Jonah "Reading"

This is how we do bedtime stories now -- Jonah "reads" the book himself, unless it's an unfamiliar story. He was not in the mood to read any books all the way through last night, but he knows this entire book. I want to get him reading "Are you my mother?" He does some great voices and facial expressions for that one!

Day 1 Status Report

I think we're off to a good start.
He was excited about the "big boy underpants" at first, because they had Thomas the train on them. But they must have felt strange going on, because as soon as they went up over his privates, he started crying and fighting. Once they were on, he calmed down and didn't have any problem putting them on the rest of the day

Which is good, because we went through 10 pairs today. He got to the point where he would say "Uh-oh, time to go potty!" as he was peeing, which is a start. Twice we made it to the bathroom in time to get some dribbles in. So in the next day or two, he should learn to recognize the need to notify me before he starts going.

The one thing that worries me is that he did not go #2 all day, despite the high fiber foods I purposely fed him because I was worried about exactly that. I know he has to go, but I think he is afraid without his diaper. By dinnertime, he kept clutching his behind and saying "Oh no, poop!" but there would be nothing. And I'd sit him on the potty and ask if he had to poop, and each time he'd say no and stand up.

That concerns me a little, and I'm prepping myself for lots of wake-ups, maybe messy ones,
tonight. He did wake up dry from his nap, but that was 2 hours.

Still, from what I've read, this is pretty much where he is supposed to be after the first day.

Messy Times Ahead

I am about to embark on a potty training experiment with Jonah. I'm going with the 3-day method -- I've had several friends who have done this and absolutely swear by it. I've wanted to do it for awhile, but 3-day weekends where I don't have to go anywhere are pretty hard to come by, and with our move and changing his daycare, I didn't want to throw too much at him at once. So after Thanksgiving, we'll give it a go. The method basically requires three consecutive days of me being right by Jonah's side ALL the time, and constantly reminding him to tell me when he has to go potty. When I catch him starting to go, I scoop him up and rush him to the bathroom. By the end of the three days, he is supposed to be able to recognize his body signs and be able to tell me in advance when he needs to go. The scary part is that the method involves throwing away all the diapers and going straight to underwear. No Pull-Ups. And no going back to diapers, ever, even at night.

It's going to be a long and exhausting weekend, but I'm ready, and I think he's ready, too. We've been gearing him up for it, and he will sit on his potty chair and pull his pants up and down (or try to at least). He knows about flushing and washing his hands afterward. He loves the book "Everyone Poops" and can narrate the entire thing. I think we're all set on supplies. For anyone about to go through this, here is what we have:

• about 30 pairs of underwear (I figure there will be lots of accidents)
• a couple extra sheets and some waterproof mattress pads
• some two-piece pajamas that will be easy to pull down while barely conscious at 3am
• a potty chair for each bathroom.
• a travel seat (in case he won't sit on a public toilet, or if we need to pull over on a trip)
• some "big boy wipes" which are essentially baby wipes, but flushable
• a progress chart with stickers
• a couple small toys to use as rewards for when we reach bigger milestones
• the books "Everyone Poops" (a big hit!) and "Once Upon a Potty" (not so much)
• the "Potty Time with Elmo" dvd, which we've watched several times already.
• Some frozen meals that won't take long to cook. I plan to do a grocery shopping trip and some cooking ahead, too. I'm not supposed to leave the house for the three days, or do anything that will take my attention off of Jonah (like cooking - yay!). This is going to be intense.

We still have him in his crib, because for some reason he hasn't attempted to climb out of it, even though he climbs all over everything else. I think we might have nighttime accidents for awhile since he'll have to call out to us if he has to go during the night. But he has woken up dry a few times, so maybe he'll learn some control.

I'm actually getting kind of excited about this!

Our New House: A “Before” Photo Tour

Ok, so we're in, and mostly unpacked. The 30+ boxes of books have not been opened because we are not sure where the shelves will ultimately end up. And Jonah is in a temporary room because the room I want to be his has some major repair work required.

We have our work cut out for us, but underneath it all, this is a gorgeous old house, and I can't wait for it to be beautified! Here's what we're looking at now:

The kitchen. Very cramped right now. We need to figure out a different arrangement when we remodel.

 

The “shower” in the downstairs bathroom.

