You Gotta Fight! For your Right! To POTTY!

Aidan,

Your Mommy and Daddy are so very proud of you. You're not fully there yet, and there's certainly a looong way to go (including the path to number twosville), but in under a week, you've gone from being a mere observer of people going on the potty, to being terrified to sit on the potty, to being a big boy who goes pee pee on the potty multiple times in a day!

We've always had an open door policy, so I think that's helped you acclimate to the idea of using the toilet. You even used to sit down in your little chair in the bathroom and mimic your mother and I while we were going.

You've also been a vocal commentator from time to time. You once came into the bathroom after I had gone and said "Poo Poo Pee Yew!"

You've also presented a bit of anxiety from time to time. Once you joined me in the restroom and when I got to the wiping stage, I told you that one day soon you, too, would be wiping your tushy. You looked at me with horror, crossed your hands in front of your crotch and said "no...No...NO!!!" and ran away.

But more recently, it's just been a lot of piqued interest in the potty.

We asked you if you wanted to sit on the toilet last week and you said 'yes.' So we held you on the seat and you sprawled out your limbs as if you were a cat about to be put in the bath.

So, your mom bought you a special Sesame Street potty seat and step stool:

And then she bribed you: yellow candies (Reece's Pieces) if you sit on the potty. That worked like a charm.

By the end of that day, you had gone pee pee successfully on the potty twice, and already tried to get candy for just going and sitting on the potty.

Now, we have a long way to go...you've peed on your the floor when we took your diaper off a bit too early, and you've peed on your mom when you were playing with the 'splash guard.' But for the most part, potty training has been a great success thus far! (And we've had to go and buy a whole new bag of Reece's Pieces).

This may seem like the level of our discussion has gone down the drain, but this is a major victory for you, son, and a major milestone in your development. Most of the time we have to ask you "do you need to go pee pee?" But a few times you've come running up to us and said "Pee pee potty," and we quickly rush to sit on the Sesame Street toilet. You're excited about the potty, and more excited about the 'candies.'

But we're excited about how much you've grown up and how well you're doing on this majorly important step. When it comes to number one, we think You're number one!

Next step, after reinforcing pee pee potty training for the forseeable future is to tackle number two...not literally.

And just so you don't get embarrassed about having your naked tushy on the toilet on the internet, here's an old photo from your Mother's and my 'engagement pictures.' See, everyone uses the the pottty...even your old man (especially your old man)!

 

UPDATE:  BREAKING NEWS....we have poos!

Talk Like a Man

Aidan,

I used to keep a list of every word that you said, in the order in which they appeared in your vocabulary. I was preparing for the worst. At your 18 month check up the doctor wanted to know if you could say five words. Your Mom froze and said "I don't know...uh...yes...yes he does." She was asked to list those words. She blanked.

The doctor said that by 24 months, they wanted you to say 50 words and be able to string two of them together into a phrase.

So I kept a list.

By 2 years old, you had surpassed all our expectations and had a vocabulary of at least 50 words  (and noises). Okay, maybe you were just shy of 50 words, if you don't count onomatopoeia, and subsituting animal noises for animal names (like 'arf' for 'dog).

But we weren't worried any more about your language skills. So I stopped keeping the list. It's a good thing too, because I couldn't have kept up if I did.

It seems that recently your vocabulary is increasing incrementally. I can't even remember everything you said yesterday, all the new words you learned over the last week (we learned "heavy," "booger," "guys," sunny," "sorry" etc).

But it's incredible to watch and be innundated by the flood of words coming out of your brain.

It's lke watching your brain at work, especailly when we don't understand what you're saying and you come up with other ways to explain to us what your saying.

And of course, vocabulary enhances your attitude too.

The other day, our friend Bryan was telling Luke that the pig says "oink." You corrected them: "no...pig..."

You're a little smart alec...but you're a smarty pants too.

It's really a pleasure to talk to such a smarty pants, by the way.

Especially when he can say "Joe" and "Baba,"

"Yaya"

"Mommy"

"Mimi"

"Brady" (Bray-deeee)

"Smile" (and can smile when we ask him to)

"Baby!" (and can kiss the baby when we ask him to)

"Daddy"

(You just started calling us "mommy" and "daddy". previously we'd been mom, ma, da, mom dad and my dad)

"Eat" (or, "eat eat eat")

"Dog" and "Walk"

 "Me you" (which means either 'me and you' or just you, meaning Aidan)...okay, that one's confusing...

