November 2006
11/27/06
We're home! We had a great Thanksgiving at the farm in Kansas with David's parents. Pictures first...
Tommy traveled really well. The last time we were at the farm he was 15 months old and it was without doubt the most difficult week of his first 18 months. He just wasn't an easy traveler back then. It's too bad we had to take so many trips (seven!) before he turned two. It was really nice to return to the familiar comfort of a relaxing visit with family after years of thinking we'd never experience that again.
In bigger news, Tommy only had ONE potty accident the entire trip. From the time we left home Wednesday mid-day until we returned home after midnight Saturday night Tommy used the toilet successfully almost 100% of the time. We were astounded. We did put him in pull-up diapers during the long drive and at night, but every single one was dry when we stopped for potty breaks or woke up in the morning. As usual, new skills develop quickly and easily when the boy decides he's ready to learn something. At one point he announced, "I'm a good learner! Thank you for teaching me Mommy." Of course, there's still a long practicing period ahead of us, but since we've always explained this whole toilet training thing to him as a learning and practicing thing (instead of do-it-now) he seems OK with it all. We're still reminding him and prompting him to use the toilet most of the time, but he's told us when he had to go a few times already. I think the hard part is over. I'm really glad we won't be buying and changing two sizes of diapers three months from now.
For the interested readers, here are a few funny toilet anecdotes. You might want to skip this paragraph if you aren't amused by poop and pee stories. At a sandwich shop somewhere in West Texas Tommy came running out of the bathroom past lots of diners yelling at the top of his voice, "I peed! I peed! Mommy! I peed!" Everyone laughed good naturedly, and I told him that I was very proud of him. His response when I say that is always, "I proud of you too Mommy. You reminded me very well." Throughout the driving portion of the trip, Tommy went into bathrooms with David instead of me. If the toilet was too tall for him, he stood on Daddy's foot so he could get up high enough to aim for the bowl. They tried using the urinal a couple of times, but Tommy was too distracted by the other people and the mechanics of that contraption to accomplish anything there. When Tommy was finally ready to poop after a couple of disrupted days we actually managed to successfully get him to sit on the toilet. He was so proud of that poop. David idly mentioned that it was a "Monster Poop" and it certainly was. Tommy picked up on that phrase and has been talking about his Monster Poop every since. Unfortunately, he really wants to see our Monster Poops too, and woe is the parent who flushes without letting the boy see and compare our poops to his. So far his Monster Poop has still been the biggest. For some reason, it seemed very important to David to teach Tommy how to pee on a tree while out at the farm. Tommy did, but I think he was a bit befuddled by the idea of peeing in the cold outdoors when there was a toilet just inside the farmhouse.
Other than the toilet training news, it was a pretty uneventful Thanksgiving. We ate lots of good food and Tommy played with Grandma and Grandpa and we all relaxed. I hope you all had a nice holiday too.
11/21/06
Yesterday was a bit of a disaster on the potty training front. The good news is that Tommy is steadfastly refusing diapers and wants to wear underwear no matter what (absorbent pull-ups do NOT count as underwear in his opinion). The bad news is that he only managed to pee into the toilet first thing in the morning and between the hours of 5-7 pm. All other bodily functions throughout the day missed the mark. My pregnant belly is getting too big for all this carpet cleaning and underwear rinsing. Oh well. Tommy's in underwear again today so I guess we're doing this now whether it's convenient or not. I'd better pack a stack of absorbent towels in the car for our long drive tomorrow.
We've
indoctrinated him in the use of his first hand-held video game in preparation
for the long drive. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
11/20/06
There actually isn't much to say about the weekend, even though it was very busy and fun. We went to baby Duncan's 1st birthday party on Saturday, and everyone has a great time. We also went to a dinner party Friday night and Tommy had great fun entertaining all the adults. At one point he returned to the dinner table and announced "Hey everybody! I peed in my diaper!" Thank buddy. Later he announced that he was poopy. He seemed a bit befuddled when they all laughed uproariously.
The great result of all that potty talk was our big success yesterday. Tommy wore big boy underwear all day yesterday and did not have one accident. Since he used the toilet successfully all day yesterday, we got him his big reward prize that he's been working towards. It was waiting for him when he woke up this morning. Even more amazingly, he was willing to pee in the toilet (dry overnight diaper) and put his clothes on before rushing to the living room to see it. Hopefully I'll be able to maintain the momentum without David's help today. I'm not as good at David is at convincing Tommy to try to use the toilet frequently enough to prevent accidents. The difficulty seems to be that Tommy has a huge bladder with excellent control. That usually makes potty training easier, but for us that means he really doesn't have to go very often and so gets frustrated with trying over and over. Maybe since he figured it out yesterday, it will be easier today.
Ta da! The
T-Rex Mountain. He already had all the dinosaurs in the foreground, but
has wanted this big toy for a long time. He still had lots of empty check
boxes on his goal chart yesterday morning, but it was all filled up by bedtime.
