Potty Trained, Flowers, Beach, and MORE!

*Warning this post is long because I decided to put it all together in one post instead of doing several small ones. :) Also has a few "potty words" because Isaiah is now going in the potty! :) Hope you enjoy.

It has been a very good week! It all started when Sunday (Jan15th) I returned home from church to hear the good news that Isaiah had gone pee pee in the potty! I was shocked. Now let me back up a bit and fill you all in.  Earlier in the week Isaiah had gotten really bad diarrhea and his bum was really sore. Thanks to a friend telling us that when her little girl had the same problem the doctors recommended putting Mylanta mixed with Desitin and make a paste to put on their bum. The antacid helps to get rid of the acid that burns their bottom. I though it was worth a shot and sure enough it cleared right up after not long at all. When we put it on he screamed and screamed. Casey had to hold him down while I put it on him. Well he didn't like it at all, but is sure cleared up the rash fast. So Sunday morning came and we weren't sure if he should go to nursery since he had been sick, so Casey stayed home with the kids while I went to church. I would have stayed, but I had to teach my primary class. And when I came home he had gone in the potty twice! I was shocked because I was just the day before telling my friend how he had no interest in going in the potty at all. He was perfectly content on wearing dirty diapers and refused to even let me try and put him on the potty. (Previous to this I had let him pick out his own potty chairs and we bought him Thomas the Train underwear and tried getting him to be excited about going. He never wanted to and would scream and struggle if I tried to get him to even try. He wouldn't even try on the underwear to see how they felt. So I figured he wasn't ready and we would patiently wait until he was.)

So when I returned home from church to hear the news I was shocked! I'm not sure if he decided he was ready because we kept telling him that he wouldn't have that bad rash if he would just go poo poo in the potty. Or if he heard me telling my friend over the phone how he didn't want to and he wanted to prove me wrong that he really was ready and mom doesn't know anything! Or if it was because his dad had the magic touch and was able to convince him in a way that I wouldn't. All Casey did was tell him that he is a big boy and he can go in the potty and that when he was ready to come and tell him and he would help him. he showed him what to do and how easy it is. After Zaya went in his diaper one more time that day he just reminded him again that next time if he wanted to he could tell him and he would help Zaya go in the potty. So sure enough the next time he had to go he came to his dad and went in the potty. And he has been going ever since! And now after one whole week of potty training he is doing so AWESOME!

At first he had a few times where he would get his underwear a little wet and then realize he didn't have a diaper on and then run to the potty to finish going. Then he did have one time on Tuesday that he peed himself and he wasn't too happy about it running down his legs. So after that I think he was determined that he would stop it from happening again. Well it did happen one more time on Friday, but it was probably part my fault. We had been out shopping all morning and he stayed dry the whole time. Then when we got home I put the kids in the house and went back down to finish getting the groceries. When I came back inside a few minutes later he was frustrated/screaming and crying in the bathroom because he couldn't get his pants off his ankle and he couldn't hold it anymore and had wet himself again. If I would have helped him go before I went back down for the groceries I am sure he wouldn't have had that accident. Other than that he has wet the bed the past two nights but the other night kept them dry. I think I just need to stop letting him sneak water to bed with him and this will hopefully stop.

Overall I am SO SO PROUD of my son and how great he has been doing! Never once has he pooped in his big boy underwear and he loves all the praise he gets and how fun it is to pick a treat out of the basket off of the fridge. (It takes him like 5 minutes to decide, no joke!) But I am just happy that he is excited about it and how well he is doing! So much better than I could have hoped for! I always thought it would be much harder than this. So far so good. I never have to ask him if he has to go he will just always run in there and go and when he is done I help him put his undies and pants back on. He is SO BIG! And it is crazy how much bigger he seems now with his big boy underwear on!

Here he is in his dad's hat and his big boy undies!

It's amazing how much more grown  up he looks without that diaper!

So happy to be running around without any  clothes! :)

My little handsome man who lately loves posing for the camera and taking  hundreds of pictures with it as well. :)

On Wednesday we also got to go to a nice dinner hosted by Casey's work. It was held at a golf course in Temecula and the food was delicious! Every employee got to bring their spouse and there were lots of people there! We had a great evening spending some time together without the kids and are so grateful for our good friends Aline and Ben watching them for us at the last second. We had a couple of babysitters that we had lined up. One canceled early on because of mutual (it was new beginnings) and the other got sick and couldn't at the last minute. So we were so thankful for them to bail us out so I could still go spend the evening with Casey. And so proud of Zaya that he didn't have any accident while at their house! The event was really nice and worth the struggle that it was to actually get there.

So my week was already going really well because Zaya was doing awesome at potty training. I had heard so many horrible stories about other kids potty training that I was prepared for much worse. Well then to make my week even better Casey came home early from work with a big bouquet of flowers on Thursday! I was so surprised and excited! Happy that he was home early and I LOVE getting flowers. Although when I saw how many of them there were I was a little worried at how much he had spent! Well my day got even better when I found out that it was only.... wait for it....$16! He got it at a little flower market down the road from our house! I told him that I was so excited that if we could get flowers like this for that price we may just have to stay here forever! I wan't a huge fan of the wrap that it came in so I decided to arrange it myself and decided that since it was so big I would make two arrangements instead. I just wasn't a huge fan of all the colors and flowers all together in the same bouquet. Wish I would have taken a before picture so you could see what it used to look like. Oh well. Anyway here is what it turned out looking like when I was done with it.

So gorgeous and exotic! LOVE it!

I love the color of orange roses and birds of paradise are so fun! 

Here's the second one. It is really simple but I  liked having  the lilies and baby's breath separate from the rest.

So gorgeous!

Thanks again BABE! Totally loved getting these flowers!

 And to finish of our week we were able to watch our friend's little girl Saturday morning. Isaiah absolutely loves playing with Gabby and was so excited to find out that she got to come over and play! I think she is one of his best friends here in CA but that could have something to do with that we see them quite frequently. :) Or it may be all the hugs she gives him and the few kisses she sneaks when she hugs him goodbye! LOL! They had so much fun playing hide and seek in the closet that they were screaming with delight!

Here they are eating their snack of apples and peanut butter

Cute budds!

 Then Saturday evening we went to Oceanside harbor because Zaya had been begging all week to go to the beach and daddy was getting the urge to go fishing again. It had been raining all morning and had been kinda cold but it was still really fun and I was surprised that I enjoyed it so much despite the cold wind. When we first got there we went over to this little inlet to show Zaya the pelicans and seagulls. Then all of a sudden I saw something big surface to the top of the water. There were some seals there and it was so much fun watching them keep surfacing. I kept trying to get a good picture, but I failed. I think the one below has a picture of part of the seal, but not sure. I have never seen seals in the wild before so it was just super neat!

I think the seal is by the gap between the second and third floating doc. Do you see him?

This is on the other side of the parking lot from where the seals were. This is the ocean.  At night people have their campfires going. So fun! Although we always come back smelling like smoke. :)

View from the playground where Zaya LOVES going and the reason why he kept begging us to take him back to the beach. What kid wouldn't want to play on a playground with views like this?

Another view from the playground. In the distance you can see Oceanside Pier. It is the place I blogged about earlier that we went to. These are our two favorite beach spots.

And here's to hopefully another great week! :)