The Real Jenty

The worst thing about motherhood is, without a shadow of a doubt, toilet training! I hate it!

There’s nothing, absolutely NOTHING, worse than cleaning poo undies!!  I dare you to find something worse!

Bradley was an easy child to toilet train, and by the time he was 2 and a half, he was 100% off nappies… and we haven’t had ANY accidents overnight since then.

Connor, on the other hand, is entirely another story.  He’s been pretty good with wee-ing in the loo, but other than that it’s been a bit of a mare.

As soon as he wants to poo, he hides… then the proudly comes and tells you what he did.  I just haven’t been able to catch him in time or convince him that the toilet is the best place for it!  Until now…

… this weekend we hit on THE bribery item that would work.  If he poo-ed in the loo, I would buy him another bakugan. And it worked!! On Monday morning we caught him in time, and with much persuasion and luring him with the thought of a new bakugan… he finally did it!

And now he’s a pro

Next… find a way to stop him peeing at night!

… and find an illusive bakugan in the shops!! They’re as scarce as hens teeth at the moment! Wish me luck… I need to honour my promise!

I did actually go to work today, and while I was there I was quite productive… but I also did the following:

1.  Delivered photos… well, not personally… Lance printed photos for me and delivered them to a client (it’s handy to have him at home at times like this)

2.  Donated blood.  I haven’t donated since the HIV incident, and now that I’ve been the clear for so long, it’s safe to donate again  The blood service actually comes to our offices every 6 weeks and sets up stations for donations.  In fact, to remind their regular donors, we also get reminder emails and phone calls from the SANBS a few days before. It’s very handy, because I used to always forget.

3.  Trekked to the other side of the world to visit Nicole (my SIL) in hospital.  The trip home took forever in peak hour traffic, but I’m very glad I saw her with my mom, and she had some company for the hour that we were there.  My mom and brother have blogged about her hospital stay.  She’s been in hospital since last Thursday.  At first they suspected swine flu, but she didn’t respond to treatment and the blood results came back negative.  Thankfully, she’s doing slightly better now, even though they have no idea what’s wrong yet.  She’s not in high care anymore, and she’s now in the cardiac unit undergoing test after test.  Even the hour we spent there today, tired her out a lot, and she needed to go back on her oxygen canula when we left.  I really hope they get to the bottom of the problem soon, so she can go home.

4.  Saw Bradley ride his bike without training wheels for the first time with help!  That’s HUGE!  I’m so glad I was home to see it.  He’s hates not being able to do something, and it was frustrating him, but today he got it right.  OK, he’s not flying around on his bike yet, but at least he can go a bit without help. I reckon he’ll have it sorted by the end of the week, and then we can take him riding on the road again.

5.  Took the boys to get pizza.  It may seem tiny to you, but I’ve been getting home so late in the last few months that I’ve just got supper on the way home.  The boys love going to get pizza, and watching the guys make it etc, and it was nice to spend some time with them too.  One day I’ll get a job where I can leave the office before 5pm again, these late evenings kill me.

So, all in all, it was a good day

… the tooth fairy

Yip, Bradley’s first tooth fell out   he’s so very excited.  Except… we had to write a letter to the old tooth fairy tonight to explain that he’s actually lost it!!

LOL, we actually suspect that he swallowed it in his sleep last night, as he was toothless when he woke up this morning and we’ve hunted high and low for the missing tooth!

Now the dilemma is trying to figure out what a fair price is.  I know from Babynet that some people give R50 for the 1st tooth, and R20 thereafter, but I’m thinking that’s too high.  I’ll see how I feel just now when I go to bed, and have to play tooth fairy.

I knew this was coming, we were warned that homework would start, but it was so strange to see a homework book appear in Bradley’s bookbag this week, and have to sit with him and actually do it!!

Thankfully though, it’s fun for him to do, and so far it’s quite easy.  I like the way they do it.  It’s not all about his academics, it’s about life skills too. And apparently if we spend more than 20 minutes doing it this year, we’re taking too long and we need to stop.

For example, here’s what we’ve had to do this week (we got the week’s schedule on Monday):

Monday:  Count to 20.  Brush your teeth every morning and every evening.

Tuesday:  Write the letters c, o, a, d in the air.  Keep your bathroom tidy.

Wednesday:  Play eye-spy with the letters c, o, a, d (this was loads of fun today).  Wash and dry between your toes and fingers.  Read a poem with him.

