Tuesday, May 19, 2009
A lovely icky day
E is home sick today. K is home to hang out with her. S watched them this morning, I am watching them this afternoon. Other than a slight temp, E seems to be doing great. So we've dedicated this time to more toilet training.
She's doing fabulous. She's still very interested in the potty (that's a blessing) and her response time is going down (thankfully) from half an hour of waiting on the toilet (yes, I told you, she's stubborn) to closer to five minutes. Wahoo. She had around six successes today and two ... oh, um... make that three (be right back) misses. Good job, E!
In the late afternoon E felt good enough to go outside and play. Here she is digging up a garden while K lounges around.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
A stubborn child...
... can sometimes be a blessing.
You folks in CH will have a hard time believing this, but we have a strong-willed child (otherwise known as a "two year old.")
Over the last month, she's really keyed in to three particular words. "I do it." (If you knew me as a toddler, you are not surprised.)
This phrase applies to everything from climbing into her car seat to feeding her younger sister. And if you HELP?! Then she protests and starts over. If she's three quarters of the way into the car, she climbs out and starts over from the asphalt.
Recently she decided to take this independence one more step. She decided she needed to change her OWN diaper. So I explained to her that not even I could do that, which is why adults wore underwear, not diapers.
So she decided she needed some underwear, and informed me I needed to go buy her some in the store. This morning she reminded me no less than four times that we needed to go to the store to buy underwear.
So we did. I picked up a book about going potty and training pants (for nap times) while I was at it. I explained to her that if she wore underwear, she'd have to go potty on the "big girl" potty.
She has. All day. We got home at 9:30 am and since then it has been her obsession. She has had five successes and three failures. She has read the potty book no less than 8 times. She's shown her doll how to go potty. She's had way too much diluted juice. And she can diagram how it goes from the mouth on down.
I noticed at 11 am that she was only NOT wanting to go potty when she actually HAD TO go potty. So I had a talk with her about it. "Does it feel funny in your tummy?" She said yes. "That's okay! That's what it feels like when you have to go potty. That's just fine, though, you're on the potty. You can let it go. Just let it go."
I left the room. Behind me I heard, "Let it go, let it go, eyya," as she worked to train herself in this new sport.
At 12 it was bedtime. Or so I thought. From 12:35 until 1:10 she screamed at me from her bed that she needed to go potty . Absolute tantrum. (She went twice during that time, so she was right, but the screaming was more about over exhaustion and less about her training pants.) Finally I calmed her down, she fell asleep, and two hours later woke up. The first words out of her mouth were, "I needago potty, mommy!"
She hasn't had a mistake since then. She's been diligent about telling us when she needs to go, and although it takes a little time for it to come out, she appears to get the concept now.
She's also really cranky. Too much sugar. I should have used milk, not diluted juice. (I really did dilute it a lot... sigh.)
Remind me when the terrible twos hit harder that stubbornness can sometimes be a good thing.
You folks in CH will have a hard time believing this, but we have a strong-willed child (otherwise known as a "two year old.")
Over the last month, she's really keyed in to three particular words. "I do it." (If you knew me as a toddler, you are not surprised.)
This phrase applies to everything from climbing into her car seat to feeding her younger sister. And if you HELP?! Then she protests and starts over. If she's three quarters of the way into the car, she climbs out and starts over from the asphalt.
Recently she decided to take this independence one more step. She decided she needed to change her OWN diaper. So I explained to her that not even I could do that, which is why adults wore underwear, not diapers.
So she decided she needed some underwear, and informed me I needed to go buy her some in the store. This morning she reminded me no less than four times that we needed to go to the store to buy underwear.
So we did. I picked up a book about going potty and training pants (for nap times) while I was at it. I explained to her that if she wore underwear, she'd have to go potty on the "big girl" potty.
She has. All day. We got home at 9:30 am and since then it has been her obsession. She has had five successes and three failures. She has read the potty book no less than 8 times. She's shown her doll how to go potty. She's had way too much diluted juice. And she can diagram how it goes from the mouth on down.
I noticed at 11 am that she was only NOT wanting to go potty when she actually HAD TO go potty. So I had a talk with her about it. "Does it feel funny in your tummy?" She said yes. "That's okay! That's what it feels like when you have to go potty. That's just fine, though, you're on the potty. You can let it go. Just let it go."
I left the room. Behind me I heard, "Let it go, let it go, eyya," as she worked to train herself in this new sport.
At 12 it was bedtime. Or so I thought. From 12:35 until 1:10 she screamed at me from her bed that she needed to go potty . Absolute tantrum. (She went twice during that time, so she was right, but the screaming was more about over exhaustion and less about her training pants.) Finally I calmed her down, she fell asleep, and two hours later woke up. The first words out of her mouth were, "I needago potty, mommy!"
