Monday, July 23, 2007

ethan got a toy airplane for his birthday. he doesn't know how to play with it yet, but isaiah does. he puts his little polar bear in it and says, "mama, do you want to see what's inside?" and of course i want to know, so he opens up the front of the plane and shows me the little polar bear shoved inside.

where is the polar bear going, isaiah?
"he's going to get his face painted! he's going to the relay!"

so if you don't know already, i staff relay for life events. to a kid, it means a day of being outside and having fun, playing in tents, etc. to my kid it means 1) getting a sucker from the sucker pull and getting a prize, 2) getting your face painted, 3) getting tattoos and/or stickers, 4) getting balloon animals, and 5) getting to drink lots of juice and eat candy. oh and 6) jumping in a moonwalk. can't forget the jumping.

i really have no point, except to express that it makes me happy that isaiah has fun at my events, and that he looks forward to them and remembers them weeks and weeks later. and that it's just so silly that "the relay" is where you get your face painted. at one point "the relay" was equated to "shopping" - so whenever we'd tell isaiah we were going shopping, his face would light up and he'd ask if he was going to get his face painted. the end.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

isaiah is getting potty trained.

let's just start with how i wish there was a better name for the process. perhaps toilet training is a better phrase?

eric did a lot of the hard work by devoting his first couple days of shut down to acclimating isaiah with the toilet. what a guy. my cousin doesn't believe in using pull ups because it really is just a diaper. there is no consequence for the kid if he has an accident - he won't feel all uncomfortable having wet clothes. i bought into it. so i purchased several packs of underwear in all isaiah's favorite characters: cars, diego, spiderman... day 1 of potty training went well. i think one accident. day 2: not so successful. four accidents and a very frustrated father. we spent day 3 with the guevaras and put isaiah in pull ups. (we didn't want isaiah leaving pee all over their house when he had an accident.) i think this was the turning point. being around the already-potty-trained luci for a day and a half was good for isaiah to see. positvie peer pressure. that, and gary's jar of jelly bellies that we used to bribe isaiah. one jelly bean for trying. two jelly beans for actually going. we transitioned to "big red candy" (cherry sours, which are essentially big round jelly beans) when we got home. since then, isaiah has been fantastic about using the toilet. rejoice!

p.s. i never thought i could have so much joy over someone pooping in a toilet.

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