August 03, 2009

Pee pee, potty potty, pee potty pee

As you can tell from the title, big things are going on in our lives here in the beautiful Caymans.  Two weeks ago we moved Alex out of his cot and got him a single mattress on the floor. By now he was getting out of his sleeping bag all the time and was too big for his cot.  Our big fear was he would just get up and walk out of his room when we tried to put him to bed, especially at nap time in the afternoon.  Our fears were compounded when Alex kept saying "I get out" with a big smile, every time we discussed his new bed with him. We have been pleasantly surprised that we have not had any problems with him getting out of bed when putting him to sleep.  He is especially excited that "I can turn around" under his covers.  The only problem is convincing him to stay in bed in the morning when he wakes up "until the sun comes up". We are regularly awoken by the sound of Alex coming up the stairs to see us sometime between 0400 and 0500 every morning. One morning, on coming downstairs with him, it was evident he had been up for a while playing with his toys in the living room with the lights on. 



Friday at lunch time the kids had a picnic at a local park with school. Their topic for the week had been picnics and BBQs, so they ended the week by having a real one.  Parents were invited so I went along for the picnic.  When I got to the park the kids were getting off the bus, lining up in classes, and then marching off to the playground.  I stayed back to watch them and the two of them are so cute.  As soon as they were free to to go play, Alex went in search of Ellie and brought her up the climbing frame to the big slide and helped her go down. Standing on the side I could hear Alex calling out "Ellie" or Ellie shouting for "Alex" whenever they got separated.   We had a fun picnic, chasing the chickens around, enjoying the sun and food. Coincidentally, it was Alex and Ellie's last day of school.  Next week we go to Minnesota for a couple weeks and in September they start at Montessori.

Yesterday Alex and Eric stayed in all day to learn to use the potty.  We have a cute small potty for Alex that he can use on his own. It even makes a special noise when he puts something in the potty.  As our guide I used the book "Toilet Training in Less than a Day" (over 2 million copies sold). It was written in 1974 and supposedly is a classic.   After one day I would have to say we are not quite there yet after more than a day.  For various reasons, we have had to modify some of the techniques in the book.  Very quickly Alex knew to go to the potty, could pull his shorts down and sit down.  He could get up, pull up his shorts, pull the tray out from the potty and carry it into the bathroom. (We are doing the training in the kitchen!) Once to the bathroom he empties the tray into the toilet and flushes then returns to the potty and puts the tray back.  I am amazed watching him go through the whole process on his own, very proud of what he can do.  Lots of Hershey chocolate kisses were part of the success.  The only stumbling block is getting Alex to pee in the potty.  At the end of the first day it was pee-on-the-floor 8: pee-in-the-potty 3. We are making progress, it is just getting Alex to hold on until he gets to the potty.  

Alex and Ellie continue to love swimming in the pool and are making good progress.  A couple days ago while Alex and I were swimming, we came across a crab on the bottom of the deep end.  Alex was excited that there was finally an actual sea creature in the pool.  Either it was a land crab that accidentally ended up in the pool or an escapee from a neighbor's kitchen.  Either way, crabs don't fare well in fresh, chlorinated water.  We were careful not to get too close to avoid "waking him up".   Alex found my old snorkel a couple weeks ago and insists on using it when swimming in the pool.  The mouthpiece is too big for his mouth so he just chews on one half, which means he can't actual breath through it. He won't swim without it though.  I bought him a kids snorkel which will fit entirely in his mouth.  He loves using it but I still don't think he breathes through it.  It is funny watching him swim around the pool with his mask and snorkel on, coming up and telling me about the fish and mermaids he has seen.   A few weeks earlier he went on a school trip to ride on the tourist submarine.  He still won't stop talking about the fish he saw and especially the "diver man" with the bubbles feeding the fish. 

Emma and I were watching the swimming world championships on TV this afternoon.  Alex woke up from his nap and came out while we were watching the men's 1500m.  He plopped down on the sofa and started watching with us.  Within a few seconds he was transfixed and watching intently.  When the race was over and they started to go to the ads, Alex was excitedly shouting at the TV and us; "more, more".  Good to see we have another swimming fan in the family.  Later this afternoon in the pool Alex started doing a pretty good freestyle arms which he has never done before.  He said he was copying the swimmers on TV.

The next big adventure the kids are already planning for is the airplane trip to Grandma's next Friday, Aug 7.  They are playing a lot of airplane and getting ready for lots of swimming and playing with the cousins. 

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