Logic and Potty Training

So I'm going to jump from one end of our life cycle to the opposite; from losing logic and faculty, to gaining and learning everything.   I'm going to talk about our son today.  Potty training is one of those activities that, as a parent, I have absolutely dreaded and still take no joy in.  I'm not gonna lie, even from the outset, potty training sucked.  There was nothing I liked about it at all.   Give me a temper tantrum with objects being thrown and feet being kicked and I will gladly jump right in and deal with that over training any child to potty, let alone our son.  Despite all that I am saying, I do love our son very much, however, potty training I can do without.  But, lest I jinx myself now by saying this, the days of potty training our son are nearing the end.  (Yes, we still have our daughter to deal with, but at least we get a little reprieve.)  The last time our son had an accident was weeks ago.  Every so often he will still have an accident, but his muscle control has grown leaps and bounds and the periodic accident I can handle.   Whenever he announces to the household that he has to go poop now, I want to jump for joy, run in circles shouting at the top of my lungs in celebration, and break out the party music.  I don't do any of that despite a burning desire to do so, I just usher him inside quickly and tell him how proud I am of him.   It is even getting humorous at times.  Yesterday, we were outside starting up the charcoal for dinner when he announced that he had to poop.  He ran inside, grabbed his mommy, and had her help him out on the potty.  The poop went well.  On his way back outside, according to my wife, he stopped at the door, turned to announce, "I have to poop some more", and started running back to the potty.  Before he was even out of the room, he stopped, turned, and said "uh uh, Mommy, there's no more poop, I just had a little gas".  That was it, but hearing it from a child is hilarious.  Everything must be announced and broadcast to the household.  I absolutely love the up front honesty of a child.  It puts a smile on my face and makes me laugh more often than not.  

Going along with mastering his potty training, our son is now gaining a new tool in his arsenal of manipulation.  Logic, or at least the early stages of logic.  Yesterday, the same day where he mistook gas for poop, we were unloading the car from the grocery store.  After asking him to grab the cheese, he instead headed to the front of the car.   Curious as to what he was doing, I follow him and see him standing in front of the car, pants and underwear dropped, peeing on the driveway.  Of course, my first question is, "What are you doing?"  "I had to pee".   "Yes, but if we have to pee outside, we pee behind the shed, right?"  "Yes, but I was staying close to you Daddy."  At that point, I stopped and thought to myself about our son, "Your good you."  Seeing as we try to get our son to stay close when we are at a store, he employed that in his desire to pee on our driveway.  So amending my earlier statement, I proceeded to tell him that I appreciate what he did, but next time he can just tell me and I will accompany him to the shed so he can pee back there instead.  You see, I an effort to speed along the potty training, I taught him how to pee outside so he didn't have to run inside all the time.  Sounded brilliant at the time, but now he pees wherever he wants outside, including the occasional time at daycare.  Yes, we get chided for that, however I would much rather have him pee outside than have to clean him up and change him after he peed in his pants.  Now it is just a matter of teaching him peeing etiquette.   As for the logic, it just means we need to tread ever more carefully in what we tell him and say to him as he will not begin attempting to use our words against us.  He is a joy, regardless, and between him and our daughter, I couldn't be happier.  I just hope our daughter is easier to potty train than he was.  We are not completely in the clear yet with him, but the end is in sight and what a beautiful end it will be.  

Off topic briefly, yesterday morning my son and I decided that we needed to cut our hair, so yesterday afternoon while his sister was going to bed, we broke out the clippers, and began cutting.  I cut his hair first, nice and short for the summer.  He sat still through the whole process and periodically ran to check his hair in the mirror.  When I was all set with his hair, he said, "Alright Daddy, my turn to cut your hair."  What could I say?  I handed him the clippers, and he went to town.  I proceeded to check my hair in the mirror periodically, and overall, he did a pretty good job.  There were a few tufts that he missed here and there, but he insisted that we were done and he put the clippers away.  I didn't argue at that point, I just finished cleaning up my hair after he went to bed.  Its funny how life works.  I was talking to gentleman a few weeks ago about kids and he was saying that as kids grow older, it just gets better.  I would have to agree at this point.  Every time I think we have reached a point where I enjoy our kids as much as possible, they get a little bit older and I enjoy them even more.  Can't wait to see what's next with my two little ones.