Monkeying around

One of the few Jon and Kate Plus Eight episodes I ever saw involved one of Kate’s brood waking up in a poopie mess. I’m talking poop up the back, in the crib, everywhere. They were young, still toddlers, during this episode, but I remember thinking, “Oh god, I hope that never happens to me.” Nothing makes me want to puke faster.

Well, in the past 24 hours, Monkey has more than deserved his nickname.

Last night, right before bed, he had a poopie. As I was changing his diaper, he reaches down, grabs his diaper (yes—with poop STILL in it!) and flings it over his head. I almost passed out. Poop hit the side of his head, and a giant turd landed right next to his ear. Visions of a future GG Allen quickly filled my head. Fortunately, Jon was there to help with the mess, but had he not been there, I honestly don’t know what I would’ve done. Dunked Jordan in a bath of antibacterial gel immediately, no doubt.

And then this morning, we had a surprise poopie diaper. Once again, Jordan managed to writhe in all manner of ways, making cleanup a colossal mess. Into the wash goes his bedspread.

Once all was said and done, though, I realized that I had overcome perhaps one of my biggest fears as a parent – cleaning up toddler poop. Not cute baby poop; that’s totally different and quite honestly, pretty manageable.

Sweet dreams

We’ve reached yet another milestone with Jordan. We’ve transitioned to a big-boy bed.

After several near-misses with him climbing out of the crib, Jordan’s escape attempts led Jon and I to go on the hunt for a toddler bed. We perused through Ikea and Jordan tested a few beds, finally settling upon a white bed, low to the ground, with sheep on the headboard.

He was so excited about his big boy bed, so Jon and I kept our fingers crossed that he would sleep through the night. And he did, for the most part. We only had to get up twice. Jon got up at 1 pm (Jordan’s pacis were on the floor) and I got up at 4 am (he was just scared).

The past two nights, however, have been great. He’s slept through the night and actually making him go to sleep has been much easier than it has been in the crib. Talk about being lucky! We usually read two books (lately, the selection has been from "Brown Bear" and "Mrs. McNosh and the Giant Squash" or "Binky."). He'll try to negotiate a glass of water or juice or his deeses (yet another hurdle we'll have to eventually overcome). But once is said and done, he's good to go.

Next step and the one that we're quite frankly dreading -- taking the dees (aka: paci) away. Baby steps.