Catch up post

Ok, it's been a while, a long while actually. Here is what we've been up to (in no particular order).

Ryan is potty trained. And it happened before the baby came. Actually it happened pretty easy once Ryan got into it. I would say Ryan was trained by mid -February. I had been putting him in diapers at night and for naps. Most nap times he was waking up dry so I stopped using diapers at nap time. Then we told him were were going to try to go without diapers at night and he was very excited to keep his underwear on. And he didn't have a single night time accident. Still hasn't. He will even get up in the middle of the night to go potty if he has to. Amazing.

Adam is out of our bed and in the room with Ryan. The key was switching beds. We moved Ryan over to the toddler bed which he was happy about since it is Winnie the Pooh and put Adam in the big boy bed. Some nights we'll find Adam snuggled up to Ryan in the toddler bed. He was still waking up during the night but now he is getting closer to sleeping through...except for his bed wetting...which I'll get to.

In February during the Family Day Activities at the JJ Parr, I took Ryan and Adam to a wooden Thomas the Train exhibit. The boys were given a train set for Christmas (I think it was Ryan's but Adam loves trains as much and plays with it now as much as Ryan) and so I thought this would be a good thing to do. The exhibit is amazing and maybe next spring/summer we can take a trip to Big Sky with either my parents or maybe the Seattle Melanchuks. There is also a small air museum that I know the"older" boys would enjoy.

The final trimester of my pregnancy went quickly and without any problems. And before I knew it we were hitting spring like weather and my mom was set to arrive any day. As a typical spring here, the temps were like a yo-yo as it snowed and melted, snowed and melted; Mother Nature couldn't seem to make up her mind. Then we were off to the city to pick up my mom. The boys were very happy and excited to see her again. We moved Ryan to the back of the van and he really seems to like being there.

Then of course there was the birth of our final little man, Anthony. I'll dedicate a separate entry to the birth and recovery from c-section number three. My mom was here for the full 6 weeks of my recovery and that was awesome. We are so glad that she and Jim are posted back to Cold Lake this summer. So while she was here we started looking at possible houses for them. We are expecting them back the first week of July for a proper house hunting trip and then hopefully they will be moved back by early August.
One of the last things my mom was here for was Adam's 2nd birthday. We invited some of our friends and had a great little party. I had wanted to have it outside in the back yard but the two days before it rained pretty steady, cooled down and made everything wet. So we moved everything inside and it went pretty well. It is easy to forget that Adam is only 2. He is very independent, he speaks very well, he is very strong physically and able to do things physically and is almost as tall and weighs almost as much as Ryan. I'll share more about the party and 2 year old Adam in a later post. Adam's newest issue is bedwetting. We haven't been potty training (although he did go a couple of times while I was in the hospital having Anthony) he is just obsessed with playing with his diaper. He often manages to get it pulled off at least partially and then wets the bed. It is very frustrating. We've tried many different things and just when we think we've found a solution, he figures a way out and wets the bed again.

Since my mom has left, we've all been adjusting into our new life as a "party of five" (a shout out to a favorite show from days at the UofA). There have been renovations at two parks near our house which have been big hits the boys. There will be lots of new park pictures over the summer I am sure. We've also been spending some time at our friends CSA garden. While my mom was here for the first 6 weeks of Anthony's life, it is hard to believe he is already 3 months old!! Again, these are topics that I anticipate blogging about in the near future with more details.

Stay tuned folks!

January Fun

The weather has finally warmed up after the deep freeze from most of December and into this new year. We've been taking advantage of it by sledding, walking, attending an outdoor birthday party and even washing my van.

The birthday party was so much fun. A friend of ours lives on a farm just outside of town and their property backs onto one of the bays of the lake. They have cleared off part of the bay as an ice rink which they have named "The Coors Lite Arena". There was skating for those with skates, hockey for all, a campfire for roasting hotdogs and staying toasty, hot chocolate and juice plus birthday cupcakes. A good time was had by all. I pulled the boys down to the rink in our wagon and they loved being pulled around the ice in it. They also took turns pulling each other around, and it was a good place to sit and eat. There was a muskrat that decided to crash the party and we even spotted a GIANT moose across the bay.

We've been experimenting with a new bedtime routine, including quiet time before bed and an earlier bed time. Quiet time before bed involves putting on jammies and then spending a couple of minutes doing something fun with the boys that isn't too loud. Puzzles, books and playdoh are all big hits. This is working well for us.

Another thing the boys are really enjoying lately, is forts! They love to tip over furniture, use pillows and blankets to make little caves and tunnels. Sometimes Brad and I will help them out and build them a space they can both sit in at the same time without crying. This fort is in their room, using the rocking chair tipped on it's side, it's cushions and one of Ryan's bedtime blankets. They even ate a snack in there and I read them a book about camping out. We're also working on potty training Ryan before this new baby comes. He is definately making progress. We've had about 12 days of the last 15 dry. He enjoys wearing his underwear. We've even had two (well technically three) poops on the potty too. (Although the first one, I think I managed only to scare him and just the little bit that he had been able to get out broke free on the potty and not in his underwear.) But we have managed to catch him twice as he has begun his "hiding" and convinced him to go hide on the potty instead. It might seem like we're not making progress on this front but since he only goes once every couple of days unless he is sick, we're actually at about a 1/3rd success rate since we've started. Both boys are enjoying the treats. Here they are enjoying a big lollypop after a successful day. (Ryan decided he didn't want to share so in picture 3 Adam has his own lollypop). We've been using little rewards with Ryan in his potty training- treats, new little toys, new books (both picked up at after Christmas prices), stickers and doing a favorite activity with him one on one while Adam is napping (like watching a video, playing playdoh and coloring).

Potty training update

A quick update on Ryan's potty training progress. Amanda sent me an e-book on potty training which I read last night. I put some new things into action today (like using underwear not pull ups) and Ryan spent most of the day dry. He did have two accidents, the first just after dinner and the second just before getting ready for bed. But then, once in his pyjamas (and a diaper) we caught him hiding to go poop. I managed to convince him to try pooping on the potty this one time (ok- I bribed him with the promise of a new toy when we go shopping tomorrow if he did actually poop in the potty). In the past he has kicked and screamed and cried every time we try to take him to poop on the potty when we catch him about to go hide to poop and he just holds it in until we give up and then he runs and hides and poops in his diaper or pull up or whatever he is wearing. Tonight however, he finally did it in the potty! Yay! I'll gladly buy him a little toy to celebrate this success. To me it was a big step forward on our journey. I'll spare you the pictures!