Potty trained...? Actually...!

We've been working on potty training for months - a year, maybe. It's been a slow process... and I won't bore you, but we warmed up to the potty (sitting on it, flushing it, etc); we ran around naked nearly all summer (no diaper, means you have to figure out something else to do).
Dax was peepee potty trained fairly quickly - inasmuch as he knew how to go pee pee on the potty, and would do it when he had no drawers on. And that's awesome. And it happened like... a year ago, or something - I can't remember now... but he was a quick learner.

BUT if he had a diaper on, he was sure not going to let anyone know he had to go - he'd just use his diaper. And really, that's fine too. A mom forgets how great it is to go the grocery store, and not have any pitstops until you get home. You just forget about how, really, great it is that you don't have to go to a public bathroom if YOU don't have to... It's pretty convenient, a diaper.

Anyway, so just over the summer, I tried really really hard to reinforce the potty... we tried stickers (which are, actually helpful, if your child likes stickers) and charts (the charts mean nothing, but they hold a lot of stickers, when they don't make it on your kid's shirt), and finally fell victim to the M&Ms... 1 for pee pee (sometimes 2, when we had to backtrack a little in training), and up to 4 (!) for poo poo.

There's not a lot of stuff Dax won't do for an M&M. The kid LOVES chocolate. I had to get him where it... got him. You know? And it seemed to work. But he was still pretty comfortable in his diaper.

When "new school" started at the end of August, I realized, it was now or never. They told me that they would help me (which was great! the "old school" never seemed to remember that I was trying and so our efforts were basically wasted). So after two weeks at his new school... we did it.

It was Labor-Day Weekend, and I have him home with me on Fridays, anyway - so I had him from Friday, til Tuesday... and... I took off his diaper. ALL weekend! (not for naps and night-night - don't get ahead of yourself!) ;)

And you know what? The kid did GREAT! I was totally impressed!
We had an accident or two - and actually, they were at Honey's house, when I didn't have a good eye on him, but all-in-all, he was stellar.

Church was another matter... and I know that childcare has a lot on their plate when dealing with all the little ones - especially if they're potty training... it's rough... so  we sort of backtracked a little there. But NO big deal. We just kept plodding along.

And then today. A shining moment. Actually, several.

We went to play at Vanessa and Ethan's (from playgroup; Vanessa has a brand new baby girl, Addi - so precious). We took them food, and played with some new toys, and watched some movies. And not only did Dax pee pee (twice) - he poo poo'd! He called me from the bathroom, with his pants already around his ankles - and asked for his Elmo potty! Amazing! Thank the Lord!

THEN - we got home and Dax went down for a nap a little after 12:30. He woke up about an hour later yelling for me - he had to go pee pee! He even had a diaper on! "Want to go pee pee in the potty, Mommy!" So I dropped his diaper, and plopped his buns on the potty seat, and he went tinkle... and then... HE WENT BACK TO SLEEP!

I am just floored. And I tell you what - I had absolutely nothing to do with it - but I am SO PROUD of him! And thankful for the grace and patience God gave throughout the process.
:)

What I learned is that every child is different. There are a ton of methods out there, and I guarantee that your child will not fit any one of them perfectly... :)
Ok - up from nap, and time for snacks.
:)
-L.

Soooo... How's it going...?

Anooj keyed me last night about not having blogged in... well... nearly a year. Truly. Where on earth have I been?
Dax not only says "ma-ma" now, he says it like he means it... in the same sentence as "Mommy... I just need that balloona. I just need that happy balloona." He's amazing. Which reminds me that I've been writing him a letter in my head - you know, the one in all baby books, with only one page (like that could be enough to write how you feel about your child), like you could just jot it down, really quickly, and succinctly, and like, in one afternoon. Whatever.
I've been writing that letter since he was born. Really, since before he was born. And I promise to put words to paper one of these days.

Anooj recently landed a job that now covers us all with health insurance - and not too soon, either, since we're expecting "Take Two!" in February. *whew* But now we can finally put our fears to the test, or literally, Dax's little allergy-body to the test... when we take him in for his well-baby visit next month. We will finally know if he's outgrown his milk and egg allergy. WOW. I keep thinking that I'll just test him myself, one day, just scramble up some eggs and see how he does... but I just couldn't muster the courage. So my weakness will finally be moot. :) Yay!

