who's a big boy pirate?

Bubba has been on a pirate kick for a few weeks, now. Yeeargh, matey! And as he slips deeper into his pirate imagination, he's been showing us how much he's grown up. His balance is getting really good - he often walks the plank. He can independently play as well as turn on his bedroom light, open the fridge for yogurt, pick out a spoon, etc. He's almost self-sufficient.

Also, he's gone almost 2 weeks without a binky. He's a big boy. He'll remind you he's a big boy at every opportunity, too. "I not fun. I Big Boy!" "I not silly. I'm a pirate!"

But as any parenting column, newsletter, book, or expert will tell you, growth comes in fits and spurts. And sometimes, with those spurts come regressions. Your child's vocabulary might double one week, but with it, they become crabby, or won't eat, or as in our case, stops potty training.

Apparently, with maturity comes a desire to be lazy. He can make his own breakfast, but he'd rather fake-cry than sit on the potty. If you ask him if he wants to make pee pee on the potty, he'll say, "No. I want diaper." Shoot. He knows what he's doing, but he's doing it anyway. So yesterday, we pulled out the stops. He went to school in big boy underpants. Since he refused to "go" on the potty before we suited him up in his spiderman, cyclops, and ironman underpants (it's super grouper underpants), I had no idea when the last time he "went" was. But we took a chance and headed to school with 2 extra pairs of shorts and 2 extra pairs of underpants.

Monday is daycare pay-day. Generally, I love paydays, but daycare payday is the day I shell out money for daycare, and it's never a really fun time. But yesteray was even worse. There I was, waiting for my credit card to go through, (yes, I put daycare on credit. I pay it off each month, and over the course of a year, that's over 15,000 miles!) while Bubba fidgeted and squirmed all over a padded chair. Oh, Lord. Please don't let Bubba pee all over a carpeted office area...

After we successfully negotiated the strange, new world of underpants on padded chair, we walked (wiggled) our way to the classroom. I immediately announced to his teacher that he was wearing big boy underpants. She asked when he last "went." I didn't know. But I did bring lots of extra clothes! She said OK and that he was ready to do this. All the while, Bubba was dancing/squirming/gyrating all over the big todds room. Apparently, big boy underpants feel different than a diaper. In a good way.

We did it again this morning. The report from daycare yesterday was "good." He had 3 accidents (he only has 3 pairs of underpants), but each time, it was just a little bit. His teacher said it was enough to make his underpants wet, but not enough to really soak his shorts/socks/shoes. She said that a lot of times, kids will really let it go, but Bubba would go a little, then realize what was happening and stop until he made it to a potty.

Plus...based on his behaviour, he needs to leave big Todds. He's turning mean. He'll hit his friends and not listen to the teachers. Apparently, if he would get potty trained and move up to pre-school, that behaviour would clear itself up. That's the anecdotal evidence they've seen with other kids, at least. I hope that's what it is. I really don't want to be the parent of a bully. Especially since I know he's a really sweet boy. So we did it again today. I think we need to buy some more big boy underpants, so we don't have to wash and wear the same 3 pairs of underpants every day.