Oh boy, this week! It started off with the return of mommy’s ear/sinus infection, but the good news is this second round of antibiotics seems to be knocking it out. I’ve been sick since New Years Day, so I’m ready to start some health in the second quarter.
Brendan has been working on potty training on his own for a while – meaning he voluntarily holds it even though he is wearing a diaper and then does a great job going peepee in the potty (or in some cases, the bushes.) We’ve had a stack of big boy underwear around for a while – super heroes, animals, pirates, motorcycles, briefs, boxer briefs – a nice selection. But he has remained uninterested, which has been fine with me. I’m a big fan of diapers – very convenient invention. At times when he doesn’t want to get dressed we give him a choice of diaper or big boy underwear, and he always chooses the diaper. But on Tuesday, he picked the big boy underwear. Rob and I shot each other a look and decided to go for it. He picked the superman ones. Of course. Here are some very candid shots of Mr. March moments after he put them on for the first time:
Day one: NO ACCIDENTS. How is that possible? Because as we are learning about our boy, he thinks and ponders for a while, and then when he’s ready – he’s ready. (Aunt Lisa pointed out that this is JUST like me. She’s so right.) And in the week that has followed there have been a handful of accidents – but almost all of them have happened *just* after he says, “I have to go potty!!!”. It’s a timing thing. We’re working it out. Plus there are treats:
We haven’t dipped into the big M&M jar yet – those are for a poop in the potty, and we aren’t quite there. Mostly he saves his poops for just before nap time when he gets his diaper on. There was one day that he said he wanted to try making a poop on the potty. Of course it was just before we were leaving for school, and Mommy was already late for a meeting. Listen people, I have priorities, so we sat together in the bathroom and read many, many books. 30 minutes worth of books. And still no poopy. There was one other poopy accident at school, but for those of you who already think this post is full of too much information, I’ll spare you the details. At least most of them. Let’s just say that Mommy’s sinus infection keeping her from smelling much of anything, was not a good combination with putting the bag of clothes sent home from day care directly in the washer. Let’s further say that Daddy spent 45 minutes cleaning the dryer (including the removal of the lint trap). And let’s close by saying that there were many, many re-washings of that load of laundry. Moving on.
We also went on Brendan’s first real field trip. It was actually the first class ever to take a field trip in the Teddy Bear room. I like to think Brendan inspired it. They were concluding their studies of the moon, and this was a trip to a cool space museum and planetarium. It was on a Saturday so everyone just met there, and had a good time hanging out together until nap time. Some of my favorite moments:
Watching Brendan and his favorite teacher, “Teacher ‘Gina”:
The vortex ball thing – Brendan LOVED this. If he had his way, I think we’d still be there sending the balls into orbit. But he still did a great job sharing with the other kids so everyone got turns.
The “nastronaut suit”. This is what he calls them and I smile every time. Everyone always refers to them as “an astronaut”. Sounds right when you run it together.
We asked him what his favorite moments were and he said, “The planets (in the planetarium) and the balls (in the vortex thing)”. This became a chant for a few minutes as we were putting him in the car, “The planets and the balls! The planets and the balls! The planets and the balls!”
Nothing like a space museum on a rainy day to tucker a boy out. He fell asleep in the car mid-snack:
Rob took me to this same museum on one of our first dates. Actually, we can’t remember if we ever really made it to the museum, but we do remember sitting in a little Mexican restaurant recounting every moment we had spent together since our first date. Easier to do when you’re two weeks in. So we took the sleeping boy opportunity for a car date – we tried to find the old Mexican place (gone) and a bakery I used to hit every time I was in the east bay for the chocolate chip meringues that were roughly the size of my head (that place is one too, but I re-created the meringues when we got home). Our date wasn’t a total bust though, we ended up with some deep dish pizza and some freshly made ice cream. You know, healthy stuff…
Lastly, I’m pleased to announce that Brendan seems to share my affinity for shoes:
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(these photos were courtesy of Harper’s Mommy)
And just a few more of my tiny favorites:
– That is favorite color is no longer blue. It’s “Dark Blue”.
– His over use of the phrase “just a little bit”
– At first it was “just one more minute..!” then it was “just two more minutes…!” Now we’re up to three.
– Hearing him count, and get to twenty with a few jumbles now and then.
– Waking up in the middle of the night to a small boy standing by my bed gently caressing my face and smiling.
– The way he laughs a happy laugh and says, “Yeeeeah!” when he is really excited about an idea.
– When we were leaving the farmers market, he got very sad because he had not gotten Mommy a flower. (my heart….) Luckily there are some nice ones for him to pick for me in our garden.
– Watching him with baby Scarlett – seeing how gentle and loving he is
– Hearing him tell stories. He thinks of as many things as he can, and uses as many words as he can.
– Watching him incorporate new words into his vocabulary. The other night he kept telling me something was poking his ‘meatball’. After a few rounds of guesses and pointing, I realized he was referring to his EYEball. (He and daddy had just had a discussion about eyeballs. Mainly about how Brendan should not poke them.)
– This week I was getting dressed and not feeling good about my outfit – my son looked at me and said, “Mommy, that’s a pretty dress.” I kept it on.
– Brendan is a big boy, but he knows he is still my baby. Sometimes he tells me that he is ‘still small’. Today he told daddy, “I’m your sonshine!”
– The way he looks into my eyes when we are lying together in his bed at night, smiles at me and says, “this is fun!”.
I look at all the kids in the jumpy house at the farmer’s market. I have always loved babies and children, and watching their real experience and reaction to the world around them. But now I’m almost embarrassed to say that they have all become just shadows dancing behind the boy who lights my world. And I understand that this is what having a mother means. That for one person, you are the only sun in her universe – the one whose light radiates the very brightest. There is nothing you can do that is not wrapped in that all encompassing light of her ever-fresh and everlasting delight. And every baby jumping in that jumpy house is the sun lighting someone’s world. It’s such a beautiful thing.
Shadows dancing behind/beyond MY real sunshine….