Potty Training: day #3

Monday morning, I told Peter that he wasn't going to wear diapers any more. I gave him all the things he needed to be successful at using the potty (a special chair, Thomas the train underwear, stickers, treats, etc.) and by Tuesday night I was ready to give up. It was like having a puppy! Little puddles on the floor, poop on the rug, and way too much laundry.

BUT. This morning my sleep was interrupted by Peter running into our bedroom and yelling, "Mommy! I want to go pee-pee on the toilet!"

Hallelujah! The idea finally stuck. And today we have had ZERO accidents! I am so proud of him. We'll see if it keeps going this well! I know I need to expect him to take quite a while to really get the hang of it, but it seems like he's good to go! (knock on wood)

Wish us luck!

Lesson Learned

I've been encouraging Peter to learn how to do things by himself and become more independent. This morning, he kept asking me over and over to warm up his toast for him, so I figured it was time for him to learn how to warm it up himself. I took his little finger and showed him how to press "1","0","start" so whatever he was microwaving was in there for only 10 seconds. I felt satisfied that he had learned it well enough, and became preoccupied with something else.

After several minutes, I noticed a bad smell coming from the kitchen. I turned around and saw smoke billowing from the microwave! I ran over and discovered a burnt and shriveled piece of Peter's toast! Yuck. My house smells really bad :p

Two lessons learned:
- Two-year-olds can almost do some things alone
- Don't ever let a two-year-old do certain things alone

Maybe we'll just keep going with the "get yourself dressed" lessons for now!

New Tricks

Jackson is crawling! He started two Sundays ago on January 24th. He loves being mobile! I wasn't really looking forward to having two mobile children, but it has actually been easier because Jackson can get to what he wants instead of crying at me to carry him around. I love how he'll crawl up to something and pick it up, then roll over onto his back to look at/slobber on it. Oh - I almost forgot to mention the Tongue! Jackson discovered how cool his tongue is and now it's almost always poking out of his little mouth. I think it's the cutest thing EVER. I have pictures of myself doing that when I was a baby too - so it must be genetic.

(When Sean sticks his tongue out like that, he and Jackson pretty much look like twins)

Peter also has a new trick! (Video coming soon) He learned to sing "I am a Child of God" and "Twinkle, twinkle, little star". Pretty soon he'll be cutting record deals, making billions on Broadway, and doing special appearances on American Idol.

A morning conversation

Me: "Peter, what do you want to do today?"
Peter: "Yeah"
Me: "You want to yeah?"
Peter: "Yeah"
Me: "OK, show me how you yeah."
Peter: "(singing) Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, do doodle, loo looo, dah dah, doooooo!"

The Monkey

Peter has a stuffed monkey that he loves dearly. He totally attached himself to it the week he got it for his first b-day from Uncle Nathan. He carries it around everywhere - usually by biting the monkey's nose so he has his hands free. Peter loves his monkey to pieces (literally!). I have to wash it at least once a week and I'm always cutting strings that are dangling off due to Peter's affection. It's really cute to see him love his monkey so much. Hopefully he'll learn within the next several months that monkey dolls and real live babies need love in different ways!

Halloween Scrapes, Scares and Scabs

I have a very bad habit of only writing on my blog when I upload pictures from my camera. Since my camera can hold like 3 months worth of pictures, I have a hard time posting very often. So, today I'll see if I can catch-up with the blog between Peter's naps.

I'll start with October 31st.
These are Peter's Halloween scabs smeared in Neosporin. He decided to make a semi-permanent costume for himself by falling face-down onto cement a few days before. Sean's semi-permanent Halloween costume is pictured below:

Oooh.... multi-colored!

Peter's first experience with carving pumpkins was a success, but he thought it was all pretty yucky. He was very opposed to the gooey insides and refused to have anything to do with them. He gets it from his daddy.

The after-pumpkin-carving-clean-up was more along the lines of Peter's idea of fun. Bath time is his most favorite time of all - especially when he wears his blue hat and whistles.

Once it got dark enough, we lit our pumpkins. The little guy on the left is Sean and Peter's pumpkin and the scary toothed monster is mine.

We hosted a halloween party at our house for Peter's friends. All the cute little kids dressed up like puppies, fairys, duckies, etc. had fun eating treats and playing together. Peter was the most adorable spider I've ever seen.

Peter and Kaitlyn sittin' in a tree...

