Saturday morning Rich left to “play swords with Travis” (go to an SCA event) and left Ian and me to co-chill at the house. We started out the day with a diaper change and then some cereal. After a bit, I had to go potty but that means I get all kinds of company. So after Ian pats my butt with toilet paper and marvels at whatever he finds in the toilet, he gets to flush and close the lid. Pretty exciting for a two-year-old.

I casually mentioned that when he was ready, he could pee and poop in the potty like we do and wouldn’t need diapers anymore. He blurted out “OK!” and started yanking down his pants. Well, okay then.

So we sat on the Lightning McQueen potty and played with the handle and didn’t do much of anything other than talk about it. But after that, he didn’t want his diaper. After all, I said if you use the potty, you don’t need diapers. So we headed upstairs to gather up the two dozen pairs of undies for him to pick out a pair. He settled on Thomas the Tank Engine (duh) and we headed out to the enclosed porch to play trains in the sun.

The nice thing about the enclosed porch is the floor out there is nothing special so I wasn’t too worried when an hour later Ian shouted “Mommy, there’s pee everywhere!” Sure enough, we had to clean up the pee and pick out another pair of undies (Thomas again, duh).

The next time was a little more tricky because he was in the choo choo room but we ran over to the bathroom mid-pee and at least talked about the process. He napped and stayed dry the whole time and we even went to Mamaw and Pop’s without incident (though I did bring along several pair of undies, pants and socks).

Two things were adorable. One, he kept declaring “I have to go potty!!!!” and start sprinting from across the house. We would then sit on the toilet and then stand in front of it, him holding his “wiener” and leaning forward with this look of concentration. Then he would sigh this exasperated sigh and say, “it’s not working, Mama.” Poor guy.

Then one time I asked him if he had to poop and he declared “I need to potty but I’m going upstairs like Daddy does. You stay here Mommy.” (Daddy is apparently only able to “see a man about a dog” upstairs in the master bath and this has not gone unnoticed by Ian.)

He only wore a diaper once Saturday night because Rich didn’t want to get dinner and find out Ian had peed all over the restaurant. But we came back to a totally dry boy! Saturday night, we all went on faith and slept in undies in one big bed together (Rich was very dubious but I’m happy to report Ian woke up dry). We spent most of Sunday on “red alert” waiting for a poop to come. We had a few more misses and a few more successful potty trips.

Sunday evening we had dinner guests, and had to casually inform them that our son decided to potty-train himself this weekend so they’d have to be patient with a lot of bathroom trips and not a lot of pants. Everyone was game.

Around 7pm, Ian declared he needed to pee. We got that done but he was still walking in circles and acting off. He didn’t want his undies and he didn’t want the potty and he didn’t want a diaper. I figured out that he had to poop but was scared to. We talked about our options but he didn’t want a diaper. After a lot of tears, he managed to poop on the potty and there was much rejoicing! We even had dinner guests to help celebrate!

We were unsure how to deal with school on Monday. I packed his usual six diapers but also packed six pair of undies, six pair of pants and six pair of socks. Oh and a spare blanket in case he peed at nap time. I love our day care so much and particularly Ms. Evelyn. When she opened the bag of undies she whooped like there were winning lottery tickets in there! I was excited! I told them we had no expectations but they could do as they saw fit.

I’m pleased to say that today we picked up a proud dry boy! He wore a diaper at nap but didn’t get it wet and he only had one accident all day (coming in from outside play). We took him to the park after school and that was a completely dry affair. Only when we got home was there some consternation. He still had to poop and was very worried.

We went through a lot of circling and sitting and standing and crying. He wanted the undies but didn’t want to put them on yet (knowing he had to poop). We finally coaxed him on the toilet with the promise of yogurt raisins and playing iZoo on Mommy’s phone (awesome app by the way). So once he sat there for a bit and calmed down, he started to try. His poor little eyes got all big and he just started crying. I held his hands and let him lean on my shoulder and kept whispering he was doing great, just like a poop doula would. As the satisfying sound of little plops hit the water, he started to rally. We got up and marveled and what he had wrought. We talked about our options of toilet paper versus wipes. We hugged. And finally we were able to wash our hands and put on fresh undies.

We talked about how some things are spooky if we’ve never done them before but after we do them a few times it gets better. He had some parallel about Henry the train getting scared by some “ghosts” that turned out to be nothing to be scared of.

So I’m completely exhausted, but so proud of our boy.

He has a video from Aunt Trish that has holiday/snow themed Thomas the Tank Engine shorts on it and in one of them Oliver the train runs into a giant snow man. Ian is very worried about the fate of that snowman. He asks frequently what happened to the snowman. He watches the video a lot on his little portable DVD player while playing trains in the choo choo room.

