Big Boy Jared!

For everyone who knows me, I have been talking potty training for the past 6 months with everyone.  Jared was not potty training as easily as I had hoped for.  He was the hardest child I have had so far to train. But after much time, Jared decided (finally) that he would finish potty training and mastered it in a few days.  There has been great rejoicing in our house!   It is a wonderful thing!  I am so proud of his wonderful accomplishment and recoginize that he did it.  I stood back and encouraged and cheered, but he did it.  When he decided that he wanted to be a big boy, he learned in a very short amount of time.   I spent lots of months agonizing on how I wasn't a very good mother, when it was all him.  (sounds like a lot of wasted grief, huh... oh well!)

Jared also recently had his first successful dental visit.  We have taken him twice before and it was a disaster.  The last time, we had to leave because he started screaming when we tried to put him in the dental chair and refused to open his mouth.  Carina, David, and Annie had an appointment on Monday and as Michael couldn't get off work to watch James and Jared, I brought them with me.  Jared wanted to watch Annie, so I took him back to the cleaning room.  He stood at Ivy's (the dental hygenist) elbow the entire visit.  She patiently explained to him that she was removing the sugar bugs off of Annie's teeth and showed him everything.  He asked lots of questions and enjoyed checking out the buttons that made "mr. thirsty" and the water work..  When annie was all done, he hopped up in the chair.  Luckily for us, Ivy had some time in her schedule that morning, so we had an unscheduled cleaning for Jared!  He allowed her to clean the "sugar bugs" off of his teeth and brush his top teeth.  He drank some water and let "mr. thirsty" do his job, than declared that he was done.  He even let Dr. Balega, our dentist, count his teeth.  I was so proud of him!  This was a HUGE step forward for him.   Since we had such a good experience this time, with him watching Annie, I scheduled his next cleaning appointment, right after Annie's.  I don't want to mess up a good routine!  

I know my Jared boy is growing up quickly.  I just need to be patient and let him develop on his own time schedule.