Buttercups

My grandfather used to say if you hold a buttercup under your chin and it shines yellow, it means you like butter. We went to the playground this morning and Henry picked a buttercup. He didn't quite remember how it worked.

Henry: Lookit Mama! This means you like PEANUT BUTTER!

Grocery shopping

Henry was my little helper yesterday when we went grocery shopping. And by "helper," I mean he constantly fought with me about pushing the cart because "Grammy let him do it." I'm sure Grammy didn't let him careen around the store like it was bumper cars. Always an adventure.
So after we had our little power struggle in which Henry learned (again) that I mean what I say and I want him to be safe, we had an uneventful trip to the checkout lane where he put up a token protest because I wouldn't buy the ginormous water gun. When we were done and on our way out, he asked if he could push the cart. There was no one between us and the door and I figured he could manage a few feet without wreaking havoc and destruction.
Henry's face lit up and he got behind the cart, stretching a bit to reach the handle. Then he hunkered down, bracing his feet in an oddly familiar pose before he took off. He didn't make it very far.

Mama: Stop! What are you doing, Henry???
Henry: I'm like HARRY POTTER pushing his cart at the train station!

Glad he didn't run into a wall trying to get on Platform 9 3/4.

Wake-Up Call

This morning I awoke to Kat babbling away. Then I heard "Uh oh!"

Translation: Kat has stripped off her pajamas and diaper, left a HUGE #2 on her white blanket and did some sort of happy dance in it, judging by her feces-smeared feet.

Ugh, straight into the bath and then to shake out the blanket into the potty which gave me flashbacks to when Henry was in cloth diapers. Glad I wasn't rushing off to work.

Cravings

Thinking about foods I craved with Henry and Kat and how my eating habits differed with each pregnancy. I took a Bradley method class with Henry and was intensely aware of anything I ate or drank down to counting the grams of protein and religiously taking my vanilla-flavored prenatal vitamins.
With Kat, I was much more lenient, maybe because I seemed to have a lot more going on with wrangling Henry, working and starting grad school. EXHAUSTED doesn't even begin to cover it and I didn't quite cut out all caffeine. One cup a day didn't seem like nearly enough, but it was something. I'm lucky I remembered my vitamins let alone counting protein grams.

Baby Henry was all about corn dogs with mustard and relish. Kat was cheese omelets with maple syrup and Arby's Beef n' Cheedars until the heartburn just about ate through my esophagus.

What did YOU crave?

Arachnophobia

Henry was helping me with the laundry this afternoon when he spotted a spider madly scrambling up into the rafters and he panicked.

Henry: Ahhh!! A SPIDER!
Mama: It's all right, Henry. It won't hurt you.
Henry: It's not gonna BITE me???
Mama: No, it's a Daddy Longlegs.
Henry: Only the MAMA Longlegs bite???
Mama: No. There's only Daddy Longlegs.
Henry: What about the BABY Longlegs? Do they bite?

OK, you got me there. Never thought about gender discrimination in naming spiders.

Potty Training the Princess

Explicit discussion of potty-training. Consider yourself warned.

I'm thinking it's time to start actively potty-training our little Princess Pumpkin Pants. She'll be 2 next month and it's starting to sink in that she's not a "baby" anymore.

She's already gone #1 and #2 once which is encouraging. She knows what the potty is for, just have to work on getting there on time.

I've been trying to remember how we trained Henry. He was just over 2 when we started and I have to give credit here to his daycare teacher. She was absolutely incredible and I cannot praise her enough. We had no clue what we were doing and there seems to be a thousand methods to teach your toddler to pee in a pot.

Should we let him run around half naked at home with a potty close by? No, it was January. Not the best time to be bare-bottomed and after peeing on the floor (and Dada's chair) a couple of times, it got old.

Should we keep the Pull-ups and watch him intently for signs of imminent excretion and hope we make it to the potty in time? Yeah, I was realistic and admitted I would not focus on his expressions and body language THAT closely. I was pregnant, working full-time and going to grad school.

We ended up having him wear underwear and gave rewards of "pee-pee" candy and lots of verbal praise. We bought a Thomas the Tank Engine See & Say as his prize for going #2.
We also did a bit of periodic sitting on the potty at first, regardless of whether he had to go, which ended up being a battle of wills. Then it was M&Ms when he told us he had to go, then only when he actually made it to the potty. By the time Kat was born, he only used Pull-ups at night and stopped soon after. He stills dramatically drops whatever he's doing and runs full-steam into the bathroom yelling, "I GOTTA GO POOPIE!" Our poor neighbors.

We're lucky now in that Kat worships Henry and wants to do whatever he's doing so it only took Henry peeing in the potty sitting down for her to grasp what it was for. She actually went after that and flooded the bathroom floor because she wasn't QUITE on there, but still....I'll take it. Then we had to remind Henry that he goes in the grown-up potty after I caught him using the potty chair.

A couple weeks ago Kat was in the tub and I recognized that sudden, inwardly tense facial expression. QUICK! Scoop her out and set her down on the potty. Made it just in time and she looked extraordinarily pleased with herself. She even happily clapped when she was done.

So I think she's ready. She surprises me with her awareness. This morning she needed a post-breakfast bath and after she was undressed, she picked up her clothes and padded out to the hamper to toss them in. By herself.

Wonder what it will be like to live in a diaper-free home?

Witch Hazel's Healthy Snacks

We were all sitting down to snacktime and having Nutella for the first time. Henry was a bit skeptical that Mama was encouraging him to dunk little crackers in chocolate for his "healthy" snack.

Henry: Mama, what IS this? Chocolate????
Mama: Nutella. It has hazelnuts in it too.
Henry: HAZEL? Like WITCH HAZEL?? Did she MAKE this???

(Great, now I'll NEVER get him to try this since he thinks it's a witch's brew).

Mama: No, it was made in Germany. People read about you in Germany on Mama's blog, Henry.
Henry: Oh, OK. (tries a TINY bite): This is GOOD!

He ends up LICKING the snack container clean.