pre-xmas lancaster trip

Two weekends before xmas, we headed out to lancaster to visit gmom J and Aunt B.  We had a weekend of fun planned  though we got off to a rocky start on friday.  We left later than we wanted to and got stuck in a ton of traffic. plus big guy was sick and not pleased with being stuck in the car.  We all pretty much had a meltdown during the drive.

We finally made it to our hotel, a new place that looks like a steamboat from the outside.  Our normal place closed down.  Check-in was very easy and we went to the fabulous gift shop.  the hotel has a cool thing that a goldfish can stay in your room with you.  They give you a little goldfish bowl and some food.  And if you want they will let you take it home.  We named ours "baby fish."  big guy liked feeding it, but other than that, he wasn't overly excited about it, hence we didn't take it home.

Our night was pretty quiet, eating some dinner, snacks, nebulizer, bath, and bed.  But oh boy, we had an awesome day on saturday planned!  big guy was kind of a wild one upon waking up and our trip to the starbucks was the beginning of the next round of meltdowns.  Luckily grandma J and Aunt B arrived and brightened up all of our moods.  We headed out to the strasburg train station to catch the santa train.  And big guy was the angel child for the next two hours.  The train ride was awesome.  We were in first class and got the best seats on the train.  right up front for the return journey when the engine couples right in front of us.

We ate cookies and hot chocolate, listened to carolers, horn players, and saw santa himself.  big guy really loves santa, but only from a distance.  he loves talking about him, his hat, saying ho, ho, ho.  But when santa came too close, big guy hid under a chair.  He peeked a hand out to get his trinket, but otherwise was not interested in getting any closer!  hilarious! We did the hand crank train and visited the gift shop before heading back to the hotel to nap.  After naptime, we ate dinner in the bar area (this is where we had eaten on a previous visit) and went to Elizabeth farms to drive slowly through the thousand lights.  big guy loved it so much!  the tunnel of lights was super cool!  we went to santa's workshop to say hi to santa (again, big guy was not interested in actually saying hi.  And next to santa was a model train set up.  Heaven!

Sunday morning we packed up and headed to gmom J's house.  We had a pre-xmas- including big guy's big present, a new big wheels type bike!  he loved it and tore through the house leaning on the handle bars and not bothering with the pedals.  Hubs and I opened our gifts, as well.  but big guy was loving life!  we spent a few hours and ate breakfast before hitting the road.  A great lancaster trip yet again!

good manners

big guy has really good manners.  He says please and thank you so well and even to strangers, which of course they think is totally fabulous.  who am I kidding, everyone thinks it's fabulous.  Including me, since I am a real stickler for manners.  Big guy says thank you without prompting and sometimes at times taht you wouldn't think he would say it.  Like if you fix a train on his tracks or fast forward through the scene that he thinks is scary during a movie.  So precious.  Please he will say when prompted.  But he also says hi and bye so nicely to everyone.  Almost like he's a politician.  We are still working on you're welcome.  which is kind of a mouthful, but we'll get there!

the potty train

One of the gifts that big guy got from gmom dino was a book called The Potty Train.  Combing big guy's love of trains with my desire to keep this whole potty thing rolling!  Today big guy really had to go, but was being his difficult self.  So, I busted out the new book and we read it several times.  Big guy was very serious during the reading.  After we would finish we would discuss.  He knew everything that was going on.  He would pat his diaper and say "push on potty."  So, I thought we were doing good.  I asked if he just wanted to go sit, not push.  NO.

Ok, I went off to make dinner.  Hubs was in charge momentarily and big guy wanted to read the potty train again.  this time hubs asked me to grab the tickets to get on the potty train!  I gave a quizzical look and he stage whispered to me- toilet paper.  Ah-ha!  Genius hubs!  I grabbed two squares of toilet paper and gave them each their tickets.  big guy loved it, he kept yelling, "potty ticket!"  big guy still couldn't be convinced to just sit on the potty, but his spirits seemed better in regards to the potty.  especially after he and hubs put their tickets into the potty so that they could get onto the toilet.

At dinner, big guy was pulling a major crank fest!  he refused to eat, was whining, and didn't want to sit up straight.  All signs that a poop is brewing.  WE went to get our ticket and headed upstairs.  big guy prefers the upstairs potty.  He fought me for about 40 seconds, but then was able to go.  Whew!!!  He was pretty upset and didn't want to flush or put in his ticket, but we eventually calmed down.  And the night was a thousand times better since big guy was in a way better mood!!

breakfast of champions?

