Works of Art #15

Here's the birthday card you made for Grandpa Brooks:

 

You worked really hard on the marker art inside the card:

 And finally, here's our Transportation Week bulletin board and your stop light that you made:

The King and His Throne

 

Dear Ian,

Yup, I'm sure you can guess what this post is about.  Today we hit a milestone in your quest to master the Great White Beast.  But first, a little history...

We have not been officially potty training, but for the past few months, we have been hanging out with the potty, watching everyone in the house pee and talking about bathroom stuff.  You would sit every now and again, and then we started noticing a pattern of dryness, and so we starting timing trips and you were pee peeing in the potty.  But this it not potty training; this was just potty awareness.  Then, after a couple of weeks of that, you started becoming aware that you had control over this.  We'd sit you on the potty, and you would look down at your self, concentrate and pee.  Mommy's "aha" light went on at this point.  Nap times are consistently dry, you understand the concept... maybe...

So at that point, here's where we stood:

1.  You could say "pee pee," "poo poo" and "potty."  Step one on Mommy's Potty-training Readiness list was that you had to be able to communicate the words to go.

2.  You were having consistent dry times.  Step 2 on MPR was bladder muscle control.  Obviously your little bladder can hold more since you could stay dry for at least 4 hours.  

3.  You were aware that pee pee came from pee pee parts.  Blah blah, potty readiness...

But still we didn't move on to potty training.  I mean, dude, you're only 19 months old.  

But today, I think you showed me that maybe we're getting closer to this little adventure.  This morning, you woke up, we changed your diaper and you went on your merry way.  We had breakfast, played, you ate more, and played more.  Then all of a sudden, you looked at me and said, "Potty."  Then you did your little toddler run to the front of the house.  When you noticed that I didn't follow you, you turned to me again and said, "Potty!"  I thought, sure, whatever...  I got up, and we went into the bathroom.  Your diaper was dry, which is typical for that time of day, but we took it off and hopped up on the toilet.  You sat there for a second, thought about whatever goes through your mind, and then you peed.  Whoa.  Even in my early morning, half-awake state I caught on to what had just transpired.  Holy moly.  Is it really time?  Was this just coincidence?  

Just now before nap, though, I had you on the changing table checking your diaper (which was dry) you said it again, so we went again.  And yup, you peed again.  Now, since I'm not in your head, I can't be officially sure that you are getting the connection, but I'm not one to let magic pass me by.  No, we're not moving on to big boy undies just yet, but I'm going to really be paying attention.  We may be heading to potty training land pretty soon.

'Cause when you gotta go, you gotta go!

Love always,

Mommy

Situational Awareness

Dear Ian,

It feels like it's been forever since I made an entry in your little baby-book-blog, so it feels good to be back.  And now that I think of it, I should probably start calling this your big-boy-book-blog.  Lots of "B's" there...

In the past few weeks you have been a busy dude; you've been learning, doing and saying a lot!  It always amazes me how much you learn and absorb in a day, and even more amazing is the fact that you are retaining and repeating stuff.  For example, we have been working on learning colors.  Not really seriously, of course.  It goes against mommy's pedagogy and teaching style to make you "sit and learn," so we learn by playing and by talking, but that's another post entirely.  So, by playing with lacing beads, singing the traffic light song and various art projects, you have been learning your colors.  You can correctly identify red, yellow, purple and blue.  For green, you simply say "GO!"  Thanks, traffic light song.

Anyhoo...  You are now pointing at items and naming their color, and that has been really neat.  You, me and your Daddy were driving down the road the other day, and when we were stopped at a stop light, all of a sudden from the back seat you started freaking out and saying "reh!" (your pronunciation of red) and then making this funny blowing noise.  Over and over you'd say, "reh, bfffp, reh, bfffp!"  I could not, for the life of me, figure out what you were trying to say.  And then you started pointing.  After looking around for a couple of seconds, while you got more and more irritated that we weren't comprehending, we finally figured it out.  You were pointing at a Red Elephant restaurant billboard.  So funny!  You see, although you know your colors and you understand and say SO much, you refuse to call animals by their names.  For example, instead of calling a dog a dog, you call it a "ruff ruff."  Similarly, a cow is a "moo," an alligator is a"chomp chomp," a duck is a "quack quack," and so on and so forth.   I have no idea why you are boycotting the actual animal names.


Every day you are learning and doing something new.  I mean, I knew this would be going on about now; I used to teach kids in your age group, but it's so neat to see MY baby bear doing this stuff.  Makes me one proud Mama.  'Course you always do that!

Love you bunches!
Mommy

Works of Art #14

Mother's Day art that we did these past few weeks...

We made these hand-print flowers for the Grandma's, and you also gave them little flower pots with seeds to grow, too.

We made this just for fun, and I guess for me, so we could see how big your hand was this Mother's Day. 

Daddy Worship on Mother's Day?

Dear Ian,

This past Sunday was Mother's Day, and I was looking forward to a day of pampering from Daddy, kisses from you and lots of sweet family time.



You and Daddy on Mother's Day last year

And yes, there was pampering, and there were kisses, but it was all for Daddy!  I spend the first few hours of Mother's Day driving home from Savannah (my twirlers had a competition, and the late night kept me from getting home on Saturday), and I couldn't wait to get home and see you and your Daddy.  I thought that since you hadnt seen me in about 36 hours that you would be thrilled to have me home.  Sadly, I think you must have forgotten who I was; you wouldn't leave Daddy's side.  Ah well.  I'm used to it.  Daddy holds rock-star status around here, and all that awesome Daddy Time that you had on Saturday really must have made an impression.  This poor Mommy just can't compete with Daddy Time. 

