The Comedian

In the past two weeks, Daniel has unlocked the following milestones:

• He's telling knock-knock jokes (haphazardly, but he enjoys them)
• He recognized his first word, unprompted, by sight (to the best of my knowledge, Christy may know differently): He recognized "Jam" on a Pearl Jam CD I got for my Mom for her birthday. Note: Yes, I know he already gets "EXIT," but it seems to be linked to seeing an exit sign, otherwise he mistakes other words for it, like "Next."

Attention Deficit

Brian called me this morning, and while I was talking to him, Daniel was jumping on the couch and hollering at me. So I went into the kitchen, and he followed me, throwing his ball at me while I was trying to talk on the phone. Yay! Brat!

Bombs Away!

Christy noticed that D was looking a bit strained & fidgety while watching TV, so she asked if he needed to poop in the potty. Miraculously, he agreed, and he was successful in pooping in the potty.

This is a big development, because after our initial success on Pooperbowl Weekend, he has not pooped in the potty since, and even worse, he has been holding his poop for up to 3 days at a time. Today was actually Day 4 of our current Poop-Watch.

He must have felt confident (and perhaps a bit backed-up), because he has pooped three more times today, for a grand total of four voluntary, self-initiated poops in one morning!

Daniel Takes Matters Into His Own Hands

Daniel did his first-ever self-initiated, solo trip to the potty today (to pee).

I didn't realize it was going on, because I was filling out a survey for Naropa online. It was until I heard him rinsing out his potty in the sink that I realized he'd taken matters into his own hands, so to speak.

On the downside, D is holding his poop for days. We are on day 3 of Poop-Watch right now.

The Joys of Being a Boy

Daniel informed his Mom that he wanted to pee standing up. She agreed to let him try, and he nailed it. He has taken to the practice with great vigor, peeing standing up at least a half dozen more times today.

The Rise of 'Why'

About a week ago, the 'why questions' started.  Like many questions Daniel asks, he often knows the answer before he asks.  He also likes to repeat the same 'why' to see if the answer changes.

Potty Party Continues

I went back to work on Monday.  Daddy and Daniel kept the potty party going.  Daniel used the potty consistently all day with one small accident over nap time.  Today, I worked from home.  Since Daddy wasn't feeling well, Daniel and I decided to go to My Gym class.  About halfway through class, we decided to try the potty and Danield PEED in the POTTY!  Our first away from home success!

We hung a star above the potty in the bathroom and put a race car sticker on it for each productive potty visit.  The star is nearly full after 3.5 days of training.  I'm thrilled and relieved.  We may have a relapse or two, but the launch was extremely encouraging.

Pooperbowl Weekend

Christy declared this past weekend, Feb. 2-3, 2013, to be Pooperbowl Weekend. By which we mean: potty training was begun in earnest.

Christy prepared a battle plan that included: 1) all resources marshaled to the task of potty training, 2) Daniel did not wear pants for the entire weekend (but he did wear his new underwear, which was Mickey Mouse and also Neverland Pirates themed), 3) Daniel was escorted to the potty every 30 minute for a mandatory sit, minimum of 90 seconds, 4) if he successfully pooped, he was given a "muscle car" sticker on a star-shaped chart, and 5) if he used the potty 3 times, he was given a matchbox car as a reward.

We two accidents (pee) on Saturday afternoon.

Around 5pm on Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013, Daniel peed in the potty for the first time. This was quickly followed by his first ever poop in the potty around 5:30pm.

We had another pee accident Saturday night, Daniel decided he was "done" with the potty, and surreptitiously peed in the kitchen. However, potty trained recommenced on Pooperbowl Sunday with further successful pees and poops.

Disciplinary Action

Daddy had to undertake his first stern disciplinary action today. Daniel has been repeated asked to stay out of the jar with the scissors in it, not to pull all of the wipeez out, and not to climb on the chair in his bedroom. He did all that today and more. Because he was no longer confined to his crib, he told me at 8:15am that he wasn't going to take a nap today, and he repeated this every ten minutes for the next three hours, as if he was keenly aware that I'd lost the upper hand in the crib/nap struggle.