Um, oh. Ok, the CLOSET in the downstairs bathroom. We would like to put a shower here soon. (The real estate listing called this a shower – apparently the realtor who listed it never pulled back the curtain.)

The dining room. My friend Becky and I recently peeled off the wallpaper, and it is currently the bright Tuscan yellow that you can see in the built-in where we’ve tried to take some of the mirrors off. Those mirrors are all stuck-on panels. They will be going. Soon.

The living room. Currently the room in need of the least fixing up. I just want to paint it. It had ugly orange carpet that Chris tore out before we moved in, and thankfully the hardwood underneath is in great condition! The chimney had been removed from the fireplace, so one of the first things Chris did was install a gas fireplace in it.

 

This is what the living room looked like when we first looked at the house. It’s hard to believe it’s the same room!

 

This is what you see when you walk in the front door. The night we moved in, Becky and I tore down some of the paneling going up the stairs (it was the same nastiness that is still behind the piano – that stuff goes all the way up the stairs). We stopped because the wall is crumbling behind it in a few places. It is an annoying eyesore for now, but the woodwork on the stairs is awesome. The floor and stairs were also covered in ugly orange carpet. Seriously, why?

 

This area has become a little play space for Jonah.

On move-in day, we discovered some secret pocket doors that had been boarded over. They’re in perfect condition! That was the highlight of the day.

The first set divides the living room from the dining room. The second set is between the living room and the entrance.

I haven’t taken any outside pictures yet. This is Jonah in his Halloween costume with the house in the background. The porch is awesome – a porch swing is definitely in order before next summer!

 

No pictures of upstairs yet.

Chris is currently in Florida getting ready to race the Ironman 70.3 World Championships. Elaine is watching Jonah for the night. So I took advantage of my night alone to pry a bunch of weird paneling off the wall in Jonah’s future room. Behind it, was a layer of plywood that was a huge pain to pry down. And behind the plywood is a crumbling lathe-and-plaster wall that we are probably just going put drywall over. That’s only on 2 walls of the room, though. The other two walls and the ceiling have hideous wallpaper that I still need to scrape off. I would love to have Jonah moved into his permanent room by Christmas, but that might be unrealistic.

Ok, I am wiped out and hungry. My work is done for tonight.

busy-ness

An update on where we are with everything:
Tomorrow, my parents are flying in for Jonah's birthday party. They are going to meet me at his daycare when I pick him up, so we can surprise him. This will lead to a most likely exhausting but hopefully fantastic weekend.
We close on our Lexington house Friday morning, and we plan to spend as much time as we can there that day to get some things started. Basically, we are hoping to get it cleaned up, move most of the contents of our basement, move our sparkly new kitchen appliances in, and decide whether we can strip the wallpaper in whatever room will be Jonah's or if we should just put new drywall up over the old walls. We will do our big move next weekend, and my biggest stipulation is that Jonah's bedroom must be completely done before we move. We can live with rooms-in-progress and torn apart messes in other parts of the house, but I want him to have a little sanctuary from day 1.
So that's Friday.

Saturday is Jonah's 2nd birthday party. In the morning before the party, I have to go to Fairbury to help the seniors build their homecoming float, and then probably do more work on the house in the afternoon. Someone is probably going to have to stake out the pavilion at the park where Jonah's party will be. It's first-come-first-served, no reservations, so I want to make sure we get it. Unless it's stormy, in which case we will have to move it to our house, and everyone will have to deal with boxes everywhere. Although, the boxes actually might be helpful since we won't have table space for everyone's food.

Sunday, my parents and I (and maybe Chris) are taking Jonah to the Pumpkin Patch, finally. I haven't been there in years, and I am part excited/part anxious. I think it will feel weird to be there. But I know Jonah will love it, and I am intensely curious about how it looks now.

I am incredibly far behind in grading, and I have not even started research on my project for grad school. I'm hoping that in about a month or two things will have calmed down just a little. We might be mostly unpacked by then.

whirlwind update

We had a late night last night and Jonah is sleeping in. I'm going to write as much as I can before he wakes up. In a nutshell:

In late June/early July we found a house in Lexington (IL) that we loved and decided to buy. We scrambled to get our house ready to put up for sale, and got all the paperwork filled out with the mortgage people. Then we get a phone call, the exact wording of which I can't remember, but was something like "There's a fire in Lexington, and it might be your house." Sure enough. The fire was pretty bad, and the house is essentially destroyed. We don't know for sure what caused it, but the last I heard is that one of the kids who lived in the house is autistic and has a thing for starting fires. Soooo, that deal was off.

