It's That Time Again...

 (yep, there's the special toilet. and you can thank me for cropping the poop out of the picture. he's supposed to be looking at the camera and saying cheese...close...)

we are potty training in our house again. not because i wanted to do it. don't get me wrong, i would love to be done changing any and all diapers. but thinking about how it was for Micah (my posts about our trials can be found here, here, and here if you really want a look back), i didn't really want to do it (or at least start it) around the holidays. or maybe at all...it was that bad at times...
but judah's been talking about it for a looooong time (not since this time when i wrote about him, but he's so cute there!), and we have been half-hearted about it with him. he would talk about going or needing to go and we would maybe put him on the toilet (sometimes dressed, sometimes undressed) or maybe we would just ignore him. I don't think we really thought he knew what he was saying.
until we started putting him on the toilet when he would talk about it and he would actually pee! although even then we often thought it was a fluke.
but he kept talking about it. he's watched micah for so long and he really seemed like he was getting the timing right a lot when he would pee and poop. So, one day last week while i was at work, matt went for it. put the big boy underoos on and waited.
one accident. he told on himself, got cleaned up, and started over. NO MORE accidents for the rest of the day!! what an amazing day 1!!! he doesn't drink as much as micah, so he doesn't pee as much, but micah had 13 (THIRTEEN!!!) accidents his first day!!
we had talked about having a "potty party" like we did for micah, maybe making it an Elmo theme since he loves him so much...but since it was done on the "fly" we just went with it. he got M&Ms.
we were SO excited every time he made it in the toilet but he was very nonchalant. like, "this is what i'm supposed to do guys, so why are you making a big deal about it?" but he welcomed the M&Ms.
it was day 2 before he has his first poop in the toilet, and he has since gotten all the poop (except 1 accident) in the toilet!! OH MY!
How did this happen?!?
I think he has had 3 accidents total (including the poop) in the 6 days we've been going. I think micah had that many in the first hour we tried with him...oh, they are SO different!!
I was worried to write, or even talk about it, for fear things would mess up. isn't that how it always happens? you talk about how great things are and then it all goes to the sewer. no pun intended. well, maybe...
so, tomorrow i will be ready to clean up lots of messes, since i am talking about it now...
but for now, i will fully enjoy my moment as one VERY proud mamma!! my boy judah (21 months) has virtually potty trained himself! 2 kids out of diapers is awesome!

Milestones

Micah just turned 3! Hard to believe. But we can see changes, in a good way, already. He is very conversational, he is getting better at sharing, and he adores his brothers!
Judah is doing better at wanting to be potty trained than we are at following through with it. We are slow with it now, but will kick it into high gear in the new year. He has peed a few times in the toilet, has pooped a teeny bit once, and definitely likes wearing "big boy" underwear but does NOT like having accidents in them. I think this is good so he will want to use the toilet more and hopefully learn quickly! He also recently moved into the toddler bed, and he is doing great!
Isaiah moved into the crib when Judah transitioned and this has been great. He has also started to roll from front to back.
Crazy how fast they all grow up!

Christmas Spirit

It's December. Time to fully engage in the spirit of the season. This means talking a lot to our boys about Jesus (so they learn very early on it is not about them, or gifts, or Santa, etc), listening to Christmas music a lot, decorating, baking, making Christmas crafts, etc, etc...
The only Christmas clothes we really have for the boys are some pj's. Here is Isaiah sporting his a little early, also with one of his hats...what a cutie pie!

I think I enjoy having the house decorated, but not so much the decorating process. I like for it to happen, along with drinking eggnog and listening to music while doing it...and although I didn't intentionally not help this year, about 99% of the decorating was done by Matt. Thank you husband!! My favorite decoration so far is one he created this year for one of our rooms. He found the idea, went outside, and got to work...and this is what I came home to one day. LOVE!!