Would you like fries with that?

I understand that when potty training a little one, stress and a busy schedule can cause regression to varying degrees. Bubby, who's in the potty training phase of wearing big boy undies all day and Pull-Ups at night, had a pretty busy schedule last week.

There was the Christmas parade.

Meeting Santa.

Checking out holiday lights.

And a performance of Yo Gabba Gabba Live.

With so many things happening in just a few days' time, no one could fault the tired little two-and-a-half-year-old if he backslid a bit in his potty training and had a few accidents.

Thing is, Bubby didn't. Quite the contrary, in fact.

Despite the crazy holiday schedule, this week Bubby had his very first dry night wearing big boy undies to bed!

Hooray for Bubby! Give that boy a hand!

Megan called Tuesday to tell me of the fantastic feat.

Can I talk to him? I asked.

"Sure!" and handed the phone to Bubby. "Hi, Gramma!" he said.

Hey, Bubby! Did you have a dry night last night?

"Yeah ... my underwear was DRY!"

What a big boy you are! I'm so proud of you!

"Yeah, I'm eating fries."

Ummm ... Okay ... I love you, Bubby! Great job!

"Love you. Buh bye!"

Fries? Did I hear him right?

"We're celebrating his dry night with a Happy Meal," Megan explained. "For being such a big boy, Bubby got a Happy Meal for lunch."

Ah, now I get it. Forget giving the boy a hand, he got a Happy Meal instead!

Yay for dry undies! Yay for Happy Meals! Yay for fries!

Most of all, a double yay for my big boy Bubby!

Holiday question of the day:

What are the ingredients of your favorite holiday beverage?

Uncharted waters

We did it. Jim and I made it through our first time decorating the Christmas tree as empty-nesters. Meaning, we did it alone. Just the two of us.

After 28 years of tree-trimming being a loud, festive, family event, this year there were no little ones hanging eight ornaments in a space meant for three. No kiddos closing their eyes and holding out their hands awaiting presentation of the annual new ornament from Mom. No more jokes about the carrot, the pickle, the Russian Santa. No more surly teens swearing under their breath at one another as I ask if they could please just get along so we can get the tree done without someone crying. And no more girls home from college for the holiday and savoring the family time they'd missed while away.

This year, the ornaments are evenly spaced, there was no surliness, and there was no swearing. There were, though, a few tears. From me.

This is a huge milestone and not one I hoped to reach so soon. In fact, I hoped to never reach it at all. I hoped that even once my girls were grown and gone, there would be tree-trimming parties. That I'd have my daughters, their partners, my grandchildren running all about as Christmas music played and they clamored for this ornament or that. All the while we'd be sharing memories of holidays and tree-trimmings past.

But it wasn't to be. Not even close.

Maybe next year things will be different.

Or maybe next year will be the same. But at least having been through it this year, it won't feel so darn empty and strange.

Holiday question of the day:

What is your favorite ornament on your Christmas tree?

The more things change ...

In the two months between seeing Bubby in August and visiting him last week, the little dude has grown, matured, and mastered a few skills.

The biggest change is that Bubby now attends preschool. He eats out of a lunchbox with his classmates, participates in recess, lines up for class and washes his hands all by himself.

He's also learned to drink from a cup ... "with TWO hands, Gramma!"

He can pedal his trike ... sometimes even making it from one end of the patio to the other, to which he proudly exclaims, "I did it! I did it, Gramma!"

He no longer wears a diaper and wears Pull-Ups only at night; in the morning, they're still dry.

He used to adamantly avoid face dunks in the bathtub. Now he enjoys putting his face in the bath water and blowing bubbles.

He talks ... and talks ... and talks. Most of the time, it's in full sentences. Two of my favorites from last week: "I want to go to PawDad's house. I miss him." And, "Did you hear that, Gramma? The baby in my tummy went RAAAAR!" (The little guy understands the concept of babies in the tummy more than he does hunger pangs!)

He's no longer content to just walk, he runs ... "really fast":

He cried when dropping off Gramma at the airport -- not because he didn't want to get back into his carseat after hugging me goodbye, which is usually the case, but because he didn't want me to leave without him.

Those are just a smidgen of the many ways my beautiful Bubby has grown ever bigger between visits.

Even with all the growing and changing, though, several things remain the same.

Bubby still loves Elmo.

He still wriggles his fingers under the bathroom door when I'm in there, giggling and saying, "Gramma, come out!"

He still loves to read.

And to be held.

And hugged.

He still loves to dance, especially "the pumpkin dance" to show off his pumpkin stickers:

He still is a finicky eater. Now, though, he readily lets you know exactly what on his plate he doesn't like, which includes but isn't limited to anything brown, green, too hot, too cold, with "something in it" (such as spices or seeds), eggs, potatoes, turkey and "keeni" (meaning zucchini, of course).