I'll admit, I was a little sad at first, but you did eventually remember that I am your Mommy, that person that gave you life, feeds and diapers your little hiney and makes sure all Loveys are washed and accessable.  And we had a nice afternoon of playing around the house, capped off by a yummy dinner and margaritas at Calico Jacks.  You even "paid."  You have this thing now of carrying around one of my old business card holders as a wallet, and I stock it with pilfered hotel keys for your "credit cards."  You just had to pay the lady for my meal.  It was sweet.  You and Daddy also made me a card, and it just made my day.  I love it, and of course it's going to straight in my box of things to keep forever. 





But back to that Daddy worship.  Your Daddy is probably your most favorite person on the planet.  As soon as you get up you are calling for him, and every time the phone rings you ask if it's him.  "Daddy?"  You stand at the door when you are mad at me and cry for him, (he didnt know that until now, so you better not capitalize on that, got it?) and you light up like a firework when he walks in the door at the end of the day.  Mama is a distant memory when Daddy is around.  I have recently taught you "where Daddy is" to hep stave off a few of the zillion "Daddy?" inquiries that I face throughout the day.  I now turn those questions back on you.  You'll look up at me with those big blue eyes and ask as if your heart is broken, "Daddy?"  As a response, I will ask you where Daddy is, and you will promptly respond, "Wook," your little-man version of the word "work."  It seems to help, but I am still reassuring you that Daddy still exsists, just in a different location, about a hundred thousand times a day.



Ok, so maybe a little TOO
much Mommy Time



That being said, I have noticed that I show up on your radar occasionally, and that you are paying attention when I do and say things.  We spend a lot of time together, and I know this is why I blend in while Daddy glows like a beacon.  I am just there - your ever-present safety net and comfortable back drop.  But I know you love me and sometimes I think you even want to be like me.  For example, you love to copy what I am doing, from stirring something in a pot to putting shaving cream on your legs.  You love to help me do all of my chores, and every time I turn around, you are right behind me.  Unless you're off doing something you probably arent supposed to be doing.  You show me you love me by climbing up in my lap with a lovey when you're tired or bringing me a book and plopping in my lap.  You show me you love me by freaking out when I change location without you noticing, and in general, you show me that you love me by just being you.  You can explore and be confident and do all of those little Ian things because you know that I am there for you and that you are confident in my ability to do my Mommy job. 

There are no awards for being a Mommy.  No trophies for "best diaper changer" or medals for "surviving a solid week of bleeding nipples"  (Sorry, that will embarrass the pants off you someday, but hey, I had to live it, thank you very much) exsist for Moms, but when we see our little babies becoming independent, thriving little people, we wear those moments like Miss America banners.  Mommyhood is a tough, yet rewarding job, but when I see you growing up confident and capable, that's the best Mother's Day gift I could possibly receive.

But next year, I do think I want a "Miss Mommy of America" banner.

Smooches Baby Bear,

Mommy 

Embarrassment. Toddler Style

Dear Ian,

We have officially reached the point in our Mommy-Son relationship where public embarrassment begins.  You and I have been working on potty awareness and potty vocabulary (like the names for bodily functions, not bad language), and I must say, you are catching on quite well.  After naps, you have been waking up dry, so we sit on the potty and nine out of ten times, you actually pee on the potty.  You are even aware that you are doing it, so bonus points for us on our potty training journey.  We are not (for the record) officially potty training, since I think you still need more time to grow and learn and such before we start doing that, but since you will sit and pee and not argue, I figured why not make it part of our routine.  So there we are.  And remember that post about me typically having an audience when I visit the loo?  Yeah.  Toilet exposure is nothing new to you, and I want to just keep it low key and something that everyone deals with.  I don't want to make a "thing" out of you learning to use the potty; it's just part of life. 

In our learning of "potty words" you understand the meaning of pee pee, but you call everything toilet oriented "poo poo."  Even a wet diaper gets named this.  But, again, we're just starting out, so sure, whatever.  I remind you that wet diapers are pee pee, and every time you do, well, poop, I call it by it's name as well, but you have decided...

Back to our embarrassment du jour.  Today I had a lunch meeting at Red Elephant with the sponsor of the Cairo High majorettes and one of the moms since I will be soon choreographing their fall field routines.  You, lucky man, got to come with me, since Jessica (the sponsor) would be bringing her daughter, too.  We figured it could be a fun, informal, baby friendly lunch as well (and it was).  We arrived a little early, and I needed to use the ladies room before we sat down, so off we went.  We squeezed into a stall, and I attended to business while you commentated.  "Mama?  Poo poo?" you asked.  "Poo poo Mama?"  Great.  One of your first two-word phrases had to do with my bodily functions.  Super.  "No, Bear," I told you.  "Mommy just needs to pee pee."  Content with my response, you started unravelling toilet paper, but then the poor woman next to us on the left passed gas a little audibly.  "Mama!" you hollered.  "POO POO!!!"  Good Lord.  You also threw in an "ick" for good measure.  (I need to get a recording of you saying this.  You sound very German when you do it...)  The lady in the stall to our right started snickering, and I decided we needed to get out fast.  Finished, we flushed and headed out, with you repeating "poo poo" and pointing the whole time. 

We reached the safety of the restaurant, met up with Jessica and Miss Martha and lunch proceeded without any mention of toilet goings-on.  Until we got into the car and started driving away.  That's when you let rip the loudest toot I have ever heard from your little body, and you cracked up.  "Mama!  Poo poo!!!" 

Bodily functions are no longer a mystery to you, and I have a feeling I have a long future of bathroom humor ahead of me.

Love,
Mommy

Works of Art #13

Our Spring and Garden themed art and bulletin board.  So fun!

Buzzy Bumble Bee!



Our gorgeous bulletin board, decorated with Sarah's Caterpillar and your handprint butterfly



Your adorable caterpillar!