Thomas @ Trader Joes

Just like to share a photo of Thomas and mommy's weekly routine....shopping for groceries at Trader Joes.

Here he has stopped for a small cup of soy milk that they serve next to their sample coffee of the day. Note the balloon attached as well as the frozen food packages already in the cart.

Inspired by hearing about the Pleasant Hill Trader Joes having miniature replicas of shopping carts in store for kids; Catherine started packing the play-toy grocery cart during their grocery runs to Trader Joes and it's a huge hit with Thomas! Safeway is too big and Thomas would probably get too tired pushing that thing from end-to-end....

He puts things that Catherine picks out and sometimes things that he wants. It brings smiles to some of the shoppers and the check-out cashiers. Sometimes other kids are intrigued and peer around the aisles to check Thomas and his fancy carts out...

I'm sure after a few more weeks, the novelty for Thomas will wear off...but in the meantime, gave me some photo ops!

Potty Training done at Last!

It's been a while since either Catherine or myself had posted any updates... I'm sure many of the regular audience has moved on elsewhere for entertainment.... :)

Thomas was taking advantage of us by not wanting to use the regular toilet for his nature business. We tried several methods (from books or talking with others). Mainly the "rewards" technique only works so far with certain types of behavior that we want out of Thomas...

So finally one weekend I got a bit fed up when for the 3rd time that day he pee'd into the diaper knowing that I had wanted him to tell me that he's about to go pee so we can go sit on the toilet with his kiddie seat.

Fuming a bit inside I thought...fine, rewards don't work cause he could careless about silly stickers and lollipops; or even the "bribe" of icecream didn't phaze him.

So I set out to take out his most precious toy in the house: his drumset.

Everytime he pees in his diaper without telling us, one piece of the drumset gets moved out to the garage.

Thus began the 'dare'. There's several pieces to the drumset: he likes to count out the 5 main pieces, then the hi-hat (6), the ride cymbal (7), and the drum seat.

I got to the 3rd piece (hi-hat, snare, and the floor tom) and he started to inform loudly through out the house that he needs to go pee. And for every time that he does that a piece comes back in...

So that took care of #1. We decided that was enough for the week and then the next week, we set out to get #2 out of the way and using the same technique....but he was too smart to let me take any pieces out...I didn't have to even take the hi-hat and he was pooping into his little toilet set....

Well, there's not too much drama after that I suppose...I feared it'd take longer but we believe that once the kid is ready and is "playing you" by taking advantage of you....(hahaha those little sneaky todders)...it's time to cut the game short and cut to the chase....no more begging, promising rewards, etc, etc, etc. They're smart little ones....they know better. And it's not like everything we do is a negative re-enforcement....what do you all think?

Have a good evening!