Christmas Traditions

Another crazy but wonderful holiday season. Now that Truett is engaged and somewhat understands the celebrations, I wanted to include more traditions for our family.

My favorite was our "Happy Birthday, Jesus" party with our friends. We had coloring sheets with pictures of Jesus' birth, a picture frame that had the kid's handprint that read "I used my hand to make a manager, a place for Jesus to lay. I'll use my heart, so full of love as a place for Jesus to stay."



Best Buds- Anderson and T



When Truett sees cupcakes he now says "Happy". We're working on the birthday part.



Our friend, Jacob, doing his craft with a painted hand

   



After our craft and cupcakes, we read "Happy Birthday, Jesus". A great book that kicked off our Christmas season with a reminder of celebrating Christ's birth.

Our friends who joined us: Anderson and Bennett Bagley, Jacob and Josiah Breazeale, Scarlett and Joshua Jenkins, Harper Clayton, Jack Ryan.

We hope to continue having our party as the kids get older.

Another new tradition we started this year was Santa's key. As most crafts that I do now, I found this on Pinterest. (while I could have been blogging, I was exploring Pinterest). I made the key and we put it on our door for Santa. I'm excited to see Truett put the key on our door in the Christmas' to come.

I apologize for not being more "Blogspot" savy- I tried to organize these photo but failed.



Potty Break

Literally...I'm taking a break from potty training. T's napping and I'm exhausted. I think other mom's say "2 years old" because they want to procrastinate and I don't blame then. I've done two loads of laundry since last night, am on my 2nd shirt of the day, T's on his 2nd pair of pants. Duck timer, duck doll, stickers, water, juice, wipes, Clorox wipes, "Opps" verses "Yay" tally. Good gosh this is hard. But we shall prevail...as long as there are nap times and breaks. (12/31/12)

1/1/13- I'm back to report on our training in progress. Yesterday was extremly frustrating. I gave up around 5 and put a diaper on! I needed a shower and I needed to give my phone's duck timer a break. Bless Truett's heart- he has been a trooper!! When the duck timer would go off- he knew it was time to potty. We'd find our own duck to go along with us; and crayons, a guitar (not joke- I had to take Jayson's guitar in for him play), a basketball goal, books, pretzels, whatever it took to get him on that toilet. Yesterday ended with one more YAY than Opps so I had to see that as a win. The challenge I had yesterday was figuring our a pattern/routine/schedule. We'd set the timer for 15 minutes, he'd go at 14:39. If he didn't go when we tried, I'd set the timer for 4 minutes and he'd go at 3:54. I finally moved it to every 12 minutes or 5 minutes depending on his fluid intake. If he didn't go at the 5 minute mark, I'd go a 3 and then we'd just sit and play.

Today...Happy New Year to us because we only had two accidents. If Jayson hadn't been home to help me I don't know if I could have continued. He went first thing this morning; we went to breakfast w/ a diaper; two accidents when we got back; and the rest of the day wasn't timed and he told us most of the times when he had to go or went when he asked. Happy Day!

It's funny- I never realized how much room diapers take up. Truett's 22 months and today he was in 18 months; with no diaper, they were falling off. We were mooned all day by the cutest tush ever!

He'll go back to daycare tomorrow and hopefully we'll continue to make progress from here. I still have a lot of questions but those will have to come later. Questions like- how will he go in public (I'm not a germ freak but I HATE public restrooms), when do we buy underwear, how do you potty train at night. But for now, I happy to say we're all still alive, my bathroom has been cleaned, toys removed, and I hope and pray the hard part is over. (fingers crossed).

Birthday boy

Our one year old!

We started March 7th with "happy birthday" and chocolate chip pancakes. Evidence shows he loved them.

Then we took the pancake party to Truett's daycare. They normally do cupcakes but I wanted something different and what 1 year old really needs a cupcake?



More pancakes!



Later that day, we took Truett to lunch and then to the park. Our party was held that Saturday- great weather, fun friends, and our sweet boy in the spotlight.

We had a nautical theme and I will confess that I invested more time, money, stress, and hot glue then I should have but I'll also admit that our 2nd birthday farm day will probably be just has festive.



A month by month timeline including pics and memorabilia from last year
















                                                      

                                                                        Boats for the kids to decorate



A time capsule for T to open when he's 18



Showing his "1" finger that was almost burned 

Lei Lei was helping him unwrap

His "trac trac" from Grandaddy Jeff

T's the youngst of the Campbell babes

A sneak peak for 2!



Long time...no blog

Considering that it has taken me 25 minutes to remember my blog site name, password to the blog, email associated with the blog, and the email's password, I'd say it's been too long since I've last visited blogspot.com.

And in reading back on my blog, I've failed miserably as a mom documenting my dear child's every move. While I'm 9 months behind, I'm going to begin with the present and hopefully work my way back. I will note that the only reason I'm back on here is because of my yearly two week hyatus from work allowing me the time to sit down with my thoughts and type.

I should rename this post "The adventures of potty training". T is almost 22 months and I decided this morning we'd start working on leaving the diapers behind. Several people will tell me that he's too young. To that I say "who the heck cares and would you like to pay for his diapers?". Who says kids have to be the magic age of 2 to begin potty training? And why in the world do I want to continue changing diapers. T's daycare has said when we're ready, they'll do their part during the day. The kids loves a sticker so there is his incentive. So today started our journey.

My potty training guidelines:
1) I'm in no rush. He'll get it when he gets it
2) I'm not rewarding w/ candy. Dr. Emily S. Krouskop will applaud me for this
3) I'm not using pull-ups. I think they're an over-priced, very clever marketing scheme and I'm no fool ;)
4) One # at a time (for those who don't get that, call me. I'm not putting it in writing)
5) I have posted the one and only potty post to Facebook. No more. The world does not need nor should they care about Truett's bathroom habits. He'll appreciate this one day.

The one story I did post today was:
I had been asking T all day if he needed to potty. He'd say "no" but we'd go anyway. I wasn't using a timer (like I said, no rush) just asking when I remembered. He has had a rash for about a week and we had a doctors appointment scheduled for this afternoon. (he has the human version of Parvo, by the way) So there we are, naked and waiting in his diaper and socks when he says "potty" and points to the door. Great...now what do I do. The only time all day when he's indicated he needs to go, we're away from the comfort of our own cushy, kid size potty seat and "Elmo goes to the potty" book AND our stickers! Now the real problem- how do I help him go? His little tush is too small for the seat; he's 2 feet tall so he can't just stand??? So I try and hold him over the toilet and just pray for aim. Unfortunately he sticks his foot in before anything happens (that may actually be a fortunate thing) and now we're naked with no diaper and one wet sock. Oh well, the diaper and tennis shoes go back on.

We'll be home for 4 more days and will continue with our stickers and Elmo. "The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." ~Lao Tzu (I wonder how old Lao was when he was potty trained?)

And because I also refuse to post pictures of T using the potty (although we have plenty), here's a picture from Christmas of him being dunked in his new basketball goal.

I hope to be back sooner rather than later. Until then, Good night!