At The Risk of Jinxing Myself...

I think I can finally say that we are officially POTTY TRAINED!!!!! Woo-hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (And as anyone who's been through this with a boy knows...every one of those exclamation points has been earned...LOL) And yes, I said "we" because goodness knows, this is NOT one of those things that a child does alone.


I've been wondering at what point I could "officially" say we'd crossed the finish line? At first, I thought, well, he really should be out of pull-ups completely, right? Yes, even at night, right? Then, as time went on, the bar began to lower...OK, well, what's the big deal about wearing a pull-up at night anyway? I mean, come on, heck, some nights when I'm dead tired (after making a post midnight post), and I get the urge that wakes you from a sleep you really, really need, or keeps you from getting there to begin with, I wish I was wearing a pull-up so I could avoid having to deal with getting out of bed and trudging through the cold air to the potty. Besides, I know kids that are 5 and still wearing the "safety net" pull-up to bed, and surely their parents consider them "potty trained", right? And on and on and on went the rationalizations...


So, down came the bar....well, just a little bit anyway! And I decided that success for us would be defined as the moment that I could remove ALL of the little pottys scattered throughout my house...in my kitchen (which sported a kids urinal AND a potty...oh joy) and in just about every bathroom. So, this past weekend, I plotted the final steps of this journey and planted the seed with my little guy by saying oh so nonchalantly..."I think you may be getting a little too big for those silly little pottys, don't you? I think it's time you shared JJ's bathroom...the "big boy" bathroom. What do you think?" And I held my breath and waited for the "no, I want to keep my pottys" but alas, it didn't come! Instead he sad calmly..."momma, you're right" (How often will that happen in my lifetime?)


So, the next day, in the spirit of "striking while the iron (or in this case, the potty) is hot"...out went the pottys!!!! POOF... GONE...NEVER TO BE SEEN AGAIN!!!!! When Jake returned from school that night, he didn't even notice that the pottys had been removed from the kitchen...at least until he ran over to the spot where they once lived and said..."ut-oh, momma, I have to go potty and my pottys are lost"...Though I was tempted to repeat our prior conversation, something told me that brevity was my best bet at this point and I simply pointed to the "big boy" bathroom and off he went. And there's been no looking back since!!! Of course, JJ just loves the fact that Jake now feels he's an equal owner of the big boy bathroom and it certainly makes for interesting conversation between the two...LOL


Jake's been doing really well in his new class in school. They were going to give him a month to see how he would adjust before making it permanent, but he's already giving the other kids and his teachers a run for their money. It's kind of funny, because anyone who works with him at school and even our new babysitter, Melanie (Mel), all say the same exact thing...wow, he's just so smart. Of course, I always love hearing that...though some small part of me wonders how it will be to raise a kid who's smarter than me...LOL It's bad enough that they usually THINK that they're smarter than you...in this case though, he'll be right AND he'll be smart enough to know he's right...LOL Hopefully, I'll be given a larger allowance of those little "mommy lies" to help me make it through.


Speaking of school, we did have two little incidents last week that the teacher brought to my attention. Seems Jake had a little altercation with one of the other kids, a girl no less. The first time, the teacher told us that he was "squeezing her face" and that she moved this little girl to another table (they had been working at the same table) and that Jake went over and found her and did the same thing again. After which, she had a little sit down with him and he snapped back into line. The next day when I arrived to pick him up, she said that he had pushed this little girl off of her chair. This time, she had a little chat with both of them and he apologized and gave her a hug to say he was sorry.

The next day, I was afraid of what I would hear when I picked him up. As the teacher approached I cringed and she actually laughed out loud because she could tell I was worried about what she was going to report. But this time she said that she finally figured out what was going on and that Jake just really liked this little girl but didn't know the "appropriate" way to approach her. So, she brought them together first thing in the morning, formally introduced them (he has 25 kids in his class and he doesn't know all of them yet) and gave them a project to work on together. She said he was thrilled and worked really well with her and that she didn't expect any further trouble. Although I was admittedly relieved to hear that she figured out what was going on, it obviously means we'll need to work on our boy's approach to women...LOL Obviously, pushing them out of chairs and squeezing their faces won't get him too far...which may not be a bad thing during the teenage years, when I'd like for him to not get too far at all. So much for our ladies man...

Since Christmas, Jake has grown another 3/4th of an inch. That makes almost 2 inches since Thanksgiving...which, ironically, was just about the time I purchase a gazillion 3T pants...uggh. The growth spurt combined with the new "no pull-up" look (which means the crotch on his pants can now come up a little higher and makes the legs even shorter) means that almost all of those pants are just about to be too short on him. And to think, my mother still counts each and every thing he eats all day long to ensure that she gets enough calories/nutrition in him...somehow I doubt that's necessary any longer! With the addition of those 2 inches, he's now 3 1/2 feet tall!! And he weighs in at about 35 pounds. At age 3...oh my!

These days it's actually possible to have a conversation with Jake. It usually takes everything I have not to laugh because he frequently uses a wrong word in the middle of a sentence which totally changes the meaning of what he's trying to say, even though I know exactly what he's saying...it can be sooo cute. I've come to realize that there are a few words that he's a little confused about, one being the word "fired". When I want him to hurry along and get into the car or his carseat or jacket or any of the other thousands of steps it takes to get him up, dressed, fed, in the car and to school, he'll always ask why I'm rushing him and I usually say something like "We have to hurry along because I have to go to work and if I'm late my boss is going to fire me". Well, the other day, he told me that my boss was mean and that he didn't like him. This came as quite a surprise to me, since he's never met him and I certainly have never said anything bad about him in front of Jake. After asking a few questions, I came to find out that Jake thinks the word "fired" means that somebody burns you with a fire. Ahhh, mystery solved! Who could like someone who sets your mommy on fire, eh? Needless to say, I don't say that anymore...LOL

Well, that's all for now. Just getting over whooping cough and I need to get some sleep!

p.s. Lines of the week...

Jake: "Momma, why do you have to go to work?" Me: "Because we need money to pay for all of the things we like and to get that money, mommy has to work" Jake: "What if I give back all of my toys, could you stay home with me then?"

JJ, Jake and I were sitting at the table eating pizza one night...when Jakey asked JJ to cut his pizza into 2 smaller slices. JJ: "Jakey, what if I cut them each in two again, how many would you have?" Jakey: "I'd have 4 slices" JJ: "What if I cut them again?" Jakey: "Silly JJ, I'd have 8 then!" JJ: "Holy crap, he's right!"

While I was observing Jake's class one morning (when I was supposed to be at work)...another child about 5 walked past Jake and asked him what time it was...to which he replied, "it's quarter to 9" (OK, admittedly, I was amazed at that response, especially since he was right) The other child stood there with a confused look on his face as he obviously had no clue what that meant. Jake, noticing this look, said ... you have 15 minutes more to play before circle time. I shook my head all the way to work...