Dax has been going to "school" since he was bitty (maybe I mentioned when he started school in here somewhere - because I just can't remember when we started him there) - off and on. My job duties and hours have steadily increased over the last year, but we've managed to only have him in school for 3 hours a day, 4 days a week. (How could I eek in 35 hours of work last week, with only 12 hours of childcare time, you might wonder...? Me too... I have no idea how I did that).
Next year, though - in just a month - this will change. And he will be enrolled in two NEW schools, each taking him 4 or more hours, two times a week. I'm sad that I won't have lunch with him on those days. But I'm excited for him to sit and have lunch with other children. And see how mealtimes actually work - people sit, and EAT. :) Sweet boy, just loves to run down our hallway, hop back to the table, take a small bite of something, and then run off again...

He's growing up so fast... I know it sounds cliche. But it's true. And what's awesome is that I don't feel like I *missed* anything... even though he was in school... I feel like I got to see so much happen, I got to watch him learn so much, and participated with him in it.

I DO feel like I've been slacking at home, though - when he IS home, we don't focus on learning, or activities... we play with trucks. Or we color. OR, I make a meal while he watches a "movie." I just haven't been the arts-and-crafts-learny-mcschoolerton mom I thought I would be at this stage - when he can actually participate and engage in activities. So I need to work on that.
Tonight, I was supposed to be working, and what I ended up doing was surfing a ton of toddler activity websites - some moms and teachers are just SO creative... I'm so grateful that they felt like they wanted to bless the world by giving their ideas away to moms who've just hit a rut, like me.
Here are just a few, by the way:
http://www.rain.org/~philfear/download-a-dinosaur.html
http://familycrafts.about.com/od/toppicks/tp/toddlercrafts.htm
http://www.seabirdchronicles.com/adc/crafts-for-young-children-and-swap.html
And my all-time favorite:
http://www.kidscraftweekly.com/

Anyway, I guess that's enough for me tonight.
I'd normally make the hollow promise that I'll be back again soon with more ThakkerHappy, but... hehehe
I'll start slowly.
:)

and I almost forgot!

Dax said MaMa tonight - and then pointed to me! :)
This is funny - because he used to say it when he was itty-bitty... but then stopped saying it...
I'll have to admit he signed and said "daddy" right after that, then said "Honey" (just this past weekend - it's really cute, too - like "onyee"), and then finally said "ma-ma" today - and KNOWS what each of those means.
He's been able to point at people when WE say them for a while now, though... he could point at Ba-Pa first, truly...
So actually - the timeline is more like - signed "daddy"; said "ba-pa"; pointed at "daddy" and "ba-pa"; pointed at daddy, Ba-Pa, Honey, Moo-Ma, mommy; pointed at all of them, including Popi; and finally SAID "ma-ma" AND pointed AT ME tonight (not just a picture)! Anooj just said Dax signed "Grandpa" today when he asked Dax where Ba-Pa was! wow.
Geez. He's signed "daddy" forever, it seems like... so that feels pretty good to be a verbal word now, for me. I think it might be absence (saturday school) that makes the vocabulary grow (fonder).
:)
xoxo kiddo - you're pretty great - you didn't even have to sign and point to me to make me say that.
:)
-mommy.

Wow. I suck at posting! Here goes....

Ok - so in just the last week alone, Dax has learned to say "Honey," has learned to slide down a slide without holding my hand, and has begun to feed himself brekky without ANY assistance - meaning, I have left him to his own devices to eat his OATMEAL while I get dressed (I have posted pictures of this in the past)... and he did GREAT! :) That's a HUGE step for us.
Not only that, but he's now absolutely fine with childcare at the church - we were doing pretty good there for a while, but we digressed about a month ago, when Dax bonked his head on a ping pong table, and he threw up because he was so distressed about it (he actually didn't even get a bruise - so thankful!), so the next day he threw up in childcare when I left him there for Building Blocks... but the sweet angels there didn't come get me when it happened. They swiftly packed up the room, got all the babies out, and kept on plugging away! I can't even tell you how much I owe the lovely ladies of Watermark childcare on Wednesdays and Thursdays/Fridays...! They're saints.

