For the past few weeks, we've been gradually getting up the courage to start potty training. First and foremost, Meh of course brought home some children's books from the library on the topic. (I'm only mildly concerned with the thoughts of just how sanitary library books on the topic are likely to be -- both before and after we're done with them.) Zachary has really enjoyed them, particularly this one by an author we've got another illustrated book by; impressively, he named the other book the first time he saw the cover of this one. Anyway, all of these potty books have got him talking about the potty when he sees it (and sometimes even when he doesn't). He also continues to call Owen's bath seat a potty -- hey, there's at least a passing resemblance. But when we've asked him if he wants to go, or suggest that we spend some time sitting on it, not so much. So it's definitely a work on progress.
One area where he has gotten a bit more comfortable is interacting with and sitting on the little potty that we'd had sitting unused in a corner of the bathroom. Meh had the brilliant idea to put it in front of his costume trunk and mirror, and he now uses it for one of his dolls to go on, as well as a seat for, um, modelling head wear. There's still always a diaper separating him from the toilet seat, but we'll take things one step at a time; our hope is that he can be at least starting down this route by the time school starts in, yikes, less than three week!
Meh and Owen (along with friend R and her daughter E) drove down to Oregon today to participate in a Balkan music festival. Sounds like the drive actually went pretty well (recall Owen's earlier challenges with car rides), and they're visiting and staying the night with R's in-laws in Vancouver (the Washington one, not British Columbia). So while mima sat for Zachary during the day, in the evening we got to have some solo guys time. Nothing too exciting, though it was definitely different and nice to be able to spend some time with Zachary -- I think I'll steal a friend of mine's strategy to make sure to schedule solo time with each boy as they get older. The two of us had a nice dinner together before bath and bedtime; Zachary asked several times about mommy (though never about Owen - hmm...) and I explained that she was singing at a concert. Speaking of which, he's actually started singing some of her group's repertoire:
Yesterday was Zachary's 3-year wellness checkup! Alas, he seems to have formed a pretty strong opinion about the doctor at this point, bursting into tears as we entered the parking lot with a pleading "want to go upstairs". He calmed down enough to enjoy the fish in the lobby's aquarium, but as soon as we were called back there was more sadness, and the height and weight measurements ended up being estimates at best. (When he later calmed down in the exam room with toys and books present, he and I reconfirmed the height with a tape measure.) That said, here are the stats:
31 lbs (25th-50th percentile)
36" tall (25th percentile)
BMI 16.8 (50th-75th percentile)
Interestingly, the whole head circumference thing is out the window and now they start tracking his BMI. All of the stats looked good, and he eventually even got a bit friendly with the doctor (particularly when she pulled out a Dr. Seuss book). The appointment as always ended with a pair of booster shots that made him sad (ironically not nearly as much as just walking into the building). At least as a reward he did get two purple band-aids on his upper arm that made him look like a tough guy. The little man is looking healthy and ready to tackle his third year!
Happy third birthday to Zachary -- how the heck is he already three?! Since Z has started to have friends of his own, we decided to break things up and have two separate birthday parties this year: a pizza and cupcakes event for kids (and their parents) on Saturday, and a barbecue mostly for grownup friends on Sunday. As an added bonus, grandma flew up for the weekend and got to spend some time with her two favorite grandsons. And college friends friends T, S, and their kids M, R, and A have flown up to visit as well and were able to attend the Sunday event -- we got to have some mildly more sane time with them today and look forward to more activities throughout the week.
Last year Meh had hazzarded a guess that it would be the last birthday party where she could pick the theme. This year his desired theme was pretty obvious -- Zachary's favorite models, games, television program, and summer activity are all one and the same: Thomas. Meh did some incredible planning, compiling party favors for the kids including train whistles (fairly quiet so as to not be too obnoxious), stickers, conductor caps, and goodies. And of course some very tasty blue Thomas-themed cupcakes. She even set out to create an incredible Thomas centerpiece cake, but alas, the warm weather this past week was too much for the fondant and Meh had to give up. I caught a few pictures of Thomas in progress, and the results were really impressive and super cute - Meh is the most amazing!
