In one end and out the other

I think my 1yr old just swallowed a plastic cap. The tiny ones that come on the applesauce pouches - I'm sure you know the ones. Now I'm not entirely positive that she swallowed it, but I can't seem to locate it anywhere else, and seeing as how she loves to put EVERYTHING in her mouth, I'm going to assume she did.

     Perhaps you'll think I'm a bad parent, but as she's not expressing any sort of distress, and it doesn't have pointy edges, I'm going to wait and see if we get a surprise in her diaper here in a few hours/days. Yes, I will admit this is definitely a Mommy Fail event. I'll just try to remind myself that it could have been worse, and we'll hope for the best.

Bye bye bribes

So we've given up on the bribe method with my preschooler. She obviously could care less whether we hold out ice cream or Frozen or stickers as incentives to going #2 in the potty. It just doesn't seem to matter. She looks at me and says, "well, next time I'll use the potty, but I want a diaper now." Doh!

     And since we've been tired of waiting on ice cream, we went Saturday night. Yum. Ha. Then Sunday morning the Easter Bunny brought Frozen on DVD for my daughter. She was very excited - a little confused because she knew she hadn't earned it by going poopoo in the potty, but still excited. And we've watched it at least 5 times in the last 3 days.

     At some point it'll work. And I don't know yet if any of our attempts at different methods will help or hurt or have any affect whatsoever on the timing of when it'll happen. I'm just confident that I know zero adults or even teens who use diapers out of choice, so there is a day coming up sometime in the future where I won't be handed a diaper... at least from her. And about that time I'm sure we'll be starting the whole process over again with her little sister. 

Oh joy.

Free and clear in the rear

Now that the weather is FINALLY warming up, we get to spend a lot more time in the backyard. My baby even got a slide for her birthday, so there's fun for everyone. And it reminded me that it was about this time last year where we were starting the potty training fun with my preschooler and the backyard was a big part of that.

     I've heard a lot of people tout this method, although it only worked so-so for me. Essentially you strip your child down to their birthday suit (at least from the waist down) and let them play around outside. The idea is that without diaper and clothing to separate them from their bodily functions, they will notice when they have to go and it will clue them into what's going on a bit more.

     For my daughter this only kinda worked. The few times we let her run around outside without anything on, she would either go hide in the bushes or squat down near some plants and go right there. And usually it wasn't pee-pee. So then I had to get the hose out and wash everything away, otherwise worrying that we'd get into the mess later on. Thankfully she doesn't like to get messy so was not at all interested in investigating it.

     I think the idea behind this method is sound. However, for me and my daughter it was just as effective to put her in cloth panties and let her feel when they got wet. She doesn't like to be wet or messy, so that was much more incentive for her to run to the potty or tell me before she had an accident. But, I do see where this method, used at the right time, could make some headway. Good luck!

Laugh it off

A friend of mine just relayed this story, and I thought it was hilarious - in an awful sort of way, so I had to write it here.

     It seems that having a younger sister does funny things to 3-yr old girls. At first it's great - they have a real life baby doll. They love helping mommy and enjoy the big sister gifts that come rolling in. ... And then the baby starts moving around. Once baby begins to crawl, walk along furniture, or even venture out on their own 2 legs, the fun seems to end for big sister. 

     A 3-yr old doesn't understand that her little baby sister will grow up to be a best friend she can always count on and will always be there. All she sees is someone who is grabbing her toys and getting a lot of her attention from mommy and daddy and anyone else around. So the jealousy sets in.

     Sometimes it isn't too bad. But it seems that once baby is mobile, the 3-yr old goes through some regressive behavior (see: my preschooler still pooping in a diaper) and starts acting out a LOT more. It's no fun for anyone... perhaps that's the point.

     Anyways, my friend has 2 girls about the same age as mine, so she's in the same fun adventure at the same time. And her preschooler has started acting out big time. Her most recent escapade involved a potty accident and quiet time.

     Apparently her preschooler was having her daily quiet time, and was happily playing in her bedroom. Unfortunately after about 45 minutes, mom came in to find that her darling preschooler had had a potty accident. And I'm not just talking about wet panties. No, there was poo. Everywhere.

