Underwear, Angry Birds, Creature Power and Mario?

My boys are growing up. And I'm noticing it in many ways. Aiden's is the most noticeable as he is in the middle of potty training. Like Ian, Aiden just decided it was time to use the potty.

 It started small. Him telling us on occasion that he needed to pee or poop. As I stated in my Boyne post, our trip back lasted much longer due to his telling us he needed to pee. Yesterday, after telling me he wanted to pee I asked if he wanted a diaper or underwear. He chose underwear. He wore a diaper for nap and one again after wetting his underwear while playing outside, and of course at night. But this morning when he woke up he again chose underwear.

More often than not he is wetting his underwear. But he trying to let me know when he needs to potty. And we always race to the potty to try. I figure it took Ian three solid days of being wet before I saw improvement and he was 3 months older than Aiden is currently. Cai took a solid week of no success before we even got him to use the potty once. And he was almost three. I think Aiden is doing well. And while there are moments I wish I could have planned this into my schedule, it is nice to see him making his own decisions on the matter.

 My toddler is quickly growing up.

The other boys are getting older as well. And I see this manifest itself mostly in their play. Both are more imaginative. Ian, especially, has gotten more aggressive. Which to be honest is very, very frustrating. Ian comes home with games about Mario and Bowser and I wonder does he even understand what it is he is playing? Sure Mark has let the boys play MarioCart and the original MarioBrothers on our mediaPC (a computer Mark creative for our TV), but he didn't start this game until months after said games were played. The joys of peer influence.

Of course, while some of his games are too aggressive for my taste and we have to sit down and talk about what is appropriate behavior and what's not, other games just make me smile. A favorite PBS kids show for Ian is Wild Kratts. Often for days after watching this show Ian and Cai will run around the house with "creature power." They have been hawks, shark, bears, and many other animals. No longer are my boys satisfied with pretending to be cats, dogs, dinosaurs or lions. No they are polar bears, great white sharks, and other animals I forget they even know about till I remember "oh yeah, they saw that on Wild Kratts."  The fact they even remember half of these animals illustrates how much they are growing up.  And while they can become aggressive in their play with these "creature powers" it more often than not make me smile to see them incorporating what they learned into their play.

 Yesterday a new game was added to their list: Angry Birds. Now Ian loves playing this on Mark's phone when he gets a chance. Mark doesn't allow them to play on his phone often, but when he does Ian tends to either play Angry Birds or some racing game. Cai likes Super Why game. Yesterday the boys set up balls on our couch. These balls were the pigs. And the boys then pretended to be the birds and would run and jump onto the couch and balls. I'm still not sure how I feel about this game. I do know that I'm grateful that they were not running and jumping on each other. And really they were kinda cute all running towards the couch together.

 My boys are growing up fast. And while I don't like everything this brings, it sure is fun to watch their transformations.

My toddler is wearing underwear!!!!!!

And has been since Sunday. This last Sunday when I was trying to put on Ian's diaper as we dressed for church I got a terrible fight. He squirmed and kicked to the point I was ready to wring a neck. So finally I said, "Fine, you don't have to wear a diaper. But you'll need to put on underwear." He quickly agreed. And that night did not like getting into a nighttime diaper. So every day since we have allowed him to wear underwear during the day. The first two or three days was a struggle. While Ian did not want to wear a diaper, he also did not want to use the potty. So he would wet his pants and flip because he was wet. While I have some cloth training underwear that has extra padding to absorb more, he does not like these as much as the fun Elmo underwear we also have for him. Which really is ok with me. Sure I had to do laundry just about every day but now he's staying dry and using the potty. Wednesday things started to turn better. When he was busy he didn't always want to use the potty or sometimes would not make it there on time. But he did start letting me know he needed to use it, rather than waiting for me to ask him. The big success was Thursday. The day started out great. He got me up in the morning to tell me he needed to use the potty. I helped him out of his pjs and he sat down on his little potty. He then told me I should go back to the room to nurse Cai. (I had just been nursing him) Afterwards he comes running back in my bedroom beaming. H was so proud of himself. In fact, the whole day went well. We only had one accident the whole day!!!!! Today has been accident free thus far. It's exciting. By the end of the day yesterday he was basically going potty all by himself. Pulling down his own underwear and pulling them back up when he's done. Of course, sometimes he doesn't want to pull them up and goes walking around the house with them around his ankles. Cute but sorta dangerous. I'm always afraid his going to trip and fall. My biggest problem is he is so skinny that many of his pants don't fit very well now. No bulky diaper to keep them up. Plus we went and bought another package of underwear for him yesterday. He picked out Car's the movie theme. And they are too big. They sag so much :D So now it's just moving to night time training. He seems to be staying dry. It's just a matter of putting him in underwear at night and dealing with it. In fact early this morning he woke us up because he needed to use the potty and didn't want to wet his diaper. So that alone says it might not be that bad of a transition. Of course I'm preparing for many accidents and wet sheets. The sad part of this is now all his cute footed one piece pjs won't work because of the hassle to get off. :( Oh well. This is worth it!!!