2 Years and 8 Months - Potty Training

After several weeks of getting nosebleeds almost every other day, I decided to take Nathan to the ENT again to get checked out. Sure enough, he had the same bacterial infection as last time, and after a week of antibiotics the nosebleeds stopped, thank God.

Between his nose and bad coughs at night from being sick, I've had a difficult time getting him to sleep in his own bed through the night. As soon as he got better, I started telling him before bed that when it's dark he needs to stay in his own bed, he can only come into our bed when it's bright outside. After a few days he would say it back to me, I was so impressed that he understood! When he'd wake up in the middle of the night he would call me and ask for bao bao but he won't get out of bed. Since it's the summer, "bright outside" sometimes means 5:45am. Nathan would wake up and say "it's bright" and run into our bed, LOL.

Jackson's parents went away for 2 weeks in May so I thought I would try potty training Nathan during this time. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I read a few articles about potty training in 3 days and thought it was worth a try. I was ready to give up by the end of the first day after several accidents, but we were both so encouraged when he finally peed in the toilet. It really felt like we worked together as a team to accomplish something great! Nathan was super excited, he yelled "It's coming!" in Chinese after saying "mei-yo lai" all the previous times. I've never been so happy to hear the sound of pee in a toilet. After that, he quickly learned the "feeling" of needing to go to the bathroom and had very few accidents. I was surprised at how fast he caught on. I guess he was just ready. He still can't tell whether he needs to pee or poop, and gets that mixed up when he tells me, but I can usually guess based on the time of day. Hooray to no more diapers, except nap time and bedtime! Now I just carry around a toilet seat everywhere we go ....

Nathan will just randomly start to "sing" like this https://youtu.be/W7rBeshczqg
Reading Pride & Prejudice numbers book - I love how he memorized the words after hearing them a few times when he's never heard the story or seen the movie. https://youtu.be/gQo_6QrSAXM

Taking selfies at the ENT doctor's office while we were waiting. Nathan was so calm and let the doctor examine him without moving around.

We finally found a bread that he would eat, brioche bread, soft and buttery! 

Our first visit to a play house, where there are many "themed" rooms set up with toys, this one had a train track and a race car ramp.

Here is the kitchen

Ice cream shop

Sitting on the potty!

He is so cute in his little nei-ku

At an indoor play space called Catch Air, it was really fun

I went on this slide too, it was super fun. Being a kid these days is awesome, I love being able to relive it through Nathan. It's like discovering a whole new world I never knew existed.

Ball pit!

Facing forward in the back up car seat, such a big boy. We were without our car for 2 weeks after an accident. We drove Jackson's parents car for a week while they were away and then a rental. It was a bit stressful but praise God everyone is okay and we eventually got reimbursed for everything.

Attended a music class nearby

Handsome boy at Mike and Echo's wedding

2 Year and 7 Months - Spring time fun

It's finally warm enough for us to enjoy the outdoors again! Lots of fun play dates and exploring different playgrounds. Nathan can semi-count to 20, and knows most of the capital letters by sight. He plays well by himself for 10 minutes at a time and can entertain himself with random things, like a bag of balloons, although if I don't pay attention to him, the floor can be covered with things he dumps out that he will then refuse to clean up. https://youtu.be/NNB7q3GFXjo
https://youtu.be/TY5eH2p9gm8 - I love watching his "pretend play". Jackson builds amazing Lego houses that look different every time and he will use the Lego characters to play in the house.

Planting grass in soil, came with the egg dying kit.

Our first attempt at dying eggs!

Nathan and a one-year old boy from church, we went to a nearby nature center to explore.

Riding on the train at Van Saun Park for the first time! Nathan was SO excited, as you'll be able to see in the videos below. He is the most excited about saying "Hi" as the train passes by or as he passes by others while on the train.

This time he wasn't scared of the carousel and wanted to go again. Good thing the rides are only $1.50 each, otherwise I'd be spending all our money at the park!

Having fun at Josiah's 5th birthday party celebration. He was a little young for the "gymnastics" but still had a great time.

Happy birthday Josiah!

At his favorite local store, "CVS shopping" as he likes to call it.

Play date at the mall where Josiah taught Nathan how to play "Freeze".

Jackson told him to count 1-10 super fast, and this is what he does. We couldn't stop laughing at his facial expression from concentrating so hard.

2 Year and 6 Months - Jillian!

At Nathan's 2 1/2 year old well visit, he weighed 25 lbs 4.5 ounces (6th percentile) and was 36" tall (54th percentile). Yay, he gained weight! I could tell he did by how quickly I got tired from holding him.

