The day arrived...

that a boy learned to climb out of his bed. And it was Pierce! We've offered the idea of big boy beds in the past and they both have clearly stated that they are perfectly happy in their cribs. So we've left them. If it ain't broke... But the other day Pierce was having a naughtier, more difficult day. It was the Saturday of Mother's Day weekend and BJ was trying to take the boys to Home Depot with him to give me a little time off. Pierce hadn't napped and was refusing to go with a tantrum. BJ had put him in bedroom time and went back outside to be with Blaine in the car. A minute later I find Pierce at the bottom of the stairs with a sly grin on his face. I was quite confused. I couldn't figure out why BJ didn't put him in his bed like usual. So I hollered out to BJ and asked him where Pierce was supposed to be. He looked at my confused and said in his bed. I said, well he just came downstairs! So that's how we found out Pierce had crawled out. BJ put him back in and peeked through the door to see how he did it. And he did it with so much fluidity that we wonder how long he's been able to! Luckily he hasn't tried it bedtime since he's so wiped from not napping anymore. That's another story though...

Potty Training

I think we are almost there! For a few months now we had Jack's old little potty out and occasionally they'd sit on it. Then, as we got more serious I figured we needed to pull out the big guns- a Thomas potty. So I bought a Thomas potty ring on Amazon and they definitely started having more interest. After awhile Pierce could recognize whenever he needed to go whenever we took off his diaper. He started going somewhat regularly which was very exciting. And he's always been an "intentional pooper" for lack of a better term. He knows when it's coming and had his spots in the living room where he liked to do his business. If I found the right bribe (red gooey fish, other candy, iPad time, etc.) at the right time I could get him to go. It was hard to go back if he did poop in his diaper again once I knew he could do it in the potty. I'm over wiping poopy butts! Blaine was harder to motivate. He was just not interested, which is very different from other milestones. So one day I finally got the idea to do a specific sticker potty chart. I found a little Thomas/Percy template and created one for each boy. And then the most brilliant part...their reward for filling in the whole chart was a trip to Union Station to see the model trains. And it worked like a charm! I couldn't believe it. Blaine started out a little slowly at first, but by the end he was having a dry diaper all day and telling me every time he had to pee. He ended up beating Pierce with 7 stickers to spare! I still can't believe how motivating it was. And we had a great time on our special visit. Pierce calls it "Onion Station". :)

Now, we just need to work on Blaine pooping in the potty (he has zero poop awareness as of now) and Pierce recognizing and telling me when he needs to go. I joke that between the 2 of them I have fully potty trained one whole child. :) After we found out we were pregnant again, we identified "the big three" transitions to work on over the summer with the boys. 1. Potty train 2. Sleeping in big boy beds/new room 3. No more pacis. Pacis are going to be the roughest I think. But #1 is almost down!