November 16, 2020 email from Sarah Morgan, one of two of Elliot’s preschool teachers:

Hey! Thought I would provide some info about our potty training attempt today before I forget. 

Elliot was wonderfully willing for everything. Every time I asked him to sit on the potty he did so happily. A few times he said ‘potty’ so I took him potty. 

He didn’t have a diaper on for the first few hours. He told me he didn’t want a diaper so I left it off. Then after his pee accident he agreed to wearing a diaper. As soon as he peed he told me about it. 

Even while wearing a diaper, he would still tell me if he wanted to sit on the potty. He did this after nap.. 

I was originally doing a sticker for potty attempts and offering a (kosher, stale) marshmallow for successes. But he conned me into giving him pieces of marshmallow for attempts, haha. 

In general we discourage against pull ups, but I feel it could be helpful for him. He’s so enthusiastic about sitting on the potty and diapers just make it more difficult (even Olivia has a hard time pulling down her diaper after nap to pee). I’m encouraged by how long he was able to stay dry, and his awareness of being wet. 

He wasn’t in the bathroom while anyone went potty today. I think this may help in the future if he sees someone else using the potty. 

When we are getting more serious about potty training, it is important that he have clothes he can manipulate on his own. This generally means no onesies and (preferred) pants with an elastic waist band. This will help him take responsibility and helps encourage independence in using the potty. 
Overall, I feel like today was great for building confidence and getting Elliot used to our toilet at school. I’m so encouraged by his frequent speech and that he stays dry for hours. 

My recommendation at this point would be to buy pull-ups the next time he needs diapers, so it’s convenient for us to put him on the potty at school when he requests it. 

As always, let me know if you have any questions. 

-Sam

Hi Sam,

Thank you for the detailed email! It is amazing to hear how interested he is in this… at home we have a toddler potty but he’s not too interested in it except just before taking his nightly bath.

I will make sure he has pull-ups and drawstring pants.

We appreciate very much your attention to Elliot. It is clear you love him and we couldn’t ask for anything more.

Thanks for the potty training! We will work on it at home, too.

Eric

And the next day from Sam/Sarah:

Potty training attempt: day two

1. He really likes using this with our big potty 

I think he enjoys climbing up the steps (he kept saying today “one step, two step!”) and he also very much likes flushing. So I could totally see him being uninterested in a little plastic potty, especially if it doesn’t flush. 

I truly feel at this point, he does not understand the mechanics of how to actually pee. I tried turning on the faucet and having him be in the potty while others use it to try and have them model the behavior for him. Today he would sit for just a second on the potty then tell me all done. I thought he was just trying to extort marshmallows from me, but then he was completely fine when I didn’t give him a marshmallow….

I love his enthusiasm for sitting on the potty, even when he doesn’t get a reward. 

I’m not sure where to go from here. I’m very optimistic because he loves being on the potty. Also, he’s really been peeing only three times a day (at least while I’m at school, between when he arrives and 3}. This is awesome because he’s demonstrating bladder control. We’ve had other ‘potty trained’ kids that have to be put on the toilet every 30 minutes or they will pee in their pants. He generally wakes up from nap dry, which is awesome! He also tries really hard to push down/pull up his undies/pants. 

Let me know how you’d like to proceed! Any time on baby connect you see potty attempts not very far apart, it’s because Elliot says ‘potty’ and wants to try. At this point I haven’t been verbally cueing him at all, it is totally him telling me “potty”. He’s been requesting no diaper in the morning so we’ve been leaving it off until his second accident (which is usually right before lunch/nap) then putting it on. He’s been doing so well with his speech and verbalizing what he needs. 

We have less kids this week (tomorrow it’s just me and five kids) so I’m more than happy to put him on the potty when he asks. 
Please let me know your thoughts and such!

-Sam

Elliot: “Robots”
Aki: “More Robots?”
Elliot: “K”

One of the songs Elliot asks to listen to when commuting to/from the Garden Pre-School is We Are The Robots by Kraftwerk. He starts kicking his leg in the carseat when it plays.

So tonight I showed him a few videos on YouTube of real robots, like Atlas, Spot, Spot Mini, and BigDog from Boston Dynamics. There were others like a fish robot, but Boston Dynamics are always the most impressive.

Elliot was enthralled with the videos. He put down everything and just watched. He had been playing with a Halloween toy before — a doorbell that makes noises and sounds when a button is pressed. We would not put that thing down for a half hour, since it was new. But when I put on the robot videos on the basement TV, he immediately dropped the toy and was fascinated.

