Grandma Kathy Visits, Potty and Preschool, Baby!

August was full of milestone moments and memories. For starters, Grandma Kathy (David's mom) came to visit during the first weekend of August. It was a short visit, but definitely a special one.

Part of what made it so special was Oscar got lots of quality time with his Grandma.

During the week leading up to Grandma's visit, Oscar's teacher suggested that we send him to school in underwear the following week (instead of diapers) to accelerate the potty training process.

At Oscar's school, you need to be toilet trained to move up to preschool. We hadn't done any potty training with Oscar at home because he wasn't interested. We figured Oscar would let us know when he was ready. What he was interested in, however, was moving up to preschool. He talked about it constantly.

Every morning, when we'd arrive at school, Oscar would ask if he could go look at the preschool side of the building. He would chat incessantly about his friends: Alex, Luca, Sydney and Michael--all of whom had recently moved up to preschool. He would tell David and me that he missed his friends and that he couldn't go to preschool until he used the potty. This made us sad, but also further solidified our theory that Oscar would let us know when he was ready to toilet train.

Oscar's teacher's theory was that some kids need to just wet their underwear and feel the sensation of "having an accident" to get motivated to potty train. David and I were anxious about Oscar having his first real "accident" at school in front of all his classmates, so we decided to get the messy first moments of potty training over and done with at our house. It just so happened, with this last-minute decision to toilet train over the weekend, that our potty plans coincided with Grandma Kathy's visit.

Lucky for us, Grandma Kathy was totally onboard with our training plan and didn't mind staying close to home for the weekend--so we could focus on training. In fact, she was excited about being here for all the excitement. I mean, we were hooting and hollering all weekend. Every time Oscar would pee, it was insane: jumping, singing, cheering, laughing...

Here's a shot of Grandma Kathy playing with sidewalk paint and chalk with Oscar.

Note the big boy underpants? After talking with our pediatrician, we decided to do the following:

1. Dress Oscar in underpants (and sandals)--handy for pee-running-down-the-legs-moments.

2. Set the timer for 30 minutes

3. Give Oscar plenty of watered-down Gatorade, juice, etc. to keep him full of fluids.

4. Take him to the potty every 30 minutes and cheer like crazy when he pees.

It totally worked. I don't know if it's because we waited so long to potty train Oscar--many of Oscar's classmates started training when they turned 2--or if we're just lucky, but Oscar went to school that Monday with underpants and didn't have one accident.

So, two weeks later, Oscar moved up to preschool. It brings tears to our eyes to even talk about how happy he is to be on the preschool side. He loved being in the two-year-old class with Miss Lisa, but he loves preschool even more.

In fact, the first time Oscar peed on the potty for us, HE screamed, "I GET TO GO TO PRESCHOOL!"

He's been using the potty for a month now and has yet to poop on the potty for us. He's super scared to poop, so we're not gonna push the issue. He wears an overnight diaper at bed time and believe it or not, saves his poop until bed time, poops in his diaper and then comes and gets us and asks us to change his diaper.

The poop happens about 10 minutes after we put him to bed for the night. It's not ideal, but we'll take it.

Anyway, back to Grandma's visit. We stayed close to home and Oscar was sans pants for the whole weekend.

Here they are playing in the sandbox in our backyard.

We had such a nice time with Grandma Kathy. She even taught Oscar how to use wet sand to build sandcastles. Since her visit, Oscar now asks for a cup of water to make the sand wet when he plays.

No matter how many times we tell Oscar not to throw the sand, he still sneaks it.

David shot this video (below) from inside the house. Oscar didn't know he was being taped.

Look at my cute little sandman. Note the cup of blue gatorade to keep the potty flowing. He's never had so much juice in a 48-hour period.

Okay, when Noah comes over, he brings the crazy with him. These boys have so much playing together and they completely trash the house. But we love it. We wouldn't trade the memories for anything. Even Otto gets in on the fun.

Here's a more peaceful shot of our boys coloring outside.

Otto wants to do everything that his big brother does and we don't think that will EVER change.

When Oscar's coloring, Otto crawls over and wedges himself in right next to his big bro and imitates every thing Oscar does.

Here they are acting silly at mealtime. Oscar loves an audience.

Nothing gets my boys moving and grooving like Thomas the Train.

Some of you may have already seen this video on Facebook of Oscar bopping along to Thomas the Train--but it's too cute not to show again.

Here's Noah again bringing the crazy with him.

It started out as sidewalk paint, but quickly evolved into bodypaint.

Otto did not want to left out.



Noah decided to paint his toenails. Apparently, he learned this from watching his mommy. Oscar followed suit.

Here's a little something Oscar picked up from one of his favorite shows: "Ni-Hao Kailan" on Nick Jr. There's an episode where a lifeguard keeps blowing his whistle at the pool when the kids are playing too rough. I posted this video on Facebook today, it's Oscar blowing his whistle at our dogs: Cody and Courtney, because they're playing too rough. He also yells "Not to Do That!" to the dogs. Too cute!

Monkey See, Monkey Do...Otto wants to learn how to whistle too. Otto was actually really sick in this video, but he still wants to play. What a great sport.

Please ignore the droopy diaper. Otto was sick, so we were just leaving him be for most of the day. He hates having his diaper changed and we were babying him on this particular day. He wasn't too sick to squeeze in some cuddles with Cody, though. Cody is so patient. I honestly don't know how he puts up with all of this "affection" from Otto.

Otto learned how to say "Cheese!" We didn't teach him, so we're thinking he learned it at school.

Here are my adorable munchkins in their toybox. It was Oscar's idea to climb in and Otto was like, "Cool, I'm in..."

So, here they are being so stinkin' cute. Note how Otto keeps saying "Cheese!"

I'll leave you with this "up-to-no-good" shot of the Cytrynowicz Boys. I hope to post again soon. My brother, David, and his family also came to visit us in August. I'll include footage from that visit in my next post. Take care!