The Potty Train!

We've been potty training for almost a month now.  After attempting last summer and quickly learning Cooper wasn't ready, we were cautious not to rush into it again.  This time around, things are clicking much better. That said, this is still no cake walk!

Here are some things that worked well for us:

1. The week before we started talking about the potty and counting down the days.  We picked up some new Thomas the Train underwear from Target.  (Side note: Cooper originally picked out Dora underwear. It was bright pink and clearly marketed for girls, like all Dora stuff...which makes no sense since the show is fairly unisex.  Anyway, I was going to let him get it but practicality won over when I realized the set included just 1 pair of underwear and a tank top.  As another side note, I later googled "Is Dora appropriate for boys?" - there's a lot of good discussion about this on the internet!)

2. We went on lock-down for about a week.  Didn't leave the house except to play outside.  I don't know how Lara did it for 5 days (Mon. - Fri.) because I was going out of my mind after the 2-day weekend!

3. We went straight to underwear (no pull-ups except for naptime) and set the timer at 20 minute intervals.  I knew Cooper would start to get annoyed with the frequency, so I tried to come up with something to make it fun, which turned out to be...

4. Food coloring!  We put a few drops of food coloring in the toilet.  This was a big hit.  I let Cooper help with the process.  It was a little messy but the goal was to keep his interest while establishing the habit - and it did.

5. M&Ms after every successful potty trip.  Candy is definitely a motivator for Cooper.  Sticker charts don't usually work for him because he just wants to pull the stickers off.  I had a basket of reward toys ready to go, but he wasn't very interested.  M&Ms were it for us.

6. We pulled out the iPad or laptop a few times to keep him on the potty longer than 3 seconds.

Now for the things not working so well...we've still got a lot of work to do in the poop department - he simply doesn't want to do it in the potty!  That leads to a whole other set of fun issues. We're also still doing a diaper for nighttime and naps. 


Overall, we're really proud of Coop's progress and and happy to have this milestone underway.

P.S. Can I tell you how NOT fun potty training is when a porta-potty is your only option? Or when you are spending the afternoon at King's Dominion?  We have done both and lived to tell about it.

Mother's Day 2013

We had an awesome Mother's Day weekend!  I got pampered on Saturday with 4 hours at the spa - facial, massage, manicure, and pedicure.  It was heavenly!  Sunday we went to the Chesterfield Berry Farm with the grandparents, minus Allen who had to work.  Per tradition, Cooper ate a million strawberries while we were picking.  They sure were yummy this year.

Working on his John Hancock

Cooper totally surprised us this morning by signing his own name on a card.  You can almost tell what it says!

First Chomper Check

Cooper had his first visit to the dentist in April.  We were really dreading it.  Trying to envision Cooper sitting still and letting strangers poke and prod in his mouth just didn't sound like a recipe for success.  Surprisingly, it was a good visit and an overall positive experience. I don't think we'll have a hard time getting him to go back in 6 months.

We picked Dr. Wood, a pediatric dentist, for a few reasons.  1 - He was Jason's dentist back in the day. 2 - He came highly recommended by friends. 3 - We felt that an office set up especially for kids was more likely to be successful.

Dr. Wood and his staff were awesome.  They knew just what to do to make Cooper comfortable.  There was a train table in the waiting room, and they gave Cooper a little goody bag full of stickers, toothpaste, toothbrush, etc. as soon as he sat down in the dentist chair.  Then they showed him each instrument before they put it in his mouth.  The whole cleaning process was pretty quick.

Best part of the visit: Dr. Wood asked Cooper how many teeth he has.  Cooper started counting and stopped at 20, which is always his stopping point.  Suddenly, Dr. Wood and the hygienist were looking at me in amazement.  I thought they must be impressed he could count to 20.  I then learned that 20 is the correct number of teeth and they thought Cooper knew the right answer (which clearly doesn't happen very often).  Not so much!