Max's "Stumpers" for the Day

1.) "What is water made of?"

2.) "What is that thing (a tampon dispenser in the public restroom) for?"

3.) "Where do tears come from?"

The kid is only 2 1/2 and I already feel like I need a biology/chemistry/health refresher course to deal with his questions!

Fun Times with Family

On Saturday we met up with Papa and Nana in Golden Gate Park. We checked out a garden train exhibit at the Conservatory of Flowers, played in the awesome playground, rode the carousel, and had lunch overlooking the ocean. Not a bad day, all told!

Yummy!

I treated Max to an ice cream after he earned 50 stickers on his potty-training chart. Of course he opted for rainbow sherbet (What child doesn't? Something about those rainbow colors is so alluring...). Max had never eaten ice cream off of a cone before and that was also a big hit. Way to go, Max! Let's keep the positive trend going...

Henry Said "Cracker". I Swear.

Sounds unlikely, I know, but my friend Melissa was there to confirm it. Henry's official third word (after Dada and Mama) is "Cracker" (although it sounded a little bit more like "Crack Crack"). He does love Max's whole wheat organic bunny crackers. Who wouldn't?

Praise Song for Watching the Inaguration With Your 2-Year-Old

Many things are not the same when you have children. I can now add viewing the inauguration to that list. I thought I was pretty sly manipulating Henry's nap so that he was asleep during the swearing in, but that still left me with Max. We started off with a screaming fit because he wanted to watch Little Einsteins instead of "the news." I calmed him down by giving him a giant bag of pretzels (I'm not above bribery, people,) which got us through until the first couple minutes of Obama's speech. At this point, Max announced that he needed to poop. For those of you following this potty-training saga, you will know that Max's timing is always impeccable. I had to pause the speech (thank God for Tivo!) and take Max upstairs for the whole involved potty ritual (take off pants and underwear, sit on potty, ask for, "A couple privacy", finally poop, wipe, puts pants and underwear back on, admire poop, flush poop, choose stickers, place stickers on chart, wash hands, dry hands, get sidetracked into trying to play with bath toys, yell angrily when mom removes from bathroom and hauls downstairs, etc). We went back to watching the speech and actually made it through (despite 800 questions on Max's part. "Who is that guy?" "What are they doing?" "Is that guy playing an instrument?") before Henry woke up and started crying upstairs. I'm sure that Max won't remember this moment, but in the years to come, I will enjoy telling him the story about how we watched President Obama take office together. I will also enjoy telling him about how embarassed I was several hours later when we were having lunch with a friend in San Francisco and Max saw an African-American guy in a tie and exclaimed, "Mommy, is that Barack Obama." I don't think the guy heard him.

New Adventures in Potty Training

One problem with potty training a toddler is that when they tell you they have to go, they REALLY have to go. You can't, for example, explain that we just got on the freeway in San Francisco and can you please hold it for 30 minutes until we're home in Alameda. As such, we can now add public urination to Max's rap sheet. We had to pull off of 101 North and let Max pee through a barbed wire fence into a vacant lot in the middle of San Francisco. Now I will grant you, Max is certainly not the first person to pee on the streets of San Francisco, but I hope that he doesn't take from this experience the lesson that it is ok to drop your pants wherever you are and let loose. Thankfully, he managed not to poop until we got home. Good times, people, good times.

Ah, San Francisco...

What a perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon -- a picnic lunch on Marina Green with views of the Golden Gate Bridge and then a little family game of soccer. Have I mentioned how much I love California? Max referred to the city as "San Ass Kiss Ko" which gave us all a good laugh.





P.S. For those of you avidly following our potty-training adventures, you'll be happy to hear that Max hasn't had an accident for two days! He even initiated going to the potty a few times!! Let's hope this positive trend continues...

Play Date

On Friday we went to visit our friends Megan, Ben, and Alex. We had a great time riding bikes, checking out new toys, and eating lunch. It's so much fun to be closer to these guys at long last!

Funnies

Three funny things Max said to me today (helping to take the sting off of the ongoing potty training debacle):

1.) "This is the best lunch I've ever seen!" (I guess he likes turkey and cheese sandwiches)
2.) "Does the cat have a penis?" (umm, yes, but not really a conversation I wanted to get into)
3.) "Come on, Mommy, let's roll!" (when we were leaving for the park)

Potty Training Update

Potty training is not going well. There are times when Max will pee or poop on the potty, and he is excited and proud of himself. The problem, however, is that he shows no ability whatsoever to anticipate when he needs to go. He seems perfectly content to pee or poop in his training pants unless I can get him on the potty in time. Then there's the lovely incident we had moments ago. Max is supposed to be napping right now and I've already had to go in there several times since he's been crashing around, playing with Purell (ack!) and generally just not going to sleep. A few minutes ago he opened his door and yelled, "Mommy, I pooped on the floor!" Yup. That's what he did. He had removed his jeans and diaper and pooped on the floor. I could look at this optimistically and say, "Gee, isn't this great?! Max could tell that he needed to go and so he removed his pants and diaper first as though to use the potty." Or, I could look at things realistically and say, "Gee, Max has discovered a new way to assert power over me. If he poops on the floor and yells about it from his room, I am sure to come up there to relieve the tedium of his non-napping naptime."

Bottom line -- potty training is not going well. Should I give up for a few months and wait for him to mature? Power through and hope that things improve? I don't know...

Laugh of the Day

What can I say? Max chose this "outfit" himself and insisted upon wearing it to the park. Quite a look, no?

Potty Training: Day One

Before we tackle today, let's talk about yesterday...

I was upstairs changing Henry, and I came downstairs to find that Max had removed his diaper and peed and pooped all over the living room floor (the newly refinished living room floor?!#^#*&!!!). While I was cleaning this up, he then went in the kitchen and peed on the rug. I was out of my mind about it and decided on the spot that if he knew he was going to go and he was capable of taking off his pants, then it was time to pursue potty training in earnest. We've been doing it casually for weeks -- talking it up, letting him sit on the potty on occasion, etc, but we hadn't actually fully committed yet. Oh, it was time to step up! Without wasting a moment, we got in the car and headed for Target where we spent a small fortune stocking up on potty-training essentials like training pants, a potty seat for the toilet, children's books on potty training and more.

Today we really went for it. Max sat on the potty the moment he got up and he peed. A good start. After breakfast, he sat on the potty again and he peed and pooped. Hurrah! We went out and ran some errands and Max stayed dry. There was more peeing before lunch and then he reluctantly consented to wear his diaper for naptime. After the nap we went to a coffee house with a friend and Max wore his diaper. Of course he pooped in it, but how much can we really ask of him on day 1? We had a great afternoon full of several more potty visits and then one accident shortly before bed. Not too bad, all told. Now we just need to get Max to realize on his own when he needs to go instead of waiting for me to remind him. It helps that at least at the moment he is really, really excited about the whole process and he adores his "big boy underpants." I'm so proud of him!

One last story, this one unrelated to bathroom issues -- to top off the great day I had yesterday, I took the boys to the grocery store in the afternoon. Henry reached over the side of the cart and knocked a wine bottle to the ground. It shattered everywhere, making a god-awful noise and mess. I was mortified as everyone turned to stare at us and as a deli worker announced on the intercom, "Cleanup in the wine department." My one consolation was that Henry had the good taste to dive for a bottle of pinot noir instead of the chardonnay...

Henry Walks! (well, sort of...)

Henry's physical abilities are increasing by the day. He can wave, clap, crawl, cruise, and now walk pushing his wagon. He was so proud of himself! Check out the footage...

Max Quote of the Day

"Mommy is a grownup. Daddy is a big kid."