The Week Of Chippy

So since Chippy, our Elf on A Shelf, has arrived last week, Cam has been soo excited each morning to hunt around the house to find where he has planted himself for the day to keep his eye on Cam and Avery to report back to Santa whether they have been good or bad.  Some days he even gets letters from Santa for things like he's proud of him with potty training and to remember to be nice to Sissy. Bribery? Maybe. We have tried to be a little creative, but it's kind of hard!  Cam isn't allowed to touch him or he looses his "magic" (which he knows), so these places have to be a little out of his reach or at least in places that we need to use each day, like, say, the potty!  So this is what we have come up with for this past week.  Oh, and before you look at the photos, let me just disclose that these are awful pictures!  I take them around 10:00 each night, with no natural light and only my flash or lamps and such to help me out.  So that's that.  Don't judge, lol!

Day 2: Flew home from the North pole on the balloon we got at that days Christmas parade

 Day 3: Riding on Cam's new Christmas train decoration

 Day 4: Coloring in a new Charlie Brown's coloring book.  A true artist, huh? 

 Day 5: Hanging out in some sort of tree thing we have.

 Day 6: Cookies and milk party, without Santa

 Day 7: Mark said he was taking our change, I said he put some in.  Elves are nice, not naughty.

 Day 8: Chillin' on the fire trucks ladder. (That's tonight.  We'll see if Cam wants to play with this in the morning!!

All about Cameron!

I love my Cammy and I feel like, aside from the past couple of potty training posts, I rarely get to give him a post all about him!  So that's what today is!  He's my most favorite boy in the whole wide world and he just makes me laugh ALL DAY LONG!  I need to start writing down his Cammeron-isms for a later post!  I think you'd laugh at  them, too! And isn't he just the cutest little goober, ever?  I thought so!  ( I know, I know, I'm his mom!) 
So today I decided to ask him a few questions during dinner.  And here's what I got:

Whats your name: Cam Lightbody

How old are you:  3 months (or 2yrs 10mos)

What's your mom's name: Ummmmm (very long um)...Stacey

What's your dad's name: Mookie (Mark's childhood nickname)

What's your sisters name: Avery Cate

Whats your favorite TV show: Cailou (I HATE Cailou! Practically band from our house!)

What's your favorite toy: All my trains

What's your favorite thing to do: Fish (Really? Gone, like once!)

Favorite animal: Tiger (hmm..)

Favorite food: Mac and Cheese (what he was eating right then)

Who's your best friend: Ashlyn

How old is Ashlyn: 3 months

Favorite snack: Cereal bar

Favorite drink: Gatorade

How many teeth do you have: 5 teeth (nope, probably 25!)

Favorite song: "Happy Birthday"

Favorite movie: UTube train videos

Favorite sport: Tennis in Papa's barn (Aka: Ping Pong)

Favorite color: red

Lucky number: 4

What do you want to be when you grow up: A conductor

Favorite stuffie: George that lives upstairs (My Grammies Curious George that he sleeps with)

Favorite book: The Charlie Brown Christmas Book that sings

I think I need to broaden his horizons and gear him away from the trains a bit!  lol!  I'll try it again in a few months and see what he says then!  I love my boy, swoon...

Santa Parade!

We finished up our oh-so-interesting potty training weekend with our besties, The Kenney's, and there kids, who are our kids besties, for as long as we have a say in it at least!

We went to a Chirstmas parade in their town.  We wore the little Littles and the big kids got to ride in the wagon.  I don't know how great the parade was, but we had a blast watching the kids have fun!! After Cam warmed up to the idea (which always takes him a few minutes) he was running around picking up all the candy that was being thrown out of the floats and such.

Here are some pics of the day:

Me and my bestie, Steph and all our babies

 Snug as a bug, or a bear!

 Firetrucks are loud!

 He liked being up high!

 The Fam

 Justin, Ashlyn (stink eye!), Steph, and Bryce

Waving meant candy got thrown to them

And then there was this guy, the Rat Man.  He spent the whole parade walking back and forth behind us with these gross rats hanging off his neck.  Mark took a million pictures cause we were all that grossed out by him.  He even went into a pizza shop! I hope they kicked him out! Who does that?  Yuck!!

Day Three and Chippy Returned

First things first, Day Three of potty training went pretty damn well!  He had no accidents, not even a drip!  I think he peed 4 or 5 times in the potty and did number 2 once.  We even went out to a parade and he was fine.  We are sooo proud of him.  No way is this process done, but I think he is on the right track to be trained sooner then later.  One weird part of the day was he has better bladder control then anyone I know!!  He went from about 1-6:30 without needing to go!  He made it through 2 car rides, visiting friends, going to a parade and a bath )with running water!) with out going!  But when he finally needed to go, we went.  Weird boy, but at least he didn't have an accident.  This whole weekend he didn't really have any actually, nothing on the carpet or a couch.  pretty decent.  

When Cameron woke up this morning, he ran downstairs and asked Mark, "where is the the guy in the box?" and started to look around all over the house and finally found him hanging out on the wreath above our mantel.  He kind of had a breakdown, though, cause he soooo wanted to touch him.  I felt bad for him, but the Elf looses his magic if a child touches him.  He needs to follow the rules, right?! We mentioned him alot today and hopefully he'll continue to want to keep Chippy happy. Someday we'll teach him how to keep Christ happy, but he won't understand that yet!  

