The bad news:

Life hasn't been so easy the last several days, now that Chris has been in Hawaii for 9 days and counting. Atticus started peeing on himself Sunday. At first he did it in the bathroom with his pants down--just turned and aimed away from the toilet. Then in his bath towel after getting out of the bath. Then in his pants. Then on the opposite side of the bathroom as the toilet. Then in his pants again tonight after Chris announced on skype that he's no longer coming home Thursday night as he promised last night. I know Chris doesn't mean to be deceiving and is just responding to a constantly changing schedule, but Atticus was so excited last night when we had a concrete day and a concrete number of fingers to hold up, to subtract from. This morning I showed him how to use his thumb to hold his pinky finger down so that it doesn't interfere with his "three" days until daddy returns. He demonstrated for his teacher. He talked last night and this morning about how he and daddy are going to get bagels when he returns on Thursday.

In addition to the "accidents" despite having been potty trained for about eight months now, he's just all around fragile and temperamental. He cries over the littlest things. He tests me constantly. He asks me at night when I'm about to leave his room for reassurance that I won't leave him all alone in the house.

Giving him copious attention helps, but only so much. This morning we got up early and played puzzles and studied shapes, etc. for quite some time. But then I had to take a shower. He didn't act too upset about that, but after he refused to help clean up even after a time-out. I had to resort to threatening to put all his train stuff away. I hate to do that, but I hate even more the prospect of raising a kid who refuses to help clean up after himself. Then I had to pin his arms down to brush his teeth. Not our normal routine, that's for sure.

The good news:

He's still super loving, giving me tons of kisses and hugs, and daily hugging and kissing Ava when I pick him up. Here he is enjoying a cupcake at her birthday party last Friday at school.




Last night I strummed (very poorly) the guitar and sang a call-and-response song about Atticus (I called, he responded), and he really dug it. I sang another one tonight sans guitar. Once in a while he corrects me when I get something wrong like when I said his favorite ride at Disney was the choo choo train, and he added "and the monorail."

He keeps cracking me up with the stuff he says like on Sunday, referring to the Catalinas, "Those mountains are big like you, mama." awesome. Or "You're a little not nice, mama."

He's moving up to the big-kid pool next week at swim school. I asked if he could move over a few weeks early since he's so independent in the pool, and they agreed that he was ready. He's excited about swimming with just the teacher while Chris and I watch through the window. We're excited not to have to change into swimsuits, etc. every week.

In the last couple of weeks he's created a series of "black" paintings--page after page of black water coloring, the papers so drenched they stick to the table and take several days to dry.