Well, it's happened! The moment (or the start of the transition to the moment) we've all been waiting for - Sam is a big boy! Yup, that's right, he is now wearing underwear full-time, and we are very proud of him.
It all started last Monday. We were out of Sam's diapers and Steve said that they'd have to take a trip to Target to get some more. At this, Sam decided that they didn't need to go out, he would wear underwear instead! Steve took him up on this offer, of course, and it's been nothing but underwear ever since! Of course, we've been doing a lot of laundry, which is only to be expected I suppose, but the accidents have gotten fewer and fewer and yesterday we made it through the whole day with no wet underwear, so we're definitely making progress.
The funniest thing about this whole process is that it's a whole family affair - we celebrate in jubilation at a successful potty run and mourn together over each accident. Sam calls me at work to tell me when he's been particularly successful, which I'm sure makes for some interesting listening for my coworkers! And we constantly are discussing the potty at home, planning for when we need to use it and regaling past successes. The whole process has been quite the experience.
Our most entertaining potty-training episode happened this weekend at Wendy's, where we stopped for dinner on the way to go camping. We ate a delicious dinner of chicken fingers, fries, and chocolate ice cream and then I proceeded to get up from the table to use the rest room. Before I left, Sam looked me square in the eyes and said with complete sincerity, "Mom, I love you and I am so proud of you for using the potty." I figure that if he's going to repeat the stuff that he hears around the house, such encouragement is not a bad thing to pick up!
Last week was the culmination of Sam's two weeks of swim lessons, and he passed with flying colors (although his teacher noted that he still needs to work on his front and back crawl) and, more importantly, had tons of fun. I went to Sam's last lesson to see what it was all about and had a great time watching him interact with his teachers and classmates. The funnies part of the whole lesson was the portion where the kids and teachers held hands and made a circle to play "fishie in the middle." It's a fabulous game where one of the kids gets in the middle and everybody else moves around the circle singing, "fishie in the middle, fishie in the middle. Can't go over, gotta go under" and then the kid in the middle has to swim out under somebody's arm. Well, when it was Sam's turn to get in the middle, he looked at his teacher and said "not fishie in the middle, dinosaur," so everybody went around the circle singing "dinosaur in the middle." You have to admit that the kid has spunk.
Sam's other funny toddlerism of late has been a concern about us walking barefoot. I was walking sans shoes the other day and Sam asked, "Mommy, are you walking with your toes? I walk with my shoes." So now barefoot is no longer described as barefoot in our home, it's walking with your toes.
Ben is doing really well, too. He's been able to go up the sliding board and through the doggie door for about a month now, two important rites of kiddom in the Morningstar household. He loves to help me pick strawberries (ie, squish them in his fists) and green beans (he likes to take them from the basket and try to put them back on the plants) and is walking with frightening speed. He is still a great eater and definitely outshines Sam in that department (Sam pretty much exists on cheese, yogurt, chicken nuggets, and starches), so we're working hard to keep his palate wide-ranging in hopes that he will not follow in his brother's footsteps in that regard. He now says "book" and "nurse" (yippee) and is generally happy as a clam!
We went camping last weekend at the Albion Basin campground. It's above Alta in Little Cottonwood Canyon, for all of you Utah-savvy folks, and it was fabulous! At over 10,000 feet, we did find that we got winded more easily while hiking, of course, having each of us carry a child could have contributed to the difficulty, but we did manage to do two great hikes and see tons of gorgeous wildflowers these crazy alpine salamanders with external gills that looked like a lion's mane and 5 moose! We sure do live in a cool state!
Love,
Steve, Jamie, Sam, and Ben