Super Hero Kind of Day

When you wear underwear like a big boy, you feel like a super hero.

You still have your super hero powers even after you take off your cape:

Click on this one below to see his face. It was so funny!!

3rd day in underwear!

Carter woke up with a dry diaper this morning. He was up at 2 AM & at 7:30 AM needing to use the toilet. He got up and went, and didn't get a drop in his diaper. I was not expecting him to wake up for that. The child that can sleep through David pressure washing the house next to his bed during a nap!

He tackled church today in underwear!!! Carter excused himself 7 times in the first 2 hours. He was successful every time. Each time returning with a "I did my potties!" Very loudly. For the third hour, he only had to go once. It may have had something to do with the fact that snack comes the third hour. Hmmmmm. As his bladder grows and as I learn his limits, I will be asking him to hold it longer. He alerts us well in advance of any emergency.

I did feel very bad for Carter's success, however. There was a little girl in his class that is also potty training, and she didn't make it. She didn't even get to tell them. They couldn't find her mom either, so she had to sit in her own wetness until mom was found. Carter would come back very proud of himself, and she was so sad.

On another note, we have FINALLY reached an agreement to sit on the toilet when pooping (I thought we had yesterday, but I was wrong). Poor David had Carter in the men's room while we were at a wedding reception last night and had to clean up a big mess. I was called in to assist, and it was NO FUN. I thought it was bad at home. It was worse in a public restroom.

Don't I love those pictureless posts!!

Today was our first day without a diaper. Carter hasn't had a bowel movement since Tuesday morning. I went in my room to get something. Carter felt the urge to go. he went in to take care of it himself. Despite my urgings earlier in the day to sit (and the 10 minutes we spent reading on the toilet hoping to induce a bowel movement), he stood. He stood on his stool in front of the toilet and pushed those turds out onto the floor behind him. He then attempted to wipe himself, and wipe the floor. He stepped off the stool and slipped in his pile. He left the bathroom and went to find me. Covered in his own poop, with his pants at his ankles, he led me to the bathroom where the mess began. I could have followed the trail myself. I still can't laugh about it. It would have been humorous without his relentless desire to be with me while I cleaned and his continuing to soil his self in the process.

I love him, but today is hard.

I still consider this a success in his toilet skills. He identified the urge to go, and he was in the right place at the right time.

And I'll have you know, that although there was poop all over his pants, socks, shoes, ect. . . There was not a spec of poop on his underwear!

Fun with Daddy

David took Carter with him to run errands yesterday. Carter seemed to really enjoy himself. All day today he told me "You wasn't there. We ate FRENCH FRIES! They're all gone." It is so cute. He probably told me 5 or 6 times today.

It was a nice break from him listing all the people he knows that have a penis, and then asking me what happened to mine. He is pretty sure that boys have one and girls don't, but he has to reaffirm who is a boy and who is a girl every day.

He was telling me about how Daddy goes to work at the high school. He teaches the kids to work on cars. David is glad he is no longer telling people that he works on his Subaru car all day. Today, Carter was pretending to teach his Little People how to work on their cars. He seems to have a pretty good grasp of what Daddy does when he is not at home. For some reason, all I do is go to meetings. Weird.

Grandmas & our Big Boy progress

 Carter has a soft spot for little old ladies. Maybe it is because he really enjoys his visits with his Great-Grandma Bobbie, and we haven't been able to visit her in a couple weeks.

We were at a restaraunt last month and he invited himself to lunch with these ladies. They loved him. He climbed in and started talking to them.

Today at the library he walked over to this lady sitting on the bench, climbed up next to her and started reading the Llama Llama book. He told her all about his friends and where we were going next.

It is so nice to see these ladies' faces when he sits down with them. They just love him.

Since I don't want to make ALL of my post primarily about our use of the potty, I will just attach our latest update on the bottom.

Carter used the bathroom all by his self today. I was in his room arranging clothes when he said he had to go. I watched him walk in the bathroom, take down his pants and underwear, push the stool up to the toilet (He is not tall enough to reach from the floor), stand on it, pee, dab the last drop off himself with a square of toilet paper, clean the toilet, move the stool to the sink, wash his hands, and dry them! I don't remember if he put the lid down, but I know he lists it in our bathroom checklist.

