The Month My Little Boy Grew Up

Ok, maybe I'm being a little dramatic, but so many big things happened in August and suddenly Noah seems so much more grown up. The first big event was the purchase of a "big boy bed." Brian and I decided prior to our Minnesota trip that it was time. Noah had never tried to get out of his crib, but it was getting difficult to lift a 31 pound toddler into and out of his bed every night and morning. We looked around at a number of stores and realized that girls get a million cute bed options, and boys get super boring choices. Since we wanted to avoid buying a toddler bed which would need to be replaced eventually, we opted for a twin bed. And since this will probably be the bed he uses until he's a teenager, we allowed ourselves to spend a little more. So we gave up on the cheaper stores with the ugly beds and went to the expensive shop where we bought Noah's crib. Noah and Brian both fell in love with the Maxtrix bed system which allows you customize a loft-style bed. The first night we gave Noah a big safety talk about his bed since it's several feet off the ground. He has followed the rules extremely well. The first morning he got out of bed, he announced to us that he used the ladder to get down, then raced downstairs to watch TV. He came back shortly after once he realized he didn't know how to get everything working and on the right channel. Ha. With the transition to a bed, we have witnessed the death of naps in our house. That crib was good for something!

The next thing that happened was the end of the paci. Noah had bit a hole in his last remaining one, and I warned him that if he continued to chew on it, I would have to throw it away. Well, one day he spat it out as I was getting him out of the car and I noticed that he had bit a much larger hole so that the tip was hanging on by a small piece of plastic. Into the trash it went, and we haven't looked back. Amazingly, he didn't even mention his paci for an entire week until we were driving somewhere the next weekend. It came up again recently when he found a yucky, lost paci. We threw that one away too, and he hasn't mentioned it since. I never thought it would be so easy! And I really don't miss pictures of him with his paci hanging off his lip!

With the return to school looming, I knew Noah had to get potty trained for preschool. I spent my last week of summer vacation in potty-training boot camp with him. Ugh. It was so boring sitting around the house all day. The first few days I tried sitting him on the toilet at specific times throughout the day. I often made him sit until he succeeded, which sometimes meant sitting on the floor of the bathroom for 30 minutes at a time. With every victory, he got a small bowl full of peanut M&Ms. This method was making me crazy and didn't seem to be motivating him at all. I decided to spend Wednesday-Sunday keeping him naked from the waist down and spent as much time home as possible. I set potty seats on two toilets and kept his portable Sesame Street potty chair in whichever room we were in. Every 30 minutes or so I would ask if he needed to go potty which really started to bug him. He kept asking me, "Why do you keep saying that?!" The first day of this strategy he used his Sesame Street chair 5 times and had 2 accidents. The next day was the same. The third day he had no accidents, but I did allow him to wear a pull-up when we met a friend at a park (and he definitely took advantage of it!). The fourth day we went to a community BBQ so this was his first day clothed with underwear. He stayed dry the whole time we were at the BBQ, but he did have two accidents before and after. The fifth day was awesome. He was clothed most of the day and only had one accident. We even went to the mall where he willingly used a public bathroom (we brought along his potty seat to use because at the time he was afraid of falling in). We celebrated his success by giving him "treat pacis" (ring pops) and with the purchase of a few Octonauts and How To Train Your Dragon toys. At this point, he is doing awesome with peeing, but pooping is another story. I am confident we'll get there eventually. We're also still relying on diapers at bed time, though in the morning he will ask to pee in the potty if we haven't changed him yet. I'm pretty proud of how fast he caught on considering how resistant he was to the whole process. This kid loved his diapers! (And I didn't mind them, either.)

So excited for his "treat pacis!"

So yes, he had to be mostly potty-trained for preschool which he started on my first day back to work, August 20. He was so excited at the idea of preschool, and the first two days he was happy to go. Then reality sunk in. The third day of preschool he wailed on the couch, "But I already went two days!" Poor kid. Since then he has adjusted pretty well and his teacher says he is "flourishing." His potty-training success continues there, and I'm just relieved that he's not the only one with his name on the "accident board" every few days. (It's not a punishment, it just lets parents know to pick up their soiled clothes in the front.) It's really cute picking him up every day. He's so excited to see me, and tells me all about his day and all his new friends. We also have quite the growing collection of refrigerator artwork. 

First Day of Preschool

Sigh. I blinked and he grew up, just like everyone said he would. But he's still my baby.