Things came to a head when I left him alone for 5 minutes so that I could roll the trashcans out to the curb, and when I came back in the house, he was unrolling a spool of yellow ribbon he'd taken out of the scissor jar in my absence. I took him into his room and made him sit on his bed, and asked him to stay there (in "timeout") while I left the room. I came back in one minute and he was already out of his bed, so I put him back in it. We did this process one more time, and then he was starting to become upset, so I asked him why he thought I wanted him to stay in his bed. He said he didn't know, and I explained it was about the scissor jar. He said he wasn't doing that, which in our current state of odd tenses means that he wasn't doing it any more. I let him off the bed at this time.

When it came time for naptime, we followed the same procedure as we used to when there was a crib. I left the room for three minutes, and then I heard him taking the bag of wipeez out of the drawer. I came in the room and he was filling his toy shopping cart with diaper supplies and clothes from his drawers. I put him gently, carefully back in bed and he broke down crying about how he didn't want to sleep. I stayed with him for two minutes and then left. He was still whimpering, but he fell asleep almost immediately.

Big Boy Bed

Tom & Mindy came down today to babysit Daniel in the afternoon. Christy asked them to deconstruct the crib into its form as a toddler bed, which they did. Tonight is Daniel's first night in his "big boy bed."

Follow-up: unlike the previous night, Daniel slept in his big boy bed the whole night through (which was longer than Daddy, who ended up on the couch because of his snoring).

Daniel's 1st Play: "Trunks"

Daniel went to his first-ever live theater performance today: "Trunks," an ongoing, serialized children's theater performance about... kids pretending to be superheroes, pretending to play 'Star Wars,' ... I think. He was ready to leave after about 45 minutes, but he quieted down and made it all the way through the whole play, which was about ninety minutes. I think his favorite part of the show was the row of pillows in front of the first row of seats, where the children could sit: he just wanted to stay there and play. One of the characters was a giant parrot, who was greeting audience members at the door as we left: Daniel was terrified.

Pretend Play versus Active Play

I noticed something at today's MyGym class: While all of the rest of the kids (all of them) were running about, climbing and scrambling and leaping, Daniel is playing, too, but he's playing differently than the rest of the kids. He finds a corner and begins "pretend play:" he's a waiter, or something else.

The other kids seem to be focused on physically interacting with play equipment directly, scrambling over it, jumping on it. Daniel uses the play equipment like a prop for his imagination.

Milestones: Yoga & Nuggets

Daniel had two milestones today!

1) He went to his first yoga class with Mommy @ Shanti Yoga in Olde Town. Daniel showed Shanti his downward dog & tree poses, and besides yoga, they sang songs and played instruments.

2) He went to his first NBA basketball game (and first major sporting event ever), the Denver Nuggets versus the Golden State Warriors. The tickets were a Christmas gift from Mike & Kari, who joined us at the game. Daniel got his picture taken with Supermascot Rocky before the game (it was Rocky's birthday). Our seats were on Club Level, and Daniel ate a dinner of M&Ms and chocolate ice cream. The Nuggets starters were: Gallinari, Faried, Koufos, Lawson & Igoudala. Stephen Curry scored 29 points for Golden State, while Gallinari was the high scorer for Denver with 21. Denver won the game, 116-105.

Gadget Boy

Here's what Daddy said to his newly-3 year old son this afternoon, as Daniel was tinkering with his Mom's iPhone:

"Ok, buddy, you can play with Mom's phone, but no emails and no calls, ok?"

He still managed to call Robbie and leave her a voicemail before I caught him. His abilities with the phone are scary. He knows how to get into the apps he likes, and he knows how to get into iTunes and the ringtones to play the songs and sounds he likes. Volume adjustment? No prob.