My boy Holton

We moved into our house June 10th and Holton immediately grew up from that day forward.  I rocked him for the very last time in his nursery the last night we were in our old house knowing that he would be in a big boy bed in the new house.  We took our time singing and going through our nightly routine together.

last night in his nursery

Holton has surprised me this summer.  He has made the jump to a big boy seem effortless.  He transitioned to his big boy bed perfectly.  He has done great and we seem to have finally gotten into a good night time routine with Hudson and Holton (the 2 of them will share a room until Hayes is old enough to move in with Holton---then Hud will get his own room again----Hudson has been a great sport about rooming with a 2 year old).  Each evening we put Holton to bed first and Hudson will spend about 30 minutes or so reading while Holton falls asleep, then Hud goes to bed and isn't annoyed by a certain 2 year old.  We learned very fast that Hudson likes it quiet with no chatter & goofing off when he's ready for bed.  Let's just say, Holton knows how to push Hudson's buttons.  :)

One thing I love about our house is our little reading area upstairs with our rocker.  I still rock Holton there before bed when he asks me to.  I can't tell him no...but he really loves having us lay beside him in his big boy bed and sing, pray, and talk with him.  Both are such sweet times, but I do still love to rock him.

 Our biggest summer news with Holton is that Holton is POTTY TRAINED!  Can I get an AMEN??!!??  2 1/2 was the magical age with both Hudson and Harper, so I knew that this summer I would potty train Holton (he turned 2 1/2 in July).  I'm really embarrassed to say it, but there was no potty training involved.  All we did is put him in a pair of underwear and he got it.  Easy, breezy, piece of cake.  I give it fully to his being the little brother and being around 2 big siblings.  Has to be...He has been very ready for some time now, but really I did not feel like potty training nor did I feel like I had time to do it.  Before we were moving he would TELL me that he needed to go poop in the potty and there was so much going on that I'd say, "please just go in your diaper."  So bad, I know.  I am so thankful that he got it so easily because potty training is one of my least favorite parts of parenting.  It really is nice only having one in diapers now.  Really feels so much cleaner and simpler around here, and not to mention that a box of diapers seems to last forever.

I don't know what it is about a little boy in his big boy undies, but it really is the cutest thing.

  Now we have had our fair share of hiccups along the way with Mr. Potty Trained Holton.  I don't know if this is just a boy thing---or if boys are just born like this or what, but if he is outside playing he will drop his pants and just go whenever he feels the urge.  SOMETIMES we will be inside, and I'll hear our little alarm ding when the backdoor has been opened and he will go outside to potty rather than walk to our bathroom here and go.  At first it was funny---now I feel like, "ok, I've got to do something about this."  No shame this boy.  Maybe he has been playing puppies too much with Harper.  IDK!

For Holton's celebration of being potty trained we had party just for him.  We did this with the bigger 2, so it just seemed natural to keep it up for our little boys as well.  We took Holton to Build a Bear and let him pick out whatever he wanted.  This was his first time to do this so he was quite overwhelmed.  After we went to eat pizza with our pizza loving boy and had cupcakes when we got home.  He loved it so much and especially loved all the attention.

 

One hilarious event of our evening happened while we were eating pizza.  Harper, our animal loving girl, was just dying to hold the new longhorn Holton picked out.  While Harper was holding him, Matt asked her if that was her longhorn what would she name him?  (we always love asking Harper about the names of her animals because she comes up with the cutest, most unusual names).  So without missing a beat she says, "I would name the longhorn Horny (obviously because the long horns)................or Stu."  Of course Matt and I just fall over laughing because we were caught off guard.  The kids die laughing over the name Stu because they think that it is such a funny name.  So now Matt and I call the longhorn HS everyone else calls him Tex.

Dinner time---he spends more time trying to entertain his crowd rather than eat.

Daddy made the kids pretend guitars out of cardboard.  Holton loves playing UNK's guitar.

He's the first to check on Hayes in the mornings or after his nap.

He loves his choo choos.

Please tell me what is not to love about that sweet face???

I feel like the world is a better place with a 2 year old in it.  Life with Holton is tough business, but he is the cutest little guy I know.  He is so funny, so goofy, SO lovable.  I can't image our family without him in it.  Pure love and sunshine from Mr. Holty boy.  While he is very much still our baby boy, we love the big boy he is becoming.  Watching him grow is such a blessing---and so much fun too.