Happy 2nd Birthday, Kayson!!

Let the countdown begin because the terrible twos are coming! haha!

KJ is a ball of fun! Seriously, I don't have a boring day with my kiddo. I love him so so much even on the days when he poops on the floor. Yeah...more on that later.

• To celebrate a little early and get ready to have family pics taken, I took KJ to Cool Cuts to get his first big boy haircut!

• During the daytime, he just strolls around naked and it makes him so happy. Seriously, if he's having a tantrum all I have to do is strip him down to his birthday suit and he's the happiest toddler on the block.


• For a while he really liked eating carrots. One day he sat and ate nearly a whole bag of baby carrots with Andrew. I was shocked. The next day (and every day since), he didn't want anything to do with those carrots. 


• He had his first massive tantrum...and it happened in public. Oh man. We went to a community center where KJ is taking tumbling classes. We usually get there about 30 minutes before his class starts so we'll eat breakfast. (The community center serves free breakfast to kids 18 and under.) On this day, K decided that he wanted to go out the community center's back door to the play area. He saw his favorite ride--the swings. I told him that he would only get to stay in for about 5 minutes because I wanted to feed him breakfast. Getting that kid out of the swing is like trying to get water to float on oil. He was kicking and screaming and thrashing. He did this for like 20 minutes. I felt so bad for the older folks with hearing aids. 
  

• Hearing aids are exactly what people who sit in front of us at church will need. And if you have hearing aids, you may just want to turn them off. Kayson can let out the most ear piercing screams. Once he screamed in my ear, and I couldn't hear from it for a few seconds afterwards. I thought that I lost my hearing in that ear. Thankfully, it recovered! Hm...I wonder what the Guiness Book of World Records is for scream with the highest pitch. Whoever holds the record has some competition from my son.
  


• My little guy can count from 1-10! Usually he needs a little coaxing to keep it in order, but other than that, he's got it down pat. He likes to point to the different numbers on our mailbox and name them all.


• He LOVES baby dolls. He'll cuddle them and say "soft" while stroking their face.



• If he meets a new person, he likes to break the tension by holding up his foot and saying, "shoe." Even if he knows the person, he likes to point out his proud treasure.


• We've been working on letters of the alphabet. He knows A, B, C, E, K, J, T. When he sees "S," he'll say "two." It makes sense, though! That S definitely looks like a two. I wrote our name in chalk on our parking space and KJ LOVES to point out the B.
  
• K knows almost all of his body parts--yes, including penis.


• He finally likes ice cream! YAY! Before, he hated the cold, but I think the AZ heat is slowly converting him. hahaha!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


• One of his favorite toys is his shape sorter. At first, he was getting frustrated with it, then it just clicked in his mind. He knows where to put the square, triangle, circle, and star, and he knows their names.


• He just started doing the motions to "The baby on the bus goes 'wah wah wah'."


• A while ago, Andrew was in the kitchen washing dishes and I was laying on the couch (half asleep). All of a sudden, I hear Andrew say, "Ew Kayson, that's poo-poo!" Apparently KJ was walking around diaperless and had pooped. He then took the poop to unsuspecting Andrew and put it in his hand. Later that day, I could still smell the remnants of poop over by our entertainment center. I couldn't figure out what it was, though! Hours later, I found the source of the smell--a poop log in our entertainment center. Diaperless days are over.


• No matter what it is, KJ likes to climb on it. Tables, couch arms, chairs, whatever.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Kayson HATES for his hands to stay dirty. If he gets food or dirt on them, he'll say "hand" and hold out his hand for us to clean them.


• Right now he's at a "testing" stage. "Does mom really means what she says?" All I have to do is start counting in my firm mommy voice and he's back on track! (Unfortunately, this doesn't work all the time.) 
  


• All of a sudden, he loves to do this wrestling move where he holds out his arms to the sides and then he just falls down on me. That mess hurts sometimes. He's such a boy! haha!


• He's his Dad's son! He loves to watch History shows and Soccer videos on Youtube.


• There's something about my makeup that he's just fascinated with! He knows that the foundation goes on his cheek, forehead, etc and the mascara goes on his eyes! haha!

