Our Big Boy and His Big Accomplishments!

It isn't a big secret or anything that Nicholas LOVES his paci.  We had been trying to figure out a good way to get rid of it and it seemed every time we got ahead with it, something happened and he just couldn't get rid of it.  Also, we had been struggling with getting him to want to go potty at home.  He would just rather keep using pull-ups until he is in college, I guess.

Within the past two weeks Nicholas has made HUGE progress into becoming a big boy!  He has a new assistant teacher at school and she has helped us a lot to make some progress in the paci department.  On Monday, February 11, he gave his teacher his paci after naptime and she "threw it away" because he was so big and didn't need it anymore. :-)  (I actually still have that particular paci in my purse)  Luckily for us, he had a pretty easy transition away from the paci and we told him if he could go without it from Monday evening to Friday night, he could go to the toy store on Saturday and get any Jake and The Neverland Pirates toy he wanted.  Well, he did great!  He only cried for about 3 minutes on Monday night and never looked back!  He had a little issue wanting it when riding in the car, but after about 2 days that was over too!

That Saturday we went to Toys R Us and he picked out whatever he wanted.  I had fully expected him to get the Adventure Island set, but nope, my child picked out Skull Island!  Haha!  I have a sneaky suspicion it was because Peter Pan is included in that set and that is the only way to get him.

Just in case no one believes what a pirate freak our little guy is, here he is with all of his Jake toys in his playroom when we got home!  Haha!  He is obsessed with his skull island and LOVES playing with it, as creepy as it may be! 

Fast forward a week and this past Monday we had a parent teacher conference with Nicholas' teacher at school.  She said he is doing great and ahead in several areas.  He is working on much harder puzzles than he should for his age and his vocabulary has gotten much better since the paci disappeared.  The only thing she really wanted him to work on was sharing (which she said he doesn't do badly at, but could do better) and potty training.  Monday night he went potty and last night he went TWICE!  This morning as soon as he woke up he told me he had to "pee pee in the potty!" and not only did he go, he had a dry diaper!!!!  I am one proud Mommy!

This afternoon our Melissa and Doug responsibility chart arrived that I ordered from Zulily about 3 weeks ago.  Nicholas loves doing small chores around the house to "earn" money for his Disney savings jar and this seemed like a good way to measure what he is doing.  He is already enjoying earning magnets to get some "honey" (aka money) on Friday!

I am so, so proud of our little man and all of his accomplishments lately!  As happy as I am that he is doing so well and being such a big boy, I am a little sad that he has grown up so much lately and isn't a baby at all anymore.  He is begging for some "pirate undies" so this weekend I am thinking we may give them a try, I am more than ready to say goodbye to pull-ups!  He not only looks old now, he is acting older.  :-)