Back on the potty training train.

After the poop on the floor at daycare and pee on the floor here we realized we needed a new approach. So as I mentioned before, we now ask him if he needs to go if he starts doing "the potty dance" or we are just asking him to try. We also decided to try to good ol' potty chart system. And well we have some success! It isn't anything fancy at all. Antonio helped me pick the color of paper and I made a chart. Every time he goes pee he puts a sticker on the "pee" row and after 15 stickers he gets a car (or anything else he wants for the Dollar store) and after 5 poop's he gets the same thing.

Yesterday we put a pull - up on him twice. Once to go to the store and once to go to my Aunts for a birthday party for my cousin and her husband. When we got home from the store the pull-up was completely dry! I had him go pee right before we put it on and then as soon as we got home I had him take it off and try to pee. Turns out it worked great! When we went to my Aunt's I brought pull-ups with us (and a treat just in case) because I assumed he would not use the potty there. Good thing I had brought treats because he went pee THREE times there. He didn't ask or tell us but every time we noticed him doing "the potty dance" we asked him and and he willingly went! I was beyond surprised and proud of him; especially since he is VERY unfamiliar with her house. He rarely goes potty at daycare and has NEVER gone anywhere else. Before we left we even took him in to try and sure enough he went! So his pull-up was dry the WHOLE time at my Aunts, which was about 3.5 hours! So all day yesterday he went in his potty, no accidents! We were/are so proud of him!

To our surprise we got to 15 fast and since he had reached 15 stickers last night, as promised, we went to buy him a car. He even got to pick it out himself! He was so excited about it. I think he understands why he got it but I am not 100% sure. Sure enough when we got home his pull-up was completely dry again! So today we made a new potty chart and it already has 3 pee stickers and 1 poop sticker!! I made it with 2 rows for pee since it seems we will go through pee's stickers a lot faster than poop (duh). I am hoping the awesome day he had yesterday carries over today and into the week. I also really hope he goes potty at daycare too; fingers crossed.


***Update. As of tonight at bedtime Antonio has had NO accidents all weekend AND his pull-up (when worn) has always been dry! Also, when he was in the bathtub tonight he asked to get out because he had to go pee. He said he didn't want to go in the tub; so he got out and pee'd in the potty! :) We are half way to another car/toy already. : D  I am not sure if it's the potty chart or the rough couple "potty days" he had but whatever it is/was helped!!

Potty Training...ugh

Yup...poop and pee again....

So we have had a few bumps in the road this week. Up until this week Antonio has been near perfect...at home. He poops and pee's in the potty when he needs to like a pro. Daycare is a whole other story but he is (was) getting better. He's going pee once or twice in the potty there; which is progress. :) Away from home he has this stubbornness with the potty.

This week, however, has been a whole different story. Sunday he peed in his undies. Tuesday, he peed on the floor before getting into his bath at home. Today he pooped (yes pooped) on the floor at daycare, granted it was in the bathroom while trying to go pee but STILL! Poor Rosemary, the daycare lady, had to check on another kid for a second and when she came back to check on how Antonio was doing, well he had a surprise for her. : /  Albert says she didn't seem upset by it at all when she told him about it. Then when Albert and Antonio got home they took off his pull-up and he asked Antonio if he had to pee and he said no. Then sure enough...he peed in his undies...AGAIN. Ugh.

Rosemary had a long talk with Antonio about pooping on the floor and then Albert and Antonio had a long talk about going pee on the floor. We are going back to "making" him go every so often instead of letting him just go when he thinks he has to go like we were. Now we are going to try enforcing the "trying" to go. Prior to this he was getting so good that he would go on his own free will and only maybe had 3 accidents in 3 weeks! :)

When I got home today one of the first things he said to me was, "Mama I pooped on the floor." He seemed very bummed and sad about it but I couldn't imagine he really did but sure enough. So he knows it was wrong, or at least now he does. The rest of the night he went potty by himself or every time we went in to try. I had been feeling so good (and proud) about it, especially because he was getting better at daycare! Then this week....ugh. Here's to hoping this week is just a little bump and we quickly get back on track.

Potty Training, take 1.

Again....all about poop and pee so turn away if you don't want/care to read about it....