Two years down, eternity to go! I'm very grateful that this kiddo is part of our Forever Family. He has such a sweet spirit and warm personality. There's not a day that goes by where we don't laugh because of this little guy. Andrew and I love him so very much!

Pee Pee in the Potty!!!

Potty training is certainly an adventure. I had no real thoughts to potty train KJ. I wanted to wait until he was ready and not pressure him. I mean...he's not even two years old yet. I think I really started to catch that he actually was ready about two months ago.

I was letting him have some naked time, so he was just running around the house in his birthday suit having the time of his life. It was about this time that he started to distinguish the difference between penis and pee. I would hear him say, "pee pee," looked over, and he had peed on the floor. He was so fascinated with his urine. I learned really quickly that when KJ said "pee" it meant that he was going to pee on my floor. It wasn't a big deal to me to clean it up or anything. I KNEW that he knew when he needed to pee, though. He knew the sensations.

I bought him a cute froggy potty seat just to get him acquainted with it. haha, There were times when I would hear KJ say "pee" and I'd try to hurry and get his potty to catch the pee with it. I thought that if he actually peed in the potty, I could give him tons of praise. Then, he would understand "oh, pee goes in the potty."

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. Someone in my Mama's group recommended that I check out the "three day potty training" method. So, I looked into it. On the first day, they said to let the first day be naked day. Okay, that didn't sound hard; I gave it a try. I would take him to the potty every 30 minutes or so. Man oh man. Kayson was peeing everywhere. On the couch, carpet, floor...thankfully, not on me. I knew that he understood when he needed to go. He just wouldn't pee in the potty. As soon as he got up, though, he would pee. Whenhe would pee somewhere, I would have him help me clean it up. This went on for a few days.

Well one morning, I was asleep on the couch so Andrew had Daddy duty. When Andrew wasn't looking, Kayson took off his shorts and diaper. I was half asleep when I heard Andrew say, "Ew Kayson! That's poo poo!" Apparently, Kayson had walked over to Andrew and put something in his hand. Andrew wasn't sure what it was until he looked closer. Yep, KJ had put a poop log in his hand. hahahahahaha! (I was just glad that it wasn't me!) Later that same day, I kept smelling poop by the tv. I thought that maybe KJ had put his hand on the tv after picking up his poop. I cleaned the tv and all around it. Still, I kept smelling the same thing. I crawled around trying to find the smell. It turned out that Kayson had left a poop log in the door of the entertainment center. It was at that point that I decided I was done with the whole naked thing. Picking up poop logs wasn't worth it.

I think it hit me at that point that I would be the one cleaning the poop logs out of the potty, too! Man oh man. To make matters worse, KJ was having a hard time sitting on that potty by himself anyway. So I found another potty seat for $3 on a swip swap page. With this one, all you have to do is sit it on the "big" potty. It makes it so that he doesn't fall into the toilet. And it has a splash guard! It didn't take long for him to get used to it. Whenever he sat on the potty, we would sing songs and practice our ABCs. I tried to make sure that potty time was cool. There was one time that he sat on that potty seat for nearly 20 minutes. Didn't pee once. haha!

Fast forward to today, July 10. We had picked up some free Starbursts from the grocery store. Kayson had seen me buy them and he really wanted one. (He has never had one before so this was a real special treat!) When we got home, I showed it to him and he kept saying "more" and "please." I told him that I would give him one if he peed in the potty. That kiddo really understood what I was saying because he quickly ran to the bathroom. We took off his shorts and his diaper and then I sat him on the potty. He kept saying "more more." I responded with, "You can have the candy if you pee in the potty." I didn't think that he actually would pee in the potty. I was a tiny bit hopeful, but I knew that there was a chance that he just wasn't ready yet. To my surprise, I heard a little tinkling sound. Oh man! I was soooo beyond excited. I quickly gave a Starburst to him. I started taking tons of pictures, called my mom, and text Andrew. Kayson probably thought that I was crazy because I was giving him big hugs and high fives.

Hey, it won't bother me at all if KJ doesn't pee in the potty again today or tomorrow. The fact of the matter is that he did it once. I am so proud of my big boy. I can't believe how fast he's growing up. Wow, my kiddo peed in the potty.

Edited to add: He peed in the potty again right before I put him down for his nap!