Identity Crisis

David: Hi, Daniel.
Daniel: No, my name's not Daniel. I'm Carla.
David: Carla?
Daniel: Yeah, you call me Carla. That's my name.
David: OK, Carla.

Where did he even hear that name?
Is this some sort of identity crisis?

Baby #2

I'm not pregnant, but I might as well be in Daniel's eyes. I'm not sure how this all started, but he's pretty concerned about the "new baby," which - I cannot stress enough - does not yet exist. (I don't want to start any rumors!)

Our conversation while getting ready for bed:
Daniel: I want to wear a diaper. Not a pull-up.
Me: We put the diapers away. We're wearing pull-ups now.
Daniel: Did we put the diapers in the attic?
Me: Well, we put them up, yes.
Daniel: Is the new baby going to wear the diapers?
Me: What new baby?
Daniel: The one that's coming to our house.
Me: Well, someday if a new baby comes to our house, yes. It will wear the diapers.
Daniel: Will the new baby sleep in my crib?
Me: Well, there's not a baby coming to our house for a long, long time, but, yes. The baby will probably sleep in your crib.
Daniel: Can Daniel sleep in the crib with the new baby?
Me: Well, by then you'll be such a big boy that you can sleep in a big-boy bed!
Daniel: I want to sleep in the crib with the baby.

Then another conversation - out of the blue:
Daniel: Is the new baby going to sit in my highchair?
Me: Well, remember that there's not going to be a new baby for a long, long time, but, yes.
Daniel: Will Daniel sit in the little highchair (meaning the booster seat)?
Me: Yes.
Daniel: I think Daniel will sit in the big highchair and the new baby will sit in the little highchair. Yeah.

The kid's already jealous, and there's not even a baby yet!

Play-doh

Daniel got play-doh in his stocking at Christmas. We hadn't had a chance to play with it much yet, but we busted it out yesterday while trying to poop (still to no avail) on the potty. This child loves play-doh! I had no idea! I knew he'd played with it at Ms. Sarah's, but we'd never had any here before. Anyway, we made so many things out of play-doh.......we were kind of on a 'food kick,' and we made chex, kix, cheerios (complete with a bowl and spoon), raspberries, and spaghetti.........as well as cars, snowmen, stars, Christmas trees, pumpkins, ghosts, snails, bugs, and I can't remember what else. It was really fun - so fun, in fact, that Daniel sat on that potty for almost two hours. I kept asking him, "Do you want to get off the potty now? We can still play with the play-doh in the kitchen or something." Nope - he likes his play-doh on the potty, thank you very much.

Funny Man

Daniel tried out his first joke.

It went like this:
What did the taco say to the tomato?..............
.......ready for the punchline?...........
There's a bed in here!

Not exactly funny yet, but his delivery was perfect!

This stemmed from his reading "Sloppy Joe" in which there's a joke that goes something like this, "What did the taco say to the burrito?.....Where have you bean?"

See? Their joke wasn't much better than his!

Potty Training

We're in the midst of our first try at potty training. I say 'first try' because I'm not so sure yet that we won't quit and have to give it a second, third, or fourth try. I knew potty training would be hard, but I didn't really realize how exhausting it would be. I feel like I've spent an eternity in our bathroom and that I've stared at my child looking for any sign of 'needing to go' for every second of every day.

Anyway, we started Saturday morning by throwing a potty party. Now, we didn't do it all out like the potty training pro recommends by decorating the whole house, wrapping up a potty present, having potty games, etc., but we did put up some balloons, a sticker chart, and pull out some birthday party hats. I'll have to take a pic of the sticker chart I made. I was pretty proud of it - it's a train because Daniel loves trains and because then we can call it the "potty train." Get it??

We've had some ups and downs. On Saturday he was shocked each time he peed and didn't really know what to do. Now he will wave his hands up and down and say, "Daniel doesn't need to pee!" which is, logically, code for "Daniel does need to pee!" I think that's progress....right?

He's had quite a few accidents (try 5 pairs of underwear in 1 1/2 hours), but he's also had 3 of 5 days that were completely accident-free (well, except nap and bedtime - pull-ups come out for those times).

And I've stooped to new lows that I didn't know were possible to try and get the child to sit on the potty for an extended period of time. Our bathroom literally looks like a playroom, covered in balloons, bubble wands, books, his new piano, stickers, trains, his mobigo, and mirrors. At one point, I had built a tent with blankets and cushions around the frog potty, was playing Daniel's favorite CD, and blowing bubbles at him to try and make him sit still.

The only major issue we've had is the poop - or lack thereof. He hasn't gone since Monday morning, and he's actually never gone in the potty. He has to go so ridiculously bad, but he's holding it in. So that's fun for everyone. I rented Elmo's Potty Time DVD from the library and have let him watch it twice, thinking he would be happy to poop once he saw everyone else doing it......Nothing! Then we even tried to imitate Thomas the Train on the phone, posing as the train who really wanted Daniel to poop, but.......No such luck. Prunes for dinner, anyone?

New Year, New Friends

Move over, Aunt Cristi! Daniel has new imaginary friends in town! (And don't worry, Aunt Cristi, you're still making appearances too.) I just wanted to welcome Majengkuk, Macky, and Packy to the bunch. And yes, it's very important that you pronounce it "Ma_J_engkuk" and not "Ma_G_engkuk." I made that mistake, and Daniel was quick to point out that I was saying his friend's name incorrectly. (Which reminds me......while we were in Austin this weekend, Daniel stayed with Abuela & Abuelo. There are a few words that they pronounce differently than we do, and Daniel had to remind Abuela several times to say "yogurt," not "yugurt!")

Anyway.....So far Majengkuk is not very mischievous. He does a lot of sleeping, and we're supposed to remain very quiet while he sleeps so he doesn't wake up. I'm a little more woried about Macky and Packy though. They told Daniel that his trike was actually a motorcycle and that he should drive it to the park the other day. I hope they don't cause any trouble around here!

Haircut

We cut Daniel's hair last week. This is probably the shortest it's been since he was born. He's got a great head of hair!

BEFORE

AFTER