Our Miss Congeniality!!

Here's another short story from DominicsMom:

"Our Miss Congeniality." That’s our Joss.

I always call her, “Beautiful” and I have been doing this for a while now. But when I ask her, “Are you beautiful?”, she always replies with a shake of her head and “Noooo”. So the other day, I called her gorgeous and she repeated the word. Then I asked her if she was gorgeous and she said, “I’m gorgeous”.

For those who remember the Sandra Bullock movie… Insert quote from movie, “You think I’m gorgeous”…


DominicsDad

No Uh-Oh's!

Last week was a bit discouraging with all the messy underwear that Joss produced. (We knew the whole process would take time, but you can always hope to not have any messy accidents.) We finally got her to go poo poo in the toilet on Friday evening. I think that she also made a small poo poo on Saturday. But nothing on Sunday. So I was a little worried as I left for work that her pre-school teachers would get another bad surprise.

Joss had a different surprise for me! When I walked in, her teacher told me, "Jocelyn did very well today. She went poo-poo in the toilet!" We were all very excited. So she and Dominic got a nice treat when we arrived home to celebrate. Later that evening she made another small poo in the toilet and she got another treat! It was a good day!

DominicsDad

Incentives to Work Out, By Jocelyn

The other morning I was dressing Joss for the day. She patted her belly and then stuck it out as far as she could (which was actually quite impressive) and said “Big belly!”

I laughed and agreed with her.

Then she continued, “Just like Daddy’s!”

Yeah, my laughter stopped right there. As they say, out of the mouth of babes…

And that afternoon I went for my first run in three months (and the hills we live on are a killer!)

SeaWorld's Spooktacular

Today's post is courtesy of DominicsMom:

This week-end we went to SeaWorld’s Spooktacular (for Halloween). This was our first real outing since starting to potty-train Jocelyn. We had a wonderful time! We left the house at 930 am and didn’t get home until almost 400pm…she made it the whole day without a single accident! And since SeaWorld had Trick-or-Treat stations for Halloween, we had plenty of treats to reward her with each time she used the potty!What a big girl!!!

Here's a few photos. Dominic was excited to see the Cookie Monster. Joss was either too hot or too tired and she wasn't very enthused about being too close to him. I think she was actually a bit scared, so we got a big frown.

I don't think that she cared for the princess either!

Here's one of Dominic at the sea lion enclosure.

Hopefully I'll get some more pictures up later!

DominicsDad

Uh Oh's III

Well, she did it again. She had an accident at school and soiled her clothes, and it was smelly! I know as I cleaned her underwear. So we talked to her and tried to convince her that she shouldn't go poo-poo in her underwear.

I guess it really took as she made another smelly mess for us right after dinner. And it was REALLY smelly...

So in the last two days, she has had three uh-oh's, not to mention the two over the weekend.

But at least she put some pee-pee in the toilet!

It's a good thing that she is so cute...

Dominics 'Smelly' Dad

Uh Ohs II

Another day, another smelly accident (and she also pee'd her pants earlier in the day). At least this one was at school and I didn't have to clean it up. I did feel sorry for Jocelyn's teacher.

That's two extra sets of clothes that she went through today. We are doing lots and lots of wash!

DominicsDad

Potty Training (Uh Ohs)

Jocelyn has had her hits and misses as we finish our first week of no diapers. She has had only a few accidents at home or at school when it comes to making pee pee. However, things have not been as smooth for #2. The last two days in a row she has had a smelly accident (and I mean smelly, I had to help clean up one of them.) Today Joss did tell us that she had to go potty and she did sit down on her potty. There was a lot of "Going potty Daddy!" But there was also a lot of playing and getting up and down. I think she feels the urge, but gets distracted as she sits on her potty. Something we will have to work on...

Here's a random shot of the cutie from the Miramar Air Show. I think that she's jumping...

DominicsDad

Learning Baseball

This weekend completed the fourth week that Dominic has participated in the Jr Sports program. He just finished up the second of two weeks of baseball and he seemed to really like it. The instructors do a good job teaching the basics. Dominic was never very good at throwing a ball as he tended to side-arm it a lot, causing the ball to fly in unpredictable directions. The Master Sports coach has him throwing relatively straight already! Catching is another matter and some of the other concepts haven't quite sunk in yet...

Here's Dominic taking a swing at the ball and then running the bases. Sort of...

