Curses to You Cailou!

I don't know if you have ever noticed this before, but Cailou's mother bakes. Alot. I do not bake a lot. Every time she bakes something, I KNOW I am going to be asked to bake the same thing. Today she made a cake. So all morning long, Aid asked me to make him a cake like Cailou's mom. Normally I would not just cave to PBS mom pressure, but since I was headed to the store I decided to indulge Aid.

I got a low fat brownie mix and blue icing. Aid had somehow managed to talk me into it being a dinosaur cake. You are shocked, I can tell. He helped me make the cake and him and Grant split the mixer pieces. This is a tradition Grant is all for.

I really thought this was going to earn me the cool mom of the year award. It did not. Because I made a Brontosaurus instead of his favorite, the T-Rex. Which I actually contemplated, but is much harder to draw. He looked at it, and initially exclaimed, "You made a blue dino cake just for me??!" Then he stared at it a bit longer and stuck out his bottom lip. "You should practice drawing a T-Rex so you can make it next time."

"I'm pretty sure that is not what Cailou said to him mommy!!" Why do I even try?



(And no, it is not burnt. Thanks mom for the pan!)

G-Dog

Grant is an all or nothing kind of kid. You play with him, meet his needs at the right time and in the right order, you get this...



If you don't, you get this...



He's expressive, that's for sure.

Acts of Kindness

Aid is a great big brother. I know I have often bragged about it on this blog, but I am just constantly amazed at how he cares for Grant. He will now share his dinosaurs with Grant. Most of the time. This means there are exactly two people who are allowed to touch those. Grant and Sam. That's it. To everyone else they are basically off limits.

But I have wondered how much is for my benefit. I make a big deal about catching every sweet positive moment between the two of them. But he will also make a point to let me know when he is sharing or doing something nice. If nothing else the kid responds to positive reinforcement.

Today on our way into ECFE, I reminded Aid to look out for his little brother and help him if he gets sad. "Sure mama." I didn't really expect him to even notice him quite honestly. Aid loves his classroom, and is gone the moment we walk in the door. But when I came to pick them up the teacher pulled me aside to tell me how impressed she had been with Aiden. She told me that they have their snack time at the end of class. After snack they have quiet reading time until the parents come. Grant was not done eating his snack as the other children went to grab books. Aid apparently went and grabbed (you guessed it, a dino book) but brought it back to the table and proceeded to read it to Grant as he finished his snack.

I teared up a bit as she told me. I just can't get over what a nice kid Aid is. He has his moments, sure, but he is really very caring and empathetic to others. And he genuinely loves his baby brother. And it makes my heart melt.

After Dinner Entertainment

My back is thanking Aid.

Knock Knock

Today Aid told his first knock knock joke. I have no idea where this came from because we don't tell knock knock jokes. But here it is none the less.

Aid: Knock Knock

Us: Who's there?

Aid: Dino!

Us: Dino who?

Aid: Dino T-Rex!!!

Followed by long bouts of laughter. He is obviously pleased with himself. I take it back. I do know where this comes from....

Dare I Say It?

I think we have made some real headway in the potty training department. About a week ago, Aid just decided that he was ready. Well, no. That's not entirely true. Aid asked me for a treat, and in a moment of clarity I said, "You can pick out any treat in the bucket when you go potty."

Bing. Off he went. Immediately. So for the next few days Aid got no snacky snack things unless he used the potty. I am not sure out dentist would love the amount of sugar he has consumed in the last week, but so be it.

He is now either naked during the day or in his underwear if we are going out somewhere. He sleeps in his underwear and for 4 nights now has been completely dry. We have had a couple of accidents trying to make it to the potty right after waking up, but some of that is probably on us and our slow morning response time.

He also has transitioned (nice move honey) the the small attachment potty that sits on the regular toilet. So we have conquered the fear of the big potty!! The last 2 days he has not even told us when he is going. He yells, "I have to go potty!" runs into the bathroom, goes, flushes, and washes his hands.

Our two big motivators for getting rid of all diapers and pull ups (which we have not used but have not technically been banished since we have yet to go anywhere for a substantial length of time ie: over 2 hours) are a dinosaur fossil mountain thing he saw in a magazine and his "animal" preschool, which he has to be potty trained before attending. He is taking it all very seriously. He has even requested dinosaur underwear. And thank you GAP for coming through for me.

So we're on a roll. To say we are proud is an understatement.

Grossness

It was bound to happen. I had been pushing my luck for far too long.

When Aid was a baby we had a game where we transferred things back and forth between our mouths. ie: He would put a toy in his mouth and I would take it from his mouth with mine and so forth. It was a sweet game and no harm ever came from it.

So I was tickled when Grant recently started playing this game. But Aid did not have the tummy issues Grant does, so I should have seen it coming.

We were all sitting at the table. He had a deck of cards. He put a few of them in his mouth and leaned over to give them to me. "Look Bob! Do you remember this?"

And then it happened. Just as I said it, Grant threw up. Into. My. Mouth.

Grossest thing that has happened to me thus far I believe.

I am raising two boys, however...