Yesterday I sneaked this shot of Aron in his crib. I just love those chubby little fingers in his mouth. Unlike his brothers he wakes up more easily and one shot was all I had. I’m glad it turned out. I had to snap it and run because he immediately raised his head and started looking for whatever woke him up. He did go back to sleep. He is still crawling with his elbows and toes instead of his hands and knees. His belly gets very dirty depending on where he is put down. He’s gotten pretty quick which makes me wonder if he’ll ever want to get up on his knees. He seems quite content.
Ivan is in big boy underwear again today. We have been very mildly coaxing him to use the potty, but have not been insistent. He has volunteered a few times, only one of those successfully but for the most part he’s just too busy and prefers his diaper. I am trying to be more committed and have set myself up with the laptop and a timer in the playroom for the day. I have a very hard time paying attention to this process because I don’t like sitting still. I have to forget that I could be doing other things and just be happy to be the potty training mommy for a few days.
Even with my head in the game I’m really not good at this potty training process. I feel so completely helpless because I cannot communicate effectively what they need to feel, look for, and think. I knew that Ivan would have to pee soon so I set the timer for 5 minute increments and we sat on the potty each time. I think he peed a tiny bit into the potty last time so I set the timer for 15 minutes and questioned whether I should do 10. Sure enough, 5 minutes before the timer went off, he peed on the carpet. Argh! This time I set it for 15 and hopefully nothing will happen before then.
Owen got a call from Vanderbilt again. Okay…I got a call. Their Language and Development Lab in the Psychology and Human Development department often look for young children to be a part of their research. They get birth records and make phone calls to families, looking for kids who are a certain age to be a part of studies that will basically become statistics to tell us more about what kids know and are capable of at different stages. I have taken Owen three different times and it’s very interesting to see how they run the tests and interact with the kids. This time around another group had a study requiring 2 year olds. So Owen and Ivan both participated in different projects. They love doing it and always come home with a gift of some sort.
After Vanderbilt we had lunch at Chick-Fil-A and played in the playground for a little while. The boys took very long naps in the afternoon and I made some ice cream. The ice cream later became the treat to get them to finish their dinner which is all the excuse I need to make it.
It was a lovely day.
I didn’t know you’ve had Owen (and now Ivan) participating in that kind of research! That’s pretty cool! I’m sure Juda will be interested to hear that, since she is very into childhood development.
It sounds like a lovely day. That picture of Aron is absolutely adorable- of course, he’s beautiful anyway.
Very cool about the testing with Owen and Ivan, I’m sure they’ll be setting the bar pretty high for future two and three year olds.
I hate potty training- hang in there 🙂
Each diapers saved is what….?… 50 cents- right? I say, each time you are able to save a diaper (Ivan uses the toilet), you pay yourself 50 cents for a hard job well done! 🙂
I’ve never had to do the potty training thing, but Tisra’s suggestion sounds like a good one. By the way Tisra, do you have any relatives in Lindale, TX? Sweet pic of Aron!
Cheryl,
That feels like the random question of the day! 🙂 But, as far as I know, I don’t. Mind me asking why?
Tisra
That’s good stuff! I wish I’d written down a little bit more when we were potty training. I don’t remember much of it except for the disasters!
I just love reading your blogs. I read all the way back to May 25. I remember that Sunday when Pastor Davis “didn’t”
pray for you. Ha. And you know…I’m the SAME way. One time he said to me when I worked there, “You don’t like to make mistakes, do you?” I looked at him for a second and said, “Well, no. Who does?” Must be something in our UPbringing. It wasn’t a perfect one, but a GOOD one. So anyway, I always laugh AND cry in every session of reading Calico Dreams.