Thursday:  Sing heads, shoulders, knees and toes.  And I can’t remember the rest, and I’m too lazy to walk downstairs to check his book

Interestingly too, the sequence of letters c, o, a, d is the sequence in which they learn the letters at school.  And the reason… the shape of a C is the most natural one to write and it’s the first shape that you naturally learn.  And then the others naturally follow from there.  Interesting hey?  The teacher told us that at his parent’s evening.

Bradley started school today.  This year he’s in Grade 0… BIG school.

He was in the same school last year, so there aren’t that many changes for him from Pre-Primary.  He has the same friends.  He’s still in the same uniform apart from his new real school shoes (last year they could wear almost anything on their feet).

But even on the first day… the move to BIG school was very apparent…

• The lockers in the classroom are now organised alphabetically instead of randomly
• He has his own stationery that we spent ages marking with his name last night
• He has a chair bag for the first time!
• He attended assembly for the first time

… and the biggest change for him… “Mom, we had to wear our shoes ALL day, we weren’t allowed to take them off!”

I must tell you though, that some of the mom’s were really over the top with this BIG school thing.  I mean please, they were in the same school last year and etc etc as I explained above.  While I was waiting for the assembly to start, I cannot tell you how many mom’s standing around me were getting all emotional about their child starting big school.  They were all going on about how they’re sad about their babies growing up.. and how much this means to them… and it’s so big etc etc.

I’m normally the one who cries at the drop of a hat… but please… it was ridiculous!  The only major change is that they’ve moved to the other side of the school road!!

Connor has all of a sudden changed.  I know I’ve blogged about him quite a bit lately, but he’s changing so much and I have to record it somewhere

I’ve mentioned before that his vocab improved in the last 2 weeks (while I was on leave), but he’s just astounding us every day with new words.  Not phrases yet, still words, but this is HUGE for him!  All of a sudden he’s decided to start copying words, which is the cutest thing to listen to.

I took the boys food shopping on the way home last night, and he was sitting in the back of the trolley (I know… he’s not supposed to sit there… but you try fight that fight with him).  I’d bought a few cold items and then a hot grilled chicken.  He touched the cold milk and said “cawld” and then touched the chicken and said “hot hot hot”.  LOL!! I thought that was clever

I could go and list all the words he’s saying but that would bore you to tears.  I have to tell you though what my favourite words are… “chuse” or juice, “bovil” or bovril (I know he’s a strange kid, he’s barely talking yet he can say bovril by name!), “poon” or spoon, “bow” or bowl, and “eeeuuuuwww” or cat.  Yip, you guessed it, he’s still calling all animals by their sounds and not by the names

As for other stuff, the biggest thing happening at the moment is the start of potty training. It’s the bane of every mother’s life.  I can’t wait for him to get out of nappies, yet the process seems endless and it’s just crap (excuse the pun)! I’ve been trying to get him to wee in the potty before his bath for a few months now, but it was a pointless exercise and he would just sit on it for 5 second and say “pssss” and then get off and run away.  Then, 2 weeks ago,   I started leaving him nappy free after our swims and showing him that he could wee in the garden.  That’s been quite successful, and he’s started getting quite good control in the last week.

Then yesterday, he decided that tonight was the night…. he actually did it… he wee’d in his potty!! Woohoo! And he did it again tonight!! i’m thrilled! I hope this means that he’s close to having no nappy during the day.  I think I’m going to try this weekend.  I wasn’t going to do anything until the teachers started the process in a month’s time, but I think he’s ready, and he hasn’t had a major issue adjusting to school.   Hope I’m right!

And there goes my little baby… he’s nearly a big boy!

Connor started nursery school today.  It’s the next step in his life.

I have no idea why but I was so nervous this morning about it.

Part of me is quite relaxed about him being at school because I know no-one is going to be able to bully him… in fact, I’m concerned that he will end up being the bully.  This is completely different to my concerns about Bradley because he’s always been a softy, and still is.

I’m worried that they won’t understand what he needs because he’s not really talking.  His vocab has improved leaps and bounds with me being at home the last 2 weeks, but still, it’s nowhere close to talking properly.  In fact, I explained to his teacher this morning that if he starts chanting ”mine mine mine” it means that he wants his dummy (pacifier).

