Gavin is three years old now. Has been for three days. I can't believe it has already been this long. I can't believe it has only been this long. I feel like he's been mine forever or that I've been his, really.
We had a little birthday party at our house. I made him Oreo cookie cupcakes per his request (he picked them out from one of my many cupcakes recipe books). The Pool kids (three girls, one boy) came as did Rosemary's girls. While Gavin opened his presents he was surrounded by girls oohing and ahhing and trying to help him. It was cute. Stacy and I gave him a train set for his birthday. Lots of Thomas the Train Wooden Railway and compatible stuff. All of the Thomas stuff is ridiculously expensive but I got all of it at Marshall's and TJ Maxx, some of it on clearance. I'm not a pay full price kind of woman, sometimes to my peril (suffering through, for example, several days without my allergy medicine while trying to track it down on sale). The weather was perfect for his party and I know he had a good time.
July is a big birthday month for us. Granny Marilyn's birthday is the day before Gavin's and she was up here from Florida. The day after Gavin's is my brother Brian's, and he's back from Arizona. The day after that Gavin had two birthday parties to go to, one for Colin who was born on the same day as Gavin, and one for Angus, who was born around the same day as well. Both kids had a bounce house at their parties and Gavin was a happy, sweaty mess. But if I never see birthday cake again it will be too soon.
Potty training (because I know you were about to ask) is not going so well. He was, it seemed, making some real progress and we'd instituted a no-diapers-at-home policy that worked for awhile. Until he decided that going on the potty was too much trouble and started to just pee in his underpants on purpose. This resulted in a lot of rug cleaning (he mostly peed in his bedroom) and frustration for all of us. So now it's back to diapers but he has to change himself whenever he pees and has to help change himself when he poops, which means he has to wash his hands every time, an extra step that perhaps was making going on the potty seem less attractive. I am so over diapers, and he so isn't. I always give him the choice but he always chooses diapers.
This afternoon he chose underpants because I'd mentioned that he was running out of diapers. And he peed in them. On purpose, and not only that, he peed in them while standing in the hallway over the cars he was playing with. So when he yelled, "Mama D, I peed in my underpants" I found him standing over a puddle of urine with Rayo McQueen and Mac and assorted other race cars wheel deep in it. Poor Mac had the back of his truck open and pee had splashed inside. I was not very happy about this. It did not help that I had a raging headache. I made Gavin go into the bathroom and peel his wet underwear off. I picked up all of the cars and put them in the sink. I washed them all with a washcloth and then put them on top of the towel rack so they could dry and told Gavin he could not have them back until tomorrow. He cried and said he wanted them back and I informed him that we don't pee on our toys and if he peed on his toys again I would not wash them, I would just throw them away. He was still not happy. But, hey, I've got to draw the line somewhere. Peeing on your toys because you didn't want to stop playing is just not acceptable. It's also a sign that the kid really does need some more time to ease out of diapers. I think. We'll see, right? So much fun. (I just reread this paragraph and feel I should mention that I was incredibly patient given the circumstances and did not freak out).
Speaking of pee, he peed his bed during his nap today. The good news is that he took a nap, something that doesn't happen much now that he has a big boy bed. The bad news, of course, was the pee. He had a diaper on, but it leaked, wicked all up his shirt and soaked through the bed clothes. Thankfully he has a water proof mattress cover.
Stacy is in Peru for two weeks and so it's just been me and Gavin. He and I have been taking nightly walks with Henri. Tonight Gavin brought a toy firetruck with him and he just carried it and ran most of the way. Like, the kid literally ran most of the way around the block. At first he was running ahead of Henri and me and then he became the Big Bad Wolf chasing us through our houses of straw, sticks, and brick. On the walk I asked him what he liked about today and he said, "Taking a walk with you." He is sweetness and light.
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