Pee Pee Problems

Mornings are not exactly the time of day when I should be making impulse decisions. Monday mornings especially. But when I woke Grant up this morning and noticed that he had a dry diaper (seriously dry, the little guy held it all night) I made the immediate decision to put him on the potty. I ran into the bathroom where Husband was showering, grabbed the potty and brought it to Grant's room thinking that the shower sound might distract him. That was a no go, bad idea. Potty in the bedroom threw him off completely. I can't say that I blame him.

At that point Husband was out of the shower so we moved the potty and our half naked toddler to the bathroom. Husband gave him a magazine (he asks for them now) and he sat for a minute. Then he got up and kind of squatted on the floor reading the magazine.

Husband says "Do you want to sit on the potty? Do you have to go?" Grant says no.

Then there is pee on the magazine. Not a lot, but pee just the same. That is when we notice some pee in the potty too. So while Grant is pointing at the peed on magazine saying "Oh messy" we're trying to praise him for going in the potty. We ask if he has to go more, he says no and then disappears for minute. So I clean out the potty.

Not a minute later Grant comes  back to the bathroom holding himself and looks at me with the most innocent face and says "Pee pee?" It was the first time he's ever told me he had to go...and it was Monday morning so my response was "Huh?". Then he sprinkled on the floor. I realized what was going on and before I could stop myself said "Oh no!" because I felt bad that I didn't react the way I should.

Tears. Big ones. Streaming down Grant's little face. I almost broke down. I felt like the most horrible mom in the world. I always tell him to let me know if he has to go and I'll get him on the potty and he finally does and I don't realize it. THEN he thinks I'm yelling at him! We got him calmed down pretty quick and smiling again. I kept telling him how great it was that he let me know he had to go. I still feel pretty awful about the whole thing. I've ordered a potty book for us to read together and I need to learn to control my reactions. Perhaps I should just squash any impulse decisions that leap into my mind on Monday mornings. I hope I didn't scare him away from the potty!

4th of July

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that it's practically August and I'm just now getting ready to talk about the 4th. Sorry...I'm busy, it happens.

Remember last year's 4th of July? Thankfully, this year was much better! We worked out our vacation this year to be the week of the 4th so that I wouldn't have to use as much time. With all my liver stuff, I'm running quite low in the vacation time area. But it worked out perfect because I L-O-V-E being in NY for the 4th of July. While there are many reasons that I would be reluctant to move back to a small town, the 3rd & 4th of July made me miss it very much.

On the 3rd of July there was a concert in the band shell in the town park. The Norwood Brass Firemen give a concert and it seems as if most of the town comes out with lawn chairs and blankets to socialize and listen to the music. I absolutely love listening to the Brass Firemen so when my sister suggested we go, I was all for it. She also promised ice cream, of which there was none (clearly, I've let that go).

In addition to the great music, Grant got to play on the playground...before it started to rain. That pretty much wiped out the festivities. For us anyway. We left the park with some friends of my sister's and headed across the street to their house (also the funeral home) where we had parked. We stuck around there for a bit to socialize and so Grant could kind of play with the kids. They had a children's 4-wheeler there that Grant really liked. And really got the hang of.

My sister is now convinced that Grant needs one.

So the next day was, obviously, the 4th of July. Since the parade didn't start until 1:00 my sister and I spent the morning prepping for our cookout that evening. And we were super excited to take Grant to his first parade. For a small town, Norwood knows how to do a parade and it's generally quite long. I was worried about Grant being able to keep his attention on it the whole time.

Fast forward to parade time. Here are some pictures. I took 178 (not kidding), that's how long it was. So these are really only a few and don't come close to doing it justice.

Grant & Auntie Shauna ready for the parade

Shauna's handsome dog, Lennon, decked out in his 4th of July outfit

Motorcycles started the parade (a favorite of Grant's)

"Bye 'cycle!"

The Brass Firemen

There were lots of old firetrucks on display and Grant loved all the trucks.

