Our Little Man

I have been avoiding writing this post for a while now. 

Maybe I am in denial. Maybe I am not ready for him to grow up. 

Whether I am ready or not, it seems like my baby, is no longer a toddler. 

He is a little man now. A little boy. 

Sigh. 

Over the past three months there have been some huge changes in this house resulting in the transformation of my "baby". 

1) Bye Bye Paci 

Back in October we went to visit my cousin and her family up in Maryland. 

While we were there we decided it would be a good time to give up the pacifier. 

My cousin Linda had just had a new baby this past summer and we convinced Finley to give his pacis to the baby Annie because she needed them more than he did. 

It really went over pretty well. 

He gave them up without a fight. After we got home he would ask for his paci and whine a bit about where they were, but there were no major meltdowns or tantrums to tempt us to give them back. 

Let's just hope he doesn't harbor any permanent hated towards baby Annie, the new owner of his pacis. 

The only major downside was that once his pacis were gone, he also gave up his naps!

2) Toddler Bed

In preparation for Cousin Gabi to come and visit us for Thanksgiving we went ahead and converted Finley's crib into a toddler bed so that when she was visiting she could sleep in it. 

Finley was really excited about his big boy bed. He LOVED that he could get into and out of his bed all by himself. And that mama and dada could crawl up in bed with him now too (let's just hope our weight hasn't done permanent damage to the crib). 

He only had a couple of nights where he would get out of bed in the middle of the night or super early in the morning. After that he was pretty adjusted and happy with his new found freedom! 

I still can't believe he never figured out how to get out of his old crib on his own. 

3) Potty Trained!

I almost don't want to jinx our most recent accomplishment because it has been going so well. The week after Christmas we started potty training Finley (he is 2 years 8 months old). This was probably the hardest thing we have had to teach him to date! The first three days were rough, but after that we started making some really good progress. 

We used a rewards system to get him excited about the process. He was already really excited about his new undies and potty from Santa, but now he had the extra motivation of a sticker chart and M&Ms to get him going! 

Every time he went in the potty he got to put a sticker on his chart. 

Then he got some M&Ms. 

(3 for pee, 5 for poo)

On the fourth day Finley decided he wanted to put his diaper back on. We had church this day and we didn't want to force him so we let him wear a diaper to church. He told me 

"Mama I am tired. I want to wear a diaper". It broke my heart and I feared all of our progress and hard work was going out the window. But after we got home from church he decided to put his undies back on much to my surprise! 

By the fifth day we were starting to have some accident free days! 

Woo Hoo! Just when we were about to give up and post pone we started to see major progress! 

I just love seeing him in his big boy undies!

With our M&M supply running low we switched over to a new strategy. 

Now Finley only gets one sticker a day for having an accident free day. 

And he only gets a treat for pooping in the potty. 

We are slowing working our way up to the fire truck ie our big reward of visiting the fire station!

I can't tell you how proud I am! And so is he!

Another big surprise is that Finley wakes up in the morning with a dry diaper! I can't believe it. I thought that would be something we would wait to tackle down the road, but once he figured out this whole potty training thing, he stopped peeing in his sleep. The only downside is that he will sometimes wake me up in the night to use the bathroom. 

Even though this kid may be small, he sure is acting like a big boy these days. 

If only he were still taking naps!

He will occasionally give in and pass out when he is really worn out. 

Here are some great pictures of him napping in strange places: 

 

On the couch. 

In his chair. 

And the best one to date: on the floor of the kitchen while eating a snack!