Littlest Lopez

Check the pickle baggy.

Yes, I am pregnant! I feel very very blessed and very very tired! It's already begun though - the balancing game. I want to write so many cute things my toddler-child is doing lately, but I want to devote some special time to talk about my.. uterine-child, too! I am 11 weeks (almost), and thus far NO belly pics have been taken. But I hope to sometime soon, when it looks like a belly bump and not just eye-popping bloat. See, I documented every week with pregnancy #1 with a bare-belly pic. That ain't gonna happen this time around. I don't care how much weight you lose after having a baby, your body will NEVER look as good as it does pre-pregnancy. Same holds true for your bank account and your living room. And the inside of your car, while we're at it. 

I suppose I should explain the pickle baggy, right? 

I wanted to tell Pablo in a special way - not just holding up the pee stick and squealing, though that would have been my preferred way, as it requires such little effort! But no, my sometimes-high-maintenance husband told me well in advance that it BETTER! BE! SPECIAL! So, on Friday morning (Aug 27), I took the test and there it was! The two lines... then the digital one with the life-altering word on it: pregnant. He was about to leave for work, and I really hadn't planned anything in advance...... so I took a ziploc containing a large heinous pickle that he sometimes buys from Home Depot (the vendors outside the doors) and wrote I'm Pregnant on it. Then, when he came in the kitchen I said (something I have said many many times before) that his pickle looked revolting and maybe he should think about throwing it away, to which he screamed at me in a very normal-for-him high pitched tone, 'you better not throw my pickle away!'.. and I told him to check it out anyways.. so he did. And the immediately saw it and went a little pale and ran to me..  there was much hugging.. maybe something got in his eye, too. He was very very surprised (though, he shouldn't have been, if ya know what I'm sayin') and very overjoyed.

This time around has been QUITE different, in many ways....  

I haven't been even remotely as nauseated as I was with Andrew. I have a few theories about this: *I have toughened up. Pre-Andrew, I could not be in the same room as a vomiter (and I had never been vomited ON pre-child), much less handled poop-situations, snot on my person, boogers, other various bodily fluids, and spaghetti nights. I am now completely unaffected by them, and maybe this lends to an overall more 'toughness'. Maybe? I sometimes gag over certain things, and I honestly think to myself that whatever it was that made me just gag would have CERTAINLY made me vomit with my first pregnancy. See, I've gotten tough! *I haven't the time for leisurely vomit sessions. Yeah, sure, I could vomit at will during nap-times, but I have much more fun and relaxing things to do during that time. *Maybe I am having a... girl??! God help me. But maybe there's an ounce of truth to how your body handles babies of differing genders. *And more rationally speaking, it's simply the old 'every baby and every pregnancy is different.' Not much else to say than that!

I am still absolutely exhausted. THAT has not changed from pregnancy to pregnancy. It's amazing to me how your body goes into overdrive with pregnancies and literally FORCES you to slow down and give it the rest it needs. Unfortunately, this time around, uhhh... HAHAHA! Rest and toddlers just don't go together. So, thank the Lord for preschool days. And even on those days I am usually running around getting things done or meeting friends, so I am still exhausted when I pick him up from preschool. Oh, how I envy the days of my first pregnancy, when weekends meant nonstop lounging and general sloth-like behavior. Those days are so long over.

The amount that people ask and care about how you are doing goes waaaay down with subsequent pregnancies. I suppose they figure that I know what I am doing now, or the novelty has just completely worn off. And yeah, this also applies to spouses. The pedestal I was on with my first pregnancy was a mile or two higher than where I sit now! There was a fair amount of just awed basking in how I was growing life at that very moment in time - now it's more like "can you go wipe his butt please while I back the car out and don't forget to refill his water and give him ice if he wants some and make sure we locked the back door and hurry up cuz we're already late!!"...  Life now affords no time for basking.

