A good day...Seriously.

Most (if not all) of my posts are sarcastic and express with not so subtle tones the frustrations of motherhood, namely raising a toddler-now-3-year old boy and a baby-now-toddler girl. Today, however, was one of the better ones.

The following positive things occurred since the day began this morning:

--Both children slept 30 minutes past their normal wake-up time. Score 1 for Mommy.

--Both children were relatively well-behaved at our play date (meaning Mommy was not mortified at their behavior at any point while playing in someone else's home).

--My son ate larger than normal helpings of meat and fresh fruit (a big deal since he believes in three basic food groups: Cheerios, NutriGrain bars, and.... Cheerios).

--My self-appointed vegetarian daughter ate the "special new rice" I concocted, in which I hid both eggs and tofu. (Haha! Gotcha!)

--My son willingly and without prompting stepped away from his toys / activities to go to the potty on several occasions, rather than do the "peepee dance" while playing and holding it until it is too late.

--After being given a warning that he had only 5 more minutes to play his LeapPad, he turned it off without needing a reminder, put it down and went to play with something else. (This one left me so shocked that I just stared at him, mouth agape, speechless.)

--Both kids are asleep. It is 7:30 p.m.

A good day.

Setting goals

Goal for today: have my 3-year old successfully wipe his own nose (getting ALL the boogers off his nose and face)

As of 11:40 a.m., goal not yet made

Actual accomplishment of day: successfully starting up Mommy's Kindle, finding Amazon page, and ordering himself a game for his LeapPad all without Mommy knowing (with boogers running down his face I am sure)

"I can do it all by myself, Mommy."

We have all heard this from the mouths of our little ones. This is a good thing -- they want to be independent, and if they really can start to do things on their own, life will get easier for Mommy, right?

Well, here are the translations for what this expression really means in our house these days:

"I can go pick out my socks all by myself" = son coming downstairs holding as many pairs of socks as he can (probably 10-15 pairs) and dropping them all over the stairs.

"I can wash my hands all by myself" = pumping the soap dispenser over and over, thus emptying it into the sink while simultaneously splashing water all over his shirt. This is followed by him whining that he needs a new shirt now because his is all wet.

"I can go potty all by myself" = becoming bored on potty and ripping up Daddy's Men's Health magazine into tiny bits and spreading them all over the bathroom floor. After child (and Mommy, of course) pick them all up and put them in a bag, Mommy tries to take the bag outside to the recycling bin. She is joyfully met with a great wind that lifts most of the magazine bits out of the bag and sends them flying all over the lawn.

"I can wipe my nose all by myself" = smearing boogers across his nose and both cheeks and leaving the dirty tissue on the play room floor for his sister to find.

Mommy is so proud.

Stuff 3-year olds say

When my husband told him he needed to rest because he was "under the weather", he looked up at the ceiling and said, "Is the weather on the ceiling? Because I am under it?"

When we told him we were going to take a vacation, he excitedly said "Let's go now!" We explained that we need to "plan it."
He replied, "Which planet are we going to? Mars? Or Jupiter?"

No love

I gave my son a questionnaire yesterday, asking him lots of simple questions like "What is your favorite color?" and "What is your favorite snack?" I logged his answers, put the date on it, and put it in his baby book.

There were many humorous answers such as:
         "What is your favorite thing to do with your grandparents?"
         "Eat a donut."

         "What is your favorite thing to wear?"
         "Shirts."

Through the cuteness, however, his true feelings about his sister also emerged. It has been 13 months, and he is still jealous and generally wishes she would not.... be here. This is evident in the following:

          "What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy?"
          "Go to the park."
          "What is your favorite thing to do with Mommy?"
          "Go to the park."
          "What is your favorite thing to do with [sister]?"
          "Nope."

Nap vs. Potty

I have recently come to realize that it is probably better for both mom and child if child is potty-trained prior to giving up nap. My 3-year old son has recently given up his nap, yet despite being on month 8 of potty-training (no, you did not read that wrong -- I did type MONTH 8), we are still not at the finish line.

As recommended by fellow mommy friends, I have instituted a daily "quiet time" policy during which he is expected to stay in his room for at least an hour and play quietly. Yesterday he emerged from his room about 9 times, each time proclaiming that "quiet time" was over. He also completely destroyed his room, pulling his sheet and blanket off of the bed as well as ripping pages out of two books. Today we had a talk about the rules of "quiet time" since this is a relatively new concept to him.

Rule #1: Do not make a mess.
Rule #2: Do not come out of your room unless you have to go potty. (Unless you REALLY have to go -- not like yesterday when you said you had to go but just sat on the potty swinging your legs with victory at tricking Mom)

One thing I do have going for me is that he is a book worm and really will sit and read for an hour if he is in the mood. Today was one such day. He stayed in his room for one solid hour. He did not emerge once or put up much of a fight about going upstairs for "quiet time." I was very proud of him and felt quite refreshed after having a one hour kid break (conveniently "quiet time" ALWAYS occurs when his sister is napping). I also heard no banging or questionable noises, which led me to believe he had not made a huge mess. I was right (sort of).

As I entered his room, excited to relieve him of his obligatory quiet hour and compliment him on his success, I did notice his room was relatively neat. A crayon had been peeled of its wrapper, leaving tiny paper bits all over the floor, and a generous pile of about 12 books was created in the middle of the room, but for a 3-year old boy alone for an hour, I was pleased. Beaming with pride, I began to approach my little big boy, arms outstretched, ready for hugs and kisses...

"I peed and pooped in my underpants."