Willing Family

So my friends from work kept talking about a children’s book, The Belly Button Book, that their kids loved.  I bought it for Jared a few months back.  He was not interested.  First off there are not cars, trucks or tractors in it.   Secondly, there are no alligators with big sharp teeth or terrible meat eating dinosaurs.  To sum it up, it had none of the elements of a “Quality” book by my son’s standards.  But the past few nights he has been letting me read it.  After the 457th (approx) reading of Farm Babies, I needed a change of pace and a silly tale of hippos and their fascination with belly buttons fit the bill .  Tonight however, he requested it.  After laying all of the book choices out on the bed he reached for the little green board book and said “Bee Bo”.  Who can say no to that!  Thank you Sandra Boynton for writing hilarious books that I enjoy as much as my son.

So my baby isn’t a baby anymore.  He took that first huge step toward becoming a big boy.  He went potty.  I can’t believe it.  Eric and I are still in a state of shock.  Our beautiful little boy used the toilet.  We have been working up to this for a little while.  We bought the potty just after the first of the year and have occassionally sat him on it.  The past few nights he has wanted to sit on it more so we have been letting him, but he has never actually done anything on the potty until tonight.  And I almost missed it.  Eric was prepping Jared for his bath when he placed him on the toilet and the silly man didn’t call down to me to tell me he was actually going.  I overheard eric saying your going pee pee in the potty and I rushed upstairs and turned on the video in time to capture some of the moment.  Yes, I am that crazy woman who had the camera handy to capture a video of her son’s first potty experience.  But it is awesome.  Before we know it this whole potty thing will become the new normal.  In some ways I am saddened by this, but in others excited.  Where has my baby gone?  In less than two years he has gone from a new born to a little boy who uses a toilet.

After a long weekend of cleaning the house and a little too much indoor work we took advantage of the warmer weather to go play outside.  For a change Jared was pretty enthusiastic about the snow.  He loved crashing his bike into the snow banks and when he tired of that we had a snowball fight.  It all started when Eric lobbed a ball of snow at Jared’s feet.  Jared went into a laughter fit, fell to his bottom and could barely bring himself back to his feet.  After a few more balls of snow crashed on the driveway Jared was ready to “fight” and started throwing snowballs back at Eric.  It is amazing how quickly toddlers change their minds.  Last week Jared didn’t like the snow and now it is impossible to bring him in from it.

Go Go Go

Ready

Aim

Fire

Do you ever wonder what your child dreams about?  I hadn’t really given it much thought lately but I had an experience last night that brought it back to the forefront of my mind.  Jared had woken up around midnight and wanted him momma so into the momma/daddy bed he came.  After thirty long and tortuous minutes of being kicked, punched, whacked, nudged, rolled on, farted on, scratched and  just plain beaten I figured out that Jared was not going to fall back to sleep with us.  So I put him back in his crib and tried to help him fall back to sleep.  This didn’t work either.  By this point it is just after 1am and I am wiped out, but determined to get this little man back to sleep.  After the failed crib attempt I decided to try laying next to him on the floor to see if that would work.  Here I am at my wits end, exhausted, laying on the hard floor and freezing because Jared is a blanket hog and he is still fussing.  I swear that I was going to lose it.  Somehow I stayed calm and finally got Jared to sleep just after 2am.  Normally, I will leave his room the moment I hear his gentle snoring, but something possessed me to stay just one more minute.  And for that delay I was rewarded.  As I was rolling over to tuck him in he let out a small laugh and smiled.  I thought for sure that he must be awake, but his eyes were closed and gently fluttering.  He was dreaming about something that made him very happy.  This moment was the reassurance that I needed that I was doing a good job with him.  And it was worth having to be up at just after 2 am to experience it.

It’s official, my little man is in the 2’s.  While this transition didn’t impact him (or me) as much as the move from the infants to the toddler class it was still an adjustment.  First, Jared is having to get used to new teachers.  Not that these teachers are completely new to him, but he was very attached (ok, ok, in love with) to his Toddler 1 teacher, Ms. Jennie.  Second, his new teacher, Ms. Alma, is a stickler for her no binky rule.  While I am really, really grateful for this because she is helping me to accomplish one of my big parenting goals: no binky after age 2, Jared has been struggling without his crutch!  Eric and I have been struggling with breaking the binky habit because we just don’t have the energy and will power to listen to the whining, but so far so good.  Jared still gets his binky for sleeping, but no binky during the day is a huge, no, colossal step for us.   