I have food aversions, just like last time. Though, I can't really remember what I loathed last time.. it's a great many things this time around! I have no taste for sweet things - no ice cream or cake, which is quite the blessing in disguise, no? I really don't have much taste for anything - I just want to fill my belly when it calls for it. Maybe I'll enjoy food in a few months.Perhaps a little too much.

To sum up - I am so so so excited to expand our family. I am beyond words thrilled to give Andrew the lifelong gift of a sibling. I know what a gift it is, because I have my sister who I love so much and can't imagine life without. I know there will be hair pulling and pinching and much squabling, but I know we'll get through all that. May take years, sure!, but I know Andrew will someday be as grateful as I am for a lifelong best friend. I am so thrilled to be able to give them both a live-in playmate and someone to share all their life with.

30.5 months

Oh man. It's been a while! So much happens every day that it would take up way too much time I do not have to stop and write it all down. As usual, I'll be winging it.
You really really love music these days. And your 'favorite song' changes weekly... and it's always up to me/us to know what your current 'favorite' is - because that is how you request it. PLAY MY FAVORITE! Right now, it's a song from a random cd your cool Aunt Kelly burned. Not at all a toddler song - but you dig the beat. It eventually morphs into a slow version of the song, and you are convinced that the song it OVER at this point and you always belt out 'start it over!!' and I sometimes say that it's still your favorite song, and you say NO it's not! Who's dumb enough to argue with a 2 year old anyways? This lady.
You thoroughly enjoy our evening routine of doing Rock Band with daddy, after playing outside after dinner. You get cozy on the couch and you request your fave Beatles songs - lately it's a rotation of 3 or 4: Buy me some love (Can't buy me love), In my life, Paperback Writer, and Yellow Submarine. I usually give you a pre-bedtime snack while you bop and sing (while daddy plays the guitar or drums), and if I happen to forget, you scream across the house to me (where I am usually relaxing for a rare 15 minutes) - Mommy! being me my snack pleeeease!
You currently LOVE pumpkins. Which is quite timely, given the season we are entering. You love reading this one book I had for you last year, a home-made (etsy) book about carving pumpkins, and you absolutely love the page that says VOILA! A pumpkin face! You go around saying voila all day now. And you flip whenever we see a pumpkin out and about. We plan to take you to the pumpkin patch this month, so it's safe to say your mind will be sufficiently blown then.
Speaking of fall, I ordered your Halloween costume the other day. You will be a UPS delivery-man. You live for the UPS trucks (and yes, FedEx too), so I thought this was an appropriate costume this year. But mostly, the ensemble looks comfortable, which is paramount considering our costume debacles last year. Your cow costume quickly became a Mad Cow costume, as you were not so pleased with how itchy and uncomfortable it was. Considering how highly..communicative you are and how your rages this year put last years' fits to shame, we went with comfort this time around!
We sometimes call you The Puppetmaster. This stems from your very typical toddler way of bossing us around. If a song is playing, you'll point to me and say Dance Mommy! then point to your father and say Now you dance Daddy! And just general bossiness. It's something we have to work on though, how rarely you say PLEASE right off the bat. You say it instnatly when prompted in the slightest (and very sweetly, too), but it's rare that you say it the first time around.
Preschool has been going very well. I come to pick you up right after you're woken up from your nap there, and (just like at home) you're always pretty zonked. Trying to get any details of your day is pointless because all you want to do is NOT TALK and get home. I always end up getting bits & pieces of details as the day goes on (and the days to follow). It's interesting sometimes..  I learned the last name of one of your fave friends today - you said Jaden Edwards in conversation, and then I asked you what your other friend, Dylan's, last name was... and you pondered this for a few seconds and went 'pizza!!' and you had a good chuckle about that. Silly.
You love to go look at yourself in the bathroom mirror (using a little stool we have), when you know you look funny. Specifically, when you're taking your shirt off and it gets stuck over your huge head, so it looks like a shirt-turban. You could stare and giggle and make faces at yourself in the mirror for half an hour if I let you. 