That all happened shortly after we got back from our very first outing without a diaper. Yes, we left the house in our big boy underwear!! We were only gone for an hour, but it was an outing none-the-less. We went to visit our newest friend Baby Freddie. Carter just loves Baby Freddie, and we plan on seeing a lot of him. Carter has a lot of confidence using the bathroom at Freddie's house, so I figured it was a safe place to go.

However, Carter has a lot of confidence using the bathroom ANYWHERE. If there is a public restroom, he wants to pee in it. He even told me today, in the middle of library story time, that he had to go. We got up and went. It is really nice to see him take these steps in the right direction. He is not waiting until the last minute - he is telling me the second he realizes it. That is half the battle with potty training - getting them to stop what they're doing when they feel the urge and not waiting until it is too late. Yay Carter!!!

Static

I love editing kids with their hair standing up high with static. I have a few pictures that I have done. I have a couple of our friends Emma and Lydia. I finally get to do one for Carter!!!

This is a picture I did of another friend we used to play with before her mom went back to work: It really works better if you have a lot of hair.

Every Single TOY!!!

I have again found EVERY SINGLE TOY!! It is the OCD in me. We were missing this little green ball for the ball popper, the green cap on the contact lens case (he loves to twist caps on and off - thank you Chandra for the idea), and the smallest cup in our stacking cup set. I was hoping we'd find them all when the power was out - because we had so much time. However, you have to have REALLY GOOD lighting to find the small toys that have been hiding in the best hiding spots in the house!!

When we go for drives Carter is always on the lookout for "The farm where the animals live". Every time he sees a pasture with horses, he gets really excited. Today he found many. I asked him what animals live on the farm. Horses, Sheep, Birdies, & Moose.

Background: I got this lovely farm from a coworker, minus the animals. I have been piecing it together ever since. We were without cows for a long time. Thanks to Chandra who found them at a garage sale, they are with us now. We were instead using moose. After all, a female moose is called a cow. It made sense in my head. I had bought a set of animals that I belived to be from the farm at a thrift store. I was mistaken. It was a partial Noah's ark set, with horses. Which is where I got the moose, and the weird blue bird who is standing in for our chicken (I just left the Zebra out completely). The dog is from the car wash set. He is holding a scrub brush. It makes sense because my dogs are always willing to help wash my car. If your dogs aren't - they don't love you enough, lousy dogs.

So, because of my thriftiness, my son thinks moose and weird blue birds live on farms.

 

New Playgroup

We found a new playgroup. They had 2 small bouncy houses. Carter took to it right away:

No basketballs, but plenty of others:

We set up a game of bowling:

And he discovered he is pretty proficient in trike riding. He would not get on the trike without a helmet. This is what he found to supplement the helmet:

He was very helpful putting away chairs:

He enjoyed the fountain outside: 

He also came and got me to let me know he had to potty during the fun. He also told me he had to potty while we were at the doctor's office today, and the second we walked in the door. He has not had an accident at all today. He is having very few accidents. We might be switching to big boy underwear full time soon.

Apparently we don't have cats

Today Carter was chatting to his self on the couch. I interrupted him to tell him we were leaving. He said

"I was just telling something to the cats"

"Carter, we don't have cats."

"Oh, we only have dogs?"

It has only taken him 2 years to realize that the cats are imaginary.

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He picked up my tripod today and was singing into it. I told him that it was not a microphone, or a toy and he should put it down.

"Oh, I thought it was a guitar."

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This is apparently the "I love you song":

We don't actually watch the video, we just listen to the song. Too much scantily clad women (and old men) to expose my toddler to just yet.

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I learned this week that Carter can sing this song word for word. He is constantly yelling "Mommy's song Mommy's song!!" because one day I told him that I could not stand to hear "Itsy Bitsy Spider" in 3 year old any more. I told him we were going to listen to one of Mommy's songs for a change. This happened to be in the CD player too. He can also sing Walking Away by the same band. It is a little creepy hearing a 2 year old say such adult lyrics.



