I Love You - You're Welcome!

So Mr. L is trying to say "I love you." When we tell him, all lovingly, that we love him, he replies, with a smile on his face, "a wecome!" Yes, it sounds like you're welcome. However, I don't think he's actually saying you're welcome. See, my theory is he doesn't know what you're welcome is. He doesn't say it when we say thank you, although he's heard us say it. The whole thank you - you're welcome relationship has been established. He has the thank you part down - tay. But not the you're welcome part, at least, not in this scenario.
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In other L news, he's almost completely potty trained! YES, you read correctly. What started on Martin Luther King Jr weekend as a fluke continued, and after a couple weeks of accidents, L has been accident free for about two weeks! That includes nap time - he goes to nap without a diaper and he wakes up dry! We haven't tackled night-time training yet, but we're just so proud of him. He tells us now when he has to go, both pee or poop, and he even claps and exclaims "monster caki!" when he does poop. He's also been sans the pacifier for the last three nights. He was only using it to sleep at night (and even then, only to fall asleep because he'd spit it out throughout the night), and nap only when home - other than that, he didn't use a paci. Well, for the last few nights, when he asked for it, we'd tell him a)he was a big boy and didn't need it anymore and b) they were dirty so he couldn't have one. He didn't insist or complain so we left it at that. We had a bunch of tricks up our sleeves for getting rid of them but didn't even have to use them! Last night he didn't even ask for it!

Next up is the bottle. He only drinks two bottles, one in the morning and one at night. Now before anyone gets up in arms about the fact that my 30-month-old (HOLY CRAP HE'S 30 MONTHS ALREADY!) is still on a bottle, let me say a few things, not that I have to explain our decisions or parenting styles or whatever: 1) his doctor okayed the bottle use because he's in about the 25th percentile in weight. He's def not overweight and he wasn't drinking milk in any other way. 2) he drinks his milk after dinner, BEFORE bath-time and bed-time routine, so he brushes his teeth AFTER he drinks milk. 3) the amount of time he actually uses the bottle is limited (as was the paci) so that it doesn't interfere with his teeth much. Anyway, we're starting on trying to get him to like milk in something other than the bottle. We tried in a cup, but he won't drink it. So we got him some Horizons milk boxes and he actually drank some (after some serious coaxing). The plan is, get him used to other milk sources and start lowering the amount of milk he gets in the bottle until he's drinking milk in other forms.

But he's so big. He's such a big boy; he's definitely not a baby anymore. I look at his newborn pictures and wonder, my God, where has the time gone. And we're only talking about two-year's worth of time. It's not going to slow down from here. This summer I'm excited because we're going to try to do UM Music Time. They have a neat program that introduced music to all ages, including toddlers/preschoolers. L really likes music. Out of all activities, that's his favorite. I know it runs in my family, but it's so awesome to see him always dancing, singing (usually on key, too!), or playing an instruments (guitar, drums, maracas). Of course, they're not being played with properly yet, but it's a matter of time. If there's music, he's happy. I'm also hoping to get some swimming lessons in. I'm just really looking forward to summer. It's one of the things I love about my job as a teacher.

As for us, let's see. I'm getting over the flu. Yea, not fun. I don't remember ever feeling this way - it SUCKED. Ever single part of my body hurt - even my colon hurt! Monday I was tired, with my sciatica acting up and my knees hurting. I felt old. Tues morning I woke up with a sore throat, and by Tues night, I had a fever of 101.4 that wasn't going down with Tylenol alone (in fact, it kept going up). So after some Advil mixed in, the fever went away for a bit. Wed morning I was weak, in pain, and in the afternoon, when I went to go see the doctor, my fever was coming back as were all the pains. I don't know how I made it to the doctor and back without crashing, but I did, thank God. My mom brought me some chicken soup form La Carreta (it was delicious!) and she had take L to school and picked him up, too. J got me the Tamiflu and some goodies (like double stuffed Oreo cookies - YUM!), and I stayed resting. Yesterday I felt so much better; I had more energy, I was no longer in pain, but I was also being very consistent about taking alternating doses of Tylenol and Advil. Today, well, I don't feel as great as I did yesterday. I'm more congested, and I've sneezed and coughed a little more. I haven't taken any Advil or Tylenol, though. I was hoping to wait and see if I could do without them.... I don't know. We'll see.

I'm praying neither J nor L get this flu. J was sick last week, but not with a flu. He got a nasty virus that made its home in his larynx, so he was without a voice for a few days, and he had some congestion. Other than that, though, he said he didn't feel too bad. Thank God. L has been coughing a little bit but nothing out of this world. Hopefully, that's it and neither gets the fever or body pains.

Well, that's it for now. I'll hopefully be updating soon!