Potty Training Update

Malcolm pretty much mastered potty training in about 24 hours. The key, as it turned out, was to let him pick which 24 hours . . . . and he chose just a few short weeks before his 4th birthday. Long time coming, but a short time mastering. He's still in pull ups at night, but during the day, he's got it down pat!

He Did It!!!!

This morning, after a series of successful moments over the last week, we launched our day with a pair of spiffy Big Boy Underwear! Malcolm takes pride in the fact that he can now dress himself in the morning without assistance, and asked that I fill one of the low drawers with Big Boy Underwear. He picked out one with cars, trucks, and a bright orange waistband.

I am sure you can imagine how proud we were of him, and how incredibly pleased with himself he was, when at bedtime, he took that same pair of underwear off, as clean and dry and when he put them on 12 hours ago!

Way to go, Big Man!!!!!!

WOOOOOO HOOOOOOO ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Yogurtpalooza

So, dear readers, it's been a while.  We've enjoyed a whirlwind three weeks past, starting with a visit from our dear friends, Angela & Nate, followed by a visit from our beloved cousin, Liz!  Halloween and Malcolm's 2nd birthday rounded out the adventures.  There will be lots of Halloween and Birthday pictures up soon, but I have to wait for the pictures from Liz's camera.  Meanwhile, here are pictures from Yogurtpalooza, the self-feeding party game.

Two-Year Check-Up with the pediatrician was yesterday.  He weighs 25 pounds, 12 ounces (25% for weight).  He's 34 inches tall (50% for height) and has a head circ. of 20 inches (90%!)  He's very healthy, the doc says.  We're switching to 2% milk, starting a vitamin, working on all the typical 2-year-old behavioral issues, and have been gently encouraged to start introducing Malcolm to the potty!  Yikes.  It feels early to me.

Sticker Fun

Hello Malcolm Fans!

Were you starting to think I'd never post again?  I've been AFK (away from my keyboard) for the last week or so, enjoying the company of our dear friends, Angela & Nate, who were so kind as to come visit us!

Now I'm catching up on a backlog of cute Malcolm photos.  Here is Malcolm exploring a new favorite toy -- stickers!  It turns out that paper was far to boring a medium for the new craft, and much like finger paint, was best applied directly to the skin.

His skin, my skin . . . the dogs bolted from the room.  Hmm, can't imagine why . . . .

I plan to take full advantage of this delightfully silent toy for our plane ride home to New York in December.  I think about 487 stickers should see us safely entertained for the duration of the flight!

A Moment of Grace

(So this evening's blog-entry has no pictures to go with it, but I hope you will take the time to read it, nonetheless, because it shares one of the sweetest moments in my life since Malcolm first slept in my arms.)

As many of you may know: tomorrow is a very big day for me.  I will have my final interview for the Child Life Internship position.  There were over 100 applicants for this session, and they usually take about 3 interns.  Yikes!  But I've made it to the final round, so tomorrow's interview will decide it.  Besides being a wonderful chance to learn hands on skills, this internship is a mandatory step to becoming certified, and being able to work in the field.

So, on to tonight's sweet moment.

Malcolm's bedtime routine is the same every night: we brush our teeth, put on our jammies, then we have 2 books, 2 songs, and a prayer.  We finish up with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Malcolm turns out the light, and we tuck him into his crib, where he drifts sweetly off to sleep.   We have a few prayers we choose from each night, and tend to go with whatever Malcolm's recent favorite has been.  For a long time, it was the drumming prayer, which Malcolm could drum out the rhythm for, much to all our delights.

For the last several nights, we've chosen one of our favorite Baha'i prayers.  Malcolm sits in my lap (or Daddy's) and I sing the prayer:

"O God, guide me, protect me,

make of me a shining lamp and a brilliant star.

Thou art the Mighty and the Powerful."

Tonight, before I sang the prayer, I said to Malcolm, "Tomorrow is a very special day for Mommy.  When we say our prayer tonight, we can ask God to help me do well at my interview."  Then I began to sing.

And so did Malcolm.

His sweet voice joined with mine, perfectly in tune, though with only a few of the words.  I've never been very good at praying.  It's not a skill that comes to me naturally.  I struggle to feel that connection to the Divine that so many others seem to find so easily in prayer.  But tonight, as Malcolm raised his voice to pray with me, I felt it.  I also felt a sense of awe, humility, gratitude and joy.  My son, not quite yet two years old, is helping me learn to pray.  And that is an amazing thing.

Rock Band!

So, last year for Ayyam'i'Ha (a Baha'i Celebration) my brother, Darin, bought us a fabulously fun game, called Rock Band.  There's a guitar, microphone and full set of drums.  You use these instruments as your controllers to play the video game.

To the right, you'll see our band's new lead drummer - Big Mal!

Seen here, on lead guitar, is Daddy-O.  Wielding the camera (so not in the shot) is our lead vocalist, the T (that's me!)  Counting the two dogs on back up vocals, that is our complete band!

For this jam session, we were jamming out to "Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi.

Rock on!

