Over the past few months, I have been focusing on helping Jack to clean up his messes.  There are things that started to bother me to pick up all day long; things like the kitchen chairs he dumps on the floor, sometimes to make a fort and sometimes because he is bored.  Also, his blankets and pillow are needlessly thrown to the floor all day long.  I don't like to correct him every second of the day about his messes.   So what I started doing before we leave to go anywhere, or go to another room to play, is I tell him he has to pick up the three most bothersome things he threw on the floor.   He complains and I tell him that I won't play with him until he picks it up.  With time he is getting quicker to pick up and slower to throw those things on the floor in the first place.

"Jack, you need to pick up the chair before I can play with you."

"Mom do it," he commands.  It was funny when he was two years old, not so much now.

Soon it became, "Mom, help me!"  he'd whine.  It worked the first few times.  He was not used to cleaning up after himself so I helped him.

Then I started to say that this time I wouldn't help because he is big enough and old enough now.  

Last week, he somehow he came up with an idea he learned on the show 'Wonderpets'.    

"Jack," I said, "your popcorn spilled all over the floor.  You need to pick it up before I can play with you now."

Very dryly and maturely he said, "TEAM-YOOK, Mom."    I couldn't shoot down that suggestion!  Now he has me!  I can't say teamwork is a bad thing!  Teamwork is a great thing!  So we sang, "What's going to work? Teamwork!"  and we picked up the popcorn together.

Big Changes

Jack found this "I'm a big kid now" crown in a pull-ups potty training kit that I never used.  He loved it and wore it all week!  It melted my heart even as I turned his world upside down.

                                                                My Little Man

     When Grandma and Grandpa couldn't get ahold of us on the friday night of the U of U bowl game, they took Jack to the ER for stomach pain.  A successful and productive enema cured his pain and then he felt fine.  Being a nurse, I was embarrassed that we wound up in the ER for that!  Oh brother!  I decided to make BIG changes as well as the dreaded diet changes.  

   

     The next morning on Saturday, Jack woke up and  "Uh-oh! I have bad news.  There are no more bottles.  They went to a new baby who needed them."  Jack cried for a few minutes and sulked for ten.  He had already quit taking naps since Christmas and at bedtime he is so tired he doesn't miss the bottle at all.  I feel so lucky that he napped everyday until he was almost four years old!

  

     On Sunday morning, Jack went to the Sunbeams class for the first time and did really well. 

     

     On Monday morning, we woke up to find that... "Oh no!  We are out of diapers!"  We ran around the house looking for one in the places we normally keep them.  "Oh no!  What will you wear on your bottom?" (I had conveniently already removed and thrown out his nighttime diaper)  He opened his drawer and pulled out a pair of underwear that had been in there for a year and which he had politely declined to wear over the past year.  "This?"  "Oh what a great idea!  You can wear your underwear!"  "No!"  "That is too bad.  We won't be able to go anywhere today."  "Ok."     I had about ten clean pairs of underwear, shorts and jammies and pants to wear around the house.  And a supply bag for road trips.  I was going to have the patience of Job about cleaning up his messes, but luckliy I didn't need it.  He had about one accident a day for a few days and that was it!  He is potty trained!  A pull-up magically appears at bedtime and is his 'nighttime diaper'.  He likes being potty trained enough that I don't think he would go back to pull-ups even if he did have the choice.

    

     He still takes a  'quiet time'  every day for my sanity.  He doesn't sleep, but he stays in his room for a half an hour.  To make it easier for him to get out of his crib to go potty, I took the front off of his crib.  It is now a big boy bed.  That was the hardest thing for him to adjust to.  I had to tell him a story about Dora being afraid of falling out of her big girl bed so her mom put a bedroll there so she won't fall out.  I put a bed roll there for Jack and he is ok with his big boy bed now.

So in one week: 

1.  we got rid of the bottle for good, 

2.  went to Sunbeams for the first time, 

3.  stopped wearing pull-ups in the daytime and 

4.  got a big boy bed!!!!! 

 And we have survived so far!!!  (With a lot of extra cuddling, giving in on ALL other power struggles and a ton of patience for his extra crying and screaming!)  In two weeks we are almost back to normal.  It was a bold move, but I figured it would be easier to change it all at once instead of dragging it out all year.     I am so pleased with how well he has done!!  My baby is growing up!  Boo hoo!!  He is almost four years old!