Elellem ellems

I have been hesitating to write, because we seem to have broken a record. My son, yes, my son, has pooped on the potty, at least once a day for the last 5 days. 5 DAYS!
It's a record. My Mom used to say, "Once is a mistake, twice is a habit." And while we've gone 2 consecutive days a couple times, 5 is absolutely unheard of. Now, granted, it seems to be occurring as we ready for naps or bed, so perhaps calling out Poo Poo Potty is just a delay tactic, goodness knows he can really extend the conversation about whether or not he is actually Done. But I don't care, at least I don't right this very minute, it's a great one, a great habit I wouldn't mind getting into.
To reward him, he gets a packet of M&M mini's, and Saturday night, while Daddy was doing the rewarding, the boys began to count. See? There's a huge perk in bribery in the form of multi-colored candies; not only do we get to practice our colors, what color is this one, or that one you just ate, but how many blue ones do you have, etc. Well, this weekend, as the boys are sitting at the kitchen table, it's 9 o'clock at night, because Chris opted to declare he wanted to Poo Poo Potty as Daddy was getting him ready for bath, and the length of time involved with him actually pottying, and the time it takes to eat a million mini M&Ms made for 9 o'clock.
Chris starts counting, and Daddy and I join him, 1, 2,3, all the way up to 7. Then Daddy and I called out, "7! 7 Orange M&Ms-AH AH AH!" in our most The Count (I think his name is Count Von Count) voice we can do. What cracked us up, is our Count imitations were totally unplanned. Amidst our hysterical laughter that followed, we hear, "7 Orch Ellems, Ha Ha Ha Ha!" We had to laugh harder.
During the same episode of counting amidst the reward of Mini M&Ms, Chris hit a record while counting with Daddy. Daddy would get him started, ok let's count, this one...Chris would say 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Eleven!?! Yes, he said Eleven! Though his pronunciation has it sounding more like "Elellem". So, then we had him say Eleven M&Ms just for kicks, and he totally said it, "Elellem ellems." Oh did we laugh. Yesterday, we pushed him to count 12 M&Ms, and he got to 12, and yelled out 14! Though he could have been saying 13, if you think about it 13 and 14 sound similar when coming from a toddler, and he may have been just skipping 12, either way it's pretty cute.



For Valentine's Day, we all hung out as a family, which was pretty nice, spending the holiday with our Loved Ones. Chris received gifts as well as Gave them. He gave Daddy a running shirt and homemade card, and Mommy a lovely pair of heart earrings. We had supper together with Grandma and Grandpa at East 96th Street Steakburgers, and Chris ate his weight in French Fries. Later, we opened his decorated Box of Valentine's from his Preschool, each one at a time, and it was so neat, and a Cars puzzle from us, and some new shoes. He loved the Giant Cars Puzzle and wanted to do it right away. He wanted to eat the candy, I'm pretty sure he only french fries and chocolate were his only solid foods all day long.



On the other hand, he's been driving me batty today. However, I've had to scream at him all day! It's like he can't hear me. He's got a runny nose today, and he's talking like he's congested. I think maybe he has a head full of snot. Which either his hearing is getting worse, or his head is so full of snot he can't hear me, or maybe he's just being a snot, and he's choosing not to hear me. I thought this was going to be a toned down weekend, we hadn't watched any TV all week, and Saturday mornings were made for cartoons, but he didn't want to drink his milk, and I told him he couldn't watch TV until he did. We watched no TV. He wore Mommy out. A similar thing happened today. Chris was off from Preschool for the President's Day, and he declared he wanted to Stay Jammies all day. I was willing to oblige, though I needed to get cleaned up, and though I can let him run through the house while I do so, it's much easier with peace of mind if I can park him in front of the TV to do so. But again, he didn't want to drink. Finally, I sort of bribed him into drinking, I told him he had to drink half of his 'cocoa' for TV, and then while we were reading a story, Go Dog Go, for the 40th time this weekend, every time I turned a page (like one of those old bell things on the records) I'd say DRINK. And he would sip. He drank half the can by the time the story was done. But I keep having to Yell. Lunch was a huge fight because he told me he wanted Fruit, and then when I asked if he wanted apple, banana, or strawberries, I got told NO to all of them, he wanted fruit. After 15 minutes, and a good bit of screaming on my part, he finally settled on apple. It was rough.
At least I can find Joy in him going on the potty, or playing puzzles, or tucking me in. While we were playing in his room this morning, it became clear I needed to lay down, so I did, on his mattress, this opened him up to his new favorite game that he's been playing with us the last week or so. Bedtime. We'll lay down on his bed, he'll make sure we have a Stuffy, and are under Blankets "bain-tet", and he'll turn off the lights, turn on the aquarium, because clearly we need "sisit" (music) to sleep. My favorite is now he's turning on the humidifier for us. He'll read us a story too sometimes, if we're lucky. He read Horton Hears a Who! to Daddy yesterday, and it went "Horton...saba saba...Whos...We are Here...sabeseesawsabasaba....Me Too...The End."