Moving On Up

Lawson started preschool one week before he turned two. He started in the "baby room", which is for 18 month - 3 year olds. When they leave the baby room depends on a lot of factors, so some of the kids in Lawson's class were his age, some were slightly younger, and some were a year to a year and a half older. With the exception of some rough mornings adjusting to preschool drop off instead of Nana coming to our house, Lawson did great with preschool and the baby room. He learned a lot and even turned into a teacher at home, trying to teach Jason and I our shapes and colors.

Toward the end of the school year something weird started to happen. For about a week or two, kind of out of no where Lawson started throwing huge fits when I dropped him off and was spending a lot of time in time out during the day after I dropped him off. After a week of just terrible days, it seemed like nothing the teacher and I tried was working, so I talked with the preschool director to see what we could figure out. She mentioned a couple of things: toddlers go through phases, toddlers sometimes act out when they see other kids acting out, toddlers sometimes act out when they are board. Longer than a week seemed like a long time for this kind of a phase, so we focused not the other two options. The director felt like Lawson was probably board and was acting out because he was unhappy in "the baby room". In her words, "He's already potty trained, which puts him ahead of the three year olds in his class, and, he talks like a 10 year old." So, we slowly let him start doing other things outside of the baby room. He was the kitchen helper in the mornings for a week or two, and he got to go to the three year old class for part of the day too. This made a huge difference! Who knows exactly what the problem was. What I do know is that he did better from that point forward.

We shall see how he progresses from this point forward. Maybe he will always be a little ahead for his age. Maybe he won't be. We will take it one day at a time.

Potty Training

Lawson wanted to go potty on the big toilet when he was about 18 months old. Now, mind you, that only happened like once or twice and then he shut off the potty training efforts. We decided not to push unless he seemed like he was taking to it willingly. I'm not sure what our plan was if he never seemed to take to it, but that was our philosophy.

In February of 2013, a fellow toddler boy mom posted on Facebook that she was doing potty training boot camp. I commented on her post that I hoped she would take notes and share when our time came. That weekend, Lawson decided to go pee-pee and poop on the potty! It was crazy. He was staying the night at Nana's actually, but when he came home, we started letting him wear big boy underwear at home and pull-ups to bed and any time we left the house (preschool, outings, etc.) This went on for a few weeks, but we were struggling to get him to consistently go #2 in the potty. He did well with the other for the most part (even when we were out or he was at preschool), but he would sometimes ask to put a pull-up on when he needed to go #2.

I ran in to that same toddler mom who did potty training boot camp at this point, and asked her how it was going. She told me her son (who is almost six months older than Lawson) had it down after their four-day, boot camp weekend. When I told her what we were doing, she told me that in her opinion, pull-ups were still just diapers and that switching might be confusing. I left the conversation feeling like I had just gotten a pep talk. That Friday, we put on big-boy underwear and never looked back!! For a few weeks, I spent a good chunk of change on "poopie prizes" to motivate Lawson to go in the potty instead of his underwear. By April, we were in the clear!! I cannot begin to explain how awesome this was!! We are so proud of our big boy! And, we are so glad he was ready when he was. :-)

I'm certain he will hate that I have these photos when he gets older, but I couldn't resist.

Ear Infections Stink!

Lawson spent the majority of 2013 with an ear infection. It was terrible. It started just before this first birthday. When I took him to the doctor the first time, his only noticeable symptoms was that he was super fussy. I thought the nurse and doctor would think I was nuts when I told them what his symptoms were (weren't), but they politely checked him over and reported that he had an ear infection. I was a little confused to be honest. There was no fever, no pulling at his ears, nothing. He just wasn't himself. I know fussy might not seem like a symptom, but Lawson is a super happy boy, so when he just could not be kept happy and kept getting supremely worked up over pretty much nothing, I knew something was wrong.

Well, that was just the first of many ear infections we would deal with throughout 2013. And, with each one that came, they just got worse. Our pediatrician didn't want to refer to an ENT for tubes unless we absolutely had to. In fact, in October at Lawson's 21 month check up, Dr. Jon told us he thought we might be in the clear if we could keep him healthy through the fall and winter months. And then...over Thanksgiving, he got an ear infection. This one came with a fever, snotty nose, and a super cranky boy. About a week after we were cleared by the doctor, we were back with another, and then just after the first of the year, another. This time it was REALLY bad. He was absolutely miserable. We ended up taking him to a walk-in two days after we started antibiotics because he was getting worse instead of better.

A month later, we were at the ENT and shortly after that, we were in out-patient surgery getting tubes put in and adenoids taken out. Dr. Gwartney also pointed out that Lawson has enormous tonsils and that they will need to come out in a few years too.

We had one of the first appointments of the day, which I think is supposed to make it less traumatic when keeping a toddler from eating or drinking. We waiting just a little while in the waiting room, but then the waiting really started. 

