Running, Running, Running

No one ever told me that to be a parent of a potty training toddler that being a sprinter and cross country runner was a pre-requisite. Man oh man have I had my share of running these past couple of days. Landon and I have been out and about a lot this past week. I think he is almost potty trained. I'm saying "almost" because I don't want to jinx myself! He's gone all week without a single accident (besides bed time). The other day we were out shopping with my mom. First we went to look at plants. It was just a tent set up to sell plants. Landon informed me that he had to pee. I looked around and thought "oh crap". There were no bathrooms to be found. I had to run him across the parking lot to the restaurant. The whole time I'm running him across I'm telling him to try to hold it. He did just that and we made it on time, but boy was I worn out after that run. The next stop was to the mall. We were in a store that was connected to the mall, but not part of the actual mall. Of course they had no bathroom for us to use. I had to run Landon from that store to the center of the mall where the food court was. Luckily, we made it once again. Just an hour later Landon and I were in Target when he had to pee again. Of course we were in the back of the store in the toy aisle. I put Landon in the cart and once again sprinted through the store to get him to the bathroom on time. The whole time we are running Landon is yelling "hurry, hurry. Go quickly. Boy pee!" That was a lot of running for one day! Then today we were at Home Depot in the garden center once again looking at plants. Landon said that he had to pee again. We had to run into the store and find the bathroom. We round the corner where the bathroom is and Landon informs me that "boy can't hold it". I kept telling him to try to hold it for just another second. We reach the bathroom and Landon says "phewie" and wipes his hand across his forehead! I think there is a whole lot more running in my future. If only stores were designed by a mom. There would be a lot more bathrooms. Preferably one in the front and one in the back of every store. Now that Landon is potty trained we have to work on him telling me sooner when he has to go. Then we can slow down to a jog instead of a sprint!

Leaps and Bounds

So it's been a while. My computer crashed so I've been without a computer for several weeks. It is still not fixed, but I am using my mother's computer to post a quick update. It will probably be another week before I can get back to regular updates. I will then continue the 30 day post challenge as well.

Landon is doing well. He has made leaps and bounds with his vocabulary. Quiet moments are few and far in between these days. He even talks in his sleep! Landon has even started referring to himself as "Landon" every now and then rather than "boy". He's also speaking in five word sentences. My baby is turning into a boy right before my eyes and I'm not ready for it one bit. I can't believe that he will be THREE in just over two months. Shortly the toddler years will be a past memory. I never imagined Landon growing up would be so hard on me. I truly love the age that he is at now. Although I say that at every stage. I loved the newborn stage, I loved the early toddler stage, and now I absolutely love the late toddler years. I have another year before I have to consider Landon a boy rather than a toddler. I'm sure I'll love his childhood years just as much as the toddler years. I just wasn't expecting it all to happen so fast.

I took Landon to the park the other day to enjoy our amazing weather. He was going down the slide and the little girl that he was playing with was standing at the bottom of the slide. Landon said to her, "look out girl, Landon coming." I had a permanent smile on my face the rest of the afternoon. Just a few months ago Landon was only saying a handful of words. Now he's saying a handful of sentences. I'm also starting to work with Landon on his letters and numbers. I'll have some craft projects to post once I get my computer back. 

As for a potty training update, there is no update. Things are still the same. The other day he stayed dry all day long while wearing his big boy underwear, but the past two days he has been going in his underwear without even telling me. Potty training is one step forward and two steps back at times. I guess Landon will get there when he is good an ready- a lot like his talking.

