where did you find that?

i'm convinced that toddlers are like chipmunks and squirrels. case in point: phantom pacifiers. we have a ton of pacifiers. one day we'll have 7 or 8, and the next day we can only find two. where do they go? mostly he drops them in the middle of the night, and while looking for them, it falls between the slats in the crib and bounces under it against the wall. and when we pull the crib out and find the pile of 3 or 4 that we've been missing, it still doesn't account for the 3 or 4 more that are still missing! where on earth do they go? recently, i figured it out!

k generally only uses them for sleep times, but will on occasion steal them from bed and walk around the house with them. when he has it out of the bed, we take it and usually put it somewhere he either can't find or can't reach. problem solved. so why then does he come out of random corners of the house with another one in his mouth? because he hides them and saves it for the right occasion. the other day he pulled one out from under the corner of the bed in our guest bedroom...that we had JUST cleaned for company last week. when did he find the time to put one there? and why today did i find one stuck behind a book on my bookcase? he hides them! and then when he feels like having one and he can't get one because we've taken them all and put them where he can't get them...he goes to his hiding place and get's his fix, like a squirrel with his winter stash!

potty time

i need to understand the logistics of making a toddler potty. now i understand that boys are supposed to stand when they pee, but let's face it...my two year old does not have the aim and control required to perfectly hit that 4 inch bowl. so he sits, like many boys first training/trying. here's what i don't understand. the box said it had a sort of splatter guard. the guard is actually a half inch bump in the front of the potty cup...it's kind of like a wall. did they really expect that to work? granted, overshooting doesn't happen often, but that's because i generally watch very closely to make sure i don't get hit, and if he starts to pee, i point it down. this morning, however, he woke up a bit earlier than normal, after he was up a bit later than normal. i was tired, and didn't pay attention as closely as i usually do. and boy did that splatter shield fail me! and then to make matters worse, k thought it was REALLY funny. as he peed on me (because eventhough i realize what's happening here, my reflexes were a little slow so the floor and i got a bit wet...but i did make him finish in the cup!) he said, "ha ha mommy! funny!" anybody want to potty train my kid? he's cute and fairly obedient most days...you can keep him till he's fully trained and then i'll take him back. i don't think i'm cut out for this time in his life. and to all you sitting there and laughing your heads off...oh just you wait till you have boys! you'll get peed on for a minimum of 3 months, and it won't be funny then! ok, yeah it will...

american idol season 22?

i'm just writing to prepare everyone for american idol season 22, where my child will no doubt win the hearts of millions! such feeling...such passion when he sings! he closes his eyes and just pours his heart out in song. and the dance moves! oh my!

in all reality though, he's so cute when he tries to sing along with the radio or ipod. he yells, and then drops into a softer voice. then he closes his eyes and screams while stomping around the room...that's dancing. not sure what i was like when i was that little, but if he is anything like mommy, he'll blossom into a powerhouse! LOL!

it's amazing...

that when you take pressures off a child, his life and your become easier! yesterday was a no tears day. i moved k's potty back into his bedroom, and he had no problem sitting on it! and this morning already, he went potty twice...on the potty! he says "oops!" while he does it though, so that's kind of funny. but already he's doing better OFF the program than he was ON it.

learning about everyday things is the same too. he learns so much, and it's not even close to forced. kids these days are forced into so much...piano and dance before they can walk, 3 different languages before age 8, and the pressures of sports, not to mention educational pressures. so many parents are focused on getting their child ahead and ready for school that they aren't allowed to be children! there are actually workbooks for parents to teach their kids skills that used to be taught in school! now i'm not talking about reinforcement packets for the 3rd grader that is behind in math and needs some extra support...i'm talking about alphabet worksheets, math, counting, matching, etc. for 2-3 year olds. this is where i'm torn. as a teacher, i should be happy that kids are learning at such a young age. but at the same time, i don't think that sitting down with paper and a pencil at the age of 2 is an appropriate way to learn.

a couple weeks ago, k ran up to me with a letter magnet in his hand. "mommy! B!!" i was fully prepared to tell him the correct letter, when i saw that it was indeed a B! it's probably 2 weeks later, and that's still the only letter he knows for sure, but i'm ok with that! i'm not going to sit him down with some worksheets when he can be out in the world learning about it! he loves his books, and loves to be read to. we have a look and find book, which is his favorite! there are lots of animals, and he loves making the animal sounds. yesterday he learned that birdies say "tweet!" he practices his sounds all the way to the zoo, and then roars at the lions! at this age, that's how i feel kids should learn! today in the book, he saw a heart next to a lion. "was dis?" he asked. i told him it's a heart, and that he has a heart too! i showed him where his heart is, then asked him where it was. he poked his belly a couple times saying "is here." then he giggled because i think it tickled.

i am amazed every day trying to see the world through his eyes...