She hasn't had a mistake since then. She's been diligent about telling us when she needs to go, and although it takes a little time for it to come out, she appears to get the concept now.
She's also really cranky. Too much sugar. I should have used milk, not diluted juice. (I really did dilute it a lot... sigh.)
Remind me when the terrible twos hit harder that stubbornness can sometimes be a good thing.
Friday, May 01, 2009
Put together.
My sister-in-law (Steve's sister) gets married tomorrow. I'm very excited. We drove up to her home town a couple of days ago for the wedding. Or, should I say, STEVE drove up a couple of days ago for the wedding. I'm a little too doped up to do driving.
Yesterday all the girls in the party went out for manicures, pedicures, and dinner out. Ahh... pretty nails. Granted, by the time dinner rolled around, my meds had worn off enough and I was worn down enough that I was barely able to eat and not at all able to talk. But I did VERY much enjoy my time with the girls, and was even able to hold conversation fairly well during the spa time. So, I must be improving a little.
While out, one of the ladies mentioned that she regularly reads this blog, as a reminder to herself about how good she really has it. (Sorry, friend, I forgot what your words exactly were.) When she was 7 months pregnant complaining about heartburn, all she had to do was look at my blog and see how I was on bed rest at the same time and, whala! Life suddenly didn't seem so bad. Frankly, I don't think my life has been THAT bad over the last year. Hard, yes. But I've been blessed with a wonderful husband and two adorable daughters and job security that is to be envied in these times, so really, what more could I ask for?
That said, it is about time that things get a little less exciting for our household. I feel that things are starting to come together.
Today K and I went out with my brother's wife and youngest daughter. I coerced her into going dress shopping with me to get a dress for the wedding. (After all, I couldn't go out myself due to pesky restrictions on driving while on narcotics, or some such thing. Silly). We quickly (because she had to get back to work) picked out a cute black-and-white dress and some bangles -- earrings and a necklace -- to go with it. I got home and was exhausted. Still not better. So I rested.
When I got up, I took a shower, put on a black dress (not the one for tomorrow's wedding, but my "back up" in case we hadn't had time to shop) as well as the bangles I purchased today. Clean, nails professionally painted, hair cut short and cute (oh, yeah, I cut 7 inches off my hair a few weeks ago) and cute black dress on. Steve came in and said "you haven't looked that good in a while." "In what sense?" I asked (health, prettiness, etc?) "All of it. You look like you're feeling better, and you look actually PUT together." "Yeah, it's been a while, hasn't it?" I said.
And indeed, it has been a while. It feels nice.
Yesterday all the girls in the party went out for manicures, pedicures, and dinner out. Ahh... pretty nails. Granted, by the time dinner rolled around, my meds had worn off enough and I was worn down enough that I was barely able to eat and not at all able to talk. But I did VERY much enjoy my time with the girls, and was even able to hold conversation fairly well during the spa time. So, I must be improving a little.
While out, one of the ladies mentioned that she regularly reads this blog, as a reminder to herself about how good she really has it. (Sorry, friend, I forgot what your words exactly were.) When she was 7 months pregnant complaining about heartburn, all she had to do was look at my blog and see how I was on bed rest at the same time and, whala! Life suddenly didn't seem so bad. Frankly, I don't think my life has been THAT bad over the last year. Hard, yes. But I've been blessed with a wonderful husband and two adorable daughters and job security that is to be envied in these times, so really, what more could I ask for?
That said, it is about time that things get a little less exciting for our household. I feel that things are starting to come together.
Today K and I went out with my brother's wife and youngest daughter. I coerced her into going dress shopping with me to get a dress for the wedding. (After all, I couldn't go out myself due to pesky restrictions on driving while on narcotics, or some such thing. Silly). We quickly (because she had to get back to work) picked out a cute black-and-white dress and some bangles -- earrings and a necklace -- to go with it. I got home and was exhausted. Still not better. So I rested.
When I got up, I took a shower, put on a black dress (not the one for tomorrow's wedding, but my "back up" in case we hadn't had time to shop) as well as the bangles I purchased today. Clean, nails professionally painted, hair cut short and cute (oh, yeah, I cut 7 inches off my hair a few weeks ago) and cute black dress on. Steve came in and said "you haven't looked that good in a while." "In what sense?" I asked (health, prettiness, etc?) "All of it. You look like you're feeling better, and you look actually PUT together." "Yeah, it's been a while, hasn't it?" I said.
And indeed, it has been a while. It feels nice.
