Pee Pee On The Potty! (You know the song)

WARNING: LONG POST WITH LOTS OF UPDATES
That's right, we are potty training! For those of you who realize Grayson is only 21 months old (and you are under the age of 40), I understand your shock. The reason I said, under the age of 40, is because it seems the previous generation potty trained kids at a much younger age than people do now. So for them, 18 months would be normal. But today, boys typically potty train between 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 years old.

Here's the story:
Last Friday when I was home with Grayson, this conversation happens out of nowhere:
G: "potty. poop on potty."
Me: "you want to poop on the potty?" (he hadn't pooped yet that morning)
G: "mommy poop on potty?"
Me: Grayson do you want to poop on the potty?
G: Runs to the bathroom.
Me: "Grayson should we take off your diaper and poop on the potty?"
G: "potty"
Me: I proceed to pull down his pants take off his diaper and sit him on the potty without a potty seat. He lets me hold him there without complaint.
G: grunt. grunt. "Poop?"
Me: "no poop yet, keep trying." wait. "can you pee on the potty?"
G: grunt. "poop!" (no poop) "all done"
Me: "are you all done?"
G: "all done." starts to get down. "poop on potty!"
me: "look, no poo, but good try. let's go get a diaper on"
we proceed to walk with pants around his ankles to his room to get a diaper.

Grayson initiated this same thing 8 times that day. Needless to say, Tanner and I were very surprised! I always thought potty training would be something I planned in advance, bought all the supplies for and introduced to my children. Leave it to Grayson to do things his way!

After much discussion (and, I'll admit, a little research), we decided to take Grayson's lead. We're following an eight week "program" I saw on babycenter.com (click here to read about it). We also decided with the holiday traveling, now wasn't the perfect time. So we are starting at week 3 (we've done week 1 and 2 without knowing it). It fits great to work on this "casually" for 5 weeks, leading up to Tanner's Christmas break when he'll actually hit the subject hard. We've modified the program to give a sticker every time Grayson pees (or poops) on the potty. He has gone 4 times in 6 days. Not amazing, but good that he is happy to sit there several times a day without complaint.

On other subjects...I've been getting a lot of questions about the pregnancy, so here's an update. I am still experiencing "morning" sickness, and these days it is mostly in the morning. It seems there are no good solutions and no way of indicating when it will come and go. I'm lucky to get food in every day. As for placenta previa, it's still here. And it's VERY difficult to not lift Grayson. Much more difficult than I expected. In fact, I still lift him several times a day, especially when I'm home alone with him and he is throwing tantrums. For the past week or so, I think it's starting to catch up to me. Just after I lift him, I feel some "cramping" (not really like a cramp, but I can't think of any other way to describe it) in my lower abdomen. It concerns me, but I know I'm doing my best. My next check-up is November 28, but I'll still be restricted until late January.

A lady said to me Monday: "Boy, you look like you could pop any day now!". Please learn from this lady's mistake and NEVER assume anything based on someone's belly size!

I guess the only person we haven't discussed is Tanner. What's new with him? Well, since my guilt set in a couple weeks ago, we ordered Naomi's Kitchen. I know this goes completely against our budget, but sometimes it makes sense to stray. He's enjoying not cooking much anymore. He also just bought an iPod Touch for school. His new toy (for work of course). Grayson has decided Daddy is the parent of choice right now. So Tanner gets a lot of attention from Grayson. They're getting a lot of QT together this weekend when I go to Des Moines for my annual Girls Craft Show and Shopping Day.