Jake is doing very well with his potty training. So well, in fact, that Max wants to try to sleep in underwear and not Pull-ups. He has been in Pull-ups for almost two years and has yet to wake up with a dry Pull-up in the morning. But now is a good time, if he is ready. I would say he is NOT ready. I even bought him a "prize" for going a whole night without waking Mommy up to change his sheets. He has not had a dry night yet. We are all very tired. Even Max. He is insistant on trying to sleep in underwear, so night after night I let him go to bed in underwear and have the dry sheet and mattress pad waiting in the wings. Last night I was downstairs in the kitchen next to Max's monitor, yes, I still have a monitor in his room. It sits right on his dresser. I was over at the table and heard some rustling around by the monitor. Then I could tell he was right up next to it. My first thought was " he already peed in his bed and is changing his underwear and pajama bottoms. But instead he spoke right into the monitor:
"Daddy, Daddy-please don't let any headless snowmen into our house. Good night."
I was just laughing so hard. It was the first time he had ever done that- talking to us through the receiver . He understands the monitor system because he checks Jake's monitor at nap times.
It not so much about the "headless snowman" (from a Scooby-Doo episode), but the surprise and the giggles I got out of it. Even as I repeated the story to Mike it wasn't as funny to him.
So when people talk about how Moms love their kids more than anyone else, these are the small reasons. Yes, there is the maternal instinct and motherly bonding (and for some of us the whole grew-you-in-my-womb-thing), but also all the adorable things we get to see, that even as we repeat these stories they lose some charm. All moms have a million adorable stories about thier little angels. A million little reasons to love them more.
And here is another one of mine: Jake has his Batman backpack, we all know it's his pride and joy. Jake was talking to his Nonni (my mom) on the phone after his first week of school and Nonni asked if he likes school and if he likes his backpack. Jake responded "yes" to both. Since the adult does 99% of the talking with the two year old over the phone, she continued by asking him what was on his backpack. He said "Batman"! He was so excited he held the phone away and Nonni could barely hear him, so she asked again "Who is on your backpack?" Jake replied with an "I'll show you" and went over to the backpack and held the phone to it. He was smiling and saying "Batman Backpack!" Most of it was lost in the translation to my mother, but it was so cute for me to witness the pride in his big green eyes.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Potty Training 201
When I geared up to potty-train my first son, that's exactly what I did-I geared up. I bought a little potty for every room in the house (seriously-almost every room), books about the subject, a big treasure chest of toys and incentives, even lots of new elastic waistband shorts, new underwear, and enticing food and drink! I hired a babysitter to help with Jake, who was 9 months old at the time. I was going to do this right, we were going to work on this for three days without really leaving the house and without any distractions. We woke up the morning of the "big day" and threw our diapers in the garbage, put on some underwear and headed downstairs for breakfast. All the lovely potty training manuals say "feed your child lots of snacks and give them juice and other tasty beverages they love". Max had all his favorite drinks and snacks and we went to the potty every twenty minutes, we were working on muscle memory, you see. Things went fine, for three days we ate, drank, and peed. He had accidents, but they all do. Things turned out fine and I was pleased with my little "bootcamp".