Yay Tommy!
This potty training break is actually happening at an annoying time. We have a very long drive ahead of us on Wednesday and then a visit with Grandma and Grandpa. We'll have to see how he does today and tomorrow. If he does stay in underwear both days, then we really shouldn't revert back to diapers for the trip. It's going to be interesting! I just hope my car doesn't smell like pee by the time we get home.
11/19/06
Bleargh. I just cannot get focused enough to post regularly these days. It's kind of funny that I even think I ought to be posting every day. This started out as just a personal space for cute baby pictures for close friends and family. After Tommy was born my goal was to post pictures once a week. I look back at the archives, and see that I did that, but not much else. Then I started posting 2-3 times a week. Then Tommy started doing more funny and interesting things so I started writing more instead of just posting pictures. I'm not sure when I started posting every day (M-F), but it seems like I've been doing that for a long time now. Then my visitor statistics started rising and now there's an audience of many from around the world to please. Eh, I don't really have a point with this. Just trying to find something to say... even though we've had a very busy, fun weekend and I'm sure if I wasn't pregnant and fuzzy-brained I'd have tons of interesting things to say. See? Rambling here. Anyway, I'll tell you about our weekend tomorrow. (There were a couple of great photo opportunities, and I even had my camera with me, but I didn't manage to take any pictures.)
By the way, we've decided to drive to Kansas to spend Thanksgiving with David's parents. We'll be gone from Wednesday to either Saturday or Sunday, so there won't be any posts at all for most of next week. Maybe the break will re-vitalize me. At the very least there will be lots of good pictures to share on Monday Nov. 27th. Then you only have to wait three days until the exciting "Is The Niblet a Boy or a Girl?" post which will appear on Thursday Nov. 30th.
11/17/06
Tommy had his first gymnastics class today. He loved it. David took him, so I don't really have a first-hand account to give you. According to David and Tommy they did lots of fun things like running warm ups and walking on the balance beam and diving into the foam-filled pit under the still rings and playing with a parachute and donkey kicks and somersaults and boinging up and down. He cried for over 30 minutes when it was over, proving that he loved it and was very sad to leave. I don't think he really believes that we'll let him go back again. He and David are going to go on Fridays at 10:30. Our original plan was for David and me to trade off taking him depending on if David has to work or not, but David thinks my pregnant girth will exhaust me too much to keep up. He's probably right. Luckily I have being pregnant as an excuse as it sounds like something that would exhaust me even on a regular day. Tommy's not ready for the independent classes yet, so he needs a parent there to do stuff with him. David will probably just take vacation time on the Fridays when he should be working. Getting Tommy in some sort of class so he can be around other kids, learn to listen to teachers and be really physically active seems to be a really important thing right now, so we'll make it work.
11/15/06
The high daytime temperatures here may still be in the 60s and 70s, but Tommy is officially ready for winter. Thanks to Grammy and Grandpa Wayne. You know I wouldn't actually get around to buying him a warm coat until it actually snowed some random day in February.
Here's a lovely
winter coat that he'll be wearing almost every day in a couple of weeks.
The hat is actually mine, but he cried when I told him he didn't have a winter
hat yet.
A complete
snowsuit...which he loves...and wore outside in our sunny weather for about 30
minutes this afternoon.
11/14/05
The World According to Tommy...
"Once upon a time there was a Humpty Dumpty. He was on the grass, but then he climbed onto a wall. Oh no! He fell down and broke himself. Then all the kings horses and all the king's men tried put him together again. They couldn't. The end. That was a good story!"
*****
"I'm Bob the Builder. Mommy is Handy Manny. And you (Daddy) are a talking tool box. You have talking tools in you. We can fix a broken house with a computer in it with your tools. Then I'll zip you up and up and up."
*****
"Rock a bye baby in the treetop. When the wind blows the cradle will rock. When the tree breaks the baby will fall. But dinosaurs will catch him and all."
11/13/06
It's been a while since I posted any fish tank pictures.
Here's a
picture of David's 12 gallon saltwater nano reef tank. The Button Polyp
and Strawberry Dottyback are new. Hopefully you can read the tiny labels.
The clownfish is fully bonded with the Xenia Coral (it's similar enough to a
anemone for him). Dottybacks are supposed to be territorial like
clownfish, so we're hoping he'll stake out the cave spaces under the rocks
instead of bothering Nemo. Tommy has named her Soofie.
Here's the 30
gallon planted freshwater tank. We have more aggressive fish in there now,
and David seems to inherited his father's green thumb. The plants are
thriving.
11/12/06
There's a new pregnancy picture up for week 24.
11/11/06
Go away Mommy.
Can't you tell we're still sleeping?
After an almost record high for this time of year of 74 degrees on Wednesday, we woke up to almost freezing temperatures this morning. Tommy was cold, so our morning snuggles started early. I've ordered him some warmer pjs, but they haven't arrived yet. He's warm enough under the covers, but when he kicks off the covers he gets cold and wakes up.
