Potty Training

We started potty training Jack last Monday (9/19/11). Tonya (his daycare provider, we love her) told me the end of the prior week that Jack had started asking to go potty. I wasn't sure if it was because Tonya was just finishing up potty training another little girl so it had sparked his interest or if he maybe was really ready...either way Tonya said she thought we should at least give it a good try and see how he did! Well I'm happy to report he is doing GREAT!

Tonya didn't want to use Pull-Ups (she said in the past with kids she has done the pull-ups with that once they figure out that the pull-up will hold pee/poop it usually deters their progress), so off to JC Penny we went to get some of the thicker training underpants (we refer to them as "unders". Chris and I were going out of town for our anniversay so we decided to wait until we got home Sunday to give them a try.

Sunday night Jack wore his unders for about 3 hours and used the potty one time to go pee. I was excited that he didn't have an accident on our first try! So Monday was the real start of training and to say he didn't do great would be an understatement!

Here is the timeline of the week...

Monday - 7 accidents (6 at daycare, 1 at home)

Tuesday - 2 accidents (both at daycare)

Wednesday - 2 accidents (both at daycare, one during quiet time)

Thursday - 1 accident (at daycare)

Friday - 1 accident (at daycare)

Saturday - 1 accident (at home)

Sunday - 1 accident (during his nap - although he was in Columbus all day with Chris so who knows what really happened)

Monday - ZERO ACCIDENTS ALL DAY!

We are really pretty proud of how well he is doing! He doesn't always tell you when he needs to go, but it's obvious he can hold his pee (most of the accidents later in the week were poop) and will hold it until you take him to the potty! We do a jumping high five and a cookie as a reward (he doesn't like stickers/tape/sticky things so we didn't do the more common sticker chart)!

A friend that has a little boy a week older than Jack asked me what we were doing and what the key was...I told her number one is consistency. We (either at home or daycare) would take Jack to the potty about every 30 minutes and have him sit on the potty and try to go - every 30 minutes! The second thing, I think is, is not doing pull-ups or diapers at all during the day! Jack has only had a diaper on at night and not until he actually gets into bed. He doesn't even wear a diaper during nap time and has only had 2 pee accidents during his nap - awesome! Third and probably tied with second is having an awesome daycare that works just as hard as you do at getting them potty trained! Tonya is awesome and she even works harder than we do/did because she has him the majority of the week while we are at work! I think if your child goes to daycare and the daycare isn't totally on board and you aren't using the same methods it will never work or at least will take a lot longer!

I will say Jack is no where near trained at night time. He still has quite a big of pee in his diapers in the morning, but hey I can do 1 diaper a day, that's nothing - especially when little Miss is slated to arrive in 4 short months! :-)

Way to go Jack, you are an all-star potty trained boy! We are so proud of you!

xoxo

chatter box...dancing king...bully...

Jack is talking more and more everyday! It's really quite cute! He tries to repeat everything you say! He was trying to say peek-a-boo this weekend which came out "pee-boo". He was looking for Charlie and kept saying "cha-ie". He says "let's go" and when we were at Jenny's shower last weekend a bunch of the guests were leaving and Jack picked up my camera bag and hooked it on his arm and proceeded towards the door saying "ets-o", I think he might be spending too much time with Momma! He also sings along with music in the car now, it's more of a hum but he is definitely trying! Chris said he kept saying "wus thaaa" and pointing out the window while they were in the truck the other day on their drive to Columbus, but I have yet to hear that one.

He says more, mine, doo (door), dog, birrr (bird), baaaalll, no, huh uh, tan que (thank you), uh oh, mama, dada, tuh dow (touch down and throws his arms up), fut ball (foot ball), bye, hi, hey, oowww (especially in public so people think I'm abusing my kid - I think he does it on purpose), no, nuts (chris taught him that), eye, nose. Thats all I can remember right now. We are working on ears, up, down, please and a few more animals - he doesn't know much of them b/c everything is a DOG!

