A blogging dilemma

Well, I obviously wasn't thinking past the present moment when I created this blog. You see, I named it "Tyler's Times" which pretty much limits its content. Now that wouldn't really be a problem (since so much of our life happily revolves around him right now) except for the exciting fact that we'll have a new family member joining us in early December. So, will there be another Schmidt blog? Hard to say right now. For the meantime, Ty will have to share...

Here's the early picture of our new friend (taken a couple of weeks ago during the ultrasound):


PS: Place your vote on whether Baby Schmidt #2 is a girl or a boy at the top right corner of this blog :).

A week with a holiday and a trip to the Potty Train!

It's been an eventful week for Ty! It started out with a neighbor's party and the fireworks on the 4th of July and ended with a much-deserved trip to the Potty Train (named by Ty--see the last post). Ty's had about 10 days (and 4 nights) completely free of diapers and he's doing really well. I'm sure we'll still have accidents, but it's nice that we'll at least have a 5 month break from diapers before we start all over again :).

Ty wasn't quite as thrilled with the fireworks as he was last year...in fact, he was pretty terrified when we were outside, but he enjoyed them when we went inside and watched them from his window. And we weren't sure if he was going to go through with the ride on the Potty Train once we found out that neither Mommy or Daddy were allowed to ride with him, but he was a brave kid and even though he didn't look like he was really enjoying it, he talked (and sang) about the 3 minute ride for a good while afterwards. To see some photos and videos from this week, click here.

All aboard the potty train

We've been working on potty training with Ty for quite a while (he went for the first time on the potty about 16 months ago). We've tried not to push it too much, but always give him the opportunity and encourage it as much at possible.

One day when we were at the mall last March, he saw a little train ride that you could pay like $2 to ride. I didn't let him ride it that day, but I told that when he was 'potty trained" and wore underwear all the time, we would come back and he could ride it.

Well, we've been having lots of success during the past couple of weeks which makes me very happy in itself, but my smile gets even wider when Tyler turns to me after he's had an accident-free day at school and says, with very wide eyes, "I'm getting closer and closer to the Potty Train!" Seems they're going to have to put a new sign on that attaction at the mall.

Fun family visits

This past month, we've been lucky enough to get two visits from family. First, my sister Cathy and niece Elise (who was celebrating her 18th birthday!) came to spend a long weekend with us (their weekend got a little longer due to some cancelled flights, but they were good sports). Then, my mom, doing really well after her surgery, flew out for a few days. We had a great time during both visits and Ty loved getting to see his aunt, cousin, and Nana.