Bye Bye Roj Roj

Owen is learning the art of sleeping without his beloved pacifier. He has never even tried to say paci or pacifier when referring to this tiny object of security. This is odd considering he tries to say almost everything else that we say. But this is personal I guess, and he has called it several nicknames and settled on Roj Roj in the past couple of months. The J’s in Roj Roj are basically silent but there is a sound there when he says it and that’s the best I can spell it based on his pronunciation. Thursday night was his first night without the paci and I was not at home to help Kris with the torture of putting him to bed without it. The look he gave Kris, as he described it, was agonizing and the cries that followed were hard to bear but thankfully brief (only about 20 minutes). Owen was kept up late playing with Grant and Dean while Kris and Eric “hung out” due to both of us wives being at our first sewing party in ages. The late bedtime helped ensure Owen would be very tired when he finally laid down without his precious Roj Roj. Last night I did the dirty job of putting him to bed and he only cried about 10 minutes but whimpered for quite a while. He couldn’t be heard very clearly unless you were closely listening or standing near his door, but the look in his eyes when I laid him down just broke my heart and I pray that this does not lead to rough bed times in the future. He has been so good about going to bed and I’m so thankful for his calm temperament in most situations.

Yesterday, Owen once again told me that he had to go number two. I asked him if he wanted to sit on the potty and to my surprise he said yes. We went to the hall bath and I pulled out the little seat that fits over the big seat, but before I could get him on it he had already accomplished his goal in the diaper. No matter…I dumped it in the potty and showed him how it works. Then I sat him on it and let him get a feel for his new throne, telling him what a big boy he is and encouraging him that this is what mommy and daddy do too. He looked straight ahead, nodded and said…”I like it.” Kris snapped a couple of pictures and we all clapped. I am not trying to potty train him but I want him to at least get over his fear of the toilet and feel comfortable with it. He had another load in his diaper later and though I asked him about the fun toilet option he refused and we moved on. This is fine. I really want to get through the pacifier episodes first and then move to getting him out of his crib and when it’s time to potty train we’ll work on it and he’ll let me know when he’s ready. I do not, however, want to just leave it completely a mystery and the more he knows about the process the easier it will be when he is ready. That’s my theory anyway.

Kris is gone to another event with the MTUG this morning and though I would like to see more of what it’s all about I had no desire to get ready that early and go. Their are some events however, that he thought we would enjoy seeing later in the morning so we may load up and drive over there if I can figure out where it is.