He still loves tractors.

Roxy is still his best buddy.

And Mommy and Daddy are still his very favorite people in the whole entire world.

Today's question:

Speaking of things changing ... or staying the same ... did you do mail-in voting or did/will you vote in person today?

This is the end

For Bubby's first Halloween, Megan dressed her precious little Bubby, then just over four months old, as the most huggable of elephants:

For Bubby's second Halloween, Megan dressed her still precious little Bubby as the most adorable of ducks:

For Bubby's third Halloween, yesterday, Megan wanted to continue with the theme of cute little animals. Bubby (and Preston) had a different idea -- and a little more input this year.

So, despite Megan's wish for continued cute and cuddly costumes, the still precious Bubby dressed instead as a ...

... tough little boxer, complete with sneers of "Ya wanna fight?!" accompanied by hits of the mits together!

So much for cuddly. Although, if you ask this grandma, the growing-too-quickly boy is still pretty darn cute.

Such is parenting, Megan. All good things surely must come to an end.

Fortunately, good things of another sort are always right there, just waiting to take its place.

Today's question:

It's the first of November -- what do you most look forward to this month? What do you least look forward to?

Photo replay

Megan's friend Alison is a fantastic photographer, so she's the go-to portrait person when it comes to Bubby. This is one of the photos Alison took to mark Bubby hitting two years of age.

Hard to believe what a big boy he's become in two short years!

Today's question:

How often do you have professional portraits taken, as a family, couple or individual?

Rated M for mature

It's been one month since I last saw Bubby and in those few passing weeks, my grandson has grown by leaps and bounds. It's not so much that Bubby has grown -- he hasn't shot up several inches or moved on to a bigger size of clothing. It's more that he has matured.

To wit:

• Bubby no longer wears a diaper. Woo-hoo! Big boy underwear is the garment of choice -- adorned with trains and more -- and Pull-ups are worn only at night. Even so, the nights have been dry. (If you ask me, it was far too easy for Megan. Aren't boys supposedly much more difficult to potty train than girls?)

• Bubby is now a seasoned school boy, attending preschool five days a week.

• Thus far into his school career, Bubby has already been attacked by bullies three times. The first came in generic bully form: a tough little cuss who also serves as one of Bubby's best friends. Apparently this little kid likes to push and shove and make other bad choices when it comes to interacting with his fellow classmates. The second bully Bubby faced was strep. An antiobiotic helped him face down this particular bully. And this one did carry a silver lining: Because of the strep, Bubby was absent the day Bully-Boy pulled out the big guns -- his chompers -- which he used to chomp nearly every other two-year-old in the class. The third bully? A stomach bug. I gotta hand it to Bubby for his response to this bad guy. Despite the yuckiness that goes along with stomach bugs, my little trooper maintained status quo on potty training, with no backsliding into diapers and no messes. Well, no messes that come from the diaper end.

• As the ties of friendship between Bubby and Bully-Boy remain strong despite Bully-Boy's treatment of Bubby, Bubby has participated in making some not so great decisions. He's not been busted by the teacher for his infractions, though. Only his buddy has. Yet after witnessing Bully-Boy complete a time-out handed down by the teacher for an unnamed act, Bubby confronted the teacher, told her he needed a time-out for something he'd done, and proceeded to take his turn in the time-out chair. After a minute or so, Bubby told the teacher "All done" then merrily went on his way, satisfied that he'd done his time ... for a crime the teacher didn't even know he'd committed.

• Bubby has mastered the art of conversation ... and how to cut it short when a Chatty Cathy invades his space. Megan told of a recent day after school, with Bubby chilling in his car seat in the back while Megan drove them home. Questions from Megan of "How was your day?" and "What did you do in school?" were met with brief answers from Bubby followed by, "Stop talking, Mommy. No more talking." End of story, end of conversation. He needed to regroup after hours of interaction with toddlers, and he had no difficulty whatsoever letting Mommy know the time for talking was over.

• Bubby also is mastering the art of golf, the swinging of the club in particular. By watching Mommy and Daddy practice golf on the Wii, Bubby has picked up a masterful technique he practices with his toy clubs and ball in the backyard. Just like Mommy and Daddy, he lines up the ball, grabs hold of the club, pulls the club back and ... swings! And just like Mommy and Daddy, when Bubby misses the ball or it goes in an unintended direction, he lets out an unmistakeable "Dammit!" (With this one, Mommy and Daddy learned a quick lesson themselves in finding more appropriate ways of expressing frustration with sloppy golf swings!)

Yessiree, my Bubby is maturing at a mind-blowing rate. What more will he master before I see him again? He's already figured out one of the most important lessons in life: the need to accept responsibility for your actions, your poor choices. Proved by giving himself a time-out for something the teacher didn't even see him do, my mature little Bubby already understands that regardless of whether anyone has witnessed it or not, if you do the crime, you do the time. It's as simple as that.

