(nearly) wordless wednesday {morton arboretum}

same tunnel. same boy. different batman shirt.

my how he has grown.

new and improved

don't say you weren't warned that this post is almost entirely about potty training....

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i've had some people question my sanity when i told them that we were going to start potty training during the summer where mike was gone five out of seven days a week, but i'm going to be honest here. i'm about the laziest potty trainer on the planet.

i read up on everything i could about potty training, and especially potty training with speech delays and after every single article or blog post all i could think was...

so i'm taking the lazy route. sometimes we potty train, sometimes we don't. i only sit him on the toilet about every half hour or so. if he's just peed, sometimes i go longer.

but this is the only way that i knew i could both potty train and also stay sane.

i was a little worried that my method would be a complete failure.

today gave me hope that i might be okay.

that maybe the lazy method is just what tennyson and i need.

because today he lasted all day in his underwear, and we didn't have an accident until seven thirty pm!

he didn't even pee in his diaper during nap time.

(nor am i sure he ever actually got more than a few drops into the toilet, but i'm ignoring that for now)

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truth is, tennyson has been a new kid lately. sometimes it is like a light turns on in his brain and he's suddenly a different kid. 

he eats plums now. without us even asking him to.

he ate a peanut butter sandwich for dinner.

we went to the grocery store two days ago and when a stranger came up and talked to him, he didn't start flipping out. he actually said "hi".

he is suddenly following directions and his words are becoming more intelligible. 

we are really enjoying it. we don't know when the light will be flipped off again, so we are soaking in every single minute of this tennyson.

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here's to the start of becoming potty trained.

we've got a long road ahead of us,

but we'll get there soon enough.

independence day

i love celebrating the fourth in chicago.

 

it means we get to be around family,

and eat lots of ribs.

 

this year, we even found what we thought was going to be a little parade.

the parade lasted an hour and a half.

not so little, but totally spectacular.

plus, the kids got spoiled with patriotic flags and beads.

 

 

at one point during our "little" parade, a helicopter came down the street.

and maggie almost died when she saw mickey mouse turn the corner.

 

 

really, maggie stole the show in her little outfit, wobbling down the street.

i think people enjoyed watching her wander around as much as they enjoyed the parade.

 

 

that night we went to see fireworks.

mister sat there and chanted out each color as it went off.

"purple!" "green!" "red, white, and blue!"

and he got to take his own fireworks home.

someday when he's older we'll tell him that they are actually called glow sticks,

but for now it is totally precious to see him run around the house showing everyone his fireworks.

 

hope everyone had a wonderful fourth.

 

 

god bless america.

 

 



talking

i get more excited than i probably should when maggie talks.

i know this.

it just surprises me. it takes me off guard every time.

like this morning....

me: "let's go get waffles!"

maggie: "fafa"

me: "did you just say waffle??"

maggie: (pointing this time) "fafa"

me: i need to get this on video! where is my camera!? she learned another word! i need a video!

is this what life is supposed to feel like?

to be honest, it used to puzzle me when someone would be telling me a story about how their kid just whipped this word out of thin air and they have no clue where they learned it. all i could think was that doesn't really happen, does it?

for someone who slaves away through hours and hours of speech therapy to just get their kid to use the word "help" and then says meh, close enough when you hear a poorly uttered "bep", it's hard to wrap your head around things like that.

but here's the thing.

apparently, it is normal for kids to learn words on their own.

you know. without like five hundred hours of therapy.

and without me having to repeat the word until it starts to sound weird in my head.

and now i keep calling up my mom and mike and everyone i know and telling them stories about how maggie just whipped a word up out of thin air.

they are probably getting sick of me.

i mean, the other day i caught maggie saying "ball" for the first time and i texted this video to everyone i knew with a caption that read "she learned a new word" and an infinite number of exclamation points.

i cried the other day when i asked maggie to go get shoes and she came back with a mismatched pair in tow. "that's right! you found your shoes!!"
now can you teach your brother how to do that?

sometimes it breaks my heart that the gap between my kids is slowly closing in.

i'm starting to see that there might be a day in the near future where maggie passes her brother up in terms of speech capabilities.

but a lot of times, i almost feel lucky that tennyson is so delayed.

i don't think a lot of parents get the same joy out of talking that i do.

it's just something that happens to their kids, you know. the same way i feel about walking and crawling or getting a new tooth.

it's exciting, and it's fun, but it is also just something that happens.

when my kids learn a new word, i feel pure elation. i feel like dancing and jumping and shouting it out to the whole world.

it is a victory to me.

tennyson has taught me that. he has given me such a fine appreciation for these things. and for that, i'm extremely grateful.

so this is my post about talking.
i know that i'm so excited about it that i could probably make new a post every day. complete with video.
but that's probably overkill, so i'll try not to. though i'm not making any promises.

(nearly) wordless wednesday

when the kids are finally in bed for the night i feel like this:

and also a little like this: