Yin and Yang

Hurricane Dolly did not really impact Houston in any way other than bringing a lot of rain. Last week, it rained very hard, and in the late afternoon, the thunder was apparently so loud that it set off the fire alarm at our daycare. Every kid in Boo Boo's class except 2 started to cry. The teacher and her three helpers put all the kids in a circle, and they had three kids each on their laps, and others just nuzzling their backs. Boo Boo still talks about it. He wags his little finger at me and says, at random times, "mama, don't be scared, it's just a loud noise, there's nothing be scared of, just cover your ears." Or he'll explain with a little hand gesture, "thunder is just two clouds rubbing together." Even this morning he woke up and the first thing he said was "the thunder scared my ears, mama, but it was outside, not at my school." I let him talk about it of course, and explain that whenever he's with his mama, his daddy, or his teacher, they will always take care of him, and we watched the Elmo's World Weather episode, cuddled on the couch together. But I swear, in the ups and downs of parenthood, for every vulnerable, tender story like this one, there's also balance in the Force.

Yesterday, Boo Boo was wearing underwear only, no diaper. About 3 minutes after he had sat on the potty, we sat down to eat dinner, and we smelled something. "Did you poo poo?" we ask. "Yes," says Boo Boo and takes off running, not to the bathroom but to the living room, jumps on the couch, and, as we chase after him, he runs to the dining room and THEN to the bathroom. I know it sounds crazy that I couldn't catch an almost 3 year old, but he had a head start. By the time he got to the bathroom, he had pulled off his shorts, his underwear, flung them on the floor, and sat down on the toilet. I walked in and saw a giant piece of crap on the floor. Such are the highs and lows of my life.

Technology in the house and Word of the Day

DVR's have changed my life. Back in 2000, R bought an "Ultimate TV receiver" which was the DirecTV version of Tivo. You could record two shows at the same time and watch a third. It allowed to me to tape Survivor and Friends (which was on prime time, which tells you how long ago 2000 really was) and watch them whenever. We now have two such receivers, one upstairs, and one downstairs. The one downstairs does double duty as there is a TV in our bedroom and in the living room, both connected to same DVR, and using a radio frequency remote, I can change channels from my bed and watch TV and recorded shows, even though the DVR isn't in the bedroom. Fancy, I know. R is a technophile, and has all kinds of neat gadgets and time saving devices in our house.

So last night I wanted to make sure to record Jon Stewart's The Daily Show becuase I thought he would have some funny clips about the Alaskan senator, Ted Stevens' corruption charges. I love the clip of him shouting NO from the Senate floor. As I'm scrolling down to Comedy Central, I see Oxygen is airing back to back episodes of Tori and Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood. I cannot help but watch. Wow, I think, she looks really good with short hair and the glasses are really working for her! She's in a store picking out furniture for her new place and it's all modage. "Modern" + "Vintage" = Modage. Your pop culture word of the day.

And then I watched another two episodes. I'll never get those two hours back. But the side commentary that R and I were making made it a lot of fun. Dean is all, I miss my other son, but all I can do is be there for him, you know? And then immediately switches to how much of a pain his dog is being, and how Tori can't make wall paper decisions. I could sooo relate, ya'll.

Potty Training

I guess it's inevitable. Got kids, talk poop. Right? If anyone has any advice for me, I will take it. This post is prompted by a discussion of potty training over at Cagey's blog (link in sidebar at Rancid Raves, am v.v. lazy). Here's the deal. Everyone says wait to train until the kid is ready. Books say for boys, age 36 months to 39 months. Boo Boo will be 3 at the end of September. But our school says he's been ready to move up to the 3 year old class room, but can't unless he's potty trained.

Boo Boo has a potty watch that goes off every 20 mins (we keep him in underwear and shorts only, no pull ups or diapers) on the weekend when we're home. He's happy to run to the toilet, pull down his shorts and underpants, sit on the toilet, sing the potty song with me (1 potty, 2 potty, 3 potty, 4, 5 potty, 6 potty, 7 potty, MORE, then change the words to pee pee and repeat!), then jump up, grab some toilet tissue, watch it float down to the bowl, get wet, flush, and pull his pants back back up. The problem? NOTHING EVER COMES OUT. We make noises, we talk about the little hole (squeeze!) and try first thing in the morning. But he holds it and holds it, and 5 hours later, will have an accident. Or I'll have to go to the grocery store, put a diaper on, and by the time I get to the grocery store, the diaper is SOAKED.

At day care, he's in underwear all day starting at 8:00 am and the same thing happens. The teachers put a diaper on at 4:45 pm before the parents get there, and he always takes a giant crap between 4:45 and 5:10 when R arrives to pick him up.

We read potty books, we play with a cup and funnel in the bath tub (pretending the cup is the potty and the funnel is Boo Boo going pee pee, and we elaborately flush by dumping it over, and if the funnel misses the cup we talk about accidents and how everyone has them, and it's okay), we reward with stickers for sitting, and chocolate for actually peeing, and made a big deal of his very special Diego and Thomas underwear. He's seen the Elmo Potty Time video. We mirror, and we sit for both pee pee and poo poo for now, and he watches both me and his dad do the same thing.

Our school had him scheduled to move up on August 1. And we started working on potty training in March, at age 2 1/2. But he's still not ready, so he's going to stay in this class for a while till he gets it. Which is fine I guess, but is there anything I'm not doing that I should be?

Life update for FFF in comments

"Monster trucks have relly, relly big wheels, Mama, I cannot carry one. Actually, no one can."--Boo Boo

"It's definitely a girl."--Dr. Z's Nurse Practitioner

Boo Boo: "Can I watch some TV?"
FFF: "No, not right now, it's dinner time."
Boo Boo (upset): "Vee don't say no to the teacher, vee say Yes Maam!"
FFF: "Yes, but you're not the teacher, I can say No Sir to you."

"Do you think you could help me with a some quick research?"--Nice Partner, who turns it into a 22 page memo.

"George Michael's definitely still got it!" --me, at the concert after a beautiful version of Kissing a Fool

Surprise! Life is good. Little Boobette on the way, due first week in November.