Time Out

Yes, I do sometimes just need some time out, but that isn't what this post is about today.

Ever since JD entered the "terrible twos" (which really haven't been that terrible for us), he has started to understand cause and effect a little better. Which means for us, we can discipline him and he understands why (at least most of the time).

We've employed a method of warnings and time outs for the most part. Spankings are reserved for the most severe offenses. But the warnings and time outs had been working for us.

For instance, if JD throws his toys, he first gets a warning. If he does it again, he gets one more warning. Then if the unthinkable happens and he does it AGAIN, he gets put into time out for 2 minutes. Sometimes, we will put the toy into time out if it is a repeat offense (this is almost as effective).

But recently, I have begun to question the time out method. Especially since my son has started to put himself into time out. Hmmm....kind of takes the punish out of the punishment if he WANTS to go to time out.

Now if I give him a warning, he automatically goes to the time out chair and says "sorry for (fill in the blank), now can I get down?" Since I didn't even put him in time out to begin with, this isn't working too well for me!

And if he stopped doing the offense, then I would consider myself lucky to have a self-punishing kid. But as soon as he pulls himself out of his own time outs, he continues to do whatever it is he wasn't supposed to do.

I wonder what Supernanny would say about that!

Can I Have Some Candy?

Halloween was quite the event for JD this year. He grasped the concept of saying "trick or treat" and getting some candy pretty fast.

We went over to Dara and Josh's for some dinner and playtime before the kids went out to trick or treat. We had a tough time convincing JD to leave the cars behind and to go out for candy instead.

He LOVED the scary decorations on the street and asked to go back to houses that he knew had scary stuff.

By the end of the night, JD had decided it was easier to just ask for the candy instead of saying trick or treat. But he still waited patiently at each house for his turn and said thank you with a smile after each treat.

Now what to do with all that candy...

So Much Fun, It's Scary!

JD is so excited about all things "scary," from pumpkins to skeletons. He points them out on houses and at the grocery store and doesn't really appear to be that scared of any of it, just more interested.

We had a Halloween cookie decorating playdate on Friday with our friends Tricia and her daughter Margaret. JD LOVES to play at Margaret's house because she has so many fun toys! It was hard to get him focused to actually decorate a cookie!

Our church also had trunk or treat on Sunday, so JD got to wear his Halloween costume for the first time. My sister and I decided to do a trunk around the theme of "The Polar Express" this year. JD wore his train engineer costume and the girls wore pajamas. Jon and Josh wore their chefs jackets and handed out hot chocolate.

We had some relatives from Indiana visiting this weekend too (my dad's brother and sister and her husband) and so we had a real Santa Claus for the kids to talk to also!

JD and Kenna were just "monkeying around" a bit!

Trunk or Treat is always so much fun, but always hectic getting it all pulled together! We got second place(ish) for the kids' choice award (who doesn't like Santa, after all).

We also had a fun Halloween playdate yesterday with our playgroup, complete with scary treats and games for the kids! So fun!

We can't wait for Halloween this weekend!!

Just a Few Updates

JD and I have been battling some illness over the past week, so I have been a little lax on posting lately.

Here are a couple of pictures that I thought were pretty cute of my little boy, who is not looking so little to me anymore!

Look at the size of those feet!

On another note, I am finding it really hard to resist buying little girl things for my little girl on the way! I knew it was going to be difficult, but I keep finding the cutest little things that I just know Meg will look adorable in.

Over the weekend, we had another Food Creates Community event at my friend Tricia's house. So much fun!

Rainy Days and Hanging with Kenna

We have had more than our share of rain around here lately, which has made it difficult to get JD out to play. But boredom is the mother of invention (or something like that) and JD made up a "super fun" (his words, not mine) activity to burn up some energy.

We call it divebombing the pillows. He stacks up the pillows or lays them in front of the couch and then catapults himself onto the top pillow. He can do this for at least an hour without losing steam. My mother's instinct is to put the kabosh on this, but he is having so much fun that I hate to shut it down.

On Saturday, our niece Kenna came over to hang out with JD. JD was SOOOO excited for Kenna to come play that he got out all of his favorite toys to share with her. He actually did pretty well with sharing, but I did hear a lot of "Thank you Kenna"s, which means he was stealing toys from her and pretending like she gave them to him.

Kenna brought over her computer, so JD decided he needed his too. They both enjoyed playing "pooters" for quite awhile, trading back and forth and making lots of noise.

It was really tough to get the kids to stop playing together to get ready for bed, but when we told them they could play again in the morning, they both went to sleep pretty quickly. It is so much fun to watch them play together! It is great to have cousins so close in age!

Welcome Samuel James!

We are so excited to welcome the newest nephew into our family - Samuel James Walsh!

Jon's sister Hannah and her husband Chris brought the newest member into the family on Friday, October 9 at 10:03 pm in California. Sam weighed 8 lbs 3 oz and is 21 inches long.

JD has been talking about meeting Baby Sam, and I know he will teach Sam all there is to know about cars, fire trucks and trains. And I'm sure Sam and our upcoming arrival Baby Meg will have fun times together, being so close in age.

Congratulations to Hannah and Chris and welcome Baby Sam!!

Potty Training Chronicles

We've adopted the policy of "slow and easy wins the race" when it comes to potty training around here. I loved the idea of potty training in a day or a weekend, but I also know my kiddo and he tends to figure things out on his own terms. I also really didn't want to spend my pregnancy with Baby #2 cleaning up JD's accidents all over the place. I would rather deal with diapers than that!

So around August, we started introducing the idea of the potty - more to gauge his interest than anything else. He was semi-interested, especially when we started the bribery, I mean, reward system. Whenever he went #1 on the potty, he got 2 jelly beans. If he told us that he needed to go, he got 4 jelly beans. This went on for most of August and part of September.

#2 just wasn't in the cards for us for a long time. I had the reward on the table - a Thomas the Train book with real wheels on it. I know he really wanted it. But the trouble was, he is a bedtime pooper. He tends to do his business after he sleeps, either in the morning or after nap. Either way, the deed was done before I could get to him to take him to the potty.

Then I went out of town for the weekend a few weeks ago, and Daddy and JD must have had a heart-to-heart about the situation. I got a phone call on Saturday night that JD had successfully had his first #2 on the potty (JD calls it "pooey on the potty")!

Daddy took JD to the bookstore to get his reward the very next morning.

And then it was on! He has been doing pretty well ever since...as long as we have a reward ("pooey prize") for the #2's (train, books, matchbox cars, etc). I think we are going to start phasing in Dum-Dum's instead of the pricey bribes pretty soon! We have even had a couple of dry days (with the exception of bedtimes)!

We might actually be fully potty trained before JD's baby sister arrives in December! Then the diapers start all over again...