Parenting 101

I should have been terrified for the first few weeks of E's life. However, I was in too much of a sleep deprived stupor to gather a rational thought. As the weeks turned into months and the nighttime "naps" got longer, I started to realize I was totally in charge of raising a person. Raising one, I discovered, is not all bedtime stories and boo boo kisses. I actually had to feed, change, and basically keep this person alive forever. I was gripped in fear for a little while and constantly panicked that I'd do something wrong. I would run through infant CPR in my head while he nursed, slept, burped, etc. The months turned into a year and he was still alive and, dare I say, thriving! Then....toddlerhood started. That is in a league all it's own. He's 20 months and I feel like in the last few months he's a different person. The vocabulary has exploded, the personality has come to life, he has his own opinion, and oh that temper. I find myself in situations at times where I have NO clue what to do. I've even started thinking, "Is he smarter than me?" That being said, maybe some of my Mom readers out there could bail me out of the following conundrums (it's spelled right. I googled.)

1. This potty training business isn't quite as hard as I expected. However, what the heck do I do if we are running errands, going to the park, etc. He's about 90% trained wearing big boy undies while we're at home but I've only braved leaving the house a few times. He's done fairly well but he has to pee about every 30 minutes. I know I should be consistent with either a diaper or undies as I don't mean to confuse him. However, if we're in the car longer than 30 minutes, he starts, "Mommy, peepeepeepeepee." Should I pull over and let him go on the side of the road? Do I stop at the next available gas station? Or should I just say diapers for errands, undies at home?



2. He loves to kiss my feet. Yeah, you read that right. At first, I thought it was funny. He's 100% Momma's Boy and kisses me whenever the chance arises. However, I keep telling him feet are yucky and not to be kissed. It never fails though, I'm getting ready in the morning, drying my hair, minding my own business, he's busy watching Cookie Monster and then, BAM...he's at my feet smooching away. Weird, huh? So anyone thinks my boy has a foot fetish or is this normal? I CANNOT imagine this is normal.
What, you thought I was making this up?

3. The hair. Oh man, that hair. I have just about surrendered to it. I have thrown in the white flag to this hair. If I comb it, it is a straight up afro. No joke. It gets so big. I end up having to wet it again and let it dry on it's own. I've tried to blow dry it while brushing it down. I think he might be too squirmy for the straightener (I kid, I joke.) I feel like I've tried everything and we end up just going into town/church/MMO looking like the toddler who's Mom forgot to fix his morning hair. Perhaps I should make him a shirt. I can see it now, "This IS brushed." On a side note in regards to this pic, where do kids learn to pull an Oreo apart and eat the white stuff first? The first time I saw this I was shocked. I certainly didn't teach him (I like mine all put together and thrown in some milk.) Homet swears he didn't teach him.

That's all my questions for today. I feel sure next week will be filled with more parenting uncertainties.