COMPLETE BUST. Ugh. Yeah. Our plan was to take this past 3-day weekend, stay home and focus on potty training. I mean, he was doing AWESOME at home after daycare. 90% of the time he was going pee in his potty, by himself, without us having to use a timer or anything!! He would just go. I thought, "Great! All we have to do is get him to do that at daycare". Not that I thought it was going to be easy but I sure hoped it would be.

After his haircut Saturday morning we went straight home, took his pull-up off and just put on underwear; and he was happy about that! I'd say he went about 60% of the time in his potty but pooped TWICE in his underwear. Yuck. He was so good at going poop in the potty I thought we were good with that. : /  After the first time when he stood at his potty, underwear down and nothing happened, then all of a sudden there was poop. We thought maybe he knew something was happening but couldn't tell the difference. So Sunday we hoped for better.

Sunday we got up took the diaper off and just had underwear on to his request, again.  He was a bit better, maybe 80% on the potty! And yes, 1 poop at his potty standing up, again...silver lining here is that every time it was solid so VERY easy clean up! :)  A couple times he peed while pulling his underwear down, but I still count that as "in the potty". Monday HAD to be better.

Today, Antonio and I got up, and did underwear only. His aim was TERRIBLE today... The other days his aim was perfect, like he had been doing it for forever; today it was like I would've expected from the beginning. On the towel, floor, tiny bit on the wall and barely any in the potty. The cute part was he KNEW he was missing. While peeing he'd say..."oof....miss." Needless to say I mopped the floors AGAIN this afternoon. His aim wasn't even the worst part. I'd say pee went int he potty maybe only 25% of the time (happily no poop today!). After his nap he didn't want his underwear and asked to wear a pull-up. I was frustrated but told him if he needed to go all he had to do was pull them down. The first pee, he ran over to his potty, pulled them down and peed. I thought to myself, well maybe this isn't so bad...that was the last pee in the putty for the day. Sigh....  In fact he didn't even want his underwear on over his pull-up like he's been wanting to do. Double sigh...

So yeah, maybe he knew he wasn't doing so well and got discouraged and thats why he wanted to have his pull-ups on. Who knows.  Also, he never tells us when he needs to go, he just goes in the potty (or not). We noticed when playing outside, running around etc, or even inside when "playing hard" he tended to have more "accidents". Clearly we have a LONG way to go. I just so wished we would have been more successful this weekend. We gave up a trip to the lake, going to the farmers market etc to stay home. Oh well. As I've read, he won't go to Jr. High in pull-ups so we will be trained eventually. I think "my" reward for him being PT'd will be getting my carpets steamed cleaned. ;)  So please pray to the potty training God's for a quick(er) and easy(er) success! Stay tuned...or not.

Potty Training

*disclaimer.
If you do not want to read about Antonio's pooping and peeing; stop reading. That is exactly what this post is about.


So up until this weekend we have been VERY casual with the potty training. For awhile he was pooping on the potty somewhat regularly. We would watch for signs, then ask him if he had to poop and usually he would say yes. Then we would read his "potty book" and usually by the end of it he would have pooped! Rarely would he actually tell us he had to. We were using the treat system so sometimes he would sit on the potty not go and then ask for a treat anyway. Good try kid! :)  Albert started getting really frustrated when he would go in his diaper, Antonio not Albert (haha), and not tell us or tell us he didn't have to go when he really did. So Albert wanted to try the "no diaper, no pants, bottomless" route this weekend. Just to see what he would do, again, Antonio not Albert. Turns out it is working to our surprise. Yesterday he would pee a little or sometimes a lot before realizing he was going then run over to his little potty and try to finish. To my surprise he knew just what to do. He stood there, knees bent a little and peed! He even knew to aim! Clearly he has been watching all the bigger boys at daycare! His aim is pretty good too! So today again we are bottomless and he has peed in his potty all by himself BEFORE peeing on anything! I m beyond impressed! Granted he has eaten a TON of M&M's in the past couple days! :)

The HUGE bummer is that we never imagined he would do so well and so he has to go back to daycare tomorrow, and the rest of the week. Which in turns means diapers/pull-ups. I am pretty sure that will damage any progress we have done this week which makes me SO MAD!!!!!  I know that he isn't/won't be potty trained in two days but I bet if we had the week we *might* be. In know, wishful thinking but he is doing so good today that I just wonder. We will try again next weekend for the 3-day weekend and hopefully pick up where we leave off. Daycare is closed Friday and my Mom is watching him but she doesn't want to take the ferry over on the Friday of a 3-day weekend, can't lame her but 4 days would been AWESOME!

