Tales From The Potty

So, I hesitate to write about my son's potty training experiences in any great length here because one day he might read this and groan "Mom, why did you have to write such embarrassing personal drivel about me all over the Internet? Is nothing sacred."But the cold, hard truth it's that it's kind of too late. It's all out there: his tantrums and flailing and my angsty uncool love for him and also the fact that sometimes he makes me want to run far far away to a never never land and never to return. So why not potty training details? Everyone poops, after all.

I am completely ready for Jordan to be potty trained. The poop, it is big and grim, and he now knows how to answer the phone, he can count to ten, he knows his A,B,C's, he tells me when he doesn't like the taste of a particular food, and when it's snowing out and we're driving in the car he bellows to "beee careful momma" -- so really, he is wise enough to know when he's about to poop. But it's not happening. He will sometimes sit on the potty, after I've bribed him to, note I'm also sitting beside him with a book in my hand reading it for the 53928468 time and after he lets a few wafts of gas escape (I know, TMI, but you know, this is a parenting blog) he asks for a treat and flushes the toilet. He will almost always pee on the potty, or sprays urine all over the potty as many toddlers do in the early days of becoming a semi-civilized adult (I'll note that many men never do seem to get the hang of aiming in the right hole). (Uh, so to speak.) I know that three is an average-ish age for boys, but I am ready, I am willing, I want to fasttrack this thing. So hit me with your best advice -- and if your kid was potty trained by 9 months, you can just sit on the sidelines for now.

birthday parties

I'm Michele and I am the proud mother of a beautiful 12 year old daughter...Lily. The countdown is on for her 13th birthday! I don't really think she cares that she is turning 13...her biggest concern seems to be where she wants to have her birthday party. A year ago she said she would like to have a dance party or to go somewhere along the Kancamangus Highway...can you imagine getting all the kids there?!!! And yes she has been planning this years party since the day after her last birthday party :)

Anyways, now it is a toss up between a weekend of camping with her friends or a night at a local hotel with a pool! I think we are both leaning towards the overnight at the hotel. I have limited her to 4 of her closest friends...that's probably all I could handle!

I'll keep you posted...I'm sure she'll change her mind a few more times before May!

Questions!

I think Little Man asked me a hundred questions this weekend, many of which were, "What does [word] mean?" It's interesting to see his mind, at age 6, learning the intricacies of language. It's such a process. We wait for that very first word around his first year, but is it any less amazing when he catches something in our adult conversation and pipes up, "Mommy, what does 'educated guess' mean?"

And I say, "Well, it's like a hunch."

"What's a hunch?"

Hmmm.... we start getting further and further into this, and I am realizing that for all my love of reading, language, and words, I'm getting in over my head in my ability to satisfy this kid's need for definitions. I don't know what color dinosaurs were, or how far up into the sky that balloon will go, or just WHEN Spring will come.

We're often told we're our children's first teacher. I am happy to teach him so many things, but I recognize my limitations. It is so powerful for him to have many teachers in his life: me, his dad, grandparents, daycare teachers, neighbors and friends, aunts and uncles, and then his formal teachers, who I value and respect so much.

There will be a long time for questions. A lifetime of questions. I hope to be able to answer them for now, but sooner than I'd like, I'm not necessarily going to have the answers. My wish is that ultimately, I can teach him to find his own answers.... and then, perhaps, I will have found my success.