July 13, 2008

Not much new to report around here. We have had a pretty laid-back weekend. I took the boys to the park Saturday morning and we arrived early enough that nobody else was there. The boys had a great time and it was relaxing for me, not having to watch them quite so closely. It was also nice and cool out, although that does not last for long around here these days. The highlight of our park visit for the boys was swinging on the "big boy" swings. They really enjoyed swinging on the big kid swings and I enjoyed it too. It had been a while since I had been swinging and it was fun to go high again:). Nothing quite like that feeling. I think we are now ready to take down the baby swings and put up the big-kid swings here at home.

On the potty training front, things are going very well these days. Nothing has changed with Ben; he hardly ever has an accident. The only accident he has had in quite some time was last Sunday, just after we picked him up from his class. One of the caretakers had said to me that Ben had gone to the bathroom "all by himself" and I wondered what she meant because he can't pull his pants up completely, all by himself. I think he probably went into the bathroom all by himself and that is all he did. He was wearing a pull up, which we are still using for 'just in case' situations. Right after we picked him up, he said he needed to go potty so the dad took him to the bathroom, which was about two feet away. Before they were able to get his pants down, he had an accident and it went everywhere. Since he was wearing a pull up, it seems they probably had not taken him in quite some time. I'm not surprised though because his class has some kids who are potty trained, some who are potty training and some who are in diapers. The caregivers during the first hour of the class are the same every week so they know the kids, who is doing what and who to take to the potty. The second hour is with parents of take turns volunteering each week and they do not know the status of all the kids so you just never know whether they will take them or not.

Nick has been doing much better though. I decided to chill out and let him take the lead. I now ask him if he wants to wear a pull up or underwear and he chooses. He usually chooses a pull up but he normally keeps it dry all day, even during naps. It is kind of interesting that, when I started paying very little attention to his potty training, other than complimenting his efforts and success, he started doing better. Now he is having very few accidents and has not pooped in his pants for several days. His timing is not great though. He always needs to poop just before nap and night time bed time...and he is not just faking it, he really has to go. Maybe it is because he hardly ever slows down during the rest of the day. Anyway, they are both doing very well and they really like telling me what big boys they are.

On the crib VS bed issue, we are back to sitting in their room with them until they they fall asleep, for naps and bedtime. They are happy to be in their cribs but I think it is because they are very into the challenge of climbing and jumping these days. They can climb out of them now so we are now leaving the side of the crib down to make it easier. They really like it down so it is an incentive to lie down and be quiet. At nap times, they fall asleep very fast. At bedtime, not so much and it doesn't seem to matter what time we put them down, although they are a lot more cranky when they go down later.