The Great Potty Training Adventure

Ryan is an incredible father. Seriously incredible. A Superdad, really. But every superhero has a vulnerability, and the thought of potty training is my husband's kryptonite. Thankfully, I have tons of potty training experience as an occupational hazard. That's [one of] the great thing[s] about our relationship - his very few weaknesses are my strengths, and my innumerable weaknesses are his strengths. I'm the yin to his yang, and he's the PB to my J. Together we make an unstoppably perfect pair.

We decided to start tackling potty training over the winter break, when I'd be home for two whole weeks. That, I thought, would be just enough time for me to intro the concept, establish a routine, and hand off the torch. I prepared ahead of time, investing in potty training books of both the resource (for me) and picture book (for Ethan) variety. I bought two giant clear containers and filled them with M&Ms and marshmallows for rewards. I picked up plenty of stickers, a timer, two different types of potty seats, and "special" post-potty Winnie the Pooh wipes for clean up when my little Winnie goes poo. I was ready.

And Ethan was not.

He was definitely into the potty books. He actually requested them as his bedtime story night after night. Our interactions went a little something like this:

Me, pointing to an illustration of a toilet: "What is that?!?"
Ethan: "Pee pee potty!!!"
Me: "Yeah!!! Whose potty is that?!?"
Ethan, excitedly: "ETHAN'S PEE PEE POTTY!!!"
Me: "Yeah!!! Do you want to go sit on your pee pee potty?!?"
Ethan, after a pause: "NO!!!!!!!"

So, in a nutshell, he's not exactly taking to it like we hoped he would. We've made a bit of progress - he went from being scared of the potty, to waving hi to the potty, to eventually sitting on the potty. But that's about it. Needless to say, I haven't had to break out those Winnie wipes yet.


(Don't let that cute little grin fool you - that's a reaction to the "special treat" he earned for sitting on his frog, not pride in his potty accomplishments.)

We'll get there. I figure that he'll eventually be potty trained sometime between tomorrow and when he enters kindergarten. Either that, or we'll have to homeschool him. But I guess we can cross that bridge when we come to it.

Holiday Celebrations

Oma found a great gingerbread train for Ethan to decorate this year! He did a wonderful job of sticking the candies onto the frosting... until he realized 1) He had candy in his hand - CANDY!!! and 2) The frosting was also ridiculously delicious.

The play food from Mima and Poppa was a huge hit.
So was the fire truck from Pa-Pa!
Ethan soon figured out he could combine his two loves, and spent the better part of Christmas morning placing play food onto the ladder of the truck and pushing it around the house.
We celebrated New Year's Eve with the fabulous Hoke family. One of us had the brilliant idea to turn our babies into New Year's Babies. We made a little paper sash, broke out the cameras, and prepared for a productive photo shoot. The kiddos had a different idea. They both hated the sash and refused to wear it. Should have seen that coming. After about ten minutes and a lot of M&M bribes later, we managed to get this shot:

Not exactly what we were going for, but I like it all the same. Happy New Year!