The weather didn't entirely cooperate, so while we'd planned to let the kids have outdoor fun with Zachary's little house, his new balance bike, toys, and a new bubble machine, the morning and afternoon rained away. Still, everyone had great fun playing in the living room and enjoying pizza and cake. We had a few parallels to last year: Zachary again managed to sleep his way through much of the party, emerging in time to decline a cupcake and instead enjoy goldfish crackers. And he still doesn't really like other people singing happy birthday, so we skipped over that bit at the party. That apparently didn't stop him from singing it himself though the next morning, on his actual birthday:
On day two of the birthday festivities (Zachary's birthday proper), the weather improved for the barbecue, allowing for some al fresco dining. Again, somehow Zachary's nap intersected with the party, though this time around his appearance was a bit earlier on. He was a big fan of the bubble machine and enjoyed trying out his new balance bike. Happy third birthday, little man!
He's not even three years old yet, but Zachary is already a graduate! He'd been in a fabulous pre-preschool program for the last few months, and they have break in August and only work with kids under the age of 3, so Zachary got to "participate" (and I'll use the term loosely) in their graduation event. He wasn't actually interested in standing around, so he and mommy took a little stroll. Then mima, papa, and I watched from a distance as another toddler -- who we're all pretty sure didn't actually know him -- ran over and gave him a big hug. Both kids went down in a (thankfully smiling) tumble, which was super cute.
Participation in the graduation exercises really just involved some group sing alongs and then the kids got to walk under a balloon arch to the reason they were happy to attend: a giant party, complete with food and cake (Zachary passed on the latter, though he did enjoy some goldfish crackers), arts and crafts, play toys, and yes, a giant inflated bounce room -- which Zachary seemed to primarily enjoy by sitting down in the middle and laughing as other kids bounced around him. It was also great getting to talk once more with his teachers, all of whom clearly seemed to adore him.
It's still hard to believe our little boy is already almost three years old, and will be starting preschool (with a bus, backpack, sack lunch, and the rest) at the local elementary school next month! Congratulations little man!
The time has really flown and my wonderful month of paternity leave wrapped up yesterday; today was my first day back in the office. It will definitely take some time to get back into sync at work, though I'll be the first to admit that taking care of two boys (and solo at that when Meh was at work) is very challenging and exhausting work. Not to suggest that won't be happening again; Meh works every other weekend, so we'll get plenty of fun all boys time!
To wrap up my leave, I got to take the two boys to an excellent dinosaur-themed third birthday party for one of Zachary's friends that we met way back in an infant support group. Owen was in the wrap and Zachary alternated between enjoying some of the party snacks and playing on the playground equipment and running around the park's water spraying features. It was hilarious watching him always try to keep an inch (or less) away from getting totally soaked by the fountains, but somehow he managed!
For the past few weeks, we've been gradually getting up the courage to start potty training. First and foremost, Meh of course brought home some children's books from the library on the topic. (I'm only mildly concerned with the thoughts of just how sanitary library books on the topic are likely to be -- both before and after we're done with them.) Zachary has really enjoyed them, particularly this one by an author we've got another illustrated book by; impressively, he named the other book the first time he saw the cover of this one. Anyway, all of these potty books have got him talking about the potty when he sees it (and sometimes even when he doesn't). He also continues to call Owen's bath seat a potty -- hey, there's at least a passing resemblance. But when we've asked him if he wants to go, or suggest that we spend some time sitting on it, not so much. So it's definitely a work on progress.
One area where he has gotten a bit more comfortable is interacting with and sitting on the little potty that we'd had sitting unused in a corner of the bathroom. Meh had the brilliant idea to put it in front of his costume trunk and mirror, and he now uses it for one of his dolls to go on, as well as a seat for, um, modelling head wear. There's still always a diaper separating him from the toilet seat, but we'll take things one step at a time; our hope is that he can be at least starting down this route by the time school starts in, yikes, less than three week!