Messy Birds = Angry Birds (because when they hit the towers they make a big mess)

We also were playing on my giant yoga/exercise ball this evening and Ian rolled off of it onto the floor with his face.

There have been several playground visits recently, both at Chick-fil-a and at MacArthur Center, and at one point or another it can be overwhelming for him because of either the volume or the number of kids.

Ian Bedtime Chatting (6:40)

You may have noticed that there is a gap in our monthly newsletters. The best I can explain it is that starting around month 20, things got kind of tough for us all. You were having a hard time dealing with your emotions and we were having a hard time dealing with your emotions, so at the end of the day writing was the last thing on my mind.

But things are worlds better now. They have been pretty much from the moment you turned 2. We won’t try to recap all those good months and bad right now. We’ll just focus on how things are this month.

Things are awesome. You can talk about pretty much anything you want to and you are super chatty. The fact that we can communicate so well is something I appreciate every single day because when you get tired or your emotions get the better of you and block your words, everything just starts to break down.

Christmas was last week and both Santa and your grandparents were very good to you. It was all a little overwhelming for you so we were happy to take it all in stages. Nana and Granddad came to stay overnight on Christmas Eve and we all were able to see the magic of Christmas morning unfold.

Your favorite toy by far has been a travel train mat with some Thomas trains. As soon as you tore it open you knew exactly what to do with it and immediately started making chop chop noises as you pushed trains around the circuit. You got a Kermit puppet from Mamaw and Pop and some Tonka trucks from Nana and Granddad.

You got a tricycle for your 2nd birthday and it’s been your primary mode of transportation down to Mamaw and Pop’s. It’s so amazing to watch how your imagination works. There’s a Thomas video where one of the trains Spencer gets stuck in the mud and has to have Harvey the crane train save him. As we passed the house with a muddy yard, I warned you that if you went in there you’d get stuck just like Spencer. I could almost hear the gears turning in your little brain. About 10 feet later, you stopped pedaling in your tracks (thankfully still on the pavement) and blurted out, “oh, no! Spencer’s stuck in the mud again!” and started grinning at me. So I had to walk over and pick you up saying, “it looks like Harvey will have to pick you up and get you back on track.” You repeated “Back on track!” and then took off pedaling again.

There’s a Youtube video of a baby elephant that sneezes and scares himself so he runs over to his mommy. Now every time you sneeze, you said “Ooh! I sneeze like a baby elephant!” and we have to say “Bless you, baby elephant!” I love the way you say “thanks” and I love the way you say “okay” and “sure” like you’ve known all those words your whole life. I must admit I much prefer those words to “No!” and “I don’t wanna go to bed!”

You’re still our little night owl, not wanting to go to bed tonight until almost midnight. But you were amiable and chatty the whole evening. I think it was particularly hard for you to go to bed tonight after such an exciting day. Not only did you have a visit from Ben and Megan and Riley and Molly (and Penny dog) but we all went ice skating today!

Our intention was to just carry you around or maybe let you slide around with your tennis shoes but as we sat to put on our skates, you hopped up and immediately started taking off your shoes. This from the boy who won’t take his shoes off to SLEEP. So as Daddy started to say, “oh Buddy, we weren’t going to …” I said “that sentence shouldn’t even be finished. You should go over to the rental space and get the smallest pair of skates they have.”

Amazingly, they had your size and you were so pleased as Daddy strapped them on you. You only managed a tiny bit of skating until you realized that you could go much faster in Daddy’s arms than you could on your own two feet. Poor Daddy had quite a work out today sine you weigh at least 32 pounds. But everyone had a blast. It was a magical morning in many ways and part of the inspiration to mention all that you are these days.

You’re clever and funny and happy and kind and a little impulsive and better than we could have imagined. Pop said today that he wishes he could pause you at this age to get to enjoy it for longer. I’m not so sure about that, but I am trying to bottle up little moments as I can.

Love,
Mommy

At the exact moment I was taking this picture, Ian was peeing on the floor next to his train table. I thought he looked awfully intent on the trains.

At first we were hanging out in the garage with Daddy and Travis. Travis and Ian were throwing the ball around but Travis said he needed to go use the restroom. When Ian asked where Travis went, I told him he had to go potty so he went inside since he’s a big boy.

About 15 minutes later after Travis had returned and we had all moved on to other things, Ian declared he needed to go inside to go potty. But Mommy didn’t need to go, he would be right back. He was just going to go inside to potty like Travis had.

