Willing Family

Jared pooped at school for the first time today.

Around 10 am each Eric and I got a call from his teacher, Ms. Alma, stating Jared is fine, but he wanted to tell you something, at which point the phone was turned over to Jared  who excitedly tells us “I poo pooed in the potty at school.”  After only 2 weeks in underpants at school he finally did the deed.  He has been so afraid to use the toilet at school, but has been doing it at home pretty well.  Each school morning for the past 2 weeks we have promised him a truck if he took care of his business on the toilet.  So when Ms. Alma told me that she didn’t even have to bribe him I quickly told her that we already had.  And yes, we did take him to the store to get a prize for his big accomplishment.

It is time to break out the bubbly and noise makers.  This is a REALLY and I mean R-E-A-L-L-Y BIG Deal!!!  Jared went poo poo on the potty tonight!  Who knew that something so revolting and stinky could be so amazing and evoke so much pride in adults!!

In typical Monday fashion, Jared did not “produce” on any of his bathroom visits during school.  Eric and I try to get him to pee in the toilet at least once a day so after school I had him try the potty again, with no results, and then put him in underpants.  I reminded him that he had to tell us if he needed to use the potty because we do not go pee pee or poo poo in our underpants.  Apparently the message sank in tonight, finally!  Jared excused himself from the table, and he really did excuse himself.  Months ago I got him saying “Excuse me from the table, please”  when he is finished eating,  but all of that is a different topic.  Usually when he excuses himself before he finishes his meal it is because he needs to go potty.  We know this and every night we ask him to sit on the potty, but usually it results in a meltdown and dirty diaper.  Last night, he almost went but then chickened out.  Tonight, I caught him grabbing his bottom and trying to get his underpants off because he wanted a diaper.  Instead I got him to sit on the potty.  We sat in the bathroom just talking about going poo poo.  Our conversation went something like this:

Momma:  Can you go poo poo in the potty?

Jared: No

Momma:  Did you know that daddy goes poo poo potty?  And so does Papa and Ethan and Mitchell..

Jared:  and budder

Momma:  Yes, Mitchell’s brother, Aaron, goes poo poo potty

Jared: budder, Maron

Momma:  Can you go poo poo potty?

Jared:  Like daddy and Papa and Ethan and Mitchell and budder Maron…

Momma:  Go ahead push out the poo poo  (Jared pushed a little and grunted)

Jared:  I farted

Jared:  I want daddy

Momma:  When daddy comes in the house I will ask him to come in

Daddy:  Hey Jared, can you go poo poo?

Jared:  “I pooped!”

In all truthfulness, both eric and I thought he was fibbing, but to humor him I lifted him off of the potty to check and to my shock there was poo poo in the potty!!  A celebration immediately began!  We got presents and balloons and noise makers out (after cleaning him up, of course) and had a little celebration.  We all felt incredibly over-joyed and proud, not to mention excited.  Jared called Grandma (GeeMa) and told her “I go poo poo potty!” and she joined in the excitement.  It was just awesome.

Jared is officially a member of the “Poo Poo Potty Club”.  I am so proud of the little buddy.

As I was picking jared up from school today, his teacher, Ms. Alma stopped me.  She said that she had to share a funny story from yesterday.  

During lunch Jared spilled some milk on his shirt so Ms. Amber thought it best to take it off of him and wash it while he napped.  When Jared woke up he noticed that he did not have a shirt on and decided to ask Ms. Alma what happened.  Here is their conversation:

Jared:  Where my shirt???

Ms. Alma:  *Acting  a little surprised and shocked*  ”Did it sprout legs and run away?”

Jared: *giggling*  That’s Funny!

Ms. Alma said that she couldn’t stop laughing because Jared was so serious in his inquiry but so funny in his response.

Jared’s new favorite books are the Llama Llama series.  He really likes “Amma Amma Mat Ama” or Llama Llama Mad at Mama!  They go to the Shop-O-rama or Shamama as Jared calls it.  He is going to be really sad when this book has to go back to the library.

