Given Paul’s interest in Baby Doll’s toilet training, I’m considering beginning his own toilet training come the first of February. But I’d love to know your ideas for helping it go well. No promises I’ll try your method, but please share away!
Of course, that would assume there are people still reading my bog after months of silence. If not, I understand. My life is only so interesting, as this post demonstrates.
I sang and rocked my 2-year-old “I Am a Child of God” again tonight. He “sang” along with me.
I certainly hope that I’m that “parent kind and dear” we’re singing about! What a precious moment!
I was very impatient with Paul this morning. He had energy to do everything. Since he hadn’t taken a nap yesterday, I was afraid today would be another never-ending day. I was exhausted already.
“Go! Go!” he shouted, excitedly, as we went from one activity and errand to the next.
I felt snappy. I felt impatient. I was a mean mommy, I’m afraid.
Then, blissfully, after lunch Paul took at three-hour nap, longer than normal. He awoke just as energetic, but I was different.
From the moment I got him up out of his crib, I felt I was holding a precious bundle of warm blessings. He was cuddly, and for a few moments, we rocked together in the rocking chair. He was my baby, not so little any more but just as soft and innocent as a newborn.
As he ran out of my arms and toward his toys, I felt I was letting go of my precious little baby. He’s a toddler, and becoming more of a little-boy every single day. Of course he’s energetic: everything he does is new. It is exciting. It is special. And I’m so glad that cuddling with Mommy post-nap was one of those special things.
As I came in here to type down some thoughts and to try – just try – to capture the precious mother moment when I held my no-longer-a-baby little boy in my arms, I heard him calling “Mamma! Mamma!” I returned to his side, and he proudly showed me how he made his blanket into a train track for his engine. Yes, he loves me. He wants to share his little discoveries with me.
I treasure the precious mother moments that Heavenly Father gives me, those moments when God reminds me that Paul is a son of a Heavenly King. These are the moments when I feel so blessed that his precious spirit was sent to me and my husband. Our family. Our eternal family.
Paul’s not going to a baby forever. Oh, how I don’t want him to grow away from me!
It lasted about 20 seconds.
It had been a typical Monday. He was whiny from his sleep-deprived weekend. He was frustrated, bursting in to tears over the smallest things. But now, newly awakened from a refreshing nap, he was running in the back yard, chasing a ball, swinging, and otherwise being happy.
It was a beautiful afternoon, with the puffy cumulus clouds dotting the uncharacteristically blue sky. A light breeze kept the temperature around 70 degrees, which was perfect for an afternoon in the yard.
Paul looked and pointed at the sky, maybe seeing another airplane or a bird. I told him about cloud shapes, and called him over to look with me. I lay down in the grass, and he toddled over and lay down beside me, his one-year-old head resting against my arm and shoulder. As I pointed up at the sky, he giggled and burbled along, pointing towards the clouds.
And that is why I stay home with him every day: to lie down in the grass and look at the clouds with him for 20 seconds every now and then. It’s all worth it.
I really don’t want to talk about poop. This is my blog, supposed to be about my life. My non-kid life. Poop should go to Paul’s Page. That’s the page about the kid’s life.
But as I consider possible blog entries I could write, blog posts that might have some relevance to my current, everyday life, this is the post that keeps coming to mind.
What does that tell you about my life?
It started with Signing Time. Volume 2 has a sequence dedicated to “Potty.” (Can I tell you how much I hate that word? If I hear the segment, I reinforce that the word is “toilet.”) So Paul now has the sign as a part of his every day vocabulary. Maybe I should say “every hour” vocabulary.
Then a few months ago, I saw a “potty training flyer” at the doctor’s office when I was last there. It suggests saying things like “The pee/poop needs to come out!” at appropriate times. So I have been. Like those times when his face turns all red and he gets that look of concentration? Good time to mention it.
Paul loves the toilet. He gets very excited if someone says “I need to go to the bathroom” and he likes to follow the person in, hand over some toilet paper, and help get the hand towel for drying the hands after washing. The entire time, he blabs about something that he thinks is important.
