Day Two: Success!

Day Two has been a success with the PT!

Liam has gone pee pee every time in the potty!!  He is a nocturnal pooper so this will take some tranisitioning but I'm sure we'll get there when we get there. I bought him some Pull Ups and he's not very thrilled about them, had a little arguement about this this afternoon...he wanted to wear his Bill a Bah Huh overnight diapers instead. All the Pull Ups have characters on them that he doesn't know cause I did look for that aspect of it when I was shopping for them this morning...so I cannot really (unless I keep searching around other stores) get him different ones to make him happy cause I already attempted that!  

We've been fighting still about getting re-dressed after going potty & I do want to stress to him that Mama & Dada pull their pants back up after they go potty so I'm not really looking to let him run around naked after going to the bathroom. I'm not into making this a "game" with "rewards" (OOOOH MEAN MOMMY!) or "fun time" and "sparkly soap" this is about going to the bathroom not summer camp, you know? I know, Mean Mommy. Whatever.

I finally got his Pull Up on him though after we went pee pee. I don't know what that was all about though...

I'm hoping we don't screw him over this weekend by traveling. The store (not Target) didn't have travel size pottys, in fact, they only had ones with tons of bells & whistles on them and if you think I'm buying one of those, please read that Mean Mommy paragraph again ;) I do have to stop at CVS tonight so maybe they will have something?

I've been putting him in his over night diapers & his regular diaper during nap time. I don't feel confident that the Pull Ups are intended for long term use (maybe I'm just used to the POS swim diapers?) so I wouldn't want to let him wet himself (or worse) and become self conscious about it, you know? Is that what everyone else does?

We are heading to CT this weekend for Family Picture for Christmas Card event & to celebrate Matias' birthday (it's Tuesday, he's 32) so we won't be back until Tuesday evening. I'm going to try and post though cause I'm attempting to a post a day again this month and I wouldn't want to mess up because of weekend travel :)

How I Spent My Thursday Afternoon

Can you believe it??!?!

It all started this afternoon when he woke up from his nap & Matias took him into the bathroom with him (TMI?) & decided that he wanted to go potty also. So he sat him up there & he went pee pee a little bit. We decided to go get his potty actually out of the box & set it up in his bathroom & introduce him to it. I showed him his potty chart that Auntie gave him with an Elmo activity book & he was really excited about it all.

We left to run some errands & he had some milk while we were out so when we got home, I asked him if he wanted to go pee pee on the potty & we went upstairs WHERE HE PEED ON THE POTTY ALL BY HIMSELF LIKE A BIG BOY!!! And we wiped, and flushed & washed our hands and came downstairs to celebrate with Dada. I told him the next time he has to go pee pee that he has to say "Mama, pee pee!" and he listened and we went on our merry train watching way.

About an hour later, he came over and said "Mama, pee pee!" and we rushed upstairs, pants off, diaper off & PEE PEE ON THE TOILET AGAIN!!!

When he went out with Dada to get dinner, I set up his potty chart on the fridge for him to see when he got home & the look on his face when I read it off to him & showed him all the check-marks he has already received - he was just beaming.

Then right before going to bed, he told me AGAIN that he had to go pee pee!!!

He's doing so well with this SO SO SO unexpectedly. NOT that I'm surprised he's doing so well at it but more unexpected that I'm doing this TODAY. I wasn't planning on potty training today but he wanted to & he's doing it so well that I'm just going with the flow (HA!). I hadn't done any research or reading on it but Nana is helping me along so I'm really just doing this by the seat of my pants (HA!).

Tomorrow, I'm returning our (unopened) carton of diapers, getting a smaller (in case of emergency) pack, some Pull Ups and maybe a portable potty since, of course, we are traveling this weekend. All three times (!!!!) we went pee pee on the potty, his diaper was dry :) I am really looking forward to the Pull Ups for the ease they will give me in getting his pants off quick enough but more importantly back up quick enough! He's, obviously, still at the stage where he's a tad fascinated with what he just did & his hands are quick so I'm struggling with a naked Fellow where as I would much rather be struggling with a Pulled Up Fellow just to help out with accidents & all around general "this is how we go to the bathroom" routine; which includes putting our pants back on. And not trying to grab the toilet paper in the potty.

