Potty talk.....and Dogs

Alex has had a first great week of using the potty. Just a couple of accidents all week! He's even figured out how to do #2 the other day, so we're very happy about that. He's earned enough stickers now to get his bike! Of course, when we went to pick one out, Toysrus didn't have the one in stock that he picked out. So, we'll have to search a little more.

We decided to get a dog. We've talked about this for awhile, but kind of kept putting it off because we don't have a fence up yet. Spent some time on Thursday looking around and found a couple possibilities. Then we found "Shelby".(http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=10949246)

So, we took a drive to Spooner, WI to meet her. She is a great dog, sweet and friendly. She seemed to like Alex. Alex really liked her! He's seemed a bit afraid of dogs so we weren't sure what would happen, but after he got used to her today he was fine. We took her for a walk and Alex just wanted to walk right by her. He got close to her and pet her, which he's been hesitant to do with dogs. Shelby walked very well on a leash and knows how to sit. She kept her eye on Alex, never nipped at him and never barked after she initially came out of the shelter (a lot of new dogs there due to a local confiscation and she didn't seem to like that much). She's very much a puppy, but listened very well and was pretty calm overall. I guess I thought that if we liked her and had the cash, we'd be able to bring her home. But, that's not how it works. We had to fill out an application, as a few others have, and they will let us know by Monday or Tuesday if they pick us to take her. Made me sad to have to leave her there, but hopefully we'll get to go pick her up sometime this week. Keep your fingers crossed!

So far, so good!

Alex made it through the entire day without a single accident! He went part of the day with undewear and part bare-bottomed. He went to the bathroom independently a couple of times and willingly went when I asked him. BIG IMPROVEMENT! We even went out for a couple hours geocaching and he kept his pullup dry. So, it seems we are on the road to really having a big boy now!

We found one cache today and could not find the second. It was an overcast day, but nice enough for walking around and enjoying the fresh air. I am so glad that winter is over-I'm ready to be warm.
Hope everyone had a nice memorial day-whether you were sleeping, playing, eating, shopping or whatever! I also hope that you took the time to think about where we are in the world today and the people who are sacrificing/have sacrificed their time and their lives. Everytime I look at Alex, I think about how time is such a precious thing and how lucky I am to have him and my family.

Progress! Potty training bootcamp Day2!

We got somewhere today! The day started out rough-multiple attempts at sitting on the potty only to have Alex go afterwards on the floor. I tried just underwear and then bare-bottomed throughout the day as I didn't know which would work best. Turns out that having nothing on worked best. He liked wearing the "Cars" underwear he picked out, but he just doesn't seem to get that he has to take them off first before going. After multiple attempts today, it seems like it's finally clicking. He ended up going on the potty 4 times today (well, actually 3.5). Twice tonight he just walked in there and went all by himself! So, he was very happy to get 4 new stickers and a special treat of popcorn and juice.
The funniest part of the day? We were watching a movie and he was bare-bottomed. I looked over at him and he was grabbing his bottom and trying to twist around to look at it. I asked him what he was doing and he said, "I'm trying to look at these big things!"
We didn't do much else today as our main focus was to get him going on this. I did some cleaning and we played games/puzzles. We're going to try and find a couple of geocaches in the area tomorrow, but mostly spend more time practicing the potty.
It's been a couple of intense days, so I'm happy to finally sit around and relax and catch up on some "Ghosthunters" episodes!

Potty training bootcamp-Day 1

We have been having a hard time getting Alex to consistently use the bathroom. So, this weekend is training camp for him. Day 1 hasn't gone so well. He got to pick out his underwear and I just kept putting him on the toilet throughout the day. He would sit there and sit there and not go. Once we got back out in the living room...then he would go. We went through multiple underwear changes and didn't do a whole lot that was fun, but it didn't seem to bother him. Kind of a frustrating day, but hopefully today will go a bit better.

Freebie day!

I had an unexpected day off due to our computers being down at work. So, Alex and I got to spend the entire day together. We went to Como Zoo and it was such a beautiful day for it. We saw all the animals and Alex rode some of the rides. We had a great time. We spent the rest of the day just kind of hanging out at home.
Dinner was low key. I feel like we've been eating out so much, so I just had a salad. Alex wanted macaroni and cheese. He specifically asked to have it "with peas". Then he was mooching off of my salad too! Such a healthy little boy! We planted 3 herbs in a pot tonight too. I think I overwatered it, so I hope it grows.
Alex went to sleep tonight quite readily after going through his astronomy flashcards. He just loves doing them and I was surprised at how much he remembered (we hadn't looked at them in quite some time)- How many 3 year olds know what the "dwarf planets" are? He amazes me everyday!

Happy Mother's Day!

Long time, no blog. We've been keeping ourselves pretty busy lately. Wil is finishing up with school and will graduate this week! It's been a long 2 years, that's for sure. It will be nice for things to get back to normal.
Alex has been having a blast doing all kinds of things. He just finished up a tumbling class last week. He really enjoyed it and learned some new things and had fun hanging out with some other boys. He's really good at somersaults now! We're thinking about getting him into a soccer class this summer. We had a visit last weekend from my cousin Lora and her family. Alex got to meet Lora's daughter, Madison and loved hanging out with her. They got to go to Como Zoo and Chuck E. Cheese. He asks where she is now and we dig out the map and show him where Nevada is. He told me the other day that he missed her and he wants to go to Las Vegas!
It's time to start thinking about the yard and what kind of flowers we want to plant. We ran to Home Depot the other night and picked out a bunch of seeds. Alex is excited to help me plant them and he helped pick them out-he's especially fond of the Alyssum. The weather is finally getting nice and we're looking forward to summer.
Had a low key mother's day-it was nice just to hang out and relax for the day.