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

(Sorry Lily...he just had to move on once you were living half way across the country)

Peter has a new little girlfriend named Kaitlyn Watt. They have only hung out a couple of times, but they are already kissing buddies. Until the day I filmed this clip, I hadn't seen Peter kiss anyone except me, his little ol' mommy who he would barely peck on the cheek. Now that he really understands kissing, he makes his stuffed monkey give me kisses instead of doing it himself. (Pictures of the monkey will come soon - - - it is truly a sight to behold.)

So, as long as Peter has cute little 1 yr. olds around, I guess I'll have to settle for monkey kisses and the monkey will have to settle for doing the dirty work.

Haircut

Peter has had loads of hair from day 1. I've given him about 5 haircuts in his 1 year of life and each hair cut is a new adventure, so I thought I'd post some pictures from his last one so we could remember just how fun they are.

His hair was probably about 5 inches long in this picture! I'm amazed at how fast it always grows back. His hair would be so perfect for little piggie tails and bows! I've been sorely tempted... hopefully if I have any daughters, they will have hair as good as Peter.

Looks like he wasn't too thrilled with his new doo! How could he not like his curly mohawk? Surprisingly, he does very well during haircuts: sits still, doesn't mind sharp objects close to his head, etc. I think by the time I took this picture he was overly anxious to get out of the chair.

My two handsome guys

Happy Birthday Peter!

Peter had his first birthday a couple weeks ago! He had a really fun birthday party with lots of little friends. We set up a couple kiddie pools in the backyard and let the babies run amuck! It was so fun to watch them splashing and playing together - especially once they were all covered in cupcakes and chocolate. Thanks to everyone who came for making it so fun!

I can't believe my little baby is already one year old! It feels like yesterday that he was born, but then again, it seems like he's always been with us. The joy that Peter has brought into Sean's and my life is beyond measure and we are so happy every day when we get to laugh and play with him and see him learn and grow. We thank God all the time for our precious baby. Our life seems so complete with him as a part of our family. We love you Peter!

Peter and cousin Andrew playing at Oma and Opa's house

11 month old Peter

Yes folks, that's right...He's almost one year old! I really can't believe it. He still seems like such a little baby still in my mind. But in reality he is learning and growing up fast! He is crawling all over the place, he's got two pearly whites, he can say "mama", "dada", "dog", "cat" and sometimes "num num" (food). He took a few steps by himself a couple weeks ago, but decided he didn't like falling down, so he's sticking with crawling for now.

Peter with his cousins Isaac Kelley (8 months old) and Andrew Lehnardt (13 months old). This was during my Dad's birthday party and they were loving the balloons!

Peter loves bathtime! I round up "toys" and let him splash to his heart's content. It seems like just a few weeks ago that he was a newborn and I had to be really careful about holding him up in the bath because he gets so slippery. Ahh...where does the time go?

He loves riding on Sean's head and holding onto his hair or ears for support. I've tried doing this and it is just too painful. Sean is so brave...

He found out that he can open things and crawl inside of them to explore. This is a ground level cupboard that I emptied out to put craft stuff in, but I think I might leave it empty for him to play in!

10 months old

Little Peter is going to be 10 months old on the 24th of this month! I can't believe that time has gone by so fast - it seems like each week and each month just fly past and my little baby keeps growing and changing right before my eyes. We have so much fun together and I am excited for the future, but sometimes I just want time to stop for a little while so we can enjoy each stage he is in for longer.
He started crawling a couple weeks ago (May 10th to be exact) and now he is so much happier! He used to get so frustrated because he was stuck on the floor. Now he crawls all over and pulls himself up on things and walks along furniture and gets into all kinds of things he's never discovered before. I've definitely been busier keeping up with him and trying to baby-proof the house as I find out more and more what he can get into. I love to see him so happy!

Sean's brother Ryan got married on Saturday and Peter had fun playing with everyone during the wedding/reception. Here he is with Uncle Kurt (my brother - he was the best man).

Peter has a new friend, Jaden Zhao. Jaden's mom Jennie and I switch off babysitting during the week, so Peter and Jaden get to play together a lot and they have so much fun!

Peter learned how to wave "bye-bye" (here he does it with both hands) and he also crawls a little in this video.

Nine-month adventures

Peter had his 9 month check up with the doctor this week and he now weighs almost 19 lbs. Peter is growing and learning so fast!I want to record all the new things he is doing before I forget how exciting they are. The most exciting news is that he is much more content these days because he can get around on his own now! yay! He does a really cute little army-crawl, and he can grab things and pull up on them and then walk along holding onto things. It's so fun to see him so happy with being mobile. And he's slow enough still that it hasn't become too hard yet to keep my eye on him. His other new accomplishment is his two teeth! He loves to feel them with his tongue and try biting things. He has discovered that he can make sounds with his teeth when he chomps on metallic objects. He can eat most anything (if it is small and soft enough) and he loves being able to pick things up and feed himself.



