William is a Hoot. He makes me laugh multiple times a day. The way he phrases things makes him sound older than he really is. Here are some of his common phrases:
"Actually, I'd rather. . ."
"NO! That's not supposed to be like that!"
"I don't understand what you're saying." (no doubt he has begun saying this one to us because he hears us say it to him all the time)
William is pretty solid on vocalizing vowel sounds and not so good with the consonants, but we can generally understand him pretty well. He speaks more clearly as the days go by.
William is in the middle of a major car phase. He goes to bed every night with about fifty million little cars (or so it seems). He takes the time to line them all up on the bed next to him, which is covered with a quilt that has a green grid pattern on it and is perfect for roads. Often I stand by the door while he is winding down for a nap and listen to the dialogue between his cars. "Helicopter, to the rescue!" Sometimes it can be quite elaborate.
"Do you want to go to primary with me?"
"No, I have to stay home."
"Do you wanna stay home with your Mommy?"
"Yes, I stay home with Mommy."
"Which way is primary?"
"This way, over there."
"Ok. See ya next time."
"Ok. Bye."
(and so on, for much longer than I'd expect for a two-year-old.)
Several times a day, William sweetly asks, "Do you want to play cars with me, Mommy?" I try to say yes as often as possible, even when I'm busy and can only play for two minutes, because I know he is just asking me to love him. So even though William expects that I will agree to play with him, he laughs and dances with excitement anyway. He gives me a car he has picked out ("ok, Mommy, you be this one!") and we go on an adventure together. William's cars all fly, and they all talk, and their favorite game is tag.
Some day William won't ask me to play with him anymore and I will feel a little sad.
William is going through a Daddy phase. When he hurts himself or feels disappointed, Joel is the one he asks for. William waits with great anticipation for Joel to walk through the door after work, and he especially loves when we get to take Joel some lunch during the day. More times than not, Joel is also the first one William asks for when he wakes from his nap.
And, as of last month, William is potty trained! I know, I know, I'm a little crazy. He was just barely two-and-a-half when I started with him. Even though my other kids were about that age when they were potty trained, I didn't expect William to grow up so fast. But I knew that he had the ability to control his bodily functions, and I knew that this coupled with his natural gift of obedience and compliance, we would have a pretty easy time.
Fortunately, I was right (mostly). William, for whatever reason, was scared of the toilet. Neither of my other kids were, even though I trained them at the same age. William watched Everett and Ashley use the toilet with no bad consequences many times but that didn't sway him. He was genuinely frightened.
Since I didn't want something like that to stop him, I did what I swore I'd never do: I bought a little potty chair. Fortunately Walmart has a cheap-o one that turns into a stool.
William helped me pick out some Thomas the Train underwear and we were set. I set up the potty, asked Ashley to demonstrate (which she did with pride) and let William see that she earned a marshmallow.
He sat right down and used the potty succesfully a few times (yes, #1 and #2), stayed dry, and I cheered within myself. This is going to be so easy! I thought.
I was wrong, sort of. William is extremely sensitive. I was as careful as I possibly could have been to not pressure him and to never let irritation creep into my voice, but somehow he decided that the whole potty thing was too much pressure, and he clammed up. The second day was awful. I played game after game with him. I read books. I sang songs. I fed him fluids. We watched movies. But he didn't go to the bathroom for EIGHT HOURS. Not in a diaper, not in his underpants, and not in the potty. He didn't cry, he didn't whine, he didn't get mad; he just sucked his thumb and refused to talk about it.
I felt terrible for his poor little bladder, and I almost gave up several times (he is too young! I'm scarring him for life! Are my expectations too high?) but I knew he could do it. I let him play in a bowl of warm water. I tickled him. I tickled him some more. We watched more shows. I got absolutely no housework done and I think we had eggs for dinner. Finally, I tried a bowl of warm water again, and he relaxed and smiled proudly as it all came out.
After that hurdle, we haven't had any trouble. He went right from wearing diapers all the time to wearing his favorite underwear all the time and stayed dry during naps and overnight with no trouble.
BUT, there was one last issue. William was still scared of any life-size toilet. This was a problem. I didn't consider him fully trained if we couldn't even leave the house! So I took him to the store, let him pick out a pack of hotwheels cars, and told him that if he used the big toilet he could choose his very own new car from that pack. He took a breath and climbed right on. That was all it took. He quickly used up his supply of cars and I was worried that he'd feel he needed more, but he never even asked.
After one week he hit that magical sweet-spot where he asked to go when he needed to go without waiting until the last minute, and I didn't have to remind him all the time anymore.
The main drawback to potty training a two-and-a-half year old is that he is too short to reach very well when he is standing up (I had the same issue with Everett at that age), so I have to lift him whenever he needs to use the bathroom. But that is a small price to pay. He is awfully proud of wearing underpants just like Everett and Ashley, and he is proud of what he can do in the toilet. He even comes in sometimes while I'm using the bathroom. "Good job, Mommy!" He'll say as he hands me a piece of toilet paper.
Overall, it was a success. If I could do it all over again, I'm not sure I would do anything differently, seeing how well he really got it down.
That's my William. He is doing great and I am really enjoying him right now, and even though he has observed Everett and Ashley's angry habits and taken to yelling when he is mad, he is genuinely sweet and easy to please.
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