So, we have survived our first week of life without diapers (except during naps and nighttime)!

The first day at daycare was a little rough. Atticus was very nervous about going to school without his diapers. I worried that perhaps I'd rushed him too fast. He either held it or didn't drink anything because he got by without accidents or peeing in the potty. He waited until nap time when he had the comfort of his diaper. After a couple of days like that, I wondered if having his potty seat from home would help. While daycare does have small children's potties, they're still awfully wide for young toddlers. When I put him on them in the mornings when I dropped him off, he was holding on to the toilet dispenser so as not to fall in. :( So I asked him what he thought about bringing in the potty seat, and he seemed to wholeheartedly embrace that solution. I brought it in on Wednesday, and tada! he peed in the potty several times.

Then a very big milestone on Thursday: he not only pooped in the potty at school, he took the initiative to tell his teacher that he needed to poop!

A side note: one of the assistant teachers took me aside last week to tell me that Atticus is her favorite kid in the class. She said she's sad every day when she has to leave him because he's such a good kid and so much fun. She probably isn't supposed to openly admit to favorites, but I didn't mind so much. :)

Two nights ago as we read a book about migrating animals, Atticus put his foot onto the giant two-page photograph of Mali elephants and said, "I want to go in."

Just a few photos from the last week and a half I'd meant to upload before.

A few photos from the first day of our potty training weekend. So far, so good, I think. There were a number of accidents, but there were a number of successes too, and not a lot of resistance. And the accidents lessened over the course of the day. And luckily he's taken to to the potty seats I bought the last few days for our regular toilets. I was so not looking forward to having to clean out the little potties every time he went. This is way, way easier.

 

 our makeshift tee

We listened to this song four times in a row in the car on the way over to the botanical gardens, and then behold, Ryan Green did a cover of it. Dancing feet. :)

Some jumping fun from last weekend

What: Poop!
Where: In the potty!
When: this morning
Who: Atticus
:)

I won a bid on some new train stuff on ebay, and the package arrived today! I'm almost as into the trains as he is (well, maybe not quite, but not so far behind either), so it makes sense to invest in something we can enjoy together. I did most of the track construction while he strung the trains together and asked me again and again, "Ready? Ready?" We now have quite a bit of track to put together, so the answer was "Almost. Almost..."

To our surprise and delight, the little train station piece makes a choo choo noise as the train passes by it. Atticus loves it!



Aerial view of our track.

I'm making up for lost time with these copious notes on the life of Atticus. So food update: tonight he happily ate raw sugar snap peas. Unbelievable, I tell you. Before he would only eat the peas themselves after I'd popped them out, never their shells. What wonderful demon has swept in and possessed my child?

And why didn't anyone ever tell me about the potty dance? I guess that's my fault for not spending much time reading up on potty training. Tonight I did a potty dance after I used the toilet, and Atticus went wild and proceeded to pee in his potty five times in a row, dispensing it slowly like a dog, just so he could do the dance again and again, as well as repeatedly empty the potty and flush the contents down the toilet. I had decided earlier today to take the plunge and say goodbye to diapers (except during naps and night time) this weekend, but wasn't entirely confident it would work. But I feel quite good about it now. He's on board. And Chris, consider this my father's day gift to you while you're away: a potty-trained boy to come home to.

Atticus and I played some baseball this afternoon. He chose a bat and ball for me and another set for himself. Then we took turns hitting. (We kind of stole Risa's old hat, Lauri.)

Last night I made broccoli fritters, and Atticus proclaimed, "Cookies! Broccoli cookies!" and gobbled them up along with two runny-yolk eggs. In the past, he pretty much refused anything but a solid yolk. This morning he ate every bite of his breakfast, then helped me clean up without any prompting from me. And tonight he said of the zucchini on his plate, "Zucchini! I like zucchini!" He also ate kale that I didn't even like all that much because I understeamed it. And after trying a big bite of goat cheese he didn't think he liked much, he decided on his own (I told him he didn't have to eat anymore of it) to try it again. And guess what? He said he liked it, and he asked for more. I don't know what the heck prompted this transformation in my child, but I'm loving every minute of it.

And after having a very, very rough time last night transitioning back to his own bed after three nights of sleeping in mommy's bed (it started up again because of Chris being home only from about 10 or 11 at night Thursday to 4 or 5 in the morning. poor Chris), he went to bed easily tonight. I could tell he was struggling not to cry when I lay him down. But he succeeded. He's awesome. Not that he wasn't before, but now he's even more awesome. I'm very proud of him.