1) He has finally learned how to pedal his bike! This has been a long time in coming. He knew how to pedal, and could pedal the tricycle for a few feet before he would get frustrated and revert to scooting with his feet, Fred Flintstone-style. But he's been playing outside with our neighbor Elie, who is seven years old and rides a two-wheeler. He was having trouble keeping up with her by just scooting, and she has been encouraging him to pedal after her. He started off slowly one day, and by the next he was tearing up the pavement on both tricycle and Big Wheel. We took a walk on Friday and he rode his Big Wheel around our street, all around the lake and back home again, which was at least a half-mile journey. There is no stopping him now!
I do need to get him a new bike helmet, though. His old one won't even fit on his head anymore.
His independent streak has returned in full force, and 'I can do it all by myself!' is his favorite saying these days. I have been so happy by this development, because the clingy/whiny/'I can't do it, YOU do it' phase was getting really old. He has started dressing himself (with some help) and putting on his own socks and shoes again. And in exciting (to me, anyway) news,
2) He's started peeing standing up! (Sorry, no pictures here, although it is pretty darned cute). He just decided that he wanted to do it one day this week and that was it. I am happy about this because it makes going potty a faster event (for some reason, whenever he is sitting on the potty, he feels it is time to daydream, play, and sing, and generally dawdle. When he's standing, he tends to do his thing and be done with it...although there is still some singing, usually.) The only downside: his questionable aim, and his realization that he can now direct where he wants his pee to go. In addition to spraying the seat, lid and wall this morning, he decided this afternoon that it would be an excellent idea to pee in the wastebasket...the mesh wastebasket, which means it also went all over the floor, too. He got a time-out for that one, but John and I were laughing when he couldn't see us.
In related news,
3) He stayed dry all night Friday night! He usually soaks through an overnight Pull-Up and plastic pants, but when he got up on Saturday morning, he was bone-dry. This was especially impressive since he was up coughing for a good portion of the night and had some Sprite while I was sitting up with him (darn croup, rearing its ugly head again). We made sure to give him lots of praise for staying dry, and he was very proud of himself. For some reason, though, he pooped in his underwear four times the rest of the day. But hey, we'll take the victories where we can and overlook the setbacks.
I also realized how much he has grown over the past month or so. I was packing away his outgrown clothes and was suprised to see that many of the clothes that were so big on him at Christmas are now way too short or tight. He is forty pounds and a size 4T/5T. Our baby is growing up so fast, but we are loving every milestone and memory that comes along.
