Today is day 5 and Coen is doing a fantastic job!  He's had a few accidents and is/was having trouble linking poop to the potty.  (He was going on the floor instead of trying or saying that he needed to go potty.)  Today I was walking room to room gathering things and he said potty so I told him to go to the bathroom.  I followed since I was headed that way anyway and he sat down and was acting different than his normal 'pottying' self.  He was pooping!  This is the first time pooping on the potty and he took himself!  I am amazed.  We still haven't reached this with Liam.  Once Liam took himself to the potty when he had to poop, but he still has too many pooping issues I guess.  (He still waits for his bedtime diaper to go.)
Coen is doing so great.  Yesterday we went out for breakfast at IHOP and he did great there too, he said he needed to go twice and he did.  Then we visited my sister and were gone for about 4 hours and he didn't have any accidents (except spilling his water).  I was worried that he'd have an accident since it was only day 4 and his first time wearing pants since we starting potty training but he surprised me and did a fantastic job!

Also, he's had 2 naps where he's been dry upon waking!

I would say that Coen was definitely ready this time.


(Side note:  I just bought almost $100 worth of diapers and wipes which is fine because I'll still use them for sleeping.  With them both in diapers that would have lasted just shy of a month.  With Coen in diapers and Liam only using them for sleeping, they would have lasted almost 1.5 months.  With them both only using for sleeping I'm guessing over 2 months.  Wow what a savings!)

Day 2 is complete and I think he's still doing well.  He did have a few more accidents, but I was far more distracted.  We had someone pick up some furniture from us and I was outside for several minutes and along with cooking dinner and being preoccupied he had accidents.  But I still think  he's doing great.  And he's still using the potty on a regular basis.

My only concern is I remind him a lot.  I did it with Liam because I was paranoid, but Liam would tell me if he needed to go, but with Coen he's less likely to tell me if he needs to go, or that he is going.  My concern is I don't want him to just rely on me to remind him to go, I'd like for him to rely on the urge to go instead of me.

So we'll see how day 3 goes. 

Recently Coen has been asking to go to the potty and has even taken his diaper off and gone on his own once, so I thought it was time to try training again.  I've discovered I think he only asks to go potty is for the M&M reward afterward.  I know this because he'll go potty, get his reward and immediately sit back on the potty and say 'chocolate!'.  LOL.  However it is seeming to work very well this time around.  He only had 1.5 accidents on the first day.  He pee'd in the corner of the living room after he had been wildly playing for a long time.  Then the .5 accident came when he needed to poop and he left a 'droplet' behind before I could get him to the potty chair.

So all in all, day 1 was a huge success.  1.5 accidents and the rest of the day he used the potty!  He even woke up with a dry diaper after his nap.

On to day 2, hoping it's just as successful!

24 months:
2 years.. what? ... already? The 2 years I waited to get pregnant and the 2 years I've had them have been entirely different. The waiting years seemed to go by so slowly but the 2 years these little guys have been with us have flown by! I can't even imagine how fast the time will fly as they get older.



For their birthday we had a small family party hosted at my mom's place. Aunt Janet got them their first tricycles and Aunt Sheri passed down 70+ Hot Wheels cars and a super awesome car ramp. This ramp is awesome! I can speak from personal experience. When Sheri's oldest son Quinn, was just a little guy I babysat him for about a week. I was 18 at the time and we had so much fun playing with his cars and the ramp. I can't tell you how excited I was when I saw Sheri pull up and I saw the top of the ramp in the back of her SUV.
I think the boys are having just as much fun with the ramp that I did 10 years ago babysitting. Liam is totally in love with the tricycle too! He tries very hard and is somewhat getting the idea of it. We don't have much space in our house but I'm hoping we can get the garage cleaned out before winter and they'll have a larger space to practice in. Coen enjoys the tricycles too, but he gets much more frustrated that he just can't do it. So his cycling times are much shorter, but he still tries.
They also got some much needed clothing from Oma and Opa. And Grandma and Grandpa Rick got them some finger paints and paint sponges, which they thoroughly enjoy... especially when mommy lets them paint all over their bellies, hands, arms and any other skin that is exposed!
Our boys are so blessed to have such a wonderful giving family.
This year I made them cloaks and pillows. They love putting blankets over their heads and running around the house, so that inspired the cloak idea. Coen immediately loved it, but not Liam. Liam had to see how much fun Coen was having before he decided he wanted to wear his. Then I got the pillow idea because 1. they don't have any pillows for their cribs yet and figured it was about time and 2. they love laying in and snuggling up with Whistler's beds. Let me tell you, I honestly didn't think a pillow could be such a big hit. They LOVE them! They sleep with them at night, of course, but during the day they will often ask for their 'illo just to have while they're playing.



