sybrowsky quote of the week - noses and elbows

For a while James had a strange obsession with smelling everything he put his hands on. He smelled each fruit snack before he ate it; he'd put his pajama top to his nose before putting it on; he'd even stop to sniff out his Hot Wheels car during the middle of a big race. I thought it was weird, and I didn't want him wiping his nose on everything, but I didn't think it was that big of a deal. Jessica's son who is about the same age was doing the exact same thing, and we would watch them do it and giggle.

Christian, however, got very frustrated with all the smelling and was constantly asking James to stop. My favorite quote from Christian (and this demonstrates his parenting method) is, "James, you may not smell anything ever again!" To which James replied, "I'll never stop smelling." Kid one, Parent zero.

He's mostly stopped with the sniffing game, but he's become very vocal about the various odors he encounters. He has a super-sniffer, which he inherited from either his father or Grandma Holly. Either way, he's not stingy with his super-smelling abilities and is always willing to share with whoever will listen what odors are perturbing his senses. For instance, when we walk into a public restroom, he'll very loudly comment, "It smells stinky in here! Like diarrhea!" Once he went with Christian into Harborview Medical Center on a quick errand, and when they returned to the car, all he could talk about was how stinky the hospital was. So one day while he was talking about how he is going to be a bone doctor just like daddy,

I asked him this:

Me: James, how are you going to work at the hospital if it's too stinky?"

James (without missing a beat): I'll just have to plug my nose and do it with my elbows."

Apparently he'd already thought it through and decided, yes, this is something I can work around.

addy's his own man

When it was time to potty train Addy, I was extremely reluctant. I had a very bad experience with James, and I was dreading doing it over again. We waited a little longer with Ads and tried not to push him. He's seemed ready for a long time. So about a month after his 3rd birthday, I finally threw him a "Potty Party."

For those of you unfamiliar with this concept, it's basically an all-day potty training session, which at the end of your child should be 100% potty trained. It ends with a big party with a cake and presents and lots of hooplah. And it works--for about one day.

Addy actually did great for a few weeks, with only minimal accidents. He even rode 16 hours in the car without a problem. He was a pro the whole time we were in Utah for Christmas. But something happened when we returned. Suddenly, he was having an accident every time. He wasn't going in the potty AT ALL. For three weeks I felt like I was beating my head against a wall. My friends watched me freak out as he had multiple accidents at every play date. I was sick of washing a load of wet/poopy clothes each night, and ready to put him back in Pull-Ups full time. We even tried a "potty watch" (really just my running watch that has a timer) that sounded an alarm every hour to remind him to go potty. Nothing worked.

Then one day I was out of Pull-Ups, and I didn't want buy a huge box from Costco, or to go all the way to Wal-Mart for a small pack. I stopped by the Fred Meyer down the street and was totally shocked by the price of the Pull-Up brand there. So I opted for the small, cheap Fred Meyer version, determined to get this kid trained before they were gone.

The next couple of nights I put Addy in a pair of the cheap training pants to sleep in. One night that week, Christian went up to quell a disturbance (as is his nightly ritual), only to find Addy running around his room buck naked. He had removed him jammies and training pants and refused to put them back on. He wanted to wear big-boy underwear because he's a big boy now, and the training pants felt "yucky." Christian, no doubt wanting to get the kid back in bed so he could return to his TV show, relented and put him in underwear. Best parenting decision ever.

The next morning, to my great surprise, he was dry. And from that night on, he hasn't had a single accident. I haven't had to remind him or drag him to the bathroom--he has gone completely on his own. I guess he just needed to decide for himself that he was going to do it. A testament to his independent nature. You gotta love this kid.

So if you're struggling with potty training, try switching out the cushy Cadillac training pants for the cheapest things you can find. Or go a size smaller so they're really uncomfortable. You can tell them they're getting too big for Pull-Ups. And maybe they'll decide on their own like Addy did. Or not. Who knows--this parenting thing is definitely a crap shoot sometimes.