Yellow & Blue Make . . . . .

 . . . A really fun mess!

We tried finger painting for the first time a few months ago, but discovered that Malcolm mostly tried to eat the paints.  So we put such explorations on hold, until recently.

In an attempt to convince Malcolm that we did not put him the bath to torture him (an erroneous belief of which he was, until recently, entirely convinced!), we decided to put him in the empty tub with some finger paints.  

Yellow and blue, to be specific.  Well!  Turns out this is more fun then sneezing!  (Also a Malcolm favorite!)  As you can see by the picture, he quickly discovered that mixing them together would produce green.  And that green paint could go all sorts of fun places!

The best thing to do with green paint turned out to be smearing it thickly on his hands, then clapping in delight!  If you look carefully at the first picture, you'll see the excellent paint splatter all over his face (and mine, and Matthew's, and the bathroom floor, and walls, and ceiling . . . )

Well, when green turned out to be such fun, we had to add some more colors!  He mixed and explored to his heart's content. And our delight!

He decided that his hair could use a bit of conditioning, so gave himself a "purple rinse."  The best part of it - while he rubbed paint into his hair, he kept saying "Nice, Nice!"  He learned this phrase long ago.  After bathtime, we rub oil into his hair and scalp (more on Black hair care in a later post).  At first he would wiggle and struggle to get away, until we started letting him put the oil in his own hair, and wield the comb/brush himself.  He loved that!  He'd oil his hair, brush it, then pat it, saying "Nice, Nice!" We always tell him how handsome he is, and how nice his hair is.  I guess he latched onto the phrase! 

So, there he was, rubbing in the paint, "Nice, Nice!"

To finish off the grand adventure, we celebrated with a few High-Fives!

Hooray for our little Picasso!

First Day of School

School starts really early here, in Georgia.  The first day of school for most districts was August 11th!  Malcolm's new school, Scottdale Child Development Center, also started then.  In the month since, the whole family fell in love with our new school.  

As you can see from the pictures, his school includes uniforms!  Navy or khaki bottoms, and polo shirts in white, navy, or light blue.  In winter, he can wear turtlenecks in the same colors.  White socks, with black or brown shoes, complete the outfit.  Most schools down here have uniforms, at least through middle school, so all the stores carry uniform basics -- but not in itty-bitty Malcolm sizes!  We found shorts/pants for him, but ended up ordering shirts off the internet.

Malcolm has two main teachers, Miss Brown and Miss Malcolm, who take such loving care of him.  In addition to the important social skills (sharing toys, taking turns, playing with peers), and school readiness skills (following directions, sitting for circle time), he's also getting lots of daily practice with many skills -- eating with utensils, singing songs, the ABCs and counting.  They practice colors, shapes, puzzle . . .  I could go on and on.

His teachers even provide so many of the wonderful details that are usually so hard to come by in a school/daycare setting -- like having the kids wash hands before every meal, and after every diaper change.  They help Malcolm brush his teeth after lunch, and put on sunscreen and bug-spray everyday before playing outside.

Malcolm's not just learning, though  . . .   As most of our readers may know, we've been teaching Malcolm sign language (ASL) since birth.  He now uses about 150 signs (some more than others).  I recently heard from his teachers that he's teaching the other kids in his class to sign as well!  This week, he taught them the sign for "boy" (his current favorite sign).

Way to go, Professor Malcolm!

Yummy Yummy Yogurt

Learning to eat with a spoon or fork can prove quite challenging to the under-two crowd.

Some foods are far too yummy, and utensils must fall to the wayside in favor of more effective methods.

On the upside, however, Malcolm now sports a kickin' beard to match Daddy's.  (sort of)

Mama's Little Helper

 Now that I'm all caught up with back-logged pictures, I can start sharing current ones.  I also recently received a request from my dear cousin (shout out to Liz!) for some Malcolm daily anecdotes.  So here's today's story . . .

A couple days ago, I went to sit on the floor and play puzzles with Malcolm, only to realize our dogs had tracked in an inordinate amount of dirt that morning.  Yuck!  So I hoped up and grabbed my broom, and attacked the floors with gusto.

Well, Malcolm Bear decided that if Mommy was doing it, then it must be fun, and promptly demanded that I hand over the broom to him.  So I did.

Meanwhile, I grabbed the swiffer, as that works just as well on our hardwoods.  While I swiffed, he swept, doing a remarkably skillful job of it!  Dirt being too small to see with the toddler eye, he chose to sweep the shoes around the house, then into a pile by the door.  

Mama's Little Helper!

Malcolm Pictures 12-18 Months (2 of 3) -- New Skills

Malcolm mastered (or at least started to!) many skills during these six months of life.  Things like interactive play ("Daddy eat my belly!"), imaginary play (Ring Ring!  It's the Banana Phone!), eating cold foods (We enjoy popsicles in the bathtub, where clean up is a breeze!), fine motor skills (like "High Five" and fist-bumps), and self-feeding skills like using a sippy cup, spoon and fork (still works-in-progress a year later!)