Tommy-isms & A HILARIOUS Story

Tommy will be 2 1/2 years old on March 10th.  Sigh. Where has the time gone? Where has my little baby gone? We've slowly started transitioning out of diapers into pull-ups...and I mean s.l.o.w.l.y. Changing a poopie pull-up is not fun. I think we've finally convinced Tommy of that, so he no longer demands a pull up in the morning, but lets himself be talked into a diaper until he goes poopie and then we can put on a pull-up.  He also doesn't quite grasp that it's not about wearing what he thinks are cool "big boy underwear" which is what he calls the pull-ups. It's about telling us, or his teachers, that he has to go potty so we can take him to sit on the potty, pee, and then pull the training pants back up. Right now, I'm not a fan of the pull-up because you have to take shoes and pants off completely to change it since Tommy is not telling us when he has to go.

However, on Monday morning, he told me he had to go poopie, so we ran upstairs since the downstairs potty was in use (obviously not by me, Tommy, Tux or Tails). Tommy sat on his little seat on the big potty, claimed to have peed (he didn't, but I let him think he did), and said he did not have to go poopie anymore. I knew that wasn't true.  So I get the little guy dressed - with a new pull-up because the original one was wet, and he refused to let me put a diaper on him even though I knew the poopie was coming, since he is pretty "regular".  After I get the pants back on along with his shoes, he says, "I want a diaper Mommy." I admit to getting a little frustrated, because I tried to "reason" with him about putting a diaper on initially...note to self...toddlers don't take well to "reasoning," and then got him on the changing table again to switch to a diaper.  I knew in my head it was because something that finally clicked with him about pooping in the pull-up  vs. the diaper. While he'll tell us he is pooping or has just gone, he's not quite ready to tell us when he has to poop on the potty (more on that later), but I was a little exasperated after all this, because the 20 minutes I thought I initially had to eat breakfast before heading out the door possibly on time for once was now down to 10, which meant it wasn't happening.

Tommy sensed my frustration and says to me, "You be nice, Mommy!"

I could not help but laugh, and then apologize to my sweet T and tell him he was right, that I needed to be nice.  I realized I was stressed and worried about some other stuff and lost patience over something that is just a NORMAL part of life with a toddler on the verge of transitioning out of diapers and into pull-ups, and potentially potty-training.

That "you be nice, Mommy" is just one example of a Tommy-ism.

I've got more...how about when we ask Tommy a question, he cutely responds, "Maybe.......yes" (with a slight pause so you know something else is coming after the "maybe", or "Maybe.......no." I have to get him on video doing this to one of us...it's often when I ask him at night if I can be the one to read to him that night before bed.

One of his newer ones over the past week is when he calls me "Miss Mommy" or John "Mr. Daddy." I laugh every time...obviously a very polite kid, since he calls all of his teachers at school "Miss insert name here."

Tommy loves to watch Toy Story (1, 2 or 3), and it's almost always on before we head upstairs for bathtime/bedtime. But no matter what he is watching, when I tell him it's time to go upstairs, his response usually is, "two more minutes!" Huh? One time he even said, "five more minutes!"

We also make "deals." The King of Delay Tactics is the Tomster, especially when it comes to going to bed. He pulls out about 73 books from his bookshelf - I honestly believe he thinks we're going to read them all. He's really into these little Disney board books with Cars, Nemo, Toy Story, etc., which he repeats back to me after I read a page (they are really short). I actually get the biggest charge listening to him repeat some of the words, but he does a GREAT job and is so cute! I swear we could read these books all night if I let him, so I now limit it to reading each book once - there are 12, but as I said, they are really short and probably take 20 seconds to read each one. I will tell him, "okay, 2 more of these little books, and then XX regular books, okay? And then we lay down to go to sleep...Deal?" I then put my hand out to shake his hand.  And he says "Deal" as he shakes my hand.  Honest to God, it works almost every time. Sometimes he'll pretend cry and ask for "one more" (and occasionally, I might give in), but for the most part, we stick to our deal.

One of my favorite Tommy-isms, however, is when I can get him to give me a compliment.  I will often say to Tommy, "is mommy pretty, beautiful, or silly?" And 99% of the time he responds, "you  beautiful, Mommy."  Kills me every time!

I'll finish with the a reference I made earlier in this post about Tommy not being ready to tell us when he has to go poopie on the potty. And there is a Tommy-ism at the very end that came out of this story.

In the bathtub on Friday night, Tommy tells me he has to poop.  His hand is reaching around...back there. I tell him not to touch anything, quickly got the big potty unlocked with potty seat on and plopped him on.   Next thing you know, he poops!  In the potty...or on the potty...whichever it is! I was so excited, I'm doing the "poop on the potty dance" in the bathroom with him still sitting there. And then something brown catches my eye in the tub amidst the 652 bath toys that Tommy somehow found room to sit. We don't have any brown bath toys. In fact, there are 2 brown non-bath toys in the tub.

I don't recall exactly how I reacted at first. I can proudly say I did not gag or vomit. I must have said something out loud like, "oops...looks like some poopie escaped before we got on the potty!" Tommy started crying, and I tried to console him, but he was very upset. I called for John to come up to assist me, as we were done with the bath - good thing I get him washed and shampooed before letting him play for a bit!  John took Tommy to his room to get dressed and calmed down, and I went downstairs to get my "supplies," of which I had no idea what these supplies were; they ended up being several plastic bags from the grocery store and some Chlorox Clean up with Bleach and paper towels. I got all the toys into 2 plastic bags, and then put a plastic bag on each hand to grab the poops and put them in the toilet - not the easiest things to grab! Did you know they break up pretty quickly sitting in a bathtub?  TMI? Sorry! But, I'm so proud of myself for not even gagging throughout this process! Tommy calmed down and then came across the hall to see what was happening, and then cried again, "my toys, my bath toys, my Dora...." I had to reassure him that I was not throwing them out, but was taking them downstairs to clean overnight. Poor kid was devastated. Tub got a nice extra cleaning and all the toys got soaked overnight in a bin to get disinfected.

Since that night, when Tommy has had to go poopie, he will tell us right before he goes or right after he goes...and then he comes out with this Tommy-ism, "No poopie in the bathtub though!"

No, sweet T, no poopie in the bathtub!