jackie cracks me up

ok, i know i talk a lot of trash, but this little guy has, and always will have, me wrapped around his little finger. he cracks me up on a daily basis with all his new phrases and what he picks up on. you now have to really watch what you say because he will repeat everything. we learned this the hard way, but what a great way to curb a potty mouth.

and speaking of potty... jackie is well on his way to being trained. his first #2 on the potty was during the first week of august. oh my gosh, i haven't seen the kid more excited! "poo poo, bye bye, yaaaaaaay!" all while clapping and waving. when we are at home, he goes #1 on his potty, but we haven't quite mastered it outside of the house. he does it at school, and i think i have peer pressure to thank for that. but running errands around town or visiting with friends, he hasn't quite got to the point of telling me; perhaps he's just too distracted. the things that worked for us are simple: i chose the readiness approach (see toilet training without tears by charles e. schaefer, ph.d.). this is a no-pressure, when-you-are-ready approach. jack's potty had been in his bathroom for months. we even bought a toilet seat that is placed on top of the big toilet, but he has always liked his little potty. anyway, he's played with it, sat on it to read books and always would sit on it before bath time, only to pee in the tub once his feet touched the water, of course. i moved the potty into ben and i's bathroom because there is more room. i also put a little rug underneath it so it looked similar to the big potty. i think the success in all of our tricks was giving him his privacy, as crazy as it sounds. and he still won't potty in front of us; we usually stand at the doorway (where he can't see us) or we turn our backs to him. we've always praised the heck of out him, clapping, hugging and telling him how proud we are. we don't discipline him if he has accidents, only tell him that you'll get it next time. we don't do stickers or candy as a reward but occasionally, i will draw a star on his hand with one of my glitter pens - that really makes him smile.

coloring and stickers. we started coloring before dylan was born. the kid doesn't slow down much but usually after dinner, we can get him to sit at the table and color. i should back up and say that "coloring" usually entails less with crayons and markers and more with placing stickers on a blank page. stickers of trucks and buses, any and all animals, butterflies and bugs, stars, shapes, you name it. the most recent ones i found had peace signs, daisies and even vw vans - just like on the movie cars! his recent funny thing with stickers is smooching the ones he really likes. my little lover.




cars. have you seen disney's cars? jack is obsessed. mater, lightning mcqueen, doc, sally, flo, fillmore, ramone, luigi, guido, sarge, mack... all characters from the movie and he says all their names throughout the day. he has most of the toys, several books, coloring books, stickers... he's fanatical. he only started watching tv/movies in april so it's nice to have him relax and slow down for a minute or 5. and thank goodness it's a good movie - i'm sure i've watched it 50+ times since april.

like i said before, jackie's vocabulary is really expanding. he knows his numbers up to ten, counts groupings of animals, toys, etc., knows about 20 letters of the alphabet and finds these letters and numbers while we are out shopping or while we're driving around. the way he says certain words like snowman or the phrase "aww, snap!" are said with a wrinkled nose. very cute. he talks about being tired and hungry, if he wants a hug or smooch, and if he's crying, he'll stop mid-cry to tell me he's sad. if dylan is crying or he sees a picture of her while she's crying (like i've been known to do!) he remarks "mama - didi, sad..." he's obviously watched and heard me say quiet along with the shhh and a finger to your lips because he's started saying it to me. he talks a lot about trucks, bob the builder and his papa's. he remembers what toys were given to him by different people. he likes to sing ring-around-a-rosy, itsy bitsy spider and dance to most classic rock songs. jackie is an absolute riot.

as his third birthday approaches, i wonder if the terrible twos will be a thing of the past. i see glimmers of my sweet little boy and i just hope we have more and more days of his smiles, laughter and smooches.