Roberts Family Blog

Well all, I finally jumped in the deep end with potty training.  Why I chose this time of year....I have no idea.  I just really have had it with the cost of diapers for both kids, and with Hayden's inability to sit still or cooperate for a diaper change.  We have been half-heartedly encouraging the potty chair, and Hayden has never been against the idea, but I knew it would take a major effort from Nate, myself, and my mom (who is his caregiver each morning) to really make it work.  So on Monday morning, I put my little boy in underpants and we haven't looked back since.  Each morning he gets to choose which underpants he wants to wear (an assortment of Cars and Thomas characters), and he puts them on enthusiastically and with pride, all the while telling me that "underpants stay dry!".  He had one potty accident on Monday morning, and that was all it took apparently, because he has not had another one since.  We even ventured out to run errands in underpants yesterday and he stayed dry!  I do ask him at least once an hour if he needs to go potty, and he'll tell me "yes" or "no", and yesterday evening he decided to go on his own, which I thought was a major accomplishment!!  Now, the potty is going well, but yesterday there was a poop disaster in his "Mater" underpants that required hosing out outdoors.  He is much more reluctant in that matter.  But today he keeps telling me "Mater had horrible icky yesterday", and today he is going to "poop in the potty chair".  We'll see....I sure hope he's right!!  So wish us luck on this journey.  I'm just so proud of him and awed that he is growing up into an underpant wearing lil man.  Here he is showing off his new favorite clothing item - while doing the "dancy dance" from Yo Gabba Gabba with daddy.  Poor kid just never wears pants anymore.  He's going to kill me someday when he finds out I plastered the internet with photos of him in his undies.....

Well the Christmas festivities continue in full force and we are all loving every minute of it.  The other morning I picked my mom up to head to the mall to do a little Christmas shopping and take the boys to play at the mall playground.  Well to our surprise, there was a lady giving free miniature pony rides by the side of the road!  Of course I pulled right over, although I had serious doubts about whether Hayden would actually want to ride given his peculiar fears lately.  Well once again I should NOT have doubted him!  He ran right over to the pony to pet him, and then turned around, pulled the helmet off the ground (first he put the pink one on but we got him to swap that out for black), and climbed right into the saddle!  He LOVED it!  Pierce also got a chance to hop on for a photo op.  What a totally unexpected but thrilling experience for the boys.

We also visited the Gaylord Texan to see their Christmas train and decorations display.  I have always loved this place, and it becomes even more magical during the holidays.  Hayden just ran from one Christmas scene to the next, and was of course totally taken with the trains as usual.  My favorite part was when Hayden impulsively climbed onto a bench to look at a Santa display, and realized he was sharing it with a giant sized reindeer shaped bush!  His reaction was priceless.  We were all dressed in our Broncos gear that day....so forgive the non-Christmasy dress!  Football trumps red and green on Sundays

I mentioned in my last blog that Pierce is finally a master roller, and he's also experimenting with standing up whenever he can.  It has opened quite a new world for him, which makes him less frustrated.  He still shows no signs of wanting to crawl however, which I am fine with, because the idea of baby-proofing is overwhelming, with all of Hayden's toys being mildly unsafe for crawling infants.....daunting task.  Despite not crawling, he has developed a few other tricks.  He LOVES to give high-5s, which I think is just so endearing.  He gets absolutely thrilled when I hold my hand out for him.  Love that little rosy boy.

One last thing of note.  My friends and I have a once weekly playgroup for moms of two that meets every Friday.  Most of the older kids have known each other since they were literally months old, and the babies all met when they were days old!  So they have all "bonded" at a young age.  Well Pierce just loves his friend Jake (they are 10 days apart in age), and for the last two weeks, as soon I've put him down next to his friends, he immediately will gravitate to Jake, and start giving him kisses.  He's the most adorable thing.  Poor Jake just looks like a deer in the headlights, like why the heck is this kid attacking me with kisses?!?  But it's too cute.  He's going to be affectionate like his big brother!

This weekend is shaping up to be another busy one, so I'm sure I'll have lots to blog about next week!  A holiday themed pajama party playdate on Friday morning, followed by gingerbread train decorating in the evening with some friends, a Christmas party on Saturday night, and a ride on the Polar Express with Santa on Sunday.  Does it get any better?  I love Christmas with kids!