Small Things 1-7-13
1. My child turns water into wine! Regularly!
Actually, it’s even nicer than that since he turns water into ‘champagne’. Now, we’re not lushes by any means, though we’ll occasionally have a glass of wine after Hen’s in bed. And at Christmas, all the adults–which is to say, everyone in the family except Henry–all indulged in some really lovely champagne. Which apparently made a big impact on Hen. Since ever since then? He’s been offering me sips from his own private reserve–his bedroom water cup, ever since.
2. Hen is intellectually fascinated by potty training (ie: we’re watching ‘Potty Power’ for the second time today at his request, even as I type this. His potty training books are his current faves, etc.) but is not too excited about actually doing the sitting-around-in-underwear-that-should-be-kept-dry part. Even though he’s never had an accident (though neither has he ever really done his business in a potty). Even though he tends to get tasty rewards (which he talks about all the time) for every time we check & he’s still dry. & Even though we’ve tried to be as positive and excited about this as it’s possible to be. But it’s apparently still stressful, and he’s really resisting putting his big-kid pants on even though I think he’s ready physically for this step. Sigh. Any thoughts? Any reluctant-boy-specific thoughts? The last thing I want is to traumatize him.
3. Although the Christmas stocking project turned out better than I could have hoped, the Christmas cardigan story does not have such a happy ending. 
The yarn is gorgeous–as it should be, it’s top of the line yarn. The knitting is, ahem, perfectly nice though I say it myself. It’s a pretty straightforward pattern, so it’s not like I screwed anything up. BUT.
My husband’s a very tall guy, though rangy rather than hefty. But since it’s supposed to be a closefitting sweater, and since he prefers looser cardigans, I made him an XL. Which turned out more like an XXXL This sweater is seriously outsized. I mean, if my husband was 7 feet tall and weighed about half again as much as he does, it might not be too small. Ugh. It’s like the designer didn’t take the weight/heft of the yarn into account–ie: a larger sweater will stretch even larger because the weight of the sweater will pull it out. I’m seriously annoyed, especially since I didn’t even try to substitute yarn or anything for this very reason. (And yes, I checked my gauge before and during. This is a pattern problem, not a knitting tension one.)
Next year, people are gonna be lucky if they even get a christmas card that I’ve signed. Thinking of getting a signature stamp, because, really, I’m that tired of making stuff.
But before we get to the next holiday season, it looks like the knitting project that ate up my entire autumn now has to be ripped out and redone–making it the knitting project that ate 3 seasons! My only consolation is that since this time it’ll be smaller, it’ll mean less knitting.
Which sounds like a really good idea right about now.
4. I hate Richard Scarry. The books, the tv show, everything. And Henry does not. This is upsetting to me.
5. I found out that my first crush–the light of my 5-year-old life–grew up to voice Barney the Purple Dinosaur for 3 or 4 years. This explains so much about my life, if looked at in a certain (really scary) light…
I have no advice, I too am in your boat and am excited to hear what some boy potty training survivors have to say lol! We have several potty training books, the elmo potty dvd and he loves Daniel Tigers Neighborhood on PBS and they do a very cute potty episode..we treat(bribe) with m&m’s for dry pants and promises of balloons or toy dump trucks if we make business in the potty. So.not.happening. He will sit there briefly but nothing happens…isin’t there an app for this? Seriously!? Hoping you get some great advice so I can try it out too!
Expound on Richard Scarry. My son loves cars and trucks and things that go book and these books are from my childhood so I like the walk down memory lane. Why not a fan?
Susan Reply:
January 7th, 2013 at 7:10 pm
Ugh. Richard Scarry. Actually, the older stuff is ok. Still not my personal fave, but I see the appeal. Hen’s longest-running favorite book ever is the “Best Word Book Ever-tm” from, like the 50s, wherein most of the words are out of date, or related to things that no longer really exist, but which I totally credit for a lot of his (rather astonishing) vocabulary. He’s had it since his first Christmas and it STILL gets read more days than not. Wanna know why my kid knows about tv antennaes, olives, xiphias, ice fishing, record players, opera singers, juice squeezers, earmuffs, etc? It’s because of the “Best Word Book Ever tm”.
But the story books & tv show are just godawful rip-offs of the guy’s illustrating legacy, as far as I can tell. I don’t like the stupid characters (Mr. Frumble the idiotic pig and his pickle car-ew.) It also gives me the creeps to see pigs working behind the meat counter at a butcher shop. And really, what’s UP with the worm wearing a shoe, a fedora, and getting around by hopping?
Also, the cats wearing lederhosen are irritating.
