big boy undies in practice

please forgive me for putting your underwear on the web, son.
they're just so cute and little i couldn't resist.

this is really a tale of two children ... living in the same body. 

one is a chipper little fellow, who came home from school yesterday in the same big boy undies he went to school wearing. that's right, it was an accident free, pee- and poo-in-the-potty sort of day! he was so proud, i was so proud, we called grammie to discuss what a big boy he is -- in short, it was awesome.

hoping to keep up the trend, when we got home i said, "hey, john, let's go pee pee in the potty real quick, babe."

enter the other child, a screaming little banshee who proceeded to yell, scream, hit, fall out, storm out, stomp, slam doors, and sulk for an hour.

i tried it all. i tried speaking gently and nicely and talking to him. i tried yelling. i tried spanking. i tried bribing. i tried time out. i tried sending him to his room. he cooperated with all of them*, but didn't stop yelling and crying for a single second. when daddy came home, he tried several of the above, too, to no avail.

(*the sending to his room thing was a new effort, and at first seemed to work great. i said, "you need to stay in your room until you feel like taking a deep breath and feeling better," i said. "ok," he gulped between crying and yelling. but then 30 seconds later he was opening the door and walking into the hallway. when he heard my footsteps coming, he yelled "NOOOO!" and ran back into his room, slamming his door. it would have been funny if it wasn't so awful!)

finally after an hour, he seemed to have cried himself out and was willing to sit and eat something, at which point he had an accident. after all, it had now been nearly two hours since the last potty visit.

once in a fresh pair of big boy undies and with some food in his belly, though, i'm pleased to report that child #1 returned. he was in a good mood for the rest of the evening, used the potty a time or two again, apologized to mommy and daddy, and was overall fun to be around until he went to bed.

and then, the best thing ever happened. he asked me to sing him a lullaby. i asked him which one. he said, "a GREEN one." so i made up a silly green lullaby song, and as i sang ... he beatboxed along. and he did a damn fine job, too.

child #1 is pretty awesome. let's hope child #2 goes on hiatus for a while!