Potty Training Bootcamp Day #3

Uneventful.

In a good way.

I barely had to remind Edie today and she took herself to the potty chair a few different times without saying anything to me, pulled her own underwear down (albeit with some difficulty) and peed. She seems to be annoyed with me when I question/remind her now, I suppose because she doesn't really need much reminding. 3 days with only one accident has me feeling really encouraged about this whole thing - no turning back now.

Tomorrow she's headed to my parents' house for the weekend (Jeff and I are off to frolic in Portland for his birthday and New Years) so hopefully she'll keep up the strong work with them and head back to daycare next week with confidence. Thankfully, one of the other 2 year olds at daycare (Jen's son, in fact) was going to do some potty training this week as well, so she'll be in good company next week.

It seems odd to have potty training transpire with such little drama (knocking on wood). I'm sure there will be accidents in the future, but for the most part, we are saying goodbye to diapers and it feels GREAT. No sense of nostalgia over this milestone, that's for certain.

Potty Training Bootcamp Day #2

Today was objectively speaking a success, but personally I found it confusing. Things started a little rocky with Edie not showing an interest in sitting on the potty. I had to push the issue more than I thought I would, but she did use the potty seat successfully (if less frequently than yesterday). She wore underwear today and around midday tried to do her hiding-in-the-curtain-pooping-routine. I wasn't paying close attention until she said from behind the curtain, "Mamma, you leave me alone for a minute now?" at which point I panicked and raced her to the bathroom (thankfully in time for a successful donation to the toilet gods). She wore a diaper to nap, but was PISSED when I removed it upon waking. I mean PISSED. I almost caved and put it back on her, and in hindsight I maybe should have waited a few more minutes for her to fully wake up before pantsing my kid.

At that point, I started to worry that it was only working because I was doing so much reminding and asking. I wanted to see what would happen if I stopped the frequent bathroom reminders and sure enough, about an hour later, I saw her RACE to the bathroom, pull soaking wet underwear off and try to sit on the potty chair in time for one last drop to make it in. I felt discouraged, but relieved too. After her accident, she really wanted to show me where some of the pee had dripped on the floor so I could clean it up. She said in a really grossed out voice, "The pee ran down my leg Mom." I had to stifle a giggle and say very seriously, "Hmm, did you like that, or not?" and she replied, "Not, Mom, not." I think she kind of needed that accident to remind her that ultimately, she needs to stay more in tune with her body. After that she didn't seem to mind my reminders as much.

I felt nervous because we had long standing plans to have dinner on Mercer Island with Jeff's business partner and his family tonight, but we decided to just go for it. I briefly toyed with slapping a diaper on to be safe, but she wanted to wear her underwear, so we left immediately after a bathroom trip and put a towel down under her rump in the carseat. She made it all the way there and peed in their toilet 3 different times, happily going with me to the bathroom each time I suggested it. We stayed much later than anticipated, so we ended up having a 3.5 hour outing - totally diaper free. I must say it felt really great; definitely a glimpse into the future. She even made it all the way home before we put her diaper on with pjs for bed.

Potty Training Bootcamp Day #1

So, I write this with a mix of confusion, pride and hesitancy but our first day of potty training equaled ZERO accidents from Edie.

At the start of the day, I took her diaper off and she spent the entire day with a bare rump (combined with socks=HOT LOOK). We made a sticker chart and drank lots of fluids and ate popsicles to increase the opportunities for success. I'd have to head into the kitchen for an exact count, but I think she peed in the toilet attachment (that sits on top of our regular toilet) or her potty chair about 9 times, pooping once (just cringed while typing that word - officially a mommy blogger). I could tell she needed to poop after lunch and that was the only time she asked me for a diaper, but I held strong and talked her into heading back to the potty for a try and she eventually, out of desperation I think, sat and pooped. She was very proud and entitled afterwards though, so I think it was worth the struggle. She wore a diaper for nap time, and when she woke after 2 hours, she had peed once in her nap diaper while sleeping. She peed once before bed in the potty and is obviously sleeping in a diaper, which I assume will be the case for some time (she drinks water in the night (we keep a straw cup of water in her crib). We'll see I guess.

