We've started potty training in earnest, which my wife courageously began without me during my weekend in Vegas. Our son went naked waist down for a day, completely ditching the diapers going forward. Things apparently went quite well, as he even immediately went diaper-less over night and we haven't looked back.
If you'd like to know, we (she) followed the advice of Oh Crap! Potty Training, which admittedly I still need to peruse.
I'm extremely thankful I wasn't present for the first days of that ordeal, as a tarp was down in the house and Jack made use of it. Eventually by learning some signals, he could be directed to use the toilet. Cheering and encouraging made it mostly a fun experience he wanted to continue. Danielle set the stage very well for my return.
The tough part for me came Monday morning. All of a sudden I was in with both feet and hadn't learned the things my wife did over the weekend. She was back to work and it was my turn to figure everything out. Being told how he acts and how to proceed were certainly needed but Jack and I needed to develop a cadence of our own. And honestly, for the most part it's gone really well. Only once has he wet his pants during the day. Monday and Tuesday both saw accidents of the other sort, a rough transition, but it's improved since. The first successful #2 required like 10 false alarms beforehand. Lately he's improved in telling me when he needs to go, which is totally great and hopefully continues.
Now my frustrations are mostly with different things. I still need to watch him closely, just not like a helicopter with much less worry of a random mess. Too frequently he wants to put his hands inside the bowl after using it, usually pointing out his triumph. Trying to get him to wash his hands results in crying about half the time. When he does happily wash up, he likes to splash water everywhere. He tries to be lazy about pulling up his pants, over and over.
The biggest challenge now though, without a doubt, is always planning around bathroom activities. It's a life-changing event leaving behind the safety-net of diapers and routines need to be altered. As soon as he wakes up, he gets taken to the bathroom. Right before he goes down too, for naps and at night. It's terrifying leaving the house as you're putting distance between him and the toilet. We didn't even attempt our typical, usually daily, one mile stroll until Thursday last week. If he's recently taken care of business you've bought some time, but there remains a lingering concern. Even though he makes it all night, while awake he goes with pretty rapid frequency even if there's not much there, every hour or so. In this way, I kind of feel trapped at home, even more so than in the outset of Covid. Hopefully this stage is over in a few weeks.
It's into this that a new variable was introduced Sunday night. At dinner time we noticed the house was overly warm. With the thermostat set to 75, the actual temp inside was pushing 80. Barely any air was coming out of the vents. It seemed our air conditioner had died, or close to it. With it still August and more 90+ degree days looming, it didn't look good.
Yesterday I made several calls and set up estimates for a new cooling system. Two guys came already today and another one will tomorrow. Luckily after turning off the air overnight Sunday (can machines rest?) it's been able to limp along and keep our house reasonably cool, at a higher temp, yesterday and today so far. Fingers crossed.
So it's been a week. I haven't really allowed myself enough sleep after last weekend, staying up too late watching baseball mostly. The potty training work continues and our house is a little warmer than I'd like. We have a big bill upcoming but with everything original to a house built in '98, this was likely to happen eventually. Currently I'm hearing it'll be four to six weeks before install. Come on old air conditioner, you can make it! Some new fans may have to do. We'll certainly be spending some extra time in the basement.
Wish us luck.
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