He knows where his eyes, nose, mouth and tummy are. When you say "cover your mouth" when he coughs he will SLAP his hand over his mouth, and if you give him a tissue he will wipe under his nose (I just about die from the cuteness every time he does that!).

He is continuing his love of music, whether on the radio or a TV commercial! In the car if I say dance he starts moving and groving! I've also noticed he is becoming more aware of the TV in general...he is so his mother's son!

He is also still a bully. I haven't had any hitting reports from daycare lately, but his new thing is to tackle the 3 year old little boy, Logan, and sit on him (the boy won't push him off though), so when Jack gets bored supposedly he will take a step or two away and when Logan starts to get up he will run back and sit on him again...Oy vey! This mean-spirited attitude has also provided Jack the chance to quickly learn what time out is! He has a chair that is his time out chair and now it's to the point that if I talk in my "mom" voice and ask him if he needs a time out? he immediately gets sad, watery eyes, and a quivering bottom lip. Chris and I both have to try really hard not to smile b/c it's so cute - but this stuff is serious! :-)

That's all for now! xoxo

he's really walking

So I know I've been mentioning in posts about Jack starting to walk, but I can officially say that he is now preferring walking over crawling for the most part! It's so cute to see him walking around, I can't stand it! It only took 15-16 months, but he's got walking down! I'm so proud of him!

Oh - HAPPY 16 MONTH BIRTHDAY JACK!

15 month update...continued

It seem like as soon as I wrote Jack's 15 month update he started doing so many more things! The biggest is that he is walking now! I won't go as far as to say he is a pro, but he will take 3 or 4 steps at a time and then re-balance and then take a few more steps! We are SO excited! He was walking out side in Meme and Papa's yard on Sunday and I was amazed!

He also has added a few words to his vocabulary in the past week or so - crack-ooor (cracker), papa, and birrr (bird), he also has some funky two-syllable sound that he makes when he is referring to Charlie (one of our dogs), but I can't really express it in writing just yet! He also loves to whisper words - it's so cute! I think that takes us up to about 15 words! He is definitely going to be a Chatty Cathy like his mama! And he has started gasping when he hears an unfamiliar word - for example when we were at Meme and Papa's the guys were target practicing with their bows and every time he heard the bow string snap he would gasp! It was pretty funny!

Lastly, Jack has also seemed to somewhat get over the little bit of "separation anxiety" or "stranger danger" he was experiencing! That's a major plus!

we got a canine...

Nope, not a dog - Jack managed to pop through his VERY FIRST TOOTH this past weekend! And in typical Jack-Style it wasn't your "run of the mill" bottom middle tooth or even an upper middle tooth...it was his upper left-side canine!?

Weird I know, maybe even a bit concerning, but hey at least he has teeth, or a tooth! I guess we don't exactly know yet if he has the rest of his teeth!

Jack has also started being a dare devil and letting go of the furniure and standing solo for a few seconds (big achievement in Jack's world)! He is also getting better at walking while holding his hands and is cruising all along the furniture! I think we may actually have a walker - before his 2nd birthday! :-)

and the winner is...

The SIPPY! We have been having a sippy vs bottle battle since Jack turned 1! He easily passed on the bottle at daycare and hadn't been having any bottles there from about 11.5 months, but he refused his morning and evening milk in anything but his beloved bottle!

I tried heating the milk up for his sippy - that didn't help. He would take the cup, take a few sips, and then throw the cup down and look at me with utter disgust! Huh...

So I just gave it a few weeks and the day he turned 13 months (not even on purpose) I thought I'll just give him his milk in a cup, cold mind you - no warming it up, and he will drink it once he gets thirsty. And drink he did! The first few days he wasn't into it, but now he drinks his milk like the Big Boy that he is with no problem!

No more bottles in the Spear Household (well they are still there, but we aren't using them)! :-)

birthday bash sneak peek

more to come...

so excited!

xoxo

happy first birthday jack!

Today is the day! Jack is turning one! I know everyone says this, but it doesn't seem possible! It seems like just yesterday he was a teeny tiny baby! But I have to admit I much more enjoy this stage then the newborn stage!

