Potty Training, snow, books

Potty training has regressed back to diapers! You think you know everything until you try to potty train your toddler in 3 days. When we attempt to potty train him again, we will take a much slower approach. When I put him back in diapers it was a sigh of relief, I could finally just snuggle him on the couch in peace instead of accidentally throwing him and the iPad off the couch when he started peeing.

For Christmas we got Nico a game called "Roll and Play". Anyone with a toddler might find this game fun. It comes with a big stuffed die that the child can roll (er.. THROW), and then depending on the color that is rolled, they pick a card. Then you have to do what's on the card. Most of the time when we play this game, after a few rolls of the die, Nico reverts to manually flipping the die onto the side he wants. After a few of those, he then skips the die entirely and chooses a card color pile to mow through. In the picture, Nico picked the yellow "Make an angry face" card. He clenches up his arms and shivers them back and forth really fast.

Garbage day fell on the one day this past week that we were flooded with snow (Tuesday). Nico and I made an adventure of our trip to the curb. It took quite a while to haul the trash can through the snow over the grass, but we were sure to pause often for pictures.

On Wednesday we went to the library and got Nico his very own library card. He chose the card with a fish on it. What he mostly likes doing at the library is climbing up and down the stairs to the second floor. 2nd to that is pulling out all the dinosaurs from the toy bin and putting them on the table. Books, he could probably take or leave. I did pick some picture books out so we could check something out on his new card. And we needed some new books for reading time after dinner. Have I mentioned already that after dinner is book time? We read books at other times, but after dinner is when Nico reads books on his own at the kitchen table while I finish the dishes. Then I grab a book and join him at the table. It's a nice routine to have. I've been able to read through 3 juvenile fiction books in the past few weeks because of this!

His favorite of the library books is one called "Animals Home Alone". No words, just pictures. He likes to find the fish on every page.

Today (Thursday) we went to see Allicia and Evie. They had lent us some toddler underwear and waterproof pads for our potty training, so we were returning them. Nico loves going to see Evie.  I saw Nico actually play WITH Evie today, and interact with her to the point of "asking" her to come into the fort with him so that she could follow him out through the fort's window. They play really well together. Nico got real silly and was letting his personality show, it was fun to see.

Oh, and forgot to mention about docs and things. Guy had his blood work done this week. Still haven't heard anything from Nico's blood work (which usually means that he is just peachy). I get my blood work done tomorrow. Then we will all be done with blood and doctors for a while, hopefully!

Docs and Potty Training

They hired nursery workers at church this past week, and it was fabulous! Both Nico and I had a blast on Sunday. He stayed the whole time in the toddler room and I was able to hear the entire sermon! What a blessing. Nico did great and really likes the teacher. He barely knew that I was missing. What a change from a few months ago!

Also this week, we took Nico to his new pediatrician for the first time. The one he used to have retired when Nico was 1 year old, and now he is 2 1/2. I figured it was about time to find a new one! She is a family doctor as well, so we are ALL seeing her! Guy's first appointment was on Monday and Nico's was on Tuesday. Guy got some nifty nose spray for his sinus inflammation, and everyone has to get blood drawn as a baseline. Nico had his blood drawn on Wednesday morning and he did great! As a precaution, one of the nurses held his arm still, but he didn't try to move it anyway. He watched them prick his arm and he barely flinched at all. As they were taking the blood I kept telling him what was happening: "Cooool look at your blood! They're taking blood out of your arm!" The nurse said that she had never seen a calmer kid. Nico does pretty well for himself.

Wednesday is when we started potty training. As soon as we got home from the blood draw in the morning, we started. We are doing the 3-day potty training via 3daypottytraining.com. We bought the ebook, bought tons of underwear, a new potty seat for our toilet, and threw away all the diapers. No looking back! I had Nico throw the diapers away, and then we put some underwear on one of his stuffed bears after putting some on him. He will be running around in underwear for at least 3 days. Near the end of Wednesday, Nico learned how to hold it in, so the number of accidents slowed down considerably. Thursday was a mix of accidents and successes. He has stayed dry during naps, but night time he has been wet. The plan tonight is to wake him an hour after having put him down to take him to the potty. There are other tricks to help with night time peeing, but we will start with that.