Anyways, it seems a bit too good to be true that we had such a cinchy day. Tomorrow I plan to have her in big girl underwear all day instead of completely nude from the waist down, so perhaps that's when we'll have an accident (or two, or three).

Wish us luck. And to those non-parents out there, I promise that further updates will not include updates on my child's BMs, just a success vs failure rate for the day.

Quote of the day

While sucking down a big glass of milk just now:

"That's a wonderful milk you got from the grocery store Mom."

And she totally said "wonderful" like a 50 year old woman - "WONderful"

Happy Merry

Belated happy holidays to all of you. We had a great (and busy) double Christmas in Bellingham, first with my family and then with Jeff's. We got back last night, tucked Edie in her crib, unpacked all our lovely gifts (at least all the ones we could fit in our car - there's a whole other load waiting back at the Culver house for us to pick up next week - time for a bigger car?!) and slept in our own bed for the first time since Thursday.

Edie slept until 8am this morning and since daycare is closed this week, we are POTTY TRAINING. It's 8:39 and we are one for one but the day is verrrrrry young. Currently watching Cat in the Hat while sitting on the potty (Edie, not me). Wish us luck!

1st World Problems

I ordered what I thought were going to be fancy pants Christmas cards from Pinhole Press but am cursing Joanna Goddard for all her sales pitches because they came today and are very disappointing. I'm especially disappointed because this is the first time EVER that we are sending Christmas cards out, despite having lived together for 12 years, been married for over 7 and a family of 3 for over 2 of those years. I had (perhaps too) high expectations. They arrived this afternoon and are at least 3 shades darker than the actual photos we submitted, so dark in fact that they look like they were taken at night instead of midday. The color contrast is all muted and print quality seems really mediocre for the price we paid. And possibly in unspoken compensation, they sent us like 20 more than we ordered? Which I guess is nice? Except giving someone twice as many crappy Christmas cards doesn't really=half as many NICE cards.

Also? I ordered a Christmas present online (not from pinhole press) for a family member and it arrived today looking a totally different color than I expected.

Sigh. Why does my life have to be so hard?

#firstworldproblems

Quote of the day

If I had the time and memory to do it, I'd start a daily post called Quote of the Day. Because Edie is very funny these days.

Today:

While changing a dirty diaper and talking about potty training (which we are going to tackle the week after Christmas when daycare closes) I said, "Yes, after Christmas you're only going to poop in the potty."

Edie: "Mmmhmm. Like a big kid."

Me: "Yes, like a big kid."

Edie: "Mom, you poop on the big toilet?"

Me: "Yes, because I'm a big kid and that's what they do."

Edie: "No, yours not a big kid Mom."

Me: "What am I then?"

Edie" Yours a Big Mom."

Another reason I love daycare

Edie just started picking up all her shoes and putting them in her shoe drawer, singing to herself, "Clean up, clean up, everybody do their share!"

Santa

Edie met Santa yesterday. When he asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she replied with confidence, "I want presents!"

Antibiotics

The Antibiotics are working! Edie woke up much improved today, I only had to wipe her nose a handful of times and the cough is much better. Hooray for Augmentin!

Update

Edie is on her second round of antibiotics in under 2 months. I am profoundly bored with her cold.

It started with a round of daycare coughing fits and ended (or so we thought) 2 weeks later with a sleepless night caused by the predictable ear infection. One round of Amoxacillin later I thought we were in the clear. But oddly, while sleep returned, her cold persisted. Everyone at daycare mended but I was still donating boxes of Kleenex to Jen's house as an apology for the amount of nose wiping she was doing for my kid. We had a weekend of relative health over Thanksgiving, but then the cold to end all colds rallied for one last fight and as of Friday I'm fairly certain we're dealing with a repeat of last year's chest infection. Swampy cough + another hellish night = Round 2 of antibiotics. This time we're rocking the fruit flavored Augmentin. Fun! Thankfully, Edie's spirits are unaffected by the germs, sleep is back (except for the occasions when she decides she's "all done sleeping"and feels it important to tell me so) and in the short three days we've been on the Augmentin her nose is decidedly less disgusting so I'm hopeful more healing will occur in the night.

