The Stress of Growing Up and Lots of Pictures

Christopher is changing so quickly right now. He is learning more and more each day and is trying his best to keep up with Daniel. One area of particular interest for him right now is the potty which is wonderful (at times). After the long and drawn out experience with Daniel, I've taken a much more relaxed approach to Christopher's potty training. My new approach is that the potty is there, but he's in charge of when to use it. And let me tell you, he's in charge. Like last night at 3:30 am when he woke up with a dry diaper and needed to go to the potty. Or when he woke up again at 5 am to let me know that he needed a sticker for his last potty episode. It makes me wonder if he was just lying in bed awake for 2 hours trying to figure out what was missing in the process. Or again, from 5:45 until 6 am when he was throwing a fit because he wanted another sticker. I'm hoping for an equal amount of potty enthusiasm during the daylight hours in the coming days.

We will see where this leads. Christopher really has the bug now because we recently finished a sticker chart, and he got to pick out a toy at the toy store. I guess he really enjoyed that activity because today when he was looking at his new sticker chart with three stickers on it he was musing about when he would get another new toy. Daniel, meanwhile, potty-trained so recently that he is recreating his experience for Christopher - now we get to put a space for blue popcorn (which pushed him over the edge from lukewarm to really hot about the potty), we turn right to go get the potty treat (when giving Matt directions on where they go to get ice cream), he also insisted that we go to the same toy store for Christopher's toy as we did for Daniel's toy.

Here is a picutre from our pre-Easter photo shoot on the porch. The boys loved modeling their new clothes and were having a blast posing for pictures. Lots of laughter and silliness.

I must provide an update since I wrote this a couple days ago. Christopher is still doing great with the potty! He also told me tonight that, "I am a big boy now because I can turn off my light without a grownup." I love that he can tell me what he is thinking in response to my little comments here and there. He is so specific and factual. I wonder what this will mean for him as he grows up?

Backwards pictures!

"Angel" pose.

Sitting like this is too much fun to get a nice face.

Yoga pose!

With "Thomas" one of our 20 pet rocks. Thankfully only 2 have names.

Daniel's turn with the camera.

Had to add this one. I couldn't figure out which was more entertaining - shoveling with a helmet (which he did attempt to wear to bed) or biking with the gardening gloves. Both were done.