I find myself lately basking in your cuteness and toddlerhood, when I can. If we're sitting and reading together, I'll burrow my head in your thick hair and just take big whiffs... which yes, makes me sound slightly crazy, but it's just getting so ridiculous, how fast you're growing. Every damn day you do or say something that reminds me how you're on a quick path to being a BIG! KID! and it's pretty emotional for me. I am so fully aware that I will never get these days back with you, and I hope and pray that I am giving you the best toddlerhood I can, because you will never get these days back either. I hope I'm giving you as much love and memories as you are giving me. Sweets!

first day of preschool

Yesterday (Tues) was your very first day of preschool. It was a surreal day for me, one that lived in the farthest corner of my mind, I knew the day would come.. but really, I never truly believed it would. I thought you'd stay some form of baby for all time, and leaving you with strangers and other kids who might bite or steal your toys would never be a worry! HA!
Your preschool happens to be the church we go to weekly (most of the time), so you were 100% used to the classroom and all the things in it. You had a meet-the-teacher last week, and you seemed to really dig your teachers, one in particular, who was the younger of the two ladies. This might be your first crush.

So, yesterday morning, we go about our morning as usual, and I don't say too much about it being your first day of preschool - because if I have learned one thing about you (and toddlers all round the world), it's that they are UNPREDICTABLE. As sure as you are wanting to endlessly discuss the joys of preschool one minute, you will show fiery hatred towards the thought of it the next. So I didn't even chance it! At one point you said 'mmmm... don't wanna go to preschool, wanna stay home instead'... and I actively ignored that statement altogether!
I took some pics of you about 30 minutes before we left, as I didn't want to wait til right before we left - lest I piss you off with endless picture taking. It was pouring rain outside, so we couldn't do any cute outdoor pictures. The damp garage had to do. Your backpack and lunchbag just happened to beautifully coordinate with your first-day outfit. I didn't even plan that! And yes yes, your hair is sticking straight up. But this is it's WAY. And fighting it is futile. We're in an in-between stage of growing out the top so it will lay more flat, so in the meantime, I take passive-aggressive comments from other mothers about the importance of haircuts and just smile.
We left and got there early (surprise surprise) and you lounged in the church couches and chairs for a while. One of our friends came, and I chatted with them, then it was time to sign in..  so we went over, and you were SO impatient to go in. It wasn't quite time yet, but you kept asking me 'wanna go in the room!'...  Eventually it was time, and I dropped your lunchbag/nap mat/backpack off in your own little laundry baskets and you went in. I had to say 'hey, where's my hug and kiss??!' and you came back like a sweet little boy and indulged me with a kiss. :)  Then you went off to your favorite area, the puzzle corner. I saw one of the teacher's 11 year old daughter come over to play with you - then I left. Ok, not really..  I hovered at the door, careful for you to not spot me, but yes, I hovered. Then I realized that you probably had no clue that this was not ACTUALLY church, and were quite content with playing like you always do, til I come back in an hour to get you!

