Potty Training...

Well this has been an interesting and trying week. Monday we had his 18mo check up. He weighed 24lbs 7oz (30%) and was 50% in height and maybe a little bigger in head... I forgot what percentile. He did great for Dr. Malone! I told him that I was going to start potty training on Tuesday and he told me if I was able to pt an 18mo old boy, I needed to right a book. LOL That's what I've heard quite a bit! But I figure it's worth a try. Hey, we've saved money on diapers this week! (although we've gone through some spot shot and paper towels...)
So I started naked baby training on Tuesday morning... no pants at all, except for a diaper at naptime and bedtime. I've tried to keep my eyes on him at all times to see when he looks like he's about to tinkle. When he looks like he's ready to go (or after he starts to tinkle on the floor), I try to encourage him to sit on the potty (maybe read a book or watch tv or something). I've made a spread sheet and have recorded every time he's tinkled or pooped, all with cute little graphics, and if he tries to go on the potty - or refuses - I make a note of that. I put a little heart graphic in the spreadsheet whenever we have a success. So that being said...
Day 1...
4 hearts - 3 of which were after he first tinkled on the floor, but finished in the potty. This was a hard day! The Lord blessed me with a positive attitude though... Elijah tinkled a lot in 5 min intervals. =) He would tinkle a little and I guess he would surprise himself by seeing it, so then he would stop. I mean, for 20+ min before naptime, I was just trying to get him in a diaper but he wouldn't stop tinkling for me to put it on him!!! lol But it was the first day...
Day 2...
9 hearts - 3 of which were after he first tinkled on the floor, but finished in the potty. 6 were counted as success b/c he tinkled in front of his potty (so he tried!) and 1 was when he sat in the potty and actually went w/o an accident. We bought a new potty today and it plays music whenever he tinkles in it, which he really seemed to like. It also has a flusher that makes a noise. Fun incentives. We were able to go on a walk in his stroller (1 1/2 mi) w/o an accident. He tinkled in the tub immediately before and in the potty immediately afterwards. Yeah!
Day 3...
5 hearts - 3 of which were w/o accidents (one he warned me in advance) and the other 2 were in front of the potty, so I counted them as a try. This was a very trying day. It's so hard to be encouraging and not scold him for doing something that comes natural to him... especially when he likes to rub his hands in the pee that's all over the floor! At one point, he was being super sweet and cuddly, but I was so down about the day that we just rocked in the chair as I cried and talked to him. I'm so proud of him for trying so hard and I just want him to see that. I'm just hard on myself.But Stephen gave me lots of encouraging words and helped me to focus on the small successes that we've made. One thing that worked really well was to lure him to the potty with a piece of a cupcake (no frosting, but the confetti kind of cake). He wanted it so bad and I told him he had to tinkle in the potty first and then he'd get the cake. He fussed and fussed sitting there and then...music played...yeah!!!
Also, today was Elijah's year and half birthday! And it was our 4 year anniversary! It was such a romantic evening - chasing around our naked little boy!
Day 4...
(today) As of 3:15, he has already had 9 hearts!!!! Only one of which was an accident first!!! He told me he had to tinkle upstairs, and both the potties were downstairs, so I just plopped him up on the "big potty". He tinkled immediately! Then I put him down and he cried, so I put him back up there and he tinkled 2 more times!!! When I've lured him to his little potty today, it hasn't taken very long at all for him to tinkle - like 30 sec or so. Unfortunately, I had to put a diaper on him for almost 3 hours today b/c our realtor came over to shoot a video. After an hour and a half, I sat him on the potty and he tinkled right away. And right before naptime, I sat him on the potty and he tinkled again! Today has felt very successful - only 3 accidents (one was during snack time in his highchair). I thank the Lord for a good day so far b/c I just needed to see it clicking with Elijah and I'm really starting to. But this is all naked... in a few more days we'll add the clothes and see how it goes from there. =) Say a prayer for us! It would be so nice to only have the cost of one baby in diapers come August. =) (By the way - make sure you vote off to the side... girl or boy?!)

Elijah's First Vacation Bible School!