11/09/06
After throwing the beach ball down the hall multiple times for Super Tommy to rescue, Daddy decides to mix it up a little bit.
Later, as Super Tommy gets tired of running around while Mommy and Daddy recline on the couch, he comes up with this ingenious plan.
Good morning!
I have bed head.
11/08/06
Tommy let me take a nap yesterday! It was really nice. I was really tired and he tried to lie down with me for a while but just wasn't sleepy. I turned on the TV for him in our bedroom and told him I was going to rest right there on the bed while he watched TV. He understood! He stayed very quiet and didn't poke me or talk to me or ask for things. I slept lightly for about an hour and a half and woke up feeling much refreshed. I didn't think I'd slept very soundly since I was always kind of aware of the TV and what Tommy was doing, but when I asked Tommy if I slept he said "Yes! And you snored like Daddy! Poor sleepy Mommy. I was very quiet."
11/06/06
If there was ever any doubt, this past month has proved that the boy has a very active imagination. We haven't ever completely upgraded his stash of toys to reflect imaginative play, so he has to make do without props. (Don't feel sorry for him. He has plenty of toys. He just doesn't have play food or a dress up box or stuff like that. He does have a workbench/tools and lots of little characters and animals though. And dinosaurs...lots of dinosaurs.)
Anyway, his favorite games this past month have all been 100% toy-free. I actually think we can credit The Upside Down Show for modeling the idea that you can play pretend without any toys at all. He's always done imaginative play, but this is a new version of it. He and I pretend to be Little Bear and Mommy Bear and we spend a couple of hours sleeping in our caves and picking blueberries and catching fish and cooking blueberry-fish stew and having bear picnics. The other day we had a whole entourage with us on a trip to Wal-Mart -- Dumbo, his mouse, Lumpy the Heffalump and Lumpy's Mother all had to be kept track of. Tommy chattered away with them and scolded me when I forgot to hold hands (trunks?) or didn't leave space for them as we walked down the aisles. Our house is littered with various imaginary booby traps that only he can free us from. There are also lots of extra doors in our house that lead to rooms like the Very, Very Hairy Room or the Very Small Room or The Beach. (That last game is straight from The Upside Down Show.) He pretends to take The Baby out of me -- through my mouth no less -- and carries it around with him in his hand. He puts it to sleep in the crib and sings songs when it cries and give it baths and bottles. When he's done playing he puts it back in my belly by pretending to feed it to me and telling me to swallow.
11/03/06
Tommy: I love Skittles. Taste the Rainbow!!
Mommy: I like them too. What colors are in your bag.
Tommy: All the rainbow colors! Red, green, yellow, orange. (pause) Mommy! There's no pink in this bag!
Mommy: Do you mean purple? I saw lots of purple ones when I opened the bag.
Tommy: There's no purple. These are black.
Mommy: Black ones! Oh, those are purple. They're just really dark purple.
Tommy: No. They're black.
Mommy: Do they taste like grape? Purple Skittles taste like grape.
Tommy: (tastes one) No. (chuckles) It does NOT taste like a grape.
Mommy: Well candy grape flavor isn't exactly like real grapes. What do you think it tastes like?
Tommy: Chocolate! But its WEIRD!
11/02/06
Two random and unrelated paragraphs!
Trick-or-treating went really well. Of course Tommy enjoyed it more at 2 years 9 months than he did at 1 year 9 months. He knew exactly what to do. I think having Claudia with us made it even more exciting for him. We didn't actually go to very many houses because both Claudia and I are getting over colds. We both started coughing in the cool night air. I think if Tommy had gone out alone with David (our original plan), they would have gone to at least twice as many houses. It was probably good that we cut it short though, since a little boy can only eat so much candy (even with Mommy & Daddy helping) and it was nice to have him in bed at his normal time. I feel a bit bad about completely dropping the ball on handing out candy hand though. Since we all went out together there was no one home to give out candy to the young trick-or-treaters who live in our neighborhood. It would have been nice to meet these potential neighborhood friends for Tommy. We ended up giving out candy from about 7-8, but that was after the really young kids were out but before the older kids were out. Oh well. More left over candy for us!
On Sunday, David was on the phone in the living room and I was doing something in the kitchen. Tommy was playing by himself. It had been quiet for a while. I turned the corner into the office and saw Tommy standing on a computer chair with his arm up to his elbow in the saltwater fish tank. I hollered at him to stop and he looked up at me and said, "I'm trying to catch Nemo Mommy!" He had a huge grin on his face, which fell when he realized how angry I was. David and I both started telling him how bad it was to try to touch the fish and that he was scaring Nemo and might hurt him. Tommy got really upset then. "I'm sorry Nemo! I'm your friend! Don't be scared. I not hurt him. I was just petting him!" Poor Tommy...and poor Nemo! Tommy won't be doing that again.
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