Parenting Misconceptions

Potty training is giving me a few more gray hairs and wrinkles. I thought I'd be the type of mom whose child was potty trained in one weekends time. And most definitely by the age of 18 months. I just have to laugh at myself. What was I thinking when I set that goal? Clearly I wasn't thinking how long and difficult the process can be. Landon has had his potty seat since he was 15 months old. Even at the age he was able to tell me each and every time he went to the bathroom by pointing at his diaper. I, of course, thought my baby was a complete genius and would be potty trained in no time. Seventeen months later and Landon is still not potty trained. As quickly as his signs of readiness came they disappeared. He lost all interest in the potty seat and I didn't want to push it so we put it away for quite some time. Just recently Landon has started taking interest in his potty seat again. He does marvelously when he is without any bottoms on. Landon doesn't have a single accident when he is running around and playing naked. He makes his potty seat every single time. The trouble comes when he has a diaper on or any bottoms for that matter. He won't tell me that he has to go until after the fact. It is driving me nuts. I can't have him running around naked outside of the house. I have tried pull ups (which are just a glorified diaper in my opinion) and even toddler underwear. He will pee right through the underwear and then tell me that he has to pee. It seems like his bottoms are providing him with a safety net. He knows that he doesn't have to go to the potty seat because he has a safety net in his diaper or underwear. Why should he stop playing to pee when he can play and pee at the same time?!  Wouldn't we all do that if we could? Imagine what we could accomplish if no bathroom breaks had to be had during the day! Hopefully soon Landon will catch on that he has to go to his potty seat even when he has clothing on. Until then I will just have a toddler running around sans bottoms. 

Before I had a toddler I also always thought badly about the mothers who allow their children play hand held video games in the stores or at restaurants. I couldn't imagine why they would allow such behavior to occur. I also wondered why they made their children so dependent on video games. I mean, couldn't they put them down for a few minutes? Why did they have to carry them with them everywhere? I'll tell you the reason. It's not because the children were addicted to them, it is because it kept the children quiet enough for the stressed out mom to have a few peaceful moments of shopping. She didn't have to hear all of the "I wants" and "I needs" or "Mommy please" coming out of their mouths. This revelation only just occurred to me the other day. I had some errands to run and didn't feel like taking all day in the store. Taking a child into the store always makes the trip three times longer. You can't just run in and out with a child in tow. When I went to get Landon out of the car the other day he was throwing a fit because his movie was going to be turned off. I knew a meltdown was going to occur in the store just because of how mad he was going in. I decided to take Landon and his portable DVD player and place both of them into the cart. That's right. I become one of those moms. The kind that I thought unkindly thoughts towards just a few weeks earlier. I pushed Landon around in the cart while he watched Oliver and Company. It was one of the most peaceful shopping experiences I have had since Landon has reached toddler age. Not one peep from him the entire time. There were no requests for toys. No requests for skittles or juice. No outburst over having to leave the toy department. It was heavenly. I was in complete shopping bliss. I apologize to all of you moms out there that I have thought unkindly thoughts towards. You were only doing those things so that you could make your day a little easier. It had very little to do with the fact that your children were addicted to the games. It was probably more because you just wanted to get in and out without the fuss. I applaud you for using modern technology to ease your already stressful, frazzled day. This mommy has joined your forces. Anyone that has a problem with me using modern technology to make my shopping with Landon a bit easier at times, then by all means take him shopping with you the next time. I'm sure you'll be singing a different tune. I definitely don't allow Landon to have his DVD player at all times. Most of the time it is left home and doesn't even join us in the car. It's for an emergency basis most of the time. You know, the days where I was up all night with a cranky toddler and beyond tired. The days where I just don't have it in me to face a meltdown in a store. I don't always use the DVD method either. I almost always first try crayons. That usually always works. I keep a crayon roll in my purse along with small coloring books. I try to switch the books out often so that Landon always has new ones to color. Of course, when we are in Target I rely solely on the $1.34 icee. It works like a charm every time!   

I have definitely learned over the past 2 1/2 years that mothering isn't always so black and white. There are no right or wrong ways to do things (for the most part). What works for one family may not work for another. I am no longer going to be the one to past judgement onto another mom for parenting in a different way. Who knows. Maybe I will eventually do things that way as well! Never say never has never been truer than when it pertains to child rearing.

