Puzzles, Trains and Potties

Today was a good day....thank goodness. First my mom left today for her trip, so we went and had breakfast with her. The kids were really well behaved. Little L ate ALL of his food. I also got a call from M, it always makes my day to hear his voice. My pink eye is getting better, thank goodness and hopefully I will be all cleared up by Friday. Also, my aunt and uncle sent Little L gift cards for his birthday, so I decided to buy Little L a puzzle. He is obsessed with puzzles lately. He will sit for a long time on the floor and put them together. He has gotten very good at these and can pretty much put his puzzles together on his own. He of course wants you to do them with him, so he will ask for help every time. Today his puzzle came in the mail! He and I were super excited. It's a box that holds 4 different puzzles, plus the top you can use to put the puzzle together on. How cool is that?!?!?

The inside, there is a place for each puzzle

completed puzzle by Little L

I love my Thomas puzzles

It's really fun to watch him put these together. I've taught him to match the colors up and he does a really good job. I'm proud of him.
On another note, we've started potty training. I know some of you are thinking we are doing this a little late, but generally most boys don't start potty training until they are 3. I also needed to wait until summer started because I just couldn't do it on my own with work and everything else. We started on Monday morning. Let's just say he was not a happy camper when I told him we were going to start going potty on the big boy potty. He hasn't shown very much interest in this yet, but I figured it's now or never. Monday after breakfast we started, I put him in his Cars underwear and told him he needed to keep McQueen dry. We did the every 10 minutes go sit on the potty for 5 minutes and repeat. I would reward him with M&Ms when he was still dry. That got old quick, but we kept doing it. He didn't like sitting on the normal potty so I brought out the training potty that is shaped like a truck and when you pee in it, it sounds like a truck is starting up then backing up. I thought it was pretty cool, especially for a boy who loves trucks. We put the potty right in the living room. We ended up having two accidents. I was getting frustrated and was starting to think he would never get potty trained. I decided then to go get a cupcake and eat it (I needed a little pick me up), well Little L saw me and asked for one of his own. I told him, nope not until you pee in the potty. Guess what the little bugger did??? Yup he went right over to the potty, pulled his undies down and peed in the potty!!!!! Holy cow!!!! I couldn't believe it. He got his cupcake and of course ate it. He then decided he needed to go potty again so he went right over and did it again. He then asked to call daddy, so we called him and Little L told him he went pee pee in the potty. It was soooo cute! Watching him walk around the living room with my phone telling daddy his big news with a huge grin on his face, it just melted my heart. He ended up going about 4 different times that day. Then it was nap time and I put a pull up on him. After nap we had places to go so we weren't able to try again that day, but I thought it was a very successful first day.
Then yesterday we tried it again after breakfast. He of course didn't want to do it again. We had two accidents and then success! He kept dry until it was nap time again. I am pretty proud of our little guy.
This morning after our breakfast out I was met with resistance when I told him we were using big boy undies again. I reminded him we needed to keep McQueen dry and that if he needed to go pee pee that he needed to do it in the potty not on the floor. He played for a little bit then decided to go sit on the potty.....success!!! He asked to call dada again, so we did and he told him again how he went pee pee in the potty. I'm sure M loves being interrupted at work to hear all of this, but it sure does make Little L's day to tell daddy his big news. I am happy to say we had no accidents today. We also went back to big boy undies after nap and continued to stay dry. After the call to daddy he wanted M&Ms as his reward......this reward almost backfired on me. I was doing dishes and Little L literally came into the kitchen about every two minutes to tell me he had to pee, he would drag me out to the living room and he would push whatever pee he could out. I guess he wanted those M&Ms pretty bad. I finally had to tell him he needed to wait until he really had to pee to use the potty. Thankfully he listened.
I am hoping that tomorrow will bring us more successes. I am a little worried about how this will work once we leave the house, but we'll jump that hurdle once we get there. I'm just pretty darn proud of the both of us for getting where we are so quickly. He's pretty smart, once he puts his mind to doing something.
Oh! I almost forgot.....I have been working hard on some things for our homecoming. I am really excited for them. I wish I could share some of them, but they need to remain a surprise and my amazing hunny reads this blog (hi hunny!) But I am really excited. I have the kids outfits picked out, and I just need to find something for me to wear. I also created a little something for M for father's day which I will share once he receives it. I am pretty proud of how it turned out. I have been feeling pretty creative these last couple of weeks and it's been fun to see some projects turn out good. I take after my mother and am generally lacking the creative/decorating gene. So, I am pretty proud of my self and how far I have come. Give me a computer and a project and I'm all set. Now if you want me to draw something, not gonna happen. But if it can be created on the computer, I'm all set. I think that is why I am thinking of doing my masters in instructional technology. I really love using technology in the classroom, and I would love to get my masters in something that I am interested in. I am also taking two professional development classes on a program our county uses that integrates technology in the classroom. It allows students to take quizzes and tests on the computer (which also grades them....score!) it also gives them access to the textbook online and I can post assignments on there which they can do at home and turn in to me through this website. It's pretty cool. I also want to take a photoshop class to learn the basics of how to use that program. I just have to find one around here.
Ok enough of the random thoughts. I'm off to bed. Here's to hoping tomorrow is successful and that my eyes are better than they were today. :) Good night!