If I only had the camera...

Today is Wednesday, April 8 and normally I have class on Wednesday's. This means I would leave work about 4pm, ride the bus home, and arrive shortly before 5pm. I'd eat a quick dinner, play with the kids for 15 minutes and then head off to class that begins at 6pm.

Tonight, Colette and the kids came to work to pick me up which meant that we got home about 415 instead of 445. Since it was about 55 degrees out, sunny, and I had an extra 45 minutes on my hands, I decided to take the kids to the playground at Westridge Elementary. This would give Colette a few minutes of peace and quiet and me a little play time prior to heading out to class.

Brayton rode his bike to Westridge and I pushed Lauren in the stroller. Once we arrived at the school there is this large slide that they can climb up and slide down the tube and they really love it. So, we did that for a while. There were about 50 kids there for after school care playing as well, and my two kids were by far the youngest on the playground. Also present were what appeared to be one father and 3 mothers standing in relative proximity to me while I was watching B & L play going up and down the slide. After a bit, Brayton started straying away from the slide, first he went to the swings then to the other items on the playground. I was able to keep pretty good track of him so I wasn't too concerned, I figured I'd just let him play.

While B was playing on the swings, Lauren was at the top of the slide playing and she was kind of getting bumped around by the older kids. They weren't doing anything mean to her, rather she was just slower than they were and she was kind of in the way so she was getting a little fussy. Because of this, I was trying to convince her to get on the slide and come down so we could go play over by Brayton.

While I was concentrating on Lauren, I heard one of these three women go "Oh, my gosh, look at that little boy." Obviouslly this peaked my interest because I knew it was likely they were talking about my son and I was concerned he had fallen or something while I was paying attention to Lauren.

I scanned the playground and could not see Brayton. I looked and looked for what seemed an eternity but in reality was probably only a few seconds. Then I heard another lady say, "I can't believe that, who's child is that."

It was about this time that I found Brayton. He had strayed to the edge of the playground and there he was, pants down to his ankles peeing on the grass...His bare butt almost glistening in the sunshine. My son... There were kids running everywhere and these 4 parents were watching my son pee right there on the edge of the playground.

One of the women said, "I'm sure glad that's not my child."

About that time, Brayton got finished, pulled his pants up and came running over to me saying "Daddy, I peed on the grass!!! Daddy, I peed on the grass!!!"

He was so proud, and there was no hint of shame or any idea that there was anything wrong with peeing on the grass. He did what came naturally. You gotta go pee, so go. I'm glad he didn't stop by the end of the slide and pee there, but he could have. At least he peed off the playground at a place where others don't regularly tread.

The sight of my son with his pants down at a fairly crowded playground would have been a great photo to add to the story, but unfortunately I didn't have the camera. Opportunity missed I guess.

This is one of those moments that will forever be ingrained in my memory though, and a story I'm sure I'll tell at his graduation or wedding someday. What a wonderful life.

Learning to pee...

For close to six months now, Colette and I have been trying diligently to get Brayton potty trained. We started on Christmas day, 2007. He has been doing pretty well, but some days he definitely does better than others. At times, he purposely pees his pants just to prove that he still has control. You can ask him, "Brayton, do you need to go potty." He'll reply "no" and stand there and pee his pants just a second later.

Well, Brayton and Lauren both went to Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Gordons this weekend. Colette and I were actually quite worried he'd not do very well going to the potty. Grandma Cindy said that they had a few accidents but that he'd actually done quite well.

Last night, as the story goes, while I was in class Colette gave B and Lauren a bath. She was trying to get Lauren's pajamas on and simeltaneously asking B if he had to go potty before bed. While she was doing so, B climbed up on his step grabbed the toilet seat and proceed to pee in the toilet without any coersion or help from mommy. Colette mentioned that she really didn't know how to respond because it was such a surprise since it's usually a struggle to get him to go.

Since that moment, B has been going pee on his own without much help from us. Colette still reminds him that he needs to keep his undies dry and that he needs to go potty. But for the past two days, he's been doing this on his own.

The question in our mind is - did the light recently just go on in Brayton's mind or did Grandma Cindy teach him to do this?

It is a mystery.