Proud Moments

First and foremost, Peter is potty trained! I did cold turkey potty training with him during April vacation and he did such a great job. He was so flexible. He accepted that his diapers were gone and just rolled with the chaos that followed. I'm so proud of him.

I'm writing a little from memory, but also from emails I exchanged with a girlfriend who was training her daughter on the same days. Peter was off to a great start on that first day. He had new Lightning McQueen underpants and he did tinkles on the potty before putting them on and then stayed dry for three hours. It was all eerily quiet. No worries, though, by the end of the day things were fast and furious. In all he went potty five times and had half a dozen accidents. I was most pleased because once, at the end of the night, he told me he had to go himself and we got there on time. But otherwise I was exhausted from running up and down the stairs between the bathroom and the laundry all day.

Whenever Peter had an accident, he would yell, "I have poops! Stop tinkles, stop!" Despite all the yelling about poops, though, Peter had only been only been wet. The first couple of weeks, we brought Peter's potty with him everywhere. On one shopping trip, he sat on the potty in the trunk of the 4 Runner, holding an umbrella over his head. We've had some set backs in terms of accident prone days, but Peter has been in underpants since April vacation with no turning back. We haven't tackled night training yet, but... Congratulations, Buddy!!

Another proud moment came after Jill had her five year old check up at the pediatrician. I promised her ice cream if she managed to be anything less than psychotically anxious about her immunizations, so after the visit, I took the kids to McDonald's for sundaes.

When the kids eat ice cream, Jill goes very slowly, eats neatly, and savors the experience while Peter is like the Cookie Monster of ice cream. I didn't buy myself a sundae that day, but my willpower cracked at one point and I asked Jill for a bite from her nearly full bowl. She was not pleased, and eventually gave me a stingy bite. Peter, on the other hand, reached out his chubby wrist and said with his deep voice, "Here you go, Mom." He fed me spoonful after spoonful with a self satisfied grin. What a sweetie!

I don't mean to say that Jill isn't sweet too, because she is. She just doesn't like to share ice cream. Fair enough. She's a woman of principles.