First Day of School

Today was Ethan's first day of preschool! Shockingly, I had no nerves about it whatsoever and was simply excited, which is odd since I've been lamenting all the big-boy changes of late. Ethan must have sensed this because he went in like an old pro! We got to the building, and he strolled right in to his classroom. I had to pull him back out to show him his hook for his bag. He resisted, but finally grinned when I pointed out he had a blue nameplate. Then he charged right back into the classroom, heading straight for a plastic bin and carrying it over to the play kitchen to "fill it with water." I stood back for a minute and watched him and then decided I might as well go! I asked him for a hug and a kiss. He sighed and gave me a hug. I asked if I could have a kiss. He audibly groaned and gave me a quick peck before going back to his work. I told him to have fun and keep his underwear dry. He responded, "K!" On my way out, I reminded the teacher to remind Ethan to keep his underwear dry, and as I left, he had already discovered the real sink and was gleefully washing his hands. I left and he didn't even bat an eye. The little punk =) (Not that I wanted him to be upset, mind you; I just expected some sort of goodbye =P)

I left the building (practically skipping, I'll admit) and rushed to enjoy my 3 hours of childless-ness, the only ones I'll get before my class starts back tomorrow. I wish I could say I did something fun, but in reality, I came home, uploaded a picture of Ethan to facebook, and then set about cleaning the house. I scrubbed the bathrooms, unloaded the dishwasher, dusted, captured an escaped goat (damn goats), and then headed back out to talk with a friend for an hour before heading back to the preschool to fetch Ethan.

I walked into the classroom behind some other mothers, whose kids came running into their arms. Not Ethan. He stayed right where he was, sitting on a shelf, and pushing a toy vacuum. Finally he noticed me and exclaimed "Mommy!!!" I went to give him a hug, and he said, "Mommy back!!!" Then he started showing me all the toys he played with, including a book that had wheels on it that he made "vroom vroom" noises over as he pushed around. Every adult in the classroom (his two teachers, the director, and an additional helper for the first week) came up to me to comment on how much he liked to wash his hands... apparently every time they turned around, he was back at the sink. Now they know what life is like at home! They also pointed out that he'd had no accidents, so that was my one fear put at ease! I asked Ethan if he was ready to go home, and he grabbed my hand and went to get his bag. As I put him into his carseat, I asked if he had fun, and he responded with an enthusiastic "Yes!"

All in all, it was a great first day for both of us. Hopefully he's just as excited on Thursday!

Twenty-Three Months

Dear Ethan,

In one short month, you will be 2. And as momentous as your first birthday seemed, somehow your second seems like an even bigger deal! It's been a busy and accomplished month, and the last month of your second year will see even more milestones.

We're 100% done with diapers, and you're in underwear full-time. You average an accident a day, though some days you have none and occasionally you have more, so things are going pretty well! The only downside has been less sleep since you wake up earlier from both your nap and overnight in order to remain dry, but hopefully your bladder will expand some as you age. I'm so proud and amazed by how quickly you've come with this!

Your vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds. You boss us around all day long and continue to crack us up with the sentences you construct. You tell jokes (not very good ones, of course), you dictate your surroundings, and you let us know what you want and need. You know all of your letters (one-to-one correspondence, even!) and are getting better with numbers (you can count to nine, though you don't always get the correspondence). Almost daily, we turn to one another and say, "Did you hear what he just said?" with a mix of awe and amusement. You're certainly becoming your own little person!

You love playing with friends, and you're going to have plenty of opportunity because in two weeks you will begin preschool! In fact, your first ever first day of school is less than 24 hours before my last ever first day of school! It will be hard to be apart from you for 4 mornings a week (between preschool and my class), but you'll be with friends and we'll both be learning so much.

You're amazing, little one, and as big as you grow, you'll always be my baby.

Love,
Mommy

3 Day Potty Method: Day 3

Only 2 accidents all day long. 2. That's it!

AND we went for a short drive this morning (during which I discovered Target doesn't open until 8 AM), we went to Target (after 8 AM), and we went to the farmer's market this afternoon, all with no accidents!