Wish us luck next weekend! It has been great not having to change a diaper all weekend! He has not pooped at all this weekend so we will see what happens with that! It would save us so much money not having to buy diapers AND having the price goes down at daycare! Besides, he seems so proud of himself when he does pee in the potty! I am so proud of him too! I am hoping going back to daycare does not mess everything up or confuse him. I know there is a big chance it will, which makes me feel badly. Please send us successful P. T. vibes this week and next weekend!!!

The Great Wolf Lodge.

This weekend my Mom, Antonio and I as well as one of my oldest friends, Erin and her Mom, Liz who is one of my Mom's best friends and little boy Patrick, who is 23 months (we left the husbands at home!) went to the Great Wolf Lodge. I had heard from numerous people how great it was. I was a bit hesitant about how "great" it would be for Antonio being so young but IT WAS!!!  He had a BLAST! They had a great area for toddlers up to maybe 7 year olds. They even had 2 little water slides for them! We all shared a suite that have a "living" area as well as two bedrooms so we had our privacy! It worked out perfectly. At night we put both boys down and were able to stay up and chat until past 11pm! It was great! Happily they have a Starbucks in the lobby! The water park was impressive! Like I said they had an area designated for younger kids but also had a wave pool that generated waves similar to the ocean, an actual pool and then of course HUGE water slides for the bigger kids and adults. Sadly, all I can say is that the big slides looked really fun!

This is the wave pool area (stairs in the background to up to the BIG watersides!) 

This is the younger kids area.

As some of you may know Antonio has no real fear of water but strongly dislikes water in his face. Whether it be when washing his hair in the bath or getting splashed in the pool; he just does NOT like it! So as soon as we got changed into our suits and went to check out the water park. I worried about how much he'd like it; there was water coming and going everywhere. From the side, from above and even from below. After maybe 5 sec he got splashed, stopped, went to turn around to leave and I picked him up to go explore more water. He got better and better with water in his face. In fact he fell in love with a water slide where almost every time he went down he would get water in his face at the bottom. He quickly learned to cope and LOVE it! I was so proud!

This place really was a blast and is set up for the young and old kids! They had scavenger hunts, story time, an arcade and even a "Cub Club" which was set up for smaller kids to play and do some crafts. Antonio got to choose at breakfast if he wanted to go back to the water slide or play at the Cub Club; he chose the water slide! So we never got to check out the Cub Club but Erin took Patrick there and seemed to really like it.  I think kids younger than Patrick probably would not have enjoyed it as much; I think 2 is right on the edge of the younger age, depending on the kid. Patrick did had a lot of fun Saturday afternoon when we first got there checking out everything and kept talking about swimming the next morning.  I think you really need a full day to be able to see and do everything. I think I would maybe go for two nights so you have at least one full day to do everything! I already can't wait to go back and take Albert! It is pretty expensive but looks like if you go in their off season it isn't *to* bad considering you never really have to leave! All in all, it was a fun time for the kids and us girls as well! If you are considering going; go, you will have a blast! :)

**And within 15m of being home he pooped on the potty!!!!! A good weekend for sure! Until tomorrow morning when there isn't enough coffee to get me going! ;)

The BIG three year old!

As I said to Albert tonight, "It's like a new chapter in Antonio's life. Chapter four." Tonight we took Antonio to he Well Child doctor visit and all went well! He was such a good boy! The nurse asked him how old he was and he said 3!! Granted with us he still says 1. :/  Oh well.  Anyways, the doctor was able to take his blood pressure, which Antonio said felt funny, listen to his heart, his back, check his eye, nose and ears all without any fuss! She said he seemed to be a healthy 3 year old and had no concerns!  The stats are as followed...
Blood Pressure: 98/44
Height: 39"(!) - 78.91% based on CDC 2-20 years height for age stature (up from 36.7" last year)
Weight: 37lb 9.6oz (!!) 92.77% (based on blah, blah, blah) (up from 34lbs last year.
BMI (yes they check that.): 17.38 85.49% (based on blah, blah, blah again)

Overall, keeping pace on being a big but healthy kid!

