Hello everyone,
I hope everyone is doing well! The Turpin's are doing great and Jakob is growing and changing right before our eyes!
In my last post, I was bragging about the potty training and he is still doing extremely well. He will usually have maybe 2 or so accidents per week at daycare...always at the same time, just after they have had a snack and they go out to play. So, they are starting to watch him a bit more at that time now (I think because they are finally tired of changing him...I was like...hello...there is a pattern)! He normally does not have any accidents at home unless we have friends over and he is outside and just can't bear to go inside and miss out, but that is rare. So, we are very proud of him. I have created a photo album of all the people he has met so far (and will start adding those who he is about to meet) and he LOVES to look at the photo album while on the potty pooping. So, I call it the Poop book now. Was not what it was intended to be, but hey, it keeps him on there.
Jakob is still really enjoying "school" and he is really trying to talk more and more since he started going. He is now trying to branch out to full sentences, which is great, but almost not comprehensible at this point. Much easier when it is just 2 or 3 words. I always tell everyone that I can understand about 90% of what he says, Wayne about 75%, and everyone else about 40%. He is still doing remarkably well for only having known English for 4 months (I have to keep reminding myself). One of my favorite language mix ups that he has is when he comes out of the garage or back door, he always says, "poop dog" and I always think...how does he know the rapper, Snoop Dog? But no, he is trying to say "dog poop" instead and he just has it reversed...as I'm always telling him to watch out for it if I have not had a chance to clean it up.
The only thing we have noticed about when he comes home from school is that he usually has a "meltdown" sort of evening every other day. One day he will come home from school and be laughing and joking and having a great time and the next day he just can't stop whining, crying, throwing himself on the ground, etc. Good news is, that is what 2 year olds do...so he is "normal." Lastly, we LOVE the teachers at his school and he has a really good group of kids in his class. It is really the perfect place for all of us (since it is only blocks away from where we live and he is happy)! He is really starting to come into his own now...his personality, the way he carries himself, etc. He is also really starting to joke around a lot more and also get jokes (like on DVDs that he has...he will point and start laughing like he now gets it).
We had a great Father's Day. We had our friends over for brunch - Steffen (works on Wayne's project for Accenture), wife Carmen, son Lucas (3) and Baby Laura (only months old). Afterwards, we went to the Calgary Aerospace Museum. I figured anything involving planes would interest both Wayne and Jakob, along with Steffen and Lucas. We all had a really great day and the weather was just perfect (which it had not been just a week or so before when it rained non-stop for a week...the city was getting cranky after that...and wet).
We are also very much enjoying our neighbors. Brad and Nancy (also our landlords) have been great with Jakob and have even watched him a couple of times for an hour or so (thank you!!). The down side for them is that our deck is higher than theirs, so Jakob usually walks outside and says hi to them over and over while they are trying to relax in their backyard. Michelle (an Aussie) is on the other side and we've gotten to know her a lot more since I've been on leave. She had us over for a Lobster Boil the other week which was fantastic! Jakob is very funny...if he sees Michelle working out in her yard he says, "..Chelle....Come..." (in a very "Jesus" like voice...like, come hither my child...almost like he is so confused...why are you over there...come here...don't let the fence hold you back).
Oh, and I guess I've not mentioned yet that I have successfully completed 2 weeks worth of being back at work. It has been totally fine so far and very manageable. I am very glad to be going back to the new office that opened while I was on leave...great view of the river and Rocky Mountains a bit further out. Everyone has been very supportive in getting me back into the swing of things and I've been enjoying it. I'm not at a client site / project yet, but hopefully soon through work we are trying to sell.
Well, I am going to sign off for now. Wayne was in Houston from Thursday - Saturday and will be home in an hour or so. Jakob and I luckily had great weather while he was gone so we were able to go to parks and explore a bit...oh yeah, and have a girls night + Jakob on Friday at our house!
We leave for Spain on June 27, so I will likely try to do another post after that and Stampede which is just after here in Calgary (so mid July).
I hope everyone is enjoying their summer and we will talk to you soon!
2 videos of Jakob trying to do "1 - 2 - 3 ....WAKE UP!"
(he thinks it is so funny when you act like you are sleeping and then he wakes you up)
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Our boy is potty trained!
Well, I must start this blog with some really good news....our little (now big) boy Jakob is now potty trained! Yes, we said, "bye bye diapers" on Friday, May 30!
I decided to use a method that my cousin Julie used to train 4 of her kids in 1 day. It is from a book called "Toilet Training in Less Than a Day." Basically, you load the kid with all sorts of drinks in the morning and salty snacks and teach them about going to the potty. Since they have to pee so much because they have been drinking, there is so much repetition that they get it very fast. I started at 9 AM on Friday and by 11:15, Jakob had his first pee with his poop following shortly! I was so happy because around 10:30, I thought I was going to have to call it quits because Jakob was crying and screaming and throwing fits, but I powered through it and stayed positive and it all worked out!