"Firefruck!"

This, to Grant, is a tractor and the biggest he's ever seen.
He was shaking he was so excited.

This year's parade theme was Disney

Cubby the Clown for President!

An amazing steel drum band

A band of bagpipers!

The last "float". A huge truck carrying old tractors...it's like
they knew Grant would be there.

And he didn't miss it.

Bye-bye parade.

We should not have doubted Grant's ability to stay for the whole parade. He was amazed by the whole thing and couldn't have been more excited about it. I'm so glad we got to take him.

After that Grant, Husband, and Aunt Bonnie went back to Aunt Bonnie's house to rest while I went to my sister's to get ready for the cookout. The "party" started around 5:00 and that's kind of when I put my camera down. But here are a few pictures:

Lennon (and Grant's doggy BFF - more on that in another post)

You could pretty much find Grant where ever the dogs were.

Auntie Shauna tried to show Grant how to roll down a hill
but he didn't really want to try it.

It was a great time hanging out with family and friends while eating too much yummy food. It was a little bittersweet having it at my parent's house and watching Grant play in the backyard where my sister and I used to play. But I know my parents would have loved how much fun he had that day and what a great time we all had.

Side Note: My Dad's favorite part of the 4th was always the parade. He'd go down well before the rest of us to save his favorite spot to watch from. When we got to the parade where my sister had saved us a spot (not my Dad's usual spot), she was rather creeped out to find the man sitting next to us looked almost just like my Dad.

23 Months

23 months old

With his second birthday literally around the corner, Grant is most certainly "a big guy". I put that in quotes because he will proudly tell you that he's a big guy when asked. It seems like that last month or two has brought about a lot of growing up that has left us confused as to how it happened so quickly.

What he's up to:

• Took his first real vacation - to see family in NY - and did remarkably well on a very long car ride.
• On that vacation he went to his first parade, which was a big hit with him.
• Went "swimming" for the first time (and many times after that) and loved it! My goal for next summer is to have a small pool for us.
• Not only has he used his first cuss word, but he uses it correctly. When he dropped something, he said "Damn it". When something was out of reach, he said "Damn it". You get the idea. We were advised to ignore it (first instinct being to tell him stop, of course) and he seems to have stopped saying it. For now.
• Uses some complete sentences now. "Mama, what's that?" "I get it!" "I find it!" "I find him!" (this one generally referring to the dog). You get the idea.
• Likes to try to say the ABC's by himself (but isn't very good at it yet) and he can count to 10 with prompting...but he obviously doesn't know what that means yet.
• Not much progress in the potty training. We haven't really been pushing it. When we think to put him on the potty it's always at the wrong time. But he still likes to sit there and read magazines.
• Still signs "more", "please", and "thank you". And he's using "please" and "thank you" often without having to be prompted. Now we're working on "yes, please" instead of the "Okay!" he's fond of using now.
• Only needs his pacifier at bed time now. He naps without it at school, so he naps without it at home. I like to think we're getting there (with getting rid of it entirely) but that seems like a bold statement.
• Wearing mostly 18 mo and 24 mo/2T but still has some 12 month shorts that fit him. His shoes are still size 7 but I'm thinking before too long he'll be needing a bigger size.
• Doesn't have much interest in cartoons. He'll watch them in the morning while I'm getting ready for work (used to be whatever was on Nick Jr. but now we've moved to Disney Jr. and I like their morning selection better!) but any other time of day he doesn't care about what's on TV unless it's Monster Jam. He has also started having some interest in sports stuff on TV too (hockey season will be really fun this year!).
• Insists on helping me when brushing his teeth. He grabs for his Spongebob toothbrush and says "Help? Help?"
• Loves music and looooves to dance to it. Very cute. We have little dance parties in his room after bath time and dance together (I have zero ability to dance but Grant doesn't seem to mind).
• He can never have too many stories at bed time.
• Loves anything with an engine but monster trucks are still his absolute favorite.

