Matt made me do it

I wasn't gonna write this, but Matt says I have to.

Yesterday after using the potty, Cooper was looking into the bowl to admire his handiwork. In the bowl was a very large item, and one very small one. He exclaimed proudly, "Cooper pooped a mommy poop with a baby poop!"

I laughed. Certainly, they had a family resemblance going for them. Although honestly, they both looked like shit.

Out of the mouths of toddlers

For better or for worse, he'll say anything, and he's very descriptive.

"Cooper pooped big brown bunches of poop in the potty! YAY! Cooper dump big poop out in big boy terlet. And flush!"

"Cooper no touch doggy's big fuzzy penis. No. Not ho-'kay. Cooper ho-'kay touch doggy's fuzzy butt."

And my favorite, while we were getting ice cream downtown last night in the summer heat... "HEY MOMMY!" "Yes, Cooper?" "I FART. LOUD!"

Welcome to grammar

Cooper has miraculously started to use all sorts of grammatical structures. It is very funny to hear in his squeaky little voice things like, "I want milk in a cup!" or "Where is my shoe?"

Of course, he doesn't always get it right. But it so amazing to me that these things are so sneaky and sudden. Just last week the same things would have been, "My milk cup!" or "Shoe where?" and now- Poof!- we have full grammar and use of all the different parts of speech.

Also, Grant is almost able to sit up unassisted. So cool! He's pretty proud of himself. I'm very happy for him, too. Sitting up makes it so much more fun to hold toys.

The boy who cries potty

Cooper recently figured out that we will nearly always come get him if he's in his room yelling, "Potty!"

Oh man. That, plus the fact that I found this adorably tiny toddler bed (it is like a regular bed in every respect except that it fits a crib mattress), means that nap time and bed time have gone from super-easy, to groan worthy in-and-out of the bed frustration filled times.

But we are figuring it out. First of all, if I bring his little potty into his dark room, and make him use it by the bed, then that takes all the fun out of tromping through the house, and removes the stimulation of bright lights, etc. So that decreases the potty calling tremendously. Since I started that a couple of days ago, we are seeing huge improvements. Remove fun factor... check.

The new toddler bed seems to have thrown him back off track, as we suspected it would. Matt has tried a few options to get him to fall asleep, and the last two times (last night for bed, and today for nap) reading him his favorite book about owls has gotten him to lie calmly in his bed for long enough to realize he is tired, and that has led to actually falling asleep.

It is 1:29 in the afternoon. I put Cooper down for a nap at 12:15. We've read one book, and done in-room potty service once. I think he fell asleep about 5 minutes ago.

Improvements will come soon... right? At least he naps. And sleeps all night in his own bed. I shouldn't complain.

Vanishing spike

Grant's signature wacky adorable hair is slowly fading out. As his hair is growing longer, the weight of each strand seems to be preventing it from sticking up. Right now, depending on the humidity, if he's been wearing a hat, and how clean his hair is, his hair varies from totally "normal" (a.k.a. the contour of his head) to three or four big soft wavy curls perched on the top of his head. Matt and I are sad to see his hair changing, but I suppose it was inevitable.

It is looking like he's going to have light brown hair that has soft broad curls (they look a bit more like curls than waves to me) and bright blue eyes. He's also well on his way to charming all of Missoula into submission- he's extremely smiley and sweet, and often giggles quietly when people talk to him. The contrast with Cooper's shy and somewhat fearful nature when it comes to new people or situations couldn't be more stark.

With that said, Cooper is one heck of a kid. He's really good with names (which I am not) and loves to talk about people. He'll randomly say interesting things about his friends, to my endless amusement. (some names have been changed, and grammar is corrected for readability.)

"At daycare today, John was in timeout. He hit Charles, and Charles cried."

"Julie is Ollie's momma. Ollie likes sunscreen. I shared the slide with Ollie."

"Hannah played with my alligator toy. Hannah likes yogurt. Kristina is Hannah's momma. Momma is friends with Kristina."

He has a very sweet toddler crush on Hannah, our friend's daughter who is about 1 year younger than him. Hannah is a very outgoing yet gentle girl, and Cooper seems to just really dig her. He lets her use his toys, pet his hair (which is very funny to watch, as they both think it is SOO FUNNY), and he taught her how to ride her new scooter. They are totally adorable.

Not a raccoon

Cooper likes the names of shapes lately, and is learning shapes and letters pretty rapidly. He especially thinks that triangles and squares are great.

