Activities from 4:14pm till 4:56pm Yesterday Afternoon

Yesterday afternoon I got a bit frustrated with my little one. Let me tell you about it. By 4:14 we had been to the potty for extended sittings 4 times in the preceding 2 hours and we still ended up with poop on the carpet (an accident, poop falling out of the underpants). Captain Adorable only peed one of those times that we sat on the potty. It was obvious that he was saying "potty" just to get my attention and it was making me unhappy because I want to respond to his every request to use the potty and yet I do not want potty to become about anything other than using the potty! I was struggling with how to deal with this development, I was tired, and I was getting more and more irritated with my poor little sweetie's normal toddler behavior.

My Mom and my Aunt (who visited from London!) bought Captain Adorable a child's broom to play with because he loves brooms. I had been saving it for a time when I needed a breather, so I pulled it out, but it was useless as a distraction for him (and a pressure reliever for me) because instead of playing with it, he just used it to bang everything normally out of his reach on the walls and the kitchen counters. I took it away. He took the little dustpan and little broom that came with the broom and whacked them on things so I took that away too. I sat down to rest by myself (in other words, not in order to do something for or care for my son in some way) for the first time that day and then he started chasing the cat (to pull her tail). So of course I had to rescue her. Sigh. He's a normal toddler. I was just having a deficit of patience.

Captain Adorable did a few others things that drove me effing crazy (maybe because he did all of them, singly they would not be so bad I think). My aunt bought him a set which includes a helmet, elbow pads, and knee pads (more about that in a minute) and he would ask for the elbows guards to be put on and then almost immediately cry for me to take them off. five minutes later he'd ask for me to put the elbow guards on again. And again. Sigh. I was now ignoring him because I was getting frustrated and needed a few minutes to regroup.

He was probably confused as to why I was ignoring him but I could not ignore him for long because he went into the kitchen and because I couldn't see him from where I was sitting on the couch I went to check, fully expecting to find him in the pantry cabinet in the kitchen (the only door that does not have a child safety lock!). While walking over there I was telling myself not to be annoyed at the mess I would have to clean up. Instead I was pleased to discover he was not in the cabinet: just drinking milk out of his thermos! The other irritating thing he did yesterday was he decided he would not longer eat the cherries that I bite in half to remove the seeds so they are safe for him to eat and insisted on eating whole cherries. But of course he swallows the seeds! I watch him eat the fruit and ask him to spit out the seed and he spits out the fruit instead!!! After the second cherry like this I decided we were done with cherries for the day. (Although last night when I cleaned up the kitchen, I found a seed on the floor, so maybe he only swallowed one seed...)

Anyhow, like I said, he's a sweet little guy; I was just having a deficit of patience. A logical distraction to try would have been to take him outside... but I did not want to go outside (in the heat and the sun and the mosquitos), so we stayed inside. My skin is super dry and flaking everywhere (thank you, Tarceva) and I just wanted to stay in the air conditioning.

I know that everything he does is normal toddler behavior and he learns from all of it. :) And yes, almost all of the time I am totally fine with all of it and it is cute...and then he was asking to go to the potty again. Of course, once again he was eager for me to read books and had no product. I knew he was just asking because he wanted me to take him and read to him but I took him and read to him anyway because I want to be consistent with responding to his potty requests. I do think it is important to be consistent--he is accident free much of the time and goodness knows I do not want to mess with that!

Immediately after the potty he asked to dance (soooo cute! he points to the mp3 player and says "da, da" while bopping up and down) but I was still frustrated, so I just turned on the music and left the kitchen. He followed me into the living room and started telling me he wanted to go to the potty again, pulling off his underpants and said poop! I am all about getting poop into the potty, so I was inclined to respond to this news, (even though I strongly suspected it was a false alarm) but fortunately he contradicted himself by immediately getting on the tricycle. I decided to take him to the potty anyway (just in case) but he climbed into a living room chair and started looking at a book instead. That lasted about 45 seconds, then he was out of the chair and playing with a piece of paper he tore out of a magazine the day before, shoving it in the hole in the floor (an airconditioning/heat vent which no longer has a cover because it is pointless to put it back when he will just take it off again and again and again...).

That lasted about 30 seconds and then he headed to the "climbing frame," which is what I have been calling his baby jumper. We had it out to take pics of (to try to sell online) and he loves it so much I left it out for him to play with. The climbing frame interlude was very short, and then he went into the kitchen again, came out immediately, but seemed to accept the fact that I was ignoring him. He sat down on the floor with a book. He did not stay there, of course, but entertained himself (not with the book) for 4 whole minutes! and then started bringing me books. 1, 2, 3, and when I did not respond, he brought me No, David! and said "book dave." I was impressed--another one of those two words sentences (a new development) but even more impressive (to me) was that he knew that was the title of the book! I knew I had to read it to him after that eloquent request, so I did. After that was finished he managed to entertain himself for four more minutes and then asked to go to the potty AGAIN. Those 4 minutes of break had really helped my mood, and I took him. I read him 4 books. No pee, no poop. But I was not that frustrated any longer, so it was not that bad. I looked at the clock and it was 4:56. Almost time to start dinner.



I had a wonderful time visiting with my aunt when she was here and I hope she takes my invitations to return seriously. I'd love to have the chance to interact with her in person more often than when a family member gets married. :) I also am really happy that Capt. Adorable got to meet her. He certainly seemed to like her (even said her name, which is not short or easy for an 18 month old)! She bought him the safety equipment (helmet and elbow and knee pads) because my Mom bought him a running bike! WoooHooo! It arrived yesterday and we've been playing with it ever since. He still needs a lot of help with it, but he seems to like it. I've showed him the videos on the web site a few times (often when he is sitting on the potty) and he finds them fascinating. I think he finds them inspirational because he always wants to play with it after watching the videos. I will report on his progress.