No insult intended to anyone who grew up on RC! And Hen loves it, so I’m obviously not keeping him away from the stuff (though I’ve insisted that we return “the Best Storybook Ever” to the library before we check it out again. Give someone else a chance…) It’s just far far far from my favorite of his entertainment choices!
(And I’m sure it’s not the last time he & I will differ on what makes a great story/tv show/movie!)
Erin Reply:
January 9th, 2013 at 8:33 am
Love it Susan–thanks for expounding. Turns out I feel teh same exact way about the pigs! Love that Hen’s vocabulary includes xiphias!!
LOL at that Richard Scarry response!! I LOVED RS growing up, and when I was home over Xmas I took some of my old RS books home, so my girl could read them too. She is not so interested (yet!) but I still love to look at the detailed pictures, and Lowly Worm is the best!! I have not seen any of the new stuff but I fully believe it will upset me to see what’s become of it. I guess I never saw any live action of RS, so maybe my internal dialogue of whats going on is much better than what’s on TV.
And no help on potty training, I’m watching you to see how to do it!! No pressure…
I am not a fan of RS, either. I didn’t grow up with the books so the first time I saw them was when my m-I-l gave them to my older daughter. Occasionally she takes them out wanting me to read them. Sometimes I try to get her to pick a different book. They don’t really keep her 2.5 year old attention, either. There’s just something about them I just don’t like.
On potty training: the best thing I ever did as a parent was NOT potty train LG. That is, I waited until she was almost three, at which point she was able to get her clothes on and off by herself. I think she had a total of two accidents. Done, the end. She’d used a potty off and on, as she wanted, at daycare and at home beginning around 19 mo but we didn’t get the big kid underwear and really make it into a thing until 34 mo.
I’ve heard you can start training at 1 and end at 3, start at 2 and end at 3, or just do it at 3. Esp. true for boys. Folks who “train” earlier are training THEMSELVES to get their kids on the potty, which is good if the goal is simply not changing diapers…biologically it’s not generally possible before that. What I’ve heard and witnessed, anyway…
Okay, my friend said that potty training is like losing weight….there is no one magic solution that works for everyone. However, I was thrilled with what we did and would be happy to share our approach. My son goes to a Montessori school three days a week, and we did what they told us to do. The approach was centered around consequences. The “consequence” of having an accident was that the child has to completely change his underwear and pants himself. (Of course, it is is a poopy accident, then they do need help getting themselves cleaned up). If he chooses to change quickly and then get back to playing, he can. However, if he takes longer to change, and he winds up spending all morning in the bathroom, that is his choice too. The idea is that the consequence is so undesirable, that he will work harder to not have an accident. We started when my son was 27 months old, and it took 2 weeks. We just said that our new routine was wearing underpants during the day, and then a diaper at night. he would put on his underpants before breakfast, and we were good to go. Initially, we took him to the bathroom all the time, and there was lots of reading books, playing with the iphone on the potty, etc, and eventually something happened! As time went on, he learned muscle control and was able to pee as soon as he sat on the potty. However, it was probably a good six weeks before he was able to verbalize when he needed to go. Initially, it was SO hard watching him change himeself after an accident, but it really was a deterrant. For probably 3 weeks before we started potty training, we just worked over and over with him being able to put on and take off his pants. For people who say it is not biologically possible to do it before 3, that is not accurate. In other countries, children are trained at a much younger age. In the US, we are spoiled by pull-ups, etc, and diapers are just so convenient, that we often don’t have any urgency to train kids sooner rather than later. My son also learned sitting down, but at some point we will then teach him how to pee standing up, but I’m in no hurry to rush that. So, that’s just my two cents worth, but again, many different approaches can work. Good luck!
SO sorry about the sweater! How frustrating. The stocking is amazing, though!
I have no potty training tips, though I do have a reluctant little boy and his two trained sisters. I like your idea of rewarding all the dry checks, though. He knows what to do on the potty and will do it every time he sits or stands, but he also messes in his pants all the time, too, so I just put him back in a diaper. I think I’ll end up enrolling my daughters in a class that requires the students to be potty trained just to give him some incentive.
My husband and I also cannot stand Richard Scarry. The kids love his books, but we got sick of reading them all the time so we put the books in their basket in the play room that they were free to read (ie, destroy) on their own. Too bad those were also the books they could bring to us all day long to read to them.
Sorry I must break up with your blog now because I know you’re an RS hater. Just kidding. But what about peasant pig and the terrible dragon? Or the funniest storybook ever (pie rats)?
On potty training boys: I tried mid year 2 and it was traumatizing (he asked for his diaper back.) A bit after 3 years, he was trained in 1 afternoon, only 1accident. It was great. Best wishes for an easy time of it!