Boo-Boo Buddy

I took Evan to the mall today to play and he made a little friend. He was going down the slide and accidentally kicked someone who went down right after him head first. The little boy was holding his head (but he was smiling and laughing too) and Evan bent down very gently to try to kiss this little boy's boo-boo. Well, this kid was just having too much fun and couldn't be bothered to let Evan soothe his wounded head. He wanted to play with Evan instead. So, for the rest of the time, they ran around together, imitating each other, going up and down the slide sometimes even holding hands. It was so precious to see Evan looking another kid in the eyes and smiling and laughing and playing with another child. I had a a pretty big smile on my face.

Two for 2

Evan went poo-poo in the potty twice this morning! Completely on his own. I'm not setting myself up with the expectation that he will never have another poo-poo accident again, but at least he is exhibiting the willingness to try! And that is very reassurring.

He has been accident free for the past few days because I am being really consistent with taking him to the potty every half hour. I think that's been helping ALOT. He is continuing to go potty in public restrooms as well, so overall, I think he's starting to master this potty training thing.

"Mmmm....spicy"

This is what Evan says when I give him a short strand of minty Satin floss to play with while I floss my teeth in the morning.

Yes Man

Over the past several weeks, Evan has been responding to questions with either a head nod and/or the word, "yes" instead of repeating the last thing we said. Of course, he learned "no" many, many months ago, but it's taken him a little longer to master the affirmative answer. It's really cute to hear my little boy say "yes" so sweetly.

No. 2

Well, Evan made poo-poo in the potty for the first time today! Yeah! I have been so anxious about this next step. I really need to place more faith in his internal clock because he learns things at his own pace, in his own time. He was the one who asked..."poo-poo in the toily?" this morning without any prompting or coaxing from me. Yesterday, we spent about 35 minutes in the bathroom reading books as I waited for him to TRY and go poo-poo before nap time. But he couldn't (or wouldn't) go.

This lesson applies to the regression phase that he's entered now with going pee-pee in the potty. He's getting lazy and not asking anymore to sit on the potty and he's more resistant to sitting on the potty at all. It helps if we read a book. But this is when I really lose my patience: when he's having a temper tantrum and he stands up and pees right in front of me. This is what happened right before he asked to go poo-poo this morning. I did not respond with gentleness, kindness, and respect. Later, after we had cleaned him up, I asked for his forgiveness and gave him a hug. I'm not sure if his 2-year old little heart understood what I was saying, but I think it's still important for me to model asking for forgiveness when I hurt his feelings.

Winkle, Winkle, Little Wocket

Evan has been learning the words to Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and can sing along very well. During cuggle time tonight, he was singing the song all by himself over and over again. Then he went into silly mode and the song digressed into Winkle, Winkle, Little Wocket followed by an explosion of giggles.

Soggy Bottom Boy

The potty chronicle continues...

We've had some major successes with potty training. Evan has been consistently asking to "sit on toily!" Yesterday, we were at the grocery store and he told me he needed to go pee-pee and he was able to hold it until we made it to the restroom! Amazing.

He has been consistently having accidents as well - maybe 1 or 2 a day. I'm kind of wondering if the novelty is wearing off and he just doesn't want to have to stop what he's doing - playing or watching TV - to do his business. So, I have gone back to prompting him about every 20 or 30 minutes. Even if he says no, I still walk him over to the potty and sit him down. He usually goes - but under protest.

I'm really trying hard not to be discouraged by these accidents. I know that my attitude has more to do with my own struggle with perfectionism than with Evan's behavior. And I really don't want to project that onto him. So, I'm trying to stay positive and handle his accidents with detached efficiency rather than getting upset and judging them as setbacks. I'm sure this is completely NORMAL when kids are learning to use the potty.

The important thing is that he understands this is his new lifestyle, not just a temporary thing.

Potty Routine

We've got our potty routine down to a science now. Evan comes up to me excitedly and says, "Sit on toily! OK! Let's go!" Then we run over to Evan's bathroom nook which I set up in a cabinet in the kitchen. I pull over one of his small chairs and sit down, pull out his blue potty, pull his pants down, and he sits down. He likes to watch himself (of course!) and I have to watch him to make sure that he doesn't splatter pee-pee all over the place. When he's done, he says, "toily patoh" (toilet paper), he wipes his penis, puts it in the toilet, stands up, and I put his undies back on.

Then we walk over to the sink, pull over the step stool, and I say, "get 'em wet, soap 'em up, rinse 'em off, and....dry 'em off." He gets down and I take the little potty bowl upstairs and dump it in the toilet ,wipe it out with toilet paper, come back downstairs, place it back in the potty, put it away, and wash my hands again.

It takes less than 4 minutes now!

All done!

Well, in typical Evan form, he got the hang of potty training in only 2 days! What a blessing! He only had 2 accidents in the morning and was consistently asking to sit on the toily the rest of the day. By the third day, he was accident-free. I know that accidents will happen from time to time, but he definitely GETS IT!

This really feels like the last frontier of toddlerhood. Granted, he's only about halfway potty trained because he still goes poo-poo in his diaper (or sometimes in his tighty-whities like this morning), and he still wears a diaper to sleep. But this is a HUGE milestone for him and I'm just so glad to be over the hump.