I think he’s telling the person to make sure and get the pee out.
At 21 months, I really didn’t think Paul would comprehend the machinations of his body. I figured I had another year (at least) of such talk before it sank in.
For the last few days, he’s been saying “toilet” and we go and sit. But he doesn’t even wait. He just grabs the toilet paper and flushes the toilet. So I figured it was just a game for him: take off diaper, sit down, wipe, flush, put on diaper.
Today he came running to me, signing “toilet” as usual, with the same non-success/quick sit. Then about ten minutes later, he came running in even more eagerly, again signing “toilet.” I realized that he had come because the poop was coming out. It was kind of exciting to realize that he really did notice the happenings of his body. This is a very good sign! Maybe he’s always running in because something is coming out: he just hasn’t figured out the “it’s about to happen” moment yet.
And yet, this means I’m entering a new phase of poop. No longer will it be contained in a tidy little diaper. Don’t get me wrong; I’m very excited. I’m going to go get a kid-sized toilet seat and a box of Pull-Ups.
But then again, is this just a teasing stage? Is he going to regress very soon again? I’m suspecting that this is a “this is new” phenomenon and he’s going to be very tired of it in a week. Maybe starting now will just prolong the cost and bother.
What do the other mothers think? Is 21 months way too young to even consider beginning this process?
I meant to write this over the last week but I never did!
We had another great weekend last week. Friday we went down to Naperville and visited with Mom and Dad, who’d recently returned from the zoo! Then we got Paul asleep and drove to Chicago. We got up at dawn to eat breakfast and get to Grant Park, where we joined a crowd for Chicago Cares.
Our Chicago Cares group was assigned to a school, where Ryan and I painted lockers for a few hours. I have to say, ours looked pretty good; the college-aged interns on our team were a bit sloppier. All the same, I’m sure that South Side school will be happy to have a bright school next year.
It was over by 3:30 and we drove back to Naperville. Paul and I took a quick swim in the pool and played with cousins Daniel and Jessica before we all headed home. On the way, we stopped at a Mexican restaurant. They had a live guitar duo which went around to all the tables, serenading (for a tip). When they came to our table, we said they should play something fast. Paul started dancing in the high chair and pretty soon that whole side of the restaurant was laughing and cheering for him. We took him out of the high chair and wow, does that kid like to dance! He was such a happy little boy to have all that attention.
It was a great 24-hours overall. And then even Sunday was good: my primary learned the Father’s Day song very well. I’m hoping they still remember it tomorrow…
As a part of the Read with Kids Challenge, I’ve been tracking the time I read with Paul (who is 19 months old).
I love to read (as one can tell from my reading blog), so I like to read him chapter books (usually children’s). Even though he’s too young to care or follow a plot, I want to read those books, so I might as well get them read while I’m reading to a child. But each morning, I usually read him a chapter from something (10-20 minutes) while he plays with his toys or eats his breakfast. We also read picture books a lot, any time of day.
The Read with Kids Challenge encourages parents (or teachers or librarians) to read with kids from April 1 til June 30, 2009. There are awards and such too. I don’t expect to win anything — I just thought it would be fun to see how much I read with Paul and try to raise that amount of time each day so that reading is a habit for him and for us.
From April 15 (when I started keeping track) until today, we read 390 minutes, or an average of 26 minutes a day. I had made a 75-day goal of 2500 minutes, which is an average of 33 minutes a day. Considering reading in the morning and bedtime stories, that sounded do-able, but then I forgot about the days when I forget or don’t do much reading at all (like weekends!). I realize now that that will be nearly impossible. In the past two weeks, I’ve been really pushing myself to read whenever I could and every day. But I still came up short of what I expected would be “easy.” Maybe averaging 20 minutes a day is plenty practical. My new goal is 1600 minutes by the end of June, including, of course, the 390 we did in the later half of April.
