Anniversaries, Zoos and Pee-Pee

Saturday was our 5 year wedding anniversary and to celebrate we all loaded up and went to Memphis.  We spent Friday night at a really nice place on Mud Island.  Collin was exceptionally good, aside from the fact that he was afraid of the elevator! 

Collin "coloring" with the pen and paper in our room



Collin with Daddy on the rooftop terrace of our hotel



Collin in a forced hug/pose with Mommy!


Saturday we spent the day at the Memphis Zoo.  We had been teaching Collin all week to say "Zoo!" when we asked where we were going this weekend.  So Friday when we picked him up from daycare, he had me cracking up in the car because he kept saying, "Bye-Bye" to his daycare and then yelling, "ZOO!"




At the Zoo Entrance



Collin loves giraffes, but he was afraid of the real thing.  Maybe it's the freakishly long tongue!



This is the best picture we got together.  Sad, I know.  And yes, that panda is alive!



This was after we'd been walking around for a while, and Collin had no patience left for pictures.  I think this is hilarious!



On our way home.  He passed out before we were out of Memphis!  He's surrounded by his stuff and wearing his new giraffe watch :)

The Memphis Zoo was lots of fun and very cool!  Collin was more enamored with the other little kids and families around us than with the awesome animals.  Several times I had to run into the middle of a family/group to retrieve my kid, but Jarrod and I enjoyed the animals and exhibits.

We got back Saturday evening, went to church Sunday and then yesterday we got a chance to be lazy as a family.  We ran some errands and just hung out.  At one point I asked Collin where we were going, and he yelled, "ZOO!" - LOL!  I'm not even going to try to correct him when he does that from now on.


Jarrod worked last night, so after we dropped him off, Collin and I made a rather important purchase at Wal-Mart... we bought a potty!  And because you can't start potty-trainng without Elmo, we bought Elmo's Potty Time on DVD.  I also got a small bag of M&Ms and some stickers for rewards.  

We came home, set the potty up in the bathroom and talked about it for a minute and then we started Elmo's Potty Time.  Collin lasted for about 5 minutes, like always with TV/movies, and then he wanted a "nack" and to play with his toys.  I kept saying, "Let's watch Elmo!  He can go pee-pee on the potty." 
Finally, Collin said he wanted to pee-pee on the potty, so we ran to the bathroom, pulled down his pants/diaper and I put him on the potty.  He was so cute sitting on there!!! 

Nothing happened for several minutes...  We just sat and talked about the birds/flowers/trees on the shower curtain, and every few minutes I would realize how odd it was that we were having that conversation while he was half nude and on the potty.  Then I would remind myself that he is after all a male, and this is just foreshadowing.

After several minutes I handed him his sippy cup and while he was chugging some juice, he peed on the potty!

I got all excited and congratulated him.  I considered taking a picture and sending it to Jarrod at work, but I settled for a text.  I told Collin how cool it was that he peed on the potty and stood him up to show him his handiwork.  Somehow during all of this, he got totally freaked out.  He saw the pee, realized it came from his body and started crying.  I kept telling him how cool it was and that he did a good job, but it didn't seem to matter.  He was upset that his pee left his body and was in the potty and not soaked up in his diaper!  I tried to move on to something else, so we poured the pee in the toilet, flushed the toilet, washed our hands and I gave him two M&Ms.  I told him every time he potties, he can have an M&M.  He thought that was cool until he finished them, asked for more and I told him he could only have them if he goes potty.  He didn't like hearing that, so we had a bit of a meltdown then. 
He won't go near the potty now.

He told it "night-night" last night, he showed it to Jarrod this morning when Jarrod asked about it but he won't sit on it.  If we ask him if he needs to pee-pee, he will say, "Nnnooooo!" and point his finger at us with emphasis.

I think he's genuinely frightened of the act of peeing on the potty.  I had a feeling he wasn't really ready, but that was just because I thought we would have a hard time getting him to connect the urge to potty with the act of going to the bathroom.  I never imagined it would freak him out so much!

So for now, we have a potty sitting where he can see it and we'll keep talking about it but Mommy and Daddy will be the only ones eating sneaking M&Ms for a while.