Going in to today, I assumed that the natural topic for my blog today would be Colton Stewart's birthday party. Ella's been anticipating this day for weeks now, and it turned out to be our primary incentive for good behavior and general cooperation out of her from virtually the moment she woke up this morning.
"Ella, do you want to go to Colton Stewart's birthday party?" Dan asked her after her initial refusal to go use the potty first thing this morning.
"Yes," she responded.
"Then go use the potty like a big girl. Put your Pull-Up in the garbage and go pick out a pair of undies," he followed.
"No," she said immediately.
"Okay, I'm going to call Colton Stewart's mommy and daddy and tell them you won't be able to go to his party, then."
"NOOOOOOOO! I go potty!" she exclaimed.
"Then go potty," Dan said, which was followed by a reluctantly cooperative Ella.
Instead, I have some exciting news to share about Cal -- he swung. (I can't tell you how awkward that sounds, but I did just confirm that the past tense of swing is swung.)
Ella and I returned from Colton Stewart's birthday party at around 6pm. The car was barely in the garage when Cal was opening the door to the garage and announcing, "Mommy, I swinged all by myself!"
"You did?!?!!! Gooooood job, Cal!" I laid my excitement on thick. At this point, I was thinking baseball and wondering what the big deal was. Did he use a real bat instead of his wiffleball bat and swing and hit a ball with that? Did he consistently hit a pitched wiffleball to him instead of missing most? Did he toss a ball and hit it on his own?
He darted back in the house. Ella and I were a few steps into the kitchen when Cal was asking her, "Ella... Ella... Ella... do you want to go outside on the swings?"
Of course she did. It's like the fun of Colton Stewart's birthday party was continuing. I still hadn't quite caught on and was disappointed by the question. I... just... wanted... a... little... break. Two swinging kids meant there needed to be someone pushing them, and Cal wanted me to be that person. Lucky me.
This was the most excited I had seen Cal get over swinging; and as I exited the house to the backyard, Dan probably saw a bright lightbulb pop up over my head. Ahhh... he "swinged" by himself on the swing! Hallelujah!
"Look, Mommy, the swing is higher!" he proclaimed. It was. Noticeably. "I see that!" I responded. And as Cal climbed onto his swing, I got Ella positioned onto her swing.
"Push me high one time, and then I'll do it," Cal stated. So I pulled him back by the chains of the swing to just get him going.
"Push me high!" he yelled at me.
"Okay," I said and then pushed him what I was thought was high by pushing him on his buns.
"Noooo! Not like that!!! Push me high!!!" he was upset.
"I did!" I yelled back.
"No, not like that!!!" he insisted.
Criminy. I figured out what he meant, so I stopped his swinging and started him up again by pulling him back by the chains of the swing, this time much further than before so that he'd swing "high."
And then I saw it happening. He was pumping with his legs and pulling back on the swing like a pro. Back and forth, smiling away. I was proud. I was relieved. We had been trying so hard for so long to get him to do this and battled his negativity about doing it himself so many times that I had a lot of emotion invested in that damn swing that I almost shed tears of joy for him... for Dan... for me... I only didn't because just to the left of me was a understandably needy Ella, looking for Mommy to push her.
Yeah, so Cal "swinged" and "swinged" and "swinged" all by himself. Hallelujah indeed!
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