Right Choices Corn Maze

Today after church we met the Keys and took a road trip to Missouri to the Right Choices Corn Maze. This was our first time to go so we weren't exactly sure what to expect.

We started out by first checking out the pumpkins.


Here the boys are trying to pick up the pumpkins.

The boys enjoyed getting to ride down the slide on potato sacks.

They also got to check out some of the animals on the farm.

It was a little warm out so the boys had to stop and get their sip on while we waited for the tractors to come back around for the hay ride.

Caleb loved the tire swing and probably would have been content riding on this for the majority of the afternoon.

I really thought Caleb's favorite event of the day would be the cow train but I was surprised when it ended up being the corn box (get it sandbox, corn box). He LOVED playing in the corn and literally threw himself into it and swam around.

At one point we looked over and he had taken off his shoes and was using it as a shovel. Definitely all boy and I have to give him props for his inventiveness.

Then he decided it wasn't enough to just have his shoes off he now needed to take off his socks.

We finally got him out of the corn box to go and take a ride on the cow train. He picked the very first cow right up front after the tractor. I asked him if he wanted to ride by himself or if he wanted Mommy or Daddy to ride with him and he said he wanted to ride by himself.

Of course no family outing would be complete without a total melt down and fit. This one occurred at the very end of the day and in case you didn't know it even corn mazes have a "time out" spot. (This picture totally cracks me up and is sadly one of my favorite. How pathetic is it that we made him set in time out at the corn maze. Hey it's all about "Right Choices" remember.)

Thanks Keys for letting us go with you!

The Little Gym

Today was Caleb's first official day in the Super Beasts class at The Little Gym! He has gone to The Little Gym before for a couple of other activities but this was his first day in class outside of the intro class we went to before we signed up. I had a little chat with him before we went about how he needed to listen to the teacher and that he wasn't going there to just play but that he was going to class. I'm not really sure he totally absorbed the whole listen to your teacher part but he evidently caught part of my speech because when David asked him how it went today Caleb responded by telling him that it was not play it was class.

He did a great job through the opening activities but there was really no gaining control once the teacher released him from the red mat to learn and practice some of the gymnastic exercises on his own. Overall he really enjoyed the class and I was very proud that he put up the shakers and balls when the teacher asked, although he was a little shy about it he told the class his name and my name when it was his turn, he participated in the activities with the parachute, for the most part did the warm up activities at the beginning of class and he at least tried 2 out of the 3 gymnastic activities when the teacher called and asked him to come over where the rest of the class was. I guess I'll cut him some slack on how he just ran around the last half of class since it was his first day and this is the first class of any kind that we have enrolled him in but I'm hoping that things get better as the weeks go on and the excitement of all the distractions in the room wear off (crossing my fingers really, really hard).

Here are a few pics from his first day in class:

-Playing with the toys before class starts-

-Practicing his forward roll

-Catching bubbles in one of the closing activities

Potty Training - Day 3

I'm happy to announce our third and final day of House Arrest (aka potty training) is over. Shhhh...don't tell anyone but we technically broke free around 5:30pm and went to the neighborhood pool for a little while.

It honestly wasn't all that bad as David and I did a little tag teaming and I was able to get out of the house a couple of times. Caleb did great today, he had one poop accident tonight but other than that he as either told us when he needed to go potty or just simply went to the bathroom and took care of things all by himself.

One final story and then I promise to be done with giving potty updates.....last night Caleb was having trouble going to bed. Around 11:00pm I hear something and figure he is probably gathering up his blankets in attempt to sneak into our room and sleep in the floor. I decide to get up and check on him and am surprised to see the bathroom light on in the hall. I think surely not but yes this little guy has gotten up out of bed, gone into the bathroom and went to the potty all by himself. I think surely he must have wet the bed but was in disbelief when he said he was all dry and there wasn't even a drop in his underwear. Yahoo! Believe me I realize we will still have some accidents and I know that there will be nights when he might accidentally wet the bed but I think we have had a very successful 3 days and am so completely proud of Caleb. He has been so cute...at various times when David and I were telling him good job or would be letting him know how proud we are of him he would tell us thanks. Love, love, love him to pieces. Wish us luck tomorrow at church that we make it through with no accidents.

