Potty and Potty

Recently, life with Eli has been bittersweet.  At times, as his mother, I would like to pull out my hair in exasperation but other times I bathe in the enjoyment of this funny little person.  

For many months now, I have been attempting to potty train this boy, but with very little success.  Last night, when I realized we were almost out of diapers again (!!), I made the decision that this has been quite enough.  Eli would absolutely become potty trained today and we would never look back.  Through breakfast this morning, I pumped liquids to get him primed.  But then to my surprise, he sat 40 minutes on his little pot without one drop coming out.  We finally had a success so I put a pull-up on him and let him collect his reward (a 20 minute) cartoon called Little Bear.  While he sat on the couch, the ounces and ounces of liquid he had consumed decided to make an exit.  In those few minutes, he peed enough to overflow his diaper.  I might mention he was still drinking a cup of juice during the show so the pump was still filling.  I put him back on the pot and sure enough, same story.  Another 45 minutes passed before another pee.  After nap and lunch we tried for another but the shy bladder prevailed.  I thought maybe a change of venue might help him, so I put him in front of the sliding glass door.  I have enclosed some pictures.  Needless to say, I am not throwing out all of the diapers tonight.

On a similar subject, Eli is a two-year-old verbal sponge lately.  It seems that he will pick out the word from your sentence that you would least want to hear out of a toddler's mouth and scream it for the world to hear.  I might be a bad parent but some of these words didn't seem that bad to me; they weren't expletives, but I have witnessed the shocked looks on people's faces that might make me think otherwise.  I just laughed when Eli would say "stupid" until he started directing it at people.  Then I had to step in.  Now it is on the forbidden list.  I won't even tell you the name he calls his "parts".  

Tonight, as I rolled on the floor with Eli, I felt a tag from my shirt itch me.  I said out loud, "That itches."  And to my surprise and entertainment, Eli looked seriously at me and said, "Your butthole itches?"  I think he was concerned that I, like him, might need some diaper rash cream.  I thank him for the sensitivity.  I didn't correct him because I was laughing too hard.  

Let's be honest, is anyone really that surprised that my child is the one with the potty mouth, but not the potty skills?