The medicine they gave Lawson to calm him down so they could put him under worked to some extent. He was mostly just silly, but then it started to wear off. I think we were in that little cube waiting for the doctor for at least an hour (seemed like a lot more) before they finally took him back. Apparently the doctor was in a meeting. Yes, a meeting! Seriously. Jason and I were about to lose it. The procedure itself didn't take nearly as long as the waiting before did, but the aftermath was terrible. A friend had told me that her daughter was a mess coming out of anesthesia, so I knew it would be unpredictable, but I wasn't completely ready for what we got when we went to see our boy. He was very angry and just wanted the IV out of his hand. He kept trying to pull it out and screaming. I. HATED. IT. Then, to top it all off, they began talking us through the post-op information. It was ridiculous! It makes no sense to try to talk to parents whose child is thrashing and screaming and has just undergone something traumatic. Whatever. If we ever have to go through surgery again, I will make them give me the info before the surgery. 

Our boy was worn out. He was pretty out of it the rest of the day and mostly slept, which was a good thing. The next few days were rough and we had our moments, but we have only had one ear infections since (I'm actually writing this almost a year post-op). Ear infections stink. So does surgery. I am so grateful for the health of my baby boy. I'll take ear infections any day over any of the number of terrible things other kids/parents deal with on a daily basis. Praise God for a healthy boy. 

Big, Big Boy

I know I probably say this a lot, but Lawson is just getting so big so fast!! It' just crazy how fast he's growing up. Here are some random pics front the past few months that I think show just how big he's getting.

He wants his cereal with milk a lot these days, and he eats it (pretty well I might add) with a spoon.

Ridding four wheelers with Daddo.

Eating suckers.

Digging in the dirt pile. This picture is just too much!!

Eating with a big boy fork at a restaurant in a big boy booster seat instead of a high chair.

Loving some spaghettio's.

Loving Johnny Cash.

Wearing big boy underwear!! There will be a whole post devoted to this little bit of info. Get excited people!

And, not just watching Johnny Cash, but thinking he is Johnny Cash. I promise you when he sat down with his guitar this day he looked right at me and said, "Hello. I'm Johnny Cash."

There's plenty more to come about just how big this little boy is getting. It's crazy town around here!

2 Year Well Baby

When we went to Lawson's 2 year well baby doctor's visit, there  was good news and bad news. Good news: in terms of well baby, 2 year check up stuff, he was doing great! He had grown and was doing very well pretty much across the board according to the 2 year old questionnaire.

He also had a little fun while waiting on the doctor thanks to Nana getting creative with a rubber glove.

The bad news that day was that he had ANOTHER ear infection. Grrrrr! So, we went home with more antibiotics for our third ear infection in as many months. We saw Dr. Denise that day and she wasn't quite ready to do a referral to an ENT, but it wouldn't be long until that would come too. More on that in another post. 

I'm so thankful to have a happy, healthy, growing boy!! Ear infections stink, but I'll take them any day over any number of other, far worse, health problems there could be. Praise the LORD for a healthy boy!! 

The Birthday Boy

Lawson's birthday was almost a week before his party, but we still did something special on his actual birthday. Lawson actually sick on his birthday. Stinking ear infections! Sick or no, he still likes a good Sonic corn dog and tater tots. Plus I brought him a double doozie cookie from Great American Cookie too.

Two Years Old

Lawson's second birthday was January 6, and we had his birthday party the following weekend. Disclaimer: I know this post (as well as the next few) are LONG past-due, but I've been super busy living life instead of writing about it. Between our normal schedule of working and Lawson starting preschool just a couple of weeks before his party, we had plenty to keep us busy. But, since we're crazy, we also add to the mix Jason taking classes toward completing his bachelor's degree and me starting grad school. It seems crazy to think that all those years it was just Jason and me went by without us feeling the need to pursuer furthering our respective educations, and now that we have Lawson, here we are. But, this is just how it has worked out. So, all of that to say we've been busy. (PS More on my grad school adventures later).

This year we had Lawson's birthday party at Nana's house. It was kind of themed around Lawson's favorite things. The night before the party Nana, Auntie Stephanie, and especially Addison stayed up late getting everything ready. We had so much fun!

The invites and his party day shirt were guitar themed since he loves music...especially his guitar.

The invitations, party shirt and cupcake toppers were all from Trendy Biscuit, my sweet friend Katie's business (you can find it on Facebook, Twitter, Etsy, and Intagram). She's amazing!! Everything turned out perfect! Of course Aunt Carla made the cupcakes!!

We had a ton of Lawson's favorite things! The menu was all stuff he loves: hot dogs, Cheetos, Funyens, apple sauce squeeze pouches, mini donuts (chocolate and powdered), fruit snacks, apple cinnamon sticks, veggie sticks, marshmallows and bananas. 

If you look closely at the pictures hanging here you'll see newborn, one year old and two year old pictures of Lawson with his big sock monkey. My hope is to get a picture of him every year with this same sock monkey. We'll see how long he allows it.

We had cardboard guitars for the kids to color too!

Lawson had so much fun and ate lots of yummy snacks. He LOVES marshmallows. 

And here are just some fun ones from the party. There are a lot more, but I can't seem to get them all off the disk and onto my Mac and then the blog.

And, if there was any doubt that this child is spoiled, look at all these presents!! Good thing we cleaned out some older toys and passed them along before we brought all this stuff home.

Nana took this one a day or two after the party. Lawson found a couple of extra balloons outside on the mailbox. I think he looks so big in this picture.

I cannot believe this little guy is 2 years old. It's all happening so fast. We love you so very much Lawson Jace Keyes!!