Friday, March 6, 2009

lessons learned

This was going to be about poo and pee, maybe it still will be. Ultimately the lesson learned was toddlers shouldn't run through the apartment naked. But first tonight lesson, Zachary was being a little flingy and cracking himself up at every opportunity. Walking back and forth between sarah and I carrying a glass of water was funny, shaking it wildly in the middle of the room was hilarious. Then came side shuffles and spinning, getting closer and closer to the corner of the hard black tabletop, the bane of Z's toddling, and many head bumps. So in one voice Sarah and I say " be careful, watch your head". And Zachary stops looks at the table just inches from his noggin and slowly learns forward to touch his forehead against the edge. Then he looks up, and burst out giggling.

Ok, so Sarah has been a little busy this week prepping the spectrograph for departure to CA this morning. So Zachary has had me for dinner, bath and bedtime. Single parents, how do they do it! After dinner, I run the bath and let him run around getting a little air time. Earlier in the week this resulted in a pee hat trick. The first time was funny, the second time was annoying, and the third time was just ridiculous. once on the wood floor, once on the rug and then again on the floor, but by the cat boxes so I feel like he got the idea.

as told to sarah, to correct for fatigue:
We ordered a few shirts etc. from Old Navy, because Mr. Collins the younger has been growing. The box came, and was a nice skinny rectangular box. Zachary decided obviously he needed to carry it to the living room. Besides, the box from the day before was *also* for him, ergo boxes are always for him, and the living room is where playing happens. Fine. But actually it is quite an awkwardish box. And so he had it on its edge and realized he could push it. Mark pushed back to offer resistance so Z could slide it to the living room, but it wasn't meant to be. The box tipped over and Zachary fell over on top of it. As he landed on the box, he burst into tears. Which is weird, for him, because he's getting pretty good at tipping over, and usually barely notices. It was the end of a long day, he was a little fussy, but it was baffling. And then he started doing weird backward downward facing dog shuffle. And then he stood up, looked at his hand, and screamed. Because he had poo on his hand. Which he had used to try to wipe the poo off his foot. Which he had stepped in after having a poo-incident when he fell over on the box. The poor dear was poo-traumatized. And did a whole dislodge the poo dance before Mark rescued him.
Mark did indeed quickly rescue him with hardly any panic, laughing, or frustration (all of which would have been perfectly reasonable responses). Nope. Just scooped him to the bath for a quick contain and clean. Besides the fact that it was hysterically funny when told to me late last night, its also interesting that Z KNEW it was gross. It was gross, it shouldn't be on his feet, it most CERTAINLY shouldn't be on his hand. Which is different, because in the past when he threw his foot in poo during a diaper change or whatever he's been indifferent. But now? Now he *knows* things.
Pretty cool. Even if our house apparently needs to be bleached. Oh wait, or diapers just need to be used.
Let me tell you, it makes a girl feel confident about leaving for two weeks ;) Oh, i know, they'll have fun without me. As long as y'all send them diapers. Or a mop.

2 comments:

Debbie said...

classy.

Yaniv said...

Naked time is a great way to introduce potty training at this age, because he'll get plenty of opportunities to see what comes out of his butt, and draw the necessary connections.

Roll up the carpets and let him at it!