Potty Party: Day 1

Today is the first official day of Blake's potty training!! We are calling it a "Potty Party!" This morning I was met with resistance ... he did not want to put on any big boy underwear! So we let him roam around with just a t-shirt on. Sam has big boy underwear too, so we put Sam's on and Blake showed Sam how to go potty. Sam got 1 Smartie when he went pee and 2 smarties when he went poo, which of course Sam couldn't eat, so Blake took care of them for him ;) After about a half an hour of "training" Sam, Blake picked up on it and Sam was going potty continuously (pee+poo=3 smarties!!), so we decided Sam was trained pretty well and it was time for Blake to try! After an accident on the couch, we decided that was it, he had to wear underwear! So we wrangled them on him and now he loves wearing his big boy undies!!! He's had about 5 pee accidents in his underwear and 1 poo. And has gone to the potty successfully many, many times (even 2 poo's)! He's even told us a few times that he had to go. He gets to put a sticker on him Elmo potty chart when he goes potty and he's had a lot of chocolate milk and apple juice today, which he normally doesn't get! But whatever works!!!! I'd say the 1st day of potty training is a total success :)

High Chair Gymnastics!

That's our Emerson! She likes to stand up in her high chair now! So the belts are on!! We haven't had to put the tray or her seat belt on, but with these newest antics we are! She also gets on her knees and leans over the side ... not too safe!! We've noticed a huge difference in her movement the past 2 weeks. She loves standing at the front picture window and has started slowly walking from the middle to the side. Funny thing though, I think she can only walk to the left!!? She gets to the far left side and never comes back! lol!! We watch out the front window every day for Cal to come home! Blake usually plays with cars on the front window ledge and Em watches out the window and laughs and does her little walk!! She loves standing there and she gets SO excited when she sees Cal. It is very sweet! She starts yelling, "Da, da!" and, "Hi Da!" I'm sure it makes Cal's day :)

I don't know how Blake can get much funnier, but he seems to come up with something new everyday that cracks us up!! He has an excellent grasp on common slang and phrases, such as, "I think that will do!" or every time someone says, "Hey!" he says, "Hay is for horses!!" lol!! And his memory ... my goodness, I don't know how he memorizes everything in his life, but I swear he has a better memory then me!! No kidding!! Cal also has an amazing memory and memorizes everything, so we think Blake takes after Cal in that regard! He brings things up from long ago that make me think for a minute before I realize, yep that's right!! We don't even question him most of the time, we just take his word to be true! He insisted that we were missing the "Mom" from Emerson's Little People dollhouse. Neither Cal nor I had any idea what she looked like, but we searched the house and still couldn't find her! So the next day when we were at Toys R Us, we checked the doll house there and then came home and searched again! We realized we hadn't looked in the very bottom basement, so Blake went down there and sure enough there she was!! We had no doubt Blake was right and there was a "Mom" missing!!!! A few nights ago he wanted me to lay in bed with him and read a book while he read his own book. I asked him to read his book to me first and then I would read my book to him. He read his book almost word for word. Afterwards I told Cal and we were trying to figure out the last time either of us read that book to him and we think it was at least 7 months ago! Hopefully this memory of his helps him in school!! I know it served Cal well!

We had a lot of fun at Preschool on Monday. Miss Rhonda brought in a bunny rabbit from home and a 7 day old baby!! She fosters animals and children and had promised the week before to bring in a rabbit! The baby was more of a surprise, as they had been waiting quite a while for a baby boy! They hope to adopt Jacob eventually. Apparently the process is a very long one. Blake loved the bunny and spent lots of time petting it and staring at it!! We also stayed a few minutes after class to get some extra pets!!! I know when Blake gets older he's going to want to bring home every animal known to man kind! He loves animals, but I think having a cat is a good deterrent to getting any other animals ... can't get a bird, can't get fish, I don't think Jazz would get a long with a rabbit, etc, etc!! Cat and dog is good for this house! Unless we ever move to an acreage, then that's a different story!!!

Tomorrow we are going to a class called Sing, Sign, Laugh and Learn at the Woodcroft library. It is a registered program at most Edmonton public libraries, but this session is drop-in this time around!

Friday Blake and I have gymnastics and Saturday potty training boot camp begins!!! I honestly don't know if Blake is ready, but we will give it a try and see what happens! If we're not successful this weekend, we'll wait and try again in a few months. We've been talking about it all week and on Tuesday we went and bought Elmo seats for the toilets! We do have two floor potties, but Blake apparently likes these seats better ... We have rewards and cool big boy underwear all ready!!! Fingers crossed it happens the first go around ... I'll let you know Sunday night!

Enjoy the remainder of your week and the upcoming weekend everyone :)

Love The Cameron's

Starting to Bum Scootch!

Emerson is becoming a bum scootcher ... sort of! Right now she's mostly bum rotating!! lol! She can do a 360 and moves forward a bit. She does move on her stomach, mostly backwards, but a small distance forwards. I'm not sure she'll ever be a crawler though ... time will tell ;) She can also stand on her own for a short period of time! Last week I'd let go of her and she'd stand very well for 30 seconds or so. The look on her face was priceless! She looked shocked and a bit scared!! I'm looking forward to having her weighed and measured at her 1 year pediatrician appointment. She feels like she's getting heavier, but as for length, I don't think she's grown very much in that way!! She's still wearing 6-9 month clothes and the 6-12 month clothes are too big!

We've had a great week and weekend! My parents came to Blake's gymnastics class on Friday and afterwards the four of us went out for dinner. Blake really enjoyed that! He ate lots of Grandpa's pizza, but I'm pretty sure Grandpa didn't mind ;) Saturday evening I hosted a Tupperware party. It was lots of fun and I can't wait to get all my Tupperware!! My pantry is going to be soooo organized!!! It was fun having a few friends over and Blake enjoyed "partying" too! This afternoon the kids and I visited Karen's day home. It was a great visit! I think they will do fine there. Blake had fun playing in the awesome play room, but I was most surprised by Emerson. She sat on the floor and played and even let Karen and her two girls play with her and hold her! I was very happy!! I thought for sure she'd whimper as soon as she left my arms ... she's a bit (okay, maybe a lot) of a Mom suck ;) But she did fantastic and only needed Mom near the end of 1 hour of playing, when she was getting hungry and tired. So our deposit is down on the day home, our spots will be held until March 1st and I'll be taking the kids back for a few more visits before I return to work! After our day home visit, we headed to Stony Plain for supper at my Mom and Dad's house. It was yummy as usual, and the kids had fun playing with Grandma and Grandpa and bathing together!

Cal is off work tomorrow, but helping a friend drywall, while the kids and I go to preschool. We're painting tomorrow, a craft that I'm sure Blake is going to LOVE!! Hopefully we'll visit the play gym before class.

Have a great week everyone ... stay warm during this, let's hope last, cold snap!

xoxo Tracy