Preparing for Evelyn

With just a bit over 4 months to go until Miss Evelyn makes an appearance, I am starting to think about what needs to happen to prepare Liam for this.

There are a big events for Liam coming up that need to happen a bit before Evvie gets here so that he has time to adjust to them. I want to have him off the bottle before he turns 2, or the day after that birthday it will be bye bye bottle time. This is based on the fact that with all the milk he is drinking it is meeting a lot of his food needs and he is missing out on other foods because he is having on average 10-12oz of milk every night (6oz to go to sleep on, then 4-6 when he wakes up at night. More if he wakes up multiple times). So he eats less for breakfast, lunch is a bigger meal, but he is not eating much for dinner and ends up filling up those empty spots with milk. And heaven forbid I try to limit the milk, or the cries of "MORE MORE" fill the house along with furious cries of the angry toddler.

There is also the start of potty training, but that is a whooooole 'nother can of worms. He is nowhere near ready and does not even have the words to get ready. We are working on that, with some plans for back yard naked time this summer with a watchful eye and a "hey look, you're peeing!" to see if he can make the connection. As with most things child related, I don't even know where to start on this whole thing and I am going to just try some ideas and see what happens.

Liam does well with new ideas at first, but he is stubborn and will do something once or twice and then resist doing it again until he feels he can do it without getting frustrated. I can show him until we are both blue in the face, and all it will get me is a ticked off munchkin and a loud NO shouted in my face if I push him even one iota too much. Then its almost back to square one for DAYS while he calms down about whatever it was.

He DOES sit on his potty, but only with clothes on. If I offer for him to sit on there while he has a bare bottom he resists it much more and gets upset. I am not sure where to go from there on that issue. But I think that other than getting the words down and making some time to sit on the potty every day, I am not going to push the potty issue until he adjusts after Evvie gets here. Even if I got him use to it before she comes, I will have less time once she is here until we figure out our new schedule and it would just back slide for Liam and that is not the way to do it I think. Once we get the ball rolling on potty time, I think it would be good for his way of learning if we keep it up and not have to stop or pause at all.

I also plan to get out the swing for Evelyn and need to do it before she gets here so that I have time to teach Liam NOT to climb on it. I can just see it in my head, she is swinging peacefully, half asleep, Liam comes up and tries to haul himself into the swing and they both tip over and the peace is shattered by cries from the two of them being scared, confused and possibly injured.

In my mind as well has been wondering how to teach him to be gentle with an infant. I don't think he would be rough on purpose, but he does not know his own strength and at times he will launch himself on to the dog and tackle her or sit on her. He also stomps his feet when he wears shoes, as my toes and Dan's toes know all too well. But I do not know how to show him or teach him to be gentle with a baby until there IS a baby around. He does have a baby doll and is very gentle with that doll, but he DID use the doll as a prop to learn about Eye and Nose and Ear, so he does tend to jab his little finger into those places. Maybe a new doll that all we do is be gentle with? That might be a good idea.

I know there will be some jealousy when Evelyn gets here, I am just hoping to get him as ready as I can before the BIG change comes. I have NO IDEA how to go about this whole thing, so I am making it up as I go. I am sure that Liam will be just fine in the end, it is just in the start that I worry about.

I guess like all the worrying I do, if I worry and plan for it now, I can head off the problems and decide on solutions before I need them so that if it does come up I am not struggling to figure it out at the time. I guess worry can be a good thing some times!