Potty Training my 2 Year Old

Once upon a time there was a girl (me) who said she would never be the kind of mom to talk about her children's bowel movements and potty habits in public. She swore that it was unnecessary and rather gross. That was a lot of years ago, and she has since grown up to be a suburban mom of 3 boys. Now, nothing is off limits, especially potty training!

Today, my youngest son, who is not quite 2 and a half, peed on the potty for the first time! He had previously only pooped on the potty, and that was only because it was right next to the tub and I caught him just in time! This time I asked him to sit on the potty and stay there until he peed...and he did!

We've been talking about potty training for some time now, but I've been lazy had a lot going on! The kids were tracked out for most of January and then they were all sick. They're all finally healthy again, and in an attempt to save money, my youngest is no longer going to preschool 2 days a week. So I fear that I have no more excuses and it's time to get on the stick!

What are the chances that I could have 3 boys who were all potty trained before they turned 3? My oldest trained at 2.5. We moved into a new house and gave him about a week to get settled before we took his diapers away. He did fantastic! He only ever had 1 accident and it was at night, while we were on vacation. My second son was trained a few months before turning 3, and he took a little bit more work, but still trained fairly quickly. I don't remember a lot of accidents during the day and only a few at night. I can only hope that my third son follows in the footsteps of his brothers!

I have to admit that this moment is bittersweet. I am so excited to be on the precipice of never having to buy diapers again, but the end of diapers signifies an end of babyhood! I am not looking forward to the extra laundry or going out in public for the first time without a diaper, but all in all, this is a good thing! My little man is growing up, and as sad as I am about that, this is an important milestone. He too will join the big boy club and start moving toward independence. I'm terrified and thrilled at the same time.

How did you handle your last child growing up? Did you hold onto babyhood as long as possible or encourage independence from day one?

Mickey Mouse Birthday Party

My youngest son is really into Mickey Mouse. We took him to Disney World for the first time when he was 4 months old, and then again when he turned 2. He watches Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (MMCH) all the time, and has almost every MMCH toy they make. It's something we indulge because my husband and I are also Disney fanatics! When his second birthday came around we didn't even have to decide on a theme. It would of course be Mickey Mouse, but I didn't want to just do the really commercial MMCH theme that you can get at the party store. I started with some ribbon that I found at Walmart. It is black ribbon with alternating yellow and red Mickeys. That was my inspiration for the whole party. Here is what I ended up with:

For the place settings I used white plastic forks wrapped in black napkins and tied with red ribbon. The plates came from Party city and the hats were left over from a previous party. I went with a plain yellow table cloth to have a solid background for the colorful plates and cups.I used the Mickey Mouse cups to hold the goody bags, which were made from red and yellow tissue paper and tied with red ribbon. Each one had a few Mickey Mouse trinkets like paper, crayons, a bouncy ball and stickers, and I tucked a blowout in each cup to finish them off.

I made the cupcake stand (and the cupcakes) myself. (There is tutorial here.)  You can see the ribbon that inspired me on the top and bottom tiers. I used red and yellow cupcake liners and red and yellow colored sugar on the frosting. To make the cupcake flags, I bought a pack of Mickey Mouse stamp/stickers and cut out a paper square for the back. I put a toothpick in between the layers, and voila!

The birthday boy's cupcake

Can you see the little bowl on right side of the picture? I bought 4 little bowls that matched the black/red/white/yellow color scheme at Homegoods for $10. I filled them with black, yellow, red and white M&Ms. I bought each color separately and then mixed them up in a bag before filling the bowls. It really added a nice touch, and was easier than picking out colors that I didn't want from a regular bag of M&Ms.

For the dessert table, I made a bunch of other goodies, including Mickey shaped sugar cookies and mini cupcakes! I used more M&Ms on this table for color.

For lunch we served Mickey Mouse pb&j's, fruits, vegetables and chips and dip. We also had some mini Hebrew National hot dogs that are always great for parties! Here are the Mickey PB&J's.

The other side of the room was decorated too. We used all of my son's little Disney stuffed animals to decorate the mantle along with a Mickey Happy Birthday banner. We made sure to set up all of the MMCH toys in the living room for the kids to play with.

Here is a picture of the birthday boy before the party with his presents from us and his grandparents.

All in all, the party was a huge success! I can't wait to decide what we're doing next year!