I then had a wonderfully full day (5 hours) to myself. I grocery shopped - I practically skipped through the aisles - and when the register broke when I went to check out, I was all cool as a cucumber, because child, who I love and adore and cherish, you were not there to let it be known what an inconvenience to you this was! I made oatmeal raisin cookies, so you could have a special snack when I picked you up. I had to go back to the store because I forgot something on the list (not a tragedy at ALL when you are unencumbered!). I bought Gizmo's special food at Petsmart - which is probably the only time this year I've gone to Petmsart without you. It was weird. I did laundry. I washed dishes. I washed and dried my hair - which was seriously pleasant, as I was not forced to sing songs while you sat on the toilet, belting out song requests. I read in my book and some trashy gossip magazine. I watched a few minutes of The View. It was quite blissful!
At 1:50 I went to pick you up and got the surprise of my life when I saw you conked out in your nap mat, by the door. There were kids awake and talking, and things going on, but you were still out like a light! I think my jaw hit the floor because I literally did NOT expect you to nap. You had been having various sleep problems lately, add to the fact that you have never slept around other kids before - much less 11 of them - and I was flabbergasted. She said you slept the entire naptime.
So I kneel by you, and you sleepily open your eyes and see me, and you say 'mommy gonna come pick you up...' I can imagine this was your mantra that day. :)
The teacher said you did so fantastic - she said she would have bet that this was not your first year of preschool. She seemed quite impressed with how well you did! I never had a doubt.
We left and you wolfed down your cookie in the car and told me how you popped bubbles and that Mrs Larkin is preeetty!
I am so very grateful your first day wasn't a traumatic one. I won't get cocky and expect every preschool day to be seamless. I know the novelty might wear off and you might cry and go through phases of this and that. In fact, just today I asked you if you were excited about preschool again tomorrow, and you said 'no, it makes me angry!!' - what the heck??! Each day is a crapshoot. But for now, I will be very grateful that your very first day was a huge success. :)

29.5 months

A few notables for the moment.......

* Sometimes, I will be here on the computer for a minute or two (very true, no more than this or you go NUTS wanting to get on with me) and sometimes during those times, you will build large and small lego towers and bring them to me and ask me to kiss them. You'll ask for LOTS of BIG kisses for the big towers, and leeeeetle kisses for the little towers. One time, I gave the tower a few kisses and then you went to go, but turned and stopped and said 'now how bout some for Andrew?' O, you know I gave you BIG kisses!

* On our way to Grandpa's house one day, your father was trying to remember a funny story from earlier that day - he was saying "so, I asked him if his favorite animal was an elephant, and he said no.. it was a...  and I totally forget what he said, but it was so funny!!!" and you piped in loudly with "Daddy, I said lobster!!!" And we all got a good laugh.

* One day, when we returned home from errands, I had a few bags to bring in so I told you to go on in and wait for me inside. You stood there in the open garage door, VERY impatient-like, and yelled at me 'come on Mommy! You're letting all the flies in!'  I wonder where you heard that??! Surely not ME, every day, at least 12 times a day..........

* You are quite conscientious of clean versus dirty underwear. Sometimes when you'll use the potty, and then go to put your undies back on, you'll see the faintest of skid marks (yes, it all started when you were two!) and you'll hold them out and say 'oh no!!! there's poop in em!!!' And you'll scamper off for fresh clean ones. One day, hopefully more than 2 decades from now, you likely won't even care about the slightest of skid marks...

* Every night we play Rock Band (well, you and your father do, mostly, while I relax for two songs) and you LOVE the Beatles ones. You recognize Beatles songs on the radio now...  the other day Hello Goodbye was on, and you perked up and went 'heeeey, I like this song!'. Your all-time faves are Yellow Submarine, Paperback Writer, and Can't Buy Me Love. However, you call it 'Buy Me Some Love'. So cute.

* We went and rode the mini-train. You looooved riding the train/seeing the train/hearing the train/talking about the train. Though, when we do ride it, cute photo opps are at a premium because you go into a very zen-like trance. Every time we would go over a bridge, or see one, you'd gasp so loud and say 'we're gonna go over a bridge!!!!' It takes so little. And you also looked around and asked 'maybe we will see aunt Kelly...!!!' because last time you rode it, you sat with her. :( That was the highlight of your year!

* We talk about how Jesus is always with you - and things like that. Well, one day, close to naptime (and you had been having some naptime anxiety lately), you randomly said, 'Jesus is always with you...' and I said you are RIGHT! You know why? And you said 'because Jesus lives in your heart!'....  talk about a sweet smart boy!