I cannot believe my little boy is potty training. This is seriously happening really fast. I will really keep on top of it to ensure that we get it done right & done the first go round. Or at least I will try, I know there can be set backs but I feel like going full force on this one since he's picked up on it so quickly & so well.

Did I fail to mention?

That we've spent the last 6 weeks at swimming lessons every Monday & Wednesday nights? And that tonight was our last lesson? I think I might have mentioned it in talking about my schedule sort of passing way but I can only say that, holy Moses, does this kid like water.

His skill set has improved by leaps & bounds. His teacher, Ms. Lori, is fantastic with him & the other kids too. She's very keen on what they want to do and how to get that to mesh with what they have to do. And Liam is loving it. Matias has been coming with us also, I like that he's doing structured lessons with Liam. I think it's good for him to be in the situation also and not just Mama, so that he learns to pay attention & behave in those surroundings for more than just me. And the strange thing is, I think he kind of likes swim lessons better with Dada than me.

And I'm pretty sure that hurts my feelings.

Tonight I had him to myself for class & he was a total Klingy Koala Bear the entire class. Sure he did things he was supposed to but it took some talking into and then some scraping off of my torso to get him into action...

Even Ms. Lori commented on how different he is with Dad. I know she didn't mean it in a bad way but it's weird to have someone else notice it also.

Good for nothing, child of mine. I'll have to sign him up for another session just to show him who's boss around here.

Fellow says Vote for O!BAMA!

He deserves change we can believe in.

Slight Annoyances

Not much to say today, still getting over our colds (Liam was saved though), taking it easy & sitting on pins & needles for tomorrow...

But this morning as I was getting ready to leave the house & putting Liam's shoes on, I noticed that one of them was covered in some sort of animal poop all over the bottom. I haven't put these shoes on him in a while so I know it wasn't me...

The thing that really irks me though (and Nana can attest to this, first hand) is that someone else knew it was there & didn't do anything about it. So I had to sit there & scrape it off with a toothpick (all in the treads, of course), being mindful not to soak the entire shoe when I tried to dampen it in order to scrape off the crap easier...

This kind of shit, LITERALLY, really annoy me! How hard is it to clean it off when it happens? It's easier when it's still "new" to begin with. Also? To not say something to someone so at least maybe they can do something about it is just rude. And to say that you didn't notice is poppy-cock. You cannot help but notice. I mean you have to hold the shoes in your hands in order to take them off the child's foot to start with!

So there's my slight annoyance :) Anyone got one of their own?

Too Smart for His Own Good; The Memory & Skills Edition

Liam has a mind like a steel trap; he remembers every one & everything he does with those people.

Just a few quick things about that this gorgeous Sunday afternoon...

• Nana & Grandpa got Liam a Outer Banks sweatshirt while we were at the beach & he wore it at Auntie Leanne's when we were there the week later. I had it on his ottoman in his room to hang up & he saw it and proclaimed "Nana, beach-home". You want to tell me how he knows this? It's a little creepy sometimes!
• We've been watching [and watching...] train videos on YouTube [a lot] lately. He has always known that Mama has to have her hand on the mouse to make things work. But this morning, he took control over the mouse, clicked on the video he wanted playing & then (since I use Mozilla I have to click to initiate Flash) and then he moused over to the Flash arrow and clicked on it to make the video play. HUH??!?! That's just scary to me. I think we might be asking Santa for a Liam Laptop...
• He knows how to take pictures with my phone. The only thing I have to say about this is I don't even know how to do that without having to sit down & think about it.

We're Following the Leader, the leader, the leader!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Hold onto your hats!

I've uploaded 91 pictures from our first 24 hours here ;)

I'm going to do the next batch of 100 or so tomorrow as I am not so good at the laptop mouse (nearly typed moose and thought that sounded right...think I need to go to bed!) & I've made several mis-clicks which have caused some very bad words. Thankfully, Matias is the only other person in the room who speaks English.