     It seems that not only did her preschooler get poo everywhere, but she then proceeded to smear said potty accident around her room. On her bed, on the floor, on her books... on herself... everywhere. Uh oh! 

Needless to say, I laughed mostly out of relief that I haven't experienced this kind of behavior. yet. And because if you don't laugh, I imagine you might cry. Being a mom stinks sometimes, and this is one of those times where it probably stinks to high heaven. 

So you laugh. And grab a very large jug of bleach.

Side tracked by birthday

Sorry about being MIA last week. My little baby turned 1 and we made a big deal about it, primarily for my preschooler's sake. The older one isn't entirely comprehending that it wasn't her birthday, but we hoped that by having a party and cupcakes and presents for her little sister, and having her part of the process, she would understand that everyone gets birthdays and it isn't always about you.

     I'm not sure any of it has sunk in. Especially since the attendees at the party were all my preschooler's friends, and unfortunately any gift given to a 1yr old is also fun in the eyes of a 3yr old. But at least we worked on it some and by next year hopefully it'll be a little more obvious.

Doing the dance

Ok, can I just say that sometimes the "I have to go potty" dance is pretty hilarious. It seems to take different forms for different kids, and even evolves as they do. Currently my preschooler has a funny one.

     She first uses both hands to grab at her pants between her legs. Then she proceeds to hop from one foot to the other, but in a very exaggerated way. She bends her legs at the knee, and raises the opposite leg in the air almost a foot off the ground. Then dances to the other one. It's hilarious!

     And thankfully most of the time she starts the dance with enough buffer that I'm able to help her find a bathroom before we have a problem. I know, I'm lucky. I don't think all kids are as into giving advanced notice. Even today she cut it close and had to sprint inside to make it to the potty. It was kinda cute though, we heard a "phew! I made it!" from the bathroom. Adorable!

Gloomy day

It's a rainy, gloomy day outside, and things have been going slightly off routine all day (yes, it's only 2:30pm and I will say all day already). Now those who know me probably know that I like to have a schedule. I am perfectly fine with last minute changes to the schedule provided that I am appropriately prepared for them. And today each minor change is throwing me off my game.

     Which reminded me of the fact that my toddler-now-preschooler has fallen off her game as well. I recently posted about all the amazing progress we'd made trying to eliminate diapers completely. Unfortunately that phase was very short-lived - I didn't even get to eat all of the cupcakes I made. And now we're back to her asking for a diaper when she needs to go #2. BUMMER!

Sadly today's post doesn't have a happy solution or an ending to the problem. It's just an update to say that although it's a Friday, it's a "1 step forward, 2 steps back" kind of day. At least this weekend should hopefully give us all a chance to reset and recharge. 

Independent Streak

My toddler is growing up. In reality I should probably stop calling her a toddler and start calling her a preschooler, because it has been quite a while since she's done anything close to toddle around. She runs, jumps, skips, climbs rocks, and at the moment any piece of furniture she can reach. And lately she has also taken on a bit of an independent streak.

     The most common form of this current exertion of wills is in the fashion category. She has decided to start picking out her own clothes and putting them on herself. It used to be that I could select 2 or 3 outfits and let her choose which she felt like wearing, but lately that hasn't been enough control for her. So now she runs into her closet and pulls out clothes she wants to wear, and then has to put them on all by herself.

     For the most part she is successful. Occasionally she needs help finding an arm hole or getting both legs in the right spot, but often she gets the clothes on all by herself. However, they aren't always in a manner that you or I would wear our clothes.

     It seems that a good percentage of the time that she dresses herself, the clothes are either inside-out, or backwards. With T-shirts it rarely matters whether they are front ways or backwards, although sometimes she runs around with a giant frog on her back or tags flapping in the wind and seams visible to all. With pants though, it's a bit trickier to wear them backwards.

     She has realized that jeans are much more difficult to put on oneself (especially when one is just learning how to dress oneself), so she's taken to wearing cotton pants whenever possible. And there are lots of clothing options for children out there in cotton. Some have cute designs, or even words on the backside, like "cutie." Well, you can just imagine how comical it looks to see a little 3 year old wearing "cutie" red cotton pants on backwards.