Monday morning, Caleb and I went to Gymboree and then came home. I put a pull-up on Caleb for Gymboree so that we wouldn't have any major clean-ups to do. When we got home, he ate his lunch and went down for his nap. The afternoon was a constant string of "Do you have to potty?" and every 30 minutes when the timer went off, "Potty time!" I would like to have a dollar for everytime I've said the word POTTY in the past 6 days! The exhaustion paid off when Caleb actually used the bathroom (both #1 and #2!).
On Tuesday, Rudy went to Fayetteville to teach trumpet lessons and then went to Alma to play in a golf tournament. I got up early and took Caleb to Pine Crest for his first full day in the 2-year-old class. I packed 5 changes of clothes and 8 pairs of underwear. I also put a pull-up in his bag for the ride home. I dropped him off and told the staff to call me if he ran out of clothes. I came home and took full advantage of the quiet, empty house - I went to sleep! At 11:00, the phone rang. It was the owner of the daycare telling me that Caleb was out of clean clothes. Seriously...3 hours! I told her to please put a pull-up on him until naptime, then put on a diaper and I'd be there to pick him up right after nap. When I got there at 2:00, he was in the bathroom with the teacher and about 6 other kids. The teacher was helping Caleb wash his hands and he was wearing underwear! She said that she thought maybe she'd give it one more shot. This made me wonder what exactly had happened in the morning, but I didn't ask. I honestly didn't care. I just picked up all of Caleb's stuff, thanked the teacher for her time and (assumed) patience and headed for the door. I stopped at the front to talk to one of the directors and within 5 minutes, Caleb had wet on the floor. I tried not to cry as I went to get paper towels from the bathroom and asked for disinfectant spray. I got everything cleaned up, got a dry pull-up on Caleb and took him - in just his t-shirt and pull-up to the car. We had a very trying afternoon of constant unsuccessful trips to the bathroom, followed 5 minutes later by, "uh-oh, Sha Sha pottied!" which would send me running to grab paper towels and Lysol. By the end of the day, I was doubting myself. Should we wait until next summer when he's 3? Am I doing something wrong? Is he really not ready? Caleb, sensing my frustration and probably feeling some of his own, started hitting me everytime I mentioned the potty. He screamed and threw his underwear when I tried to put them on him. It was miserable. When Rudy got home, I told him about the day and asked for his input on what we should do. We decided that we had two choices:
1. Send him to daycare 2 days/week and hold off potty training until next summer.
2. Keep him home full time this summer to potty train, knowing that it would take a 50/50 effort from both of us.
We decided that we would keep him home. I felt/feel very confident in this decision and I haven't regretted it for a minute. Tuesday night, Caleb and I had a very calming and very connecting bedtime routine. It was almost as if we were forgiving each other and promising a new start the next day. It worked.
On Wednesday, Rudy got up with Caleb and started the potty-training cycle all over again. It was a rough couple of hours - with 2 major accidents. (We've now learned that Caleb potties A LOT in the morning hours and much less in the afternoon/evening. We have to watch him much closer and be much more diligent in the mornings.) I got up and got ready to go to Little Sprouts time at the Botanical Garden and then got Caleb ready. We enjoyed our morning out with our friends Heidi, Ian and Emma Landers. We came straight home from the garden and ate our lunch.
While Caleb was eating his pizza for lunch and I was eating a turkey sandwich, he looked at me and said, "How's your pizza? I'm fine." I laughed so hard I almost spit out my lunch. It was just so comical. I guess I never realized that I almost always ask him how his food is when he's eating. We've also been working on answering people when they ask him how he's doing. I guess he just decided to put the two together and came up with his own little conversation.