On a more serious note:

For those who have asked, I thought I'd share the good news that baby Hank is improving little by little. Things are looking positive as he seems to be recovering well from the surgery. We're told that they are beginning the long, slow process of weaning him from all the machinery currently helping him breath, eat and generally keep fighting. The particular (rare) condition he suffers from gave him only a 50% survival rate, so he's already shattered so many of the statistics. Thanks to all who passed on messages and are keeping him in your thoughts - I really think it makes a difference.

Advent Calendar

In college I lived in a house for two years with seven roommates. All eight of us shared an 8 bedroom, 3 bathroom, 2 kitchen house called The Misty Mint (it was mint green). The first year I lived on the top story of the house and shared the upstairs bathroom with Heidi and Maggie. Maggie and I had been roommates in the dorms the year prior so we were well acquainted with one another's vices. Heidi and I were childhood besties and she had just moved up from California to live with us. We were all 3 fast friends. When Christmas rolled around, Heidi enthusiastically purchased an advent calendar and posted it in our communal hallway on the top floor, right outside my bedroom door. It was a cheap paper advent calendar from the grocery store, the kind with little paper "doors" that you tear open for your daily treat. I'm sure Heidi's mother, who is a domestic wizard had elaborate and fun advent calendars growing up, and this was our 19 year old recreation on a student budget. Inside each little window was a small, mediocre chocolate. A week or so into December, I had mostly forgotten about the advent calendar when Heidi went to pop open her daily countdown window and made a surprised sound. Maggie and I were each in our respective rooms, pretending to study.

Heidi: "Did someone open my advent window already?!"

Me: "No."

Maggie: silence

More silence, punctuated only by the noise of Heidi flipping open advent calendar window after advent calendar window.

Heidi: "Maggie?"

Maggie: silence

Me: coming out of my room to get the scoop

Maggie: indiscernible noise admitting guilt

Heidi: "Maaaaagie!"

Comes to pass that one desperate night, Maggie needed a treat and one cheap Bartell's chocolate was not enough. She had discreetly opened each one of the windows from then until Christmas and eaten all the tiny, mediocre chocolates.... and then re-closed each of the windows to make them appear untouched.

I still think of that as one of the funnier moments in that house. Tied maybe with the morning of our Christmas gift exchange, in which we had drawn names for gift purchasing. We had planned to open presents in the morning, but as is appropriate for people of college age, "morning" for most of us was closer to noon than 7am. But Faye and Amanda (two of the basement dwellers) had different ideas. They bum rushed each of our bedrooms at some ungodly hour wearing weird santa hats and full holiday gear. They had stayed up all night filling the main floor of the house with more ugly Christmas decor than I knew existed. Including a working train that ran on tracks looping through the entire living room. It was literally like 100 elves had been set loose in our house and barfed all over it. I think there were some roommates who were still pissed about having been woken up before 11am by deranged Santas jumping on their heads, but I remember being hilariously pumped. I mean, who does that?!

Maggie drew my name that year for presents and she wrapped my present (a lovely wallet I'd been coveting at The Gap (it was the 90's!) in a box of Blueberry Morning cereal with a toilet paper bow. I thought that was even funnier than the miniature train running through our house.

Oh college.

While we're still - kind of - on the topic of Advent Calendars, I would proudly like to announce that I MADE AN ADVENT CALENDAR FOR EDIE. As in, with my own two hands.

Full discloser: I made Heidi come over and help me with the sewing part, paying her in black licorice and white wine. But I *did* end up using such things as:

A seam ripper

A real life sewing machine. MY sewing machine in fact. Supervised and Unsupervised.

A dowel

embroidery thread

An oversized needle

Felt

And lots and lots of a crazy strong glue called E-6000

Anyways, it's super cute. A little home-madey but still very cute. I visited Archie McPhees and with a little supplementing from Target's dollar bin, filled her little pouches with assorted treats and candies last night.

She got her "First Day of Christmas" gift today: a funny plastic monkey finger puppet. She named him "Kasky" (don't ask, I have no idea) and fed him her peanut butter toast.

Tomorrow she gets some tiny princess magnets. I'm so excited for Christmas this year!