About a month ago we began on that great journey known as potty training. Or apparently “toilet learning”if you want to be more pc. We decided to stick with the former.

Jace’s friends Oliver and William had recently been potty training and he was rather interested. He wanted to wear underwear like William so we explained that wearing underwear meant that he had to use the potty instead of his diaper. He looked unimpressed.

Around when Jace turned 2, we bought him a froggy potty and gave it to him as a gift just like the little boy Henry in his potty book. http://steveandheather.net/wp/2009/07/07/defective-potty/ At the time he was really interested and would often “make water” when we sat him on the potty. He even pooped a couple of times. Then, after a month or two he simply lost interested.

This time, however, we decided we would give it a serious try. Having spoken to various friends and read some info from books and websites, we created a plan of attack. I went on a mission to buy underwear because the first thing we learned is that you have to be consistent. Even if you have accidents, you really should keep you kid in underwear at all times so that they don’t start just hold it until the diaper goes back on (nap time and bedtime are two exceptions  as they don’t have enough control to last that long). I have this big thing about licensed character stuff and have really tried to keep my child from becoming a walking advertisement. He does have a pair of sunglasses with a little picture of Diego on the side (”where are my Diego glasses mommy?” is a frequent question in our house) and a Thomas T shirt that was passed down to use, but that is it.  And I only got the Diego glasses because they were the only ones in his size. Searching for non-licensed character underwear was bigger challenge that I had thought. First tip - Don’t go to Target. We got a couple pairs from Old Navy but they run very small (and we all know Jace isn’t exactly small). I eventually found a couple of pairs at the Gymboree outlet and a bunch at Carters, including boxer briefs which I think are just too cute on him.

Then we went all in on a weekend. Basically we took Jace to the potty every 45 minutes whether he wanted to or not and never left the house. He was excited to wear the underwear and mostly willing to give it a try although day 1 resulted in several accidents in a row in the afternoon when he was tired and sick of going to the potty. Day two was much more successful but still was on our schedule. Monday we sent him to daycare and April ended up setting a timer to reminder herself and Jace that it was potty time. He loved it. By the end of the week he was much more aware of his body and would say if he need to go whenever you asked (and was mostly right). The only problem. He was afraid to poop on the potty. While many kids have this fear, Jace didn’t just poop as soon as he had his diaper on. No, he tried to hold it in, even though he really had to go. That weekend we had a birthday party to go to for Zachary. While we were there, Jace was clearly uncomfortable and kept saying he needed to go potty. However, as soon as we go in the bathroom, he declared that he didn’t need to go. We tried to be patient but decided to enact a rule that if he declared he had to go, he at least had to sit on the potty for a couple of minutes and try, even if nothing happened. Well, this turned out to mean we spend most of the party in the bathroom, yet all we got out of it were several pairs of dirty underwear from the 5 minutes in between potty trips.

Within the next week, he finally came to grips with his poop issue and now he is happy to declare “I have pees, mommy” “I have poops”. Why they are plural, I don’t know but it is very cute and he is doing a great job. Most of the accidents we have these days are just not getting there quite in time or not pulling his pants all the way down. The only remaining issue is that he is terrified of other people’s toilets. Potties are fine but if we find ourselves out somewhere where there is no little potty, he refused to even try. He will sit on our big potty with no problem but even Oliver’s toilet was scary last night. I have ordered a foldable potty seat from Amazon that we can easily carry with us, so hopefully he will become comfortable using that and we won’t have to worry so much about accidents whenever we leave the house.

Generally it has gone much better than I expected and wish any of you luck when you go down this road.

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My computer is fixed, we have all finally shaken the endless end of summer cold and Jace is asleep so there are no more excuses. I have updated the pictures in the photo album finally. Check out Jace from his 2 year party on. In celebration of the big day we threw him a monkey party for all his little friends. Everyone got matching monkey shirts and we had a great time outside playing. Both sets of grandparents even made it here for the celebration.

At Jace’s two year doctor’s appointment he weighed in at 32lbs 5 oz (clothed) and 36″ tall. He even graduated to being measured standing up instead of baby length. Still 90% for height and weight he is a big but proportional kid. He is in 2T clothing but if he grows much this winter we will be buying some new stuff soon.  Jace still loves fruit more than anything but he has discovered his carnivorous roots. Sausage is frequently requested. He has definitely developed his own opinions about things to the point of obstinacy at times. This is particularly challenging since he still can’t always explain what it is that he wants, only that what you are currently offering isn’t it. We have certainly entered the terrible twos although generally he is a sweet little kid.

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It’s been a while since I noted some of Jace’s new tricks and accomplishments. His vocabulary and linguistics have greatly improved of late. We still only understand about 25% of what he says but there are a number of new words and he is starting to string them together in short sentences. A couple of note “ssshhh, quiet, mommy napping” (actually I had already left for a business trip but he didn’t know that) and “daddy sit!”(yes, he is clearly the one in charge). He can make an “s” sound in the middle of words and for ssshhh but not at the start of most words. Some times he just skips the letter like “sit” becomes “it” and other times “s” becomes “f” -soccer is “frocker”. He is also understand the concept of multiple objects and even numbers. Last weekend he pointed out “two doggies” and yesterday it was “nother airpane” all afternoon since we seem to be in the departing flight path these days, much to his enjoyment.

Physically he has also learned to jump off the wall with both feet at once (this is harder than it looks. A lot of coordination required for a little kid) and can walk up some stairs by himself. He climbs everything but has a developed a huge fear of slides. I have no idea where or why this started but it has definitely limited the appeal of the playground of late. He likes the stairs and tunnels but refused to go down the slide, even going as far as tell me not to go down yesterday. I have pulled his plastic backyard slide out of the garage in the hopes that a short slide in the comfort of his backyard that he can explore at his own pace might help him get over his fear.

