No Time

Every morning I have gotten into the habit of asking Max for good morning kisses. He is usually more than happy to oblige.

This morning was a different story. I forgot to ask and when I remembered he was already working hard with his duplo's building a castle. I leaned in and asked "Good Morning Kisses?"

To which Max replied:

"I building. No time. No good morning kisses" Then I got a hand in the face.

Oh well, teach me to wait too long to get my kisses.

Here is a random picture for your viewing pleasure!

To Potty or Not To Potty? I think NOT

I was talking with a friend the other night about insecurity. To feel secure in your actions, in your beliefs, in your life is something that is often an elusive goal for many. If you can be secure in these things, well, that really is half the battle in life. However the idea of being secure in yourself is so easy to talk about and amazingly hard to put in action.

I struggle with the putting into action. I often second guess my decisions, wonder if things could have been done better, and look outside of myself for validation. This is not a good way to live and is something that I have made a concentrated effort on improving. Especially now that there is a Max in my life. I am determined to not pass my insecurity on to him.

Which brings us to potty training. We've been at it for two days and had ZERO success. It is very easy to feel failure in a situation like this. Why is it not clicking? Why won't he pee on the potty instead of the floor? What do I need to do to help him understand? Why does he just stand there and say "oh no" when he is peeing all over the place?! The obvious answer is he is just not ready.

It has not been fun. On the outside I have maintained a very cheerful attitude about it (don't want to give Max a negative attitude about this business) on the inside I have felt like a total failure. The pessimistic, insecure part of me wants to question why I am not a good enough mother to teach him this skill. The more rational part of me knows that it is early, and we probably should retire the underwear for now and come back to this in a few months. I also know that in reality this has very little to do with my skills as a parent. But man, that insecure side just wants to sneak into my brain and snicker at me.

But like I said, I'm making that concentrated effort to work on those insecurities. So, I'm calling this a trial run at potty training; it is not a failure. It was a learning experience and hopefully when we try again we it will be a successful experience.

Thanks for reading, here is your picture:)

Ribbon will ensure success, right?

So, I've decided to embark on the most terrifying of journeys: Potty Training.

This is something that absolutely frightens me and is something that if I could put off till Max was 5, I probably would. However, several things have occurred that signal the time is now:

1) Max knows when he has to go number 2 (by the way, I debated which was the best phrasing...pooh, bowel movement, poopie. Number 2 seemed the least immature). Also, he wants the diaper removed immediately following the production of said number.

2) He is very interested in the toilet and what we are doing when we have to go to the bathroom.

3) He is becoming increasingly more independent and likes to accomplish tasks on his own.

All these things say to me it might be a good time to start the process. With that in mind, we purchased several pairs of "big boy" underwear that Max is very excited about. We also got a step stool so he can get to the potty on his own and a new Lightening McQueen toilet seat Plus, I got chocolate (m&m's to be exact) because history has shown my child will do most anything for chocolate.

I also have made an elaborate chart for Max to place stickers when he is successful. It is complete with his name, robots, and ribbon to make it pretty. The ribbon might have been a little over the top, but it certainly made me happy to do it. And really, is there such a thing as too much ribbon?

Reminiscing

Tonight I spent some time looking over past blog entries. I do this every so often. Usually when something is going on that makes me stop and think about how fast time is flying by.

Today we started the process of re-doing Max's bedroom. That's right, I said BEDROOM. It is officially no longer a nursery, it is slowly turning into a big boy's bedroom. The crib is gone, his storybook prints are down, the dresser is no longer a changing table (and honestly hasn't been for over a year). Over the next few weeks I plan to change his room into a modern, eclectic mix of star wars and space. I'm hoping it will be a room fits who he is now and makes him happy.

So, I'm guessing the removal of the last vestiges of babyhood made me sad and I needed to reminisce about the past few years. While doing this I discovered 2 things:

1) Good gravy, my child is no longer a baby! He has grown so much even just in the last 6 months. I think sometimes I still see him as a little baby and then I will go to put him down for nap and he wants to cuddle in my lap. I pick him up still envisioning that sweet little newborn who fit perfectly into my arms. Then he stretches out on me and his legs hang over the side. While it still is a perfect fit it is obvious he isn't what I would call "little".

2) I used to write a LOT on this blog. I would post about the goings on in our household as we waited the impending arrival of Maddox. Our lives were changing and I had lots to share as we prepared to turn our world upside down. That changed after Max. I no longer continued to write about life in our household, mostly I just post pictures with a few facts about what has been going on. While the majority of you (all 5 of you) are probably satisfied with just the pictures, I found myself missing reading what I was thinking during all those beautiful pictures of Max.

The result of the pondering and discovering I did tonight: I'm going to write more. I love being able to read my thoughts during that time of anticipation and I guess blogging is the new diary, so you get to read my thoughts too. There are still lots of things to write about, life with a two year old and the prospect of raising said two year old to be a fruitful member of society is quite thought provoking.

If that isn't why you visit this blog, that's fine. Just skip over my words and move right to the pictures. Believe me, I understand the draw of Max's cute face and I won't ever blame you. Otherwise, enjoy the ramblings of this mom.

Oh, and here's your picture:

Egg-straordinary!

Max loves his egg hunts! The first one was held in the backyard on Wednesday. We've since held countless more inside (thank you Mother Nature). He loves to look for eggs. He loves it even more when there are jelly beans inside the eggs. He's even happy to do the egg hunt with empty eggs. I'm thinking we still might be having egg hunts long after Easter is over. Mama's okay with that. Easy entertainment is always a great thing, even if that means I'm still hunting eggs in October.

Snowy Day

On Sunday we woke up to Max already walking around our room (a crib sure would be nice at 6am). He promptly said hi to daddy and then "Look outside, snow on the the ground! Go see. Put jackets on."

After getting over the amazement that our child is now speaking in paragraphs, we headed outside for some fun!