Yesterday I was trying to explain the difference between rectangles and squares, when I came upon an issue.

Me: "See, Cooper, this looks a lot like a square, but it is long and thin. That makes it a rectangle. Squares are more, um, even. Not long and thin."

Cooper: "No, square. Dis square."

Me: "Well, I agree it is like a square, but it is a rectangle."

Cooper: "NO NO NO square. NOT raccoon. Dis square. Not raccoon. Not owl. Not doggie. Square."

Indeed. I think we'll need to work on both the pronounciation, and the listening to, of the word rectangle, before we can make any progress on the difference between rectangles and squares.

Eww

Me, puzzled by what appears to be Cooper trying to smoosh a pebble up his nose,

"Hey Cooper, what are you doing?"

Cooper, matter-of-factly, "My nose yucky. My wipe nose with rock."

And then he threw the snot covered rock into the yard, and proclaimed, "All done! Nose heen!"

We all lost the bet

I bet 16lb 8oz, Matt bet 16lb 10oz, and Lindsey (our new, delightful, part-time nanny) bet 16lb 13oz... and we always bet "Price is Right" style... and we all lost. Little boy weighs 16lbs 7oz. ZOUNDS! I should have breastfed him for like 5 more minutes in the waiting room and I'd have WON!

:)

Silliness aside, he's still a huge kid. Over 75% for all measurements, and very strong for his age. The doctor was very impressed with his standing and push-ups. She agrees that by the 6 month, it is likely he'll be crawling, and sitting.

Also, his even temperament is amazing. He happily sat in my lap, fiddled with my sweater, played with a toy, and nursed- for almost two hours (the dr's office was running extremely late). And THEN he got a vaccine- and cried for less than 30 seconds. Then he giggled at me, and cooed. Crazy.

As for Cooper, his toilet training hit a rocky patch a few days ago when he had some kind of GI disturbance that led to very, very messy stuff coming out of his rear end. Poor kid. The positive side is that it really helped him transition out of using the front yard as a latrine, and also made him figure out WHY he needs someone to help him clean up after he's done.

So now we have a kid that yells, "Potty! Potty!" and then "I poop wiff my bupp on the potty!" and once he's done, "Momma! Help heen my bupp!" And finally "All done. I dump it out potty in terlet. My hurn flush terlet!"

Awesome.

Weekend successes

Cooper's potty training is going so well, I'm almost hesitant to say anything and jinx it. He's averaging about one pee accident a day, and he's only had one poop incident since the day we started this process (and it was day 2). Today he started his day in the same underwear as he ended it, which was also the case on Thursday. I'm really excited about this whole thing.

As usual, I don't really think our incredibly superior parenting skills (ha!) are the cause of this. Sure, we seem to have picked a good time, and not screwed anything up royally. But overall, I think it is all about Cooper. I think he wants to do it, and I know he was physically ready. He's figured out all on his own how to stay dry during naptime, which we just assumed would take months. Nope... instead, despite still wearing a cloth diaper during naps, he holds it all nap and then when he gets up, he carefully unsnaps his diaper, puts it in the laundry bin, sits on his itty bitty toilet, pees, and then asks for whatever pair of underpants he's favoring that day. "All done potty! All done pee! Doggie underpants pleeeeeze. Mama help!"

Amazing kid.

His underpants selection is cute, I think. Motorcycles, racecars, dogs, turtles, alligators. He likes them all, but I think dogs are becoming the favorite. He's getting better at getting them on all by himself (he can get them off really well) although he still needs a hand getting his feet in the holes. He often ends up with both feet in one hole, etc, and then gets frustrated. I understand- that'd annoy me, too.

"Healthy but scrawny"

We have some friends that visited from out of town with their 1 year old- the little guy's birthday is this week. He's cute as a button and has just started walking. And when they got a look at Grant their very first question went something like this, "OMG how much does that kid WEIGH?"

Turns out, last week they had their one year checkup and vaccines at the doctor's. At the end of of the appointment, their doctor scribbled down a few things on the stationary for them- weight, height, some suggestions about good toddler foods, and the phrase "Healthy but scrawny." They had never really thought that their son was that small, so they were a little surprised.

