Is that hail I see outside?

It’s been a while since I’ve updated. We’ve been busy with family visiting, work, and, um, well just life I suppose. It’s been a good busy though. Dylan is enjoying Spring Break this week. Unfortunately the weather is not very springy. He’ll be starting his second term at PCC on Tuesday, taking writing, math, yoga, and a cultural music class. Despite the fact that he has to be there by 7 am (!) he is looking forward to it.

Adrian is officially diaper-free now! He still wears a pull-up when he naps at other people’s houses, just in case, though he really doesn’t need it. He also still wears a diaper at night, though I can’t even remember the last time he woke up wet. I certainly see now why everyone told me about needing patience during toilet-learning! We’ll go for several days in a row of near perfection, then for almost a week of refusing to go anywhere near the toilet or potty chair. I’ve been working very hard on not being frustrated or upset with him and treating it as no big deal. I work on just asking him if he wants to go, and if he says no then I leave it at that. Other times I’ll just take him in the bathroom and start to undress him, and if he goes along with it great, if not we try again later. This is definitely something he has to do on his own terms, without me rushing him. Some recent highlights though include going potty in public bathrooms (Saturday Market, restaurants, OMSI), racing to the bathroom 4 times in one day to go poop in the toilet (though all four times it fell out on the floor first), and getting out from the middle of the bath last night to go potty in the toilet! I’m proud of the work that he’s doing 🙂

Today I took Adrian and Julian to OMSI to play. They always have a great time there and I pretty much get to relax and just observe. I usually end up seeing some absolutely absurd parenting that makes me angry, but today was just the opposite. Adrian was playing with a little boy half a year older than him. They had some shape-sorter toy that they were doing awesome sharing and working with together. The other boy’s dad was nearby assisting when needed. I didn’t realize until later, but never once did the dad say “good job!”, show them where to put the pieces, manipulate their playing, or intervene without necessity. After a while when the two boys started arguing over the toy the dad didn’t try to force them to share it or take turns, rather he enthusiastically asked his son if he wanted to go play in the sand instead, at which point the boy dropped the toy and went off. It is so nice to witness parents acting respectfully towards their children!