When I took him to school this morning, he was so funny though.  As soon as we walked through the gates he took off yelling and chasing the other kids and climbing on the biggest jungle gym in the school yard (which his teacher was a bit concerned about at the time… but LOL she’ll get to know my little daredevil).  He only seemed slightly concerned when I kissed him goodbye, but he didn’t cry at all.  I hope that he’ll be the same tomorrow, but I doubt that because he knows what he’s in for now.

I’ve actually just chatted to my mom, who picked him up a while ago, and she said that he had a good day and the teacher said that he was very happy today.   He even gave the teacher a hug to say goodbye!

My next worry is that he’ll be happy at the school and that they’ll stimulate him properly.  You can only guess at the quality of the school when you choose it initially, the proof comes a few months down the line. I hope that this time, we chose the right school (Bradley’s first nursery school was a disaster after a few months)!

Anyhoo, can’t wait to get home and give my big boy a hug!

I went to the shops this afternoon to buy nappies.  But before I went, I read Lotus’ post about green training pants, and it triggered thoughts of potty training.

I have to start training Connor.  He’s starting school in January, and it looked like all the kids in what will be his class are wearing undies and not nappies; and they were very proudly explaining about potty training time schedules.

Ho hum… not sure if I’m ready for it though.

We have been trying the potty every night before his bath, but he just sits on it, and says ‘sssssss’ and then gets up and climbs in the bath.  LOL!

So, today at the shops I bought normal nappies for night time… and then a pack of training pull-up disposables to try.  And then I went to Woolies to buy undies for him, and possibly training pants (the green kind).

And guess what… Woolies only sell training pants up til age 18-24mths?!?!  WTF!!  There were even training pants for 3-6mth!! WTF for?  So much for my thoughts about going green the easy way!  I’ll just have to use undies

It feels so strange when you realise, as a mother, that your children are growing up.  There’s something about certain things that they do, that signify that they’re getting bigger.

Today, it was Bradley telling jokes.

It might not seem a big thing for those of you reading my blog, that don’t have kids.  But before now, he’s never really found jokes funny. He’s listened to them, but they haven’t stuck in his head, and he hasn’t laughed when he heard them.

And that’s changed.

He was telling us 2 jokes tonight, and they were so cute!

“Why did the worms go into the ark in an apple?”
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“Because all the other animals went in pairs!”

And then…
“What do you call a sheep on a trampoline?”
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“A woolly jumper!”

I love that he’s understanding them now and finding them funny

I haven’t done an update on Connor in a while, so here goes…

He’s still not talking!  That’s the main thing I have to blog about… LOL! Not really, but OMW it’s frustrating.  I wish he would speak now damnit!  He’s saying the odd word here and there, but it’s not clear.  I think he’s almost there though… or maybe it’s just wishful thinking.

His vocab at the moment consists of…
bubbles (still his #1 word)
mmmmmaw (more… which he uses VERY often considering how much he loves food)
Baddeee (Bradley)
Jack-Jack (Jackie my parent’s jack russel)
baw (ball)
Nah (no)
Yah (yes… sometimes but more often than not, he just nods his head)
Duh-duh (dummy)

I spoke to the clinic sister this week about it, and she said that it’s OK if he’s not speaking properly as long as his pronunciation is getting better, and he understand everything we say and if we’re absolutely sure that he can hear us. Well, I have no doubt that his hearing is fine, so I’m sure he’s just a bit lazy

Speaking of the clinic (I took him for his 18mth jabs) , he weighed-in at 15.7kg (34.6lb). Little wonder that the 2-3 year clothing is a little snug . Hee hee! At least his head has stopped growing, it’s still measuring 51cm.
It’s not like he’s fat though, he’s extremely muscular… ok with a tubby little tummy .

I was actually thinking that he’s getting rather large, but then I met his match last night (a 21 mth old boy who weighs between 17 and 18 kg). It was so cool to see them sizing each other up at a braai (BBQ) at Marlise’s house last night. Oooh and his mom is keen for me to do family pics for them – hope she calls me!

As for the rest of his development, I think he’s doing well. He’s jumping and skipping all over the place now, he looks so cute trying to hop like a kangaroo.
He imitates many many animals (cat, dog, rooster, chicken, duck, elephant, gorilla, monkey, fish etc etc)… Lance even taught him to gnash his teeth to imitate a crocodile this afternoon. LOL!
He’s also blowing whistles and trumpets. This is really cool, because I remember struggling to get Bradley to blow things, I bought him whistles and trumpets for Xmas when he was 19mths, but he only grasped the concept after the age of 2 properly!