The newest thing is that all items need a possessor. I think Josiah really enjoys his growing ability to combine words, and adding the owner's name before an object is quite rewarding in its own right. His absolute favorite thing to say is "Dada's boots," perhaps because he is so proficient at it, or perhaps because he has seen them so much with the recent Georgia flooding. I was quite surprised when he picked up the keys to the scooter and called them "googer keys" rather than just "keys." Everything is Mama's or Dada's, it seems. Luckily, nothing is "mine"'s yet. Today we were walking through the yard and Josiah bent down to point to one of the stepstones. He said, "Mama's rock." I said, "That's Mama's rock?" to which he replied, "yeah." That leads me to another topic, similar in nature. I get SO tickled when I ask him a question and he replied with "yeah!" It is so funny---maybe because I was so used to only hearing "no," or maybe because it is strikingly clear compared to the rest of his vocabulary. It is so precious. Another one of my favorites is to get the response "Dun know" (ie, don't know) when I ask a question. SO PRECIOUS! When we are around other kids that are such masters of language it makes me realize how special and fleeting this time is where he can fully understand everything, but only replies in a couple of words that sound so cute.
Josiah is emulating the princess and the pea in regards to his shoes. If there is anything in his shoe besides 5 toes and a foot, he panics. He comes up fussing, lifting his foot to receive help rectifying the situation. Today I made him try to fix it himself. He did a fairly good job, but he still wanted help occasionally. I'm sure he will be less distressed when we retire sandals for the year.
The potty training is going well, though we are still working on Josiah's ability to get his pants down himself. He is doing a very good job telling us when he needs to go while we are out and about. This is such a relief. We aren't 100% off the hook, but I don't really know when one is. It has made me very aware of finding bathrooms while I'm shopping. My mom got a good kick out of me running around in a panic when we took Josiah for ice cream and there wasn't a bathroom. He told me he needed to poo-poo. Oh the distress that caused for all parties involved. I took him to the back corner of the parking lot in the bushes, and when I pulled his pants down there in public he looked at me like, "Ugh! Mom!" and said, "SHORTS!" while trying to pull them back up himself. So the mom embarrassment begins. Good. After 3 attempts, including one by Noni, to replicate a potty in the wild, we ended up making it home. I was really thankful. My overall feeling about the potty is that I feel mighty accomplished since we are still receiving 1 or 2 word responses in all conversation.
The weaning is...well, coming along. The week apart did nothing to quench his thirst for the na-na, as he has no problem being separated from it if I am not in the picture. Over the last week we have lessened our time with the na-na every morning, and I am noticeably producing less milk. I am so grateful for that. I would like to say he is loosing interest, but I think that is more a hopeful wish than reality. I have been praying about it (side note-who prays about quitting breastfeeding?!? I feel so privileged. I feel like most breastfeeding prayers are in regards to making it work or making more milk!) I truly feel like the Lord has a time and a season and a purpose for this extended breastfeeding relationship, and He is bringing the season to a close in His own perfect timing. And yes, I do feel a peace that it is being taken care of on my behalf, as I have been completely unsuccessful ending it on my own merit.
I would really like to mention an interaction I had with one of my patient's this week in regards to breastfeeding. I assisted in the delivery of a woman's fourth child. She told me she only wanted to bottle feed. I talked to her briefly, but she didn't really seem responsive. One of our dear new doctors spent some time educating her on the benefits of breastfeeding, and wouldn't you know that was all it took for her to ask me to come help her try it out. I helped her get her baby comfortably latched, and as the baby nursed like a champ she proceeded to ask me a lot of questions about breastfeeding (how long, how much, how more nursing means more milk made, etc). I told her about all of the advantages (lower respiratory illness, less ear infections, increased immunity through childhood (especially in a home with other children who go to school), higher IQ, etc). She was sold on the idea and said she had never considered breastfeeding with her other kids because she didn't know how much better it was for the baby. She then asked me, "Does your son breastfeed?" to which I told her "yes, he does." She asked how old he is, and I told her. This is when I would have expected my bottle feeding, uneducated mom to be grossed out. But she didn't even bat an eye. I just gave her a brief synopsis of how much he liked it and how we were working on quitting. She thought it was great. In that moment of what felt like vulnerability to me I found so much comfort in this woman's new interest in breastfeeding and her non-judgmental approach to extended breastfeeding. It's amazing how far a little education will change people's perspective on how to do things. I was very proud of her for having the courage to not just do things the way she had always done them.
I am vowing to spend part of my evening finishing out our trip posts. Look for it below this post, as I have already started it.
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