Wilderism No. whatever

Wilder, walking around buck naked with a cowboy hat on, looks down at his belly, assumes a bow-legged stance and declares: "Hey, pardner, you look SHARP."

In which one boy amazes me with his bodily functions

I should just go ahead and put in the disclaimer that this will be a potty-training focused blog post. I know it's one of those annoying things parents do, assume everyone cares about their kids' toilet habits, so feel free to go ahead and stop reading now.

Anyway, if you're a regular reader, you know that Wilder did not get potty-trained until a couple months ago. He's going great now. But I guess it goes without saying that, after that experience, I did not have high hopes for Hunter. I assumed maybe it would help that he had an older brother who was showing him what to do, and it might help even more that I'm home full-time now. But beyond that, I had no aspirations. I just wanted him out of diapers before college.

So you can imagine my surprise at the events of the last couple of weeks. I think I mentioned that he had peed outside a couple times. And then, this afternoon, after bath time, I was putting a diaper on Hunter while Wilder continued playing in the tub. Hunter started emphatically shaking his head and yelling "pee pee!" at me. I asked him if he had to go. Emphatic nods. So I stripped the diaper off, we went and got his little potty together, brought it back to the room so I could keep an eye on Wilder and I plopped his booty down on it.

And. He. Went.

Now, I'm not saying he went No. 2. He peed. But he did concentrate really hard and fart about four times, so I know he gets the gist of what goes on there. Again, I realize, too much information. But what can I say? I'm damn proud of my boy, and though I realize that we're still a long way from a diaper-free existence, I think I'll ride out this high for awhile and visualize two boys using the potty by Summer 2010. It's possible, right? We'll see.

Nothing but photos

Just a couple of collages of photos -- first from the last couple days and second from the last few weeks -- that do nothing but make me smile. Enjoy.

In which I relate a story that will embarrass them when they're teenagers

Thought I'd jump on here real quick while the boys are napping. The photos below are from the last few days; just a bunch of random pics of us enjoying the outdoors and one of Wilder in an increasingly rare moment of stillness.

I'm relearning how much fun it is to have a boy learning to speak English in the house. Hunter's vocabulary has really taken off in the last week or so and it's changed his outlook on life, to say the least. He seems to be in a constant state of amusement now that he understands more of what's coming out of everyone's mouth and learning his own little set of words. Of note: puppy, ball, outside, shoes, nana (this means cup), pee pee (more on this in a minute), poopy, moon ... there's more, I'm certain, but some of them escape me now. While he still doesn't say too many words, he understands a ton, and I can tell him to do something now and have him do it. He takes a box out of the pantry. "Put it back, please." And he'll do it. It's pretty fun watching him go through all this ... I'd forgotten just how cool it is.

He and Wilder seem to be deepening their relationship as cohorts and brothers-in-arms. They make each other laugh constantly. The other day Wilder was -- apparently -- doing the funniest thing in the world by dragging his feet through the wood chips everytime he swung backward at the park. Hunter just giggled and giggled, and then Wilder caught on and so kept it up. More giggling, more goading, me wondering what the hell was so funny about it all but laughing hard with them because they were laughing so hard. Good times.

This is a story a story they'll no doubt exact revenge on me for when they're 16 and 18 years old, but so be it. Last night in the tub, Hunter started sticking his tongue out at me and giggling. So I did the same. Then I started counting to three and yelling "TONGUE!!!" and sticking my tongue out. Pretty soon the boys caught on and we were all sticking our tongues out. Then Wilder leaned over and touched his tongue to Hunter's. Mutual freakout occured as Wilder started scrubbing his tongue with the washcloth and Hunter kicked his feet, screamed and shook his head violently. Then they proceeded to do it over and over, each time having their "ooooh gross!" reactions for another five minutes or so before I announced that it was probably good to stop as tongueing your brother in the tub as looked upon by society as fairly inappropriate. Still, while it lasted, we all had a good time cracking up.

On to pee pee. As you all are well aware, I had a hard time training Wilder to use the potty. He's now fully potty-trained and even staying dry through most nights and naps. Very, very proud of him as once he got it, he just got it and is doing fantastically. So it's of no small amount of import that Hunter is learning even the beginning steps of pottying somewhere other than his diaper. A couple of times, upon getting out of the pool, I've let Hunter stand naked next to his brother while Wilder pees in the grass, and lo and behold Hunter will pee too. The way we all cheer and freak out, you'd think world peace had just been attained. This morning, I'd pulled H out of his crib and had him on the changing table, putting a diaper on. He violently shook his head and hollered "PEE PEE!" at me. "Outside?" I asked. Emphatic nodding. So we took him outside and ... whadaya know? The kid peed in the grass, then climbed back up the steps and trounced into the house.

Woot. :-)

All right, I need to get some stuff done before the natives wake back up. Enjoy the photos.

Starting the day off right

Last night, we spent the night at one of our favorite Dallas haunts, the Belmont Hotel. They were having a Fourth of July special on rooms, and the price included admission to a pool party, blues band and a great view of the fireworks around the city.

Anyway, all that only goes toward explaining that we spent the night in a strange place. We had two connecting rooms, and Wilder had one big bed to himself, and Hunter slept in a portable crib next to the bed in Jerry and I's room. We were lucky that, for the most part, he slept through the night. But when he awoke this morning, he was clearly a little upset about the strange surroundings, crying out, and so we pulled him into bed between us.

He laid there for a moment, getting his bearings, and then rolled over and climbed up on top of Jerry's chest, sleeping stomach-down on his Papa, both arms wrapped around Jerry as far as he could reach. My first thought was to smile and simply appreciate how much my boys love their Papa. My second, of course, was a little twinge of jealousy that he had not snuggled up to me. I can't help it, just a little — both boys have gone through their "only Papa will do" stages, though they feel that way about me sometimes, too. Anyway, since I was feeling a little envy, I closed my eyes and remembered all the times during Hunter's first eight months of life — when I was nursing — and we slept snuggled next to each other during most nights. I'd wake up almost every morning to his smell and his breath on my cheek or arm or chest. He'd snuggle up close as he could possibly get.

As I was remembering this, I suddenly felt a small hand patting my arm. I opened my eyes and there was Hunter, looking at me with a wistful grin, as if he was remembering the exact same thing, and wanted to assure me I was still part of his early-morning world of love. He then rolled off Jerry and snuggled up to me.

For the next 30 minutes or so, he continued to go back and forth between us. At some point it became more of a wrestling session than a snugglefest, so we turned on the lights and began stirring around. Peeked in on Wilder and he was sitting up in bed, sleepy-eyed. He looked at me, said: "Mama, I took a LONG nap in this new big bed," and rolled out of it and into our room.

This is how we started July 5th. It was pretty great.

Hope everyone had a great Independence Day. We did. I posted some pictures here.