* You now ride a trike with wild abandon. With a helmet, because you took a spill - so we now enforce it 100% of the time. You love to go fast, and you always announce before you take a turn on a sidewalk that 'there's a biiig turn coming up!' And, you always throw your legs out to stop yourself before you go flying into thr street at the end of a sidewalk. Which is a good thing because sometimes we aren't as fast as you!

29 month update

You are a few days past 29 months, but I haven't updated in a while. Or, rather, it feels that I haven't because life gets more funny and interesting every day with you - it's so hard to keep up! If I did like I used to, in the early days, and jotted down notables on a post-it note, I'd need an entire stack of them for one day's worth of funnies. There is no time!
So I will just wing it as I go.....

* I think you once heard us marveling over you out loud, saying how time flies and how you're growing so fast, and all that...  now, at random times (maybe when we have that emotional glassy-eyed expression?) you'll stop and stand up and say 'I'm growing up!!' OY! It makes me want to cry just thinking about it!

* You absolutely LOVE to be chased around the house. And more than that, you go ape over us making various animal noises while we chase you. You call out what you'd like to be chased with - "be a chicken!... be a gorilla!"..  I can say that my monkey (not a gorilla, there is a distinct difference!) is pretty good - but nothing beats Daddy's chicken - and you know this!

* Related to being chased - you will prompt me to do so in the cutest way imaginable. Sometimes (to get things going) I'll sniff at the air and say 'mmm... I smell delicious toddler belly (or other body part)!!..right before I tear after you...  so now, if I am not doing something (a rare pleasant time of any day), you'll give me a cheeky smile and say 'I smell DELIIIICIOUS toddler booty!' and then run off shrieking. And then how can I not just drop everything? You completely know your cuteness is the most effective tool of manipulation.

* You love to show your numbers using your fingers now. I think you might have been on the later end of mastering this, but it isn't for lack of effort on our behalf! You simply had no desire to manipulate those little fingers into number representation! But, now that you are officially obsessed with all numbers, you came to realize that showing numbers w/fingers is just about as amazing as it gets. I remember the first time you did it - at the dinner table - totally random - you pried your two fingers out of your clenched fist to make a number 2, and your eyes almost popped out of your head. I truly don't think I've ever heard your father laugh so hard. It was like we witnessed a miracle, through your eyes!!! Now, you LOVE to show us different numbers w/your hands. You especially love FOUR. I think (aside from 1) it requires the least effort, so this is why you do it most often. ;)

* You are SO VERY vocal with your little toddler impatience. When we are about to leave the house, and like usual, I have to run back to the kitchen/wherever to retrieve 'one last thing' - you impatiently stand by the door with your hand on the doorknob, saying 'cooome on Mommy....let's gooooo!' The annoyance in your voice is not subtle at all. 

* As of last night after dinner, you now ride a tricycle! It took a good while to get you to actually put forth some leg muscles to propel yourself - but you finally caught on, and now you loooove to go as fast as you can. Now we just need to get you a helmet, because if there's one thing your father can't stand it kids/adults not wearing proper safety gear!

* And as we near the start of preschool in 3 weeks (hold me!), you are sort of mentally preparing yourself by constantly (usually during mealtimes) requesting me to talk about preschool. So I do. I go through it step by step, from start to finish - what to expect. I think you are getting pretty excited, but I know you will probably be timid about it. This is just your way though, you approach things with an air of caution. You acclimate slowly, and when you finally get comfortable, watch out! Your confidence is impressive, but it does take you more time to get to that point. But, of course, I wouldn't have you ANY other way!

28.5 months old

A few things you are saying and doing that I just have to record for memory's sake - they are precious and I want to remember them forever.

* You take a handful of items, say, some blocks, and you come up to me (or your father) and say 'what mommy like? a blue one or a black one?' and then I respond, and you very cheekily hand over the one I said I liked best. Or, in the same fashion, you recite letters or numbers, going 'what mommy like? 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 or 10?' (YES CHILD, you breathlessly say all the numbers through 10! And knowing how high you can count, I am grateful you haven't thought to do this to a higher number yet!) And I'll say what number I like.. and then you'll say 'hmm.. I like 10!' (or whatever number or letter you happen to like most in that moment!)