We are heading to OK tomorrow for Chris' family reunion, which kills Jack's birthday party timing, so his party will be next Saturday. I was going to document Jack's day (as much as I could before and after work), but wouldn't you know I pulled the camera out this morning to snap some pics before I woke him up and the damn battery died! I was more than annoyed! Photo Op Fail!

We took cupcakes to daycare today (see picture above) so Jack could celebrate with his friends! I think he will enjoy them! We don't have much planned tonight b/c we have to pack for the weekend and I know I will forget something no matter how many times I review my "list".

Here is an update on Jack from this past month!

• Jack says 5 words - Mama, Dada, No (Neh, Neh), Ba-Bye (Da-Dye), and Uh-Oh (I'm on the fence about adding a 6th word - dog, but he isn't consistent with it yet).


• Jack has learned to crawl this month and is all over the house!


• Jack is drinking whole milk and has been for about 3 weeks now.


• Jack has found a love for sippy cups and is only taking his bottle in the am and pm now - everything else is from the sippy!


• Jack started pulling up right around his birthday!


• Jack loves to crawl around his crib now, sit up, clap, scream with joy, and turn his mobile off and on multiple times throughout the night.


• Jack still has ZERO teeth.


• Jack has asthma and allergies...he is on 2 steroid breathing treatments/day and gets Singulair with his dinner.


• Jack HATES baby food. This gets tricky considering the lack of teeth, but he will and can pretty much eat anything we do (within reason).


• Jack still loves balls and cars and music.

This is all I can think of off the top of my head, but I'm sure I will add more things for documentation purposes later on!

breaking news!

Jack started crawling yesterday! FINALLY! I'm thrilled, excited, proud, and a ton of other descriptive verbs! It's so cute! I'm just glad he is finally getting motivated! I got him on my cell phone camera last night, but the videos were too long I guess to upload? IDK - I'm not good at the whole uploading video thing? I'll try to take some pictures, but that won't be the same! I'm just so STOKED!

Go Jack - Go Jack - it's almost your birthday!

Milestone - Crawling @ 11 months and 5 days! Whoop Whoop!

xoxo

11 Month Birthday!

Today Jack turned 11 months old! I can't believe we will be celebrating his 1 year birthday in just another 4 short weeks! Time has flown by...I remember like it was yesterday sitting at the house on maternity leave thinking, "OMG - what have I done?" Haha. It definitely took some time for me to adjust to being a mom, but now I wouldn't change a thing!

Here's an update of some of Jack's developments:

• Jack is pointing.
• Jack is clapping.
• Jack is waving.
• Jack gives kisses when asked and sometimes when he isn't asked.
• Jack says Mama, Dada, No, and Huh-uh reguarly and I'm convinced he knows who Mama and Dada are when he says them...well Mama for sure.
• Jack doesn't like when he see Mom walk by and not come to see him - he screams until I come back to get him!
• Jack still loves daycare.
• Jack loves to give you a pat on the back for picking him up!
• Jack is starting to observe the world around him more and more everyday.
• Jack has mastered his "split scoot" and I'm not sure he will ever crawl.
• Jack is starting to try and discover how to pull up to things and if I give him my hands to hold he will stand up by himself, but I haven't found him standing next to any furniture yet.
• Jack drinks 3-4 bottles a day and is now back to eating his baby food as well as table food!
• Jack has ZERO teeth.
• Jack loves to flirt.
• Jack has a mean bone in his little monster body.
• Jack is starting to use toys in the manner they are meant (drives trucks around on the floor, etc.)
• Jack throws fits.
• Jack is starting to semi-sleep better (I'll regret that).
• Jack loves to throw things.
• Jack goes from sitting to knees and back to sitting.
• Jack will stand when placed as long as there is someone to entertain him.
• Jack can sometimes sit up on his own, but this isn't consistent and mainly only happens in his crib or pack n play.
• Jack weighs just under 21 pounds - I'm not sure on his length as Chris didn't pay attention at the dr. this week.