3 day potty training: day 2

yesterday was a very trying day...ok, it just plain sucked. k cried all day every time we ran to the bathroom. no wonder he slept so soundly all night! i do have to say that i was surprised he got up completely dry. with as much as he peed last night, i thought maybe he'd just never be done! looking back though, with as much as he peed last night, he clearly had no liquid left in him! so he got up dry and we went to the potty...nothing, because again, he had no liquid left in his body. or so i thought. as soon as i put the waffles in the toaster i noticed a tiny drop of wet on the front of his underpants (which i've been told my my husband this morning, "ummm...no big boy calls them underpants hon."), so we went to the potty, which he did NOT want to do. we sat there a couple minutes and there was nothing. which leads me to believe that his insides are much like his mother's, and he just sneezed and lost control of his bladder momentarily! TMI i know, but it's a fact of life! anyway, we get back to the waffles, and i hear, "oh oh oh!" and by the time i turn around there is a puddle on the floor. i take him to the bathroom kicking and screaming. i put him in the shower to clean off his legs, we put on a new pair, i cleaned the floor, and we ate our waffles. then while daddy was getting dressed he said, "i think he needs to go!" so i ran, scooped him up and got him into the bathroom, crying his eyes out! he sat, nothing. he stood up and protested putting on his underwear (the preferred term according to hubby) and scooted behind the toilet, and proceeded to pee on the floor.

it is at this time that i decide this is crazy. many people have had overwhelming success with this program...i just don't think it's for us. when i was semi-training him myself, sure there were accidents, but he didn't cry every time he had to be on the potty, and he didn't protest getting clean stuff put on. my house didn't smell like pee (and again as i said yesterday, maybe it didn't and i just imagined it because i knew he had peed on almost every surface in my house), my kid was happy, and he actually enjoyed being on his potty.

so i wiped his legs again, and told daddy to get me a pull up. that's right...i didn't throw them all away. why not? because if this didn't work (though i did have very high hopes that it would) i needed a back up plan. "but why do you need back up if you think it's going to work," you may ask. because i'm a big "what if?" person. i'm the person who will pack 8 days worth of clothes for a 3 day camping trip just in case something happens. what if it rains? what if the wind blows my shirt off the clothes line? what if it's super cold at night? i have to be prepared. i was not prepared for this to fail as miserably as i feel it has, so i in turn feel like a failure. but i did what i felt was best for our family. and if k is in diapers for the next few months, i'm fine with that as long as i have my happy boy back again!

3 day potty training: day 1

since i now have the time to dedicate to potty training before i go back to teaching next month, i thought we'd try the 3 day potty training method. my son will be 2 next week, which apparently is the perfect time to try this method! this, and the following two posts will be my honest and full account of what's going on during these very trying days.

day 1

k woke up at about 8. for the past couple days we have been talking about big boy underpants, and how to keep them dry. he has been throwing his own diapers away because they're "stinky" or "peeeew." and he's so cute when he says that! so this morning we threw away the diapers that were left, and the pull-ups. this meant there was no turning back! we put on a fancy pair of buzz lightyear underpants, and so began our potty training journey!

after breakfast he started to pee in the kitchen...of course right after i asked if he had to go and he said no. i told him to let me know when he had to potty. he said ok...and then peed. i scooped him up and ran to the bathroom with him. now to understand what happened next, you have to also understand the layout of my bathroom. it is quite narrow. the door opens to the left, and just out of reach of the door on the right is the sink, and on the door is not a regular knob...it is a handle. i am not a thin girl, so to get to the toilet, which of course is all the way in back of the bathroom, many times i have to go in sideways because the area is so narrow until you get past the door and in front of the sink. in my rush to get the poor kid to the potty, i neglected to do this. as i ran in holding him in front of me, my belt loop got caught on the door handle pulling me backward (with a peeing child in my hands, mind you), and causing me to back up and free my pants from the door before making it to the potty. needless to say, we didn't make it. we cleaned up and put on a new pair of underpants. lightning mcqueen this time.

the remainder of the morning was fairly uneventful. a couple accidents here and there, but a few times, we did actually make it to the potty to finish! YAY! many times we did not, but that's ok! we're both just learning. k laid down for his nap after lunch and woke up dry. WOO HOO! after nap is when things got hairy. by then it was about 3:00. up until then, we had gone through 5 pairs of underpants. from 4-4:30, we went through the remaining 5 pairs i had prewashed. why? because he would start to pee, we'd get to the potty, he'd finish, and we'd put on a clean pair...only to have him walk out of the bathroom and pee all over because apparently he wasn't finished. so we'd go back to the bathroom, finish...again, WAIT a couple minutes to make sure, change the underpants, he'd walk out and pee...you get the picture? 5 times! at this point, i give up! his legs smell like pee because there are only so many times you can wipe it before the smell just gets stuck. and maybe they didn't stink...perhaps i imagined it. at any rate, i decided it was bath time. we waited until daddy got home so he could run into the basement to get a pair of underpants out of an unwashed package. i managed to throw in the wash the pairs he had wet, in addition to the remaining unwashed pairs, since this was clearly not going to go as smoothly as i had thought. then from dinner around 6, until bedtime at 8, we went through another 6 pairs...not including the one he's sleeping in.

lost to the 3 day potty training method day 1...17 pairs of underwear, my sanity, his patience, and many tears, both mine and his. at this point, potty training=1, mom=0.

the saving grace is that now when he starts to pee, he says "uh-oh" and runs to the bathroom...at least that's what he did before daddy got home. when daddy is home, he cannot be away from him for a minute! we shall see what tomorrow brings! this was described once as 3 days of hell with a great turnout. i hope so! i don't think it's just going to take 3 days at this rate, but again...we shall see what tomorrow brings.