This week in pictures

Took the Caleb to swim with his cousins

Thinking of doing drastic highlights next week... Like these

This guy is getting bigger by the minute

Got some semi-peaceful shopping in during Caleb's toddler class

Spent forever sanding off the paint of my dining table

Then spent eternity sanding off the stain below the paint

Refinished my DI coffee table in between sanding table top. First time with chalk paint. I like it for small areas but don't think I would want large pieces of furniture in the antique look chalk paint creates. 

Easter weekend 2014

 We decided to make a whole weekend of fun for our family Easter weekend this year!

It began on Good Friday, Justin had the day off of work for the holiday and we had purchased tickets for an Easter train ride on the Heber Valley Railroad that departed from its Heber station at 4pm that day. We packed up the kiddos and drove to Heber and made it just in time. There were a couple Easter bunnies at the station and even baby animals to pet. We found great seats on the train and looked around and realized the ratio on our car was 90% small kids and 10% adults... go ahead and read that as there was way too many little kids that were making way too much noise from their excitement... but that's ok, right, this was a trip for Caleb! He was thrilled beyond words to be on a train. And even though he was on a train he was even more excited to see the other trains at the station through his window haha. The train ride was a painfully slow 15 minutes out, pause for 10 minutes for the engine to move to the other end of the train, then another 15 minutes back into the station. While it wasn't the beautifully scenic and romantic ride you see in the movies, it was just the right amount of time for a little kid. There were Easter bunnies that danced through the car, then stuffed easter eggs and sugar cookies were given to everyone, that was really cute and made the train ride a bit more special.  After the train ride we went to Dairy Keen for dinner, which boasts itself to be the "Home of the train". They have model trains that ride on a track throughout the ceiling of the restaurant and a kiddy sized train out front with tables where kids can eat. Caleb was fascinated by the overhead train and, we should have known, barely touched any food. (I remember being the same way when I was little, we had a breakfast with the Disney characters when we vacationed to Disneyworld, I LOVED fruit but was so excited to see the characters I didn't touch any of the fruit on my plate). Anyway it was a fun evening out with the trains, right up Caleb's alley!

Saturday... Justin worked in the yard and I worked in the kitchen! I had to make a few yummy things to take to Easter dinner the next day and Justin is totally in his element in the yard. I am thankful for a husband who values a nice looking/well maintained yard!  I think Justin and I went on a date that night and saw Captain America, we love getting our dates in each month! We have a date night swap with Heather going on right now and it is so nice since we both have little babes that aren't quite ready for teenage babysitters.

Sunday we had a hurried morning before church but squeezed in Easter baskets and a mini-indoor Easter egg hunt for Caleb. After church we went to Amanda's for a yummy Easter dinner. It is so wonderful to have siblings and their families close by to visit, although we don't get together with Amanda's family nearly as much as we would like. It still feels like a piece of home though when we get together.

Potty training

I have a potty trained Caleb! Caleb had a break from his Thursday toddler class a couple weeks ago so it seemed like a great time to try our hand at potty training. We began on April 14th (Monday) and used a simple 3 day potty training guide my friend, Kayla, emailed me. While I wasn't great at following it to the T it was a wonderful guide and I think that combined with every mother I've ever talked to telling me how potty training is worst than child birth made me prepared mentally and physically for the arduous task ahead.

Caleb had probably 5 accidents total the first day, with three of them being within five minutes of each other once I put on his first pair of underwear. The guide I was following required that I watch Caleb like a hawk to see for signs when he needed to go potty. He didn't really give much warning at first but he quickly understood to pee in the toilet and not in his underwear so he would just hold his bladder forever! I had to keep reminding him to let me know if he needed potty but it turned into me just encouraging/making him to use the potty every 1-2 hours. Going #2 took a little more (& disgustingly messy) practice. But through it all I was able to keep positive because honestly I was really impressed by how quickly Caleb was picking up on the transition to going potty in the toilet. The guide said to never ever use any negative comments or remarks when the child regresses or has an accident. So I tried to make the experience over the top positive and fun with stickers and potty toys and treats. Caleb never got frustrated but when he was left in unfamiliar settings with another adult (toddler class, nursery) he would become more uptight and scared. I can understand that, his means of communicating he needs to go to the bathroom now involves him holding the spot that needs to go (front or back or pants) and more or less whining... often he will say "momma peepee" but to another adult it probably doesn't sound like real words. So it is probably a little scary to Caleb not knowing where he can go potty or if an adult will be able to read his cues to take him right away. We are working on that and the longer he has been potty trained his confidence is increasing and his ability to communicate he needs to go is as well.

I have to say, since every mother has said potty training is the absolute worst, it totally prepared me for...well the absolute worst weeks of my life. But because of that mentally I found that I was so pleasantly surprised by Caleb and how well he did each day. There was no scrubbing poop off the carpet or sopping pee off the wood floors like I figured there would be! And Caleb really is a champion, by the second week he was staying dry all through his naps and nighttime! And that is coming from a kid who woke up with a super wet diaper every morning before potty training began.

I just can't sing enough praises for Caleb. He has been such an easy kid his whole life. He barely cried as a baby, he sleep trained himself in one night, took a bottle like a pro, transitioned to solid foods beautifully, when the time came he gave up his pacifier without hardly any fussing, took one night to get used to his big boy bed and now has conquered potty training. He does so great with these huge transitions that I fear to go through as a mother. He has set the bar high for little Henry!