This is all I can really think of. All in all Jack is doing great (minus the whole pneumonia thing)!

xoxo

10 and a Half Month Update

I know, I know - I've been a bad blogger lately! I have some time so I wanted to update (document) some of Jack's favorite activities! This will be in bullet point form!

• Jack is a clapping fool! He loves to clap - he claps when he is happy, he claps when he is mad, he claps to himself in the back seat, he claps when I sing, he claps when he screams! He is all around just a CLAPPER!
• Not only is Jack a clapping fool, but he is a dancing fool as well! He loves music (which became apparent to me around 4 months of age)! He loves his nursery rhymes, sung by myself or his singing book, he loves the radio, he loves phones that play music, he loves commercials with music (especially that new "I can't believe it's not butter" commercial with the lady from Will and Grace - anyone know it?), but the best part about his love of music is his DANCING! He will bounce up and down and shrug up his little shoulders and can that boy keep a beat! He has good rhythm! He bounces in perfect beat with the music and when he gets really excited he will also throw in a little swaying front and back! When standing up he will bend his knees and bounce his whole body up and down! It's so CUTE!
• Last week Jack starting pointing - doesn't sound like a big milestone, but it's so cute! I have to admit the first few times he raised his arm up and pointed; Chris and I thought he was doing the "gay" hey wave! But after watching him a few times I realized he was pointing at me, then I noticed him pointing at lots of things! So that's a new favorite of his!
• Jack also will give kisses when asked probably 40-50% of the time and then randomly he does it without being asked! I love it!
• Jack also has become more and more in love with the fact that he can shake his head "no"! He now knows what it means as well - see he is starting to reject his baby food (that's a whole 'nother story) and if he even sees me pick up the container or the spoon he screams and shakes his head no! It's cute, but FRUSTRATING!
• Jack also loves balls - play balls/toys that is! He loves to throw them and then scream til you throw it back! He pretty much is throwing or pushing anything off of anything! And he thinks it's funny - Momma on the other hand does not!
• Jack still has ZERO teeth, although he has been working on them pretty hard lately!

That's pretty much it for his new tricks. A quick update on the physical therapy and leg situation: We have been working with him a ton and he has been spending tons of time in his Jumperoo and Walker and he is now standing (no PT needed) so we have decided to forego the physical therapy for now. I talked with a PT I know and he said that until Jack is at least 12 months old we would probably be wasting lots of time and money. He still isn't crawling, but army crawling (backwards only) all over the place, he is still getting up on all fours and bouncing and every once in awhile lunging forward. Yesterday he was on the bed while Chris was packing his suitcase and Jack went from sitting up onto his knees to look over the edge of the suitcase! He has also been working on sitting up by himself - that's still a work in progress though for sure!

We took Jack to the doctor last week (he has had really bad allergies which lead to double ear infections) and he was still only 27 inches - maybe 27.5 inches long and weighed 20 pounds 2.5 ounces!

Well this turned out much longer then I had anticipated! Thanks for sticking through it! :-)

xoxo

clap, clap, claparoo

I'm so excited! After working for what seems like months (and probably was) Jack is CLAPPING! He doesn't like if I start clapping, but he likes to clap independently! If I clap and say "Yea!" He stops and just gives me one of his famous "WTH?" looks!

Either way, check that one off the list - on to waving! Oh how I wish he would wave...

xoxo

Jack Is Movin' On Up!

That's right! I ordered Jack's BIG BOY CAR SEAT this morning! It should be here next week sometime! I was going to wait about another month or so, but I noticed that the seat I've been drooling over went on sale and just couldn't resist! Here is a picture of it!

I liked this particular seat b/c the headrest is removable in the rear facing position up to 22 lbs. so it won't take up as much room in the backseat! Also it rear faces to 35 lbs. with the headrest! And up to 65 lbs forward facing! This seat should last Jack up until he is like 5 years old and ready for a booster! And of course I got black because we all know how much I love black! Ha!