I can’t believe how fast Jared is changing.  It baffles me that just a few months ago he was barely saying a word and not he just doesn’t stop talking.  Just this weekend he started saying “whoa!” and he has been saying “thats funny for about two weeks”.  the crazy part of it is that he uses it in the right context, like when things are obviously a play on words or if something is really far fetched like when reading “Hey Diddle Diddle”.  Other crazy things he says”

motorkikle = motor cycle

ice pickle = popsicle

awful = waffle

he likes to say I did it when he helps!  And when he wants to do something himself he shouts our “My Turn!”  these are the things that make parenthood priceless.

We are officially finished with teething!!!!!  The lone hold-out, the top-left second molar finally came through.  Trust me, this is something that should be celebrated and to celebrate we watched a little TV, which is still very novel to Jared.  He was so into the program that he barely blinked.

Sesame Street Stupor

Jared has really been into trains lately so we thought that we would try the Day Out with Thomas event!  I am so glad that we did because it was awesome.  Everything about the day was just great.  Jared woke up in a great mood and was perfect for the 90 minute car ride.  The people of Connersville really know how to do this event.  There was ample parking, plenty of space and of course lots of Thomas the Train related activities.  Anyone with little ones who are really into trains needs to do this event.

Here we are in front of the big ticket.  Jared is upset because daddy stepped away for a minute.

Jared rode the tractor train, which was nothing more than a tractor made to look like a train engine pulling 55 gallon drums on wheels.  Jared seemed a little apprehensive about going on the ride but he went and there were no tears.

Jared waving good-bye from his train car

The tractor-train in action

Our last stop before our train ride was the souvenir tent.  Holy Cow!! I had no idea that there was so many Thomas the train engines.  And stuff, there was tons of kitchy stuff everywhere.  Thomas the train dishes, lunch boxes, t-shirts, coins, frames, etc, etc..  Insane!  It was total overload of stuff.  But we managed to come away with only one item, the Commemorative Thomas the Train Engine.

Jared doing a little shopping! So many choices.

Since we opted to go for an early train we got to watch Thomas arrive at the station.  It is amazing how much it looks like the toy engines.  This was such an adorable spectacle.  Kids and adults were cheering and clapping.  There dozens of children staring in amazement of their favorite character arriving.  I suspect that it was similar to what kids experience at Disney World when Mickey Mouse shows up.  I will admit, that it was impressive.

Thomas toot toot train

And finally, it was our turn to ride.  Jared was so excited.  He kept telling us “Ride Thomas toot toot train!!” while miming pulling the train whistle.  It was a nice ride out in the country.  The engineer made up a little story about having to rescue a stranded train and quizzed the kids about different characters and the Island of Sodor.  Volunteers were on hand to answer questions and to pass out the Jr Engineer certificates.  It was a lot of fun and seeing Jared so happy and excited about something was priceless.

Family train trip

Jr Engineer

Attempt at a family photo

You would think that after the main attraction that there wouldn’t be much to do, but there was still tons to do.  We still had to hit the pony rides, the petting farm, see Bertie the Bus, get our picture with Thomas and visit Sir Topham Hat.  We tried the pony rides, but Jared got scared at the last minute and decided not to go, but he did not want to leave the petting zoo.  For a while there I thought that one of the rabbits was going to end up coming home with us.

Jared on Bertie the Bus

We left just before naptime which is exactly how we planned it.  Unfortunately he didn’t didn’t nap very long so he was a little grumpy for our afternoon at John and Dana’s for BBQ.  Since Dana works weekends we don’t get to see them very often so doing the Thomas event in the morning freed up a Friday afternoon to hang with the Hartman’s.  The kidlets  had a ton of fun playing on the waterslide and we capped off the day with some delicious BBQ.  Dana grilled up some pineapple and it was awesome.  All in all, an amazing day.

Jared has really been enjoying the “Little Critter” books lately. In particular he is fond of a story called I Didn’t Mean Too, which is all about the minor accidents that happen in life when we just aren’t paying enough attention.  while reading the book for what seemed like the dozenth time I took the opportunity to teach Jared about empathy.  After each situation I would ask him what he could do to make the other person feel better and then asked could you say “I’m sorry” and give bug hugs?  Apparently a few more readings the message that I had wanted to get across hadn’t sunk in because when I asked him what he could do to make someone feel better he responded with a very concerned look and said “Ice pack”.  Apparently the solution to spilling milk, knocking down a friend, ripping your jacket, etc. is to get an ice pack.  At least he is sort of getting the concept.