the poop scoop

SO. We did the naked thing. For THREE days. Three days of staring at Bennett's bare bum and family jewels all day and all night. The first day was kinda fun. We hung out (well, Bennett "hung out") in the basement all day organizing and cleaning. The new potty was down there with us and any time B had an accident on the floor we would whisk him over to the potty right quick-like. He didn't seem to care much, except when we would do the "potty dance" after he sat on it - he loves him some potty dancing (and bare-bummed ping pong).



On the morning of Day 2 we were just playing with toys in the living room and all of a sudden he jumped up with a surprised look on his face, ran over to the potty, sat down and peed!!! The new potty made the celebratory potty music sound and we all jumped up and danced and high-fived!! It was awesome! Pure joy.

We got so excited about this, thinking this was how it was gonna be for the rest of the weekend.
Wrong.
I think we had our hopes up a bit too high, cuz the rest of the day sucked. Big time.
There was one more time that B sat on the potty and peed, but that was it. The rest of the weekend he flat-out refused to go near the potty after he would have an accident. He would sit on it every now and then, but was too scared to let anything out. He even got to the point where he was holding it in cuz he didn't want to pee on the potty. I think we put on the pressure a little too much as the weekend progressed. At the end of each night we were like "this isn't working!", "this SUCKS!", "this is HELL!", "our lives are OVER!", "this is YOUR fault", etc, etc, etc.

But in the end we realized that this was a good "kick-off" weekend to the real 2011potty training extravaganza. We had TWO successful pees in da pot, we had a lot of good potty dances, a lot of time just sitting on the potty, and B got pretty comfy with his naked self.



So we're just gonna relax a bit.
Chill.
Not point out the potty to him every 5 seconds. Just let him do his thing and keep doin' the naked thing at home for awhile. He knows what the potty is for now - he'll use it when he's ready.

Cheesiest Cheeseball Pic of the Year

OK. I didn't wanna share this. But Rory said I had to.

The weekend before Mothers Day when Rory was out of town and B and I were at Costco, they had a photographer taking "mothers day" pics for FREE. Mom and kid pic. For free. I really, really, really have a hard time passing things up for free. So I tossed aside all my moral objections about not EVER getting a cheesy, posed, studio portrait and went for it. Bennett and I got our picture taken and it only took 3 shots to get Bennett to smile like a perfect little angel. Man, he's a bigger cheeseball than I thought!

So, here 'tis:



See Ellen and Andy, we have a "school picture" like you now!!!

Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend. We'll be locked up in our house teachin' this kid how to poop in a pot. Not on floor.

B-log: 21 months

Wow, long time no B-log, eh?

No, I don't normally speak like I'm from Canada, but it is fun to type like I'm from there.

Bennett is definitely turning into a big boy these days. Its seriously happening at warp speed, I can't keep up.




* He is learning about 10 new words a day. This morning I said tape and he repeated "tape" plain as day. I also said I'll give you a choice and he repeated "choish, choish!". His favorite words this week are "beeg" for big and "kuh-tar" for guitar and "kowsh" for couch. He loves him some storytime on the couch these days - but so do I since we can all fit and snuggle together before night-night. He still says "ha" for yes - need to work on that one. The cutest is when he says "Let's see" which started with GranJan and "Butt-Pay" for butt paste.





* He's loud and always talking. "Wha-sat?? Wha-sat? Wha-SAT??"

* OK, enough babytalk. Mr. B does not want to be babied anymore. He wants to walk on his own, everywhere - up and down the stairs. He wants to sit in his own big chair and eat with his own hands - put on his own shoes - dig his own spot in the garden.








* Every week is different. Some days are filled with frustrating temper tantrums- mostly because he can't communicate what he wants or we can't pick up on his signs. And other days are easy and he's a super awesome kiddo. Those days are the ones where you can reason with him when he gets upset. I feel so proud when I can squat down, look him in the eye and say "You can either ride in the stroller or I carry you. You cannot walk right now" - and he listens. I love it when we can talk it out and hug it out, too.

* This past weekend I was able to get away for the entire weekend and spend 2 nights away from the fam. A FIRST for me since B was born!! It was so much fun - how could it not be with 8 other ladies who also enjoy spontaneous cheerleading positions not knowing a thing about cheerleading.




ANYWAYS, come Monday-morning-reality-time, B let me know he wasn't happy with me being gone all weekend by crying for 45 min straight while I got him ready for CassieCare. We have since figured things out and just have to ease into the diaper change and ease into the changing of the clothes. Now I make it more fun and let him choose his clothes. Another tantrum creator was the big secret pantry in the kitchen - he always says "see? see?". I ended up just letting him pull everything out, inspect it for potential eating, then put it back. "See, not so exciting, eh?"

* Fave food this week: raisins, granola bars, rolls (which he can say)

* He likes to point at beer bottles and say "Dada" and point at wine bottles and say "Mama". I don't know what this means.

* Big NEWS!! BEEG news!! We have officially started potty training!! I'm so sick of diapers. I always thought I'd start potty training him around 18 months, but then I got lazy. But now its GO TIME!!! He knows his potty, he sits on it with clothes on, he uses the potty sign and tells us when he goes in his diaper, and he HATES getting his diaper changed. Its TIME! So, Memorial weekend we are going to stay home for 3 days and do the quick training method where he stays neckked all day and pees and poos all over the place. Sounds like fun, eh? Well, come on down to our house if you wanna join the fun. Bennett's the only one who is able to be neckked, though.
------ Wednesday morning update - Bennett totally just dropped a big turd on the floor beside the potty!!! OMG!!!! Its happening!!!!! Potty training here we come!!!!------

float #2 for B-Dogg

Saturday morning we packed up the truck, the boat, the kid, not the dog, and headed south through a cloudy, foggy haze of light rain.

It didn't look good.

That is until we got south of Butte sometime around 10:30am. The clouds lifted (a bit) and we could see a hint of blue sky up above.

We were goin' for it.

The temperature was in the low 50's and would only get higher as the day went on. So we geared up for Bennett's 2nd float trip on a river - his first time on the "Ruffner Drifter". Mike, Peggy & Dylan had invited us to float the 6-mile stretch of the Big Hole River with them.

Bennett surprisingly put on the life vest without protest. It was a bit on the small side:



So we switched to a bigger one a little later:





We filled a bucket with rocks and Mr. B spent all day tossing them out into the water. He loved it. Couldn't get enough of the throwing of the rocks.








And Rory loved replenishing the bucket:





Bennett and Dylan threw about 3,618,736,814,654 rocks that day.





Notice in the above picture that B's rock didn't make it very far. Frowny face.



Bennett was really good the entire time - and only cried a couple of minutes before crashing on my shoulder the last half hour of the float.

It turned out to be a beautiful day on the river! Can't wait for more fun times this summer. And maybe we'll let Rory do some fishing next time...




Here's a peek into what our road trips are like these days. Yeah, imagine this for over an hour. Non. Stop.



Translation: Cow?, cow?, horse? horse? horse? where horse go? what's that? what's that? what's that over yonder coming down the road? horse? horse? where did the horses go?

Logan

Bennett calls Logan "Dadoh".

Every morning before we leave, he yells down the basement stairs (cuz that's Logan's 'quiet place' these days) "Buh-byee Dadoh!".