Gametes In Love

For today’s Movie Monday you get the pleasure of seeing S2’s first “No, I do it” battle.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeISLnBQkVI]

Let’s talk snack time. Ours looks something like this…

Crackers!!!!

Yum!

[toss] … Uh oh!

Wait… no more crackers???

More, please!

Meanwhile, on the other side of the room… someone took all the crackers left in the box, broke them into 4’s and layed them out for himself

Oh yeah, and bowls are now hats

You know… in case you’re wondering why my floor is such a mess 🙂

Another phrase I’m finding myself uttering:

“S2, please do not close your brother into the toy-chest and sit on it, so that he can’t get out”

Have I told you about G’s father?

G likes to tell us lots of stories about his father. And things his father has said. It’s great, because he tells S stories of his father. It took us a little while to figure out that:

1) His father’s name is Ressia and…
2) Ressia’s a girl.

We now know that G’s father is more or less his imaginary friend. But because he refers to Ressia as “his father”, it’s really a confusing conversation to have with his teachers. Since they assign that title to S, and not Ressia, they think these stories are real, and about S. Yeah, you try explaining to someone why Daddy says “no candy for lunch”, but “his father” says it’s OK.

As an interesting development, apparently G’s father has moved out.

Gee, I hope it’s not anything we said…

One of the (3) shows on rotation we have going on right now w/ G is Shaun the Sheep (thanx, S&C for telling us about it!)

As an intermission between segments, Shaun does a little dance. It features some Saturday Night Fever action, some Running Man, and some other general booty shake action (and if you don’t know any of the references, I just made, well, then… you’re too damn young!).

I noticed something last night. Right as this little dance routine started, G looked around (to make sure no-one was watching, or his performance space was clear — unsure which), got up, and started dancing like Shaun on our bed. It took me a little while to process what was happening, and then once he was done and settled back into his watching position, as if nothing had happened, I re-wound the episode a bit, and set-up my camera in wait. Then you get this little jewel. [sorry this is in vertical orientation, I know it’s not supposed to be, but based on where I was sitting, the lack of zoom on my iphone and the fact I couldn’t move without him catching on, this was the only way to get full view of him.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csw5J7xISkk]

S thinks we’ve somehow been charged with the responsibility of raising the class clown. I think he might be right!

I made a deal w/ G that if he was able to go 5 days without having an accident that I would get him a crane toy he’s been drooling over for months (before Christmas even, but we had already gotten him his Christmas gift, so we weren’t going to get him yet another thing). He talked me down to 3 days (side note: seriously, my pre-school has negotiating power???), but since 1) I’m clearly a softie; 2) I thought even making it 3 days was a stretch for a kid just starting out; I decided to consent.

Well… it appears that waiting on toilet learning was a great move for us, because within a week of starting, G was not having any accidents. So by the end of day 2 I was seeing that reaching 3 days was imminent, so I placed his order. Since instant gratification shipping is not yet available, we had to wait on the post, which took another few days, but you know what? He stayed dry the whole time. By the time his crane arrived, G had easily gone 6 days no issues.

Now I won’t tell you that there hasn’t been a slip here and there. There has. But it’s also something that couldn’t have been helped. Like one time we got there in time, he sat down, and proceeded to pee all over his undies, because he doesn’t want to hold himself while going. Apparently, as I am learning about male bathroom habits, peeing without applying a hand, is a little bit like turning a garden hose on high without providing direction (i.e. you get wet). One lesson learned the hard way. Check. There likely will be more incidents in our future too, so it will be a long while before I feel “safe” enough to not need to travel with a bag filled with extra clothes.

But we are really proud of him, and best of all he is REALLY proud of himself. His teachers are very impressed with how easy this transition has been too. So it’s a crane well deserved. Here’s monkey-man opening his gift. It was better that Christmas (for me).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMADeDmzipw]

Let me tell you a little story…

Little Stormy Foo Foo
Pouncing through the infant room.
Throwing things at the babies
And bopping them on the head

When I came to pick up my monkey today (we have swim class on Tuesdays now, so he gets picked up earlier), Ms S told me that she had to send him to the office to hang out with the director. I thought to myself ‘Uh-oh! What now?’ because the director’s office is where kids go if they’re sick and need to be isolated from the other kids. Nope, S2 apparently needed to stay out of trouble.

So where do I find him? Sitting in the director’s lap, happy as a clam, while she was working on the computer [Side question: why is he not this patient when I need to work on my computer and he’s in my lap???], munching on a cracker. And then it hit me….
I SO wouldn’t put it past him to get purposefully in trouble JUST to get sent to the office. It’s where the animal crackers are, and he bolts for the office whenever the door is open.

He’s an evil genius!!! I’m pretty certain Stewy Griffin is actually based on S2.

We spent the close of 2011 and welcomed 2012 while in potty learning quarantine. And you know what? It may have worked!

