Baf-ooms and Special Potties

In the last few days, several of our friends have posted various potty training triumphs and challenges stories to their blogs, and so, in an effort to "keep up with the Joneses," I thought I'd add ours to the lot. We haven't officially (or unofficially, for that matter), begun potty training yet, but I think today marked the "Ayden is ready, let's get this show on the road" point. I had to go to the bathroom, so Ayden informed me that he, too, wanted to go to the "baf-oom." So, I thought, "Seize the moment!" We pulled down his pants, took off his diaper and sat him on the toilet. We sat, and sat, and chatted, decided to read some books, decided to include Kieran who then sat on my lap next to the toilet while I read and Ayden sat. Alas, nothing happened.

Ayden was all game to try again later, so I suggested we set the timer and try again in 20 minutes. The timer went off, and Ayden is excited to try going potty again. We go to the bathroom take off his pants and diaper and I start to put him on the toilet. Now, since I hadn't planned on potty training him today, we don't have anything that he can sit on without falling inthe toilet, and so it is a bit precarious to get him seated on our adult toilet. So, as I'm lifting him up for him to spread his legs out over both sides, he mis-guesses and promptly places one foot in the toilet.

"Oh, Ayden," I yell, to which he responds with crying and stressful sounds. Oops. I over reacted, so, not wanting to psychologically damage him when it comes to potty training, I quickly say, "It's o.k. we can clean it up." And I pull off the wet sock and throw it in the sink. Needless to say, he has not sat on the toilet since. He is, however, extremely interested in having his own "special potty," as he's been talking about that a good bit of the night.

I do think we have one other challenge to overcome, though. For about a year, Ayden has associated the word bathroom solely with sitting on the toilet. In other words, he doesn't understand that it's actually the name of a room in the house. This has led to some rather comical moments in our house. For example, I once bought him a new toothbrush and told him to put it in the bathroom. He just stood there and looked at me rather confusedly. "Ayden," I said, "take your toothbrush and go put it in the bathroom on the counter." Finally, being the dutiful son that he is, he took the toothbrush to put in the bathroom. Seconds later I hear the toilet lid open and, horrified, I dashed to the bathroom just as he's about to drop it into the toilet! Some of you might think he just wanted to drop it in the toilet, but, really, believe me, he thinks the word bathroom, in all it's contexts refers to the toilet.

In other news, Kieran is, as I've said nearly every post, growing like a weed. He just went in for a 6 week check up and he's now 12 pounds, 8 oz! He's doing terrific. He's smiling like crazy now and cooing away, so that's fun.

A few weeks ago, the boys both wore ties to church in order to be like dad. Ayden loved doing it and after a while, wanted his tie outside of his vest so that it was even more like Dad (who wasn't wearing a vest that day) and more visible.

Ah, the early morning

Last night was not the greatest in the Kieran-sleeping front, and it was all the more unfortunate because Josh had to be at church by 7 this morning. So, when he got up at 6:15, I decided to also give up on the sleeping thing and enjoy a quiet house until Ayden and Kieran got up. (Kieran, of course, threw in the towel around 6 and is now sleeping like the proverbial baby. Gotta love it!)

Anyway, I thought I'd share some of Ayden's latest adventures with a few comments about Kieran thrown in.

This is a picture of Ayden and his friend Malia. Malia's family has become dear friends of ours. Amanda, her mom, and I get together fairly regularly, and her dad Dan is another pastor at our church. He and Josh spend a lot of time together "talking church." Anyway, Ayden loves their family and their three kids, as do we. So, Amanda, Malia (4), and Jacob (1.5), Ayden, Kieran, and I got together earlier this week at the mall. The mall has an arcade room which thrills Malia and Ayden to no end. Here they are enjoying the motorcycle games.


Ayden LOVES wrestling and bouncing around on the bed. His favorite game is for Josh or I to lay at the foot of the bed while he goes up by the pillows. Then, he jumps on us (as he's doing in this picture), and we pick him up and throw him back to the head of the bed. This game is usually instigated by him saying, "throw me, mommy" or "tackle (i.e., tickle) me" which usually results in him also being thrown.


Ayden loves anything that has buttons and is electronic. So, cell phones and computers are some of his favorite things. Thank-goodness for the Sesame street computer game (or peeung bame, as Ayden says) and child-friendly web sites. Here's Ayden sitting at his table in the kitchen, playing along with Elmo and Big Bird.


Kieran continues to be a joyful addition to our family. He's becoming more alert all the time and is starting to fall into a wake-sleep rhythm that holds consistent for at least several days at a time. He's growing so quickly! Some days I look at him and think he's grown by leaps and bounds over night!

I love watching Kieran and Ayden together. Ayden does a great job with his little brother. If Kieran is crying, he wants to know "whats the ma-ung" (what's the matter) and he's always ready to offer him his "pacifi-ung"(pacifier). (Ayden doesn't quite have the "er" sound down yet, so it's substituted with the sound -ung.) Anyway, here's a typical picture of their interactions together. Sorry it's kind of dark. Not sure if I forgot to turn on lights or what:)

Food, Fun, and Fellowship

About two weeks ago, Josh's folks visited for a few days, and they had a terrific time playing with Ayden and meeting Kieran. We had a great time visitng Cleveland's West Side Market, one of the country's oldest indoor markets. If you ever want to get unusual meats, bakery, cheese, etc, this is the place to go!! The last night of their visit we had my folks over also. We enjoyed a pizza dinner that culminated in a luscious dessert centering around a chocolate fountain my folks gave Josh and me for our anniversary. We dipped graham crackers, pretzels, pringles, bananas, chocolate chip cookies, and marshmallows. It was a terrific treat!


