Dexter at 3 1/2

As I mentioned in my previous post about Theo, we had parent/teacher conferences at the boys’ pre-school just before vacation.  I was most worried about Dexter’s conference because of his potty-training regression since beginning school in August.  This summer he was diaper-free, wearing underwear even at night. He had been doing great and I had no doubt in my mind that he was “ready” for pre-school.

Developmentally, he is right on target and has expressed interest in several areas. He is especially drawn to the water tasks, such as squeezing water from a sponge into a bowl, re-absorbing it, and repeating. His teachers said if there is a water “job” out, that is what Dexter chooses.  The Montessori classroom is organized into areas and right now Dexter spends most of his time in the Practical Life area, which is typical for his age. His teachers said that some days he is not interested in doing any work, but will instead watch his peers for long periods of time.  He isn’t particularly drawn to any of his peers, but gets along well with everyone and prefers to sit by his teacher during circle time. He is working with early math and language concepts.

My biggest concern was his potty-training.  After 8 weeks in school, he had only gone 1 week (and he only goes 3 days a week) with no accidents and most weeks he was having multiple accidents. Usually just pee, but not always.  Gross. I felt terrible that they were having to deal with this over and over and over.  It made me sad for Dexter, because to me, that meant either that he was nervous, anxious, or not feeling comfortable asking a teacher for help. It made me feel terrible for the teachers that they were having to clean up his messes.  How could a teacher not resent a kid that was crapping his pants once or twice a week? How could a teacher not resent the parents of a kid who swore he was potty-trained and “ready” for pre-school, who apparently was not.  I was spending way too much time worrying about it while at work and feeling apprehensive every time I pulled up to the school to pick them up, cringing from the inside out every time I saw a bag (or two. or three.) of wet / soiled clothing in his cubby.

I apologized profusely in emails to his teacher, to which she replied that it was not a problem and that they were still working on learning his cues. I still couldn’t help feeling sick about it because I truly feared that any day they would kindly pull me aside and tell me that Dexter just wasn’t able to return until he was potty-trained. So what would that mean? Putting him back in diapers? No, but if he had to go back to the sitter 5 days a week for having too many accidents at school, wouldn’t the sitter WANT him in a pull-up or diaper?  It was just starting to look like we were going down a path I didn’t want to travel.  After asking many questions about Dexter’s classroom behavior and discussing his progression, I brought up the potty training issue.

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His sweet teacher so calmly expressed that Dexter is doing FINE.  That I didn’t need to worry about it. That for every 1-2 bags of wet clothes I see, he is going to the bathroom and making it there on his own at least 4 or 5 times.  They don’t prompt the kids to go to the bathroom unless they notice them squirming. Sometimes they miss his cues.  They said that him having accidents and having to change his clothes provides a great learning moment in independence for him.  If he pees on his clothes, he is responsible for changing and he is capable of doing that all on his own.  Sometimes it takes him 20 minutes but that’s okay.

She really put it into perspective for me by saying that he is only 3.  Three. It’s only been a little over 3 years since he was inside my belly, completely incapable of doing anything independently. What was I doing three years ago (besides caring for a tiny baby)? Pretty much all the same things I am doing today.  Dexter, on the other hand, has learned to walk, talk, feed himself, dress himself, go to the bathroom, and so much more.  He has learned more in three years than an adult could hope to learn in the next 20.  He will continue to learn at a very fast rate for the next few years. It’s hard to do so many new things all day every day. So with that in mind, Dexter is doing FINE.

True.  It’s all about perspective.  He only had a handful of accidents on vacation. Even less the week after we returned.  I am not going to let myself worry about it anymore because my little boy is doing everything he is supposed to be doing.  He will figure it all out.  He’s just having a little adjustment period.

More post-vacation insight has come to me since we’ve been home, this time about Dexter.  During vacation, Dexter became very attached to his tennis shoes and a blue satin cape that he calls his Batman cape. He wears it at home a lot but it has never caused any problems. The tennis shoes we bought a couple of months ago are black with royal blue and yellow trim and he also refers to them as his “bat” shoes.  He didn’t want to take his shoes off in the car. He didn’t want to take them off for bed. He didn’t want to take off the cape to go into stores or to go to bed. Or the pool. Or the beach.  He threw some hairy tantrums over those items; it was as if we told him his puppy just died.  It was bad!!  He also got mad if we didn’t have a Batman shirt for him to wear – thank goodness we were able to do laundry there. He finally accepted that he could wear the cape in the car and condo but nowhere else and that he had to leave his shoes under the bed at night.  It was the first thing he thought about when he woke up – the cape and shoes went right back on.  Ryan and I started looking at each other with concern, thinking WHY is he so rigid about these things all of the sudden?  We optimistically and tentatively decided it’s just a phase.

