Five for Friday: Jayce

It seems that my little family blog has been neglected lately. Sorry!!! It's not for a lack of things to say, I actually have plenty, I've just been busy doing instead of writing lately. But I am attempting to rectify that a bit this week, and for today I'll be turning to Tiffany's tried and true method, 5 for Friday.

1.) I made Jayce this great little desk last week! I love it! I put it on Lemon Tree Creations on Monday, which you can see here if interested. I discovered last week that my mom and sister never check the LTC site because they know that I sometimes refer to a project that I've done over there on here, and they don't want to check both sites. There were a few other times while I was with them when I would refer to something on Lemon Tree and they'd be like, "Wait, is that the Blues and Branches thing?" Apparently a family blog, a creative blog, and an etsy site are just too much to keep track of individually, so I need to pool them all here. :) Love you Mom and Chels.

2.) Jayce has started saying that things are cute, and it is cracking me up because not only does he say it at the at appropriate times, he says it in that kind of high-pitched inflection that you would use if you were calling something cute.

"Momma's beads. Cute!", at my necklace.

"Baby. Cute!"

Also, this week I was trying on a few dresses for an upcoming wedding. Jayce was playing, stopped and looked over at me and said, "Momma's pants. Cute!"

I stared at him for a second, trying to decode what he was talking about, until I realized that the word "dress" probably wasn't a part of his vocabulary yet.

"Oh, Mom's not wearing pants buddy, this is a dress." I said, grabbing at the dress' hem.

"Dress. Cute." and then he went on playing.

I don't know where he learned that! I'm impressed that he seems to get that necklaces, babies and dresses are things that could be classified as cute, but doesn't think that sidewalk chalk or trains fall into that category as well.

3.) Have you ever heard of the book, Let Me Hold You A Little Longer. I haven't read it, but read about it on my friend Page's blog. It is written by a woman who observed how she spent so much time celebrating her children's firsts, and was often unaware of the last time that they would do something in particular. I didn't read the book on purpose, because, well, it sounds adorable but also incredibly sad!! I don't want to think about that!

But I have been, especially these last few weeks. Since we took away Jayce's pacifier, I obviously knew when the last time he was going to use it would be, but I didn't know that it would be the end of many other parts of his bedtime routine. He used to have a whole list of things that he would ask for at bedtime, starting with the 2 most important, bear and paci, and then would run down the list as we were taking him up to bed and putting him down. Bear, paci, 2 bears, blankie, 2 blankies, shoulders (he wanted to be covered by the blankies, not just have them), light, fan. It was almost a little bit of a game to see if we would remember everything before he reminded us about it. But now the whole system has been thrown off, and most of those items, including the bear, are thrown out of the crib in protest when we put him down.

He also won't let Chris sing to him when they rock together. Even if Chris just starts to hum lightly, Jayce will say, "No Dad." It's funny, but sad.

He has stopped saying "Uh-huh," and emphatically bringing his head up and down when he wants to affirm something, and instead sweetly says, "yes" with a very distinct "s" sound. It sounds so formal and cute, we love it, but are sad about the end of "Uh-huh."

4.) Jayce has started thanking me, unprompted, for a little bit of everything. It happens several seconds after I've handed him his drink, or helped him with his train tracks, or put on his shoes. It's almost as though I help him in some way, he thinks about it for a second and then realizes how much he appreciates me and wants to let me know.

Now I know that's not what is really happening, it just seems that way.

"Fanks, Mom." he'll say, looking over at me sweetly or as he walks out of the room. It still surprises me a little bit every time, but I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

5.) The potty. The one thing that I have been told the most about potty training from my doctor, the parenting classes, and my friends is, "Just wait until they're ready!" I don't want it to become a discipline issue, or a power struggle issue, and if he isn't ready anyway then I'll just make myself miserable and exhausted in the process. So I've been waiting for him to show an interest, as advised, and we haven't talked about the potty in months. Last week, I was surprised when Jayce suddenly announced to me that he needed to do the thing, I put him on his little potty and he did it. The big thing. (Trying to avoid potty talk, even though this is about the potty.) A week later he did it again.

I'm at a bit of a loss here, because I feel like this snuck up on me. Should I reward him? He is doing it by choice now, so if I add an M&M incentive, is that going to throw things off? He also seems a little bit shy/embarrassed about it, which is probably normal. Afterwards, I tried telling him "Thank you for going in the potty" and "Mom is really proud of you" but he was not interested in hearing it at all. He also didn't want to tell dad about what he'd done, even when Chris responded the same way as I had. What gives? What should I do? Leave him alone? Talk to him more about it? Start full speed ahead into training now that he seems to have "shown an interest?" I really don't know, so just tell me. Please.