I'm A Big Kid Now

In t minus 45 days Lil Buddy will be two...The Big Dos...and yesterday it hit me...my baby boy isn't a baby anymore.  Really, I should have seen it coming.  At the beginning of last summer, he refused to sit in a high chair anymore...at home anyway.  Within the last month or so, he's even refused to sit in one at a restaurant.  Nay...now that he sees his sister sitting without any prop ups when we eat out, he doesn't even want a booster.  Mid summer we moved him into a "big boy" bed and sold his crib and changing table on Craig's List...and the jogging stroller.  Just before Thanksgiving we gave away the last of his baby toys...and the Graco stroller we've had since SweetPea was born...and the Pack N Play, the Boppy pillow...and finally, a week ago...the baby gates.  With the exception of the "just in case we need it" little umbrella stroller, the final vestiges of babyhood are gone.

The funny thing is that none of that reality really sunk in...until yesterday.  I'd gone to school to pick up the kids like I always do (they go for two half days per week)...and the toddler room teacher tells me "we're not allowed to use Pull Ups in this room."  You see, the classroom he's assigned to doesn't do potty training...but we've started trying to train Lil Buddy at home and when he ran out of diapers at school recently, we dropped off a box of Pull Ups to be consistent with what he's used to wearing at home.    That conversation kicked off the discussion about the next class up, the "junior preschool" (as opposed to the junior pre-K that SweetPea is in...yeah, it's complicated) class, where they start potty training...and the fact that he was on the verge of transitioning into it.  Then it hit me like a bus.  He really isn't a baby anymore...and the thought made me feel a little mushy inside...and a little anxious about how he'd take the transition.

I don't know why this time around it hit me like it did.  For one, it's the first time since I was pregnant with SweetPea that all of the baby things are gone from the house.  Obviously, with her, we held on to everything knowing we'd eventually have another.  When it came to transitioning at daycare, I never worried much about SweetPea.  She'd always been such a "go with the flow" kid and had never looked back when they moved her up through the different classes at daycare...but then again, she'd been in daycare full time since she was three months old and had been with the same group of kids for two years.  Each time she moved from one class to another, she was reunited with kids she already knew.  For Lil Buddy, who had been at home with me and his sister since he was born, school was a little more of an adjustment.  The teachers tell me he took to being in school really well, especially for a kid who had never been in school before...and they assured me he'd have a handful of kids in the next room who he knew (they'd moved up from his room since he's been there).  Even though I'm a little nervous about how he'll take the change, I'm mostly just a little shell shocked with the realization that he's a full fledged "big guy".

Then another thing hit me...moving up at school means he'll be in a class with other kids learning to go to the potty.  That seemed to be the magic bullet for SweetPea...seeing other kids do it.  Within 3 months of starting Montessori school when she turned two, she was 100% potty trained.  Within a few months after that she was sleeping through the night, accident free.  The teachers tell me Lil Buddy already shows signs he's ready..staying dry for long spells...telling them when he's gone #2.  I have no illusions that he will be trained as fast as she was...but just thinking about a life with no more diapers...ah, the freedom!  Maybe this growing up thing won't be so bad after all!

Now...if only I can teach him to make breakfast for himself...or better yet...to bring ME breakfast in bed!