- The other day Tyler was taking a stick into the bathroom.  When I asked him what he was doing, sure enough, he was giving the stick a bath.  He soaped it, rinsed it, and even dried it off.

 - Chris told me that Tyler was nursing his fish and dolphin in the bath the other day.

 - Tyler was running up to Chris and I this evening as we were hugging, so we did joke screams “Ah!!!” and then scooped him up and did a little family hug. Tyler enjoyed this so much that he asked to be put down, ran to his previous starting point and said “Daddy snuggle Mommy again.” to he could reset and restart his fun!

 - I stripped Tyler down yesterday to let him play in the rain.  He had come back inside for a bit, but then said, “need to pee in the rain”.  He then ripped off his diaper, ran outside, pee’d on the grass and then came back in.  This one had me scratching my head.  If he could have the capability to know he needed to pee and could hold it to take off his diaper – couldn’t he be potty trained then?  Who knows - it cracked me up though.

 - Imitation – sometimes I want Tyler out of the way so I can do things, but I realize more than ever that he so badly wants to imitate whatever Chris and I are doing.  He wants to stir, wash dishes, cut vegetables.  And he likes to supervise me – tell me go slow while driving down the hill, give me fruit that I can cut, tell me to get up and lead me somewhere.

Pet Peeves

 - picking his nose and then putting his finger in his mouth

 - throwing toys and food

 - dumping

 - running out of the bathroom after he makes a poo and then playing chase all over the house so I have to catch him to wipe his butt

 - long poo-poo’s.  This kid sits on the potty for 20 minutes to complete his poo.  And when he says, “I’m still working on it”, he means it. It didn’t really occur to me how long it took until we were in Lowe’s one afternoon with Chris and he announced he had to go poo-poo. My god – he and Chris were in there for 25 mintues.  Chris was annoyed that I kept checking up on them, but I was sure there was a problem.  Nope – just Tyler doing exactly what he said he had to do.

This happened to me at Bull Creek where he sat on the potty for 15 minutes.  Of course, he is now enamored with using other people’s potties, so I have to be judicious when he makes a request.  He wanted to sit on the potty at Bull Creek again – but this time I knew it was just the fun of sitting on the potty.  Did you hear that, people?  Let’s go have fun sitting on other people’s potties…ug, no comment.

Limp legs.  Tyler is in the “di it myself” phase.  So when I want him to hold my hand or go somewhere and he refuses – he limp legs on me.  I was so not amused when he did this in the middle of a crosswalk at 45th and Burnet.  I pretty much had to drag him the rest of the way.  While I appreciate his independence, there are times where mama still needs to help keep him safe.  Just like today at Bull Creek, he had to fall and feel the water carry him a little bit before he understood why I wanted him to be careful.

Wow, so Tyler is back in cloth dipaers and things are going great!!  Seriously, I stop all attempts to do any potty training, so he picks up where I left off.  This morning on the way to drop of his Daddy, he tells us that he needs to go potty. We tell him as soon as we get home, we will get him on one.  Well, he poo’d some in his diaper but finished up in the potty.

This afternoon I was getting Quinn down for her nap.  Well, she wasn’t ready so we walked out of the bedroom to find Tyler.  He had to go poo-poo, so he ripped off his diaper and was sitting on his potty (he only had a diaper on in the house).

Daytime poos are the first thing they supposedly “get”.  It is so cool!  I am keeping him in dipaers and we will just see where this goes.  We are doing the very slow approach to potty training, but it works for me.  I want him to initiate – that is really important to me.  While I know even down the road, I will have to suggest he try or ask if he needs to go – I do not want to have to be his bladder for him.  That didn’t work for Tyler and I and with two kids, I already feel I have so much to think about.  Right now if he wears diapers, but most of his poops are in the potty – well, that is cool with me.

Yup – for a second time, we are dropping out of the potty game.  It seems crazy and I tell you it is so hard.  One minute I think he is totally getting it and the next it is like he has no idea.  The clicher for me was all the accidents and then the other day he went upstairs to play and I wanted to stay down and fold some laundry.  This day he was in a diaper and it was so nice not to worry if he was having an accident and I wasn’t there.   I was tired of having to do all the reminding and feeling like I screwed up if he had an accident.  I didn’t like having to coerce him so much.

