Circle

This past Sunday, we had a party for Meatball's birthday. He actually turns 2 this coming Tuesday, but we wanted to be sure and have the party early enough for me. Just in case Ender decided to come early (no, we're not really naming him Ender).

Great time. Lots of guests, lots of food. Everyone got along and the kids were great. And it's a wild toddler celebration when someone pees in the Elmo potty and doesn't empty it, and someone throws paper towels in the cloth diaper pail. We party hard around here.

Another memorable moment: a friend who has a little boy, whom I have not seen in awhile, arrived. I saw the little boy and said, "Look how big you are!" My friend responded by looking at my belly and saying, "Look how big YOU are!"

So Meatball is 2. Almost. And he is VERY smart. But, more importantly, he is very typical. He does all these things that we watched for The Boy to do, and he does them without any sort of professional help. He has recently broadened his drawing technique to include circular strokes, which is a 2-year-old skill. He knows that he's making circles and ovals and identifies them as such, which is not a 2-year-old skill. But he is obsessed with shapes. He knows letters and numbers too, but his preference is for shapes, and he has taken to asking people to draw them for him, just like The Boy does.

At dinner this past Saturday, someone drew him a circle but must not have made it round enough, so when asked what it was, he said "oval!" Everyone's a critic.

Next endeavor: potty training. Yes, it seems like I just went through this with The Boy and was banging my head against the wall about it. Meatball is physically ready to do it--able to sit himself on the potty, able to hold pee for hours, and he can pull down pants but we'll have to refine the skill. A few weeks ago he really seemed in the game mentally as well; right now he's not as much in the mood. But he still is willing to sit, and if he is bare-bummed and starts to go, I can get him to finish in the potty. We're going to try a day of "booty camp" with a friend, where we get together and work on the potty stuff, and they cheer for each other. It might work, and it might not. It would be pretty darned cool for him to go to school/camp potty-trained next week, because he does like the little tiny toilets that they have. He's also a little bit into flushing the toilet and I have to stop him from doing that...except if he actually pees, then I make a BIG deal about letting him flush.

I don't particularly care if I have 2 in diapers...I did it before and I can do it again. But there are windows of interest with potty training and if he's willing to do it now, even if he has some accidents for awhile before really getting it, I'm going to get him started. I even bought him some new underpants for the occasion.

We still haven't sat down with Meatball to open his presents. Probably tomorrow night we'll do it. I think he will understand the present thing more at age 2 than he did at age 1.