Little Tyrant

Aaron likes to dictate what we can and cannot do. Which we generally ignore. Usually, he'll tell me "No talk" when I'm talking to someone instead of paying more attention to him. Sometimes it's "No sing" if I'm singing (or dancing or otherwise acknowledging music that is playing). Although sometimes he will request that I sing: "Mama sing."

But the other day we had a good laugh when Thom and I did something Aaron apparently didn't like. He was playing in the living room and we were sitting on the steps watching him and we rested our heads against each other. He got agitated and said "No Mama. No Gaga." and we lifted our heads to focus on him to figure out what the problem was. Since he didn't have words for what offended him, he came over to us, pushed my head against Thom's and said "No". As in, "No, don't put your heads together like that."

Real Gaga

In our office, we have a picture frame that holds 4 photos, 2 are of Aaron, and 2 are of Aaron and Thom. He'll point to Thom in the pictures and say "Gaga" (his version of Dada - which he can pronounce, but since he first called Thom Gaga, that sort of stuck). When Thom is in the office, he'll sometimes point to him and say "Gaga. Two Gagas!" As in there are two Dadas, one in the photo, one in the office. So I differentiated the real Thom from the Thom in the photo by saying, "That's your real Dada" since we are still helping him differentiate between real things and pictures of things (or statues of things). So lately he has been calling Thom "Real Gaga" about half the time.

Potty Training

A few months ago, we noticed Aaron was displaying some signs of being ready for potty training. The primary one is that he knows when he has to poop and will even tell us right before he goes. Other signs I've read to look for are showing an interest in the potty (he's shown some interest, but not much), being able to pull his pants up and down (he still can't), and having words for potty related activity (he does).

So awhile back, Thom installed a new toilet seat in the guest bathroom (the one closest to Aaron's bedroom) that has a built in toddler seat between the regular toilet seat and the lid. I had originally thought we'd get him a little potty, but realized I had no interest in cleaning it out several times a day. So Thom discovered the one we ended up buying, which we like because it can't slip off like other ones we've seen that just sit on top of the toilet seat.

Although he showed some interest in the new potty seat, it was short lived. He does like to go to the bathroom with me when I go potty so he can flush the toilet when I'm done, which is something I've encouraged. Flushing the potty is for Aaron right up there with playing with his train set, it seems.

Although I'm not in a huge hurry to potty train Aaron, I feel like this is a good time to start. I don't want to start too close to the new baby's arrival and if we wait until he is used to the new baby, he will be nearly 3. I want to take advantage of his interest and his knowing when he needs to poop. So I picked up two popular potty books at the library to see if they increased his interest in using the potty: Once Upon a Potty (for Boys) and Everybody Poops, both of which have at least 4 stars on Amazon.com and were readily available at the library. I didn't want to purchase one without seeing if Aaron likes it.

I have to say, I'm not a big fan of Once Upon a Potty. She uses Wee-Wee for pee and Poo-Poo for poop, which seem even more childish than the words we use. Although the author says at the beginning that you can replace these terms with the ones you use when you read the books, my niece Larissa read this book to Aaron several times before I looked at it and he was already used to the words in the book by the time I tried to substitute my own words, so he corrected me. Plus, it is too hard to make sure Thom and Larissa and Kim and I all read it the same way.

But despite my not liking this book, Aaron LOVES it. He wants to read it multiple times a day. Over and over. And now he is asking to sit on the potty like the boy Joshua in the book. Not every day. And so far he hasn't done anything on the potty, but it is a start. So I have to say that the book seems like a good resource, even if I cringe whenever I read it.

The other book, Everybody Poops, is more amusing and he is showing more interest in that one, too. But it doesn't seem to have the same effect as Once Upon a Potty.

Someone commented to me a few months ago that with the new baby coming in October, I'll unfortunately have two kids in diapers. Actually, that really doesn't bother me. I realized when they said that that I really don't mind changing diapers. There are many things I'm dreading when the new baby arrives - sleep deprivation, crying, juggling the demands of two children - but diapers is not one of them. Diapers are convenient. If I had to wash cloth diapers out every day, I would probably have potty trained Aaron 2 years ago.

But disposable diapers are nothing. I like being able to go out with Aaron for a couple of hours and not worry about him needing to use a potty. Especially when some public restrooms can be so disgusting. I rarely even have to change a diaper when we are out because he almost never poops outside the house and we are generally aren't out long enough for him to need a wet diaper changed. So I'm not really looking forward to potty training, but it needs to be done. We aren't pushing it at this stage, but we are asking if he wants to sit on the potty and we praise him when he does.

Enjoying a drink with Daddy

Thom had come in from outside while Aaron was having some milk. He had set his milk down and was hugging Thom and resting his head against Thom's head and generally being adorable. By the time I got the camera, he had stopped hugging Thom and gone back to his milk, but we prodded him to hug Dada again so I could take a picture, and this is what we got.

It was a cold

I wrote the other day that I was wondering if Aaron's runny nose was caused by teething rather than a cold. It does look like his last molar might be on it's way, but he definitely had a cold. How do I know? He gave it to me and Thom. And Kim.

Off to watch TV and eat some soup...

Glucose Screen

I had my 1 hour glucose screen yesterday. They said they would call if I didn't pass. So I was disappointed to hear from my OB's nurse today. I now have to take the 3 hour fasting glucose test. I'm going Tuesday morning at 7:15am. They will draw my blood to get my fasting glucose level, then make me drink a bottle of Glucola which will make me feel sick, then I will sit around for 3 hours so they can draw my blood every hour for a total of 4 blood draws. During that 3 hours, I can have nothing but water. Needless to say, I'm not looking forward to it.

I had to do the fasting test with Aaron, too. That time, I think I got a 143 on the 1 hour test. Anything over 130 and they require the 3 hour fasting test. Of the 4 blood draws I had during the 3 hour test last time, my glucose level was high on only 1, which they consider passing. If two are high, then they treat you for gestational diabetes. I'm a little concerned because this time I got 168. But this time, I had the test in the morning, when I've read that glucose spikes are most common. Last time, I had the 1 hour test late in the day.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Either way, I know I need to get more exercise and watch my carbs. I gained 5 pounds in the last 4 weeks.

Doing and Going

These are Aaron's two most common questions lately. He either wants to know what something/someone is doing, or where they are going.

Sometimes this is easy to answer:

Aaron: "Dada doing?" Me: "Dada is making your banana oatmeal."

Aaron: "Car going?" Me: "The car is going home." (I have no idea where random cars are really going, but I make something up anyway.)

Sometimes it is not as easy to answer:

Aaron: "Jacaronda!" Me: "You see a jacaronda tree?" (They are blooming right now and this is a new word he learned recently.) Aaron: "Yeah! Doing?"

How do you answer that? What IS the jacaronda tree doing? Sometimes I will answer something like "Isn't it pretty with the purple flowers?" Other times when he asks what some stationary object is doing, I make something up like "It's waiting for you to play with it." And as a last resort, I will tell him "I don't know what the fill-in-the-blank is doing."

I am guessing this is a precursor to "Why?" That should be a fun stage. He's so inquisitive and I think answering his seemingly redundant and odd questions is helping him to understand the world he lives in.

And I frequently turn the tables on him and ask him what something is doing or where it is going to give him a chance to demonstrate what he has learned. Lately, he'll be playing with his little bus or other car and I'll ask where it is going. Oddly enough, it turns out the vehicle in question is "going potty". I would not have guessed that.