Dear Etrain,
As I mentioned last month, we started potty training. I got a book named Potty Training in 3 Days, so the plan was that the weekend after all our vacations we were going to hunker down in the house for three days and do it. You actually did very well, I think. The first day there were accidents, of course. The next day you seemed to get the hang of it. The last day was Monday, so I kept you home from school. I was pretty confident you got the hang of it all until you peed all over the floor (like full blown, had been holding it all night, morning pee) downstairs. Which set me back in confidence on taking you out in the world. So I opted for taking your underwear off completely...and that seemed to work. We did that again on day four, Tuesday, and skipped My Gym to stay home and practice some more.
Needless to say, you and I were going a bit stir crazy, so I pulled out some new activities. We were coming up on Halloween and I had bought this little wooden jack-o-lantern paint set form the dollar bins at Target, so I figured that'd be a perfect time passer. Turns out, you love to paint! We had to let each color dry before moving to the next one, and you just kept asking if it was time yet. We also took a spin at Play Dough which you also loved.
Day five was Wednesday, and I really wanted to send you to school. I really wanted to get out of the house (and go to MOPS, which is on Wednesdays), and I figured it was time to test out the real world. Your school is great because they work with you while you're potty training. So off we went. While at MOPS I had talked to several moms about how potty training was going, and my concern that you hadn't pooped yet! I literally spent a 20 minutes after MOPS talking to a mom friend about the pooping issues she had faced while potty training her son, and what I should do with you.
I went to pick you up from school and they told me you had just had an accident minutes before I got there. Poor boy, you were holding it all through class! Well, we got home, and hadn't been there too long before you told me you needed to go potty, so we went to the toilet and just like that, your first poop! I know, I know. It's a weird thing to talk about how exciting pooping is, but trust me son, when you're older and potty training your kid(s), you'll be cheering for them and talking about poop all the time. It's just normal now.
Per direction from the book, we had come up with some rewards to encourage you while potty training. We had a chart for every day of the week, and each time you went potty in the toilet you got to put a sticker on it. In addition, every time you went pee you got a "tinkle treat", which you chose to be peanut butter M&M's. Every time you went poop on the toilet you got a monster truck. You had been talking about those monster trucks for weeks...I had shown them to you early to get you excited for potty training. So after your first poop (and first monster truck), you basically jammed out the rest every 1-2 days. There were 5 in total, and you got the last 2 on the same day. You were also having fewer accidents as well. We were all so proud of you.
But then the rewards ran out. Once there were no more monster trucks you started to revert on pooping in the potty. You get really upset and will hold it until nap or bedtime when you have a pull-up on...unless you can't hold it. If you can't hold it you will usually go in the potty after lots of bribing (right now, I'll let you watch monster trucks on my phone). But there have been some poop accidents too. I'm writing this at the end of the month, and we're still struggling. Pee seems to be fine, although it seems you'll hold it for the pull-up too, if you have the option. It's really frustrating, but I'm trying to just go with it and remind myself you're still little and you'll come around eventually. Overall, I think you're going great, son.
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| Getting out of the house and celebrating that we made it to the end of the week! |
So, funny side story. You really loved putting stickers on your chart. We might be out in public peeing somewhere and you'd tell me we needed to go home and put a sticker on the heart, yes, heart. You kept calling it heart, and it took me a bit to figure out what you meant. Then we started practicing saying chart. Well "chart" would sometimes be said differently in an inappropriate, yet appropriate and very funny way. Watch the video.
I've mentioned your buddy Carson and how much you love hanging out with him. We met him at the park one afternoon and you two had the best time...obviously, as you can see below. I will say though, you two were playing with some older boys that were about 10-12 years old. The boys seemed be playing nice, but you were playing chase and the boys were having some fun teasing you two about not catching up. And they found it fun to take your monster trucks from you to get you to run after them.
It all seemed fine until one of the boys strong armed you a bit to get the truck from your hands. It was a tough moment for me and I was talking it out with Carson's mom. I know you're a boy and boy's play more rough than girls, so part of me knows I have to let you live out your own battles. But then another part of me wanted to intervene because you're only 2 and you're still my baby boy. Again, the boy wasn't really being mean, but I was conflicted because of his size and age. Either way, Carson's mom and I kept a close eye on you two, and eventually said something when it seemed like it might go too far. The boys left soon after than, which was fine with all of us. You and Carson had a great time, and still ask me to hang out with him all the time...you just need to stop catching colds!
Just some fun at the park.
We're getting close to birthday season! This year your dad is turning 40, which is a big one, so I'm throwing him a party. In addition to his party, I'm also trying to plan one for you. Because your birthday is so close to the holidays, I try to get your birthday invitations out early so people know to save the date. I asked you to pose holding your three fingers out so I can use it on your invitation. Let's just say I had to do lots of begging and photo taking to get one that would work. I'll show you the invite in a birthday post for you later. It's pretty cute. :)
Later that night was Halloween night. You were the cutest little lion. Throughout this month we did a bunch of fun Halloween related activities, and I wrote all about them in this post. There's tons of great photos and videos. Check it out!
Speaking of birthday season, you were invited to a birthday party for one of your buddies from school...well, he went to your school this past summer. Gage turned four and his mom put together a super fun camp themed birthday party in their backyard. There were lots of fun things to do, but you seemed to love the pinata, his cars (which you found in their family room), and the movie with popcorn. You had started to catch a cold, but it didn't seem very bad and had been several days, so we went to the party anyway. I don't think it was a good idea to keep you out so late at the party because your cold got pretty bad after that night. But you seemed to be having so much fun, I wanted you to be able to splurge a little bit. Oh well, you're better now (I have your cold now though, ugh).
So after that party we had a tough week. Dada was out of town on a surf trip with some buddies to celebrate his birthday, so you and I were alone all week. And we were stuck home because of your cold. You started to seem better later on so we did some of our activities, but I could tell you still weren't 100%. Even though you were sick, you don't really let that slow you down. You'll still run around the house like a crazy person. As you can see below, we had to take off your shirt because you were all sweaty.
We exchanged a few silly black and white photos with Dada while he was away.
We just had daylight savings time, so now it gets dark really early. It can be tough, because we don't really get to go outside as much. We've been making up for it with kicking the ball downstairs. You always ask me to put on music, and lately you've been requesting "Get Low" by Dillon Francis and DJ Snake. When I put it on you love to run in circles. We sent this video to dad while he was gone. Oh and I should mention, you've told me about a new super hero, fire man. I don't know much except when you run with your arms and hands like this, you are fire man.
The weekend Dada got back we went to breakfast in Laguna. It was super yummy, but I think you enjoyed playing at the park on the beach afterward much more.
You love to run. When you wake up from nap, you love to take off down the hall and go back and forth. Usually you want me to play tickle monster or chase (which is basically the same thing) with you. Below was no exception. Here you told me "Mom, I'll be fire man and you be tickle monster", then you took off running.
In looking back at old videos, I notice I really enjoy the ones where I can hear you talking. It's great to see what you were up to, but I just love hearing that little voice of yours. Well the problem is that I don't have a ton of you talking, so I'm trying to get more of that now. During our monthly photo shoot, I tried to get you to tell me, well, anything, just to get you talking. You were feeling a bit silly, so I got more jibber-jabber than real words. Ha.
I got the best photos from you this time. Silly boy!
Love,
Mama
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