As soon as we got home, the preoccupation with his shoes and cape was all but forgotten. OK, that might be a stretch – he hasn’t forgotten but it’s gone back to the way it was before vacation.  He doesn’t cry when it’s time to take them off. He doesn’t have to have them close at bedtime.  He doesn’t try to wear the cape out of the house.  Upon noticing this a few days after we got home, I recalled another time when Dexter became extremely attached to another item.

When Theo started Pre-school last year, it was the first time that the boys had ever been apart for any length of time.  Along with this change, they had started at a new babysitter just a month earlier. Dexter started asking to take one of Theo’s old stuffed animals (that Theo never played with a ton) to the babysitter. We let him. After a couple of weeks, the babysitter asked that he stop bringing it because it was causing problems. We agreed but there were some really, really terrible drop offs in the morning for the next week or two, with Dexter desperately begging for the puppy, bawling as I walked away, and me crying all the way to work. It was hard.

We had been home from vacation for a week before I realized the similarities.  Although he was with us, we were away from home. For a long time. He’s only 3; a week might as well be a month.  It just never crossed my mind during vacation that he was trying to adjust or find comfort in this new situation.  There’s something sweet and fascinating and well, comforting, to me about the whole thing – him self-soothing when feeling out of sorts, me figuring things out as we go, and knowing that we’ve got a long way to go on this journey, but that we’ll continue learning together.

Dexter. My bubbly, never-too-serious, blonde, blue-eyed, funny boy.  Sensitive and sweet. Learning by leaps and bounds and little by little, all at the same time.  He likes to pretend. One minute he’s Batman and I’m Wonder Woman. Then next minute he’s Baby and I’m Sissy. He’s got a vivid imagination and a love for Legos to rival his big brother’s.  He’s kind and forgiving. Passionate yet silly.  What would I do without him? He keeps us on our toes and makes our lives so interesting.

xo,

~C~

Dexter’s Batman birthday week

Dexter’s birthday week was quite the rollercoaster with many ups and downs.

It started on Mother’s Day when Dex had a low fever all day. He laid around when his temp crept up but would be running around like a madman an hour after taking medicine.

He woke without a fever on Monday but I kept him home because I wanted to keep an eye on him to make sure he was okay. He was sluggish but okay throughout the day. I worked from home and at 4:30 I heard screaming and ran back to the bedroom where he was napping to find him in a puke puddle, crying.

I moved his mattress to the living room and covered all surfaces in preparation for the next round. Good thing.  Poor buddy puked 10 times between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning.  Not a very happy way to turn 3.  Dexter got another sick day to stay home with mommy on his special day. 
Trying to play but not really feelin’ it.
By mid-morning the pukefest had come to an end. He took a very long nap and by the time Theo and Ryan came home, he was acting a little more like himself.  It wasn’t long before Theo saw the small pile of gifts wrapped in Batman paper in our bedroom and started prompting Dexter to ask us to open presents.  He cheered up and his energy started to come back. 

The turning point: Revelation of the Lego Set.

See that sparkle coming back?

No YOU’RE the best.

Hurrah to feeling better!

Took one bite. 
The rest of the work/school/daycare week went okay. Dex still was having some tummy troubles and didn’t eat well all week but no more throwing up.  Some really FANTASTIC news that came from Dexter’s birthday week is that we ditched diapers!!  He woke up on his 3rd birthday in a diaper but hasn’t had one on since. Not at home anyway. I’m not sure his sitter is quite as ready to move on as the rest of us are. I’m giving him a good, solid week or two before I tell her that we are officially potty-trained, day and night. We are taking him to the bathroom every night before we go to bed (around midnight) and he’s doing GREAT!!  He’s very proud of himself and so are we!!  Gooooo Dex!
Friday I worked a short day and went to Sam’s Club when I was done to buy party food. I was excited to go there and take my time strolling around without the kids before I picked them up from the sitter. Got up to the register only to discover that I didn’t have my Mastercard debit card. The only place I use it is in the ATM machine and at Sam’s because they don’t accept Visa. So on one hand, I was not too worried knowing that I must have just left it in the bank’s ATM the last time I got cash. On the other hand, I was devastated that I just wasted an hour or more of my precious, limited time and now I was going to have to grocery shop with crabby kids in tow. And embarrassed to boot.
I did end up getting everything I needed and Ryan and I stayed up until 1am getting everything prepared that we could do the night before. 

Party favor gifts.

The day of the party was stressful, as they always are. The weather was iffy. It kept getting super cloudy then would sprinkle. It looked like a tsunami could let loose any second but it never did. It stayed nice enough that we could have the party outside, which was the main thing I was worried about.  However, I set up the food in the garage. I don’t know what your garage looks like in pictures, but there’s just no way to make ours look cute, regardless of how many decorations we put up.  I barely took any pictures because I was busy prepping all day. By the time the party rolled around, I took a couple pictures of the ugly garage and more or less tossed my camera aside and sat down to enjoy some time with friends.