P Day!

I decided to strike while the iron's hot. I just got back from my weekend in San Francisco and Evan went pee-pee in the potty a few more times for Mark over the weekend. So, I went out and bought Evan some big boy undies, a potty seat for the big toilet and a little potty for downstairs. I brought up some toys and DVDs and books and decorated the bathroom like we're having a party. I wrapped up the undies and placed it on the toilet.

This morning, I woke Evan up and told him, "It's potty day! Today's the day that you're going to practice going pee-pee- in the potty like a big boy! Come open your present!" I got him out of the crib and took him to the bathroom. He slowly ripped off the wrapping paper and took a look at the 3 pairs of Diego underwear and 6 pairs of white Fruit of the Loom briefs that I bought him. "You get to go pee-pee in the potty today!" And he said, "No! No pee-pee in the toily." Not a good sign.

We spent all morning in the bathroom. We watched Finding Nemo and Cars (twice) and I sat him on the potty every 15 minutes. I pumped him full of apple juice and water and gave him 3 M&M's every time he went pee-pee in the potty. He was reluctant at times. He was defiant at others. He was excited at other times. All in all, he had more successes than accidents.

But by the time we went downstairs for lunch, I was physically and emotionally drained to the point of tears. It was just so hard to maintain a postive, upbeat, encouraging demeanor in the face of blood-curdling screams, being slapped in the face, cleaning up pee-pee puddles and wrestling him onto the toilet.

I couldn't believe that he actually took a nap because he was so pumped up with sugar and had no outlet to expend all that energy. But, by God's grace, he did go down and I got a break. I talked to my cousin, Tanya, who was the one who had told me about this method of toilet training and she could completely relate. She said I was doing great, I was on the right track, and it sounded as if Evan was really getting it! And that was half the battle right there. The rest was just practicing it and reinforcing it.

So, I felt better after we talked. And when Evan woke up from his nap, we hung out in the bedroom and watched Diego and Cars again from the bed. It was a lot more comfortable. And, after awhile, Evan was asking to sit on the toily himself.

By the time he went to bed, I was completely exhausted. But I think, all in all, it was a very successful day!

Potty time!

Evan went pee-pee in the potty for the first time today - completely unsolicited! I was getting him ready for nite-nite and he was in the bathroom with me while I was going potty. And then he said, "Evan sit on toily." So I said OK, took off his diaper, and sat him on the toilet seat, hanging on to him so he didn't fall in. I wasn't really expecting him to do anything since he's only asked to sit on the toilet a handful of times. But I asked him, "Are you gonna go pee-pee?" And then we both looked down and he started to pee! I gave him some toilet paper and he wiped his bum. I told him he needed to wipe his penis. Again, he wiped his bum. So I took the toilet paper and wiped his penis, got him off the potty, put his diaper back on and we washed our hands together.

Then I called downstairs to Mark, "Hey Babe, you want to come up here and congratulate your son on going pee-pee in the potty for the first time?" And he said, "Wow! Yeah!" and he came upstairs and we made a really big deal over him. We were clapping and cheering and he just went nuts. He was jumping all over the bed and wiggling around. He was like a little tasmanian devil. He just couldn't keep still. He was obviously very pleased with himself. This is the first new milestone in quite awhile, so it is SO exciting!

"Stuck in the mud"

One of Evan's favorite books right now involves a Red Tractor pulling various and sundry animals and people out of a mud pit. Now everything is "stuck in the mud." His toy train gets stuck in the mud. Diego gets stuck in the mud. His blue truck gets stuck in the mud. The other night, Evan sang me a couple songs before nite-nite with this reoccurring theme:

"monkey, monkey, monkey, feet, stuck in the mud"
"doggie, doggie, doggie, stuck in the mud, fall down!"

"Giant!"

Evan isn't afraid of monsters under his bed, but he does pretend to be afraid of the "GIANT!" He was introduced to the giant thanks to the Children's Bible story about David and Goliath. Ever since, he says the word with a grave sense of dread and a gravely deep voice, cuggles up to me in bed and holds on for dear life. (No complaints out of me!) Then, when he's sufficiently scared himself, he says, "Giant all gone!" One day, he went so far as to say, "Giant...go to work...in the car."

Catching Up

There is A LOT of catching up to do with Evan's growth over the past 6 months. I've been writing little snippets on scraps of paper and quick entries in my journal, so now is the time to get it in the blog! I didn't always keep track of the dates, but here goes:

~ Super Evan! I tie my big handkerchief around his neck and he runs around with his arms behind him like he's flying.

~ Evan's Entourage: monkey-doggy-airplane (spoken as one word - these are the stuffed toys he sleeps with...although doggy is MIA these days), 2 plastic helicopters, 1 green airplane.

~ 3 question quiz for Evan: What's your name? "Evan" How old are you? "Two" (tries to show 2 fingers) Do you prefer PC or Apple? "Apple" And so begins the indoctrination.

~ Why do kids look suspiciosly at a bowl full of broccoli and refuse to take a bite. But they will stick their finger in their nose or in their ear and then, curious, stick it in their mouth?

~ more adorable mispronunciations: "wavoo wrinkles" (water sprinklers), "vivee truck" (delivery truck)