Also - in July, Dax started being able to eat peanut butter! *whew!* what a great and awesome thing peanut butter is... I can't even tell you. It's fabulous for snack times, on crackers, with bananas, by the spoonful... and we've now even worked in an ENTIRE (1/2 of a) peanut butter and jelly sandwich to our mealtimes! That's SO great!
Dax will happily eat just about whatever's in front of him - but I have noticed that he's not completely happy with the same thing twice in a row - unless I've skipped a snack, or he's slept through a snack. Otherwise, I try to keep it mixed up.
He's always loved his veggies - so I can often stick with peas for lunches and dinners for a while (until I get sick of serving them, really - and then we'll switch to broccoli or something else). But peas are quite easy - so who'd argue??

We're just floored with the kid he's turning out to be. After church today, we were all at lunch, and Dax leaned over to Anooj and went "uhh-uhh-uhh" with his mouth ready for a kiss - he just wanted to kiss his daddy! After Anooj gave him a kiss, he leaned over for one from me! What a sweet, sweet feeling that is! I can't even tell you.
He's just a bundle of love bug. And I just want to eat him up all day.
:)

He knows a ton of signs now, too - which makes our days SO interesting, and so much more worthwhile - he can tell me what he's thinking, what he wants, and what he sees - it's just amazing! I've been meaning to get a list of the signs he knows... but it'd probably be too boring for anyone to read... but the ones that seem the most important to us are: careful!, eat, hat, airplane, cracker, more, water, milk, PLEASE, HELP, shoes, frog (ribbit!) - which can be any reptile right now, other than a crocodile, crocodile!, monkey, duck, horse, bug, stars/socks (they're really similar!), mouse (from Goodnight Moon!), bear (teddy-bear), and of course, ball! Our day would be so much more difficult if we didn't have them...

And he says: Hi! (he's said that for a while now, but it's worth mentioning again -it's so cute when he does it!); boo-boo (he says bo-bo); corn; gone (all-gone; it's SO funny when he says it); *shooooossh* for airplane; FIRE truck, truck, truck, truck, truck, AWWWW truck, truck, truck (this could be Dump Truck, Garbage Truck, Fire Truck - although that one's pretty unmistakably loud, or just plain old Truck); moo-moo movie (he says mo-mo, or wo-wo-wo for movie); HOT - oo! hot!; woo-woo (dog); baaabaaa (sheep/goat); owwwowww! (cat)... and I'm probably forgetting so many more...


I'm so grateful that I've finally learned when he's tired, when he's hungry, and when he needs to go play outside and get some energy out. Those are cues I missed for quite a long time - and any normal person would question why that might happen, but I can honestly tell you that I was too busy trying to SEE them... I was too busy trying to survive, and trying to find out what was going on - that I didn't notice when the time was right to make things happen... like naps...
These are tough for every mom...
Some days I spend nearly the ENTIRE day trying to get Dax to nap... And the problem with this, is that our babies are just LEARNING MACHINES. And once they've learned that one action begets another, they'll keep doing whatever it is that got them what they wanted... to test it, yes - but to LEARN it BETTER... And on those days, Dax seems to learn that if he stays awake for one more song, or gets one more book read to him, then he can do it longer the next time... And those can be bad days...
For both of us...
But I've gotten SO much better at reading his cues - and a little fuss (when he realizes that he's about to lose the nap-battle with himself and just cannot stay awake any longer) can be SO worth it, if it nets us more than an hour of naptime.
:)
Anyway - we seem to be in a nice ebb-and-flow right now for our family.

Besides that I'm in school, and working, and trying to keep the house clean (what??), and being a full-time mommy, full-time wife, and a business owner...
It's been a little chaotic lately, to say the least - but I feel like we're all adapting pretty well for the effort so far.
:)
I'm proud of us in the Thakker household.

Protein Conundrum

So, Dax has basically decided that he doesn't like meat right now. This isn't horrible - but the fact that he cannot eat eggs or milk, means that I need to figure out some way to give him a little more protein.
(Dax shoveled down a ton of chicken the other day at a friend's house, which was a miracle - he never wants meat, so I kept giving it to him, only for me to realize in a really DUH moment - stuck in afternoon traffic on the way home, that it was CHICKEN SALAD! covered in mayo... Dax spewed all of the chicken, and an entire 9 oz. bottle of "milk" all over himself in the car... He has the very same reaction to real milk, too.) :(

I'd love other people's opinions about this too... but here's my thinking right now:

We're giving him soy milk, which has protein - but I'm not sure that's enough to give him what he needs daily. (We're also adding 2 oz. of milk-based toddler formula right now, but that will slowly be cut out in the next few months - we're really only using it for MY peace of mind, for the nutrients it contains).

