Making Some Potty Training Progress

Been feeling a little lazy with these posts lately. I really do have a lot to talk about, but by the time we wind down from our day, I really just want to relax! I put the pictures from Easter weekend on my Facebook since there were a lot of them and since I didn't get on here to post!
Anyway, Easter weekend was great. It was my first official holiday without my family and although it was different not having them here, I still had a great time thanks to all of our new found friendships.

On Saturday our good friend Nick, who was stationed with Travis in Alaska and is now stationed down in El Paso, came up to stay the weekend. Dylan couldn't have been more excited to see him. Dylan loves Nick. And Nick loves Dylan (so much so that he just called today asking when he could take him for the weekend because he misses him! :) and he is so great with him.
Ever since Nick came up the last time and then left, Dylan has been asking for him. Especially when he sees a 'big truck' like Nick's.

Saturday night we had a bbq here at our house and had just a few people over. It was nice. We had way too much food as usual and I think Trav was a little disappointed that he was on standby and couldn't enjoy a beer or two on such a warm day, but all in all it was still a pretty great time for all of the adults and kids.

Sunday morning we went to church with the Barker's and then had an Easter day bbq at their house. They invited a bunch of people from the guys' shop. The weather was amazing, the company was great, and we had a good time! Jonathon got a Slip N' Slide for the kiddos and while they were napping, a few of the adults even induldged! It made for good times! We stayed for several hours and during those several hours (about 5 to be more exact), I decided it would be a good idea to sit in the sun and work on my 'color'. I call it color because it's not quite tan, but once I get it going, it's not all burnt either. Anyway, it turned out to be not such a good idea! The right side of my body was ridiculously lobsterized by the time we left. Thanks to Travis and our awesome aloe plant though, the burn went away after the first night!

After the bbq we came home and let Dylan open his Easter basket. We ended up doing things a little backwards this year due to some well, mostly poor planning on our part, He's only two though, so I'm pretty sure he didn't even notice the difference! The boys were left in charge of his Easter basket and the final result was a turtle kite (have I mentioned the strength of these spring winds, good choice I say!), a semi truck, and a small monster truck from Daddy (he's been obsessed with "big trucks" lately so that was the theme). Uncle Nick picked out a big 'big truck' that had a 4-wheeler and a little man on the back. That present definitely trumped all three of the presents Daddy picked out!
After the Easter basket reveal, we took him outside to dye some eggs and then go on an egg hunt with them. He had SO much fun with that! He loved everything about dying the eggs and the egg hunt even more! Trav asked him if he wanted to do it again and he got the biggest smile on his face, so we did!
After all of that, Nick and Dylan played in the sprinkler for a while and then unfortunately we had to say our goodbyes to Uncle Nick.

That was our weekend. It was busy and fun all at the same time. Needless to say, we all slept really good Sunday night!

Yesterday, Amy, Hollie, all the kiddos, and I went on a walk to eat some lunch and on the way home, Dylan and I stopped to pick up his Easter package from Nana & Papa.
Dylan scored some new clothes, a couple candies, an EXTREMELY soft bunny that looks like a dog, a little car with a bunny in it, and a card that plays music (by far I think his favorite thing out of the whole box!). Travis and I scored some GIRL SCOUT cookies!!!! and a dark chocolate bunny! Thanks mom and dad, the package was so nice to get! :)

Yesterday evening we had a very exciting event take place. Dylan asked to go "Pee pee on Melmo" and then.......HE DID!!!! Melmo is Elmo by the way and what he meant was to go pee in the potty, while sitting on the Elmo toilet insert that we got him. Oh my gosh let me tell you, he had a BLAST watching his pee flow out! He wasn't just letting it flow and I'm not sure if that was because he was unsure of it all, or if he was just having too much fun 'playing', but he would pee a little and we'd all laugh and then we'd tell him 'good job!' and then he'd pee a little more, etc. He took a little while to get it all out and then finally said, "done!". So we washed his hands and gave him two M&M's as a reward (I decided that rewarding him would be my new tactic if and when he ever went pee in the potty again!). Either that was a good motivation for him, or he just didn't get it all out the first time, but either way about ten minutes later he asked to go pee pee again and once again, sat on the potty and peed!

This morning when he woke up, I kept his diaper off for a while and he tried so hard to go in the potty. I knew he had to go and at one point he even said, "Mommy, pee pee, Melmo" so we went in and he sat down, pushed so hard to get it out, but nothing was coming. I finally ended up putting a diaper on him since we had company coming over for lunch and he ended up filling up his diaper. I knew he had to go.

After we got home from eating dinner tonight, Trav stripped his diaper off of him and low and behold, he ran to Trav and said, "Daddy, pee pee Melmo!" (I ran to the BX to return something and missed this part), so he took him in there and he said he let it all flow out this time! Trav said when he got finished he washed up his hands and then gave him his two treats and Dylan counted, "One, two"! Oh my boy, I'm so proud! I was so happy to hear Travis tell me this, but almost didn't believe him about the counting. About 20 or so minutes after I got home he asked to go again, so we took him and in there and once again, he went! I really think we may be making progress on this! I'm not pushing it too hard, but I'm going to make sure I keep pursuing it and not get lazy like I was probably doing before.

So at bedtime we've been trying to count with Dylan a little each night and/or recite the alphabet. He can pretty much copy every number and letter we say clear as day now, but tonight we were really trying to work on getting HIM to recite the numbers on his own (especially since I wasn't believing that he counted the m&m's on his own!). It took a while (mostly because he is two and has the attention span of a gnat) to get him to focus and count, but he did! He only got to two on his own, but one of the times he ALMOST had three until he lost focus. He has so much fun when we do that with him though and especially when he gets praised for all the correct stuff he does. He claps for himself now when he finishes and laughs. It's way too cute for words really. I wish I could've captured tonight on video.
I walked out of his room tonight with a very warm heart, a smile, and a big 'thank you' to God for letting me be his mommy. He is my little monkey man and without him, I honestly don't know where I'd be. And even though he is growing up right before our eyes, he is still my little baby boy!

Tomorrow Amy and I are going in to Las Cruces for the morning. I've got some returns to make and she's got some bathing suit shopping to do for her cruise that is coming up. I'm going to pick her up bright and early, get us some iced coffees and hit the road! Should be a fun day and I just hope the kiddos will cooperate!

My camera battery died shortly after all the Easter events, but it's been charging all day today, so I will make sure to get some pics tomorrow for the next post!