Potty Party

So you've never heard of a potty party?!?  I can't imagine why...

Brody's daycare teachers throw a "potty party" for each kid that is deemed "potty-trained."  Ever since we started the potty training journey, Brody has been talking about his potty-party.  The great thing is, when the other kids at daycare have one, it's incentive for the others to have one. 

Finally, we seemed to accomplish small success in going both pee and poop in the toilet.  #2 took a little (lot) bit longer, but we eventually got to the point where he did it, voluntarily, on his own.  Once at "home" (we were actually out to dinner @ BW3s...who knew that's where he would decide to go!) and then again at daycare the next day.  So, his teachers promised him that if he keeps his underwear clean for one more week, then he gets his party.

One week and a few days later, he had his potty party.  So what do you do at a potty party?  Well...

First, you put underwear on your head:

Second, Brody gets to pick the snack (Oranges) and flavor of milk (Strawberry).  And his teacher got him a balloon.



Then, your parents come, and you get to make them wear underwear on their heads.   

Brody has been talking for months about how he wants his brother to come to his potty party.  At first we were unsure if Aedan was coming in utero or in person.  But at 8 days old, Aedan showed up to the potty party.  He did not, however, wear underwear on his head.

 

 As silly as it seems, it was important for Brody to be recognized as much as possible for being potty trained.  We've already had one minor set-back, but he's come a long way in the last few months.  We're very proud of him.

Daycare Fun

Yesterday I got the following e-mail from daycare:

"Once again Brody was the only boy in the room. When I was putting 'prettys' in the girls' hair, Brody pulled his own hair and signed 'Please.' He even looked up at where we keep the rubber bands! With the new refined 'please' baby sign and those big blue eyes I couldn't say no..."

She also added that she told him that some football players wear ponytails too! And then said, I hope you don't mind! This type of thing doesn't bother me in the slightest, I think it's cute. With Brody's mohawk the first year of his life, it isn't the first time a teacher put his hair in a ponytail! I laughed, put the picture on my phone and forwarded it to Jason right away.

However...Jason thought Brody should have a hairstyle more like Daddy's...so here's what he looked like this morning...

I do have to say, the styled look does make my heart melt. He looks like such a big kid!

Proud Daddy

I've heard other women say how much their husband impressed them when they had their first child and how they love him so much more watching him turn from husband to loving parent. Honestly, it wasn't the same with us...

The thing is, I knew Jason was a wonderful father long before we had children. I knew he'd be a natural and I knew he'd love our son more than anything in the world. There was really no surprise there! He has two nephews who he cares so much about. When one of Jason's best friends had her little girl, he naturally loved playing with her. He was born to be a father.

However, every once and awhile he still catches me off guard with something he says or does.

You see, Jason is a fairly practical parent, where I tend to be more doting. However, he's also a bit competitive, wanting his son to be the best. So when he tells me last night that Brody drew the best picture at daycare that day, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Really?!? Our 10 month old is artistic? I personally think his art looks like scribbles, or blobs of paint. Somehow though, Jason sees through all that and brags about how his chalk art was much better than the rest of the class. How he used "shading" to make it more artsy.

This morning I checked out the masterpiece. I really think it looks like he smeared chalk all over paper -- but I guess that's just me.

Toddler

Yes, I'm scared of the word toddler. That means Brody will no longer be a baby and I might have to accept that he's growing up way too fast. I know there are lots of moms out there rolling there eyes and thinking, "get used to it, this is only the beginning!"


Honestly, I am not great with change in my personal life. Up until now, I've been able to plan ahead for big changes. We planned when we wanted to start a family in advance, we've planned our house purchases in advance, I had 9ish months to plan our wedding. Can you tell I'm also a control freak?

So of course I approached motherhood the same way. I read a lot about baby milestones and "what to expect." For those of you that are laughing right now, yes I realize it was naive to think I could plan the ups and downs of having a baby. But there was one thing I thought I could count on...I had 12 months until he was no longer a "baby."

Then about a month ago, I received an email from our daycare saying that Brody would move to a Toddler Room on November 15th. After re-reading it 5 times, I realized they must have just made a mistake. Clearly they mixed him up with someone else. He won't be a toddler until January!! So I sent an email back explaining their error.

Then came her very understanding response,

"I know what you are saying, I thought the same thing. It's hard to think of these little guys so close to being a Toddler!"

But, no, he is really is moving up in November.

Our wonderfully awesome daycare is actually expanding by adding a couple new rooms and Brody will be one of the lucky ones to move into the new room. Which means, moving early.

While my logical side of my brain says, yes, this makes sense and yes the teachers are doing a great job managing the early tranisiton. And yes, I know he's going to love his new room with older friends. But the mommy-side of my brain says, "he's just too little!!"

So I thought I had 12 months before I had to accept sleeping on a cot, one nap a day and eating table food...I guess I really only had 10 months. Slowly but surely I'll start to accept that I cannot control everything about my little guy. But it won't stop me from trying!

Brody is 7 Months Old

Babies grow fast and Brody is no exception. However, I honestly think his biggest month of change occured over the last month. Looking back at my post at 6 months, Brody wasn't crawling or standing and still had zero teeth.


Today, Brody crawls like a pro, pulls himself up on everything and has two very adorable bottom teeth.