Road Trippin': Part Two

I meant to do this a week ago. Honestly, I didn't feel like it. Mostly because after only one post, I decided that blogging from my phone is not my favorite thing. Maybe I just have too much to say. So I'm not separating day one and day two like I did in my other post.

The first day of the trip home was much as we'd expected. Grant was good, like on the way up, but slightly more spoiled so more in need of attention. By the time we got to Syracuse he was saying every word he knows - and repeating anything we were saying - in order to get attention. The problem with that being...we were in a car. So when we made a stop we decided that we could bust out the DVD player that didn't get much use on the trip north. Husband selected Thomas the Train - which delighted Grant since he loves choo-choos. That was a decision soon regretted because, as it turns out, Thomas the Train is really annoying. And as the DVD player was directly behind my head it was really hard to ignore.

We hit super awful traffic just before crossing into PA. Surprise! I swear they've had this stretch of road under construction for 10 years. Every year we hope they're done...and every year they're not. So all that put us behind. After a quick stop to pee and switch to Dumbo in the DVD player (and an unspoken agreement to never again put in Thomas the Train) we were on our way to the hotel for the night. We stopped for dinner before getting to the hotel because we'd been held up so much by traffic and then got there between 7-7:30. Just in time to take Grant for a quick swim before settling in for the night.

He really loved all the swimming he got to do
on vacation.

We got going as early as we could. We hit some more crappy traffic in the morning through Maryland/West Virginia putting us a little behind and it didn't help that Grant had pretty much had it with being in the car. We definitely used the DVD player (our secret weapon supposedly) on the return trip south than we did going north. But I do have to say that Grant did WAY better than we had even hoped. So many people said that this is a terrible age for him to travel in the car but for the most part he did really great.

We stopped at the VA welcome center for a diaper change/bathroom stop. I went into the area with all the brochures because I have to look at those things no matter where we go. It was in there when we said "Ok, time to get back in the car" that Grant decided to throw his fit. He just didn't want to get back in. Poor guy. I'm sure some people thought we were kidnapping him. But it didn't take too long to settle him back in.

Taken at the VA welcome center. I thought it was cute.
Husband said when he saw it "I would LOVE to be
home right now."

After lunch somewhere in VA, Grant napped in the car for a bit and then we were home by 5:30-6:00 (I think). It was pretty much a relief for all of us to get home and have a day to relax before going back to work. And Grant could let out some of that energy that he'd been stifling for two days.

More posts and pictures of the trip coming soon. I just need to find the patience to resize all the pictures I want to post.

Growin' Up

I have mentioned in a previous post that at Grant's day care, when you turn two are immediately booted out of the comfort zone known as the Toddler Room to join...well, more toddlery toddlers. That next step is known at daycare as Little Two's. What I didn't mention is that on the rare occasions when Grant has had to be left in the Little Two's he acts like we've dropped him off at Gitmo. Crying, screaming, terrified...the works. Like it turns into a toddler sweatshop when we turn our back. So we've been prepping ourselves for the horrible reports to come in less than two months.

Yesterday was Grant's first day back at day care after vacation. And we got a shock. They moved him up to Little Two's almost two months early! Husband is in charge of day care duty 95% of the time, so I got the memo by text. I was totally unprepared. They had little ones moving up from the Waddler Room to the Toddler Room so moves had to be made and Grant was one of the ones they picked! I was simultaneously proud (that they pick my little guy to move early) but scared and sad too (because it means he's growing up AND because he was terrified of that room). I am not a worrier. I'm just not. But I sat at my desk all day thinking about my little man being put in that room that he's so scared of.

But you know what? He did GREAT! He had a great day with the "new" kids and the teacher said he didn't cry at all. I was so excited! We've known they're not big on paci's in this room so we haven't even brought one for him this week which means he's napping without one (now we just have to work on night time!) AND there is a potty in this room so it will help us with that too. I'm so proud of my big little guy!


Hooray Grant!