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Carter woke up with a bad dream the other night. His cars were lost. He could not find them. He would not go back to sleep until he could see them to know they were not lost and have them in bed with him. I did not want to leave them in bed because it would only add to our bedtime ritual. It would become a permanent part. I realized that he already asks for so many things:

Waffle Blanket, Plug, Blue (stuffed animal, not the real dog), Cup of Water, Tent (From an episode of Blue's Clues where they put together a tent, we went to his room and set one up too. Now it is a must EVERY time.), Hug, and a Kiss.

It is cute, but I just can't add to it.

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Carter got a "Motato Head" for his birthday. I couldn't pull it out until he was a little more responsible about cleaning up the small things so the dogs don't get them. This was his first attempt at dressing it:

He did a pretty good job.

Toilet Training

Our toilet training is going very well. We have had many days of no accidents. He went all the way through church yesterday with no accident. Last week he even told his Sunday school teacher that he had to potty.

Even though we have a child seat built in to the lid of our toilet, I went out and bought a child seat insert with a shield for little boys who cannot tuck it down yet. I was really sick of being peed on. The day I decided to do that was the day I learned that my child can pee at least 5 feet. He was sitting on the toilet and peed on the sink - 5 feet!! I ask him to tuck it, but he hasn't yet. I tuck it for him, but it doesn't change the fact that he isn't doing it for himself. I caught him playing with some toys, telling the toys to tuck their penis. That was the last time I asked to him to tuck it.

I let him pick his underwear out while we were at the store. He chose the Thomas the Train. He was so excited to wear them. He had 2 accidents in them the first day. The first time he quietly walked out of the room. I asked him if he was going to go potty. He said he was. When I went in to check on him, I found him changing his underwear and socks. He had an accident and just went to take care of it himself. He didn’t want me to help at all.

We have “Practice” runs where we go to the bathroom and he pulls his underwear down even though he doesn’t have to go. He hates it. I asked him: “What do you do when you need to go potty?” His response: “I change my underwear.” Not quiet. Not even close. Am I just training him to go in his underwear so he can wear a different pair?

He asked me about my penis. I told him (for the 50th time) that I don't have one. He said "Oh, you took it off?"

Today he peed standing up for the first time. We'll see how that goes.

"Yay!! You did it!!!"

Carter is very complimentary. He gets really excited when someone else makes a basket in the hoop, or pees in the potty. Here are a couple pictures of him congratulating me on throwing a tennis ball in a basket:

He has become interested in taking pictures. David gave him our Kodak digital camera to work with. He loves it. He is also very careful with it.

Lydia moved. It happened very quickly. Carter's best girlfriend is gone. We talked a lot about why she moved and where she went. Her dada got a new job. Carter keeps asking me if his daddy got a new job too. I told him that he hasn't yet, so we're staying right here for now.

He was playing hide and seek with his toes. He pulled them up in his pant legs and asked me where they went. I told him I didn't know. He replied "They got a new job". That is what happens when things go away - apparently - they get new jobs.

Blu had a birthday. She turned 6. We had a party. We all wore "Blue's Clues" hats. Carter had a lot of fun.

Blu did not.

Just Like Daddy

With the snow came the power outage. We were out of power for about 30 hours. Not a big deal. We have a wood stove. We have never used it, in just over 4 years of living in this house. David checked it, and hooked it all up. We took it out to tile underneath it, and never put it back together.

While Daddy was working on it, Carter saw an opportunity to be just like Daddy. I thought it was so cute. Unfortunately, he thinks it still needs worked on. No problem when it is cold, but not a great idea when it is hot.

Carter has been getting in to baseball more and more. He really loves anything with a ball. Great-Grandma Bobbie got him a mitt - which he loves. However, Carter is left handed and most mitts out there are for right handed players. I didn't realize that it would be an issue, but he is trying to throw with the mitt. We decided that we needed to teach him correctly from the start, so David ordered him a left hander's mitt. He is still adjusting.

Carter is trying to be more independent. He tells me "No, you don't want to help me". Sometimes he likes to help pick out his own clothes. The other day, he decided midway through the day that he wanted to wear his football shirt instead of his airplane shirt:

He did it mostly by himself. He needed a little help finding the arm holes, but he did it all by himself after that.