I have moved away from some of the 3-day method in that I have a few tricks to make the potty seem more appealing during times I suspect he might need to go (he generally goes about every 45 minutes, more often after drinking liquids). The most successful way to get him to decide he wants to go potty is to tell him Mommy needs to go. He races ahead of me and shouts, "Ethan first! Bye-bye, Mommy!" tugging his underwear down and grinning at me mischievously. My other method is to tell him we can do [insert activity here] after the next time he uses the potty. It began with nursing since I don't enjoy being peed all over and want to make sure his bladder is empty before letting him lie in my lap for long stretches of time, but it's useful for other activities as well. It's slightly coercive, yes, but the impetus is still on him to recognize that he needs to use the potty, he still has to climb up himself, and he decides when he gets down. So hopefully I'm only aiding him in his ability to decipher his body's signs and not irreparably screwing it up.

As terrified as I was of this step (and as anxious as I still feel throughout the day), I do feel like he was ready and am very glad to have said goodbye to diapers. Honestly, I think part of my anxiety throughout the day is not wanting to screw up a good streak. Who I think I would be disappointing if my 22 month old has an accident here and there is beyond me, but it's definitely my own desire for perfection. I should probably get a handle on that before I pass it on to Ethan, huh?

Time will tell if this sticks or is just a novel phase, but hopefully it will continue to be just this easy!

3 Day Potty Method: Day 2

Well, today was a much better day! Just in the stats alone: 7 accidents total. No accidents from 10:30 AM to 5:30 PM. Only 1 accident from 10:30 AM to 8 PM. I think he might be getting it!

The thing that's amazed me most is Ethan's attitude through all of this. He is having the time of his life. He giggles the entire time he runs to the potty, and he does a victory lap around the house after every success (prior to putting his underwear back on, which makes it even funnier). He's been a complete delight (other than being a mischief sometimes, especially with his returned obsession with sticking his hand in the potty water... gross!).

I'm much more encouraged after today, but I'll admit I would feel a lot better if it hadn't been for that 5:30 PM accident. I know that kids continue to have accidents long after they're potty trained, but I would really feel like he'd gotten it if not for that. Also, a couple of times he went this afternoon were the result of my saying, "You can't do X until you after the next time you use the potty" (nurse, feed the goats, etc.), so that wasn't really him realizing he had to go. I guess I'm just trying not to get my hopes up too high, and I'm also very nervous about going out with him in underwear.

We'll see how tomorrow goes, and go from there, I guess!

3 Day Potty Method: Day 1

After Ethan's initial interest in the potty at 17 months, his enthusiasm began to wane. He went from only having 2 wet diapers a day (the rest being in the potty) to only using the potty twice a day (if that). Recently, however, he's been more interested again, and we've gone over a week at a time without having to change a poopy diaper, which is always nice. So about a month ago, I decided to investigate the 3-day potty training method several of my friends had raved about. You have to wait until your child is at least 22 months and set aside a 3 day period to do absolutely nothing but stay at home watching your child with rapt attention. And that 3 day period I set aside a month ago began today.

The first step of the method is throwing out the diapers. Since we use cloth, that meant a final wash and stripping in preparation for storage for an eventual kid #2. From now on, Ethan will be exclusively in underwear. The point of this is to remove any crutch the parent might have in starting potty training and also to make accidents readily apparent. As soon as the child has an accident, they are whisked away to try to finish on the potty. Rinse and repeat. And repeat. And repeat. The whole process is meant to be very positive (tons of praise, no negativity, rewards, etc.)

So how did day 1 go? Well, we survived. Ethan was NOT thrilled about his underwear at first. He loved that there are trains on it, but when I tried to put it on him, he started crying. He continued to be upset about it all through breakfast and would only eat sitting in my lap. We kept praising him and telling him what a big boy he was, and by the time Daddy left for work, Ethan was fine with his new duds. When he woke up this morning, he had peed on the potty, and he managed to stay dry until his first accident over an hour after waking. And then it began. You give them TONS of fluids to provide plenty of opportunities for learning. In total, Ethan had 20 accidents today. Some were bigger than others, and a couple of times he finished on the potty. Several other times, he realized he had to go, ran to the potty, and went all by himself (he'd usually preface such an event by telling me "Bye bye!" and running off)! In fact, he stayed in the same pair of underwear from 5 to almost 8! And he woke up from his nap dry, which he hasn't been doing lately after having done it for months earlier.