Here are a few pics of our "big boy" in his new underwear.

Potty Training - Day 2

We have successfully completed our second day of potty training with flying colors! I am absolutely so proud of Caleb! He was dry when he woke up this morning, has had 4 successful trips to the potty where he told us he needed to go, 1 successful pee pee in the yard that he handled all by himself (I'll share that story in a minute), 1 successful pee pee right before bedtime that we initiated and only 1 poop accident.

With the 3 day potty training method we are following you are suppose to be glued to their side for 3 full days giving praise, encouragement, and reminders without actually telling them to go potty. It's all about trying to empower them to read their own body signs and know when they need to go. Now of course if you see them start going or if they are doing some serious pee pee dance don't just stand their get them to the bathroom as fast as you can.

Since Caleb had done so well today I decided to deviate from the manual and give him a little slack and let him play by himself for a few minutes while I finished up dinner before David got home. I so wish I would have grabbed my camera before rushing outside because the scene I saw outside my kitchen window was priceless. As I'm getting something out of the refrigerator I turn to look out the window and check on Caleb only to be greeted by a little white bottom "mooning" me and a little boy successfully pee peeing in the yard. I rushed outside to see if he needs help and ask him if needs new underwear only to be told "no, I pee pee in the grass" and am imformed that his underwear are all clean/dry. Huge successes as far as I'm concerned. He didn't bother to come get me he just dropped his drawers and took care of business without pee peeing any in his underwear. Yeah Caleb!

Potty Training - Day 1

Day 1 of potty training has finally coming to an end. I think I can safely speak for Caleb that we are both tired of hearing statements like "Tell Mommy if you need to go potty", "Don't forget to go potty", "Is Buzz Lightyear, Wall-E, etc still dry".

There was a slight protest this morning when I told Caleb we were going to throw his diapers away and explained he was a big boy and that he no longer needed them. I'm not really sure that he was actually upset about throwing them away so much as he just didn't want to be bothered at the moment because he wanted to go and watch cartoons. He quickly got over it as I kept telling him we needed to find all of his diapers and throw them away and kept making statement like "Your a big boy and we don't need them anymore". He actually LOVED throwing them away and even volunteered that he didn't need them because he wears underwear. I am very happy to report that so far he hasn't asked once for a diapter, evan after an accident he would just tell me that he needed some clean underwear.

(Don't worry this frugal mom didn't actually throw the diapers away. We just went through the actions and put the trash bag in the garage where it was later retrieved and hid away in hopes for the next kiddo.)





This kid has been a camel today! We took him to potty after he first woke up this morning and he didn't pee again until around 12:15. He had 2 incidents where he started to pee before he told me he needed to go potty but he quit both times and finished on the potty. We had one poop accident and a huge success at dinner time where while he was eating without being prompted he told us he needed to go pee pee and waited until he got to the bathroom.

I've been very proud of him and am hoping tomorrow goes well. I'm very encouraged that he is excited about wearing his underwear and am glad that he hasn't asked once about his diapers. I've actually been a little surprised......we actually bought his big boy underwear while we were all out shopping Saturday night and had him pick out a couple of the packages. That night while he was getting ready for bed he wanted to wear them so we went ahead and let him sleep in them since he is usually dry through out the night and we just made sure to take him to the bathroom as soon as he woke up. Since Saturday night he has actually gone in and put them on a couple more times after he has come home from Nana and Papa's and has wore them to sleep a couple other nights this week. We just waited until today to officially start our full day in underwear since I'm off the rest of the week.

Here's hoping to a successful day tomorrow and no accidents tonight while he sleeps!