Changes Galore! Part 2: Hello Underwear!

Hi Loved Ones! It's funny that I had planned to write a series of blog posts about "changes" that we are experiencing, and we were suddenly hit by a big unexpected change that has kept us busy and with little time for me to blog.

Just as a heads up, Daniel and I are off to Florida tomorrow for 4 days to visit my cousin Manuela, her husband Paul and their 3 adorable children. We are excited with this unexpected vacation! This will be the first time ever that Jonny is away from Daniel overnight but I think it will be a great break for him too. He will get to focus on the World Cup (he is soooo excited about it!) and not worry about all the other home and parenting responsibilities! I hope to update you when I get back!

Back to Part 2 of the "changes" series...

We decided to start potty training Daniel just over a week ago! Things have not gone as well as they were going when I started to write this blog about a week ago, but we originally started training Daniel using Lora Jensen's 3 day method. He was doing absolutely great, but then in the last couple of days, he has started to REFUSE the potty completely. Uhm... this is not supposed to happen according to Lora Jensen... But anyway, since Daniel will now just scream and cry with just the thought of using the potty, we decided to just let it be and try again sometime later... But in any case, since I already had photos and all, have a look at how the training went the first few days!

Day#1: Encouraging start!

We said good-bye to his diapers and pull-ups on Day #1 together and put him in underwear. He had several accidents in the morning but in the afternoon, went pee-pee in the potty twice!

Enjoying special breakfast made by Papai before putting on underwear...

Excited about the underwear...

Gave him lots to drink including juice (which he rarely gets) and he had his first tea (which he liked, but only took a few sips)!

We were stuck at home for 3 days and so we had to do lots of fun things - he loved the painting!

Enya came over on the first day and showed Daniel how to use the potty several times which I think helped...

He got a new truck after going pee-pee in the potty for the first time!

Happy big boy at the end of Day #1!

Day#2: Uhm... is this really going to work?

Day 2 was difficult... one accident after another and he couldn't care less about the potty... but he had fun playing nevertheless! :-)

Day#3: The day it all really clicked!

Day 3 started with a small accident in the early morning and then he went pee-pee in the potty several times that day, no more accidents. Wow, it all seemed to have worked!

We even got to play outside again... yes, still in his underwear (it's part of the method)

More tea...

And then he discovered the sofa in a new way...

Day#4: No accidents and we are back outdoors!

Yes, no accidents all day and we thought this was it!

This is his potty training chart. He gets a sticker each time he successfully uses the potty! He really liked this for the first few days...

Day #10: Back in pull-ups...

It's sad to report but we decided to put Daniel back in his pull-ups during the day for now because Daniel started to adamantly refuse the potty. Don't know exactly why (though we suspect that he got freaked out by realizing that he would also have to use public toilets when we were out and that he also had to do #2 in the potty), he is just not motivated to do so. Yesterday he was excited when he discovered he could pee standing up, but since then, has shown no more interest...

So basically, for now, 10 days later, the 3 day method did not work for us... We will try again soon. In some ways it was a good method to use because it got us started and it definitely taught Daniel to recognize when he has to go. But, it hasn't helped him want to use the potty himself. So now, we are praying for him to actually WANT TO do it like a big boy!

Anyway, it is all totally fine (well, now it is, you should have seen our disappointment 2 days ago! :-)), just part of the changes we are experiencing around here...

In a month or so I'll update again on how the potty training is going...

And now... back to packing since we are soon leaving for FLORIDA!!! YAY!!!