Last Saturday we had Antonio's birthday party which turned out well, thanks to help from my Mom and my friend Erin! The day before there were all sorts of thunder, lightening and rain so i was a bit worried about the weather but it turned out fine. It only started to sprinkle at the end when we were finishing up the cake and ice cream. Antonio had a blast playing with all his friends, Jack, Shaun, Logan and Patrick. They all had fun playing in the sandbox together! When going down for a nap that day Albert asked him if he had fun playing with all his friends and he said yes but William wasn't there. William is Rosemary's (the daycare lady's) youngest and apparently we need to invite him next year! So sweet!  Antonio got great gifts this year too! He got 6 games, all but one we have played already!! He loves them! I can tell he plays games at daycare because it isn't a complete mess when playing and taking turns. :) Again, thank goodness for Rosemary!

Three years ago today.

Three years ago today my life was about to completely change; more than I even could have imagined then! By this time 3 years ago I had been admitted to the hospital, given an epideral and had the epideral start to wear off and begin feeling the contractions again. I remember sitting in my hospital room having the epideral wear off and watching the Mariners play the Texas Rangers. How I remember that you ask, well I just remember watching Omar play. It helped with the contractions a bit. ;) Anyways, they (the doctors and nurses) didn't want to give me anymore meds because I was so close to 10cm. They were sure any min now I would reach 10cm and deliver. Well the minutes continued to tick by and I was tired! My contractions had woken me up around 4 or 5 that morning and well I couldn't go back to sleep. I remember dozing in and out and watching my Mom sleep with her head at a 90 degree angle in a chair at the foot of my bed and Albert sleeping on the couch in the room.

Finally around 1 or 2 am and after being at 9cm for a few hours they decided to do a c-section. I couldn't believe it; I was finally getting this thing out of me...err, I mean, I was finally getting to meet my baby boy! Sadly, with being so medicated for the c-section I don't remember feeling much emotion, just pain.  Looking back it makes me so sad; that moment of seeing him for the first time and I don't remember feeling ANYTHING. Regardless, from that day forward my life has changed for the better in so many ways. I love Antonio more than I thought possible and I feel so much emotion every. single. day. So I was "empty" in that one moment that means so much but I have so much love and emotion because of him every day.

I cannot believe he will be 3 tomorrow. It is just not possible. I have asked him repeatedly what he wants for his birthday and every time his answer is: cake, chocolate cake. So, we are having a chocolate cake tomorrow night after his requested waffles for dinner. Tomorrow will not be a healthy eating day for him or myself. Oh well, what are birthdays for after all?! I feel so incredibly lucky to have him in my life and to all him my own. I know there are so many women who cannot become pregnant on their own or even with "help" so because of that I feel even more lucky. He is such good little boy and I cannot wait to see who he becomes! I am so proud of him now and am so proud of the boy he is turning into! 

Then:

*please ignore the stain :)*

Today:

The end of Speech Therapy!

Today was Antonio's last speech therapy session and it was so bittersweet. The gal that would come over ever other Monday morning, Ann Marie, was great! Antonio was in a birth to 3 private program through Providence. After he turned 3, if needed, he would go through the school district. They, Providence and Ann Marie, focused on helping the parents learn/model how to help their child develop a vocabulary.

At the end of May Antonio went through some testing with Ann Marie to see if he would qualify for the continued therapy through the school district. At the time he did qualify but barely, with focus on his articulation. So we made an appointment to meet with the school districts Speech Language pathologist, Special Education Teacher and school Psychologist, they meant business! ;) They would briefly test him themselves and if he qualified he wouldn't start that until September! But if he did he would go the the school for a 45m session with other kids with speech delays. Antonio did some testing with the speech pathologist and special ed teacher. He LOVED being at school and in a classroom, which happened to be a preschool room. They were all so nice and he was such a good boy for them! We arranged to go back the following morning to get the "results".

The next morning Antonio was even more excited to be back at school! He ran up to the front door, trying to open it, and once inside, ran down the hall, around the corner right in to the classroom! He knew right where to go. Watching this made me partly hope he WOULD qualify so he could "go to school" in the Fall because he seemed so excited. We sat down with the speech pathologist where she read through her evaluation on how she/they did not think he qualified for it! I was so torn at that moment. : /  Especially after seeing him excited to be there again. On the other hand I am/was so proud of him; he HAS come a long way from just last October! As far as his testing scores, average being 100. His auditory comprehesion was: 111, expressive comprehension was: 95 and his auditory was: 99. Which in turn makes his total language score 104. So in a sense he is on the low end of average BUT I was so proud of him!

