Winter Solstice, Christmas and Potty

WOW this post is going to be LONG... So first up: Winter Solstice. The winter solstice was on Dec. 21st.  Which also happens to be Killian's half bday :) ( ** Here's a fun fact, the Summer solstice aka the first day of summer is on Killian's birthday :) **) Killian's a bit young to understand the meaning of the shortest day of the year... but to me, it's a sign of hope. Even though winter drags ONNN and on, I know that the days are getting longer and longer. So... to celebrate the longest night of the year, we went outside and built our first snowman. It's was very warm, which was nice when you have a 2 year old, though not so great for building snowmen. We got mine and Killian's "baby snowman" built, but they started melting as we looked at them:

On Wednesday, Killian had his 30 month check-up. He had gotten a cold that started Sunday and by Wednesday was nasty... so I asked the doctor to take a look at his ears before the holiday season. Good thing she did... double ear infection! However, after Wednesday night, he had enough of the antibiotics in his system that he felt much better (everything else in his check-up was good... gained 2 lbs (FINALLY) in the last 6 months... he's now up to 26.4 lb... wow. And 3 feet tall standing). Anyways, I decided Thursday that we would start "real" potty training. Up until now, we've just made peeing on the potty a really great thing, but didn't make a big deal about ONLY peeing on the potty. However, peeing on the potty hasn't happened in the last month, and I would really like to get him at least USED to peeing on the potty again before I go back to school.

SO... we went out Thursday and I allowed him to pick out a potty. He debated over 3 potties and eventually chose a CARS potty. I made him a "potty basket" full of books, M & Ms, pull-ups and one pair of undies:

He gets one M & M when he sits... 2 when he pees. I made him sit every 30 min- 1 hr. Sometimes he's not happy about it... but once he gets into a routine of doing it... he'll be fine. I also let him chose a color food coloring dye to put into the potty. He LOVES it... so the first time he peed on Thursday... his pee was blue:

(this was before we got the cars potty.. so it's in his old potty chair)
He peed again on friday after nap and at my mom's house (I put the old potty chair in the trunk so we have a potty where ever we go). I was SO proud of him.

He attached to a chocolate penguin that was in his Christmas stocking and has decided he likes it as a prize for peeing:

 

Thursday was our Christmas Eve, because Killian spent Christmas eve with me, and Christmas day with his dad. On Christmas Eve, I let him chose whatever present he wanted from beneath the tree... he looked for the biggest one of course:

 It was a playdough set... He played with it all morning!!
Xmas eve... we pretended it was xmas day:

All his gifts... he was very excited when he found out that he got to open ALL of them

 He loves his "naughty geen nintch" and max

All his presents from mama and Aunt Jen and Uncle Ash

After presents we headed to my dads:

 He got a Thomas lego set that he loves, some trucks and a BIG toy shelf that my dad built (photos to come)

My dad got him some cute buns to go in the toy shelf. My dad's cat jumped into one of the bins... so of course Killian had to follow suit.

After a good nap... we headed to my moms with my sister and my grandma. We had a nice Xmas eve dinner.. and then MORE presents:

 Unwrapping the kitchen my mom and I made him!

 (I'll be posting before and after photos later this week... along with photos of the kitchen in our house)

 Aunt Mary got him a pull-along froggy... he's wanted one for a year and LOVES it

Helping GiGi open her gifts... though she didn't know he was helping her!

We had a wonderful Xmas together... and Killian went off to his dad's on Xmas morning to open even more gifts. Hopefully all the new toys will keep him preoccupied until his birthday  :)