I'm so EXCITED!

xoxo

Development Update

We had our monthly Parents as Teachers meeting this past Thursday and she did a screening on Jack to see where he is at developmentally. She said he is right on track and gave us a few "what's coming next" things to work on. So we are focusing on getting him to wave hi/bye, playing patty cake/clapping, getting him to practice his pincher grasp, pulling up, and start to get him to relate his sounds to certain things (like when he says dada he knows that Chris or when he says baba that he means his bottle; things like that).

He is getting stronger and stronger in the legs arena - he will stand for a few seconds on his own, but I'm right there to catch him when he falls! But thank goodness he is finally standing and putting weight on his legs - that was my biggest worry!

xoxo

7 Months Old...Already!!

So my little boy turned 7 months old on Monday! Time is flying by! Here is a quick update on his development and new skills!

• Jack is sitting completely unassited and without any pillows or people for support/security! I can leave him on the floor and he is perfectly fine. He lifts both hands off the floor to play with toys, he turns from side to side and leans over to grab toys and then sits back up. He hasn't figured out how to sit from laying down though - I think it has to do with him not liking to roll?
• Jack is still sleeping from 7pm until anywhere between 5:30-7:30am. If he wakes early he gets a bottle and goes back to bed - sometimes until 9:00am! What a good boy!
• Jack has started eating baby food. We skipped over cereal for now and he has had Pears and Squash with no tummy troubles! I think every weekend we will be adding a new food and see how it goes!
• Jack still doesn't have any teeth, but has been teething hard lately so hopefully soon!
• Jack is a jabber box! Dadadadadadadadada is all I hear!
• Jack is also a major screamer! He screams when he is excited mostly and flaps his arms up and down to add to the excitement! Tonya says he screams at all the kids all day long at daycare! I'm sure she loves that! But its how he communicates so I'm fine with it!
• Jack is starting to show some seperation anxiety tendencies - mostly when Momma leaves, but he loves daycare so we never have the problem there! It's mainly when cranky, tired, or hungry!
• Just last night Jack started getting his knees under him while on his tummy and pushing backwards! He's been wiggling around on his belly spinning circles for a few weeks now though. Hopefully crawling is in the future in the next couple months! Although he still has no desire to stand, at least not for too long.

xoxo

Bad Cereal...

Yes, rice cereal is B.A.D! I gave in this past Saturday and we gave Jack his first little bit of rice cereal. I have to admit I was excited; excited to feed him with a spoon, excited to see how he did with the spoon, excited and hopeful all would go well...

He did awesome with the whole spoon concept! From bite 1 he was waiting with an open mouth! And once I figured out I needed to put the spoon in a bit farther he never even spit any out! So obviously developmentally he is ready for solids. I was hopeful after the great experience of the actual feeding/eating...

6 hours later however - I regretted it! Jack was screaming in pain, pulling his legs to his chest and passing gas like I've never heard! Poor guy! He would cry and cry and toot and toot and wiggle around so uncomfortable! I seriously haven't heard him cry like that in over a good 2 months - it was an all out screaming cry! I tried to hold him, rock him, calm him, I even ended up swaddling him - nothing was helping, so I finally gave him some gripe water and that seemed to settle his tummy and he fell asleep!

Needless to say it's going to be a few more weeks before we try cereal again! And I might even skip the rice and go for oatmeal b/c I heard it doesn't give them gas/constipation like the rice can...we'll see. I'm just like when is he going to be able to eat normally? I mean he still can't even digest a "regular" formula for goodness sake! Is he is going to be a toddler and living off milk? YIKES!

xoxo

Happy 5 Month Birthday!

Today is Jack's 5 month birthday! It really doesn't seem like it's been 5 months, but it has! Really there isn't much new this month in the way of milestones, but here is a list of some new things and changed things!

