Potty Training Cole

One of Cole and Alex's favorite things to do is to blow on AL's tie and then he shrivels it up in his hand.  They blow on it again and it pops up, they love it!!

I decided to do the 3 day potty training method while Al was working from home.  I stocked up on drinks, snacks, and raided the $1 bins at Target for potty prizes.  I printed out a potty chart that looked like a train track and he got to put a sticker on it every time he went to the bathroom.  Day 1 Alex was at school which I think made it easier because on Day 2 he was the audience and would watch and cheer on Cole which I think made it worse.  

I gave him a ton of drinks that morning, put on a movie of his choice and sat there with him to watch his every move.   He had 4 pee accidents and then started going in the toilet!!   He wanted to sit there every 5 minutes for a sticker and treat.  He still had 3 other accidents including #2, the worst.  Night time training is even more frustrating.   I couldn't get him to go before bed and he ended up peeing the bed and just sleeping in it.  

Day 2 was so rough.  He had a ton of accidents and one of them was him laying on the floor crying and then he just peed everywhere. That also happened in his highchair.  He woke up a ton that night crying and finally went once, stressful.  

On Day 3 I was ready to be done.  He had 1 accident in his high chair and I caught him pooping twice.   It's definitely a hard thing for everyone involved.  I questioned whether he was ready for it since he would say he would have to go and then nothing would happen and then 5 minutes later he would pee his pants.   Day 4 he didn't have any accidents!!  We went to the store and lunch.  He peed when we got home and then went to the park and Target.  When he has to go he starts dancing around and this happened at least 2-3 times at the park so I put him on the toilet and nothing.   He finally ended up going in the Target parking lot luckily when we were done :)

Every nap time was successful with no bed wetting.

It's almost been 2 weeks and it's still a learning process for all of us.  About 2 days ago he finally started going if I put him on the toilet before bed or if we go anywhere, thank goodness!!  I also resorted to pull ups a few nights ago and we have all been sleeping better.   He pees 3-4 times a night so I just don't think his bladder is ready for it.  We are still working on poop and I've been scrubbing poopy underwear for days which is way worse than diapers.   It took Alex months to learn how to poop in the toilet and he would always hide somewhere and do it.  Oh the joys of potty training and sorry if you're reading this post.  I'm trying to remember the details so when I have to potty train #3 I can remember that every kid is different and it's never easy :)

On Day 1 of potty training Al decided he wanted to go to the National Championship Game which he also went to last year at the Rose Bowl.   He said he didn't think he would get in, but we know that's not true.  Not only did he get in, but he got an amazing seat, lucky him and lucky me cleaning up poop and pee.

Potty training fun, longest 3 days.  I'm not sure I will be able to do the 3 day method when we have 3 kids.

Cheers to saving money on diapers!

Random

Cole loves choo choo trains so much I decided to finally take them on the train ride at the mall.  They were the only ones on it and singing along to the song.

Giving Cole a piggy back ride before bath time.

This picture makes me laugh....he's always doing goofy stuff like this.

We drove to Dallas and went to the Perot museum and hung out in the kids area all morning.   We need to go more often so we can get good use out of our annual pass.

After the museum we stopped at Chuys and stuffed ourselves with chips and Diet Coke.  It happened to be Elvis day and they were giving away his favorite snack/dessert away, twinkies. The manager was dressed up as of Elvis so we made to sure to take a picture.

Alex was in desperate need of a haircut so I had the bright idea to do it in the bathtub, but Al told me it was the worst idea and then it clogged our drain :)    His hair is also cut weird in a bunch of spots.  Should I blame that on the bathtub?  Looks like we will be paying for the next one or I need to start watching Youtube videos on how to cut hair.

We usually go to dinner on the weekends and we happened to find an amazing sushi restaurant in Plano that everyone else also knew about.  We ended up sitting at the bar and over ordered because their rolls were at least double the size of a normal roll.  It was a painful dinner and we won't be sitting at the sushi bar again, haha.

I got a new lens baby lens for my camera and took the boys outside to snap some pictures.  It was so  cold this week so pics only lasted for a few minutes.

Medieval TImes

Medieval Times was always on my to do list in California so I was happy to find out there is one in Dallas.  They had a Groupon that I bought a few weeks ago so that justified the price a little bit more.  Alex rarely takes naps anymore and then if we go somewhere later that afternoon he will almost always fall asleep in the car and then he's so ornery when you wake him up.

We debated taking the boys since it's a 2 hour dinner and I only bought 2 tickets so they would have to sit on our laps.  I knew they would have fun so we ended up taking them and you can tell how excited they are in this picture :)

Once you get in it's a tourist trap, photo opps everywhere, bar drinks, and tons of souvenirs.  They saw all the kids with light up swords so $26 later they each had one too.