Here's another quick update from the past couple days or whatever we are at ;)

Today we:

• went shopping in Martinez & bought Liam a belt (!), a play coffee/tea set to play with here (the toys, they are lacking) & a birthday present for Pillar.
• went to CASI Rugby Club to have lunch with Txixi y Toto & run around the rugby field
• went to Tio Negro's house & had a driving tour of Tigre - an awesome part of town that I had no idea existed - river front properties & markets along the banks
• went to Txixi y Toto's house to watch the Boca vs. Tigre soccer game which determined the numero 1 & numero 2 (see how my spanish is just expanding daily??) spot in the club soccer leagues
• came home to Pepe y Lusitia's where two Great Aunts were visiting - one works at a vet & brought 3 kittens over. Liam lost his mind. He very much so misses his kitties & he misses seeing cats everyday, I think.
• had dinner, had a sink bath & went to bed!

Yesterday we:

• went to Palermo (closest barrio to El Centro) & drove around a huge park while Liam napped
• had lunch in the park after Liam woke up
• walked through the rose garden & fed a duck all by ourselves (and by "ourselves" I mean Liam threw a graham cracker all by himself!)
• discovered fountains & Liam's undying love for them
• walked about 3-4 miles (not even kidding) into Buenos Aires
• had delicious lunch (Parillo = grill) & after asking for a GLASS of wine, I got the whole bottle & you know there's no such thing as left over wine
• walked about 2 more miles into El Centro & did some window shopping
• had coffee at my favorite place in El Centro
• walked about 2 more miles in the direction we had just come to catch the train home
• paid .30 for an hour train/metro ride
• had dinner, had a sink bath & went to bed!

As you can see, we have been REALLY busy! Liam has taken to napping in his stroller all the time & also in the car. He took his first nap before 11am this morning & then again in the afternoon while in the car touring around Tigre. I could not be prouder of him & how big of a trooper he has been through all the changes, excitement & traveling around he's been doing.

It sounds like he is starting to say "chau" & knows who his Great Grandparents are when you ask him. He has always given you his cheek to kiss when you ask him for a "beso" & it's really cute to watch him offer his cheek up when all his relatives ask for a beso!

Everyone has fallen in love with him & cannot get over how smart he is (their words, not mine!) & it's fun to watch him get fussed over in a different language ;) Also, I cannot count how many times I've been told "he never stops, he's always going, always touching & exploring" to which I simply nod my head & say "si".

I'll upload more tomorrow & update more as my thoughts come back to me! If you think it's tiring touring around like this on full steam by yourself, just wait until you do it with a toddler who doesn't like to sit still or stay in his stroller. Exhausted doesn't begin to cover it! But there's something about wine with dinner after the Fellow has gone to bed that helps get at least a 1/2 wind back under my belt!

I also never thought I would be scouting out good playgrounds or parks or places to let my child run around for a while & be free from their stroller. But, it's fantastic & I'm so glad we are able to do this, as stress free as it has been (knock on wood, bite your tongue, throw some salt...) up until now!

P.S. Matias' nose is peeling & I'm getting my hair cut on Friday!

And then I took a nap

Liam spent most of yesterday playing with his cousin Luccia & boy, is she one bossy little girl! It's quite comical though but I'm not really a fan of someone YELLING for another person to come and do something for them, or stop doing something they are doing or just for a little smack down. They played really well together & even did a little bit of "time" sharing - one would be in the Flintstone car while the other helped me push them from behind & then we would switch! That worked out quite well until they both wanted the car & couldn't fit in at the same time & that was about 30 minutes into playtime so, really? It's not too bad :)

P.S. I haven't had coffee yet - it's sitting next to me piping hot just waiting for me to consume it. But it's quiet & everyone is at church (who know Thanksgiving was a Catholic holiday?) so I'm taking some me time.

Speaking of me time - Matias took Liam to Circuit City yesterday & I took a nap! While watching L&O on TBS! On cable! YIPPEEE!!

Liam & Mystic

I'm surprised at what good buddies they are these days - these mobile days. It makes me quite proud of both of them. Mystic has been coming around more these days during the "waking hours" than Monkey has & I'm not really sure why that is...

But Liam is really good with her - petting her very gently, not pulling anything, no more screaming in her face but he does that still with Monkey (which might answer my question...) & helping me out with her.