I am so glad we did this program for Antonio. I was so unsure if he needed it; I knew he did but so many people said he would talk soon enough and not to worry. Well I am glad we did! A part of me thinks he would benefit from more therapy but I also know he has come so far and will continue to improve. Ann Marie mentioned that a lot of times she see's kids with hardly any progress after the year(s) she will spend with them. She seemed sincerely happy for Antonio and how hard he has worked at it. She said that he seems to be improving faster than he is getting older, which in turn means he is closing that gap! I had learned so much about speech and how to encourage it thanks to her. We will miss her and I will always be grateful for her help!

I just have to remember that Antonio is a "quiet, sweet and curious boy" (as quoted by the Special Ed. teacher) and also a "sweet young toddler who is social but reserved" (as quoted by the speech pathologist). So when he doesn't say much in unfamiliar situations or to people he isn't familiar with it doesn't mean anything bad it is just who he is!

Fathers day at Safeco!

While in California my Mom suggested we, the 3 of us and her and Jon, go to the Mariners game on Fathers day. I thought that would be so much fun so we decided to go. It was the first weekend after we got back, actually 5 days later. I worked that Saturday and if I had "really" thought about it I would have probably said no. We needed a day of "rest" to catch up. Even that morning all I wanted to do was stay home and relax. But, we got up, dressed and out the door to the game! We were so glad we did. All three of us had a great time! The weather was perfect, much better than at home just 40 minutes way, and the game was great! 

The Mariner's haven't exactly been a "good" team lately but we were lucky enough to have seen a really good one! We played the SF Giants and we were tied for the majority of the game. It came down to the bottom of the ninth when Justin Smoak had a walk off hit to drive in the winning run! It was one of the better games they've played all year! What was even more impressive was that Antonio made it through the whole game! He and Grandma had to go on a walk for an inning or two but that was it. At the end he thought it got a bit loud and covered his ears but it was exciting! :) We can't wait to take him to another game! Maybe next time we will just try the Everett Aquasox though, they are a bit closer to home! 

California!

As most of you know we went to California a couple weeks back for Angelina's (Albert's brothers daughter) graduation! We usually go in the Fall or early Spring because of weather and my work. Turns out the weather was perfect and well work just dealt with it! :) Angelina attended an alternative High School and graduated WHOLE year early! We were all so proud of her. She had gone through a rough patch and has completely turned herself around. It is amazing how much she has grown up since the last time we had seen her!

Angelina wouldn't come out and say she was proud of herself; but she was and rightfully so as were we! To graduate an entire year early? Who does that?! Well she did! : ) I am excited to see where she goes from here.

It had been at least 2.5 years since we had been to California so it was way overdue! Antonio loved going on the airplane! He slept for about 45 minutes on the way down until the attendants woke him up with the darn beverage cart. Grrrr...  Same thing happened on the way back up but he had slept for just over an hour so it was ok. Antonio loved California! We stayed in Carpinteria, which is about 10 miles south of Santa Barbara, right on the coast, for 4 days. Albert's sister Nelly, lives there so we got to spend a lot of time with her which was so fun. It was perfect, pretty much 75 and sunny every day! Ahhhh.....  We went to the beach, the zoo and the natural history museum (we saw dinosaurs and butterflies there). So much fun!

After our days there we went back inland to Simi Valley where my Mother in law, Eva, lives and where it was much warmer. It was easily in the mid-80's, a bit warm for my liking but not as bad (or good) as it could've been! Antonio loved spending time with his Grandma. He followed her around everywhere.  She got a lot of Grandma time; it was good for both of them! We also got to see friends of ours that live nearby which was so much fun. Even though it was just hanging out in her (awesome) backyard with a couple bottles of wine and beer; it was good for the soul! 

All in all it was a good trip. We are broke but broke with full hearts! It was good for Albert to see his family and Antonio to pretty much meet that side of his family. I really wish we lived closer because he had a blast with his Uncle (who introduced him to candy), cousin Elise and everyone else. Antonio still to this day talks about "Ewise"!  We hope to go back next fall, 2013, for a Disneyland trip! I know Albert can't wait! Ha!

