on the joys of organized chaos and big-kid friends

As I've mentioned, my son turns 2 in a few weeks.  Though this is a happy event to which I'm greatly looking forward, there's also a lot of stress that goes along with it.  There's presents to buy, a party to plan, food to prepare, and the "I can't believe my baby's turning 2" tears to shed.

Of course, most of his day-to-day routines won't change.  His preschool uses the same schedule for moving classes up as the public school system does so, there at least, he's been in the two-year-old class for weeks.

However, I will admit that I've been very nervous about him moving up from the nursery to preschool children's church.

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Notes on a Toddler

My son is now right around 20 1/2 months, and I feel that 2nd birthday fast approaching.  I'm crazy excited about his birthday and throwing a big party and getting an excuse to spoil him even more than he usually gets.

But milestone pediatrician visits make me nervous.  They give you that little sheet where you check off what things your kid is doing yet.  My son has always done great developmentally, has actually always been ahead for his age.

But I still dread my imaginings of his doctor peering at the checklist through her glasses.  "Oh, he isn't counting yet?  Not at all?  Oh, I see."

So I've been paying close attention to my son's recent accomplishments.  This has been difficult, however, because there's a ton of stuff it seems like he just started doing overnight.  Recently, he has:

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Adventures in Potty-Training: Prologue

I know that potty-training should be the furthest thing from my mind. My son isn't even a year-and-a-half yet. But I've seen others' struggles with potty-training, and I know that boys can be even more difficult. So I'm not taking any chances.

We've gone ahead and introduced the little man to the potty. We've heard horror stories of kids so afraid of the potty that they'll just scream uncontrollably the whole time they're sitting on it. So we're trying to acclimatize him to the toilet early. Here's what we do:

Step One: We let him come in with us when we use the potty. This way, we figure he can get a very basic idea of what it's for. (You sit on it and the stuff that, in his case, would normally come out your behind onto a diaper instead comes out into a bowl.)

Step Two: We get off the potty.

Step Three: Close the lid. THIS STEP IS VERY IMPORTANT.

Step Four: Sit baby on the potty.

Step Five: Let baby flush the toilet.

Step Six: Enthusiastic applause.

Basically, I've got my kid conditioned that he receives praise for sitting on, and flushing the toilet (what is generally considered by kids to be the two scariest parts of toilet training). Of course, in a few months when we start toilet training for real, and he absolutely refuses to actually use the thing, I'm sure I won't be feeling so smug about all this early preparation. But for the moment, at least his exuberant flushing ensures I won't ever lift the lid to pee and get greeted by a moldy floater.

There's some unnecessarily visual food for thought.