Dominic and I played some ball today in our backyard (yay!) and I worked with him on his throwing, catching, and base running. He still needs a reminder that it's ok to run, but at least he goes around all the bases without stopping. He continues to progress with his throwing and some of his tosses actually had some good speed. When we started, his catching was pretty bad, perhaps he caught 1 in 5 tosses to him (and they were tosses, very slow, under hand right into his hands.) So we tried with his glove for a bit and then went ok. Then we went back to bare hands and after awhile he really showed some improvement, catching about every third toss.

Next week is football with the Jr Sport program - should be interesting!

DominicsDad

Potty Training (Continued)

We are continuing our efforts to potty train Jocelyn. Previously we've tried to get her used to the idea of going potty in the toilet, but left her in diapers. Her pre-school teachers have told us that she uses the potty for them regularly and that her diaper is always dry, even after a nap.


So this last weekend we decided to take the plunge, put her in underwear, and ditch the diapers. This is a pretty big (ok I can't spell momentuous) milestone in her potty training as once you get rid of the diapers, you are not supposed to go back. If you do it too early, lots of 'Clean up on Aisle Kitchen!'

Well, she has done very well. It helps that she is really excited to wear real underwear and she really likes the Dora the Explorer underwear (I never got any Underroo's when I was a kid!) We had a couple of accidents the first day and she had one the first day back at school, but overall it has been a success. She was perfect at school on Tuesday and had one accident on Wednesday. Joss often will let us know when she has to go, but we still drag her into the bathroom on the hour (sometimes kicking and screaming). This morning she sat on the pot for 10 minutes and did nothing, but she went for us twice this evening.

So we are very pleased with her progress and we hope that in a week or so we won't have to remind her every hour. We will keep everyone updated!

DominicsDad

Ahh, a Boo Boo II

Yesterday Jocelyn came up to me with a concerned look on her face as she held her index finger up to me for inspection. I immediately thought that she had a boo boo and went to kiss her finger. As I bent over to kiss her finger, I stopped as I remembered DominicsMom's story. So I asked her, "Do you have a boo boo or is it a booger?"

"Boogie!"

Yeah kid, let me get you a kleenex for that...

DominicsDad

Ahhh, a Boo Boo? No...

This evening Jocelyn walked up to DominicsMom with a small scowl on her face as she held up her index finger for inspection.

DominicsMom asked her, "Ahh, do you have a Boo Boo? Let me kiss it!" And she proceeded to kiss the tip of Jocelyn's finger.

Jocelyn then told her, "No, boogie! (Booger!)"

DominicsDad

This afternoon we let the kids watch the movie Madagascar. It's a cute movie for kids (Ok, I enjoyed it too...), with a bunch of talking animals, to include a lion (Chris Rock), zebra, hippo, and a bunch of semi-sociopathic penguins.

At the end of the movie is the obligatory dancing animals as the credits roll. The lemurs reprise their "Let's Move It" song. Dominic really likes the song, so he usually gets up to dance with it. But this time he has some dancing animals to emulate...

DominicsDad

A Sneeze by any other name

This evening we were driving home from Target (our favorite store...) when Jocelyn let out two big sneezes. After each sneeze, DominicsMom gave her a "Bless you!"

When she had finished, DominicsMom said, "Oh baby girl! Those were so hard!"

Joss piped up in reply, "Two hard Bless You's!"

DominicsDad

Jr Sports - Soccer Lessons

We recently enrolled Dominic in a Jr Sports program, run by Master Sports, that over the course of 8 weeks, will expose Dominic to four sports, Soccer, flag-football, T-ball, basketball, and some track and field. This last week was his first class and it featured soccer.

The instructors were really good with the kids, who ranged in age from four to five. They taught them the very basics on how to kick, trap, and dribble the ball. Drills included trapping, dribbling the ball from one end of the field to the other, dribble and shoot, and finally, Sharks and Minnows.

Dominic did well, paying attention to the instructor as well as doing pretty well physically. He knew a couple of the kids in the class, one of which was in his kindergarten class while the other was in his after-school program.

The Sharks and Minnows drill was pretty funny. The instructors were the sharks at the beginning and everyone else was a minnow. The sharks had to kick the minnow's soccer balls off the field while the minnows tried to dribble from one end to the other. Dominic made it across the field his first time, but the second time he was caught. He became a very enthusiastic shark and ran around the field with his hand on his head, sticking straight up, just like a sharks fin. Everyone got a good laugh.

Here, Dominic stretches with one friend.

Dominic dribbling.

Dominic runs a drill. He did pretty well for his first time!

Dominic had his second session today and he did just as well. I'll try to get some pictures up soon!

DominicsDad

Joss Says 'Ocean' - Video at Noon

And here's the video for Jocelyn's infamous pronunciation. (DominicsMom insists that she gets it from me.)

DominicsDad