How About a Hug?

This month Atticus has been especially cuddly.  He'll just tell us, "I want a hug," where before we'd have to ask and he would often resist.

A favorite example took place on Oct. 20.  We were spending a quiet morning at home and I decided to try to go over colors with him again.  It wasn't going well and he saw that I was upset.

"What's wrong, Mommy?" he asked.

"I'm just worried about you," I told him.

He thought about this for several seconds, then asked, "How about a hug?"

Needless to say, we love this newfound affinity for affection!
October is seriously the most gorgeous, perfect month in our neck of the woods.  Almost every evening I tell Dane that I want to sleep outside.  One of these days I just might.

On top of the lovely weather, I've felt motivated to celebrate the holiday as much as possible before the baby comes, all of which amounts to our going on plenty of adventures and taking waaaay more pictures than anyone has a right to.

Gilcrease Orchard with our Joy School group:

 (35.5 weeks along in this photo, FYI)

 Yep- Atticus was being difficult in the group photo above.

 

Babysitting:
 
More Joyschool moments:

 F is for Fort and Fashion (yes, Atticus was Spiderman).

Early in the month we had a delightful visit from Bobba.

I'm afraid it wasn't a very relaxing vacation for him, but we so appreciated all of the ways he found to serve us.  Hopefully we'll be able to give him the royal treatment he deserves in the future.

We especially LOVE the chair that he carted down, a gift from Mimi.  THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who was a part of getting the chair down to us!  We've already spent hours in it and look forward to many more.

While Bobba was here, we decided to have an impromptu FHE on speaking kind words (sweet words vs. sour words).  Here's some documentation:

Unfortunately, we failed to take Atticus's unusual pallet into consideration.  When asked if he liked the "sour" taste (for sour words), he answered in the affirmative.  

Oops!  Maybe we'll have to try something bitter next time...

Our second set of visitors came at the end of the month.  It was a whirlwind, especially since Hinckley made his arrival, but we did have a good time.  

Quotes:
"I'm gonna kill _____________ as a door nail" (this goes for everything- you, my hair, your face, your tummy, the bad guys, etc.  It's gotten to the point that we are treating "kill" as a bad word.

"I don't like Lamanites!" (said several nights over the course of the month as he tried to go to sleep.  Lamanites are the new monsters?)

"Give, said the little stream... screaming, screaming all the day..."

"Butt of a poop!" "Poop on your head!" and other such savory sentences (yes, we've discovered the wonderful world of potty language, I'm afraid...)

"What is this?" in reference to cotton candy, as though it wasn't food.  :)  Don't worry- he loved it and was asking for more!

He's learned to pedal a bike from our neighbors

The biggest milestone of the month- other than becoming a big brother?

POTTY TRAINING!!!

This was completely unexpected for us and the timing couldn't be better.

Sure, he had shown more interest, going from yelling at us if we even mentioned poop to running with me to the bathroom while singing a jingle from Daniel Tiger's neighborhood, "If you have to go potty stop right away; flush and wash and be on your way!"  But I really had been keeping my expectations low.

Basically, the Wednesday before his little brother was born, we were at a park with some friends when Atticus ran up to me and said, "Mommy, I have to go potty!"  He had NEVER asked to go in public, especially because he had always said he was afraid he'd fall in big potties.

I almost told him, "No you don't!" but am so glad I restrained myself and "played along," or so I thought. But he went, washed his hands, and it was a great experience.  Two days later, he wanted to wear undies (which we'd tried once or twice before).  I decided to try a new way to motivate him.  I told him that if he stayed dry all day, with no accidents, we would order some Spider-Man undies.

I'm not sure if it was the promised reward or just the timing, but he did great all day, just in time for the arrival of his grandma and two uncles (maybe it was also because he knew they were coming?)   He even stopped in the middle of our ward trunk or treat that night and told me he had to go!-  We ran in with another little friend and proudly showed him how to go potty.  The day had been a success and the undies were ordered.

With Hinckley's arrival two days after that, I was sure that Atticus might regress as far as the potty was concerned, but so far he's stuck to it.  Maybe having several different adults was helpful.  I'm not sure.

The only thing I'm sure of is that, with a new baby in the home, the timing couldn't be better for our big boy to be using the potty!  Hooray!!!