"I like to go on the potty"

How many times have Jacob and I scoffed at other parents who said their kid just woke up one day and decided to use the potty? Clearly that wasn't going to work for our 3-year old who screamed every time he sat on it and would rather pee in his pants, or on the floor, anywhere other than in the potty. But Saturday, out of nowhere he told Jacob that he didn't want to wear diapers anymore because they're for babies. That's huge progress but he still wouldn't let himself pee on the potty Saturday. He went once in his pants, once in his diaper during nap, then he held it until bathtime. During bath he was visibly uncomfortable and begging to get a diaper on so I said here, and put a tupperware container in front of him, pee in this. And he did. No hesitation, no crying. Then I poured the pee into the potty and flushed it. We talked about other ways to sit on the potty instead of using his Diego seat. He could sit on the potty without Diego or he could stand on his steps. He seemed open to trying something new.

Sunday he was amazing! He wore big boy underwear all day except for naptime. He had one very small accident on our way to dinner and another right before bedtime. But that's it. He used the potty the rest of the day, including a "quick" trip to Target that turned into an hour-long trip because he needed to use the potty 3 times while there. All successfully. He also made it through dinner at the Japanese Steakhouse with 5 or 6 potty visits. Our next project will be to get him to hold his pee a little better. I'm all for praising him when he goes on the potty but every 15-20 minutes is a bit ridiculous. It's hard to get excited when all he has are drips.

It's up to Miss Shahnaz and Shazia during the day this week to keep his momentum going. He'll be back in big boy underwear in the evening. Hopefully within the next couple of weeks we can start to phase out diapers at daycare and get him into pull ups or big boy underwear- very exciting. We've had two in diapers for so long, it's going to be nice to be down to one!

Hot

This morning as I pulled Logan out of his crib I noticed that he was really warm in his fleece pajamas. It wasn't as cold as I was expecting it to be when I dressed him last night. I said, whew, Logan, you're hot! To that, he started blowing out of his mouth like he was cooling hot food. I thought, no way, that must have been a coincidence. So, I waited a few minutes then repeated the test telling him my shirt was hot. He responded the same, blowing out of his mouth. How cool! He knows that when something is hot, you blow on it. Not bad for a barely one year old.

Pulling Himself Up

Well, right on the heels of crawling, Logan is now pulling himself up to a standing position. He did it first at Miss Shahnaz's on Wednesday, then repeated the feat several times at home. He'll pull himself up and cruise for a bit or just stand there until he lets go and falls back down. Two milestones in one week- that's a good week.

Peek-a-Boo

Logan played peek-a-boo in the car all the way to Shahnaz's house yesterday morning. He was cracking himself up, which was a lot of fun. Last night I came home to discover that Logan must have played peek-a-boo at the dinner table too... while eating pasta with tomato sauce. He was covered in sauce, from his mouth to his hair and even behind his ears. It took two wet wipes and a bath to get him clean but he was a happy boy.

OBX, May 2010

What a fun week Logan, Brody, and I had at the beach with Granny, Poppa, etc. The weather was beautiful and allowed us long days outside. We spent 3-4 hours on the beach or by the pool each day and with all of that activity, the boys were sleeping great at night. Brody is still afraid of the ocean, which was actually helpful as I had to keep track of both boys. It was nice to know that Brody could run free and not get in the water since he wouldn't go within 10 feet of the ocean's farthest reach. Logan spent the week on a beach towel, eating goldfish. He was happy as long as he had food. The birds figured us out mid-week and were anxiously awaiting our toss of the crackers that ended up in the sand.

Brody continues to love the sand while Logan didn't want to touch it. Logan looked like he was doing yoga or imitating a flamingo whenever I put him in the sand. One foot came off the ground and he would balance on one foot until I put him back on the towel. If the sand got on his hand, he shook it until I wiped it off.

After two mornings of Brody waking at 6:30am, I told him that he couldn't get up until the first number on the clock was 7. We talked about it throughout the day but I wasn't sure if he was getting it because he kept showing me 7s in the last number on the clock. Each time, I reinforced that in order to get out of bed, the first number must be a 7. That third morning, I rolled over to find Brody, standing on his bed pointing to the clock saying "look mama, seven." And it was 7:01. He did great for the rest of the week. When Logan woke at 6:45am Thursday morning, Brody looked at the clock concerned and told me that it wasn't 7 yet. I told him that Logan wasn't a big boy like Brody and we had to get up to get Logan. Brody looked like it was Christmas. He bounded out of bed and ran around like he had been awake for hours waiting for this exact moment. And he may have. I don't know when he was waking up but he was great about staying quiet until the clock said 7.

Thursday night was a big surprise. We were at dinner, eating outside on picnic tables with Logan sitting on top of the middle of the table. He started inching forward, as he always does right before he flops on his tummy or pushes himself back onto his booty. Mom, Joyce, and Laura got excited as I said "you guys haven't seen this enough to not get excited. He's been doing this for a month and still isn't crawling." At that, and I think just to spite me, Logan crawled across the table on his knees, right to me. We all screamed and clapped and he flopped onto his belly and looked pleased with himself. The other couple eating outside looked amused and left soon after. I think our screams coupled with Brody and Evelyn running all over the place were a bit much for anyone to handle. We were pretty good at clearing places out.

We have more beach trips planned for this summer- Pawley's in July, Ocean City in August, and possibly OBX again in October. By the end of summer both boys will have bleached blond hair and hopefully Brody will be more comfortable in the ocean and Logan will be ok with the sand. I'm really looking forward to all of these trips with the family.