adddaaaadaaaa: the babyface.

so not only do we have a two and a half year old, but we've also put in some serious time with our fourteen month old. it's become abundantly clear to us that the second child develops at a highly different pace than the first. case in point: before age one donovan could tell you what a train says, what a puppy says, and what a kitty says. on occasion he would recite car noises for you. liam, however, at fourteen months can pretty much only say "aaddaadaadada" and spontaneously car noises when he's playing with them. donovan was eating people food by eleven months and chomping down pretty much anything you set in front of him. liam currently enjoys all forms of mush and ritz crackers. an infant staple, really, but we'd really appreciate it if he'd just buck up and feed himself. trying to explain to a two and a half year old why his food has to wait because his little brother needs his mush is a hard job. luckily, our first born (clearly the more advanced) chimes right in "oh, of course" whenever mommy or daddy explains something like this to him.

the idea was not for this post to be a comparison, and yet here i've turned it into one.
current accomplishments of liam:
a) knows what to do when you tell him to "say cheese!"
b) walks around like he's been doing it his whole life (aha...aha...hah).
c) drinks from a sippy cup!


there are certain things you don't expect to encounter when planning your second child. i mean sure, you understand it will be more difficult when the ages are close. what you don't plan for is constantly having to return big brother's toys because little brother refuses to let him alone. you don't expect potty time to be a group activity because once again, whatever big brother is doing is the coolest ever (needless to say we're hoping this will be evident later when liam potty trains in a day). you don't expect to have absolutely no baby toys about because no one in the house wants to play with baby toys when there are cars and trains and big boy toys around because (say it with me) whatever big brother is playing with is the coolest ever.

currently liam is crawling around on the floor grabbing everything in sight and stashing it away in the cars box. shortly after he's dumping it out and starting the whole process over again. sigh...the life of a baby. maybe when he's older he'll still hold the same joy for collecting things and putting them away? we'll work on organizational skills later. as long as he's cool with clean-up life will be a peach.

potty training, the middle chapter.

we began potty training my two and a half year old son about two months ago. believe it or not, he caught on immediately. "go potty get candy" was his preferred mantra whenever the subject was brought about. yes, we had accidents, but who doesn't? i mean i can't imagine what potty training must be like for a kid. what is the motivation to stop being able to urinate whenever and wherever? i mean sure, going potty on the toilet warrants candy and all sorts of praise but in exchange for having to actually FIND a place to relieve yourself? having to stop playing with whatever entertaining toy you've found? i would personally enjoy not having to get up in the middle of the movies after downing a sixty-four ounce soda. "did you see the part where...?" nope sorry i was potty trained as a child.

all of that aside, i'm insanely proud of my little boy. since those two months his chant has evolved into "go poop get lots of candy!" which isn't working out as well as we'd hoped, but hey it's only been a few months. don't most boys take on average a year or some crazy statistic like that? i suppose if i'm going to be a serious blogger i better do my research.

speaking of this newfound blogging thing, i have a few reasons for starting it up:
a) i miss xanga.
b) i need an outlet.
and c) i'm hoping i will quietly rise to fame and fortune and sell award-winning books and the like.

a girl can dream.

anywho, getting donovan potty trained is really our first parental accomplishment. i mean they're super easy when they're babies. they learn most of the important stuff all on their own. walking, talking, you don't have to put much effort into it. but potty training is a whole different story. if you don't take them constantly to the potty, it will never happen. and trust me, there are thousands of times (literally) when i've just wanted to stick a damn pull-up on and forget about it.  you can't, though, and it's a real test of your responsibility level as a parent i think. so honestly, i practically beam when someone compliments van on his potty skills. they're saying, "gosh your parents rock." (or something to that effect). okay, okay, so donovan should get some of the credit for being an insanely genius boy who understands the concept of not getting thomas the tank engine or lightning mcqueen wet (they don't like that, you know).

still, though...as parents, we rock.