We, of course, have had some accidents, but they are getting to be fewer and fewer. We are also not putting him in pull ups at all (not even at night) as I don't want to have to train him out of those. For now, it means that i just get up a couple of times a night to put him on the potty and then put him back to bed...at least until he can hold it a bit longer. The underwear he has is Bob the Builder (and also Diego from Dora the Explorer) as they were the only ones in his size. It is funny, though, because I kept telling him, "Don't get Bob wet, keep Bob dry, don't poop on Bob." So now, we refer to Bob a lot and I have a feeling that the name Bob might carry forward with him into adulthood to describe that part....oopps.
Anyways - enough potty talk, but thanks again to cousin Julie for all of her help and encouragement through the process! I would highly recommend this process to anyone you know who needs to potty train a child.
Jakob has also been enjoying his daycare (or school as I call it). They always do something fun or interesting each day (i.e. a guy Rick comes to play a guitar each week, they go on 1.5 hour walks to a park nearby, they make necklaces, etc). They try to get the kids outside as much as possible as long as the weather is nice, so that is really good. Jakob also really likes his teachers and I think he likes the other kids (hard to tell as I don't get to see them playing).
We are also very happy about the grand opening of our park just 1 block away! There was always a park there, but they just updated all of the equipment, so it is twice the size it was and there is a lot more climbing equipment for Jakob. I actually volunteered last week to help, so I was unloading all of the equipment off of the truck. It was a great opportunity to meet some other parents in the neighborhood as well. Turns out that out of the 8 kids in Jakob's school, 4 kids live on our street!
Wayne has been keeping busy at work and I have 1 week to go before I return to work. I am a bit nervous about the return, but am sure that it will go fine. Trying to balance work and home will be a bit of a challenge, but I'm sure once we get into the new grove it will be fine.
Lastly, we had our first post adoption placement report this week. Basically, a social worker came to our house and asked a bunch of questions about how Jakob was adjusting, his development, eating, how we are doing, etc. She then writes the report, sends it to our agency, and then that gets sent to Russia (along with 12 recent photos). Everything went just fine. We are happy to report that Jakob has gained 6 pounds and grown 2 inches in the 3 months we have had him!
Well - that is all for now. I'll try to post again once I have returned to work.
I decided to use a method that my cousin Julie used to train 4 of her kids in 1 day. It is from a book called "Toilet Training in Less Than a Day." Basically, you load the kid with all sorts of drinks in the morning and salty snacks and teach them about going to the potty. Since they have to pee so much because they have been drinking, there is so much repetition that they get it very fast. I started at 9 AM on Friday and by 11:15, Jakob had his first pee with his poop following shortly! I was so happy because around 10:30, I thought I was going to have to call it quits because Jakob was crying and screaming and throwing fits, but I powered through it and stayed positive and it all worked out!
We, of course, have had some accidents, but they are getting to be fewer and fewer. We are also not putting him in pull ups at all (not even at night) as I don't want to have to train him out of those. For now, it means that i just get up a couple of times a night to put him on the potty and then put him back to bed...at least until he can hold it a bit longer. The underwear he has is Bob the Builder (and also Diego from Dora the Explorer) as they were the only ones in his size. It is funny, though, because I kept telling him, "Don't get Bob wet, keep Bob dry, don't poop on Bob." So now, we refer to Bob a lot and I have a feeling that the name Bob might carry forward with him into adulthood to describe that part....oopps.
Anyways - enough potty talk, but thanks again to cousin Julie for all of her help and encouragement through the process! I would highly recommend this process to anyone you know who needs to potty train a child.
Jakob has also been enjoying his daycare (or school as I call it). They always do something fun or interesting each day (i.e. a guy Rick comes to play a guitar each week, they go on 1.5 hour walks to a park nearby, they make necklaces, etc). They try to get the kids outside as much as possible as long as the weather is nice, so that is really good. Jakob also really likes his teachers and I think he likes the other kids (hard to tell as I don't get to see them playing).
We are also very happy about the grand opening of our park just 1 block away! There was always a park there, but they just updated all of the equipment, so it is twice the size it was and there is a lot more climbing equipment for Jakob. I actually volunteered last week to help, so I was unloading all of the equipment off of the truck. It was a great opportunity to meet some other parents in the neighborhood as well. Turns out that out of the 8 kids in Jakob's school, 4 kids live on our street!
Wayne has been keeping busy at work and I have 1 week to go before I return to work. I am a bit nervous about the return, but am sure that it will go fine. Trying to balance work and home will be a bit of a challenge, but I'm sure once we get into the new grove it will be fine.
Lastly, we had our first post adoption placement report this week. Basically, a social worker came to our house and asked a bunch of questions about how Jakob was adjusting, his development, eating, how we are doing, etc. She then writes the report, sends it to our agency, and then that gets sent to Russia (along with 12 recent photos). Everything went just fine. We are happy to report that Jakob has gained 6 pounds and grown 2 inches in the 3 months we have had him!
Well - that is all for now. I'll try to post again once I have returned to work.
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