My Son Rules

After dinner tonight at Noodle & Company, Little Blue gently grabbed Pink's hand and helped her up from her chair as we were getting ready to leave.

Blue: "What a gentleman! Good man Little Blue!"

Pink: "Aww, thank you sweetie."

Little Blue: "You're welcome Mommie!"

Oh yeah, that's right. Chivalry is not dead folks, he's three feet tall. :)

Little Blue is Proud of Me

I was tying my shoes together this morning, Little Blue asking, "Daddy, doze your shoes?"

"Sure are champ. Do you have your shoes on?"

"Yeah!"

*finshes tying my shoes* "There, all done."

"Good job Daddie! I'm proud of you!"

It got on your finger Daddy...

I love my son. Little Blue is awesome, which, when you have nights when you're up till 3:30am, you can't complain because he makes the rest of toddlerhood so easy.

At 1pmish, I hear Little Blue penetrating my sleep cycle saying "Daddy." It wasn't a "I want a drink of water" type of Daddy, it was close to a blood curdling "Daddy."

Sometimes, all you need to move like The Flash is boxers.

Little Blue had spat up all over in bed, chunks of what look liked homemade chicken soup were all over his night shirt, bed, and a couple of his favorite cuddle toys. You find it hard not to laugh in your son's moment of ultimate nuckiness when he's complaining that he got sick all over some of his babies (Namely, his favorite Winnie The Pooh and a little cat toy he got in a happy meal).

I call for Dale and she's up quickly as well and guides him into the bathroom to get him clean while I'm cleaning up his bedroom, salvaging what toys I can, pulling cases off of pillows and starting a load of laundry at 1:15am.

This isn't the first time this happened, but Little Blue always feels so ashamed, guilty, and sad when it happens. We do our best to comfort him, and a full 10 minutes after Pink and I went on Haxmat duty, were all hugging and letting him know it's okay.

I put on a spare set of sheets, and we put on a few of his buddies on the bed because we assume all is well and he's asking to go back to bed.

Nearly 2pm...and he's messed the bed again, much smaller, but a mess just the same. Again, Pink is on cleanup and I'm changing sheets, restarting the load in the washer and adding in another bedsheet. This time, though, when we're done, we head downstairs to snuggle on the couch, and Pink and I...without communicating it, set a deadline of 30 minutes. If he goes that long, we'll put him back to bed. If not, we start the clock at 30 minutes and wait again.

Sure enough, at the 25 minute mark, just after he tells us he's well enough to go to bed, I recognize his body starting to constrict and cleaning out the ol' tummy. We stood him up on the floor, and Pink and I neglected to get something for him to "empty" himself into, so we just let him go right on the floor, the whole time telling him to spit it all out and letting him know he's doing a good job.

Yes, parenthood is all about the glamor.

With the clock ticking for 30 minutes again, we clean up his mess real quick, my neurons fire and I go get a LB size waistbasket, and we're snuggling on the couch again.

Sure enough...20 minutes later, LB gets his first instruction on how to bow to the almighty trashcan. He didn't bow, but Pink held and I supported LB, rubbing his tummy the whole time as my father did to my stomache on nights when I was sick. By this time, it's mostly drool and phlegm, so when a couple dribbles end up on my thumb, in his infinite cuteness, my boy says:

"Daddy, I spit up on your finger. I got it on your finger Daddy."

Our hearts melt and I tell him it's okay and I wash my hands and I'm all better. LB and I snuggle up, is requests alternating between watching TV and going to bed, and Pink gets on the horn to Ask a Nurse.

Turns out, toddlers don't get naucious (sp?) like we big kids do. We can feel it coming on, nurse tells us toddlers don't know, it's still pure instinct/reaction.

But, all is well, we give LB a little water to sate his thirst, and he's off to bed.

I send Pink to bed, and 30 minutes meaning 30 minutes, I pick up a book and read for 30 minutes. Bed time...3:32am.

