11/1
Seriously, Donovan has been earning so many amazing kid points I can hardly believe it. Today he pooped in the big potty. By himself! He went in there, got his pants off, climbed on, and only then did he call me in. He just did it! And he said, "I poop big potty like Daddy!." Yay!!! Not only that, but the last two nights he has kept his pull up clean, even getting up to pee in the middle of the night. And I haven't done a thing for this except to praise him and buy him blue candy as a reward. I had no plans to potty train until after the new baby came, and thought even I might wait till spring when we had to rush to get him ready to go to school, but he just did it himself! I am starting to feel guilty about withholding the superhero underwear I bought to have on hand, but really this is the best of both worlds. I don't have to worry about accidents, and he's really only using one a day. Anyway, I have managed to avoid bragging about this anywhere else, but I just have to praise him in his baby book!
He has also gone with me to doctor appointments, book fair work, and carnival set up. He plays reasonably quietly, either with toys, books, or on the little computer if I feel I've pushed his patience a lot that day.
He has such a sweet, snuggly personality. He loves to be silly, trying to tell knock knock jokes like sister, or pretending to be a puppy or kitty. Serenity told me the thing she was most thankful for was that Donovan plays kitty cat with her. Love them so much! I hope they are always friends, but I'm enjoying every day while they are. He pats us and says, "Mama, I'm so proud of you!" And when I tell him I'm a lucky Mama, he says: "I'm a lucky Donovan!" He really pays attention to people, noticing when they talk to him and usually responding even when I don't prompt him too. Sometimes he just smiles and snuggles closer to me, but he's usually paying attention to people and I love that about him.
He enjoys our book time at night. Usually he picks out a book for himself and one for me, and he has to "read" it to himself before I'm allowed to read it to him. He does know all the letters and their sounds, but we're not pushing things there. Just as he's interested.
He still loves ponies. He and Serenity have watched a lot of My Little Pony this month. Daddy made up a song about ponies that he sings nearly every night. Donovan's favorite is Apple Jack. She wears a cowboy hat =) I made him an apple jack pony hat. He still gallops around and has the cutest "neigh!" He also chose a horse when we went to build-a-bear.
We've done some fun crafts this month. I stamped some circles on a paper, and had him put one sticker per circle. He LOVED this, and spent nearly an hour playing with it. I had to make lots more circle papers and dig out more stickers. The batman stickers were his favorite. We also made some pretty cool monsters out of model magic. Donovan said his was a shark. He covered it with googly eyes and beads and chased us around with it. We painted watercolor leaves on coffee filters, and he and Serenity both kept at this till I ran out of coffee filters.
For Halloween, he went as Green Lantern. Daddy has taught him the Green Lantern code, and he can recite the whole thing, so this was a fun way for them to get to dress up together. I'd already made the cape and mask, so all I did for this was buy him a bigger Green Lantern t-shirt and some green glow sticks. Oh, and the power ring. Daddy went as the Green Lantern Guardian =)
10/19
DZ is really getting my hopes up that he's going to potty train himself. We've had three days of no wet diapers, and he tells me when he has pee. Not "needs to pee", I mean "has some pee", because he really likes M&Ms, so I think he's going as often as he can. Today he even came in from playing outside to tell me he needed to go potty.
Donovan loves holding onto my arm. It used to be "swinging on the vine" but now I think it's just a habit. Whenever he's sitting near me, he grabs my arm. Sometimes he squeezes really hard and I have to ask him to stop! And he used to have really sharp nails, but now he asks me to cut them on a fairly regular basis so the only problem is that he's strong! For some reason, when I ask him to stop hurting my arm, he asks, "I smell it?" and then he sniffs me like a puppy.