Thankful for Health

Today I am thankful that nobody really reads this. That way I can skip a day of posting and nobody knows! I was feeling kind of sick yesterday and just didn't feel like posting anything. Today I am thankful that I am feeling better. There's no such thing as a paid sick day for me. Or even a stay in bed while someone else takes care of Landon day for me. I need to be in tip top shape at all times to chase after my Landon Love. If there are days where I am feeling less than perfect, then Landon somehow senses that. He takes it a little bit easier on me when I'm not feeling well and I am most definitely thankful for that.

I should give a quick Landon update. I took him to the doctor the other day for a check up and Landon now weighs 35 lbs! They didn't measure his height, but he's about 37 inches now. I'm not 100% sure on his height, but he sure is getting tall. He comes pass my belly button! He's also talking more and more these days...almost non stop. I need to get a video of him asking for more of something. It's the funniest thing. I think that may be my project for tomorrow morning. Potty training has been going rather well this weekend. That is, if Landon is bottomless. If he has a diaper on then he could care less about stopping whatever he's doing. He'll just pee in his diaper. I even tried putting underwear on him thinking that the pee going down his leg would be uncomfortable so he would have to get up and go to the bathroom. Nope. It didn't work. He just continued playing in the middle of his pee puddle. When he's butt naked there's not one single accident throughout the day. We stayed in all day Friday and he went on his potty seat 6 times. He's done it quite a number of times since too. As long as he can run around naked then potty training will be a breeze. Those darn diapers are what throws him off guard! He will pee in his diaper and then take it off. I don't know why he can't seem to stop himself beforehand like he does when he's diaper free. Hopefully after a few more days of staying inside diaper free we'll be seeing a potty trained Landon....a mom can dream right?!

Life According to Landon

Today has definitely not gone as planned. I have quickly learned that life no longer goes how I am wanting it to. Life is now going accordingly to Landon. I can no longer set out with mission plans for the day because no matter what it all comes down to what Landon wants to do. I woke up this morning on a mission to potty train Landon once and for all. I put him in a pair of big boy underwear thinking that once he was wet that he would let me know because he would be too uncomfortable to stay in a pair of wet underwear. Boy was I wrong. Landon was so caught up in playing by placing his Tigger and a stuffed dog on the potty seat that he could care less to tell me that he actually went to the bathroom. I never imagined potty training would be this hard and challenging. I thought it was going to be a piece of cake. Especially since Landon was able to tell me that he was about to go to the bathroom before he actually went at the age of 15 months. Just like he stopped talking around that time, he also stopped telling me that he had to go to the bathroom. Now he will go and when I ask if he's gone potty he will shake his head no. Even when I can smell otherwise. Landon may not be potty trained in a day's time, but he does look awfully cute running around in his new underwear. I bought him the Gerber training pants. They provide just enough padding to absorb some liquid, but not enough padding to keep him comfortable when he goes to the bathroom. Pull-ups have done nothing for him. He thinks they are just like a diaper since they absorb the liquid and he can't feel that he is wet. Hopefully by using the training pants more often he will be potty trained before his 2nd birthday. Here's to wishful thinking!

The other bummer of the day was the fact that Landon has not eaten a single thing all day. Yesterday Landon and I made a trip to Native Sun to pick up some dairy free butter and cheese. I also found dairy free french toast sticks for him as well. I made him the french toast sticks first thing this morning thinking that he would devour them because they smelled so good. I was wrong once again. He wouldn't even touch them. I then made his very first grilled "cheese" and had the camera ready to take pictures of his first bite, but he wouldn't touch it. Although I can't blame him there. I tried a piece of the so called cheese and it was disgusting. Once it hit my tongue I couldn't down a glass of water fast enough to get rid of the after taste. Landon wasn't in the room when I tried it so I thought he would at least give it a try, but no such luck. That was $20 wasted. Vegan butter and cheese is definitely not budget friendly. I wouldn't mind the sticker shock if Landon ate the food, but seeing him feed it to Tinkerbell made me think that I should have just flushed $20 down the toilet. I'm hoping to find a way to put the cheese and butter to good use. I am thinking about making him macaroni and cheese because so far he has never turned down a pasta dish.