Now it is Jake's turn. He is the exact same age as Max was, 2 years and 8 months. Jake has watched his big brother go potty and likes to go himself from time to time. Especially in public. At home Jake is content to saturate his diaper all day. But on a trip to the zoo, he wants to go potty every half hour. Jake has also been accompanying me in taking Max to school and dropping him off for a year and a half and VERY MUCH wants to go to school himself. This is the ammo I will use. No juice, no bootcamp, just a Batman backpack and a promise of school days ahead. He seriously loves his backpack and drags it around the family room while babbling about school. So we woke up one morning, threw away the diapers, put on some Batman underwear (the only new clothes he has) and said we were "potty training". No babysitter, no little potties all over the house, some toys in a mixing bowl as prizes, and the threat of no school. We're off! Literally, two hours later we pack up the whole family in the car to head to our Wisconsin lakehouse for the weekend. Potty training on the road, we called it. We got McDonalds to eat in the car, but no drinks. Not even for Max. Can you think of anything saltier and more thirst-producing that McDonald's fries? Poor kids. They eat their food and in an hour we are there. We all get out and talk about running in the house and taking turns on the potty. We get to the door and I look at my keyring in disbelief, NO LAKEHOUSE KEY!!! What?? Oh Jeez. Did I mention this was Memorial Day Weekend and we had been so smart to leave early and beat the traffic? Now I feel bad for Jake. He has been holding it for two hours, his first morning of potty training has consisted of two trips to the potty. He doesn't want to go in the bushes, either. We drove to the other side of the lake and took him to the nice facilities of a biker bar. He liked the blue water in the toilet, that was new. We couldn't rush back home to get the keys, we were waiting for our boat to be delivered from winter storage. The boat came and we all piled back in the car. Jake was getting sleepy and crabby and protested (loudly) the idea of returning to the biker bar blue water potty. We drove home with two sleeping boys in the minivan. But it was too late to return to the lakehouse now. The traffic was at a standstill heading north into Wisconsin. We had dinner at home and tried to encourage Jake to use the potty now. We even gave him juice and Sprite- but, too late. His idea of being "potty trained" is "holding it as long as you can". Even after two weeks he still like to wait two to three hours between potty trips. We will be heading to downtown Chicago for a Book Festival, there will be nothing but Port-O-Potties. He will probably want to use those every half-hour. Lucky me, I am working at the festival. it will be Mike who spends the day in and out of everyone's least favorite place in the Northern Hemisphere.
Now it is Jake's turn. He is the exact same age as Max was, 2 years and 8 months. Jake has watched his big brother go potty and likes to go himself from time to time. Especially in public. At home Jake is content to saturate his diaper all day. But on a trip to the zoo, he wants to go potty every half hour. Jake has also been accompanying me in taking Max to school and dropping him off for a year and a half and VERY MUCH wants to go to school himself. This is the ammo I will use. No juice, no bootcamp, just a Batman backpack and a promise of school days ahead. He seriously loves his backpack and drags it around the family room while babbling about school. So we woke up one morning, threw away the diapers, put on some Batman underwear (the only new clothes he has) and said we were "potty training". No babysitter, no little potties all over the house, some toys in a mixing bowl as prizes, and the threat of no school. We're off! Literally, two hours later we pack up the whole family in the car to head to our Wisconsin lakehouse for the weekend. Potty training on the road, we called it. We got McDonalds to eat in the car, but no drinks. Not even for Max. Can you think of anything saltier and more thirst-producing that McDonald's fries? Poor kids. They eat their food and in an hour we are there. We all get out and talk about running in the house and taking turns on the potty. We get to the door and I look at my keyring in disbelief, NO LAKEHOUSE KEY!!! What?? Oh Jeez. Did I mention this was Memorial Day Weekend and we had been so smart to leave early and beat the traffic? Now I feel bad for Jake. He has been holding it for two hours, his first morning of potty training has consisted of two trips to the potty. He doesn't want to go in the bushes, either. We drove to the other side of the lake and took him to the nice facilities of a biker bar. He liked the blue water in the toilet, that was new. We couldn't rush back home to get the keys, we were waiting for our boat to be delivered from winter storage. The boat came and we all piled back in the car. Jake was getting sleepy and crabby and protested (loudly) the idea of returning to the biker bar blue water potty. We drove home with two sleeping boys in the minivan. But it was too late to return to the lakehouse now. The traffic was at a standstill heading north into Wisconsin. We had dinner at home and tried to encourage Jake to use the potty now. We even gave him juice and Sprite- but, too late. His idea of being "potty trained" is "holding it as long as you can". Even after two weeks he still like to wait two to three hours between potty trips. We will be heading to downtown Chicago for a Book Festival, there will be nothing but Port-O-Potties. He will probably want to use those every half-hour. Lucky me, I am working at the festival. it will be Mike who spends the day in and out of everyone's least favorite place in the Northern Hemisphere.
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