We all had a good laugh, because Grant is only one pound short of their little fellow's weight. At four months old, I'm quite sure Grant weighs right around 16 pounds- probably not fully 17 pounds, but it is possible. He's really chunky and sturdy, and he certainly can't crawl yet, so his exercise options are pretty limited to push-ups (which he does all the time), rolling (ditto) and jumping up and down in his jumper thingy.

At any rate, it was fun to talk about how amazing different healthy children can be. Also- it is not like this child's parents are small people. The mom is about my size (although a bit skinnier, but overall roughly the same build and height) and the dad is probably only about an inch shorter than Matt.

On a related note, we have our 4 month checkup and vaccines next week for Grant. I'm looking forward to finding out officially how much he weighs, and probably bragging about his ability to practice standing, practice sitting, roll over both ways, do push ups, and bite you so hard on the finger that it nearly bleeds. Did I mention he's teething?

Small glitch in the system

We've got a small, amusing, and ultimately unimportant issue in the potty training. It probably is not one that you'd have seen coming. I sure didn't.

Cooper now won't poop anywhere except in the front walkway. He gets panicky and resistant if we try to make him poop on his tiny toilet, and he hasn't pooped in his underpants since last Saturday (which was only day 2 of the training weekend, so it was pretty understandable). Nope. In fact, he's managed to poop in the front walkway 5 of the 6 last days. The one missing day was a poop-free day.

Now, the weather is sure not inviting for pooping in the walkway lately. It has rained or drizzled almost non-stop for the last two weeks. And it isn't like we are overtly encouraging this behavior. It is just that the kid is always in the yard- throwing his frisbees, digging with his little shovel, jumping off the landscaping rocks, climbing into the lilacs and getting stuck between the branches... typical toddler stuff. He has a nice rain hat and rain jacket and rain boots. Why not!?

I almost wonder if this is all because of the dog. He poops in the yard, and Cooper can see that all the time. Maybe given his options, Cooper just thinks he might as well try out what Lucky has been doing. Hard to tell. Or perhaps it is just a way to avoid coming inside and interrupting his play more than needed.

But most of all- whatever. He understands when he has to go, that he should tell us when he has to go, that he needs to pull off his pants and underpants, and he's going about once a day. And it is not like he's pooping in the vegetable garden- that'd be worse.

But really- front walkway? Couldn't he have picked somewhere a little more hidden? Like at least the backyard?

:)

He gets it

Cooper is well on his way to being a fully capable underwear wearing kid. Yesterday was his first day at daycare and he used the toilet with a little kid seat adapter thingy five or six times. He peed his pants only once, and it was in the first five minutes of the day (probably the most stressful part of the day, in my mind).

When he got home, he used his tiny toilet several times to pee, and then asked me if he could go outside and poop in the gravel walkway. I said yes (hey, at least he asked) and was amazed when sure enough, he marched out there, pooped in the gravel, looked at it, and then told me he needed help cleaning it up and getting himself some jellybeans. After dinner, he also used his toilet multiple times, and peed in the grass out in the backyard for fun.

This morning, he peed twice in the tiny toilet before going to daycare, and asked to please wear his bike-print undies. That's motivation!

I'm pretty amazed. He totally gets it. I know we'll have regressions, and I know it is very early to expect Cooper to really do this, but I'm still very optimistic. This is a kid that really seems legitimately able to do it. Awesome.

Three updates

1) My surgery recovery is going extremely well at this point. I feel good- only a little sore here and there. It is a shame that I can't do any fun stuff yet, because I so desperately want to dig in the garden, go for a bike ride, and so forth. But I'm resisting the temptation. I'm excited that I look good, too (dare I say it). The swelling is almost entirely gone, my skin is pretty smooth, my body's shape is almost back to a normal contour, and the scar is extremely thin and looks like it will be remarkably subtle once it fully heals. It is very exciting.

2) Cooper's cold-turkey diaper removal project has been really, really enlightening. It turns out that Cooper's only roadblock to full underpants wearing capability is his own reluctance to change his behaviors. He's fully capable of it, physically, and when he wants to use a toilet, he does it just fine. So now I think we just need to make it normal and routine, instead of new and different. Kind of exciting, really!

3) Grant can roll over both ways, grab toys, and stuff anything he wants into his mouth. He loves to laugh and be tickled. He's got two razor sharp teeth and is working on more teeth for sure, as he is a veritable drool fountain lately. And I think his hair is getting lighter. His top curls are getting more and more goofy looking. The kid has just spectacular hair, that's all there is to it!

Good stuff!