Day 2 & The Elf Arrives!!

Ok, to start, I think day two went pretty good, so to speak.  He totally knows what's up and didn't have any sort of full out accident all day.  Like yesterday, he got a drop in his little undies, held it, then finished in the potty.  He got upset when this happened, cause he didn't catch it before it happened.  He did, however, tell us three times today BEFORE he started.  Twice at home, then once when we broke the rules and went to my parents house.  We probably broke the rules even more by letting him go outside, behind the barn at my parents house.  This I was most proud of!!  He was such a big boy!  And my hubby, dad and brother were in the barn so he got a praising from them and he was super proud of himself! I think it helped alot and he didn't have any accidents in his car seat (which was a 20 minute car ride both to and from the house) and going to get snacks at a farm nearby. I thought this was an improvement from yesterday.  Even if it takes more then three days, its definitely a start and he is on the right track, for sure.  He told me, "Mama, I don't wear diapers anymore...or pants, right?"  No honey, we still have to wear pants!  

With the potty training aside, our big thing of the day was the arrival of "The Elf on a Shelf"!  We have had this for awhile, but decided not to take it out until after Thanksgiving.  Then we heard that they were airing a show Friday night about it, and of course Cam was asleep by 8:30, when it aired so we DVR'd it.  To tonight, "Santa" made a call to Cam to go out to the front porch because he had left an early present there for him and Avery (who was asleep).  He was psyched!  

He went out and found a box with a bow on it and a card attached. We read the card, which was from Santa and told him to watch the show before he opened the gift.  So we did. 

He got the show pretty well, and the book even better.  Of course, since we had just watched the show, he had to name his own Elf, Chippy, which was the name of the main Elf on the show.  Oh well. He tried naming him Avery, and that wasn't happening.  

He LOVES his new Elf.  He even drew him a picture of Santa to bring back to him tonight to show that he was being a good boy.  We shall see if the idea of the Elf watching him at all times will be a help for our parenting toddler (Ugh!!)  Maybe even for the potty training! 

So Christmas has started!  Maybe we'll even get the tree up tomorrow! I've got to get the Fall stuff down first!!

Day One: Tired, but still Sane!

So, the potty training has started.  Slowly.  If you could call it that. Ugh.  Well, we decided to use the 3 Day potty training technique that I have heard great things about, that tends to get a great outcome!  We chose this weekend because I have Mark home all weekend, no parties, no appointments and nothing scheduled.  We started out (per the technique) by having Cameron help us throw out all the diapers in the house.  I almost cried.  Then the "Big Boy" undies went on. Thomas, to be exact.  The plan is to have him go about his day with someone (mainly me) in arms reach, or at least in view of him at all times.  The point being to catch him either in the act, or showing his cues of about to go.  They suggest using positive reinforcement by telling him things like, "wow, what a big boy!  Your undies are still dry!" and be to constantly reminding him to tell us when he needs to go, instead of asking him if he needs to go.  Why?  I'm not exactly sure, but they say that it makes the toddler feel like they have more control over the situation.  Whatevs, right?

So I do think the day went ok.  I tried to keep him busy.  We played Monkey Preschool on the Nook (he's a genius!), assembled TONS of train tracks, made cookies and did many loads of laundry.  As you can see, I didn't get dressed today, although they are clean pj's!  But anyway, most of the day consisted of him starting in his undies, scooping him up and running to the bathroom, where he finished on the potty.  Half a success.  At least he was realizing he was going and telling us right away.  There were no huge puddles on the floor, only little drips, and he was pretty proud of himself.  By the end of the day, he seemed to be done with it, but still had no accidents.  Could have been because he didn't nap, ALL DAY!  That was 6:30-8!  Kind of unheard of at our house!  Hopefully tomorrow will be more of a success, but at least it's in his head that this needs to happen and diapers are not an answer!  Ever again!!  Fingers crossed!  Oh and there were no poopies today.  Sounds like a disaster for tomorrow, huh? Grrreeeaat!

Don't judge, I was potty training my toddler! And look how cute he is!!

 Look at that toosh??

 Home made reward that he made for himself!

Things I'm Thankful For:

Well, the day has come and is almost gone.  We had great food, great family and great times.  With all the running around from house to house and chasing kids and everything else that goes with any sort of holiday, you forget to appreciate what is the true meaning behind all the holidays we celebrate.  

So in lou of Thanksgiving, I thought I should write some of the things that I am most thankful for:

My husband, without his love and support I have no idea where I would be!!

My Cameron and his compassion and unconditional love that just oozes out of him!

My Avery. Just looking at her makes any day turn into a great one!

The rest of my family.  Mom, dad, brothers, sisters, brother-in-laws, nephew and niece.  My most favorite people in the world!!  

My faith

My health.  You may be laughing at this, but I'm still here, right? Many, many things could be worse!

The house over our head, the food on our plates, our heat, our cars, our clothes...All the things that are out of reach for many, that we take for granted every day.

My friends and the support system that comes with them.

There are many, many more things that I am thankful for, but my brain is starting to shut down for the night, so that's what is getting in this post!!  I have to go to sleep early tonight.  We are starting "3 Day Potty Training" tomorrow!  Wish us luck!! 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!