His new found talents have made him quite an explorer. He loves all the things he can get into around the house. He's discovered the dog bowls, toys and tries to even steal the bones away from the dogs while they're chewing on them. Luckily he hasn't been bitten yet! We do keep an eye on them but the dogs are pretty good with him. He's constantly falling over and bumping his head on things, but handles them surprisingly well. He came home with his first accident report from daycare when he tried to pull himself up on the shelves and bumped his eye. It was a small bruise that went away in a day.

He's also doing a good job of forming sounds (instead of just squealing) and I think he loves the way his mouth moves when he says "ba-ba."

We haven't weighed him this month, but he definitely getting bigger, including his appetite. He now eats baby food 3 times a day along with 5 bottles of varied amounts. He food selection has greatly expanded and he's made it through most of the fruits and veggies for his age group. In the next month or so he'll try some meats and practicing with a sippy cup.

He's still doing great at daycare and has become really good friends with a girl in the room (his girlfriend). They sit facing each other giggling non-stop and now that they're both on the move, they chase after each other. It's adorable. She's also a tall girl and has a very similar personality to Brody, so it's a natural match!

Ladies Man

Who knew you had to worry about boys at such a young age? I came home to a note from Brody's daycare teachers that went something like this:

Brody was kissing a friend today! He "crawled" over to her, grabbed her head and kissed it.

Now, Brody doesn't know how to kiss yet. So I imagine it was really an open mouth full of slobber on her head. He really knows how to turn on the charm!

I imagine with a cute little man like him, we'll have lots of these stories down the road. However, I'm not looking forward to the day when it's no longer cute that he's kissing girls and a little bit scary.

In the last month...

Brody has started eating solids:

Been swimming:

Started sitting unsupported (he cannot pull himself up yet, but will stay sitting for quite awhile!):

Got an exersaucer:

Started playing in a jumper:

He's also had multiple runny noses, fevers, two ear infections, a sinus infection, hives, rounds of antibiotics and passed all sorts of germs around the house! So between the doctor appointments, busy summer activities and my busy work schedule, things have been a bit quiet on here. If not sooner, I'll definitely be back to posting more regularly in the fall!

Our little Tiger

His daycare teachers have so much fun with him!

Wordless Wednesday

Just like his daddy

He'll fall asleep anywhere! His teacher did assure us that they put him in his crib right after snapping a quick picture.

Where's my baby?

These days, I'm starting to wonder if I even have a child?! If it weren't for onsite daycare, I'd never get to see Brody.

Last night I didn't get home from work until 7:15. I was so sad that I missed the evening with him. When I got home he was still in his carseat, sound asleep.

Brody still isn't napping well at daycare. So he's started a pattern of falling asleep on the car ride home. He'll then sleep until 7pm when we wake him up for bath/bottle/bed. After about 45 minutes of time with him, he's down for the night again.

While this means that I really don't miss anything when I work late and yes, we get more time to get stuff done around the house. But I really miss my baby!

My morning drop offs now include more playtime (and thus getting up to my desk later) and my daycare lunch break is getting longer as well. I definitely can't wait for the weekend when I can have him all day!

1st week at daycare

The time has come for me to return to work. So along with Brody's 12 week birthday came his first day at daycare. He started on a Wednesday in order to ease myself back to work and him into his new surroundings. So his first week was only 3 days long.

So far? It's been great! We went back and forth between two day cares but once we found out that my company daycare had an opening in April, we took it. I couldn't be happier with our decision. I am very lucky to have daycare located on site which is about a 2 minute walk from my desk. Originally I didn't think I'd take advantage of the open-door visiting policy that often. So far, I've found myself making time for at least a 10 minute mid-day trip to see Brody. I also spend about 15-30 minutes playing with Brody in the morning before I head up to my desk.

There are two primary teachers in Brody's room with 8 babies under the age of 1. There are several support teachers who help out during their lunch breaks and before/after his teachers get in for the day. They have both been very good with Brody and helpful to us as parents. They are constantly telling us how strong he is for his age and one teacher commented that she can foresee him starting to walk early (we've had the same thoughts since he seems so active, but only time will tell). The teachers send e-mail updates along with pictures they've taken of Brody during the day. All of his pictures included in here have been taken at daycare. As you can see, he seems very happy.

Another positive aspect is that in only 3 days we can see that Brody is already loving his new friends. When I am there I have noticed that he smiles at the other kids a lot and is constantly observing them. When I have held him in a "standing" position, he starts to move his legs like he wants to run over to the other kids. The teachers also sent us a picture of Brody holding hands with another boy in the class! (The picture is so adorable, but for the privacy of the other child, I am not including it in here). I believe that all this interaction with kids that are slightly older than him will help him learn faster.

The only downfall (and my biggest fear) is that he supposedly rolled over for the first time at daycare. Now, I do say "supposedly" because I don't think anyone actually saw him roll over. His teacher set him down on his tummy for tummy-time, turned around and when she looked back at him, he was on his back! No one has seen a repeat performance since. He's a little young to actually roll over, so I think that she may have set him down in a way that made it easy for him to flip.

Overall we're having a positive experience with him in daycare and I think he is handling the new routine very well. I, of course, am having to adjust a lot as well as a new working mother...but I'll post more about that later.