all may think smurfs are great and oh so adorable....but The Smurfs actually have special meaning to me.

Here goes the story....

Now a boy named Tommy Frossard owes me $1,000 because he bet me in the 4th grade that this wasn't true....still haven't seen a penny!

The day I was being born, I decided I just couldn't way to go to the bathroom....so it slipped on my way out.  This made me a meconium baby.  Click Here for more info on that...  Basically, I suffocated myself in my own poo :(  Well....when I came out, I was BLUE!  I also had blonde hair....my father, the funny man that he is, literally suggested that I be named SMURFETTE.

So, since the day I was born, Smurfette, has been a nickname of mine.

So, now that an actual smurf movie is out....I can put this story out there once again :)

I feel so special....too bad Mom wouldn't let Dad actually put Smurfette on the birth certificate!  HAHAHAHA

The Joys of Being a Parent

This is a MUST READ!!!!!

A few days ago Steven, Noah, and I were in Golden Coral for dinner.  Steven told me he was going to the bathroom so I kindly asked him to take Noah with him.  Noah gladly followed Daddy into the bathroom....now...Steven is in the process of sitting on the toilet and Noah is busy unraveling toilet paper....until the next moment.....Noah unlocks the door and swings it open.....

Daddy.....blank stare..........

The Man standing in front of the open door......blank stare.....

Steven......"Hey, how ya doin'?"

The Man...."haha, kids"

Then Steven comes out with Noah with a huge smile on his face back to the table.  I then hear this wonderful story of how Noah opened the bathroom door wide open while Daddy was busy and let Daddy meet a stranger in an embarrassing moment.  I busted out laughing so hard I sounded like a cackling hyena for about 10 minutes straight!  I couldn't get over it!

 

Children are Adorable

Scrapbooking Photo Tinks by WiddlyTinks.com

Noah Playing in the Pool

Happy Children come with Adult Frustration

Since we have moved to the new place, we have had to make some major adjustments.  We went from a very quiet neighborhood with no children to one with numerous children.  It is louder and brings much more frustration when it comes time to put your own child to bed or calm him/her down when they see other children playing.  We signed a two year lease for our new home because we wanted to lock in our price and we are very tired of moving every single year.  So, of course, we are going to have to get used to the new life!

Yesterday we bought a cheap little pool for Noah to play in.  We figured if we got a small pool that it wouldn't be intended for other children to be in it with him unless invited.  Well, of course, our neighbor has over 11 people living in their 3 bedroom home and they are from Iraq, so they don't always understand what we are saying.  Luckily one of the children that is 11 years of age can understand English pretty well, but the rest...not so much.  Steven blew up the pool when we got home from the store and of course they were watching from their house the entire time.  As soon as water was in it they were over in our yard.  Steven said, "No, please let Noah play alone right now, we just bought this."  Yet, the children did not understand and started ripping off their clothes and jumped right in.  We had pulled it over near Noah's play-set so it would have a slide to go down and that just made it even worse with multiple children.

BUT....Noah had a blast playing with them, so we let the ruckus continue.  Hopefully we will be able to establish some rules the next time because only the one child seems to listen, the rest disobey me over and over.  It is great that Noah is making friends because he is so happy when he gets to play with them, but it gets very frustrating when the other children do not listen or understand.

So, here are some pictures from his time in the pool yesterday....wasn't able to get a good one of Noah alone really, but maybe later today!  Enjoy!

Every Day Bring Something New

When you live with a child and spend every moment possible with him or her, you realize that there is change happening right before your eyes.  It is hard to see when you are there every day, but then you look at pictures or videos and say, "WOW," I hadn't even noticed.  Well, our little baby boy isn't so little anymore.  A two and a half year old lives with us now and surely without my saying...you already know he rules the house too.

Now we have attitude...if we don't like what you say..."NO," "NO WAY," "STOP," "OKAY...GEEZ," "SHH, QUIET."  These are just a few of things that have been coming out of his mouth! Oh Noah, you may think you rule...but just wait...you are in for a rude awakening from Mommy and Daddy!  Although, it is quiet adorable to watch a toddler tell you to "shh" and "quiet" or even when he doesn't want to hear what he has done wrong and the "okay...geez" comes out....but at some point we do have to stop this behavior otherwise it will continue and then that would just be awful.  So...maybe we can catch a few on video for our laughing pleasure and I will surely post if we can!

Also...this new attitude brings door slamming.  If he gets up from his nap before he has gone to sleep....I yell, "get back in bed!"  Then I hear him slam his door and rudely jump in bed.  OH MY GOODNESS!  I know, I know....this is only the beginning!

So, these are just a few of the updates I have about our toddler with a personality!  I hope you enjoy the update!  :)

Feeds By Email

To all of my dear Readers:

I want to write a post about my new email subscriptions you can sign up for.  Directly above where all of the posts are there is a spot where you can type in your email and it will automatically update you any time I make a post!

You will know immediately as soon as I have posted new pictures, videos, and more!  Please let me know if you are having any difficulty figuring it out!  I will be happy to assist you in any way that I can!  

Thank you all for being so committed!  I get very excited every time I see a knew subscriber!

P.S.  IT IS FREE, SO PLEASE SUBSCRIBE!!!!!  (If you haven't already)

The Lick Monster

Here is just a wee bit of introduction to the lick monster!  Sometimes when we are putting Noah down for bed and go to give kisses, he grabs us so hard, pulls in tight and just licks!  He is crazy!  But this is daytime licking lol!  Enjoy the silly boy!

The Circus Continues

Well, things are still quite a ruckus on our end.  I have had some quiet today as Noah is beginning to get a little better with understanding that nap time is different than play time.  The kitchen in our new home is almost fully functioning now!  Maybe by the end of the day we won't have any more boxes in there!  That would be wonderful!

Steven and I are working on reconnecting with each other and putting ourselves on the same page.  So far, this has been working very well.  Sometimes life just puts so much stress on you trying to tear things apart, but any person can put their mind to it and sort it all out!  I think each day that goes by Steven and I are a little bit closer and communicate a little bit better too.

We are trying some new techniques with raising our family and learning to function in a more adequate fashion.  Hopefully in a few months we won't be the only ones noticing and outsiders will notice as well.  Wish us luck on this journey!

Silly Sleeping...The New Trend....Fall Asleep Wherever Your body Forces You To

This is what happens when Noah decides not to nap....We find him in random places... 

Yep...he was asleep under there...See...I checked!

I can't tell if he is comfortable..Can you?

Our New Additions

Noah is definitely a cat person!

AIDEN CAVALIER DANIEL

CORALINE *CORA* DANIEL

Pretty boy!  Siberian Husky Mix (pretty sure with German Shepherd)