Sh*t I'm proud of

There is a unique kind of pride of a parent whose child has just pooped on the potty and not in his pants. It's tinged with relief and also hope and just the slightest trace of wistfulness, not because you'll ever miss changing poopy pants, but because this marks the first step of a long road toward him not needing you anymore. Jack has been flirting with potty-training for some time now, teasing us with the occasional trip to the bathroom but then refusing it if we tried to encourage him further. However, leading up to this weekend two important and serendipitous things happened, 1) some awesome crocodile- (and monster- and inchworm-) themed underpants from Grandma Melissa arrived in the mail, and 2) without knowing that, Jack decided at preschool on Thursday that he wanted to wear underwear. I'm not sure whose underwear they were, which is maybe a little gross?, but he came home wearing them, and was very excited about it. So Thursday night, we officially ushered in the era of Big Boy Pants.

It went amazingly well. I thought I would be doing a lot more laundry this weekend.  We stayed home for most of it, to accommodate our frequent potty breaks. But we kept busy. Jack had a friend over to do some scooter racing out back.

At this point we were still bribing for trips to the potty with treats, and Maya, who's a little older than Jack and has been a potty-pro for a while, thought it was pretty great to get a treat just for sitting on the potty. I think she took more trips to the bathroom than Jack did. She's a little older and also a little wiser about how to game the system.

Sadie thought she was pretty funny.That face in the bottom right is her new favorite one to make when she's being a goofball, which is most of the time. Not the most attractive smile, but it cracks me up. She has so much personality for someone who can't talk.

Another activity to pass the time between potty breaks: daddy helped Jack build a dinosaur skeleton from a kit my mom had gotten us a while back. Jack was very excited. He kept telling me, "this is our dino selekin. He's dead!" He loved to see how the pieces fit together.  Sadie was very interested as well, but she mostly wanted to see how the pieces fit in her mouth



And at some point, Danny decided Jack needed a Big Boy haircut to go with his Big Boy pants, so he got out the clippers and gave Jack a buzz cut.



I can't say I'm thrilled, I loved those long locks. But maybe it will grow on me. And/or his hair will grow, so one way or another it will eventually be okay. And Jack seems pleased with it. He's generally very pleased with himself right now. He filled up the last square of his potty chart tonight and won his crocodilian potty prize, which he'd picked out at the toy store at the beginning of this grand adventure.  He was a very happy boy.



And I will be a very happy mommy if he can keep pooping in the potty and not his crocodile pants.