This week, I taught music at Hunter Street's VBS (aka Summerquest). They had childcare for all the workers' kids, but they really treated it like an actual class. Even though I only taught from 9:30 to 11, the asked to keep him from 8:30 to 12. I had to pack a lunch for him to eat with his friends - I had never packed him a lunch to eat out w/o me before, so I was a bit nervous! =) Everyday, he came home with some crafts they had done. They used little dot sticks (like bingo dabbers), crayons, glue sticks, paint... He made a choo choo train, a shaker, a fishing rod w/ some yellow fish, a boomerang, etc. They even had a music class everyday! By the end of the week, when I asked him "What do we learn about at church?" instead of saying, "mick mouse!" he would respond, "Bi--ble." And then I would ask him "Who's the bible about?" and he would say "Jesus." Too precious! He's understands what a bible is since we tell him to grab it off the book shelf every night to read while he drinks his milk (and he chooses it among 15 or so books). So it's really neat to see him making the connection between his bible and Jesus. It was a really fun week for him - exhausting, but fun. However, after seeing how much crafts they did in one week, I now feel obligated to start gluing and painting more with him! So I guess we'll add a craft segment to our day!

Our Little Smarty Pants

Elijah is amazing me everyday! I can totally understand why parents think they're kids are all geniuses! Yesterday morning, I walked into his room to pick him up and he's smiling, saying "blue! blue!" for my blue bathrobe that I had on. He is really starting to learn his colors! When we're in the car, he'll yell out "YELLOW!" every time we pass a yellow car or see one of those yellow signs on the side of the road; and when we're stopped at a red light, he'll yell "green! go!" after the light changes. He still responds that most things are yellow when you ask him the color, but if you ask him twice, he'll most likely tell you the correct color. =) He's getting to know his shapes too! He tells us circle, star, triangle, & heart. We're working on the rest...
He is definitely my little talker too... He was sitting on my lap yesterday and he asked for his daddy. I told him that daddy's at work and he replied, as always, "baseball." Normally I correct him, but I just sat there watching the wheels turn in his head as he yelled "swing!!!"....(Elijah thought for a few sec)..."go! go! go!"....."run! run! run!" (while pumping his arms, of course). Too cute. He was watching me make him eggs the other day and he said "egg...egg... crack it!...mix mix!" His vocabulary is growing so much! I don't know where all of his words are coming from, but I love it. He also made mommy proud when he sang "rain rain....go away! go away!" He was so proud of himself for learning that second part of the song. He now replies with his version of I love you ("I do") sometimes when we tell him we love him, and he'll just kiss us out of no where. He absolutely melts our hearts!
BIG NEWS! Last night, Elijah started kind of grabbing himself, so I asked him if he needed to go pee pee and he said "uh huh." So I said, "let's go to the potty" and he ran towards the bathroom. So we took off his diaper and he sat down and started looking through a magazine, telling me the different things he saw. Within 30 seconds, he tinkled!!!! We said "yeah!!!" and clapped and then he said "tissue," so I gave him some toilet paper. Then he said "wipe, wipe" and he wiped himself and was done! Stephen and I had a talk later where he told me that I have to eliminate the tissue and wipe part... what can I say? I'm a girl and he learns from me! But Stephen suggested that, when he asks for a tissue, he can just blow his nose after he tinkles. lol! We're officially starting to potty train Monday, so this gives me a little more confidence going into it. It will be a crazy week of not really going anywhere, but hopefully the payoff will be worth it.

Trip to the Zoo

Last week, our Sunday school class' play group met up at the Birmingham Zoo. We had so much fun! We saw a bunch of animals (camels and the sand cat were among his favorite), rode the choo choo train & the carousel, pet some barnyard animals, and played in the little water/squirt play area for a while. He did not seem to like the goats in the petting zoo this time around... one of them really loved the way he smelled and would NOT leave him alone. Elijah kept whining, then would say "bye bye" to the goat, then would whine, then say "bye bye"... I was cracking up laughing! Then, when we went to see the sheep, they were all at the back of their pen, so he yelled "come!... come!" Surprisingly enough, they didn't respond to his command. He had a blast playing with (or should I say eating gold fish from) Abby Grace, Joy's little 3 year old girl. At one point, he looked at her and did his motion and word for the itsy bitsy spider, which sounds like "E-E-I, E-E-I;"she understood him and started singing the song! It was so precious! We had a great time and he was out cold before we even left the parking lot.