He will unlock the sliding glass door for her to go out back & "do her business", he was playing in the pantry yesterday and actually took down some cat bowls & put a can of wet food in it and stirred it with his spoon he had been carrying around! When she comes in from outside he goes over to the gate going upstairs and helps me open it cause she always goes upstairs to eat something when she comes in!

She will sit around in the family room & let him pet her - which, honestly isn't something she lets just anyone do. It's not like they are BFF or anything cause she will still high-tail it out of here if he gets too worked up around her but the amount of time that she spends in his presence is amazing to me. And that he helps her out & knows her routine shows me that he pays attention to her & knows what she wants before she even wants it.

I just hope that their relationship continues to grow & that he can continue to help me out with her through the years.

Progress on the Self-Feeding Front

Liam has been doing really well feeding himself but of course it's still a work in progress but we are making some more progress with using his spork & Big Boy Cups lately.

He's been able to stab at his pancakes successfully enough that he can actually get some food in his mouth with his spork! I let him eat each meal with a utensil in his hand but he's best at using it during breakfast. The hardest part for him at the moment is getting the food on the spork but he has pretty good success getting to his mouth - he was using a short cut & just taking it off the spork with his hand and then shoving it in his mouth but now he's doing quite well at putting it in his mouth off the spork!

He is constantly asking for water/drinks lately & he's increasingly asking for drinks in regular (kiddie) cups with no sippy lids. He's very good at drinking, with some assistance, but lately he's been not wanting the assistance and he's been pushing our hands away. You can imagine the outlook of these attempts but he is quite adept at it since I don't give him much to sip on at a time. He's no where near drinking from a cup for his Milk Cups but water is working out well, if not a bit messy for him.

He's down to drinking only, on average, two of his Milk Cups from bottles daily. I start his day off with a bottle but he usually gets 2-3 sippy cups throughout the day depending on his schedule! I also tend to give him his big 7 oz. bottle of milk in a bottle (not sippy) cause that's an awful lot to "handle" in a bottle as opposed to a sippy.

It's a slow process, of course, but we are getting there! I'm not pushing him towards total independence here as he still is my Little Big Boy but I do want him to learn his new skills & practice at being self-reliant in some areas.

Now if only he would change his own mid-morning poopy diapers - that's a new skill set I could get behind.

Body parts

Liam is quite good at pointing to his body parts but it seems like this is something he likes to do in private and not for an audience!

I've been practicing this with him so we could "show off" for Nana! & Grandpa but he won't budge ;)

He can point to his eyes, nose, mouth & belly - and he also points to MY eyes, nose, mouth & belly (that's the fun one!) but has not done it with anyone else in the room - not even Dada!

I just have to get him to be a little more gentle when it comes to pointing these things out on my face - I have come away with bleeding scratches before!

We are off to CT tomorrow night for Thanksgiving then to Argentina on Friday, like I mentioned earlier, I'm going to try and post every day while gone but, of course, we will have to see how that goes.

Squirrel Boy.

I mentioned in the sidebar that I had lost possession of ALL four of Liam's chupies - I have never misplaced those chupies before & I sure felt a sense of defeat in losing them.

Today while showing my mom our portable car seat for Argentina, I noticed that Liam had put a soda (seltzer water) bottle screw top into this hole in the box. It's a hole about the size of a birdhouse opening & I think simply allows the consumer to touch the fabric or see the pattern - totally useless in other words.

Upon further inspection, I discovered TWO of the chupies squirreled away in the box via the viewing of the fabric hole. At first, I just glimpsed one & then after I dug it out, I realized that a second one was hiding behind!

When he did this, I have no idea - let alone the fact that he did it twice. Especially after I would repeatedly ask him where his chupies where & he would actually walk around looking for them. He did not hide them at the same time either because we do not allow him to bring his chupies outside of his room but I folded a little tiny bit (to which he took full advantage of) and allowed him a chupie downstairs when he was under the weather. So he knew where his chupies where because he hid them there, not once, but twice and I am totally not buying this innocent act he's going to try & pull on me.

This kid cracks me up though - and I'm just thinking now I should probably look there for the missing puzzle piece that he just received this evening so it's not like it's been missing for days!

Little squirrel boy, for sure.

Water, Water Everywhere!

Two new tricks courtesy of the Liam Fellow!