Coen's speech has really grown the last few weeks. He is into repeating the last word of every sentence. Example: Me: Coen what did you eat? Coen: Eat. Me: What is in your mouth? Coen: Mouth. Me: Did you get something off the floor? Coen: Floor. Me: Open your mouth. Coen: Mouth. You get the picture. (In this particular conversation it turned out to be dog food that he was eating. Yup, dog food. And to top it off, later that day I found him trying to drink out of the Whistler's water dish.) He will often say words I didn't know he knew and he's gotten really good at pointing different things out in his books.
Liam's vocabulary is slowly starting to expand. He still will use the beginning sound for most words instead of attempting the entire word. Ex. mmm for more or milk, ju for juice, fff for floor, ba for ball, buh for blanket. (He will say ff for floor when he's had an accident or he's spilled his drink.)
I've been keeping track of how many words they use on a regular basis and I stopped counting after 60 something for Coen since they're supposed to be around 50 words and Liam is at 33, I think. So he's not quite there yet, so we'll see what their Dr says Friday at their 2 year check up.



One of their newest favorite activities is playing in their cribs. More specifically each others cribs or both in the same crib, but they do enjoy their own too. They enjoy playing in their crib so much that they will spend lots of time.. too much time just playing in there. Normally I don't mind if they want to 'independent' play because it gives me time to get stuff done, but when they're in their cribs they're not getting any interaction and it's not stimulating. So I've limited the time they can play in their cribs and the past few weeks I haven't let them at all. (I also fear they're going to break the cribs with the massive amount of jumping they do.) It's either a movie or crib time, they prefer a movie. (Speaking of, their favorite movies currently are Mega Mind and Tangled.)



Playing in their beds has brought on a new habit for Coen.. not taking naps. At least, I think that is what started it. In the course of 1 week, instead of taking a nap every day, he now will only take 3 or 4 naps. Every few days he'll decide to take one. I keep giving him the opportunity to take one, but more than half the time he won't. I don't necessarily mind, but he has woken Liam up several times and that's what I don't like. Liam still wants to nap, but with crazy running around it's hard. So I haven't decided what to do with Coen to keep him from waking Liam during the nap time... on the days he doesn't want to nap.



Update on potty training: It's been just over 2 months since I started with Liam. He does have the occasional accident and I'm not sure why since he'd gone a very long time w/o having any, but recently he's had a few close together. Also we're still struggling on the pooping issue.
I haven't tried again with Coen, but he's starting to show more signs that he might be getting ready. He now tells me when he wants a diaper change. Also, the other day I had just gotten off the phone and saw Coen walking out of the hall w/o a diaper. I asked him where it was, he grabbed it so I went to put it back on him. (It was still clean.) I noticed he had a little poo on his bottom. My immediate thought was 'OH NO! He's pooped somewhere in the house!' I clean him up and started the search. I found a small amount of poo in the potty chair along with a pee puddle directly in front of it. (When Liam misses he misses to the side, never in the front.) I checked Liam to see if he had any poo on his bottom and it was clean. So the only thing I can figure is Coen took his diaper off and went to the bathroom to take care of his business. Wow! I tried later that day to have him go diaperless, but that resulted in him pooping on the floor then finishing in the bathroom... but with appointments this week and next I'm going to wait on actual potty training with him until a later date.



They had their eye check up Monday and it went well. Patching Liam's eye has been working. He will now switch which eye he's looking with. He still primarily uses his right (good) eye, but will use his left eye on occasion. The Dr said they're both ready for surgery, I asked if we could wait until after the first of the year for insurance purposes. She didn't see a problem with that. Only thing is I have to keep patching Liams eye, only for 2 hrs a day instead of 5 hrs, for the next 10 weeks until their next appt. That's the other catch, they have to have another appt. since I'm waiting 4 months for surgery, and each appt is around $230 for each of them. Ouch! So we could definitely use prayers for the financial responsibilities coming our way.



Speaking of prayers. On of my most favorite things that the boys do now is reminding us to pray. When we sit down at the table Liam will clasp his hands together and say fuh-fuh. (Fuh-fuh, I assume is father, since we usually start our prayers with 'our Heavenly Father' or something along those lines.) Coen will do it too, but he's usually more interested in getting right to eating.



My boys have grown so much in this past year. I'm looking forward to watching them grow and discover new things. It is a financial burden for me to stay home with them, but I know we've made the right decision for us.






Tooth count:
Liam is DONE teething for a few years, until the last molars will come in. Coen hasn't made any progress on his for now.