I also wonder which times I should count as reading; maybe I am “cheating.” My son doesn’t actually read, so all my time is actually “reading to a kid.” Which times would you count as “reading with kids” out of these?
I count them all, because each in its own way helps him to love reading. That is, I think, the purpose of this challenge. I’m comforted in the fact that my son loves books. But what do you think? Does reading with kids need to be interactive?
An example of success: I read Paul Robinson Crusoe aloud over the course of two months. Now, whenever he sees that particular book on my bookshelf, he brings it to me, babbling something incomprehensible. I’m hoping he is actually saying something about his good memories of me reading to him (like maybe that day I held him when he was not feeling well, and he fell asleep as I read to him).
Another example: Yesterday morning, after I got him up and dressed, I was going to go into the other room. But Paul found the copy of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle we’re reading and handed it to me, very excited.
“Do you want me to read some of it to you?” I asked.
He nodded emphatically and then headed back to his toys, turning to look back at me to see that I was starting to read. Aww, how could I not?
I haven’t updated this for another two weeks. My, time goes fast!
Nothing is happening in my life except these things (decide for yourself if they are exciting).
I don’t update very often, and it’s good to look at this and remember that life is good. We’re so grateful for all the wonderful blessings the Lord has given us.
I told Paul he could stay in the family room, playing with his toys: I was going to clean the bathrooms. I put the Scrubbing Bubbles container on the corner of the kitchen table and grabbed a few rags from the laundry room.
In the ten seconds I was gone, Paul grabbed the cleanser. (Apparently, he is now tall enough to reach things on the table. Make a note of that.) Then he took off the lid (I have no idea how he was successful so quickly) and went into the bathroom. When I walked into the bathroom, he was rubbing the green nozzle of the bathroom cleaner on the lid of the toilet. (He knew the bubbles had something to do with the nozzle, but wasn’t sure how to get the bubbles out.)
Wow. I was blown away.
Now, I’d love for you to suppose this is a reflection on how often I clean the toilets. Trust me – that is not the case. It’s been at least two weeks since I cleaned the bathrooms and the time before that was, I think, when we first moved in (three weeks before that). I think I just have the most clean-aware child on the face of the planet. Or maybe he’s just going through a very serious “I want to imitate Mommy” stage.
After I sprayed the cleanser on the countertops, Paul grabbed the hand towel and tried to reach the counters himself. As I Swiffer-ed the bathroom floors, Paul tried to steal the Swiffer from me. When I scrubbed the toilets, he wanted to take the brush away from me and splash it in the toilet too. (I didn’t let him, and he was very sad.)
(Paul did dip his finger in some of the Scrubbing Bubbles and put it in his month. Ooops. Trust me, Paul, that’s not whipped cream! I think he realized that when he made such a face…)
I don’t think this interest in cleaning is normal for an (almost) 18-month-old. Or is it?
Don’t get me wrong — I’d love to encourage it. I personally hate cleaning the bathrooms (among other things) and I dreaded Saturday mornings as a kid when my sister and I were forced to clean (although we made up for it by singing “It’s a Hard-Knock Life” the whole time because our “mean mom” was like Miss Hannigan when she made us do chores). I look forward to the day when I can make cleaning the bathrooms a weekly chore for my son and not for me. Wouldn’t it be nice if he actually liked to clean?!
I was going to post this little anecdote on Paul’s Page (where I post weekly updates and stories about Paul). But then I was hoping that some of the other moms out there can share their thoughts. At what age were your kids competent at cleaning? Did they ever express an interest in cleaning with you? How do I keep him interested in helping (even though, right now, he really isn’t helping)?
Grandma Peggy gave our family a little people nativity this year. It is a new favorite for me! Paul is still a bit too young to “use” it properly (i.e., he tries to eat the baby Jesus), but next year I just know he’s going to love unpacking it!
![100_3378[1]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7026/6602231299_8799650efc.jpg)
![100_3382[1]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7033/6602231403_3e34caaca6.jpg)
![100_3381[1]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7025/6602231367_4bf7ddb8f2.jpg)