I was out in the garden a few days ago and he was sitting in the grass inspecting the dandelions, twigs and rocks. I found him with a good sized rock in his hand, licking it and smiling. I always get anxious when he finds random objects and wants to put them in his mouth, but it was cute to see him with dirt and grass all over his face while licking a rock. After I took the rock away, he started saying, "Dut! Dut!" and I'm pretty sure he was saying "Dirt!" What an intelligent boy.


We invited Oma to come on a bike ride with us. On the trail down to Utah Lake, there's a little park with a duck pond and we made that our destination. Peter loved being with Oma and watching the ducks together. The ducks were all swimming around in pairs, male and female - I guess there will be some little ducklings at the pond soon!

So, back to Peter's new tricks. He usually can say Mama when he wants food or he is really tired and wants a hug. I love to hear him say Mama. Other than that, he babbles a lot (dada, puh puh, bababababa, etc.) One of his most favorite things to do when he is happy is to click his tongue! Another of his favorite things is to clap, either by himself or while holding someone else's hands. He just thinks it's so funny! He also loves helping daddy play Wii.


Peter and I have a lot of fun together and I'm glad he's my little buddy. I never thought that being a mother would be so much fun! I'd say the hardest part at this point is changing a poopy diaper while he is trying with all his might to roll over.

Oma plays dress-up with Peter

When we were visiting my parents last week, my mom took Peter into the bathroom to play beauty-shop! She gave him a fancy new hair-do and a beautiful mascara-stash. Then Peter went cross-eyed just to add to the sillyness of the picture. What a charmer!

Daddy got me dressed today

Notice anything that's a little odd?

Peter's smiles

Our little guy is growing and growing! It's so fun to see him learning new things. He loves to sit on the floor and play with boxes, blocks, and tupperware lids. He is fascinated by clapping, the blinds, and Olive. It's so fun to watch him become engaged in something because usually he is pretty wiggly, but when he sees something he really thinks is cool, he'll get all quiet and still while he concentrates. Most of all he loves playing with daddy!

He loves being naked! Last week it was a really warm day, so he sat on this blanket in just his diaper for nearly an hour and he was so happy about it! His chubby little belly was drizzled in slobber because his mouth was just a wide open smile the whole time.

He is very content staying put, and I am actually glad that he hasn't seemed interested in crawling yet because I always know where he is. We put him on the floor to encourage him to crawl, but he doesn't last long on his belly. He does love walking around while holding our hands though! Hopefully he will crawl a little before he starts walking, but we'll just have to wait and see! Of course as a parent I'm always hoping that he is developing correctly and everything. So when people are always asking if he crawls yet, and I see other babies his age puttering around I start wondering if he is behind or something. I read an interesting article about crawling that calmed my worries though. This article (DrGreene.com) said that the average crawling age is 8-10 months, that crawling isn't even a developmental milestone (like sitting up and rolling over), that what we've heard about crawling being essential for developing the brain is a myth, and that some babies never even crawl - they just get up and walk instead! We encourage Peter to be active and learn a lot, but for now we are glad that he is just happy and content being immobile.

busy baby

Peter is my little buddy. He and I have a lot of fun every day and we keep pretty busy till Daddy gets done with work. Then all three of us play and have fun. A typical day goes like this: wake up, eat breakfast, play with toys, take a nap, wake up and take a bath, eat lunch, play with toys, help mommy with chores, take another nap, wake up and eat, play, etc. Of course there are a bunch of diaper changes interspersed throughout all the other fun activities. So we keep pretty busy! Yesterday I took pictures of Peter doing the things he does on a typical day.

He's always really cheerful when he wakes up in the mornings

bathtime

he liked being carried around with the freshly warm laundry

yummm.....a table-flavored snack...

The First Supper

We started feeding Peter "solid" food about three weeks ago. Needless to say, three weeks time hasn't improved his appetite for rice cereal and carrot mush.


I would say this is the hardest thing Peter has had to do in his entire life. It's pretty hard for me too - I'm lucky if he gets half the food on the bib and the other half in his mouth! We both wear a bib and we each have a spoon. The aftermath is usually distributed about in a five foot radius. It's a very entertaining event. Stop by around 11 am on any given day for a free showing. Just make sure to bring your poncho!