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.
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