Goals

The leaves are falling, the air is cold, Halloween is right around the corner. 

This time last year I was very pregnant and very grumpy.  I was sleeping very little, cleaning, folding, packing, organizing and eating tons of cheeseburgers. 

This year all those things are the same minus the pregnant part.  And way less cheeseburgers. 

I cannot believe how fast this year has gone.  In the blink of an eye I went from pregnant to the proud momma of an almost one year old.  Owner of a tiny little man that surprises me almost daily with his development and physical growth (monster baby). 

In light of this tremendous occasion I thought it only fitting to make some goals for the year ahead.  Yes, we are at the point now where we make actual goals for parenting besides survive and don't shake your baby.  Woo hoo!!

We have arrived to the promised land my friends.

Goals:

1.  As soon as possible begin a night time routine.  This will include bath, book, bottle, bed.  Bed time now consists of diaper change, bottle, lay in bed and walk away.  At whatever time, but usually 8:30 or 9 o'clock.  As Joey gets older I would like to be more consistent in the actions we take before bed so he can understand steps to a process and have a good idea of what he is to do during each step.  We also need to make more of an effort to read to him.  We read to him sporadically, but I want him to have at least a book a day from here on out.

2.  Potty training begins NOW.  I know, "your a crazy psycho lady for even thinking a one year old is capable of that."  Not true friends, not true.  This kind of goes along with the bed time routine thing.  If you get them used to the actions involved in a process, over a period of time, they will begin to put the steps together in their head.  Understandably they aren't capable of communicating their need to potty but if they understand what we do and where we do it and the process involved in it, hopefully the connections in the brain will be made sooner rather than later.  I have a lot of faith in this effort and I know it will take a lot of time, but I am ready for it.  We are even going to a potty "learning" class for 12-18 month olds on November 19th.  Should be fun!

3.  Practice words.  Over the last 2 weeks we have seen a dramatic increase in Joe Joe frustration.  It looks like he is needing to communicate something with us, but doesn't have the tools to relay the message.  So instead he rages out and bites his hands.  Yes, this is where our shitty parenting of not teaching him baby sign shines through.  We know, thank you.  So, to hopefully avoid this dramatic and tearful inability to communicate, we are going to make a huge effort to get him to speak words.  We have already begun, admittedly not 100%, to try and teach him words for things we use all the time.  Baba (we also sign the sign for milk when we say this word), food, yum, hi, bye, etc.  I hope the sooner the connection is made between word and object, we can eliminated the finger biting rage session.

So, those are the main things I want to focus on.  I know if I make that list too long I will just feel like a crap tastic mom for not accomplishing anything.  And, lets be real, the potty training one is a big feat.  So these three things will be the main focus of our parenting for the next couple months. 

Wish us luck!