A HUGE milestone this month. Since Nathan stopped sleeping in his crib a year ago, he's been sleeping in our bed pretty much every night. Not only that, I would lie next to him (pretending to be asleep) for 45 minutes to an hour waiting for him to fall asleep. Sometimes I would fall asleep before he does. I decided to start transitioning out of that routine by staying in the room but not in the bed. I explained that I have to work and sit on the floor with a laptop while he falls asleep. I realized that he slept much faster this way, not having me in bed with him. Feeling encouraged, I decided to try to leave the room while he was still awake to allow him to fall asleep by himself. I figured he can understand now that he is more verbal and can repeat what we say. The first night, I was able to convince him to let me leave the room to work after saying good night (he will repeat, "Mama san-ban" when I tell him that). He came out of the room 3 times, and 3 times I brought him back and said good night again. It took awhile but he didn't whine or cry! Within 2-3 days, he was falling asleep on his own, no problem. Granted he's still on a mattress on the floor in our bedroom, and he still climbs in bed with us when he wakes up in the middle of the night, BUT I've gained 45 minutes to 1 hour of free time that I didn't have before. I say that is a success. 

I started working out using Jillian Michaels DVDs, and tried a detox diet to help jump start a healthier lifestyle. Who knew Nathan would love the exercise routine and want to try them out with me?! He requested Jillian DVD in place of his normal TV shows while I ate dinner. I was pretty amazed at his attempts to do the moves.
https://youtu.be/Eg1K0cVZKkk
https://youtu.be/h1pvn02cA0g
https://youtu.be/0l2zhlf3dxI

We went to dim sum with the Adames and Nathan and Aurora had a great time together.
https://youtu.be/u-RUY8ycQF0 He got a huge box of play-doh from Aunt Madelina and apparently they love the slide too! https://youtu.be/iyaJK3XgAwc

I got Nathan this fun book called All Better and we "read" it like 10 times in a row the first day. https://youtu.be/GeuZpRi7plM

Nathan loves to be a good helper, so I try to include him when I do chores now. This keeps him busy and he feels accomplished, AND we actually get things done together! I really hope this continues when he gets older.....
https://youtu.be/Zh1DqnEJNFI
https://youtu.be/-pDdtw9bv0U

Cute sweater from grandparents

The last big snowstorm of the winter. We did not have any snow gear for Nathan so we had to make do with plastic bags. 

 

Bed hair after nap time

Our neighbor's son, Nathan still loves babies!

At a 2 year old's birthday party.

 
The bounce house was a real hit at the party. Nathan had a blast and followed the birthday boy's aunt around everywhere. Everyone told me they couldn't believe how well behaved Nathan is as a 2 year old. I still remember just a few months ago he was throwing a crying fit at a restaurant because Jackson went to park the car and wasn't with us. So glad that improved once we learned to help him anticipate what's coming next and can communicate better.

Great at blowing bubbles now. Just a few months ago, he still wasn't able to do it.
https://youtu.be/BZQtiSTZ-Ks 

He likes to feed friends :)

Beautiful hand knit sweater from friend's mom. It finally fits him now.

First night out with the girls where I didn't have to rush home because Nathan won't sleep without me. Now that I've taught him to fall asleep on his own, Jackson can do the same when I'm not there. Woohoo!

This kid is hilarious. He picks up a pair of gloves sitting around, puts it on and starts singing the "Daddy Finger" song.

2 Years and 5 Months - Pocky

Nathan loves to sing and dance, and will repeat things almost simultaneously. He also has a great memory and will remember things I said the night before. In addition to all the colors, he now knows shapes and many letters of the alphabet. Nathan will also say "I love you" when prompted.

I realized this month how much he's grown by how far he can reach across the sink when I wash his hands. Sometimes he surprises me by taking things off shelves and tables because I forget he's not a little toddler anymore. I think it became most obvious when I looked at his feet one day and they're not "baby size and super cute" anymore. My boy is growing up so fast, but I feel blessed to have all these precious memories and quality time with him :)

At the playground at Van Saun Park

He loves to eat Pocky. One day in the car he was holding a box after we bought it at the grocery store and I was just staring out the window next to him. All of a sudden I heard him say "Y, K, C, O P" and I realized that he recognized all the letters on the box! I was squealing in delight. I have become one of those parents who thinks every little thing their kid does is amazing, haha.

Wearing our retreat T-shirt. It was the first time we were able to get away for a weekend and focus on worshiping God, fellowship and prayer. It was wonderful. Even though Nathan had a fever when we dropped him off at his grandparents', he improved a lot by the next day and had a great time.

Refused to take a nap in the afternoon and fell asleep in the car when we went grocery shopping.

I REALLY need to go to bed.

He says "cheese" when I hold the phone up now. I think he learned it in Phoenix because we took so many pictures.

It's his signature move, the shake-shake! We love it so much it's now a routine after bath time. Before he is fully dressed, he will run into Daddy's room and do the shake-shake together. 