And it sounds like that's all the time I have for now -- Jonah's waking up. The story does get better -- to make it short, we found another house in Lexington and we will close at the end of September. Our house is for sale, and we would very much love for someone to buy it soon.

We also got to see Andy and Heather a few weeks ago, and Jonah and I are going out to Las Vegas tomorrow for the last week of summer before school starts. That will be nice, because this summer has been about the least relaxing one I can remember, and I am NOT ready for the stress of school on top of it all.

Back to Normal

Jonah has been out of his cast for just over two weeks now, and he’s already almost back to where he was before the break. He was army crawling right away after it came off, and walking-with-hands-held a day or two later. Regular crawling came next, and on Friday, ten days post-cast, he took his first (voluntary) unassisted steps. I expected it to take a lot longer, so I’m pretty impressed with him. Now he’s walking around (not quite as quickly or as confidently as before – no running yet), climbing on things, bending down to pick stuff up, etc. And my absolute favorite thing that I missed when he was in the cast – he’ll hand me a book, turn around, back up, stick his little bottom out, and sit down on my lap to read it. I LOVE that.

Cast Removal: Finally getting a good look at all the artwork on his cast.

Couldn't quite sit up on his own at first, but started bending his legs right away.

I’m enjoying being able to DO things with him again. He adores bikes (it was one of his first words), and will ask to go on bike rides all the time. There have been a few days that we’ve gone on three separate bike rides, up to an hour each. Sometimes he’ll wake from his nap asking “Bike? Helmet? Ride?” and I can’t say no to that. We have a little pull-behind trailer, but I think he enjoys the bike with the seat on it a little better. We did take the trailer on a family ride to test out one of the new-old tandems that Chris put together (long story – see his blog for more details).

We also took him camping last weekend, which was a fun adventure. Chris was racing the Cutting Edge ½ Ironman in Effingham, and there is a campground right by the race site. We have an air mattress that happens to fit perfectly in our new 3-person tent, so we took that along and Jonah had a blast playing on it. It rained on us, but the tent worked like it’s supposed to and we just played inside until Jonah finally wore out.

The next day (Chris’s race/Father’s Day) was the first in a string of ungodly hot days we’ve had around here, but Jonah was a good sport about it. And he got to see his Daddy win the race! As in, overall. This was the first time I’ve ever seen Chris win a triathlon, because the others that he’s won I’ve either been absent for, or I was racing it myself and was farther back (sigh, much farther back). It was so hot that no one was up watching. All of the spectators were sitting in the shade, and as Chris ran past them toward the finish, I heard a bunch of them say “Oh, hey! Someone’s finishing!” I felt kind of bad for him that he didn’t have much crowd support, but I guess that’s how it is when you’re just that fast. :) He carried Jonah across the finish line with him, which was nice because he didn’t get to do that in Kona. So, a brutal race, but a perfect ending for Father’s Day.

Crossing the finish line with Daddy! Congratulations, and Happy Father's Day!

Fell asleep playing with Dad's trophy.

The only thing Jonah has not adjusted back to very well yet is going to daycare. I am taking a summer class, so I have to bring him in for a few hours a day. He has always loved going. He has a little friend who is only two weeks older than him, and they’ve been together since Jonah was 12 weeks old. They have their own little language, and they smile and giggle whenever they see each other. It’s just adorable. The first day I brought him back, they started babbling again in their language (the teacher said Hayden hadn’t been doing that since Jonah was gone – Jonah hadn’t either) and Jonah grinned from ear to ear. But when I went to leave, he started bawling, and sobbing, and yelling “No, Mommy! No!” Broke my heart. But then when I went to pick him up, he cried again because he didn’t want to go home. This used to be seamless. I guess I can’t blame him. He’s just adjusted so well to everything else that life has thrown at him, I guess I expected this to be no different. I think it will be a little rough until school starts again in the fall. There is just no stability over the summer. We’re going to be traveling a lot once my class is out, so whatever schedule he’s become used to will get thrown out of whack again. But in the meantime, we’re having fun and enjoying having our old Jonah back.