After naptime, we played at home for just a little while, then we went over the Grandma Voise's for dinner. Caleb loves walking around outside at her house because there are so many trees, plants, rocks and other fun stuff for him to investigate. He was amazingly well-behaved at Grandma's and even ate a great dinner. I was super-excited when I asked him about going to the potty and he said, "poo poo." We ran upstairs to the bathroom and I held his hands so he wouldn't fall in on the big potty. He actually used the bathroom - he really did have to poop! He was so proud of himself and I almost threw a party because I was just as proud of him! This was a big advancement!
Thursday morning I had a doctor's appointment at 8:00, so I was up and at 'em pretty early. Unfortunately, Caleb has not managed to take after me in the sleeping in department. He's awake at 6:00 every morning! I went to my doctor's appointment and ran several errands before coming home to have lunch with my boys. While I was gone, Rudy and Caleb played outside and had a wonderful morning! After lunch, I left for my afternoon out. Stacy and I met at Signed, Sealed & Delivered to scrapbook. It was very relaxing and a much-needed break from potty-training! I came home in time for Rudy to get his shower and hit the road for his golf weekend with Chad. Caleb and I had a good evening. We went for a walk and watered the plants, then shared a popsicle before bedtime.
I did get some potential good news on Tuesday, but I can't share it yet. Hopefully, I'll be able to tell more on Monday afternoon. No - I'm not pregnant.
Caleb and I got up this morning and watched some TV and had breakfast together. We went to a bonus Gymboree class and then to lunch before coming home for his naptime. While we were at Gymboree, I faced a situation that I've never been on this side of before. There was another child in the group who I immediately identified as having some sort of special need. Unfortunately, the child was very aggressive toward Caleb. He honestly ignored all of the other children. For some reason, Caleb was his target. It was evident to me that he wanted to play with Caleb, but he didn't know how to interact other than by being aggressive. The first time, they were sharing a two-person rocking horse and the child's mother stopped him just before he hit Caleb. The second time, he came over out of the blue and grabbed Caleb's face with his hands. Caleb reacted much better than I thought he would. I tried to smooth it over by telling the mom that Caleb goes to daycare, so he's pretty tough when it comes to that kind of stuff. I could tell that she was really embarrassed and felt very overwhelmed by the situation. I didn't want to make it worse for her. I just tried to keep Caleb away from the child. I couldn't prevent the last time, though. Caleb was crawling through a tunnel, so I couldn't get to him when the other child came at him from the other end of the tunnel. This time, he grabbed a handful of Caleb's hair. To get him to let go, the child's mother had to pull her son out of the tunnel. Unfortunately, he didn't let go of Caleb's hair, so it hurt Caleb pretty badly. I was comforting Caleb when the lady picked up her son and took him home. I know it wasn't my fault, but I felt terrible for not doing something different from what I did. I'm not sure what I should've done, but it was so painful to watch that lady struggle with her child's behavior towards Caleb. The special educator in me wanted to help her, but I didn't have any way of knowing if she recognized that he likely had special needs, so there wasn't really anything I could say. It was a very uncomfortable situation for everyone. After they left, Caleb calmed down pretty quickly and thoroughly enjoyed his time at Gymboree. He talked up a storm and some of the other moms even asked me how old he is because he was so verbal and interactive.
After naptime, Caleb and I played for a little while inside because it was raining so hard outside. We were supposed to have a backyard playdate with our neighbor, Shalini and her son, Jakey. The rain cancelled that, though. Instead, Leslie came over with Jackson and Grace. The 3 kids played while Les and I talked. She also brought back some of the baby gear that we loaned her. It's hard to believe that Grace is almost 1 and doesn't need that stuff anymore! We decided to take the kids to dinner, so we all went to Chili's. After dinner, Caleb and I came home and enjoyed some quiet time before bed.
We don't really have any plans for tomorrow, but I'm sure something will unfold! Hopefully, our potty training will continue to go as well as it has been. Caleb only had 2 accidents today, which is a good thing because my washing machine was about to go on strike! I've done so much laundry since we started this process!!!! Rudy had a good point this week, though. He said that as exhausting as this has been so far, we certainly have had some good laughs about it! Very true.
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