Playing peek-a-boo after bath time, notice a "surprise" at the end :)

Attempting to take off his shoe

I'm afraid he might have gotten my athletic genes

Looking out the window, talking - https://youtu.be/LczThzNJuJU

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, or at least he thinks it's this song - https://youtu.be/8__EkVp-AF4

2 Years and 4 Months - Family Reunion 2017!

This was an exciting month for us. We had our first sleepover play date at my friend Lisa's in Brooklyn. We also spent a week in Arizona with family in the US and from Taiwan. Nathan is starting to understand more now and I can reason with him occasionally. He is learning to wait instead of crying until he gets what he wants. We are trying to prep him in advance of things to come so he has expectations and not get caught by surprise, which sometimes result in tantrums. We tell him "5 more minutes", or "this is the last time" or "first we do this, then we do that". It's hilarious when we would go in the room to tell him it's time to give us the phone back and go to bed, he would hold up his hand and say "5 mo' minute".

We learned the hard way that when he expects someone to leave but they don't, or if he expects someone to be there and they're not, that it can be very stressful for all parties involved. It's better to say bye to him and let him get upset for a few minutes, than him getting upset because he didn't get the chance to say bye. When we were in Arizona, he was sad when Jackson's parents would leave for the hotel. When we tell him that they're sleeping, or eating pizza, he'll remember that and repeat it back to us for the rest of the trip, which shows that he is learning to accept the reasons we give him. Perhaps from having to say goodbye so many times and our explaining things to him repeatedly, and telling him / showing him how to share with James, that by the end of the trip I think he became slightly more reasonable. Praise God! A concept that he picked up well is "yi-qi" which means together. Now he says it all the time when we do something or go somewhere together.

Nathan can count to 10 pretty well but can't pronounce 6 and 7. It sounds more like "nick" and "nemen". He has trouble with the "s" sound. He is also open to taking showers now so that's something new.

Dancing

One of the better play dates we've had because Nathan wasn't fighting over toys. This was really cute, they just decided to take over all the baby toys (there is a baby boy in the house).

Singing Twinkle Twinkle together. Leo is a really good singer for his age, and is actually in tune.

We were planning to Uber to Brooklyn for our play date, but Uber falsely advertised that they had car seats when they didn't, so we took the bus and subway. Nathan was PERFECT on the commute and held my hand everywhere we went.

These two girls are so adorable. Lisa's daughter was super good with Nathan and treated him like her own little brother.

It took Nathan many hours to warm up, but after dinner he and Ethan finally started having some positive interactions.

Early morning play time. I did not record all the fighting and crying over toys when Nathan refused to share even though they're not his toys. I was afraid we may never get invited back.

We finally decided to buy him an indoor slide after many instances of his trying to find random things around the house to slide down while saying "weeeee". Like this: https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=nPbVCNQknWI. He first folded the mat over to create an angle, then proceeded to "slide" down it. I thought it was brilliant and created the hold made slide for him. It was so cute and yet so sad, I finally gave in with the real slide.

Start of our trip to AZ! Nathan was great at the airport.

Seasoned traveler - this is his 5th time traveling by plane! He is so adorable with his little backpack. I think many people were admiring how cute he was :)

We got to the gate super early and I was afraid he would get bored. But nope, he loved watching the airplanes take off / land and going up and down escalators.

Daddy's already half asleep before takeoff. Nathan even took a 1.5 hour nap mid-flight!

Hanging out with lao nai nai

Vina's family invited all of us over for pizza and play time.

Playing train sticker book together. These two were funny to watch. After about 1 minute we usually have to step in and separate them because they want to hoard the toys. Good teaching moments though. Once or twice a week is just not enough for Nathan to pick it up, I think many times a day for a week straight really helped. 

Feeding ducks at the park

Nai Nai's birthday celebration

Nathan clapping to praise song https://youtu.be/gK76nJ1I57Q

This was pretty much how the entire week was with Nathan and John Mark. Nathan loves guh and guh and basically just followed him wherever he went. Every morning when he wakes up, he asks where guh guh is. Too cute.

Helping pao pao water the vegetables.

Putting the grand kids to work in the garden. Watch James, he's so funny.

Walked to the neighborhood playground.

Phoenix aquarium

 

Fun time playing in Uncle Peter's backyard. Who knew kids can keep busy for so long with just dirt and some tools? https://youtu.be/S6PDfYhB9B0

https://youtu.be/rfRbNnMfNRs

Of course, In n' Out.

One of our last nights together, watching Cars. 

This is what success is like after many days of perseverance! Nathan would run away from Colin for most of the trip, but by the end of the trip, he loved playing with Uncle Colin.

Got the two boys to sit still by holding the iPad.

Still got the gong gong touch!