Potty Power

Avery is 17 months old now and has recently developed an interest in the toilet.  It started with her wanting a piece of TP to wipe the leg of any person sitting on the toilet (usually me, since I don't have the privilege of going the bathroom by myself unless it's between 8pm and 6am).  She would wipe my thigh thoroughly, put the square in the toilet, close the lid and flush. 

Then Avery started wanting to sit on the toilet herself.  Since I can't hold her over the toilet all day long and simultaneously care for her two older brothers, it occurred to me that Avery is ready for her own little potty.  Most of the time, she sits on the potty with her clothes on. But there have been four times so far when I've bothered to take off her diaper so she can have some genuine potty experiences.  Here are the results.

1st time: peed in potty
2nd time: peed in potty 
3rd time: peed in potty
4th time: pooped in potty

I kid you not, Avery is 4 for 4 with butt naked success on her potty.  I am intrigued to see where this journey takes us. Or rather, how long it takes us to get there! I'm surprised how much control she seems to have over her bodily functions when she wants to.  But then again, people always say how much easier it is to train girls than boys. (And I can already attest to MUCH less mess from a girl!)

Lest you think I am bragging, I do want to add that I am convinced this is too good to be true and don't expect Avery to go every time she sits down on the potty.  Secondly, I also know that the more a parent wants to potty train their kid, the less the kid wants to be trained. So I am in no hurry and am very content to let Avery do things at her own pace here. It's been a fun start though.

A Fly On Our Walls Might See Something Like This

I love watching the kids playing together, observing how they interact and how their minds work.  And for sure, our lives are full of If-Only-You-Could-Have-Seen-It moments with the kids.  Here is a snippet of one of those times from earlier today:

Caleb and Hayden started tossing a bunch of Avery's toys into a suitcase.
Caleb: We're going on a trip to a land full of babies and bears.  I'm going to fight the babies and Hayden will fight the bears.
Hayden: And ducks.
Then they zipped up the suitcase and Caleb started dragging it around the living room.  And Hayden followed, and said, "I'm going on the trip too."

A Reminder of How Childbirth Wreaks Havoc on a Mother's Body

During lunch today Matt and I were talking about bricks, which prompted Caleb to say, "I think Mommy is made of bricks."  When asked to expound on that, he said, "I mean that I think Mommy's stomach is made of bricks." 

I thought to myself, "Bonus points for that one, Caleb."  And, "I wish my stomach looked like bricks."

But then Caleb continued, "It's one giant brick. That giggles. And it has a giant bus behind it."

Bonus points revoked! Though I must admit that Caleb has a creative way of speaking truth, and we all got a good laugh out of it.

Monkeying Around

This afternoon we celebrated Caleb's 5th and Hayden's 3rd birthdays with friends. We did a Curious George theme, which was a lot of fun.  The kids enjoyed playing "George says," making pasta jewelry (a la Chef Pisghetti), using the new bubble machine from Mia, and playing the Curious George board game from Jacob, Simon, and Justina. Oh, and eating cake too! We captured some of the fun on camera:

My New Favorite Way to Give Myself a Sugar Headache

Usually when I make a cake I decorate it with the store-bought icing in a can. For Hayden's 3rd birthday this past January I made my own buttercream icing for the first time. Yum! A sugar addict's delight for sure. Last night I started making the cake for the boys' Curious George joint birthday party so the buttercream is now ready and waiting to be spread on the cake. I just hope there is enough left by the time I get to decorate the cake tonight that I don't need to make another batch. I've got all day to *try* to keep myself from sampling the icing. Maybe it would be best if we spent the day out of the house.

My, How Things Change

When Caleb was almost 1, he got his first Matchbox car. I was hesitant to let him play with it since they're recommended for ages 3+ because of small parts. I watched him closely at first whenever he played with the car.

Hayden started playing with Matchbox cars as soon as he was able to reach and grab them. I was careful to watch him when he put them in his mouth, but it didn't worry me too much.

At the moment, Avery is running around the house carrying two of her favorite things: chapstick (because it's fun for her to take the lid off and on) and tiny Lego people heads. And I'm here on the computer while she does it.

This one's for you, List Lovers

This morning Matt emailed me this link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8537856.stm. It's an article about an exhibition about the art of list-making. I decided to pass it along, since I know how much many of my friends love to make lists.

I, too, have historically been a List Lover. One of those people who likes making lists just for the sake of having a list, and someone who puts an item on a list- even if it's something already taken care of- just so I can cross it off the list. In my pre-parenthood life, I enjoyed making to-do lists, packing/shopping lists, pro and con lists to help me make a decision, and lists of things to remember to say in a difficult and/or important conversation.

I have noticed that since becoming a mom my listmaking has changed somewhat. I still make to do lists and packing/shopping lists... mostly because I NEED them now, or else I will inevitably forget to schedule that child well-check, leave the underwear out of the suitcase, or come home from the grocery store with everything except my main ingredient for tonight's dinner. Gone are the days when I was so with it upstairs that I could write a list and never need to look at it again (because I had it memorized).

For the most part, parenthood has cured me of the compulsion to write pro-con lists and lines of logic to use in conversation. I suppose it isn't JUST parenthood that gets the credit-- maybe there's some plain old maturity as well as my part in an increasingly postmodern culture in there too. But being a mom has helped me chill out and be ok with some disorder, disarray, and, um, near chaos at times. Thus I generally have less of a need to feel in control all of the time- something the article mentions as often characteristic of list writers. Parenthood (and, again, probably other things too) has also helped me realize that it's often ok to trust my gut feelings. I don't need a rational explanation for everything I decide. I don't have to tally up the pro and con columns (and the values assigned to each item) to figure out what to do. I actually like to decide things based on what FEELS right. It's the new postmodern mommy Robyn.

Oh, and there are also plenty of days now when it's hard to even take the time to write out a list!

Maybe someday I will be able to think clearly enough to no longer need ANY kind of list... but I really doubt it.

PS. So I re-read what I wrote above, and I want to add that in no way do I mean to imply that people who don't make lists are more mature than those who do... I really have no problem with lists (and the people who love to make them)! All I wanted to do was comment that my listmaking habits have changed over the past few years. No judgments of others here! Maybe if I had listed out my points ahead of time, I would have written more clearly ;)