Kids Say the Darndest Things!

Two is my very favorite age.  I've never thought they were so "terrible," rather, quite terrific.  What I love about a kid this age is that they are just figuring things out.  They are learning new things, and testing themselves at them.  They smile.  They laugh.  They say funny things and are proud of themselves for the littlest of accomplishments.

RJ will kick a ball and say to me, "See it mom?  See it mom?"  He'll jump from my bathtub and say, "See it mom?  See it mom?"  He'll run fast like Lightning McQueen and say, "See it mom?  See it mom?"

One of his favorite things to do right now is to gallop.  He gallops and gallops all over the house saying, "Gallop, gallop, gallop."  He's so proud of his new accomplishment and his little voice can be heard resonating through the house, "Gallop, gallop, gallop."

The terrific thing about it is, his speech of coarse is still developing so all his sounds aren't right.  His g sound follows the typical pattern of a two-year-old, being replaced by a d sound.  He doesn't quite have his l's yet either.  Those are replaced by an m sound.  The end of the word gets dropped off, leaving the word to end with a soft a sound.

Maybe take a minute and figure that out.

So... around and around the house he goes, galloping and repeating "gallop, gallop, gallop" over, and over, and over again!  Absolutely terrific!

Potty Training Number 5

By number five you would think I would have this down.  That I would have figured out all the tricks, all the bribery techniques, all the ways to manipulate a nearly two-year-old's mind to think that he really wants to sit on the toilet every couple hours.

Unfortunately, this two-year-old's a little different than the others. He can't be bought.  

He's no longer enticed by M&Ms and suckers.  Cheerios and Goldfish crackers in the toilet aren't hacking it either.  

So I decided to resort to his intellectual side.  I explained that he could not go "tinkle" in his underwear.  I told him the consequences: being wet, having itchy legs, and needing to get in the bath and change clothes.  It seems to have helped as he's happier to sit on the toilet now.  

So I pat myself on the back and contemplate names I might use for my potty training book.

Then, last week, there was a puddle on the couch.  The kids insisted RJ peed on it, but RJ was dry.  It definitely smelled like pee and was too big a spot for the dog.  Hmmm.

The answer to my cunundrum was just around the corner, literally.   A few days later the girls caught RJ pulling his underwear aside and peeing on my carpet!  I recalled my words to him, "Do not pee in your underwear."

The name of my potty training book, "Outsmarted By a Two-Year-Old."