Yet Another Growing Boy in Underwear!

Alright...since I recently cannot seem to move any pictures around when I post having all of them lumped up together at the top will have to suffice.

Hapy 2nd Birthday Sweet Gavin

Best buddies...and yes, that would be a red shirt with gray and white camo shorts Garrett has going on. He dressed himself...what else is there to say.

Still highly impressed with the novelty of his underwear

Always willing to show it off. And no, Gavin does not have eye shadow on his right eye. We can chalk that one up to him playing slip and slide in the bathtub with a ton of rowdy brothers. Despite the war wounds he wouldn't let the tub win and kept right on going.

No matter how many times we cross this milestone it never ever falls short of thrilling me from head to toe. It is a feeling unrivaled by most to see your children take take those first few steps into their independence. This milestone came much much sooner for sweet Gavin than I thought it would. He is our one that took 10 months to crawl, 17 entire months to walk and has seemed to not be in a huge hurry to do anything at all. He is pretty content just to sit and watch the world go by...up until the day he figured out how much fun it was to take part in it. Once he learned how to run he took off and never really quit. I suppose it helps tremendously having 6 other siblings go before you in your potty training endeavors...watching them pee and poop day in and day out.

He began coming to me about 6 weeks ago everytime he peed or pooped wanting his diaper changed. I eventually refused to change a once peed in diaper. I was having to do a diaper load twice a day and that lasted for about 3 days before I grew tired of it. I knew I needed to jump back on the toilet wagon and train him but laziness and procrastination overtook my will to move forward with it. I reasoned to myself that, afterall....the boy is not even 2 yet. By the time he reached his 2nd birthday on the 12th of July I had no more excuses other than to face my own slothful ways. I have never been good at admitting to laziness...or even surrendering to it.... so to admit it to myself brought to light my parental inadequacies and the determination to overcome them. As I march through my days I continue to tell myself that it is not just one choice but many that make up whether I accomplish something or just throw in the towel and give in, as is so easy to do with so many young children in a home. The little toy that lay in the floor for days on end is much easier to just walk by than to actually stoop to pick up. The piece of trash the older ones missed that lay in the yard for a week is easier to walk by than to bend and toss in the trash on the way by. And I know this sounds as though it is sheer insanity to the normal everyday mind but to a fellow mom of many it is a well understood concept.

And so this same theory applied to potty training the new up and coming independent one. And to make matters worse...now that we cloth diaper the urgency to get him up and out of diapers wasn't so urgent since the cost of diapers is now non existent. But, alas, I could not ignore my own short comings and I geared up for the task at hand. After only sitting on the toilet a few times and growing frustrated he wouldn't be released to freedom until he produced something within the commode he promptly figured out how to pee. The whole household cheered and sang his praises....for this milestone NEVER grows old. And so it is that he has been reliably peeing in the toilet for quite some time now. We still are waiting for him to master the pooping part of the job. As of now he either prefers to poop in the yard.....lovely.....or wait until the diaper is on at night. For outings I still do not trust him enough to entirely leave him in underwear so a diaper is put on for good measure. But he has yet to pee or poop in it and has been telling me he needs it off to go. So, with this event I figure we are pretty close to being fully potty trained. He sees me dump his poop in the toilet and he gets the joy of watching everyone else in the household go so I figure we are only days away from mastering this art as well.....as he appears to be trying very hard but has yet to produce something of his own in there. Never the less...it is still entirely exciting and no less shocking that what has been the slowest baby in the family to do pretty much everything in life is now the 2nd earliest to potty train. Grayson has him beat by 5 months as he was 19 months old when he completely mastered it all and Gavin is just barely 24 months old. Aubrey was 25 months, Evye a little more than 2 1/2, Garrison and Grant 2 1/2 exactly and Garrett just a little short of 2 1/2.

So it is that we have yet another little man in underwear these days. It lightens the laundry load but, even more, is the amazing feeling of success once more as a parent. And we will have a little over 7 entire months of only 1 in diapers.

Happy Birthday Sweet Gavin boy. You never cease to amaze me with everything new you come up with. The way you do things and how you do them in your own unique time.