I'm unsure if we will make it to church on Sunday! I'm hoping we'll be able to. Staying cooped up without pants on is probably not Nico's idea of fun.

Now for some pictures! (And a video!)

Nico and Guy watching a video on the iPad

And this here is how we broke the crib :)

A normal afternoon in the living room, listening to music and coloring.

And now for a video! I won't be doing these every week, but it's fun to put these together on occasion. 

Bed

This week is notable because we successfully transferred Nico to his big boy bed. Guy asked him which bed he wanted to sleep in on Monday night, and Nico wanted the big boy bed, so off he went. No trouble, went right to sleep, and slept on a pillow for the first time ever.

On Tuesday he had his first nap in his new bed. About an hour after putting him down, I hear his door knob start to turn. The door is hard to open, so he wasn't able to pull it open, but he was certainly trying. Then he started knocking on the door. So I answered it. I went in and told him that he needed to stay in his bed until nap time was over. He went right back up into his bed. At 2:00 I went in to wake him up and he was already awake, lying on his back with his feet on the wall.

No nap time wakings since then!

We dismantled his crib and for now we'll be keeping the crib mattress in his room because it is so fun to jump on! The crib itself will be going in the garbage. We let Nico climb up the side of it and it broke. But, at least we were having fun when it happened. We've been having fun with all parts of the dismantled crib.

Today was a notable day in itself, because Nico had a case of Nursemaid's Elbow (from wikipedia: Nursemaid's elbow, babysitter's elbow, or pulled elbow is a dislocation of the elbow joint caused by a sudden pull on the extended pronated arm, such as by an adult tugging on an uncooperative child or by swinging the child by the arms during play.) We were walking into WinCo, and when Nico realized that he was going to have to get into a cart, he pulled on my hand, twisted himself and sat down on the floor. I pulled him up by his hand, and that's when it happened. He all of a sudden couldn't use his arm any more and he started crying. I thought we were going to need to take him to the emergency room, but then I remembered that we have a chiropractor. I called him up and he let us come right in. When we got to his office, I took Nico's coat off and he walked around the office, whimpering, he could use his right arm just fine but couldn't lift his left arm. It was so sad to see it! The doc fixed him right up. He was afraid to use his arm for a while after that, but after he realized that it didn't hurt anymore, he was fine just fine.

Weekly!

This blog will be officially changing over to a weekly schedule, instead of daily. More pictures, more text, but just one day a week. And I think Thursday will be that day, to follow in the footsteps of "Nico Thursdays" when he was younger. So.. stay tuned for an update tomorrow!

Hat

Church this morning. Nico sat through the whole service!

We found a hat with ears in the closet, not sure where it came from, but Nico loves it and wears it around the house whenever he finds it.

New Bed

We set up Nico's new bed and here is the little buddy trying it out for the first time! He still needs some practice getting in and out of it, but with the mattress in there it should be easier.

Icicle

We went outside this morning to bring the trash can back from the curb, and we saw lots of icicles. There were a few on his tricycle, so I broke one off and after handing it to Nico he instantly put it into his mouth.

Colors and Phone

Two pictures today! perhaps to make up for the lack of posts lately.

First one is of Nico at the table having stacked the lids of his do-a-dot paints onto one of the markers. He was very proud. After this he would bump the tower with his head and then rebuild.

Next picture.. We found a phone in a box in Nico's closet, so I pulled it out and it's now his play phone. He likes to put it next to the iPad and randomly answer it while he's playing.

Snow

We got a few inches of snow today. Guy and Nico went out in it for a while.
First picture is the preparatory work.

Crib book

This is what Nico was up to when I went in to wake him up from his nap: already awake and reading a book.

Mall

Went to the mall this morning with Grandma Salisbury, also got to see my brother and his family, lots of Nico's cousins! It was great to see everyone. Nico ate an entire breadless sandwich again today, this time from Great Steak and Potato. He loves meat and cheese, and he seems to be quite fond of tomatoes, too.