1. He now attempts to drink from the cat water bowls. While meowing.
2. Last night in the tub, he leaned over and dunked his face AND BLEW BUBBLES! We have NOT taught him this & he did it more than once with no care in the world!

I'm getting ready to go pick Nana! up from the train station in Quantico & I've been telling Liam all day that Nana! is coming on the train (woo!woo!) so I'm really curious to see his reaction when he finally sees his beloved Nana!

Everyone have a great Friday & a fantastic weekend :)

Firsts!

Here's a little grocery list of Firsts Liam has had this past weekend:

• First french fries! Five Guys, of course
• First dinner out with Mama & Dada!
  
• First dinner off the Kids' Menu! Ravioli & some bread
• First time he has shown us his belly AND poked at OUR bellies!
• First time he has pointed to his nose, eyes & mouth when asked where they are! He also points (or grabs fiercely) to my nose, eyes & mouth!

I've definitely got more to say about all these things but I wanted to get this out there before I run out of time today AND this way I also have something to work off of to elaborate on everything he has been doing lately!

Meow!

Liam has been meowing for a couple of days now, and of course I think it's just the cutest thing in the entire world.

He usually only does it when he is going upstairs, past Monkey's bowls with the cat paws on them. He will point at the paws & meow :) Still hisses at Mystic though, although I'm working on getting him to meow at them also.

Happy Birthday Dada!

Thank you for teaching me so many things but I really like it when we play outside & we get to play soccer!
You're the bestest Dada EVER!
I love you, Dada.
Besos, Liam Robert

Sink Baths

Liam will take sink baths if I'm not home or busy, like last night setting up for a crop for which no one showed up, since it's easier for one person to handle him in the sink rather than the tub.

Matias called me upstairs & told me to bring the camera - I had heard them giggling & such over the monitor but wasn't sure exactly what was going on.

I love these pictures that I got of him. Here's my favorite one right now, for the moment. It won't be long before he's too small for the sink & there's another thing slipping through our fingers as he gets older and grows from our wee nino to our little big boy to our big boy...

Shopping!

I had to rush out & get Liam some lounge around/everyday clothes since he seemed to only have "outfits" according to his father...

I decided to hit up Kohl's & Old Navy to see what they had on sale & I came away with some nice treats!

Kohl's had Carter's fuzzy footies on sale - same price as the outlet - and they also had their own name brand (Sonoma) on sale for $5 each piece! WOOT! So I got him a sweat shirt (blue with a red dino emblem), two sweat pants (red & orange), two turtlenecks (blue & a patterned "trucks" with orange accents), two footie jammies & two Elmo sippy cups!

At Old Navy they had all their rugby shirts on sale - we are a huge fan of rugby shirts in this house - plus their two piece jammies were marked down to $6.99! WOOT! I got him 3 pairs of jammies (robots, race cars & dinos), he can wear those through the spring, two rugby shirts (blue stripes & brown stripes), a white turtle neck, a striped (blues & oranges) onesie & slippers!

I was thinking about hitting up Children's Place & checking Target out but I think we are pretty well covered now for the season!

Happy Friday!

Too smart for his own good

Did y'all know that the lids from the Gerber Lil' Crunchies fit on the Take N' Toss bowls (not sure if they are Gerber!)??

Liam figured it out yesterday eating his snackies & playing with the empty container/lid. I didn't realize it until he brought it over to me since he couldn't get it off. And I was all "holy crap" I had no idea those fit onto these bowls!

Another thing that kind of makes me think he's too smart for his own good is when he is playing with his mouse or some other old piece of computer ware he will go over to a wall outlet and try to plug it in. How on earth does it he knows it needs to be plugged in (forget that they don't belong in the wall) OR that this is where he would accomplish this?

He has gotten pretty decent at screwing lids back onto the discarded seltzer water bottles too. Still cannot really undo them so he asks me to do that for him but he's got the screw back on part down! I haven't really caught him doing this but I know he's doing it cause he's bringing it back over for me to unscrew again for him!

It's also quite cute to watch him take his mouse over to the laptop media station & move it around the table like he's making it work :) He clicks away & mouses it around just waiting for something to pop up on the screen.

Looks like we've got a little Geek in the makings here!