We’re back

I’ve been a terribly negligent blogger, but it’s been a crazy busy two months for us and blogging just fell off the bottom of the list. So here is a quick rundown of what’s new in our world:

Potty Training Success
After a bit of a rough start with Colin, and a little setback with Veronica, we can now declare daytime potty training a success. They both are now telling us when they need to go, and are staying dry 99% of the time. We’ve even mastered staying dry through naps (including a monster three-hour nap one day). 

Veronica still has issues with going poopy on the potty, but she’s getting a little better with that. She also overcame her fear of public toilets this week while we were camping. (That makes travel so much easier.)

Colin has developed an obsession with going to the bathroom whenever and wherever he can. Every time we stop somewhere new, he asks if they have a bathroom, and then announces he has to use it. He also was so interested in the outhouses (or porta-potties as he called them) at the campground that at one point he was asking to go every five minutes. He has stayed dry most nights over the past two weeks too.

Early Intervention Graduation
Colin has officially “graduated” from Early Intervention now that he is three, and has no recommendations for continuing therapy. He remains at the 5% level on the growth charts, and still has some struggles with his gross motor skills, but these are things we should be equipped to deal with at home. 

As part of our goal to keep him challenged in developing those gross motor skills, he and Veronica are taking gymnastics this summer. They just missed the cut off for the three- to five-year-old class, so they’re very much the big kids in this class. Veronica could easily do a more advanced class, but this seems good for Colin’s attention and she had fun at our first class so it’s not a problem. 

No More Bottles
Yes, we still were giving them bottles at nap and bed time (Colin needed the extra calories, and it was just a lot easier for us to continue the habit), but this week we ended that habit. We had told them the bottles were ending when they turned three, but we actually dropped them a few days early to coincide with our camping trip. Since their routine was going to be different and one of us would be sleeping with them anyway, it seemed like a good time to make the change. And since we were successful, I think we made the right call.

Turning Three
This week the twins celebrated their third birthday (where did the time go) with a camping trip in Wisconsin. They slept like champs, ate like crazy and generally had a good time. (They also were typical three-year-olds and, along with big brother, had me threatening to cancel the trip several times a day.) 

The campground (Lake Kegonsa State Park) had a nice playground, and a great beach (with another nice playground), and after we went to Walmart in Stoughton to replace all of the things I didn’t remember to pack (including their outdoor cars and trucks), they had a lot of fun playing at our campsite too. 

Ethan and I were able to get in some good hiking, and he and John went fishing one morning. (They didn’t catch anything, but Ethan claims he had four nibbles.) We all went swimming once, and at more s’mores than was healthy. The weather was about perfect (just a little chilly at night), and surprisingly the mosquitoes weren’t too bad. 

Both kiddos are continuing to make great strides developmentally and surprise us regularly with the new “big kid” skills they’ve learned. Now if only they would sleep through the night consistently.