Lighting the Queen

Sorry I have been M.I.A. but this has been a really busy week!

Last summer Jackson showed some interest in potty training. He did OK, but he wasn't ready. Then Miller came along and we didn't have the time to be as consistent as we needed to be. So about once a day he would use the potty. I bought some training pants to use after Christmas. The long cold days inside will be perfect for potty training, I thought. He, of course, had his own agenda!

Last Sunday Jackson's friend Izzy and her mom came over for a movie date. He had only seen one movie before, Curious George, and we heard about it for weeks afterward. Izzy brought over the movie Cars and it was a huge hit! That movie is definitely on his Christmas list.

So Monday afternoon Jackson says he wants one of the stickers that have been on the shelf waiting for real potty training to begin. I explain he has to go potty to get the stickers, so he does. Within a couple of hours we were out of stickers--and we were off to Target! Guess what kind of stickers they had a Target? Cars stickers. He was pretty pumped about getting them. He stayed dry the rest of the day. So far so good!

Tuesday he went every 30 minutes or so and stayed mostly dry. He doesn't have any idea about wanting to stay dry, he just wants the reward. So I made up a race track with 12 squares and every time he goes potty he gets a square filled in and when he makes it all the way around he gets a car. Not just any car, though, he gets a Cars car. They are like Matchbox cars but are the characters from the movie. As it turns out there are millions of things with the Cars characters on them. Everything from Crocs to blankets...even Pull ups! We are trying to limit it to the little cars, stickers and pull ups (that's a lot of Cars stuff) because our house could be overtaken by all the stuff they make.

We have stayed pretty close to home this week so we can remind him to go every 30 -45 minutes. That is a lot of work! On Wednesday he got his first car. He was calling the main character "red race car" and I told him his name was Lightning McQueen, which he pronounces "Lighting the queen". Yesterday he got Doc, which he pronounces "Doc"! I've got to go get some more Cars cars! I was not prepared for all this success! Lighting the queen has quickly become a fmaily member. He has eaten every meal with us, gone to the bathroom with us umpteen times and basically has not left Jackson's hand since he got him.


While we were doing all this Miller made some amazing progress of his own. He has learned to grab at toys. Yesterday I went to get him from his crib and he was holding the toy mirror that's in his crib. He also started babbling with consonants. He will say WAWAWA. Is this important? You bet! I wish I had gotten a picture of it, but he a quick little guy and moves before I can get the camera. Soon, though!