"An apple is an apple, and a pear is a pear...

but a pea is a bloody relief"
Margaret Clarkson (RIP Mum.. no not in Pee, oh never mind..)

Yup, we're toilet training. And not a moment too soon, considering the Son and Heir is now a week past his 4th birthday. Given a choice in the matter, we'd have taken the Braedenator out of nappies a LONG time ago. In fact, I started working towards this when he was approx 16 mths old.

Pah. Stuff and nonsense, even. The kid (as ever) had his own agenda.

All the medical and behavioural folk said "Don't worry about it, kids like him tend to be a bit delayed, especially as toileting is linked to talking and he's only started talking six months ago!" Yeah right.. but where were they when other parents gave us pitying looks?

I had planned to attack the problem again... ahem.. rephrase that.. "Work on the issue" after Brae's big birthday party, but one of his teachers took the bladder by the horn (so to speak), and popped him into undies one day and said "Let there be wet!"

That was about a week ago, and it's taken til tonight for any measurable success.

Thing is, Brae didn't actually REALISE where pee comes from. The look on his face was priceless when he twigged that he not only had his very own fire hose, but that it was aim-able too!

Oh he could pee before, that's a bit obvious ;-) The tricky bit was getting him to let go of it in the toilet bowl, NOT the lounge carpet or on the dog or on the couch. I'm running out of disinfectant and I've baking-soda'd so much the house looks like it's got monster dandruff.

We made a huge fuss of him, and rewarded him with chocolate. Praise & high-fives alone weren't enough to express our heartfelt delight.

Gods.. if anyone had ever said I would celebrate a kid's piddle I'd have recommended they see a new shrink.

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I've got pics of Brae's birthday parties (1 for family, 1 for friends) & both his cakes. I'll pop them up when my main computer's fixed. In the mean time you'll have to make do with this cute moment..

Johnny Magic was entertaining the kidlets, and he was performing a trick that involved sad faces and happy faces. He asked the children how to make a sad face into a happy face. Not getting a lot of takers, he narrowed in on the birthday boy and asked,

"Braeden, do you know how to make someone happy?"

Brae thought for a moment then went into his thinking-chant..
"I know, I know, I know, I know... " (and on and on... until finally he thought of the answer and proclaimed in a confident, proud voice...

"Me!"

I got a bit choked about that, and when Johnny Magic looked at me and said "Is that right, Karl?" it was all I could do to nod through my tears.

It's moments like that when you realise you're not doing too bad a job, when your kid knows (without any parental prompting) that they're the reason you smile.