Tales from the Potty - Day 1

This morning started off AMAZING! Luke woke up, we ate breakfast, and then he threw all of his diapers into a garbage bag (don't worry - I didn't actually throw the diapers away...are you kidding??? those things are expensive! They will be put away in the basement for the next baby). As Luke was putting the diapers in the garbage, he was laughing and we were singing "Lukey is a big boy, NO MORE DIAPERS!" He was getting a kick out of this song! Then it was time to put on the big boy underwear. His first underwear of choice was a Mickey Mouse pair. We talked about going pee pee on the potty and keeping Mickey Mouse dry. We headed to the bathroom where he sat on his potty and I encouraged him to go pee. I knew he just drank a whole lot at breakfast so he should be ready to go! He actually said, "No, Mommy" when I was sitting in the bathroom with him...he wanted me out. I walked away for one second and then I heard the music...Luke had peed (his potty plays music when he goes). I couldn't believe it - I made a HUGE deal out of this and was so excited! Lukey got a Thomas sticker to put on his potty chart and lots of praise from his Mommy. This potty training thing isn't going to be so bad....

And then the next 5 hours happened :( Let's just say we've gone through 5 of our 27 pairs of underwear so far. I would constantly remind him to tell me when he had to go potty, we would check to make sure Mickey Mouse or whatever character he was wearing on another pair of underwear were dry and he would gets lots of praise and another reminder to tell me when he has to go (we are somewhat following the 3-Day Potty Training Method). Unfortunately, on the times we would sit on the potty, he wouldn't go even though I knew he had to and within 5 minutes, he would have an accident. The problem...he didn't care about these accidents. Sigh! I was beginning to wonder what we were thinking...

After lunch and more potty visits with no success, Luke told me he was tired and wanted to go to sleep. He went down for his nap around 12:15 and is still sleeping (it's 2:30 right now). I will say he has a pretty bad cold, but he is still playful and acting fine so we decided not to postpone the potty training that we had planned for the weekend. After an unsuccessful morning, I did put a pull-up on him before his nap. Our initial thought was not to do this, at least at nap time, since he usually wakes up pretty dry, but I knew he was going to sleep for a long time and a pull-up at this point was probably best!

Maybe a nap is just what Luke needed - we'll see...Tales from the Potty to continue....

So he woke up around 2:45 and I put him on the potty right away. He sat there for quite awhile but didn't go - his pull-up was pretty wet when he woke up. So...we put on some underwear and headed back downstairs. After drinking water & juice, numerous potty visits and nothing happening, he FINALLY went again in the potty around 4:20! We had the biggest potty party ever! I thought maybe this was a turning point because I decided to give Luke a Thomas sticker AND a dinosaur I picked up as part of my big bag of potty rewards the other day - he was very excited about the dinosaur!

Wally got home just before 5 and Luke was excited to show Daddy how he goes potty. He pulled his underwear down and sat on the potty, but nothing - at least he was excited about it. That was about the last time he was excited about it for the night. It was a fight the rest of the night to get Luke to do anything - eat, go potty, even watch a movie. I don't know if he isn't feeling well or if he just isn't digging this potty stuff. Right now, I'm not digging this potty stuff either. I feel pretty defeated today, but we will give it another go tomorrow. Stay tuned...

We were 2/8 today - 2 pees on the potty, 6 accidents - hey, that's like batting .225 right?!?! Could be worse!

From the Mouth of Luke

As soon as we get in the car these days - "Tinkle Tinkle Little Star song Mommy" quickly followed by "Turn it up!"

"Why?" followed by "Why?" followed by "Why Mommy?" Clearly my answers aren't satisfying him :)

"Yes" - he hasn't said "yeah" in almost two weeks. All of the sudden on New Year's Eve, he started saying "yes" all.the.time. This is not in place of "no" unfortunately - that word can still be heard from him quite frequently.

"Boogies Mommy, only one tissue" This was after he started grabbing handfuls of kleenex at daycare and was told to only take one.

He brought Barney in the car with him the other morning. He lifted Barney up to the window and said, "Dook Barney, fire. Hot. Don't touch." This was when we were driving by a building that constantly has smoke (pollution) coming out of it!

We drive by a train station and right along with the tracks every morning. When he sees a Metra train traveling, he says "Hi People (while waving). Go to work in Chicago."

Cheers to Aunt Stacey!

Yesterday we said "Cheers!" to Aunt Stacey as she gets ready to head to London for 6 months! She was offered an amazing opportunity by her employer, Careerbuilder. My whole family headed to her and Michael's apartment in Chicago to send her off!



Not only did we say "cheers!", but we had a few other things to celebrate! We wished her happy Valentine's day, happy birthday, happy Easter, and last but not least, we celebrated Aunt Carly's college graduation!

















Cheers Aunt Stacey...you'll be back in a flash! Have an amazing trip!!! We love you and will miss you!

This little boy will be waiting to Skype with you :) And a new little one will make his/her appearance when you get back!

Fun-Filled Week after Christmas

Quick potty training update: we have postponed it until next weekend. I realized that this weekend wasn't a good one to start, but I have a 4-day weekend with MLK day coming up so I thought that would be the perfect. We have no plans and can just focus on the potty training.


We did lots of fun things the week after Christmas since Wally and I were both off work.

We did a little bit of this...

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We cleaned up Toyland USA...


We went to a basketball game...


We shaved and played in the bathtub...




We visited the Museum of Science & Industry...


We rode on a school bus (the highlight of the Museum of S&I visit for Luke!)...


We went to Winter Wonderfest at Navy Pier...















We waited in line for a long time for a ride Luke was excited about only to not be so excited about it once it was our turn...

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We made silly faces...


We rode our new scooter...


Went to a New Year's Eve DAY celebration with a co-worker and her little girl...

Adventures in Potty Training Starts...

Saturday! But I had to share these pictures right now!





How cute is he?!?!

Our daycare likes to start potty training right at 2. Well, I wasn't ready to start then, especially with the holidays. But this week is Luke's first week back at daycare in almost 2 weeks so I thought we'd give him a week to get back into the swing of things and then start. We start at home Saturday and Sunday and then they will carry it on during the week for us! I am still not 100% convinced that he is ready, but it's worth a try right now. They are convinced he will do great! I hope so!

So the underwear...Wally had to run to Target yesterday so I told him to pick up some underwear for Luke. When I walked in the door from work, I saw a little boy in no clothes, but 2 (yes, 2!) pairs of underwear on over his diaper. He was running around like a crazy man so excited about his Thomas underwear! Hopefully he'll be just as excited on Saturday and want to keep Thomas clean and dry :)

(I am still trying to figure out the look of the blog...so please bear with me!)

Under Construction

I am going to try to get the blog design back to the basics. My pictures are too big and videos don't seem to appear right. While I try to figure this all out, please ignore the appearance. Thank you :)

Happy 2011!

We rang in the New Year with the Happ family!

It was a family-friendly affair! This meant that everyone played along when Luke made a choo-choo train out of the dining room chairs :)


Clark and Luke played some football...


and played along for a few photos...










After Clark went to bed, Luke put on his jammies and was treated to some chocolate cake and cool whip!


And after Luke went to bed, the adults had some fun with the Xbox Kinect. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time! We toasted with champagne (and sparkling grape juice) at midnight and called it a night not too long after!

I can't complain much about 2010 - it was a pretty good year for us. But I can already tell that 2011 is going to be even better!

Happy New Year!