The real question: Will it remain as simple as that as Bubby's toddler years all-too-quickly become his teen years?

Today's question:

What lesson, action or experience (first child? first house? first divorce?) made you feel like you had matured and officially become an adult?

Schoolboy charm

Last week was Bubby's very first week of preschool, and he survived with minimal meltdowns. Only one big meltdown, to be exact, but that should be expected from a two-year-old getting the hang of an 8 a.m. to about 1:30 p.m. Monday through Friday gig.

Preston did the first-day drop-off duty with the schoolboy while Pre-K teacher Mommy had first-day duty in the classroom -- a classroom directly across the hall from Bubby's classroom, if you can believe such luck! Here's the photo Preston took on his phone of the major event then graciously passed along:

Ah, my little big boy.

According to all reports, Bubby did just fine with his first day of school. That evening, his teacher e-mailed Megan two more photos -- the other two photos in this post -- showing what fun he had throughout the day.

I'm not sure if Mrs. L (whose real name I can never remember except that it has an ending that sounds something like "peanut") is just a super fantastic teacher and e-mailed photos to the parents of all twelve of the toddlers in her class, or if it was special treatment for a fellow teacher who happens to be the parent of one of her students.

Either way, Megan was pretty happy to see the highlights of Bubby's first day. And I was pretty happy to steal the photos off Megan's blog for use here. (Thanks, Meg!)

During his first week of formal schooling, Bubby learned lots. But it wasn't learning letters (of which Bubby already knows all of those in his name) or colors (of which Bubby already knows all the basic ones) that were his greatest achievement. It was pooping. Yep, you heard me right. Bubby pooped ... in a big boy toilet ... at school! Something he'd never done outside of the comfort of his own potty chair before. It required no begging, pleading, bribing or anything of the sort.

(I personally think it might have been the allure of the preschool's miniature toilets installed specifically for little ones that led to his crowning achievement so early in his academic career.)

Whatever the reason may be -- and the reason remains unclear at this point since he's not duplicated the accomplishment as of yet -- Bubby received TWO suckers from his teacher for his work. When he talked to Gramma that evening, his most enthusiastic comment about his school day was "Two suckers! TWO SUCKERS!"

Megan, who's been using the ONE-sucker reward system for potty training, had only this to say: "Thanks a lot, Mrs. L!"

Ya better stock up on suckers, Meg. Seems the lesson of the day is that TWO suckers are better than one. And clearly the secret to success!

Today's question:

What important lesson have you recently learned?

Grandma's assistant baker

Not only was Bubby's visit to Grandma's the first time he rode on a plane without Mom or Dad and the first time he slept in the big boy guest room all by himself, it was his very first time to bake cookies -- chocolate-chip cookies! -- with Grandma.

 

Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm! Finger-lickin' good!

Today's question:

Chocolate-chip cookies are my signature baked good. What is yours? (If anyone wants the recipe from another commenter, say so in the comments and I'll conduct a recipe swap through e-mail. OR ... you're welcome to include your recipe with your comment to begin with!)

Off to Grandma's

In a final fling with Southwest Airlines, I have a four-legged trip on the docket: fly to the desert; fly home with Bubby so he can spend a few days with Gramma and PawDad; fly Bubby back to the desert; then fly home alone.

The first leg went off without a hitch, with me arriving in the desert early last Thursday. After a few days of fun in the sun, er, a few days of playing in the house with Bubby because the oppressive heat prevented any living thing from being outside longer than 42 seconds at a time, Bubby and I left for the mountains yesterday morning. It was his first plane ride with Grandma -- and without Mom or Dad.

Because I didn't know how long it would take for this Grandma to get through the airport with a little boy holding one hand and a car seat in the other -- Bubby is now two and gets his own seat on the plane, thus needs to bring along his own car seat for maximum protection in the air -- we arrived with plenty of time to kill.

Which meant there was a lot of waiting. 

And waiting.

And waiting.

And still more waiting.

Then finally ... we got to get on the plane ...

... and head for the mountains.

Nothing but clear skies, happy talk from Bubby, and -- most thankfully -- no poopy diapers mid-flight.

Once we landed, there was nothing but grins all around when we met up with PawDad and his surprise companions welcoming Bubby to the mountains: Auntie Andie ...

... and Aunt B! 

Now the real fun begins!

Today's question:

What's one summer-like thing you've not yet done or accomplished this summer that you are determined to do before fall arrives?

525,600 minutes ago

I interrupt the regularly scheduled Sunday programming to present this announcement:

Today is the ONE-YEAR BLOGIVERSARY of Grandma's Briefs!

