Thursday: cautiously optimistic

Potty training.

It's been a hard month.  That bout of diarrhea a few weeks ago really set Isaac back...so much so that I started wondering if we had started to try way to early and should just go back to diapers for a while.  But he would still go on the toilet if the timing was right.  Basically, I was (and may again) second guessing myself left and right.  The last week was better, but still only ok.

And then we had today.  It started with an accident during breakfast and I started second guessing myself again.  But the day got better...he actually told us that he needed to go several times before getting wet underwear.  He told us!  That hasn't happened before.  He's also getting better about being willing to go when we ask him to...it might be the stool and that he gets to turn the lights on, but I'll take any reason.  He can do everything himself until he's "all done".   Then I come into the bathroom and help him finish up.  He's often quite sure that I should stay out of the bathroom until he's at least seated on the toilet.

(He is also happy to give himself a treat.  Usually he asks for a treat at the appropriate time, but sometimes he "forgets" and treats himself for no reason.  I can't really blame him, but I can put the treats far enough away that only I can reach them.)

We'll see how tomorrow goes.  It's nice to have little victories once in a while at the very least.

Monday: black or brown?

Scene: it's time to go to the store

Amanda: Isaac, can you bring your shoes over here?
Isaac brings one of Amanda's black shoes over.  This isn't uncommon and actually quite nice.
Amanda: Thanks.  Can you bring the other shoe over?
Isaac dawdles.  He finds an almost empty water bottle near the shoes and puts it in Amanda's shoe.  He takes the cap off the water bottle.
Amanda: Don't get water in my shoe!
Isaac gets a few drips of water in Amanda's shoe.
Isaac goes in time out and is not happy about it.  At all.

Amanda puts her brown shoes on while explaining why she isn't going to wear the black shoes.  Isaac continues to be inconsolable because she is wearing the brown shoes.  Isaac goes and puts Amanda's black shoe on the humidifier, his go-to drier.  (He puts it sole down, so it doesn't really help anything.)  He brings it back, expecting her to wear the black shoes.  When she doesn't, the crying gets more insistent.  Isaac tries to take off Amanda's brown shoes so the black shoes can go on.  This all takes place over about ten minutes.

Amanda finally gets her coat on and then Isaac's coat and carries him out to the car, shoeless and heartbroken.  She goes back in to get Isaac's shoes and gets one on him.  He says he doesn't want the other one on and as she starts to back out he immediately changes his mind.

Amanda gets in the car, feeling rather satisfied that 1) she won the battle and 2) they're finally on their way.  She even finds the whole thing a bit funny, although it would have been nice to understand why Isaac wanted her to wear the black shoes.

Saturday: cutting

Today's main activity was cutting.  Something clicked with Isaac and Mr. Scissors and he was able to make some good cuts...and move the scissors along so that he actually made pieces, not just fringes along the outside.

This morning he made a mess in my area.

This afternoon he made a mess in Ben's area.

But considering that it kept him well occupied, we were happy to let him do it.

(Yes, it is a metal scissors but has a very blunt point and is not sharp.  It works a lot better than the "kid scissors" that we got him but I still don't think he'll hurt himself.)

Friday: an update

Hmm...I'm not really sure how the week got away from me without posting since Monday.

Tuesday I had some extra work to do at night.

Wednesday...I think I just skipped it.  The funniest thing that happened was I was putting Isaac in his car seat and he wanted to push the circles on the roof.  Needless to say, those two things don't work very well together.  So I told him to push his nose.  He said no.  But then he said, "Big push?"  "Sure" I responded.  So he extends his arm as far as it will go and then slaps his nose.  He didn't cry, so I think he managed to hold back a little bit.  And I was laughing hysterically, and that always helps the pain.

Thursday I gave a certification exam in the evening.  I don't have to do anything except be there, but it takes a while.  And I had a lot of grading to do.

And that brings us to today!  We joined Betsy and Ethan at the mall play place.  The two boys are starting to interact more now and it's pretty fun.  I rarely get to see him interact with other kids...either I'm not around or I am around so he wants to hang out with me more.

I'm 26 weeks pregnant today.  Less than 100 days to go!  Last week of the 2nd trimester!  ...everything I tell myself makes it still seem like a long time until the baby comes.

The boys had a great time in this boat.  They "rocked" it back and forth together.  Later Isaac made a circuit - go in the back, over the seat, sit in the bow, climb over the edge, get a hug from me.  Repeat.

P.S. I changed the background look of the blog because I discovered that if you have the page active for several minutes an audible ad would start.  I was not a fan.  At all.  The only thing I could think of was that the people that made the design put it in, so I changed the design.  I think it has stopped it, but we'll see.

P.S. update: it didn't work.  Does anyone else have this problem?  Have any ideas for fixing it?  It might be a virus but it seems weird that it only shows up in the blogger tab...never any other tabs.

Monday: bother

Today was going rather well...until I realized that I had listed an exam done for today in one place and Wednesday in another place. Of course, instead no one emailed me for clarification in time for me to do anything about it, but at least I had some warning.

After banging my head against the wall for my stupidity, I got down to solving this. Although I was expecting to give it today, if anyone wasn't ready I also wanted to give them the extra two days; it was my fault after all. The worst case scenario was if half the class was ready and half the class wasn't. I found room for that many people to take the exam if needed, but really hoped that wasn't the case.

Well, it turned out that only two people wanted to take the exam, so that was very doable. They went in the good room for test taking and I gave Wednesday's lecture to the rest of the class.

I feel rather silly about it, but my guess is the students barely cared. After all, they all get to take the exam when they're ready.

Sunday: Happy!

Happy Easter!

Today, around dinner time, Isaac came up to me and said, "Are you happy?"  I said, "Yes, I'm happy.  Are you happy?"  He said, "I'm haPPY!"  (Yeah, this is a word that really should have had a sound track to go with it.).  Then he said, "Is Dad happy?"  I told Isaac to go ask him.

"Dad, are you happy?"  "Yes, are you?"  "Yes, I'm haPPY!!"

It seems appropriate that he should figure out this word and be so excited about it on Easter, a very happy day!

Saturday: Isaac

Isaac had a rather cute morning, and we even got some pictures this time!

To start with, he found the keys that lock my desk drawers.  That kept him occupied for about two hours.

Isaac then decided to (literally) try and climb a wall.  In his words, "hard."  (This was rather hilarious.  Although he did have the good sense to try and climb a wall that was jutting out, so he was able to clamp his arms around it.)

Then we had a small Easter egg hunt.

He's figured out to say cheese for the camera, but closes his eyes when doing it.

Ben did his back exercises, and when Isaac noticed the roller was put away he was rather upset.  So Ben got it back out for him.  He has the right motions, he's just not big or coordinated enough to quite pull it off.