Photo by Aidan

 "Toby" (which you just learned last week. It started out as "Taboo" and then you finally got it...you were so excited to say "Toby" that every dog is now "Toby!" even...

Photo by Aidan

 "Toby"...okay, that's "Preston," but we're still working on that one.

Photo by Aidan

 "Pig," "Pink" and "Pinky (the finger!)

Photo by Aidan

"Friend" (we just learned that one this weekend!)

"Pops" (which currently sounds like "Poss")

 "Yellow" and some variation on the word "Bracelet"

 "Shaow" (Shadow-- you love making shadow puppets, a trick that Mimi started and Daddy continued...you love the "big wolf" shadow...and the 'baby wolf' shadow too)

"Frog"

"Color"

"Dark" and "Eyes"

"Train!"

"Haircut" and "Baby"

You say "set go set go" for chases and while playing with cars.

You also say "Green set go" when you're ready for the traffic light to change.

You love Yellow and point out yellow-ness everywhere: "yellow bus!" "yellow truck!" "yellow car","yellow block," "yellow crayon," "yellow chair."

And "yellow candy" (sounds like "yellow canny"). You bargain for your yellow candy (a Reece's Pieces) after your medicine. But now all the yellows are gone, so you bargain for "brown canny" and "orange canny" too.

When people ask you "How old are you?" You dutifully respond "two!"

You learned to say "Ernie" "Mo's Ducks" and "sunny days" for your favorite Sesame Street character, songs and books.


You love numbers, including "two," "five!" and whenever any one is counting, you conclude with "nine ten nine ten nine ten", no matter where we actually are in the chronology.

You know our neighbors, Bryan, Tammy and Luke and discuss their comings and goings. "Bran gone." "Hi Tammy" "Yuke!"

You love your "Buzz car!" And love "wood-dee" too.

You say "you me swim"...but the jury's still out if you want to swim alone or with me.

One day we read a book about Winnie the Pooh. In the very end, Winnie the Pooh O.D.s on a lot of honey and goes to sleep, dreaming of "honey pots and pots of honey." You started saying "honey!" I asked you if you wanted some honey. You said "honey!" So I gave you a little spoonful. And you said "honey" again. So I gave you a second, third, fourth helping of honey. "Honey, honey, honey!" you said! So we went to go tell your Mommy. "Aidan, tell Mommy, what did you just eat?" I asked. You thought about it awful hard and then repiled "Pooh!"

Oy vey. That's right. You're speaking Yiddish too. Mimi taught you to say "Oy vey," and you use it when we read a book about "Sunny Days" (aka Sesame Street")


You also are learning some great words about gross-out stuff. Some Mother who shall remain namless taught you "Pee-Yew" for stinkiness or yuckiness. You LOVE reading about the garbage truck and saying "Pee-Yew." We ask you what you think of the garbage truck, and you'll reply "Pee-yew!"


Sometimes you join us in the bathroom. One particular day after I had stood up from the toilet, you peered in and said "Pee-Yew Poo Poo!" Great, now you're shaming me.

But, it's good for you to feel natural in the bathroom. Everybody poops. And now you can say "potty." The other day you barged in on me, sw what I was doing and said "Pee Pee Potty!" Unfortunately, you've also joined your dear old dad and had reason to say "Poo Poo Potty."

You love cars and trucks, and love riding the "Buzz Car" Brady let you borrow; you saw a "Big Truck" outside your school, and saw a "big Black Truck" outside our house.

Your new words aren't just limited to defecation and transportation, though. We had dinner with Aunt Sham and Scott last week, and you learned Scott's name. You thought long and hard and dubbed him "Sock!" And the whole night you kept calling him, "Sock! Sock! Sock!"

Then you saw a picture of the tow of them and said "Shammy! Sock!"

I've been compiling this posting for a week now to try to remember all the hilarious, amazing, new things you've been saying and I just can't keep up. You're talking so much now...and I'm just happy to be part of the conversation!