and. . .

PS-everything looks great, and baby looks healthy!

Bye Bye Binky. . .Hello Big Boy Pants

January has been a big month for Shad. December 31st we decided to take his pacifier away. We hadn't specifically planned to have it coincide with the new year, but had purposefully waited until after we were done traveling for the holidays. Prior to that we had recently moved, had a lot going on with my parents passing etc, and the timing just hadn't been right. In addition to the fact, I wanted to be positive we didn't do it too early so he would start sucking his thumb. My dad, as a dentist, always told me it was better for a child's teeth to use a pacifier than suck the thumb, in addition to the fact, you can't take their thumb away. He would know, my older sister was a terrible thumb sucker for years. It took a couple hours and some screaming to get Shad to sleep but then we thought he should be okay. Unfortunately, our landlady was out of town and her dog decided to celebrate the new year home alone. She lives on the second floor above us but her Beagle's outside run that the dog door leads to is right outside Shad's bedroom window. Max decided to ring in the new year by barking non-stop the entire night-imagine a dying seal sound and that is about what it was like. This is something that has NEVER happened before, and it did not go over well. Ironically, Shad is not bothered by barking the way most kids are, he doesn't get nervous or afraid, he gets mad. He kept getting really upset and yelling at Max to stop barking. Unfortunately, every time he woke up he couldn't put himself back to sleep since we took the binky away. It was a very long night, but we stuck with it and fortunately he only asked for the pacifier one more night and then quit asking. He has had a bit more trouble going to bed, but I expected that and we have been working through it. So, fortunately, that is taken care of.

In case that wasn't enough trauma, we also began potty training this month. We weren't totally set on a date for this either, but had given Shad underwear in his stocking in preparation to do it sometime after the holidays. One morning I decided to try to have Shad wear underwear for just an hour or so and see how it goes. He refused to put it on. We had done this one other time and he had an accident and apparently was very upset by it because he refused to wear the underwear. So. . . he went naked from the waist down instead. I set a blanket on the tile in the entry and we played blocks etc all morning. Despite sitting on the toilet for ten minutes every twenty minutes he still hadn't gone by early afternoon. Incredibly, he hadn't had any accidents either. We put him in a diaper for his nap and then went back to naked after he woke up. He proceeded to hold it until bedtime. After realizing he was capable of holding it for six hours at a time I decided it was definitely time to get potty training done with-in addition Dan was still home from school so I could solely focus on the potty training without having to worry about schedules etc. (This was also part of why we took the binky away over the break too, it wouldn't be interrupting Dan's sleep when he had to go to work the next morning). So. . . potty training began full force. It has definitely been an up and down experience, but we have now had two accident free days and he only wears a diaper at night. He has even managed to stay dry for naps and is doing a better job of telling us when he needs to go. We may survive this after all. Frankly, I have been shocked by how difficult it has been. Anyone who thinks house breaking a dog is difficult has either never potty trained children or had serious amnesia, because a puppy is a piece of cake in comparison. My older sister got a million phone calls and some family members even got excited phone calls to congratulate Shad when he had his first success and it has been a lot of help. I certainly missed being able to call up my mom over the last two weeks. Things like this are a lot harder without her, even if she was terrible about answering her phone and frequently less than sympathetic, the fact remains not having the option hurts. However, we have made a ton of progress and hope it continues this way.

Last but not least, we will be finding out the gender of the baby tomorrow. . . so stay posted!

Christmas

Our Christmas was much more drawn out this year than in years past. I was finished with school in early December and so we had several weeks to spend time together. It snowed a lot in the first part of December and so we were able to do some things outside like sledding and building things in the snow. Shad helped with his first snowman and we also built a snow house. Shad loved playing in the snow just like Solo.

Shad also was very excited for Santa and Christmas this year. It was the perfect age because he was excited about everything and didn't have any expectations. He saw Santa at the Ward Christmas party and saw him at the mall a few times. He also loved the Grinch. He asked us to read the story to him at least daily and sometimes a couple of times a day. He also watched the Grinch movies several times throughout December (the new one and the old one). Since we were going to be out of town for Christmas day, we did Christmas at our house on Wednesday, December 22nd. Santa even came early for us. It was a fun morning and Santa did a good job of getting presents for everyone. Shad was really excited and we went and saw the Muppets movie as a family later that day.

On Thursday we left for Utah. Shad did surprisingly well and we made the entire trip in just under 8 hours. We only stopped twice, once to get gas and once to get a ticket. We stayed in Utah for a week and had plenty to do while there. We spent time with friends and family and Shad was able to have fun hanging out with lots of kids. We stayed at John and Myndi's house which meant that Shad was able to play with/harass Zoee, Zayden, and Zaylie everyday. They were nice to let him have free reign of their house and toys. Shad also had a sleep over at the Snarr's and had a really good time. Santa showed up to the family Christmas party on Christmas Eve and Shad was able to sit on his lap. Shad loved it! He also got a present at the Christmas Eve party that may have been his favorite present of all, a remote control helicopter. To say it was dangerous when Shad was playing with the helicopter is an understatement! Shad also got lots of presents from his extended family and was pretty well spoiled. Shad did pretty well on the trip back to Arizona but was close to having a break down right when we were pulling into Flagstaff. Overall it was a very good trip and Shad seemed to have a really good time!