Aquarium

Albert, Antonio and I went to the Seattle Aquarium last Saturday. Since Antonio showed so much interest in sea lions at the Oregon Zoo we thought he would really enjoy the aquarium. I know I loved it when I was younger and remember seeing all the seals, sea otters, fish and sea horses. Oh and touching all the starfish and sea anemone's. I particularly remember touching the sea anemone's and watching them quickly close up. Oh and that underwater dome that has/had all the fish, sharks and who knows what else but it was always loaded with sea life! So of course I was so excited to take Antonio! My co-worker has an enterainment book and had a buy one get one free admission and since Antonio is under 4 he still gets in free so it was a deal!

After paying $16 for parking downtown, yes, SIXTEEN DOLLARS for 4 hours, I was glad we only had to pay $20 for all 3 of us to get in! After paying you go around the corner to their HUGE floor to ceiling "wall of fish" that Antonio loved. He was so excited and could have stayed there all day, and maybe should have. Yeah, the rest was a big letdown, for me anyways. They had tons of "fish tanks" with fish to look at but once you've seen one, you've seen them all. :/  Antonio liked looking at the starfish and sea anemone's but after touching one starfish he wanted no more of that. In fact he did not like me touching them either. He tightly clutched my arm and said, "No mama" in a very concerned tone; so we moved one. To more fish..... Finally the huge underwater dome. First of all, it should have been a sign when there was none else there (in the dome area). You had to look for the fish. There were so few that I thought maybe it was being "cleaned" or something but nope that's just how it is now. Really? How sad. Then to the seals, sea otters etc. There was one lonely sea lion and two sea otters. Seriously people, where are all the sea animals? I was so completely disappointed yet so glad we only paid $20.

I hope we just went on an off day because I don't see why people would keep going back. Antonio never stopped to look at anything for more than maybe 1 min, besides the wall of fish. That is not normal for him. We went throughout the whole aquarium in less than an hour, maybe more like 45min. :(  Luckily it was a beautiful day so we walked the waterfront for a bit. Antonio loved watching all the tour busses and duck boats go by. We had to make that SIXTEEN dollars worth it after all!   We'll go back I am sure but it will have to be with a coupon for sure. Oh and definitely going on a Sunday when parking is free! ;)

Portland

Last weekend we went to Portland for the innagural Portland Rock n Roll marathon. It was Portland's first time hosting the Rock N Roll and only only offered a half marathon, 13.1 miles. And for those of you who may not know me well, it was Albert that did the run, not me, I don't run...EVER. Albert did GREAT. He ran the whole thing for the first time! Which was even more amazing since he had been having some lower leg problems! I was/am so proud of him. The weather wasn't the best for the race and it started rainy about half way through but you can't expect to much in the PNW I guess. He does the Seattle RnR in a few weeks and we are hoping for better, well dry, weather!

We also were able to spend a day with one of my best friends, Erin, and her family! She has an awesome little boy, Jack, who is 3.5 so he and Antonio had fun together. Well as much fun as boys that age do when they only see each other twice a year. :) We met them at the Zoo that morning and of course Antonio LOVED the Zoo! The Oregon Zoo has a train that goes through it on actual train tracks and is about a 20m ride. Antonio was in absolute heaven! Happily it was long enough so there was no melt down when getting off! We were there from 9:30 to about 1:30 and Antonio made it through the whole time. I really wish we could have seen more of Erin and her family but between the marathon, the boys and their naps it was hard.

We were a bit worried about how Antonio would do on the car ride but he did great both ways. He never complained, not even a whine! We were so proud of him! He was awake the whole way down but slept about half way on the way back. He also did really well in the hotels and wasn't loud or obnoxious; again very proud! He loved having his very own big bed and waking up in the morning with us right there! The last day (we were there Friday-Monday) he was ready to go home, the resticted space of the room and toys were starting to bother him. It was a nice trial run for California!

Mothers Day!