What Now?

Pull-ups.  I would love to find a cloth solution though.  These allow us to still try and use this potty which I will still encourage, but if he has an accident, then it isn’t a big deal.  I use to think these were a bad idea, but no, now that I am in the thick of PT – I think they are brilliant.

That is the latest news on the PT front.

Who knows what is up with this child.  He is all at once frustrating and amazingly cute.  He pushes you away and pulls you in.  It is such a tumultuous relationship. 

There once was a dog named Spotty and he had to go to the potty..

One of the many ways I try to encourage my child to use the potty.  We are pushing through with this round if potty training, but if I had it to do over, I would just wait.  It isn’t worth all of the frustration.  Mainly, Tyler refusing to go to the potty (stiffening his body when I try to sit him down) and then having an accident sometimes minutes later.  I don’t like how it affects the dynamic of our relationship where I feel I am using way more coersion that I am comfortable with and the lack of trust because I don’t think he is in a place where he really always knows if he has to or can go.   A friend of mine said her son went through this stage, but it passed quickly.  I don’t know.  Did I mention he will say “I don’t like go potty”?

I do think it would be easier in many months where he could just tell me when he has to go.  I don’t mind having to help with pants or wiping.  What bothers me is that I have to do the thinking.   I have to watch the clock and guess and do all the potty initiating.  He does some, don’t get me wrong, but it just isn’t there yet.  Again, I am going to stick with it though.  We have gone to far into the fray to pull back now.  I don’t want to confuse Tyler.

Our newest trick (thanks, Grandma) is to set a timer on the microwave.  When the timer beeps Tyler will say, “timer went off!  Microwave says time to go potty!”.  Yes, this actually works, for now.  I find that when the novelty of some of these things wears off, we are back to square one.  Again, I have to wonder if I had waited like 6 months, if there would be less song and dance and more “Mom, I have to go potty now”?   At any rate, we are where we are and I am liking not having to wash poopy diapers.

Teeth

He told Grandma that his teeth hurt yesterday.  I don’t know if it was the last two canines that are cutting through or if those molars are starting to shift.  Sadly, the 2nd year molars and the hardest teeth to see.  I will have to get him in a tickle fit upside down – that is pretty much what I need to do to get his mouth open that wide! 

He had been sleeping pretty poorly – up 3 or 4 times a night.  We gave him ibuprofen last night and he slept through the night.  We will see.

This kid is so funny

I have missed so many funny moments already.  He says funny things – “robot from robe”, “look at that mommy!  look at that”, “mommy, where are youuuuuu”, “daddy, dinner’s ready”.  Tonight Tyler was trying to tell Daddy that “Shephard’s Pie for dinner”.  Chris said “stir fry for dinner” (that is what we had last night)?  Tyler said, “no Daddy, stir fry all gone.”

There are so many moments and I need to get back to writing them all down.  He is obsesses with tickets right now (as in tickets to ride the train).  I went and made him some the other day and he carries them around, hands them out, takes them.  It is so funny!

He is so frustrating

I try to respect my child, but there are days.  Days I think the park would be fun and he wants to stay home?!?!  No really, he wants to stay home.  He doesn’t want to get dressed.  Some days I roll with it, so that the days where there aren’t options, I feel okay about saying, “I hear you, but today, we need to go here and get moving”.   It is a dance – some days we make a great team and other days we are stepping all over each other’s feet.

{sigh}  Note to self:  do not plan your day around your baby’s schedule.  I have spent most of the morning thinking Quinn was ready for a nap, so we shouldn’t go anywhere just yet.  Of course, her naps can range from 9:15am to 11am, so I should know better.  She went to bed late last night and was up at 5:30am, so I just assumed.