I’ll be honest: I dreaded this milestone. Actually I still dread this milestone. I drive home after work and wonder if today is the day we can go back to diapers, ‘cuz let’s face it — diapers are just too damn convenient… for me. I know I can drive to my intended destination with little worry that I have to swerve over 4 lanes of flying-by traffic in search for a place for my kid to relieve themselves. I can make dinner, type out an email without the interruption of “Mama, I gotta to pee pee!” I had secretly hoped that some day, my kids will go from diapers, to self-reliant individuals, that would just hold it until a suitable rest-stop was available, take themselves to the bathroom, remove their dress and take care of business. I guess I was thinking we’d be potty learning when they were 10? But G seems to accept the toilet, and I’m taking his lead on this.

I can’t say we started because he had an epiphany and all of a sudden started feeling uncomfortable going in a diaper. It was more of a curious experiment to see if he “might” be ready. He never told us when he was going, or had gone (with the exception of pooping, when he’d run, hide, and scream like a banshee if you approached, even unknowingly, him before he was finished). You see, there’s this 3-day potty training method that I figured might be worth looking into. We’ve had friends that have implemented it with success, and with laziness to look into other alternatives, I considered it. This 3-day method is really more of training the parents than the kids, and requires a self-imposed, house imprisonment for 3 days. Well, I had a 3-day off week-end over the turn of the year and no more until mid-year (blech!), and I figured “Hey, let’s try it! And if it fails, we’ll just wait ’til later”

I will give credit to S for this. We took G out of daycare on Fri, while S2 still went. It gave us one full G-only day, which was good. I spent the day staring at his crotch more or less, which let me tell you, feels remarkably perv-y! S was in charge the rest of the week-end, while I ran after the little one.

At the end of the second day G asked to go on his own. And he’s been asking to go since. Now… his ability to hold it is pretty non-existent, and hot wet he is, as of now if dependent on how fast we can run him to the rest-room. But he had NO accidents yesterday at school (previously getting 1/day). It also took him 6 days to get around the idea of going #2, but he’s got the hang of it now.

The biggest challenge will be this Saturday as we travel an hour to a birthday party. He’s not a fan of being encouraged to go when he’s not ready, so getting him out of the house w/ a pre-potty stop is a bit of a battle. Let’s see how that goes. I know it will be months before I can say that he’s a full-fledged potty user. It will be months, too, before we leave the house without a spare closet in the trunk of our car, but we’re moving forward.

Pictures? None today, but here’s a video of G practicing skipping while wearing his undies. His bootie is darn cute. Oh, and for the record, my favorite pair of his undies are these Paul Frank monkey boxer briefs. Too cute!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_O9aFCyXdA]

Ok, having your kid turn a birth anniversary on the 1st of the month is hard! It always sneaks up on me, and this one was especially bad as I was focusing more on the end-of-year, and all of a sudden realized that the first of January marks not only a new year, but S2’s 14m birthday. Oops!

This little dude is really coming into his own. He is trying SO hard to run. He’s getting better at bending his knees as he walks, but there’s still a lot of baby-ness left in his stride. However, he has zero trouble chasing after his big brother in super-speed baby waddle. We’ve been hearing a lot of laughing and squealing (from pure joy) as these two run around the house.

He finally got a clean bill of ear health this month too. After ear infection, followed by double year infection that wouldn’t clear after 4 different anti-biotics, it’s good not to have to shove any ear-medication in him daily. However, he likes visiting the pedi office, and decided another unscheduled visit was in order, as he decided to break out a case of Hand Foot and Mouth Disease home right after Christmas. I think it’s because he likes to flirt with one of the receptionists. The fact she knows us by name, sadly, does not make me happy.

He’s also gotten the throw-yourself-down-on-the-ground-and-kick-your-legs tantrum down. Sweet!

This month’s stats:

Weight: 21lb 15oz

Height: 77cm (that’s about 30.3″)

Favorite activity: climbing… preferably onto things that he shouldn’t be standing on

Favorite food: yogurt. Although he discovered milk-shakes earlier this month (Oreo flavored), and I’m pretty sure he’d trade me in for one if he could.

Favorite toy: Whatever G is playing with at the time

Number of teeth: 4! Ha! Sprouted 2 more just in the last two weeks

Number of words: 1. Wee! And guess what it is? MAMA!!! When he uses it, he’s either referring to me (yey!) or “more”… I can’t quite tell at times. He also, more or less, signs for “more” and “all done”

Naughtiest moment: Managing to escape into the bathroom in a matter of seconds while S was supervising. In the time that S realized S2 was out of sight and asked “Where’s S?”, monkey-man had ran into the bathroom, climbed up on the counter, and turned on the sink faucet. The running water gave him away. Don’t judge — he might be short, but this dude is fast.

Important milestones: teeth. words. tantrums