For food, we had the following

 – fresh sliced strawberries
 – GoGo Squeeze applesauce
 – this crock pot turkey (on pretzel buns with provolone and/or pepper jack cheese)
 – pretzels, cheese puff balls, and chips & salsa
 – lemonade & sweet tea
 – cupcakes that Ryan’s mom made (Dexter asked for strawberry – they were amazing!)
 – homemade chocolate chip cookies
  

Stickers from Zazzle.com

Grown ups and big kids played things like corn hole and ladder ball outside while the little kids played on the small slide and on the riding toys in the driveway.  We ate and then Dexter passed out thank-you gifts to his friends before opening his presents. 

Don’t ask me why, but we made Theo and Dexter mini-versions of the gift bags we gave all the other kids. Ryan and I panicked at the last minute, thinking it wouldn’t be a very fun birthday party for the birthday boy if he was disappointed and confused about why everyone else got the same thing and he didn’t. The full-blown version contained: 
  – foil pinwheels
  – bubbles
  – Batman cup
  – mini flashlight
  – mini M&Ms
  – pop rocks (only for the big kids)
  – Batman punch ball balloons

Without a doubt, you can bet Theo was right beside Dexter the whole time, checking out the new inventory. 

Not a bad day, all in all.
I hope Dexter enjoyed his third birthday festivities, even if his entire week wasn’t as great as it could and should have been. I can’t believe my baby is 3!
xo,
~C~

laying low and potty stuff

Wow, it’s already been 2 weeks since my last post.  I keep thinking it’s been awhile but never seem to find the time or the inspiration to come here and write.  I don’t know why. The boys have been super cute and fun lately.  I haven’t been taking many photos either…lame.

They are so smart. I’m surprised every day by something they say or do.  Theo just seems so OLD lately. He’s still super obsessed with Legos. He just loves taking the guys apart and mixing and matching their bodies. We build whatever came in the lego set and then he takes it apart and attempts to rebuild it. He’s pretty good at it!  What I love the most, though, is his creativity. He builds his own little ships and guns and I literally don’t know how he comes up with this stuff.  So neat to watch him.

What’s not so neat is that he is also obsessed with pee pee and poopy.  Like, the words. Not the things.  He thinks it’s soooo hilarious to call people “poopyface” or “fartface.”  I guess it was funny the first time, but now it’s just pretty obnoxious.  I’m not sure if it’s just his age or something that he’s picked up from school.

Dexter, on the other hand, might turn out to be our goody-two-shoes.  A lot of the time when Theo is trying to get Dex in trouble (by telling him to say or do something inappropriate), he’ll say “No Tee-o, we don’t say that.”  He’s got a little conscience on him. Theo is starting to tell white lies, denying that he did something or blaming things on Dexter.  He’s not a very good liar.

Speaking of peeing and pooping though, for the longest time Theo wore a diaper to bed just because we were so paranoid that as soon as he started wearing underwear, we’d be back to the newborn days of getting up 5 times a night.  Before he wore underwear to bed for the first time (on Nov 2), he had NEVER in his life woken up dry in the morning.  I was curious if he was just peeing when he was awake because he knew he could or if he was actually peeing in his sleep.  We’ve pretty much figured out in the last three weeks that he CAN NOT and will not make it through the night unless we wake him up to take him to the bathroom before we go to bed (about 3 hrs after he does).  We’ve experimented and he always has an accident in the middle of the night if we don’t take him. Sometimes he’ll have 2.  So, what do you do?  Do you wake him up every night (a nuisance for everyone) to start teaching him or do you blow it off and let him keep sleeping in diapers?  For now, we’re taking him to the bathroom at midnight and celebrating successes every morning that he wakes up dry – which is the majority of the time.  I figure he’s going to be four in a little over three months…we’ve got to get a handle on this. Right?

We’ve been lazy with Dexter’s potty training.  We need to be more consistent but here’s the thing. He consistently pees on the floor almost every time he wears underwear. He has some GREAT days, but he has some bad ones too.  I know that’s too be expected. Does it make me a bad mom if I just don’t want to clean up pee off the floor or risk him peeing on the carpet or the couch?  Yeah? I kinda thought so. We’ve got a little time with him – I’d like for him to be trained (at least for the daytime) by the time he’s three…still six months away.  Dexter is more than happy to tell you after he’s gone but very rarely asks to use the potty before he goes.  I think with more consistency on our part, potty training him will be easier than it was with Mr. Stubborn Theo.

That was a lot of potty talk, considering I didn’t even know what I was going to talk about.

I think that’s all for now.

xo,
~C~