Hubs took this pic the other day of big guy deciding what he wanted for breakfast- it's a little blurry because he was running with joy- but that is a bag of marshmallows and a bag of m&m's in his hands! Needless to say, big guy did not eat this for breakfast, but he gets an A+ for trying!

pants!

This evening big guy (with my supervision) took off his pants and properly put on a pair of pajama bottoms.  that's right.  my baby put on a pair of pants.  it was really adorable to watch him pulling and figuring out how to do it.  next putting on a shirt.

quirks

It's funny what bothers kids.  I've read and been told by several people that some of the things that bother other kids don't bother big guy.  For example, big guy really enjoyed having his nose aspirated before he learned how to blow his nose.  I think he realized that it made him feel better.  And that it felt really cool when I would do it- I was an expert!  Another funny thing is getting nails cut.  Big guy loves when I cut his finger and toe nails.  he actually will request that I do it every week.  He'll point to his finger nail and say, "cut."  and he likes to have the index fingernails cut first. And after I do fingernails, we move onto toenails.  I mean there are still plenty of things that he freaks out about, but at least he has learned to blow his nose and enjoy getting his nails cut!

on the first night of Hannukah

big guy used the potty again and went poop!  lots of happy screaming, clapping, jumping ensued.  we flushed.  we yelled for daddy.  daddy did all of the above.  we flushed.  we talked about poop and pushing.  then we got fish stickers, which is the reward.  I'm thinking about making a chart....hmmm, I'll have to see how motivated I feel!

pretend play

big guy has started to play pretend with his stuffed animals. I noticed this the other day when we returned from the elmwood park zoo with our newly purchased stuffed animal snake- green, almost three feet long, with a fun pink tongue sticking out.  It also hisses a lot!  At cats, trains, and especially other stuffed animals.  In fact, the snake brought to my attention the pretend playing.

The snake was playing with the red bear with white spots.  and I hear big guy yelling, "Not nice!"he says nice like "ni-ch" which is extra cute.  I see the snake being put down onto a pillow to calm down and take a nap.  I asked big guy what happened and he said, "snake, not nice.  sleeping." and then started making snoring noises.  So. Freaking. Cute.

Often the play animals are learning about being nice and then learning to play together nicely.  Must be something they work on a lot at school!!  anyway, it seems to me a leap in playing in that he is making up stories for the stuffed animals.  and it's really cute to boot.

Happy bday hubs!

The hubs turned 33 today! What an old man! Big guy have been planning for days. Card and present were opened this morning, especially since big guy decided to get up at 4:30 this morning. Clearly trying to make the day feel as long as possible. Big guy and I went to the supermarket after school to pick up hubs favorite cake- a carvel ice cream cake with those yummy crunchies. Big guy kept saying "bir day cake" as we were buying it.

Hubs was already home and he got a sneak peek of the cake. We were chatting while big guy played with some blocks. Hubs announced he wanted dinner and I got to start making their favorite dinner- pasta with meat sauce. Only to realize, I had forgotten to buy the meat. Oops. After an unsuccessful trip to the supermarket down the street to procure the meat, we ordered the next best thing- bertucci's to go! Hubs got chicken pram, me pizza, and big guy ravioli in butter. I top big guys ravioli with sprinkle cheese and put some steamed broccoli on the side.

I actually had to flag big guy on ravioli- he ate ten of them and half a head of broccoli, then topped it off with half a bag of chocolate covered pretzels. We relieved, played and watched some curious George the rest of the night. We finished with a bath which was the nights topper.

As previously mentioned, big guy has been a challenging one to get to poop. But the past few times he's gone during bath time. And the past two times, when he's started to push, I plop him on the toilet to finish. And afterwards he gets stickers! So tonight he was starting the hysterical crying but pointed to the potty. So, I said, do you want to sit on the potty? He nodded yes. I plopped him on and said, ok, push. He pushes and ta-da! Then I asked if he needed to push more. Affirmative nod again. And ta-da again! Big smile. I start screaming happily. Big guy starts jumping and screaming. We both yell for hubs. Cue clapping. Cue flushing the poop. Cue talking about the poop and subsequent stickers up until bedtime. What an awesome bday!

cute kid alert

Big guy has finally started liking having his picture taken again!

here he is yesterday collecting "baby pine cones"