new haircut plus other random stuff

at Lulu's at the Octagon
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Tom and Dylan dropped me off at work yesterday and then, of course, had to come pick me up. I met them at Lulu's at the Octagon, a very nice cafe right next door to the ol' workplace, and the setting for the featured picture (clearly, Dylan enjoys his steamed soy milk - note faint hint of milk mustache in picture!).

We had a slight regression with the potty use and went 2 days with probably only a pee or two in total! But he seems to be ramping back up again (perhaps it was daycare and the lack of response to his requests??).

Also, Dylan can actually say "Tom Reisz", although Tom really dislikes this! When we're looking around for Tom in the house -- or when I ask Dylan where daddy is -- Dylan occasionally chants, "Tom Reisz! Tom Reisz"! I'll admit, he gets that from me!

He's babbling up a storm: elephant, zebra, giraffe, sheep, piggy, doggy, animals, tapioca, broccoli, names from daycare and family and the list goes on! Only we can understand him, but hey, he's communicating!

He still signs on occasion, too. Today, he surprised me by signing "stars" which he'd just learned at today's Music Together session. Admittedly, he still grunts and points a lot. Kinda wish this would stop, but maybe once he starts vocalizing everything, we'll wish we had the grunts again!!

little addictions for a little man

a bowl of steamed milk
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

It all started when I decided I wanted to try making latte art and we gave some of the leftover milk to Dylan.

Ever since that evening, whenever he hears the espresso machine warming up, he starts chanting "teeeem melk! teeem melk!"

Sometimes he just likes to request it. But, usually, he slurps it up!

more potty talk (sigh)

crusty
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

I know, I know. The potty talk must be getting to be a real bore to read about. I'm sure it's more exciting for us than it is for anybody else!!!

We'll keep it brief !

Dylan is now wearing pull-ups. Taliana wears them, so he's pretty ok with them, especially when we refer to them as "underwear".

For several nights in a row now, the only way we've been able to convince him to cover his hiney is by telling him pull-ups were undies.

During the day, he's still using a combination of cloth diapers and disposables...and now with some pull-ups thrown in.

He'll usually agree to a diaper change -- and has even gotten on the changing mat himself -- after he's pooped in the diaper.

It seems he's having trouble pooping in the potty. Today, a tiny turd was all he could muster. Then, he agreed to put on a pull-up and then he let loose.

We figure it's all good!

He is getting simultaneously more charming and more challenging! He talks a lot, but this also means, he expresses his opinions more and they don't always agree with ours!

Aside from the potty successes, we had another huge, huge success -- Dylan napped at daycare for two whopping hours, on a cot with all of the other toddlers!!! This is such a wondrous thing, I'm considering putting him in for a full day on Thursdays (my full in-the-office work day)!

dry diap v. potty, round umpteen

things that go vrooom -- cars and dylan
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Well, Dylan has actually been doing pretty well with the potty. He seems to be better able to make it to the potty before he does his business (usually pee pee) and, at times, he is now getting super duper upset whenever even one tiny drop of urine hits his diaper.

His sensitivity to the moisture in his diaper has gotten to the point where Tom and I decided to just use disposables at night to keep him from waking up at 3am. This strategy has worked and he's now sleeping through the night, but now we've run into the growing problem of Dylan not wanting to get back into a diaper. So, he gets a choice: sit on the potty or get back into a diaper and get on with other things.

Resourceful fellow that he is, Dylan has discovered he can kind of do both -- thanks to the wonders of newly acquired (via the holidays) remote control vehicles. He sits on his potty for minutes and minutes and minutes and makes his cars go (he has two of them), claiming all the while that more is coming. He does in fact pee within a few minutes of first sitting down, but these cars keep things interesting enough for him to delay getting a new diaper so he can move on to playing!

haircuts and poop

daddy's new haircut - Dylan needs another one!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

The caption pretty much sums it up: Tom's hair is shorter and Dylan's continues to grow...at an alarmingly fast pace (so it seems)!

Also, Dylan dropped another poop in the potty today. This time, it was mostly luck. He was chanting, "cokkee, cokkee, cokkee" and, in the midst of this display, I noticed he started to bear down and grimace a little. So up I sprang, hurriedly asking if he wanted to sit on the potty while I ripped off his diaper shell, then the diaper, etc. He was in the middle of a protest, when suddenly: "bye bye!"

He shot up from the potty and there was a poop. Just fantastic! Even better: Taliana and Auntie Heather were here to shower him with extra kudos!

Dylan is now addicted to The Potty Movie (a DVD we got in his potty book package from Costco). He requests "Henry" all morning long and we're all stuck hearing the "Bye Bye Diapers" song loop for hours.

We know we're still a long way off from him being fully potty-trained, but we sure hope all of this will pay off with him being potty trained sooner rather than later...!

mini-foodie

a satisfied customer
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Dylan likes miso soup, buckwheat pancakes, beans and steamed milk.

Tonight, he has gas.

Also, he just started an 8-week session of toddler gymnastics. He was so excited to be there, he could barely wait for me to finish signing waivers, enrollment papers, etc.!

He's very cute. And, he has a couple of canines coming in.

Back Log: Good gracious! At this time last year, Dylan's very first teeth were just coming in!

happy new year and first poo in the potty!

putting the doll on the potty to pee pee
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Happy New Year (or, in Tagalog, Manigong Bagong Taon!!)

We took Jason, Tyler and Dylan to the Children's Discovery Museum for the Countdown to Noon and the Noon balloon drop then headed to Cindy's house for a whole lot of Guitar Hero, food, and a couple of games of Buzz.

While waiting for the countdown to midnight, many fell asleep, one for a short while and two others for the rest of 2007!

At midnight, we all clinked champagne glasses and said "cheers!" to each other and to Dylan who was shockingly still awake and cheery and enthusiastically clinking his plastic sippy cup of apple juice against our glasses!

So the featured picture in this post is of Dylan helping the doll go pee pee on her potty. Clearly, he's continued to have an interest in this.

Using the potty in the morning has become routine now as is the periodic sitting on the potty during the day. But until today, he hadn't successfully pooped in it. At times, he'll say "pee pee pee pee" in a distressed voice while passing gas and promptly removing himself from the potty. Then, when asked if he wanted to remain on the potty, he'd answer with a firm "NO", so we'd slap a diaper back on him only to have him poop mere minutes later.

But this evening, we sat him on the potty after dinner (at his request) and, once he finished, we let him wander around sans diaper figuring there was no immediate threat of an accident. We both turned to do something else when we suddenly heard Dylan say "bye bye". We turned back to him and saw him standing next to his potty waving and saying bye bye to his POO POO!

Well, we are just so pleased by the little guy! He did it all on his own, with no prompting or help from either of us!

Way to start the new year little D.!!!