Big Girl Bed and other good stuff…..

 

Since Osita started preschool it has been leaps and bounds!

This is a girl who is fully self expressed. The good and the bad. Like with any toddler, tantrums are a regular thing. Lately, it seems like we have turned a new leaf. We are having way more good times than not so good times. Her language skills  have jumped up a notch. She is able to identify that she is angry and communicate why. It’s huge!  We also have been working on her breathing through her anger. (As an adult, I struggle with conscience breathing when I am feeling anxious.) Overall, she just seems happier. Playing, pretending, being.

Potty is a regular thing now. Even #2. But no public potties yet though.

Yesterday, we graduated from her crib to a regular bed! What could have just been ‘swap out the beds’ easy project, turned into a ‘pull all the furniture, paint the room, clean the floors, put furniture back and then put the new bed in’ project. It was fun and everything went smooth. Osita was STOKED! I was worried that she would jump out at bedtime but she went down like a total champ. I was so relieved! Today’s nap went smooth too. Success! The pic above was taken before we put the safety railing up, as you can see, she is enjoying this transition just fine.

Tomorrow night, Nina Grande’s high school orchestra is playing with the Seattle Symphony! I told her I have to work but I have arranged to leave early so I can surprise her. 🙂 N.G. plays the viola for her orchestra. She also sings and plays violin and guitar. Quite the talent, that Nina Grande.

Finally! A day off…. kind of.

There is only one way to describe our life right now. Busy.

In the last month, I started a new part time job. I work 10 hour days and have to bus (and sometimes train) to and from home. I am gone quite a bit now. I don’t mind the commute, I like putting on my headphones and listening to music and watching the scene outside my window. With me gone and J running his business from home, we decided it was time for S to go to preschool a couple days a week so J can have time to focus on work.

We found a lovely little place 5 minutes from our house. It has a small farm with goats, bunnies, and chickens, an organic garden, several playhouses a swing set, a zip line and a giant yert that her teacher uses as her classroom. They also have Spanish immersion which is perfect because my husband speaks fluent Spanish and we have been teaching her as well. Her Spanish comprehension has exceeded mine and I speak a fair amount. They spend most of their time outside exploring and playing, even in cooler weather. S loves it! She didn’t even flinch when we left her but threw a fit when daddy came to pick her up.

We have also hit our stride with potty training!! We even have had a couple of poo poo in the potty’s. YES! The mop has taken it’s rightful place again…. back in the laundry room.

You don’t realize how much time you actually have until you don’t have it anymore. Our weekends are now filled with a list of things to do. Things I used to get done during the week. Even that days that I nanny from home, my downtime is filled with laundry and cleaning. By the weekend, I am exhausted and usually in some sort of physical pain from being on my feet all day but things need to get done. And they have been. (Not my writing) The days have been flying by.

We usually spend Sunday mornings going to one of the lovely farmer’s markets around town but there are things that need to be tended to around the house. The sun is out and it’s perfect weather to winterize the garden. We had quite the rain storms the last week that have caused some damage. Got to get out there cause who knows when the sun will be out again! Ahhh Seattle Life.

Urination Station

6 weeks.

It took 6 weeks (since my last blog post) to get pee pee in the potty.

You know all those “guidelines” you read. Like, for example, these: http://www.babycenter.com/0_successful-potty-training-for-girls_11653.bc , yeah those did not work for us one bit. We’ve been working those tips since June and had a zero success rate. You know what finally worked? Losing our patience with all those above tips and showing her our frustration. J and I, on separate occasions with her, within 24 hours of each other.

“WHY won’t you go pee pee in the potty??!!”

“I know you know what to do, WHYYYYY won’t you go??!!”

She did it but not without a total screaming fit *WHILE* the pee pee was streaming down. That is how opposed to the idea she is. After she had her first potty, we celebrated. There were cheers and a happy dance and candy (which was really just a fruit juice snack). It wasn’t enough to convince her to want to do it again. She did finally go again, screaming and crying the entire time. Each day has been met with improvement. She starting to tell us, even if she is piddling the entire way to the bathroom. Trails of urine everywhere I look. The mop has taken permanent residence upstairs. Thank goodness for hardwood floors!

We had to break all the rules, errr patience to get results but we got results and have steadily got results for the past couple of weeks. I’m not sure if showing her our frustration showed her we meant serious business or what, but I’ll take it!

Misadventures in Potty Training

When I recall how potty training was with A, I remember it was so easy. She entered day care when she was one year, saw what the other kids were doing and immediately wanted to do it too. She was pretty well trained (except for at night) by 18 months. EASY!

When we returned from San Diego in early June, we decided that we were going to be committed to potty training. Prior to that, we had had months of inconsistent “potty training”, we knew it was time to get serious. I purchased some panties and away we went.

We put the panties on her, talked to her about telling us if she had to go, offered up a treat if she peed in the potty.  She constantly peed in her panties and mildly resisted the process. No big deal, it’s the first week of many. A friend suggested I let her run around without panties that way when she pees she could feel what was happening, which resulted in…

“Mom, mom, look, look at me!!!”

I walk down the hall to see a giant poop on the floor.

Greeeeat. (How does something so big come out of someone so little?!?!)

After that she started REALLY resisting it. I think the poop incident kinda freaked her. Literally kicking and screaming as we walked her to the bathroom.

“I don’t want to! NO WAY!!!!”

I did a little more research and read that some children resist it because they don’t want to give up being the baby. Yeah, I can see that. S is not in daycare so she doesn’t have peers to look up to. She obviously wasn’t ready so we hit the reset button, completely stopped potty training and just let it go.

After a few weeks, we started bringing it up in conversation. Then slowly started taking her to the potty at night before bed, then during changes. Purchased some pull ups and eased in to more regular taking her to the potty. I acknowledge her efforts every time I take her. I’m still offering up a treat for actual pee in the potty. She has been much more receptive this time around.

While she has yet to actually pee IN the potty, she rarely wets her pull up during the day and let’s it go while she naps. I call that a small victory. 🙂