Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Enthusiastic potty trainer

We've started kind of potty training Sam... and Matt is SO excited. Sam will pee in the potty when he needs to; he doesn't indicate when he needs to go but gives it a good try when we have him sit down. After lunch when Matt goes upstairs to use the bathroom, he runs to get Sam's tiny potty, carries it up with him, and tells Sam to follow him because it's time to go to the bathroom. Then they sit there in our small bathroom and laugh hysterically about different things; Matt tells me, "Matt and Sam need some privacy. We will tell you when we need your help." I just sit in the hall and listen to them. It goes like this, with lots and lots of giggling.

Matt: "No, Sam, don't eat those fish from the shower curtain!"
Sam: "Fish!"
Matt: "You actually CAN eat those fish! I cooked them up the other day!"
Matt: "No! You can't eat the bath mat! That's silly!"

Every messy diaper I avoid with this method is great. Yay for Matt wanting Sam to be potty trained. Ha ha.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Good questions

Matt had a lot of gas the other day. He started singing loudly, which is not unusual. Then he asked me a series of very serious questions:

"Why am I tooting so loudly?"
"Why am I singing so loudly?"
"What if I sing SO LOUD that you can't hear me toot?"
"What if I toot SO LOUD that you can't hear me sing?"

...long pause...

"Would you rather hear me tooting or singing?"

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Silly Sam

When we're reading books, Sam pretends to grab food off the pages and eat it. Sometimes he grabs other stuff, like animals, so I say, "Yuck! You can't eat a cat! Spit it out!" Then he giggles and pretends to spit. He's pretty good at pretending in general already, though sometimes he's confused when Matt hands him imaginary things.

Sam was full of good jokes in the car today after we dropped Matt off at preschool. Usually he says "Dad work" when he wakes up in the morning. Then he says "Matt school" after we drop Matt off. Today when we were driving away, he kept saying, "Matt work! Dad school!" Giggle, giggle, giggle. "Matt work! Dad school!" Giggle giggle giggle.

One day I was baking something and asked Matt and Sam if they wanted to peek in the oven. They did, so I turned the light on and they looked in through the glass. Now, whenever something's in the oven, Sam rushes over, gestures wildly at the light button until I press it, and pushes aside the hand towels so he can say "Boo! Boo!" through the glass.

Sam's other thing right now is doing actions, like all the hand motions to "Wheels on the Bus" and the action rhymes in High Five magazine. It's fun.

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Tired

When Matt was a baby, Jeff and I joked all the time about how people warned we would be tired for the rest of our lives, because we just weren't that tired. Well, joke's on me now. I feel so tired I can't even imagine what it would be like to not be tired.

I'm sure it's just the whole third-trimester-of-growing-new-person thing combined with carrying a 25-pound toddler around much of the day, up and down stairs, while cooking, while leaning, etc, combined with the nonstop chatter of a very, very chatty and energetic preschooler. Also, sleeping is tough and not very restful.

Sometimes I'm desperate for a break from the physical labor of raising small children, but I don't want to miss anything! Maybe this will be my favorite phase of children in spite of it feeling sometimes like a heavy burden (literally). We'll see.

I'm also very jealous when I see people running in the cold weather early in the morning. I used to do that. I used to love that. It was a good challenge and invigorating. But I can't imagine how long it will be until that opportunity is there for me again, if I even still like running. Who knows? The years are already flying by. Matt will be FOUR this summer. FOUR. I've got a minimum of another year of taking care of a baby, and it feels like taking care of a baby is a life totally separate from any other type of life. I don't want a break from it. Just some short timeouts every once in a while.

Miniature card shark

Jeff, Matt, and I have been playing Go Fish. Jeff's been trying to explain to Matt how you know if someone has a particular card. For example: Jeff asks me for a 9. I don't have one. Then it's Matt's turn. He should know Jeff has a 9 since he just asked for one. This is how it went, though, on Matt's turn.

Matt: "Dad, do you have a 9?"
Jeff: "Yep. How did you know?"
Matt: "I saw it when you picked it up from the pile."

We just about fell out of our chairs laughing, and the miniature card shark totally missed the joke.

Girls can't eat gluten

Matt always makes sure that the pretend food he gives me is gluten-free, since he knows I can't have things with gluten. But today it became apparent that he thinks I can't have gluten since I'm a girl. (Makes sense since all the guys in this family can.) We were feeding pretend ducks some pretend bread, and he said, "That bread doesn't have gluten in it...because some of those ducks are girls!"