Bribery works.

For Father's Day today we decided to take an adventure to the Wild Animal Park. I was a little nervous about Joaquin's potty learning, but he totally put me in my place. I brought three changes of undies and shorts, and did not need a single one of them!



We knew after a couple of hours that Joaquin just had to go, but each time we took him into the bathroom he refused. He had not yet gone in a public toilet, so I knew it was difficult for him. What's a mom to do? Bribery usually works. Yep, I promised him a hat if he went pee pee in the toilet, because if you know Joaquin, you know he loves hats. He quickly asked me if he could get a "Helicopter" hat. He's been eyeballing them every time we go to the zoo and he saw one earlier. Of course.

Here he is right after he went in the men's room with Dan...he was saying "I did it!" It was freaking adorable.



After that he went like three times in the restroom with Dan, no problem. Here he is after we finally found his beloved hat.



So, yep. We went ALL day with no accidents, not one. Can you believe it? I can't!

Here are a few more pics from our day including me at 33 weeks and Joaquin giving Dan his Father's Day kiss.









Yay Joaquin & Happy Father's Day Dan!

Making progress.

I had three big transitions that I wanted to help Joaquin through before we had the baby. But after much thought and consideration I decided to focus on just two, weaning and potty learning...I felt like the third, moving him to his bed, along with a number of other factors, was just too much all at once. I'm probably even pushing it with just these two, but so far so good. We've made a lot of progress lately!

We have been completely weaned since Joaquin's little spill back in April. Yep, that was the last time he nursed! He's asked for it here and there, but I've always found a way to distract him or help him through the moment in other ways. I recently bought a couple of "new baby" board books, and one of them shows the new baby nursing...that kind of threw him for a loop, but we got past it. I hope he can get past it once it's the actual baby nursing! I'm also hoping that a good 3-4 months of not nursing before the arrival of the baby is long enough for him to not feel like the baby is taking something away from him.

We also have a nearly full time non-diaper wearer! For a while now, Joaquin has been totally able to go to the potty when he's hanging out naked, but as soon as he put on undies he would get confused and go in them. We've been working on it on weekends here and there, but nothing too consistent and I think it was just confusing him. So, since Wednesday, we have gone cold turkey. He has only been in undies, except for at night and he is totally rockin' it! Of course we have had some accidents here and there, but I think they're needed for him to feel the difference.

We had a big break-through yesterday, waking up in the morning was always a battle to take off that morning diaper. He loved to hold onto it and pee and pee as much as he could. I knew we were making progress when yesterday morning he woke up and tried to pull off his diaper while wiggling that have to pee kind of wiggle. This morning he did the same and his diaper was totally dry! He's been napping here and there with no diaper, but now he can totally make it through, no problem. We've gone out and about with our little potty in hand and he's using it as needed and holding it, for the most part, as needed as well. I'm still putting him in a diaper at night, while I think he could probably make it though, I'm just not brave enough and really don't want to wake up to a puddle of pee!

I know we will still have accidents, but I'm so excited for the progress that has been made these past few days. I'm so super proud of him and he is so proud of himself, it's so super cute to watch him when he knows he's doing well...that huge smile is just priceless!

a day of recovery, potty learning & cookies

I thought I would wake up with all kinds of energy to get all kinds of things done...but I didn't. Instead I woke up with a headache. I moved slowly and had little to no motivation to do anything.

So we stuck around the house for the most part and worked on potty learning. I made these for Joaquin last night and today we gave them a shot.



He picked out the fabric all by himself and I'm hoping the fact that they don't feel so much like diapers will help with the potty learning. He is fine when naked and goes no problem, but often forgets when he's wearing little tighties. He was resistant at first, he has a hard time taking off that morning diaper, but soon warmed up to them.



Here was his potty learning outfit from the other day...it was so cute I just had to get a shot of it. Gotta love the flaming leg warmers.



Anyway, we had to make a quick trip to drop off Dan's car at the dealer for some work and Joaquin made it the whole way there and back with no accidents! He even peed a bit in the little potty I brought with us in the car before we headed home. When we got home I had to lay down and he stayed up with Dan and of course that was when he had an accident...but oh well, they're bound to happen at this point and getting wet is the only way we're going to get through this phase I suppose.

After a nice long nap we made some delish peanut (actually sunflower seed) butter, oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies.









I'm feeling a little bummed I didn't feel like doing much, but I guess my body needed some rest. Tomorrow is a new day!