* You picked up the use of the word 'nevermind'. I am not sure how, because I never prompted you to say it in any appropriate situation.. you just say it yourself now! I remember the first time I heard you say it - we were in the car driving, and we were going down this one road that we sometimes take to go to a park we call Johnson Road Park. All of a sudden you poke your index fingers up and say 'Nevermind! I thought I saw Johnson Road Park!'... I laughed so hard! Now you say it for random things at least a few times a day.

* Yesterday, you saw your breakfast sausage (which is the same veggie sausage you get almost every morning) and it was cut in half instead of cut into large pieces. You gasped and said 'that's the biggest sausage in the whoooooole world!' HA!

* When we take walks outside or go on your tricycle (which you are veeery slowly mastering), and we turn the corner and lose sight of our house, you stop & turn to our house and wave and say 'goodbye home! goodbye grass! goodbye (random thing in our yard)! See ya lata alligator! See ya lata crocodile!' It is quite cute.

* You sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame from start to finish all by yourself, which is as indescribably cute as it sounds. And for someone who truly loathes baseball as much as I do, this is saying a lot. We sing it as a family almost every night before bedtime, either that or your ABCs - you always pick one or the other.

* You love to use the phrase 'in just a minute' - some mornings you wake up before your monkey alarm clock does (HA! ok, most mornings..) and you usually go over to him and say 'he's still asleep... but he be awake in just a minute!'...  or when Daddy goes off to work, you say 'he be home in just a minute!'

* Lately, you have LOVED to run circles around the coffee-table at warp speed. But more than that, you go nuts over either me or both me AND daddy running circles with you. You'll say 'mommy run too??' and as we're running you spout off orders of exactly how to run: 'run faster ALL the way around (as if there's any other way!)' or 'walk slow... now run!' or 'be a gorilla!!!' Who needs a gym membership anymore, I ask??! And Daddy does this one crazy move around the coffee table that I can only describe as one of those flying-monkey-Wheeler things from Return to Oz. You call it the 'funny crawl'..  There's no way I have the energy for that though!

* You also sometimes say that you're 'impwessed' (impressed). I guess I sometimes say that to you when you do or say something pretty remarkable - so now, when you do or say something funny or smart - you'll beat me to the punch and say 'I'm so impwessed!'  :) 

* And just today as we're pulling up to a stop sign, you go 'is that an octagon???!' And it took me a half second to realize you were referring to the stop sign. Child, you have 1 or 2 books that talk about the octagon shape and now you have it nailed! I am slightly certain it took me til middle school for this concept.

we like to potty

 The time was upon us for potty training. You were telling us more and more when you had peed and pooped - wanting to get changed. You were showing an IMMENSE interest in the act itself, when others were doing it, hence our open-door-policy of bathroom business at home. When I'd start to pee, your face would light up as if I just did this most awesome amazing thing. You'd grab toilet paper for me. And aside from the potty-specific things, I knew you could tackle it. You could carry out multiple directions/tasks at one time, and you're just damn smart.

So! After several months (who am I kidding, the better part of a year) of my own research and asking around, I decided that this method was the best fit for you. - http://www.3daypottytraining.com/ - And it so was. I had stockpiled many toys/items to use for the weekend (and onwards) for rewards.. I blocked out a weekend, which is never an easy thing to do. We laid bedsheets down everywhere. Bought tons (36 pairs!) of cheap undies.

I had been talking for a few weeks about how one day we were going to throw ALL the diapers away because we'd wear BIG BOY underwear - and you thought that was super cool. You'd sometimes go around the house saying it (weeks before we dove in), 'gonna throw the diapers away because we go peepee in the potty!!' - and you'd throw your arms up at the word potty, so excitedly! You were about as mentally prepared as any toddler can be. I don't think I would ever be completely mentally prepared though.