Jared has really been enjoying the high pace life that the Toddler 2 class maintains.  He is reconnecting with a couple of his older friends, Ethan and Johnathan.  There seems to be a lot more structure to his day and he is thriving.  I will admit that the evenings have been a little rougher but that will change soon as we all adjust to the new schedule.  

Just like the last time Jared changed classes I am struggling with the realization that my little baby is growing up.  In fact you can hardly call my child a baby.  Gone are his sweet little chub rolls, gummy smiles, and go with the flow attitude.  They have been replaced with long, lean limbs, a gapped tooth grin, and a fiercely independent attitude.  I am grateful that he is still as cuddly as ever and that he still thinks the world of me and Eric.  But I am already missing the sweet innocence of babyhood.

No, me do it

Hi there!

Big Smiles

It’s hard to believe that it has been nearly a year since this picture was taken on his first day in the toddler class.

My little man on a big cot.

A few weeks ago, during Jared’s speech evaluation, I was asked whether Jared used “tools” to get to things.  Things like using a toy to extend his reach, climbing on a chair to reach a bookshelf, etc.  At the time he wasn’t, but  that is no longer the case.  After breakfast Jared was playing with the magnets on the fridge and he wanted a few that were just out of his reach.  I ignored his whines for me to get them for him and for that I was rewarded with this:  Jared went into the dining room and grabbed one of his chairs, pushed chair into the kitchen and climbed on it to reach the magnets.  Watching the scene unfold was a little terrifying and very exhilarating.  You could just see the gears in his mind turning as he figured out how to get to those elusive magnets.  Now that he is developing problem solving abilities maybe he can help me figure out how to simplify my life.

After the Christmas holiday and watching Connor scale the stairs like a pro, Jared decided to give stair climbing a try.  Talk about frightening from a parents point of view.  He is far to small to reach the handrail so he is using the banister spindles to propel himself forward.  I am not sure I like this new skill.

Jared got a Little People Farm for Christmas from Buscia and h absolutely loves it.  This morning while we were playing farm he picked up the sheep and said “BAAAA”.  It was adorable.  This was a first for him, he had never made that animal sound before, but it is quickly becoming his favorite.  He has been repeating it all day.

It seems that Christmas was very big for animals this year.  Jared got one of those stick ponies and finds the thing hilarious.  Despite never seeing one before the other day he has the riding concept down pat.  With this new riding skill maybe he will become a cowboy, but more likely he will become a farmer (check out the tractor in the background).  Either way we plan to teach him to lasso next.

Giddy Up!

But before he can become a real cowboy (or a farmer) he needs to become a big boy and he took a big step on that path today.  Today we bought the potty seat and Jared was very eager to try it out.  Notice that he is a bit overdressed for the activity.  Oh well, I guess we are just starting out.

Look at me, I'm on the potty!

I have my game face on!

Parenting isn’t always glamorous but there is always a little bit of humor every day and today was no exception.  And I will preface this with the fact that I probably wouldn’t have found this as funny if it had happened to me.

After dinner Jared and Connor were playing in the great room at my parents while the adults were visiting.  After a little while there was a terrible stink and we all knew that it was one of the boys. Eric caught Jared, pick him up and sniffed his bottom (because as a parent/grandparent it is completely acceptable to sniff another persons butt) and was horrified to discover that Jared had had a blowout and he had stuck his nose (literally) into it.  So Jared is filthy, poop up his back and everywhere and Eric has it on his nose.  The joys of parenting.  

Since Eric was all grossed out because he stuck his nose is poo I had to clean Jared up, which didn’t really bother me because I love bath time.  And Jared was in a great mood for this one.  He was babbling and splashing and said a new word “UP”.  I am super exciting about this because it is his first word with the P sound.  Like I said, the Joys of Parenting.

Before the poo

Up