The weather has been above freezing for the last week, which is unusual for January and very pleasant after the worst weather I had ever felt two weeks ago when I headed to Frisco! Anyway, Ben wants to play outside all the time and I don't really have a reason to say no. On Sunday I played outside with him for awhile instead of just watching through the patio door and we made some snowmen with the melty snow.
Yeah, I know. They are really nice...No point in trying very hard though, since he knocked them over repeatedly so he could rebuild them.
He wanted to put a hat on them so I tried to use leaves and other junk I could find laying around and I broke some ice crystals off the snow and made princess crowns. He thought that was fun. What a princess-y looking snowperson that is!
And Tessa...Tessa, Tessa, Tessa...
Like I said in my last post, she is really getting to be a little maniac. She learned how to climb on the kitchen table which is stressful and annoying because it's really hard to keep her away from it. Even when I pull the chairs away they always end up back in their proper spots and up she goes when you look away for a few seconds.
She also loves to climb up on the couches, hurdle over the arms, and grab whatever is on the end tables and throw it on the floor. This usually means that glasses and mugs are always laying on the floor. Our lamps have these little chains with a ball at the end instead of a switch and Tessa figured out how very fun they are and she has almost knocked them to the floor many times by pulling on the chains. Oh, why, back in 2005, did I pick out lamps for my apartment that had little chains??
On the other hand, she is showing her development in fun ways as well. She will bring books to me to read to her and if you say, "get a book!" she will bring you a book and she likes to point to body parts like her nose or hair when you ask where they are. She also gets mad now when you take things away from her. It's kind of funny.
The biggest news is that Ben is potty training! I feel like a lame-o even typing those words so I am going to keep the details to a minimum because some things should just not be on the Internet forever. I would hate to have details about being potty trained out there for everyone to find. All I will say is that it is going well and today Ben had his first outing, to the Y and the bank, without a diaper or pull up and it was a success.
There is a lot of information about training out there, and one of the most favored techniques is the reward system. You give the child a piece of candy or a sticker on a chart every time they go where they are supposed to...in the POTTY! (cringe, I hate that word). M&Ms are the favorite candy that people suggest on the Internet. But we have the ultimate training tool:
Lego candy! There is a candy store in the mall with bulk bins and back before Christmas Justin took Ben in there to look around and get some special jelly beans and they came out with these. We had that same bag stashed in the cupboard to give to him sparingly and I remembered them during his first potty training day. We had to buy more but let me tell you, nothing gets him to that toilet faster than saying "Lego Candy!"
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