Big Boy Britches!!!

So my sweet friend @PaigeReynolds put a little fire under my rear to get Brayden potty trained.  She recommended a book that used the "3 day approach" and had success with her daughter who is a couple of months younger than B.  Brian and I decided to dedicate a whole weekend to potty training which meant not leaving the house or even take Brayden outside to play...The gist of the approach we used was constant reminders to keep his big boy underwear dry, LOTS of positive encouragement, and of course bribery with TREATS!!!  Brayden doesn't get candy often so we pulled out the big guns for potty training and gave him M&M's!  Then when we were "really proud" of what he did we gave him frosted cookies!  Since it has been over a week now we have moved on to mini marshmallows and are trying to phase out the treats :)  Just a couple of days ago I came into the bathroom and Brayden had pulled his stool over to the sink, opened up the marshmallows and was jut eating them by the handful!  When I came in he looked at me with a huge grin and said "eating, eating!"

Day 1 was Friday afternoon, we just did half a day and by dinnertime I have to admit I felt defeated!  We were pumping Brayden full of liquids so he would have plenty of opportunities to use the toilet and it totally backfired on us when we saw the massive puddle under his chair at dinner!!!

Can you see it down there?!!! And our cleaning lady had just been here, darn!!!

The book I read said to have 20-30 pairs of underwear ready during potty training.  My first thought was this was ridiculous and the 13 pairs we already had should be just fine!  Well on that first day when we were down to our last couple of pairs of his adorable "big boy britches" I totally understood and started a load of laundry!
Day 2 Brayden really started to catch on and by Sunday our boy was potty trained!  He tells us "Brayden needs to go potty" and sometimes "Brayden needs to go potty real bad!".  Every time he sits down and goes he says "yay!" and quickly followed by "Brayden get marshmallows!!!" He has done well staying dry for his 3 hour nap in the afternoon, we just try to taper off his liquids for an hour or two before he eats and make sure he goes potty right before his nap.  Usually he says he has to go about 3 times before we are actually able to leave the room so he can take his nap.  We have not yet tried underwear for sleeping at night and are still putting a diaper on him before he goes to bed.  My guess is we will try that in a couple of months.

Brayden made potty training look so easy much like he does with any new thing we try with him.  I just don't think I give him enough credit, he is such a smart boy and loves to please!  We are so excited to have half the diapers to change and buy around here!

And now some pics of my buddy in his big boy britches!!!  Nothing cuter!!!

Love this hiney!!!

Look at that tan line!

YAY Brayden!!!  We are so proud of our sweet boy!!!

Happy Fourth of July from Port A!

What an eventful couple of days we have had down in Port A for the Fourth!  It was great to be able to go down for longer than a weekend and we were able to have lots of fun and relaxation too!!!

Brian and I, 2 kids, 2 dogs, and all of our stuff for the week=FULL CAR!!!

We started out our first day going to the aquarium with friends and the kids had the best time!!!  Here are some pics of these 2 cuties:

Otters

They loved the turtles!

I think this was after we all got soaking wet watching the dolphin show!

Alligators!

The splash pad area was a hit, the kids got to cool off and had lots of fun playing in the water!

Crazy man was just running around from one thing to the next!

After a picnic lunch, we packed up and headed back to Port A...

Can you tell they were exhausted!?

The rest of the time we were there we spent ALOT of time swimming.  Brayden becomes more brave and has more fun each time we go.  It helped that his two buddies Colten (11) and Cooper (8) were there because Brayden wanted to do everything they were doing!  By our last night he was running, jumping, and even falling backwards into the pool like the boys were doing!  

The guys and their kiddos

S girl was sleeping soundly poolside :)

Brayden having some of Colten's powerade, looking at me like don't even think about taking this from me mom!!!

We spent the Fourth BBQing and celebrating our friend Dena's birthday.  

Mommy's sweet girl

I love that these two have the same look!  Both of them getting something good to eat!!!

Colten did great holding S!

Brayden got to see his first Fourth of July fireworks display this year!  We were unsure if he would like it because of the noise and thought he might be scared.  Wrong!  He loved it and is still talking about them saying "kaboom" and "cool"!!

Waiting for the fireworks to start

Brayden was sad to leave but sweet boy was oh so worn out!  His sleep schedule was totally off and he had a horrible diaper rash from spending so much time in his swimsuit!   What a great holiday week with friends!   

June 2013

Looking back on these pictures June seems so far away already!  We had an incredibly fun and eventful month!
We spent Memorial Day weekend down in Port A with friends.  Brayden was so excited and had so much fun having Harlow and Wyatt stay at the condo with us!

At the beach with Mr Jerad

Swimming!  They loved holding hands in the pool!
This is my favorite picture!

This is pretty much what S did the whole time!

Daddy and his girl

Breakfast with the Papes!

We took a very hot and long walk to get ice-cream

From the look on this face I'd say it was worth it!

Buddy can eat some icecream like a champ!

Love this one!! Buddies in their swimmers!

And the guys got in two rounds of golf while we were there

We had so much fun getting to spend time with friends that we don't see near enough!

We headed back down to the coast for Fathers Day with family

Naptime!!!

Watching PaPa skin the fish

Boatride!!!

Believe it or not this was Aunt Christi's FIRST diaper change!  Yes my friends Brayden is 2 years old but this was Christi's very first diaper changing experience!  I think she realized it is a lot easier and painless than she thought!!!  Great Job Aunt Chris!

Here are some more pics from June:

Buddy really needed a haircut!!! 

"Good Girl Sterling"  (Said like: good giwl  Ste-wing)
So so sweet

She LOVES watching him and Mia run around this house!

Look at that concentration!  Making Daddy's fathers day card!

This is what happens when I leave Brayden in the room with Sterling for even a minute!  He thought she needed some toys to play with!

Fun at the zoo with friends!!!

The rhino was seriously awesome!!

S girl catching some z's

Everyone in the water!

Brayden spent the next couple of days talking about playing with Hunt in the water!

Brayden wore himself out running back and forth!

2 worn out kiddos headed back to the car after a fun morning at the zoo :)

Fresh from our garden!  Brayden is so proud when he comes in with fresh vegetables!

I don't care how old he is, I don't think it is ever going to get old!  It is so incredibly sweet watching him sleep :)

And still wants to play in the bouncer...

Hey girl!

Daddy took Brayden to the pond to feed the fish!

Brian and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary this year :)

PaPa and his grandbabies

Geez, we have been having a busy summer!  Up next, potty training this weekend!!!