I'll admit we aren't sticking 100% to the plan. You're supposed to use underwear for overnight as well, but I'm just not sure I'm up to changing sheets in the middle of the night just yet. Instead, we're using the training pants we got 4 months ago. His "sleep underwear" (as we're calling it) looks and goes on just like his normal underwear but has a cloth insert that can be changed out 5 times. The main reason the method wants underwear 24/7 is to avoid a regression if a child realizes there are still diapers in the house, so hopefully this won't cause any problems since it's so similar. And since Ethan didn't use the potty before bed (or 30 minutes after I put him to bed when I took him to try again), I'm thinking the chances of him waking up dry tomorrow are pretty slim.

The method says the majority of kids won't get it until the end of day 3, and all of my friends who have used this method experienced the same thing. I'm hopeful that MAYBE Ethan will get it at some point tomorrow because I'm already starting to go stir crazy.

Potty training is certainly not for the faint of heart, but I'm glad we're doing it! And if you made it through all that, here's your reward: Ethan wearing his very last diaper last night!

Twenty-Two Months

Dear Ethan,

Yet another month has flown by. In two short months, you will be two. So hard to believe, and yet when I think of how much you've changed so far this year, it's amazing that it hasn't been so much longer!

You narrate everything you do, and at this point we are actually able to understand 75% of the words! You're up to 4 word sentences, and we're always amused by the phrases you concoct. It's amazing what all you pick up on when we didn't know you were listening. And it's amazing how much you've learned that we've actively tried to teach you. Today, I asked you if you wanted to go downstairs to get a snack, and you ran into your playroom and exclaimed "Clean up first!" before picking up all your toys. You are getting better and better with your letters and numbers, though your favorite letter is still "O" and your favorite number is "2." Colors and sorting have become your go-to activity, even in ways Mommy never imagined. Blue remains your favorite, but you will sort anything by color or shade, and lately you've become more picky about things getting mixed up.

You are so creative. In addition to the sorting activities you make up and all of your dramatic play, you're starting to come up with actual pretend scenarios. Yesterday, several of your blocks were "hot" so you and Mommy had to blow on them to cool them down and touch them very carefully if they fell. I certainly didn't expect this sort of thing already, and I'm thrilled to get to watch your mind work.

We've reached a point where food has become a non-issue, which I never thought would happen. You're still somewhat picky and definitely have your favorites, but there's no food I'm worried about you trying to eat, and you eat enough variety from each food group that meals have become easy at last. And as long as you're still nursing six times a day, I don't have any worries about you getting all the nutrients you need!

You are so strong-willed and stubborn sometimes, but those "Terrible Twos" behaviors are balanced out by your gleeful, mischievous grins and copious hugs and kisses. In short, you have us wrapped around your little finger, and it doesn't hurt that most of your tantrums are still more adorable than anything else.

I can't wait to see what the next few months have in store!

Love,
Mommy

Confession

I've been cheating on this blog. After several weeks of not feeling like writing, I decided I needed to get a lot out. But I wasn't sure I wanted to get it all out in "public." So on Saturday night after Ethan went to bed, I turned to an old blog I never really started. 10 single-spaced pages and over 5000 words later, and the words are still pouring out. Since none of it is really Ethan-related, you're not really missing out on anything good =) But as long as I continue to find my catharsis there, it's unlikely I'll be updating here as much.

A few bullet points to tide you over:
- Ethan had his first swim lesson at the Y today. He loved it, except for when the lifeguard changed shifts, at which point he puckered up and wailed like he hasn't in months. Apparently he didn't care for the new guy.
- Ethan now attempts to sing along to the ABC song and does the motions for "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes." It's as adorable as it sounds.
- We've been exploring museums lately to beat the heat. The weekend before last we went to the local children's museum and this past weekend we went to the state museum of natural sciences. Ethan loved them both!
- Friday marks 22 months. Wow.

P.S. To preempt any speculation, when I say it's not Ethan related, I also mean it's not pregnancy/parenting related. No I'm not pregnant. No I haven't been pregnant since Ethan. No we're not trying. So no worries!