Training Days. Warning: Toilet talk to follow!

We are at the age now when "Potty Training" has become a hot topic. The first questions that come to my mind, as with all of the other milestones that have come onto the radar in these early years, are: When & How? My warning to new parents is to get use to the answers, as they seem to be the same each time.

When: it varies based on the individual child, parental philosophy, net family income, eye color, side of the street you live on, etc… And of course there is “no need to be concerned if your child takes a little longer to catch on” which I’m sure is a canned response developed by doctors to answer dads who automatically start getting antsy asking, “does this mean that my child is not in the top 1% intelligence in the world?”

How: anyone you ask will tell you different, so pick from one of the dozens of theories and go with it. It often gives me the feeling that we’re just “winging it”, but Sydney doesn’t usually feel that we’re as lost as I do.

First things first: Sydney found us a used training toilet at a garage sale for $1! Given the retail price-tag of around $20 I feel pretty confident that this move alone places us in the upper echelon of the potty training elite. With the equipment requirements taken care of, Sydney found an article on timing that listed some of the signs that a child may be ready to start training and from it we were both lead to conclude that we’d be better off waiting, as the article warned that prematurely starting the process is not only frustrating to parent and child, but really doesn’t do much to speed up the end result. With that in mind we placed the little green Baby Bjorn trainer in the guest bathroom across from the real thing. From time to time either of us will have Jameson sit down on the trainer with his clothes on and explain to him that this is where he should come if he has to go “pee-pee” (which Sydney expressed concern over calling it, since he has already come to know the associated body part by the same name. While I can understand why she would worry that the noun/verb usage confusion that this could cause, I assured her that plenty of boys prior to ours have been able to work through it). Good enough for some soft training in my opinion, a full plan to be developed later.

Then one night last week as I undressed him for bath time he said to me, “Sit Potty?” Thinking that this was another practice session I said, “Sure, let’s sit on the potty” and so he did (which in and of itself is a very funny process that involves backing up, bending down putting his hands on the ground to help push his butt to the correct position before lowering himself down with not nearly as much accuracy as you would expect from such a process). Once he sat, he looked down and actually began to go “pee-pee” in the “potty” (and I do use the term IN lightly as most splashed out onto the floor and rug)! Despite having to work through some aiming issues it was an extremely successful and unexpected outing that I’m not 100% sure wasn’t a wonderful accident. None the less it was certainly an opportunity for Sydney and I to reinforce the behavior as very positive and he seemed to pick up on our excitement.

The next night, after changing an exceptionally stinky diaper, Jameson again asked, “Sit Potty?” To which I excitedly asked, “Do you have to go pee-pee?” Jameson responded, as he does to 90% of the questions we ask him, “dah!”. So I put him down and he ran to the bathroom and assumed the position again, but this time he looked down and nothing happened. He tried for a couple of seconds and then looked up at me and said, “’s broken?” not knowing what to say and doing the best I could not to laugh out loud, I told him that it was OK. He looked up with a confused look and said, “daddy help pee-pee". Unfortunately I couldn’t think of anything to help. I did even try to make running water sounds to see if that would “help go pee-pee”, but I’m thinking that is more of a cue that works by association later on in life, because it did nothing for him. He did get up and down a couple of more times in an attempt to make it happen, as though just sitting on the magic potty was all it took, but unfortunately our second attempt didn’t pan out. It may take some actual training yet.

Another funny thing he’s doing now:
We’re trying to teach him colors, so we regularly ask him what color things are, to which he without hesitation or contemplation proudly shouts, “Geeeen!” no matter what the actual color. We then correct him with the actual color which he disappointedly repeats with some prompting. If he seems to be getting too down on himself I’ll ask him with something that actually is green to help boost his confidence :)

Months? Years? I don't know

Our son is 22 months old. I think I'm still supposed to refer to his age in months but honestly now days I'm more likely to say, "He'll be two in July".

The current catalyst for my "nth" attempt to keep a blog is part of a Mother's day gift for my wife Sydney. She, as the only reader that I currently know of for this blog, is always asking me why I don't update it more often, so for her I will make another attempt.

Let me be clear up front, Jameson remains the most incredible part of my and Sydney's life. She can't stop telling me how cute he is, and although I'm rarely as out front with it as she is I do agree. That being said I have definitely noticed that he is becoming more prone to testing the resolve of our instructions. I tend to be more stern with my instructions than she, but I struggle with trying to make sure that my instructions don't stifle his curiousity for exploring the world around him, while at the same time vowing that I will not be one of the parents who sits back and watches idly while their child runs amok on a path of wild destruction. About two weeks back we experienced our first temper tantrum :). It was set off by Sydney not wanting Jameson to drag his blanket through the garage and get it dirty, which resulted in her carrying it upstairs instead of him. What ensued started as harmless whining, that when ignored spiralled into full on crying, running from room to room in the condo and foot stomping, none of which could be consoled by anything that we had to say. It was definitely a new side and I decided to video tape it because I'm sure it will be fun to show him and potentially his family some day...

For the most part his actions make us smile more than not. Here are some of the funnier things that he has recently come up with:

• I had surgery on my shoulder a little over a month ago. As a part of my rehabilitation I have a medical chair with a mechanical arm that slowly moves my surgically repaired arm up and down to keep my shoulder joint from locking up (3 exciting hours a day!). The first morning that Jameson saw me using the chair he was quite confused, until he looked at me knowingly and said, "bobot". "Bobot," I thought? Then he repeated, "bobot" and I realized that he now thinks I'm a robot. Where he made that connection from I'm still not sure. He has a book with a picture of a robot in it, but it bears no resemblance to what is now refferred to as "daddy bobot chair"
  
• He also developed a strange obsession with "goff bahs" a couple of weeks ago when he saw a sleeve of mine sitting on the shelf (I wonder if that's how Tigre Woods started out). I think he likes that they are small and could do some damage if thrown hard enough at breakable objects. On a damage to throwablilty ratio for a 22 month old I'd say they're near the top of the list.
  
• He has also gotten pretty good at chatching a baloon that is thrown to him. Hopefully it helps to develop his had eye coordination. But each time I blow a new one up for him to play with he looks up at me ready to squeeze and asks, "Pop It?" I try to discourage him by letting him know that if he pops it he won't have it to play with anymore, but ultimately I leave it up to him...
  
• He attended his first SoccerTots class on Saturday. He did well for the first half, but the second half was a struggle that saw another mini tantrum form. It was hot outside and he was wearing long sleeves and sweats so I think he may have been too hot. He did kick his first goal in a drill though. First of many I hope.
  
• We made our first trip to the El Segundo plunge on Saturday, where Jameson enjoyed being whisked around elbow to elbow with all of the other 5 and unders and the sprinkling of dads. Sydney came in against her will amidst much discussion about the likely urine content of the 2.5 foot deep "kiddie pool"(Maybe that's why there was only one other mom in the pool). A little girl asked me what was on my shoulder, which given that I just had shoulder surgery does seem like a legitimate question; the problem was she was asking about the non surgery shoulder. My reply; "Nothing. Just hair." I thought it was funny (not as funny as Sydney of course) but her poor dad was a bit embassed. I'm sure Jameson will put us in plenty of those situations in no time at all.