Waiting for team yellow to be called in to the arena.

Dinner was interesting.  They don't give you any utensils and only 2 refills of either coke, ice tea or water.  Dinner was tomato soup, bread, roasted chicken, potato, and a rib.  I've never seen either of them eat so much food, random.  I guarantee if I brought a roasted chicken home from Costco they wouldn't touch it, so maybe I need to dim the lights and throw away our utensils.

Cole was really into it

We've been teaching Alex about selfies.

It was a fun night and I don't think we will be going back for a long time or at least until our kids are older and will remember it :)   

Sea World

It didn't get sunny until about 11am and then it warmed up and turned out to be the perfect day at Sea World. It was almost as good as SoCal weather :)  Al and I went to this Sea World in the fall of 2007 so it was fun to go back and think about how much our lives have changed since then.

While we were buying our passes we realized it was only $20 more per ticket to buy season passes so looks like we will be going back sometime in the next year :)  I'm not sure why they still had Shamu dressed up as Santa, but our kids thought it was cool and Cole wanted to touch his teeth.

Our first stop was the little kid area which was perfect for Alex, but Cole could only go on the merry go round.   I snuck of with Alex and went on the 30 second roller coaster ride.  I always thought I would be one of those parents that would ride the crazy rides with my kids, but the older I get the more sick they make me, haha.  

Brothers with the penguin.

Sea World has changed a lot since the movie Blackfish came out.  The shows are kind of lame now and you don't get to see near as much.

Our favorite exhibit was the dolphin pool which you can basically stand next to and watch them swim around.  

Brian and his little boy Rylan met us there for the day.  Cole and him are only a month apart.  We were going to take turns going on the roller coaster so Al and Brian went first and of course they had problems with it so after 15-20 minutes of waiting none of us got to go on it, bummer.

Sea World in the winter is definitely the way to go.  Good weather, no crowds, and short lines. 

On Sunday Alex went to Sunbeams!!  He was not a fan of sharing time and was basically screaming because I could hear him in the hallway.  The funniest part was that Al was sitting in there with his class, but we already know that Alex prefers me and Cole prefers Al.   He ended up having fun in class and made this crown which he still has and plays with everyday.   We are on week 3 of Sunbeams and he is fine now.  I also got a new calling that same day.....Relief Society Teacher.  I honestly sat there speechless when I got asked and told the Bishop I wanted to think about it. I decided it would help me grow and learn so I accepted it, but I'm honestly scared to death.  Here's to hoping I can get over my fear since I have to do it once a month.

San Antonio

We had been talking about taking the kids to Sea World for a couple weeks so I watched the weather and saw that it was supposed to be a high of 65 on Saturday.  On Friday it was pouring rain and freezing in Dallas. Al was working so I assumed we wouldn't go and took the boys to the Galleria to see the biggest indoor Christmas tree in the US, so pretty. Al called me around 11 and asked if I was ready and I told him he was crazy and that the weather was horrible.  Well at about 2 we had our car packed and we were on our way to San Antonio.  

Both boys took about an hour nap and were really good for the drive down.

Al's been talking about taking me to Buc-ees for months.  It's this insane gas station outside of San Antonio that is seriously the size of a grocery store.  It has over 100 pumps, any kind of food, trinket, candy you could find.  It's hard to explain until you walk thru one, crazy.

I think Al's main motive was to go to the Alamo Bowl which just happened to be that night, but we got our tickets for around $8 each.  We were only there during the 3rd quarter and cheered on UCLA!!  I've been testing out the new Gopro which takes really cool pictures.

This one was taken with my iPhone and then I edited it a little bit, but yeah go UCLA!!  I was really nervous about the weather because it was so cold in San Antonio and pouring rain, but the weather still said sunny and high of 65 for Saturday.  After the game we went to Al's favorite Mexican Restaurant Alamo Cafe.  They have the most amazing tortillas and queso which is really all you need to order since they fill you up!!

I promised the boys we could go swimming at the hotel and somehow forgot their floaties so we made a quick stop at Target and picked some up.   They were so excited to stay in the HO tel as Alex calls it.   Cole was a nightmare and had a meltdown around 2 or 3 in the morning.  Ever since I took him out of his crib it's been awful.  He comes down to our room n the middle of the night and he wakes up all the time and cries. I'm not sure if it's nightmares or what, but I feel like I have a newborn again between him and Alex waking up all the time.

Sea World didn't open until noon so we took them for an early morning swim and soak in the hot tub.

Underwater Pics

Cole is one of the funniest kids.  He will make the most random faces at you to be silly or sarcastic.

Trying to act like he didn't see me.

and then he finally looked at me and smiled.  He always "that's so sidddy."