Toddler in Training

In the last month or so Ryan has taken to reminding us that his birthday is coming up and he's really not a baby anymore. He doesn't understand that not only will he always be my baby, but compared to Will he's very much a baby, and there's really no call for him to be trying to walk as much as he is. In fairness to Ryan, Will was walking almost independently this close to his first birthday, so I shouldn't be surprised that Ryan is as ready as he is, except that this last year has gone by soooo quickly that I have a hard time acknowledging that he isn't actually four months old anymore. Oh well.

Ryan still doesn't crawl and never will, I'm sure. He scoots around like a pro, getting absolutely anywhere he wants. He's not as fast as he would be crawling, but that suits me fine. I have to keep a constant eye on him to protect him from his older brother (who received a ten-minute time out earlier this afternoon for trying to bite off two of Ryan's toes). But now Ryan mostly wants to walk, which is neat because he enjoys it so much and I keep thinking once he can walk he'll be better able to escape Will, but it's also sort of frustrating because he can't walk by himself at all, not even close, and I only recently got used to being able to put him down on the ground and have him scoot around to his heart's content while I did fun things like load the dishwasher. Now he's back to needing more direct attention, but that's OK. It really is fun to see him learning this new step, especially since he was so much older than a lot of babies when he first became mobile.

Ryan's toddler temper is also starting to emerge. He has been so good natured and even keeled his whole life so far that I actually started to wonder if he'd ever throw tantrums, but rest assured, he will. He does. If he wants something that he doesn't get right away he does the full back-arching thing and screeches like his toenails are being pulled off. (Naturally when this happens the first thing I do is check to make sure that Will isn't pulling off his toenails.) He's also a bit of an outdoorsman. He loves being outside more than anything in the world and sometimes he'll throw tantrums simply because he is inside. He points at the door and says, "Dat! Dat!" He's not at all concerned if it's raining out or we're not dressed yet or we're waiting for Will to go to the bathroom or what. This is sort of irritating, but the the good thing is that if we're in a position to go outside he immediately gets very happy and enjoys himself until it is time to go back inside, and then he cries. He's quite a daredevil on the playground equipment and goes down the big slide virtually unassisted, squealing happily the whole time.

As for Will, he is potty-trained. This happened amazingly quickly and easily a couple of months ago. I kept waiting and waiting for some sure sign of his readiness and then one day just decided to give it a try, and it worked. He still has accidents occasionally, but those occur mostly when I'm not willing to fight with him to get him to go to the bathroom, even though it's apparent to the world that he has to. He's often simply too busy doing something else to want to take time out to pee. Eh, we've all been there. But he usually goes days at a time with no accidents, which is awesome. And sometimes he just goes to the bathroom entirely by himself without even telling us that he's going. He's very mature sometimes. Here he is diligently coloring Easter eggs.


It is my job as their mother to dress them alike when I can.


Sometimes we have glimpses of the world to come when Will and Ryan are old enough to play together and interact constructively. I took this picture last month on our first beautiful spring day when it was warm enough outside to justify giving in to Will's constant demand to play with the water table. The boys really got a kick out of it and played together nicely for about two blissful minutes while I sat back and enjoyed. Then Will got out the hose and sprayed Ryan, but that's how it goes. I think in a couple of years they'll be able to play nicely together more of the time.