Yeah, baby! One year ago today I set out to create a blog to help ease the distance between myself and Bubby, to share my successes and failures as I venture out on the grandparenting road. Since then, this little site o' mine has seen 396 posts, 2,393 comments, 15,385 unique visitors, and 44,748 page views.

Most of all, though, this site has seen YOU! And it's YOU that has made Grandma's Briefs such an awesomely incredible experience for me!

There simply are no words to describe how much I appreciate you showing up and reading and commenting on my words and pictures, making it seem like this crazy journey I'm on -- the same one taken by millions of others, yet oh-so personal to me -- matters to someone besides myself and my family.

You all mean the world to me, and I'm offering up a few prizes as just a very small token of my gratitude for the difference you've made in my life. I'd like to give each and every one of you a great big bear hug, but a little giveaway will have to do.

But first ...

DarrenRowse, masterful mentor and blogger extraordinaire of Problogger, recently proposed a 7 Link Challenge that I thought would make a perfect one-year-blogiversary post. Darren's challenge is to present seven links in seven themes that best represent to new and long-time readers what one's blog is all about and to possibly introduce one and all to a few posts they may have missed.

In that vein, here are my answers to the 7 Link Challenge (Be sure to keep reading after the links for details on my blogiversary giveaway!):

1. Your first post – And so it begins ... featured -- naturally -- an absolutely adorable photo of Bubby.

2. A post you enjoyed writing the most – One woman's pleasure is another's worst job ever. I absolutely hated, hated, hated this job but I found writing about it rather cathartic because I knew I would never, ever, ever again be in a position to have to work such duty. Plus, I kind of enjoyed making you all say "ewww!" over the stinky job instead of the usual "awww...!" over the always precious antics and photos of Bubby.

3. A post which had a great discussion – Wanted: Crazy, quirky confessions. Wow! I loved reading all the quirky things you all got going on, and apparently you did, too. This post had the most comments of any other so far, and it doesn't even include the equally quirky comments I got when posting the same thing over on Vibrant Nation.

4. A post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written – There are so many great blogs I read by interesting and insightful women, but it's the posts of Pat at Mille FioriFavoriti that I envy the most. Not one particular post, but every single one. Why? She's a grandma, just like me, but she lives in this wonderfully exciting place (NYC) and has the most awesome photo skills to document the world in which she lives and travels. I don't hanker so much to write posts like her; I just want to be able to take photos like her ... and take those photos in places as awesome as those in which she takes hers.

5. A post with a title that you are proud of – Bikes, trikes and big-boy beds. Other than the always adorable photos of Bubby, there's nothing particularly special about this post. But I think the title just flows well -- and tells exactly what the post is about.

6. A post that you wish more people had read – With this kiss, I thee wed. Without the first kiss, there would be no me and Jim, thus no Brianna, Megan and Andrea; no marriage between Megan and Preston; no Bubby. Ultimately, without that first fateful kiss, there'd be no Grandma's Briefs. Well, this post isn't about that kiss. But it is about the anniversary of that kiss.

8. Your most visited post ever – Two men and a toddler (haircut) was published last August, but to this day I still get at least one -- often more -- clicks on it daily. I like to think it's because it is such a wonderfully wacky documentation of Bubby getting a haircut by Preston and his buddy. I shudder at my stats, though, showing there may actually be a more disgustinglypedophiliac factor to the searches that result in some of the visits. I've considered deleting this post because of the thought of what's behind the searches, but I love the photos too much to do that -- and I hope the icky folks doing the searching feel gut-wrenching guilt when they unexpectedly click on the wholesome photos of Bubby getting his hair done by Daddy.

And now, for the Grandma's Briefs One-Year Blogiversary giveaway:

Like I said above, I'd like to give all of you something. But what I have is three prizes to award, at random, to three folks who comment to this post telling me Why do you read Grandma's Briefs and/or what topics or features would you like to see more of in the coming year?

The prizes are:

Grand prize: A Grandma's Briefs One-Year Blogiversary tote bag filled with a few books from my stack of advance reader copies from publishers, plus homemade chocolate chip cookies made by Grandma (that's me)!

1st place: A Grandma's Briefs One-Year Blogiversary tote bag and homemade chocolate chip cookies!

2nd place: Homemade chocolate chip cookies!

(Do note that I'll ship the prizes within 24 hours of making the cookies so you won't be getting stale yucky pucks in the mail!)

Comments received by midnight MST Wednesday, July 28 are eligible for the drawing; winners announced Thursday, July 29.

Again, I appreciate you all! Thank you for reading. Thank you for caring!

Update

on 2010-07-25 23:35 by Lisa Carpenter

Okay, I'm the biggest dork of a grandma in the world, as Megan just pointed out that the Rent song -- and the facts -- show that it's 525,600 minutes in year, not what I originally had as the post title. Correction to title made! Thanks, Megan!