Tonight Elliot discovered an Etch-A-Sketch in the toy room. He loved it. He understood how it worked very quickly, and liked to watch the line move. He kept saying “Up? Up?” and I would help him to move it up since neither of us can remember which knob in which direction to turn.

He brought it into the bath tub and played with it. He brought it to bed and continued playing with it. All in all, he played with it probably 30 minutes, or more, and did not want to put it down.

I can not remember the last time I was that excited about Etch-A-Sketch!

I showed this photo to Elliot from 6 years ago (Nov 11, 2014), and he said “Aki Max”

I also uploaded this to YouTube at https://youtu.be/5u6CcmeBvcY

November 1, 2020 Age 2.5. I’m also uploading the video to YouTube. Here it is.

Last night, I bought Elliot a training toilet. He calls it a “potty”, which must be what they call it at preschool.

He loves it and sits on it all the time and say “poot!” then “all done”. But he’s not actually done anything in it yet.

Elliot stood in front of it, trying to pee, and counted from 1 to 6! with a 7 that was not really clear.

First time he’s counted past 1-2-3 !!

One of Elliot’s teachers, Sam Morgan (from whom we are leasing Maddie the horse), texted this to us today:

“I moved the fish tank so the kids are able to see it more easily. Elliot is obsessed…. he spent at least fifteen minutes standing there talking to the fish and about what they were doing.”

Then I wrote:

So cool! Thank you for sharing. Maybe we will get one at home.

And her reply:

I think it would be such a great tool for his language acquisition. Don’t get a beta fish. He liked there being a few fish to talk about especially fish that are visually different.

Also he’s been putting a blanket over his head and pretending to be a ghost I think? It’s so adorable.

This is very unusual; she does not text us. So Elliot must have really made an impression on her!

Gas prices are crazy low again… October 2020

Bet Class

Done over Zoom Video because of COVID-19:

If Sam says “ouch, Elliot comes over to check on her. He asks, “OK?” She says it is very sweet.

If another child is hurt, Elliot goes to check on the child and pats him on shoulder.

Elliot has preferred playmates: best friends are Olivia (“livvy”) and Rafi

He walks on his toes a lot. Not all the time, but a lot.

Elliot started talking a lot recently. Sentences. He’s easier to understand (that’s not been my experience at home — I cannot understand probably 50% of what he says, maybe more).

Sam said, “Compared to other kids [his age] he is way on point for speech-wise.”

Coloring: Elliot is using the pointer grip, although not with two fingers, but most kids are not doing that yet.

He is picky when eating lunch.

Not much emotional regulation yet: Elliot will lay down on the floor and cry if he’s reprimanded. Hee has a hard time moving on.

Loves to look at himself in the mirror!

Looks at himself in the shiny faucet instead of washing hands!

Elliot does really well taking turns with other children (funny — he does not take turns well with Max at home).

Sam says, “Elliot is one of our more physical kids” — he loves touching, loves to knock off Rafi’s kipah, etc.

From: Toddler Room toddlers@gardenpreschool.com
To: “Karolina Blodgett” blodgettkarolina@gmail.com, “Eric Jung” eric@ericjung.net
CC: Hindy Mintz hindy@gardenpreschool.com
Date: Oct 15, 2020, 2:12 PM
Subject: Happy note

I am so excited about how much Elliot is talking! I feel like literally overnight his speech advanced so much. I’ve been preparing for conferences and recently felt like I wasn’t hearing him use many words, especially longer words. Today he talked so much! I feel like sometimes in the past he wouldn’t attempt to say words he wasn’t really confident with, but that’s not the case anymore. I also feel like in the past we would have to mainly initiate speech with him, and now he’s talking more on his own. I really started seeing it when we were playing Legos today. He pointed out the colors pink, black, white, orange, blue, green (and probably more). A few of the Legos have small pictures on them and he pointed out mouse, cake, and egg.

I know we’ll have a chance to talk more at conferences, but I was so excited I just had to share.

-Ms. Sam

Friday, October 2, 2020: Elliot says ‘Max‘ for the First Time

Wednesday, October 14, 2020: Elliot say ‘Max Fight‘ when we pass the Northridge Recreation Center where Max takes Tae Kwon Do lessons. He has now said it 2 or 3 times when we pass the rec center on the way to preschool.

Elliot loves pickles, but he does not eat the skin. I am not sure why.