Today was a perfect day! Antonio slept in until 7am and then Albert got up and made waffles for breakfast! It was his first time ever making them and they were so good!!! Then we all went to the Mukilteo beach for the rest of the morning! It was beautiful and warm by 9:30 when we got there! Antonio ran all over and we even watched a boat pull right up to the dock in front of us to get loaded onto  its trailer! Antonio was SO impressed! We saw more trains than I can remember, watched the ferry come and go many times and even heard it "toot" a few times! We saw lots of people flying kits and bbqing! When we first got there there weren't to may people there but by the time we left the place was packed! There were lines of cars driving in circles looking for parking spots! We had an Ivar's picnic on the grass before we left! We were all tired and ready to go! Antonio fell asleep in the car before we got hime and then continued to nap for another 2 hours!!

Albert asked what I wanted for dinner and that he would take care of it. We had some pretty yummy leftovers so I said I would be fine with that if he made salsa and got an ice cream cake. He agreed! YUM! We even got to Skype with my Mom, who has been traveling all over the midwest and east coast for the past few weeks! It was good to see her! Antonio had made me a Mothers Day card at daycare friday too! It is so sweet and creative! I am so lucky to be a Mom to Antonio; he is such a good boy and so much like his Papa! I am sad to see the day end; it has been both relaxing and fun! Until next year!

So smart!

As I had mentioned in the previous post, Antonio LOVES his current daycare. We see everyday new things that he is learning or has learned. The other night after changing into his jammies he sat with me and just out of the blue counted to 30! ON. HIS. OWN.  I was shocked so together, following his lead, we did it again. WOW! Then a day later he did it again and another day! So he must really know it! He also randomly, while staring out the window watching for the garbage man, rambled off, in order, the months from April to September! Clear as day too! I had no idea he knew them let alone was learning them! Amazing! He may not still have a lot of words but he does know his numbers, colors and is beginning to know his months! Rosemary is fantastic with him and I can tell he loves being there too!

He is still in process of his testing for speech. Hopefully Monday we will finish them and have an idea then if we should continue through the school district or not. His comprehension area went awesome. He had to get 5 wrong in a row to have the therapist stop the test and move to the next one. He went all the way in to the 5 year old range! I couldn't believe it; I was so proud! He had been testing for about 30m and was starting to want to play with his toys; so he was done regardless. I am hoping we can be done with the therapy, for many reasons! He has so much more of a vocabulary than he did just 9 months ago. Sometimes I can tell he really does have to try hard to think of words to use when talking with him and other times it comes easily to him. It's just so amazing to watch him learn so much so fast!

It's only been a year....

It has been just over a year since the last post and boy have things changed! If you are reading this; thank you for not giving up on this blog. :) I will pick up where the last post left off; daycare. He, and I should say WE, love the new (well current) daycare. Miss Rose and Antonio so lovingly calls her (Rosemary is her name) is wonderful! She has four other little boys plus her own who recently turned 4. Antonio seems to love it there. She runs her daycare more like a school in a sense she keeps things very structured which Antonio seems to do well in. They go outside all the time and they go to parks frequently! She also takes them to the library everyone in awhile where they get to pick out a book to read at daycare. She is much more expensive than the previous place but most of the time we think she is worth all the money!

As far as speech goes, we started Antonio in private speech therapy just after his 2nd birthday and he is doing awesome! He talks frequently and often surprises me with the sentences that come out of his mouth with words I didn't even know he knew. They really are little sponges! The gal comes out to our house every other Monday for a 45 min session and she primarily works with me on how to encourage Antonio's speech. Starting this Monday, the 30th, she will start doing an evaluation on where Antonio is with his speech. The private therapy only goes until he is 3 then it goes through the school district. Her and I think there is a chance he will no longer need speech therapy since he is doing so well! We will see. If she thinks he does need to continue with the therapy then she will continue to come out until his birthday and then we will have nothing until school starts. Once school starts he will have to "go" to the elementary school for it. I am not sure how that will work; I guess we will see.

Antonio is growing up so fast! He just learned how to open doors last week. I found this out when I was changing clothes with the door shut and he walked right in. There goes bathroom privacy! He hasn't mastered it yet but is able to if he wants to bad enough. He also has his own big boy bed that we got him form Ikea that when he is old enough will be loft style bed. He loves it! :) He is 100% into cars, trains and the ferry boat, a.k.a the BIG boat! I will try to post some picture in time for "Wordless Wednesday"; hopefully sooner! Again, thanks for taking to time to cheek to see if I finally posted something! : )