Well, I kept going to rock her to sleep and Tyler keeps having pee accidents while I was gone.  He just peed on the couch twice watching a Thomas video – at least she went to sleep this time so it was worth it.   And thankfully, Tyler told me he had to go to the potty when he poo’d – another loose-like stool.  None of these have been straight up diarrhea where they are watery, just very loose.  Is that TMI?  Probably, but my the way I spend my days hinge on what comes out of his butt.  Yes, folks – it has come to this – my life is at the mercy of Tyler’s butt.

Anway, Tyler was up early at 6am – and OMG – it so makes a difference when he gets up that early.  He wants immediate attention and is probably a little tired.  Anyway, we have all been cranky this morning and I am so tired.  Just like last night, our dance is just off.  TGIF though.

So ya know what?  Whatever morning we are not doing our family hike this weekend, I am going to go to a coffee shop for a few hours and read.  I have this book “Red Tent” that all my friends are raving about.  Susan lent a copy to me, so I want to dig in.  Would be a nice get away for a little while.  I figure I will leave after Quinn has had a good meal – she should be good for a few hours after that and I will stay close so Chris can always call me back home if need be.

Well, I have decided to spend today in survival mode – just trying to make it through to 6pm.  Even if it means a lot of TV – that would be fine.  I realize that rather than feel bad about it – I would rather have the TV on then yelling at my kids because I am pushing myself to do things that I clearly don’t have the energy to do.   I hate being stuck inside, but it is what it is,  I figure since Quinn is asleep, I will pump Tyler full of liquids and do some more potty training.  Whatever it takes.  Post-nap – if Tyler takes one, we will head outside for a walk and head to the playground which will put all of us in a good mood.

Nap Watch

Tyler hasn’t napped all week.  I don’t know why, per se.  I am actually okay with it.  My philospohy is that I will continue to provide opportunities for his to sleep and if his body wants it, it will nap.   Although, I drove him Wednesday and he fell asleep and then woke up when I pulled into the driveway.  Yesterday, he fell asleep on the napwalk, but then woke up when I started to get him out – which he NEVER does.  This child tranfers incredibly well.  I don’t know.  He seems pretty pooped today, so I kind of hope he does nap – I think he could really use the rest.

Did you fall off your chair? I am sure my friends who read the “what the hell am I supposed to do” email last Friday did. I don’t know – maybe we just had a good day. We only had two accidents, but I think he peed in the potty 15 times or so. I just put him on it every 30 minutes, whenever he had a look about it, or whenever my gut thought I should. We even went out to a story time at a new Waldorf store and hung out there for a spell. We peed in the car (potty hangs out in the back) before we went and then twice at the store.

It was a good potty day. Now I KNOW the park will be more challenging as well as things like hikes. We have park engagements Thursday and Friday, so we will see how that goes. Anyway, it is working out and I feel we are on our way!!

Well, I was about to throw in the towel Friday after finding a pee puddles a few times and he didn’t even say anything about it.  Well, I send as SOS email to my friends and got some tough love and a reality check.  I see now that I a.)wasn’t committing 100% to doing this and b.) that I really needed help.   Everyone was saying that I really need to stick to Tyler like glue – the more successes, the better.   So Chris and I did that and gave him lots of liquids.  I think he did really well.  We still had a few accidents, but did run out to Souper Salads to pick up some food and grocery shopped at Whole Foods today without incident.  He even went to the bathroom while at Souper Salads.

The reality is that this is going to be a long process.  Even after he is “potty trained”- there will be a mix of him initiating and us doing it.  We will have to help with his clothes and clean up afterwards.  I was excited when the other day he walked into the bathroom upstairs and lifted the lid attempting to go himself.  I am going to get a stool and a seat that fits on large potties for him.   I think it a month or so he can handle that and will probably like that (I know I will like that everything just goes directly into the big potty so no dumping, etc.)

Nevertheless, I think I, like the other mommies in my group, will prefer the work this requires as opposed to diapers.  After two years of changing diapers on him, I am ready for something new.  A friend is coming over tomorrow morning to help me.  With two kids, there are inevitably moments where I can’t watch Tyler.  Also, being stuck inside, it will be nice to have some company.

So positive news on this front – I will keep y’all updated!