Our Trip to Orlando

Our much anticipated trip to Orlando is now over. =( We had an absolute blast though! Here's a breakdown of our trip...
Tues, Day 1: Elijah had his first experience on an airplane. We prayed very hard for a quiet flight and the Lord was so good to give Elijah a sweet, happy attitude the entire flight! He loves airplanes, but he saw a car on the runway as we were leaving and kept asking to see a car while we were in the air. Needless to say, that didn't happen. Stephen got to go golfing at Grand Cypress once we got there while Elijah and I, after many wrong turns and stressful tears, made it to Beth and Jay's. We had an easy going night, visiting with our best friends!
Wed, Day 2: Stephen went golfing at the Magnolia today while Elijah and I hung out together. We went shopping and got Elijah and the baby matching outfits for Christmas from Strasburg... a matching set for a girl and a matching set for a boy. =) We also went to the playground and the pool and had a fun afternoon. That night, Elijah's Uncle Jay & Aunt Beth babysat Elijah. They had a lot of fun together (although during their fun Beth's phone somehow ended up in the pool...). Stephen and I enjoyed a fun evening that started with "cocktails" (aka water) at a marina outside the Dolphin Resort at Disney and ended with a great dinner at Shula's. It was fun getting to meet some of the people that Stephen does business with (and enjoying a beautiful evening while doing so!)
Thurs, Day 3: Today was the highlight of the trip for Stephen - golfing at Bayhill! He had a great time. Elijah and I drove to Clearwater to visit his Gram Gram. We had so much fun and it was so good to see her! We went on a walk around the bay and saw a dolphin! We had lunch, played on Gram Gram's organ, ran around her house... He loved dancing around to her bear that sang "Girls just want to have fun." lol I always loved visiting my Nanny and Poppy in Clearwater when I was little, so it was really fun seeing him have fun there too. We went back to Beth and Jay's house while he napped in the car. That night, the 5 of us just hung out around the house.
Fri, Day 4: Elijah and I went to the pool and playground before his nap. Afterwards, Stephen, Elijah, and I went to Hollywood Studios for a few hours. He got to meet Mickey Mouse! While we were in line, he kept yearning and calling for "Mick Mouse!" He went up to Mickey and said hi and then hugged him. It was very sweet. We went to the Playhouse Disney show, which he really enjoyed. We played around in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground and watched a few shows before heading out. We went out to dinner w/ Jay, Beth, Brian, and his fiance, Laurey. It was an exhausting evening, but we had a great time.
Sat, Day 5: Today was our marathon day. We played around the house in the morning before going with Jay and Beth to their friend's daughter's birthday party. Little Addie turned two and had a fun Minnie mouse pool party. Elijah had a great time playing in the pool and running down his gas tank before his nice, long nap. After he woke up, Jay, Beth, Stephen, Elijah, and I went to Magic Kingdom. It was so much fun!!!! We rode the boat to get to the park, which was as magical as ever. Daddy, Uncle Jay, and Elijah all tried to pull the sword out of the stone (see the pictures), but to no avail. We got to ride the giant carousel, during which he kept saying "Neigh, Neigh!"
We saw the 3-D show, Mickey's Philharmagic. Elijah was so cute with his 3-D glasses on, reaching for the objects in the air. Then we rode Dumbo, which he was so anxious to get on, yelling "Dumbo! Dumbo!" We all got do relax a second during It's a Small World. We went in the evening, so we saw their nighttime parade which was all aglow with lights. It was so cool. We ended the visit with a beautiful fireworks show at Cinderella's castle. Elijah was, once again, out before we got home.
We had such a fun trip and it was great visiting with friends and family. After a long trip back to Birmingham, we are finally at home, safe and sound.

Silly Elijah

This is the face our sweet boy makes when you ask him to make his "silly face"... it's followed by a huge smile because he knows he's so cute! It's really funny to watch him do it in the mirror because he makes himself laugh, and then he can't make his silly face because he's smiling so big! Too precious...

His newfound fun is finding shadows. He first found it on the tennis courts when we were playing soccer. He likes to wave to it and chase it... and especially likes it when his shadow and mommy's shadow do the itsy bitsy spider. Everytime he sees a shadow, whether it be on the dance floor when we're watching "Dancing With the Stars" or when we're taking a stroller ride, he yells, "shadow!!!" He's really good at pointing them out to us.

Another fun word he just loves to say is bicycle... which he pronounces oh so cutely as "Bi-thi-ble," always saying the first syllable with a high pitch. And when he sees a bike, scooter, wheelchair, or motorcycle, he says, "bi-thi-ble, bi-thi-ble, bi-thi-ble!"

And here is the picture of Elijah's new girlfriend, Karidyn McKenzie. She was born yesterday to his Aunt Holly and Uncle Jonathan. He has already given her a sweet little pet name - he kept calling her "baby." =)