Where'd my toddler go?

A pregnancy "milestone" I hadn't thought about before.

JJ runs up and grabs my knees, saying "Hold ya! Up up up!" this morning and when I look down to pick him up, I can't see him AT ALL. My belly is officially big enough it can obscure a toddler.

Oh my.

4D ultrasound pics of Miss Zoe

Here's our little cutie!

The funny things kids do

Ah, the joys of motherhood! I don't know why anyone would bother with a TV - toddlers are the best entertainment ever :) Here's a few of JJ's latest funny things:

• Before he nurses at night, he hauls a line up of toys into bed or the rocking chair and lets them "drink" milk first! Last night it was a purple bear, a fire engine, a taxi cab, and a spoon. After he's finished "sharing" he's ready to have some himself.
• Every time he pitches a fit for no reason other than not getting his way, he starts off wailing, but quickly moves to begging for a bobby pin. Yes, like a bobby pin for your hair. I have NO idea why. But if you give him one, it calms him down immediately and he's all lovey sweet and cuddly good boy again. It even works if he wakes up with a nightmare at night. Behold the magic bobby pin!

Potty training update

In the words of his teacher, JJ is "unique" in his approach to potty training. Apparently, since we've used elimination communication with him, he's got a completely different approach to the potty than most children they've dealt with.

For one, he totally gets it - that is, he knows that you eliminate in the toilet. It's not scary, novel, or at all interesting to him - it's just the way life his. OK, that's good, you say. Yeah...but...apparently a lot of conventional potty training techniques rely on the "Wow isn't this a cool new thing you're doing" approach. Not effective for someone who has "been there, done that." Similarly, a reward system (stickers, M&Ms, etc.) isn't particularly effective because he's like "Uh...why am I getting something for what I do all the time anyway?"

Two, because he's been part-time elimination communication, part time diapers, he looks at going in the potty as an "option". Meaning, well, if it's convenient, I'll go in the potty, but if it's not, well, pants are just as good. It's very interesting in some way because he is nearly 100% dry when we go out, whether it's the mall, or to eat, or in the car or whatever. But when he's at home or daycare - more like 50% dry.

So, it's slow going, but we're getting there. This week he's been VERY good - I'd say edging up to a 70% success rate. I'd love to take credit for that, but I think he's just getting tired of people changing his pants all the time. LOL! And honestly, it'll take as long as it takes - I don't want to push him and I don't really find it frustrating or anything.

Potty training!

Well, this was the big P weekend - the daycare announced that they felt JJ was "ready" for potty training and I sort of agreed. I say "sort of" because I have absolutely no idea. I mean, you can't ever know for sure, and while his communication skills are outstanding for a 1.5 year old, they are still rather challenging from an adult perspective. But, if not this weekend, then the next opportunity wouldn't be until November so...onwards and pottywards!

We opted for the "nekkid kid" approach on Saturday, letting him roam free with naught on but a shirt and a smile. I think the poor little guy learned more about how "not to climb on things while naked" than anything else as he kept getting his dangle caught on things (OUCH!). And, it was a total disaster. I spent the whole day watching him like a hawk and we had maybe a 60% success rate. In fact, we've had better days when he was wearing a diaper than we had on Saturday! I was really discouraged. We had to run an errand in the evening, so we put underwear on him, and he wet himself twice while we were out. I went to bed sure that we had started too early and very discouraged.

On Sunday, we decided to start again with the nekkid kid approach, except this time John was home and could help. The morning was more of the same disaster - accidents all over the place and no apparent interest in getting to the potty. He went down for a nap around noon and when he woke up, we took him straight to the potty and celebrated the success. Then, we decided to say "Well, since you were dry through your whole nap (he always is, so no biggie really) and went potty so well when you woke up, would you like some "special" underwear?" We got out the Cars underwear with Mater on it and he was thrilled (he loves that movie). We told him that in order to wear these it was really important to keep Mater dry. And what do you know? It totally worked. He was dry for the next 7 hours!!! He went potty when prompted and we even went out to a late lunch, to Target for more underwear, and to Brahms for ice cream - all with NO accidents.

At bedtime, we put him in a diaper (we're still co-sleeping, and while he can make it through the night dry, whenever he wakes up with nightmares or night terrors, he tends to pee before we can get him to a potty), and were very encouraged by the whole thing.

Unsurprisingly, he had night terrors last night. I say unsurprisingly because whenever he has a significant change/learning event, it tends to trigger them.

This morning, we brought him to school (dry! hooray!) and let them know how it went. At lunch we had to go home and get more pants because he had 4 accidents in the morning. I'm interested to see how he did in the afternoon - it's got to be a huge adjustment from being able to go whenever you want without interrupting your activities to having to stop and go to a special room and sit down every time you need to go. It would be so much easier if they would practice the elimination communication we started with him full time at daycare. Oh well. Hopefully he'll improve during the week and we'll keep reinforcing at home. And, if it turns out that it's just too soon, well, that's ok too, and we'll just go back and try again later. Although, I swear, I think *I* stressed out way more over the whole thing than JJ did. I kept being certain I was doing something wrong. I think he just thought it was interesting that he got to be nekkid all day! LOL!

The kind of mom I want to be

I want to be the kind of mom that laughs when she gets blasted with the squirt gun and has her suit thoroughly soaked just before she gets to the office not the one who screams.

I want to have pictures of my child with yogurt in his hair and a maniacal laugh on his face, knowing that he just dumped and entire bowl down his pants not pictures of him combed and perfect with red-rimmed eyes because someone has been yelling at him to just sit still for two seconds.

I want to be the kind of mom that says "WOW!" when he notices an acorn on the ground and shows it to me, not the one who grabs his hand and says "Hurry up! We're late!"

I want to recognize that children, clothing, floors, tables, and chairs are all washable and not spend my time worrying about whether I'll ever get the stains out.

I want to be the kind of mom that takes time to explain why certain things are allowed and others are not, not the one who says "Because I said so."

When my child comes crying to me, I want to be the mom who kisses him and asks "What's wrong? Are you ok?", not the one who says "What did you do this time?"

I want to always remember that nothing is more important than listening to my children - and that I cannot do that if I am always telling them what to do.

Night weaning: Progress report

So far so good! We've decided no nursing from 11pm-6am. The first two nights went great - I just made the boobs inaccessible and he went right back to sleep, no complaints. Last night however....well, the poor little guy came down with a bad head cold and at 3am there was NO taking no for an answer. So I caved. But that's normal for when the kid is sick, so I'm not too worried about it. We'll do better tonight.