The morning of Day 1, you woke up and I said that today was the day! We went to your nursery (where your diapers are) and put them ALL in a trash sack (to be put in the car, to later be brought back in for donating), You said goodbye to them, then I put you in a pair of Nemo underwear - which I assumed would be your fave. The premise of the method we used was to trash ALL diapers and do just undies for a long weekend...  and constantly remind you to TELL US if you had to go pee/poop. Like, over and over. Like, nonstop. Like, you were noticeably tired of this after the the first few hours. You sounded MUCH like a highly annoyed teen after Day 1 - you literally went "okay okay okaaaaay!" after I'd remind you to tell me you had to go.
We would do 'dry checks' - where we'd have you grab your crotch (so to speak) and make sure it was still dry. We verbally praised for staying dry - even if for 15 minutes. When you'd start to pee, we would say 'look! you're peeing! that means it's time to potty!' and we'd rush you to the potty. If you got the smallest dribble of pee in the potty, there was bigtime praise/rewards. Yes, we used m&m's and gummy life-savers and all sorts of edibles that the parent books tell you not to use. Pride of accomplishement is supposedly enough of a reward.. I say that's pretty lame. Bring on the candy!
Anyways, you had about 10-11 accidents on Day 1, though you got MUCH pee in the potty after the first few times. You never once had a floor-soaker accident. You were pretty aware every time. I am sure that if we hadn't had bedsheets all over the place, there would have been a few floor-soakers. ;)
And you also pooped! You always go right after lunch, no fail. So around that time we sat you down (which goes against the 'method', but whatever) and you went! You were almost as shocked as we were... you looked down and pointed and said THAT'S POOP! That got huuuge rewards and a brand new puzzle.


Day 2 went very well. You started the day off by actually telling us you had to potty - and you went! We were so so sooo proud. The rest of the day was pretty good. You had maybe 5 small accidents and you told us the rest of the time when you had to go. You also pooped in the potty - no problem whatsoever. We spent the day(s) playing and you loooved the 1 on 1 attention that you sadly aren't used to getting ALL day long. The dishes and laundry definitely suffered.

Day 3 and on - very good! You now (at 3 weeks post-Day 1) tell us every single time you have to pee - and you (just started this 4 days ago) even go on your own - without telling us. You just strip from the waist down no matter where you stand and run off to pee! You come get me when you're done to ask me to come see - and to empty it into the big potty. You tell us out in public, too. We put a little potty in each trunk of both our cars, and if we're out and you tell us (and we're near the car) - we simply go to the car, pop the trunk, drop your trousers and there ya go! I also bought a folding potty seat thing - to prevent you from falling in to the HUGE public potties, and you've gone on that a few times as well.

We modified the method a tad, as it calls for ditching diapers/pull-ups for sleeptimes, too, and making a bed for the parents at night (next to the child's bed) to remind them to go every few hours. I think I developed a hernia from laughing so hard upon reading that. So we used pull-ups. And ya know what? You keep them dry. We call them 'sleepytime underwear' and that we are to keep them dry too - and you so do. We're still leary to put you in undies at night, but those pull-ups (right now) are staying dry!

I won't say too much about the pooping though, because I want to focus on the positives!!! And the pooping is not coming along at such a lightning fast speed as the peeing did. Those first two days when you pooped without issue were just teasing us, apparently. It's ok, I won't rush you. I am fairly certain you won't be pooping your pants when you start Kindergarten.

Overall, I am beyond pleased with how well it's gone. I do not expect perfection either though. I know there will be maaany accidents in the weeks/months/years to come, and this is ok. It's a lot like sleep-training. The more you talk about it when it's good, the more you screw yourself (and annoy others!), so I'll just wrap things up now. ;) 

Potty on!