• Jack now blows Raspberries like nobody's business. I'll wake up in the middle of the night and he is blowing and blowing and blowing, and in the morning when he wakes up he is automatically back to blowing. It started out really cute, but then he started getting a little more spit behind them and now if you are within a foot of him you are most likely to get sprayed! Ha! It's still cute, even though Chris cannot stand spitty/drooly babies. He thinks they look dirty or something.
• Jack is talking more and more and is starting to make some sounds like ba and da every once in awhile. He is still more in the just babbling weird noises stage, but every so often we here a syllable or two.
• Jack made the transition off his Nutramigen formula and has been on Parent's Choice for about a month. It all went pretty well although he now has to get about 1 oz of apple juice with 3 oz of water every day to keep his system going or else he gets a bit stopped up...ugh!
• Jack is sitting up better with every day that goes by - I'm really hoping that by the time we get his 6 month pictures he will be really good at it! We'll see.
• Jack still isn't rolling over, but he is getting closer - I just don't think he has any interest in it?
• We've had a bit of a sleep regression or well, maybe a change is a better word. He still goes to bed at 7pm. He used to get up anywhere between 1 and 2 or would sometimes sleep all the way through - it was totally unpredictable. The last week or so he has started sleeping until almost 4am, he eats then goes back to sleep until I wake him up to get ready for daycare - usually about 6:45am. I actually kind of like this schedule better b/c it allows me to get ready for the day before he is awake and screaming for me to pay attention and play with him! I'm just hoping that gradually 4am will turn to 5am, then 6am, then 7am! That would be nice!
• Jack does not NAP on the weekends! He takes a morning nap of about an hour and an afternoon nap of 2-3 hours everyday at Tonya's, but when he is home on the weekends - I'm lucky to get 30-45mins a couple times a day! What the heck!?
• Jack has also began to show his displeasure with a situation - it's like on command. Here are a couple examples: he will be sitting contently and will then follow you as you leave the room and he will turn his neck, look over his shoulder, until at last he cannot see you and then immediately SCREAM! Ha! Another example, he was happy as a clam swinging the other day for like 15-20 minutes by himself in the living room while Chris and I were cleaning up around the house, but as soon as I made the mistake of walking through the living room in his direct line of sight and then back out he was SCREAMING again! We haven't experienced any "stranger anxiety" or anything like that - he will still pretty much flash smiles at anyone and everyone so that's good!
• Jack is getting bigger and bigger! Another last note is that we went the whole month without going to the dr. for some random reason! This is a first - before this past month I don't think we went more then 2 weeks without some reason to go to the dr.! I think my new momness is starting to wear off and I'm not totally freaking out about everything!

I think that's pretty much it for month 5 in Jack's world! xoxo

It's Official...

Jack is a CHUNK! Ha! We went for his 4 Month Well Baby Visit this morning with Dr. Mijares, all looks good in Jack's world. He weighed 14lbs 13ozs! CHUNK! And he is now 24.5 inches long! I can't remember how big his head was...maybe like 41cms? IDK.

She said he looks great and that she isn't concerned about him not rolling over yet. She said that ever since the "Back to Sleep" campaign has been going on that lots of babies roll closer to 6 months then 4 months, which was the previous benchmark. She said he does hold his neck really well and he does push up, which is all good! I guess he will just get there on his own time!

He had to get more vaccines today - 2 shots and another oral one! OUCH! The mean nurse wouldn't even let us hold him - he just laid there all by himself on the table. He did really good though, he only cried for like maybe 30 seconds then he calmed right down!

I took him back to Tonya's and stayed to give him his noon bottle and a little cuddle time with Mama! He seemed in a fine mood though! Tonya did tell me that he was SO close to rolling over yesterday from his back to his tummy, but just couldn't quite make it - so I think any day now he will be rolling all over the place! I'm still more focused on sitting up though b/c I think that will be way more fun then rolling!

xoxo

More Pictures!

These are from the end of September (towards the bottom) and from Tonight (at top)! Enjoy!

We've started working on sitting up since he REFUSES to roll over! Ha! He is pretty good already!

Showing off the BabyLegs! Too cute!

xoxo