Some Much Deserved Praise for my Toddler, I Mean Preschooler
In the past month, Lon and I have been dramatically changing our daily family life in preparation for Anna's arrival. This not only includes a drastic house design change but several major lifestyle changes for Alan. He has been very accepting to these somewhat stressful changes and actually done a fantastic job with them! We are just so proud of him, I am going to share with you all of his accomplishments! Good job, big boy!
First, our household changes. We have opened up Alan's play area to encompass pretty much the whole living room, hallway and his bedroom. A lot of the baby fence has been taken down, giving Alan a much larger space to move and play in. We have set up all of Anna's stuff and leave it in his area now so that he gets used to it being around.
More importantly than the household changes are Alan's changes in relation to preparing for preschool. He has now officially transitioned from toddler age to preschool age in our eyes, so a lot of these developments relate to that. Some of these changes he is experiencing are: Potty training Alan, changing Alan's table manners, converting Alan to a toddler bed and changing Alan's bath time routine.
Alan is doing alright with his potty training. He is out of diapers officially and in pull-ups until we are sure there will be no big accidents. We are still taking him to the potty every half an hour (or whenever Mom or Dad goes potty) and he has started to tell us when he has to go pee. He really wants to start peeing standing up like Dad but we are trying to work on sitting to go potty first. :) We also are only really pushing using the potty when we are at home or at Grandma's house, not at daycare or in public yet. I will ask him if he wants to try when we are out, but I don't push it if he says no. The only real issue we have been having with him regarding potty training is pooping. He will only poop in his pull-up, unless we can catch him in the act and get him on the potty to finish. He has not only been not telling us when he needs to poop but he has been hiding from us to go poop in his pants. We are staying optimistic about it though and trying not to stress about it and discourage him more. The way I see it now is if he is underwear trained by September, then I will put him in preschool. If he isn't, no big deal at all. We will just continue to keep working on it! :)
We have also developed Alan's table time and manners to better reflect that of a preschooler. Before, he was still using a booster chair and eating mostly with his hands. We have taken away the booster chair and are now having him sit in a regular chair at the table with us. We are also promoting using silverware instead of hands and staying for the whole meal. It has made for longer and definitely messier meals but we are getting there.
About a week ago, we converted Alan from his crib to a toddler bed. We now put him in his bed and have him fall asleep there, with one of us sitting next to him. If he wakes up in the middle of the night, he is trained to come wake one of us up in our bedroom so we can comfort him and put him back to bed. We have had a pretty good experience with it so far, with only one night of issues. But for a week of doing this, I'd say that is a pretty good record!
Alan has taken it upon himself to change his own bath time routine this past month. Earlier this month, we stopped using his bath seat when he took baths, replacing it with a non-slip bath mat. But Alan decided he wanted to take it a step further and completely stop taking baths and start taking showers. Yes, my almost three year will now take a shower over a bath and we don't even let him take toys in the shower like do with baths! :) This is a huge accomplishment in my eyes because when he was a baby, we only had a shower so we would give him showers and he hated them so much! It gave him such anxiety to be bathed, even at nine months old. Now he loves them!
I am so proud of my big boy, he has come so far and will only continue to as Anna arrives and grows with us. I know he will be just a great big brother. :)
First, our household changes. We have opened up Alan's play area to encompass pretty much the whole living room, hallway and his bedroom. A lot of the baby fence has been taken down, giving Alan a much larger space to move and play in. We have set up all of Anna's stuff and leave it in his area now so that he gets used to it being around.
More importantly than the household changes are Alan's changes in relation to preparing for preschool. He has now officially transitioned from toddler age to preschool age in our eyes, so a lot of these developments relate to that. Some of these changes he is experiencing are: Potty training Alan, changing Alan's table manners, converting Alan to a toddler bed and changing Alan's bath time routine.
Alan is doing alright with his potty training. He is out of diapers officially and in pull-ups until we are sure there will be no big accidents. We are still taking him to the potty every half an hour (or whenever Mom or Dad goes potty) and he has started to tell us when he has to go pee. He really wants to start peeing standing up like Dad but we are trying to work on sitting to go potty first. :) We also are only really pushing using the potty when we are at home or at Grandma's house, not at daycare or in public yet. I will ask him if he wants to try when we are out, but I don't push it if he says no. The only real issue we have been having with him regarding potty training is pooping. He will only poop in his pull-up, unless we can catch him in the act and get him on the potty to finish. He has not only been not telling us when he needs to poop but he has been hiding from us to go poop in his pants. We are staying optimistic about it though and trying not to stress about it and discourage him more. The way I see it now is if he is underwear trained by September, then I will put him in preschool. If he isn't, no big deal at all. We will just continue to keep working on it! :)
We have also developed Alan's table time and manners to better reflect that of a preschooler. Before, he was still using a booster chair and eating mostly with his hands. We have taken away the booster chair and are now having him sit in a regular chair at the table with us. We are also promoting using silverware instead of hands and staying for the whole meal. It has made for longer and definitely messier meals but we are getting there.
About a week ago, we converted Alan from his crib to a toddler bed. We now put him in his bed and have him fall asleep there, with one of us sitting next to him. If he wakes up in the middle of the night, he is trained to come wake one of us up in our bedroom so we can comfort him and put him back to bed. We have had a pretty good experience with it so far, with only one night of issues. But for a week of doing this, I'd say that is a pretty good record!
Alan has taken it upon himself to change his own bath time routine this past month. Earlier this month, we stopped using his bath seat when he took baths, replacing it with a non-slip bath mat. But Alan decided he wanted to take it a step further and completely stop taking baths and start taking showers. Yes, my almost three year will now take a shower over a bath and we don't even let him take toys in the shower like do with baths! :) This is a huge accomplishment in my eyes because when he was a baby, we only had a shower so we would give him showers and he hated them so much! It gave him such anxiety to be bathed, even at nine months old. Now he loves them!
I am so proud of my big boy, he has come so far and will only continue to as Anna arrives and grows with us. I know he will be just a great big brother. :)
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