I'm considering adding a protein powder to his soy bottles, and possibly to his morning bowl of cereal.
I've been researching protein powders, and the facts are that too much protein can make a person's kidney's not function very well and can lead to excretion of calcium (which means kidney stones). That doesn't sound very good. But I'm not thinking of using the recommended "serving sizes" on most protein powder packages, either (but he IS a tiny little person, too - so I should probably work on the actual serving size I'd be giving him). But the rest of the stuff I read about them has to do with weight lifting - and that's not my goal (apparently don't actually help, if you're in the market for protein powders to bulk your body up, anyway).

It seems, though, that Hemp protein powder may, in fact, be safest (it's only 50% protein at most), and also contains the wonderful fatty acids that babies need - Omegas 3, 6 and 9, and GLAs.
(some sources: All About Protein Powders, Feeding the Picky Eater excerpt, Nutiva product information)

Does this sound like I would be doing the right thing?
Should I supplement his protein slightly by adding a teaspoon of Hemp protein to his morning cereal, and to his 3 bottles of soy milk that he has a day?
Maybe I should just use it in his milk? Or just in his cereal?
Does anyone know if Sprouts sells this...? :) I know I could just trot my own fanny in there to see - but Dax is napping right now! :)

Anyway - I'll keep posting about how this goes - if we decide to do it.
:)
(and thanks for your comments and suggestions, in advance!)

-L.

Updates

So - Dax is finally getting some more teeth! We're up to 8 now - four on top and four on bottom. But not the middle four; the right side four (pretty funny).
Yeesh - poor kiddo just hasn't been able to eat a whole lot of things because of the no-teeth factor, but we're on our way!
We've been using a Latvian/Bavarian (I can't remember where it came from now) Baltic amber "teething necklace" for about 3 weeks. I honestly can't say that it's helped, though I have a friend who says hers is helping her baby. Dax still wakes up about 2 times a night, most likely from the pain in his mouth - it looks like all his teeth are going to pop out in the next couple of weeks. Poor baby.

We're just about to hit 15 months too!

He's officially a "toddler" - he walks just about everywhere now. He can't really pull himself up from sitting to standing unless he's near something to grab and pull up on, but I'm sure that's just right around the corner.

He's very proficient with his sign language now - although "shoes", "more" and "help" all kind of look the same... :) It's still pretty cute.
The other day, he spied the can of Lysol on his bookshelf that I keep in his room to spray the diaper-trash pail, and he used the sign "please"! I nearly gave it to him JUST because he said PLEASE! hehehehe!
:)
I signed "thank you" to him in the car yesterday, and he looked at me like he was about to sign it back to me... and then he just said it instead. Too funny. :)
This kid cracks me up.
I am just LOVING every day with this baby. He's just the coolest, sweetest little guy. I still can't believe his little body came from mine... it's just amazing.

Secret Weapons...

I was reading this post tonight : "I keep a secret weapon in my pantry", and realized that she might be on to something...
Since we've diagnosed Dax's milk allergy (or whatever it is... I'll call it an allergy - spewing 3 times a day can probably be called an allergy) - we've been trying to get something in him that resembles milk, with some fat, some protein and some brain stimulating goodness... So we've been using (very) expensive toddler formula, which is milk-based, but the proteins have been broken down for easier digestibility... And it works for us! No puke = works!
:)
But... this got me thinking... if I can throw a scoop of powdered milk into something... would it make him vomit? Would it be the same as if he drank a big tummy-full of milk?
I'm excited to try it out and see what happens...

We'll have to wait til we get home from the weekend in Mansfield, and also make sure that we have lots of preparations made, in case he DOES throw everything back up again...
;)

Also - a good friend of mine said she might be able to get me a teaching gig at her school - how cool would that be? I'm hoping that they need me to start ASAP - right in time for SUMMER!
Woohoooo!
:)
Well... I can hope, right?
:)

Night!