Oh, Binky...

So, I let Rock cry for his ga for half an hour during nap time before I gave in and got it for him. Then he proceeded to have a lame, unrestful nap. Blah. I'm hoping tonight and tomorrow's nap go better than today's nap.

Bye, Bye Binky

I don't know why I thought giving up the binky ("ga") would be so easy. He didn't use it a lot when he was really little, and only started using it with real frequency when he was about 9 months old. But he is so attached to that little thing. I am excited to give it up. We've been only letting him have it during naps and bedtime, but he'll sneak it other times. Last night, we slept without it. It's been over 24 hours since he's had his binky, and, other than a few minutes last night where he woke up and missed it, he's done an excellent job. What a sweetie. We've been talking about it (I still don't really know how much he understands) and we got a book from the library about how much better life is once you are no longer dependent on your ga. I'm sure he'll keep doing a great job.

Potty Training (Part 1)

We first bought training pants and a potty chair and a potty seat over two months ago and I decided to tackle potty training. It's a huge deal. I got a wonderful potty chair that I think will be great and a potty seat that I'm hoping to use more than the potty chair. And we got a bunch of great Blueberry training pants (which cost almost as much as Rock's cloth diapers, so this is not a small expense). I got Rock a potty monkey (which I would do again in a heartbeat) and read every book I could get my hands on (most of them totally sucked--ESPECIALLY the one that came with his potty monkey). I felt like I was ready to start this huge endeavor. On October 6th, Rock went potty in his potty chair for the first time, and I was elated. Maybe it wouldn't take the 6-12 months promised by the early-start books. I didn't want to have to go through this for a whole year. That seems ridiculous. But, now, it seems like it will be taking that long. I am hoping for little breakthroughs on the way. The pediatrician says it's REALLY early to start potty training, but I have come to the conclusion that she doesn't understand anything I say or think, so I pretty much discount everything she says while I search for a new one. Rock is doing pretty well so far. He has good days and days he just doesn't want to sit on the potty. The first three days, he did really well. But then, as soon as I would have him sit on the potty, he would jump up and run to his changing table and say "diaper." I get it. It's a lot of pressure and he just wasn't ready. We still would take potty monkey to the potty whenever his alarm would go off (and potty monkey said, "I need to go potty. Let's go potty."). Sometimes. It's a huge effort. Some days, Rock wears the same training pants all morning or all afternoon (never both in one day, though). But we're still working on it. It's way less stressful than I thought it would be, though. We're just working at it and we get excited when Rock gets to wear underpants and we do the underpants dance and have a little treat. He has a BIG treat for when he stays clean and dry all day just waiting for him on the counter. It's a juice bottle. He is so excited about it (whenever he remembers it). He wants it so much. I can't wait for him to get it. I just hope he isn't disappointed. Otherwise, I'm going to have to give him something crazy like ice cream or real cake. Potty training is such an adventure.