Hey Daddy - where's the snowpants and long johns???
O poop. It seems that no long after Evan turned two, that it all started. Our sweet-tempered baby boy is now a toddler/preschooler and he's acting every bit of it. Here's just one of our stories... Yesterday we walked to Starbucks, which we often do on the bitterly cold days when there is no library story hour or Mommy & Me gym class. What's cool is that we always find our stay-at-home moms and dads from the playground there. We really, REALLY miss our playground. Anyway, Starbucks was out of soy milk, which is just as well since Evan started screaming to go back outside. We left Starbucks and as I started wheeling him toward the little, independent coffee shop a quarter mile down the street, he started screaming that he wanted to go back in Starbucks. "Too late," I said as he struggled like a little hyena to get out of the jogging stroller. "Do you want to walk?" I asked. NOOOO! he screamed. Ok. Whatever... we are on our way to the coffee shop anyway. We got to the place and I guiltily started talking with the barrista, who was questioning why we hadn't been there in so long. Evan answered for me screaming "STARBUCKS! STARBUCKS! WHAAAAA!". At this point the little Houdini was halfway hanging out of the bottom of the stroller, under the tray. As anyone with a 2 year old knows... You do NOT give in to tantrums, nor do you try to appease the kid by making a thousand suggestions. Appeasing makes everything worse... Everything is NO! NO! NOOOOOO! No matter what you say, it's the wrong thing to them. The only thing that makes it better is a time out... or a nice long nap. Neither of which you can do when you're out. So what can you do in a public place? The whole place was staring at us, making me feel like a cold, uncaring parent as I ignored him, got my coffee, apologized for coming in, then got out of there. Evan and I argued outside the shop for a few minutes, then we went to the playground to blow off some steam. Luckily there were some other kids there and all was well with the world (Gorgas Park is like a cult- seriously! There's a park group of moms and dads who also go to the library and gym classes... It's actually pretty wonderful and it's cool to run into kids you know around town that Evan recognizes and plays with).
As for some good news... we are finally having incredible success with the potty training. Not that I can say that Evan is potty trained. He sometimes wakes up with a huge poop in his diaper. But we are well on our way. He stays dry all day- even during a nap, as long as you put him on the potty every once in a while. He goes first thing in the morning, after each meal, before we go out, before we leave for home, once we get home, and before bed. However, Evan will not tell you if he has to pee. If a long amount of time goes by and you forget to stick him on the potty, he'll pee his pants and say "Mommy! I'm all wet." He will tell you if he has to poop though, which he did when we were all at the PHL dinner on Sunday night at Springfield Country Club. The speaker was giving a heart-felt speech and Evan yelled "Poop! Mommy - poop!" He enjoys peeing in public places like Starbucks, Target, etc. but has yet to poop in a public bathroom. I'm going to buy him a special travel potty seat for those occasions and see what happens. I'll keep everyone posted on that hehehe. I do think our success so far is 1) a book called The Baby Whisperer that Mima gave us. It really helped us get into a great bedtime/nap schedule and also a potty schedule. Just as a note - when you first read it and the techniques don't work at first, you're going to feel like the worst parent ever! Especially when you read that a baby could start potty training by 9 months and that they're usually all trained by 18 mos in every other country in the world except the USA due to the evils of disposable diapers and pull-ups. But after a few thousand tries and you get success, you'll feel like Super Mom. This brings us to 2) Not using pull-ups. I put Evan in cloth training pants, which are basically briefs with extra padding in the front and back. It allows him to feel the wet and poopiness. It's very messy when starting out, but we have easy to clean hardwood floors. We just went through a lot of disinfectant and paper towels. Just recently I did buy pull-ups for when we go out... undoing a diaper to go potty was too frustrating and the training pants would leak if Evan has an accident.
Another thing we've been struggling with lately is the tv. Evan would watch Diego all day if we let him and he wants to watch nothing else. Not Sesame Street, not Blues Clues - nothing but Diego. You all know Diego - bad animation, repetitive scenes that take up a third of every episode - pretty much a show that was made solely to sell Diego merchandise. It's driving me crazy and I don't want him to watch a lot of tv. The crappy thing is that it's winter, and when I'm trying to clean or make a meal, it's just way too easy to turn on the tv. So now I only put it on at breakfast and dinner. That's bad - I know- but at least he's already sitting still and it's not taking away from his playtime. Plus it makes him eat more. I know I'm setting Evan up for mindless tv eating, just like I do. But hey, I figure I'll be honest here.
So that wraps up another looong Evan update. You should see the big hands and feet on our two year old. They were always big on his little body, and it's so funny to see those long fingers, toes - and legs too. In fact Mike was watching Evan's feet dangling from his booster seat the other day and said "Where did those legs come from?" They can't be our baby's. I wonder if he'll grow into them like a puppy.
(Some Diego time after playing out in the snow with Daddy)