Grammy Foote and Ayden reading


Grandpa Foote and Ayden

Our small group gets together twice a month, and at this particular meeting we enjoyed the leftovers from the chocolate fountain party we had with our families. The group enjoyed it tremendously, especially the kids:)



Ayden taking a break from the fountain.

Kieran is changing all the time and growing quickly. He's lengthening his awake periods, which is really fun. Last night, my mom was over for the evening, and Kieran was wide awake for about an hour! It was great to be able to see his eyes that whole time and, he even smiled and cooed a few times. To top it all off, he slept for three hours at a time last night instead of the two he had been doing! Three hours of straight sleep felt great!


Kieran and Grandma Trickel

Ayden loves his little brother and makes sure he has his pacifier whenever he might need it. He's very generous with his kisses and likes to join Kieran on the boppy whenever he can.

Life with four

Happy New Year! We've been settling into our new life now with two kids. Kieran is a good sleeper, so we get up about every three to four hours. Not bad. Ayden continues to love his little brother and often volunteers to help get him out of his bed if he's crying. I coninue to enjoy watching the two of them together, and it is truly very precious to see Ayden love his brother.

Here are some pictures of our latest "life moments."


Josh, Ayden and Kieran watching Veggie Tales.


Me and Kieran


Ayden holding Kieran.

A few months ago, we had a tree cut down in our yard. Ayden watched with great interest nearly the whole time, and since then, has spent much time pretending to cut things down with pretend saws or axes. Tpically, since he hasn't had a play saw or ax, he would use the remote controller to one of his cars. Today at Target, though, I spotted a Bob the Builder accessory set with a saw and few other tool items. Ayden has been in heaven the rest of today, cutting down some pieces of styrofoam. We have shreds throughout the house, but we also have a very happy two-year-old construction worker. Hope you enjoy the video--when Ayden talks about getting dirty, he's referring to the pieces of styrofoam he's getting on himself.

Kieran Isaac Foote

Friday, December 28th, we welcomed Kieran Isaac Foote into our family! He was born at 1:26 in the afternoon, weighed 7lbs, 9 oz and was 20 inches long. Everything went perfectly, and he's a beautiful baby boy!! For more pictures, visit our Foote photos page.




We came home from the hospital this afternoon, and so far have made a trip to the library and groccery store. I think it took us about an hour to get out of the house, but we made it and it felt good to get out. Ayden loves his new little brother. He spent the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Trickel and Aunt Carrie. He was always so excited to come to the hospital and see "Baby Kieran." He loves holding him and smothering him with kisses. It is truly a joy to watch the two of them together.


The new family of four!

Home for Christmas

This past weekend Josh successfully organized his first Christmas extravaganza. It was terrific, and I was so proud of him. The event was called Home for Christmas, and some of its features were a Southern Gospel choir, guitar/sax duet, children's choir, men's quartet, and traditional choir. The gala was followed by a very nice coffee house. Ironically, the evening opened with Josh singing a rendition of "Let It Snow" when we were hours away from our first blustery storm. The concert closed with a song Josh wrote specifically for the evening. It was wonderful, and I'm working on getting video of it posted. Josh did terrific work!

Josh and Dave playing their duet.

Southern Gospel ensemble

In other news, we've been blessed by a wonderful small group at our church. One of the women in the group threw me a diaper shower a few weeks ago, and we're set for diapers for quite a while! Any day now we should have a baby. Sooner, would be terrific. Personally, I think this was an ideal week (actually, today is ideal!) to have him since there would be some distance between his birthday and Christmas, but we'll see what he thinks. We're very excited. I'm still feeling okay and am having some contractions in the evening, but never anything productive enough for a baby:)

Me with Sue and Marla (the shower hostess), two women in our small group.

Family pic by our decorated tree.

Gymbo Class

Fridays are a highlight in our house as they bring the much-anticipated "Gymbo class." A perk from my job at Gymboree is a seventy-percent discount at Gymboree's Play and Music Classes. So, Ayden goes to Gymbo class once a week where he gets to play on toddler-sized gym equipment. Each class is centered around a theme that encourages the kids to utilize their imagination. Last week we were at the zoo, and the kids were lions in their cage, monkeys climbing around, and zoo keepers feeding alligators fish. Ayden loves it!!

Enjoying the mini-trampoline.

Playing basketball is a favorite activity each week.

There are bridges and various things to climb/jump/and slide down.

Probably one of Ayden's favorite parts is getting his Gymbo stamps at the end of class. When class is over, everyone leaves the gym area, sanitizes their hands, and gets the much-coveted gymbo stamp. (The stamp is one of Gymbo the clown. This one is upside-down.) The kids take these stamps very seriously. Usually, they get one on each hand and then pull up their shirts to get on one on their tummy. Where the tummy stamp started, I don't know, but just try not giving it to them!!