He has also developed a liking for cake and icecream from this weekend’s spree of birthday celebrations and  bbqs.  We avoided sweets for so long but it is hard as his social life picks up. He still likes a good blueberry (definitely his favorite fruit) so there is hope.

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The other week, Jace had his 15 month appointment. He continues to grow like a weed. 27lbs 14oz and 33″ long! We learned that there is a difference between length and height (gravity? or maybe kids just slouch?) and his growth chart is for length. He is still 90% for height and weight.

He passed his checkup with flying colors. Only thing we have to work on is transitioning him from the bottle to a sippy cup. We have switched his morning one so far but he isn’t too into this change. He definitely drinks much less from a sippy than the bottle. Oh well, he gets plenty of other dairy in yogurt and cheese and his isn’t about to waste away….

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Did you know that in order to have your one year shots, you have to actually be over 1 year old? 5 days shy of your first birthday and you can’t have them. Apparently the lady who rebooked our appointment when I said we were going to be out of town didn’t know it either. We went in for Jace’s one year appointment today and came home with a new appointment for 3 weeks for now for shots.

We did get all the other well baby stuff taken care of so I am happy to report that Jace is a healthy almost one year old who is 31 1/2″ tall (yes, tall rather than long. He got measured standing up for the first time). He also is the same weight as his cousin who just turned 2. He weights in at a whopping 25lbs (no wonder my back hurts!). Actually he is tracking straight along the 90% curves so his weight is just fine. We are going to start slowly introducing wheat (keeping our fingers crossed that all this waiting paid off and he isn’t allergic like Steve was) and cow’s milk. At some point we need to buy him some shoes since the giraffe ones are getting rather tight (one top because he has fat feet, not length wise) and if he is walking around outside his feet need some protection.

We will keep you updated on how it all goes.

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Jace is now 9 months old and boy has he grown. First off he weighs 22lbs 12 1/2 oz! While that may sound (and feel) very heavy, he has actually slipped a little in the weight charts. He was 90th percentile and now he is somewhere around 85th.  He is also 29 3/4″ tall which is above 90th percentile and puts him in 12-18 month pants from Old Navy!

As you can see from the earlier posts, he is army crawling like a mad man. He can really take off when he has somewhere to go. He get into a sitting position from his tummy and pull himself to standing. And more importantly, in the last week he has learned how to sit back down again! Before that he got stuck and would cry until you helped him down. He still hesitates a little as he gets up the nerve to plunk down on his butt but he gets there. He isn’t quite cruising yet although he does slowly make his way down the edge of the coffee table as he plays.

After a slow start to solid food, he is eating up a storm. Fruit is definitely his favorite, along with rice cakes, guacamole, and hummus. He enjoys carrots, sweet potato and squash and will eat peas and green beans at daycare along with oatmeal and rice cereal. At home he refuses to let me feed him cereal, oatmeal or green beans and I refuse to feed him peas as the smell of them makes me gag. Takes me back to the elementary school cafeteria and the smell of mushy overcooked peas. Not a fond memory! Oh yeah, he also likes plain yogurt. We are still avoiding wheat since Steve was allergic to it as a kid so we are starting to experiment with other grains such as quinoa and rice/potato pasta (thank goodness for Whole Foods!). We also just bought him some “Bunny Love” cereal which is like Cheerios but all oat. Actually it reminds me of dried cat food but don’t tell Jace. He seemed to love it at dinner.

I have also posted a bunch of new pictures in the photo section so enjoy!

And feel free to leave us a comment, letting us know if you are enjoying this blog….

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On latest count, Jace now has 6 teeth. Warning, do not let him trick you into sticking your finger in there…those are the teeth of a fierce animal despite how cute he is trying to convince you that he just wants to suck on your finger.

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Jace had his 6 month appointment on Friday. He is doing great and can now sit up independently, has 2 teeth, understands object permanence (if a toy falls on the floor, he knows to look for it rather than just assuming it is gone) and has tried solid food (more on that later). He weights 20lbs! and is 28″ tall! That keeps him in the 90% percentile for his age. He is not mobile yet except for when he in his crib and he inches forward from one end to the other during the night to smoosh his nose into the end! I’m sure that he will be crawling and walking way before we are ready for it! It is kinda nice knowing that I can put him down in one place and come back to find him still there.

He is a silly boy though. He had to get shots for this appointment and even though I tried to distract him, he insisted on watching our lovely nurse Laura giving him the shots. I mean, he really stared at the needle going into his leg all three times! Crazy boy. I hope he doesn’t start to associate Laura with pain because she is great and I would hate for him to cry whenever he sees her.

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Yes, Jace has his first tooth. We have been waiting for it for a couple of weeks due to the increased crankiness, excessive drool and fingers constantly in his mouth but didn’t know if it really was imminent or not. Tonight we went to friends’ housewarming party and apparently Steve stuck his finger in Jace’s mouth at some point (yes, I have no clue why) and found the tooth. It is the bottom left front tooth. Just broke through the surface and feels very pointy! Karina also found her finger in Jace’s mouth at some point (this time I think Jace put it there) and confirmed it. Ironically, I had just an hour or so before told another friend, Virginie, that Jace had no teeth yet!

Another week, another milestone.

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After our unplanned trip to the doctor on Monday, Jace had to go back to the doctor on Thursday for his 4 month checkup. He is now 17lbs 6 oz and 26 3/4″ long.  On Monday he was 17lbs 12 oz so I am not sure where those 6oz went but it isn’t like this kid is in desperate need of them. He is meeting all his development milestones such as head control and tracking people and generally is a happy healthy child.

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