I watched him run to the back door, let himself in, successfully close the storm door (which is no small feat) and remind me “I be right back!” as he turned around. I slowly followed behind and peeked inside to hear him in the choo choo room talking to his trains. But as I came around the corner, he burst through the door and said, “Mommy! I need to potty!”

He pulled his pants down on his own, asked for help with his diaper and sat on his Lightning McQueen potty. I went to put his diaper away and heard the bathroom door shut since apparently Ian needed some privacy.

A minute later he yelled out, “Mommy! I all done! My pants are wet!”

I walked in and he had peed in the potty … and the floor and all over his pants. Apparently in mid-pee was when he decided he needed privacy. He walked around for a bit with no pants on and said he was going to poop. I was dubious but when I was distracted taking photos of him concentrating on trains, he stood up and said, “Mommy! There’s pee everywhere over here!”

And there was! So apparently all our son needed to be inspired to potty like a big kid was Travis. Now to get him to understand how to stay on the potty until he’s really done peeing.

But we’re getting there. Travis now needs to come over every evening to continue potty training our child.

So over the years, I’ve learned to embrace the fact that my eyes disappear when I smile. I’m all >_< in Japanese emoticons.

But now I've noticed Ian smiling that way too, and it brings me great joy.

Just a nice reminder of him being my kid.

So on Sunday we were at Home Depot and they had a ton of Christmas trees all lit up for sale. When I saw one that said specifically it was a “porch tree” I said it would be nice for Mamaw to have and Ian immediately started calling it Mamaw’s tree. At 20% off, we of course had to get it.

So this evening we delivered Mamaw’s tree to her and it’s now on her porch. I worried that Pop would think of it as just more clutter but he quickly found an extension cord so we could light it up. Ian declared it PRETTY!

We look forward to visiting Mamaw’s tree over the next few weeks (and possibly into the spring) and maybe Ian can help her decorate it.

But yeah, we’re all supposed to be somewhere Monday morning at 8am. I wondered if we should try skipping Ian’s nap today so that he would try to go to sleep earlier. But as Rich said, we would either have a cranky boy Monday morning or a cranky boy Sunday afternoon.

Magically, though, Ian and I decided to mow the lawn this afternoon and he fell asleep in the backpack on me as we rode around the yard for 45 minutes. That Briggs and Stratton induced nap was just the perfect amount to get him through the rest of the day but not have him up all night.

We had bubbles at 7:30, Mama Milk at 8 and he was asleep by 8:30. There was a brief bit of crying when the phone rang but he’s back down for the count and I’m hoping Monday morning goes well for us all.

But he was so excited about the slide, I hated to tell him no. So after I helped him up twice, he figured out how to climb the steps himself. If he went over to the edge versus the middle, he could get his hands on the far side and help pull himself up. So suddenly I could just sit on the bench, drinking my iced tea and he was able to go up and down the slide a million times on his own.

It pleased me to no end to see how well he could communicate and how I could help him without even seeing him by tapping on parts of the equipment to direct him towards the slide (it’s a rabbit warren up there, trust me). This part? This talking and problem solving and finding joy in accomplishing things? This part is the Terrific Twos.

Ian is fascinated with hockey. That should come as no surprise. I’m typing this right now as a random hockey game in playing on the TV. (Toronto @ Dallas. Tied 2-2 so I should care more about the last two minutes of the game.) We have our own goal and sticks and pucks that are permanent parts of the living room decor. But I hadn’t really thought about him actually playing the game versus just swatting a puck around under the sofa.

Ian and Uncle Lee played quite a bit of hockey on the back porch after Thanksgiving dinner and I’m not sure who was smiling more. Every time he scored a goal (knocking the tennis ball through the propped open screen door) Ian would yell GOAL! and wave his stick in the air. The stick he’s now using is a Philadelphia Flyers stick that belonged to both Daddy and Uncle Lee when they were little.

So maybe he will be ready to try out the ice soon. But he’s certainly learning a family tradition and having fun.

Daddy saw this as we came to pick up Ian yesterday afternoon yesterday and said, “well awesome.”

I would have paid Ian’s teachers $100 to write Daddy up there instead of Mommy, but what’s done is done. Ian is slowly but surely moving into the Daddy Appreciation Club but he is still very much the President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary of the Mommy Fan Club. And it’s hard because sometimes Ian can be very frustrating to communicate with and Daddy isn’t getting those ‘yay!” moments to outweigh the “boo!” moments.

But just today while we were stopping for gas on our trek to Richmond, Ian turned to me and said, “Mommy?”

“Yes, Ian.”
“I want Daddy!”
“Daddy is right outside the car. Do you want him to come back so you can see him?”
“Yeah!”

So we’re getting there. And at least he wasn’t shown up on the thankful list by toy trucks or Mickey Mouse.