Wake up at 5:45am. At work by 6:25am. Generate report for boss and have it on her desk by 7:45am. Meet with boss. We discuss and the report is wrong, but she can fix it. Head to Pink's place of work where she took LB for a couple minutes until I could dash and take him home for the day. 2pm Pink comes home so I can go to a meeting at a library and talk downloadable audio books till 4. Come home, feed LB and I dinner while Pink goes back to work to finish some things up.

Yeah. Long...long...long day. Blue tired. Blue has 4 meetings tomorrow. 5 hours of meetings. Need...coffee...IV...

First Trip to the Movie Theater

Big call out to Parents Magazine. My eye caught an ad for Tonka Trucks Emergency Vehicles movie, and I knew that was right up Little Blue's alley, so with a little investigating I looked up which theater participated in the Kidtoons programs. So, this weekend, LB and I took in Pinocchio 3K.

Story is what you'd expect with a technical twist, but it was good story. I was a little cranky at the Great Mall for opening up the theater 5 minutes before the movie was supposed to begin, but once they rang LB and I up for 4 bucks, I kept my lip shut.

The bad thing about it...LB and I were the only one in the theater. Chitlins love to learn by example, and while there was some humor in the movie, it wasn't enough to get me to smirk, and LB was so in shock over the whole thing I don't think he even really knew how to take it all in. If there had been other kids his age there laughing along, then he probably would have had more fun.

We grabbed a booster and he sat in his own seat for about half the movie, then he hopped over to Dad's lap and finished off the movie.

We split a bottled water and a box of raisenettes, and had a good time watching the "big TV."

Still, Monday morning on the way to daycare, he asked if we could go see another one.

At 4 bucks, how could I say no? We'll have to see how often the movies rotate and go catch another one.

Can I have some Gummies?

Ah...potty training regression. It happens, and as much as I hate using a sweet reward to get Little Blue to do his duty, Classical Conditioning works, just as Pavlov and Little Albert.

Little Blue knows what needs to be done, but, he's discovered, he's got a choice whether to do it in his pants or in the toilet. Apparently hugs, kisses, and making Mom and Daddy proud isn't the perfect reward for potty training.

So, after some discussion with Pink and our Daycare Provider, we came up with the following plan.

Oddly enough...I can trace this idea to Queequeg's survey and her distaste for Gummy and how much LB and I enjoyed them.

Here's how it works.

If LB goes potty in the toilet AND his pants are dry, he gets 2 gummy bears and Daddy/Daycare Friends also get 2 gummy bears.

If LB pants are wet, we still go through the motions of going potty for routine's sake, then Daddy/Daycare Friends gets Gummies, LB gets to watch us eat them.

Evil? Yup. But, at daycare, LB's friends help him remember because every time they want a goodie, they ask if he has to go potty. If he does, gummies around! He's got a cute little playmate who've I literally heard say, "LB...if you need to go potty before you go with your Daddy, you can."

At home, Pink and I ask on occasion, but to make it realy stick, I leave the tupperware container of gummies out where he can see them when he's up and playing. About once every half hour or so, he'll pick it up and ask Pink or I if he can have some. "Only if we go potty first, big man." Most of the time he says no because he doesn't want to go or need to go, but he's getting better about going...even if it's just a trickle to get a couple gummies.

And when he doesn't get gummies, he cries and turns into Mr. Drama Queen. Once so far, he knew he was screwed as he waddled to the toilet, trying to keep his wet sweatpants off of his skin, "I no get gummies!" *tears ensue*

Some days it's tough to keep sympathy out of the equasion, more often it's just hard to keep a straight face.

Overnight, we're a little lax. He wears Pull-Ups because he'll have overnight accidents for potentially years to come, so we play down the Gummy bit because he'll go potty in his sleep.

But, if he wakes up in a good mood and goes potty without throwing a fuss, he gets a Transformer sticker. On the rare days he's awake, not throwing a fuss, and dry, he gets 2-3 stickers and gummies. If I have to drag him in the bathroom do do our duty, he doesn't get anything.

Daycare provider has picked up on the sticker thing, so she can usually use it to figure out the type of mood LB is in when we arrive at 7am.

Yeah, Gummies are good. :)