This week Eric went back to working and I started easing into being a full time mother of 2 without constant help. With a few minor bumps here and there, so far the transition is going well and I'm enjoying having my energy back to keep of with these two girls.
Yesterday while Eric was at work, I was sitting with Livy wrapped up in my arms watching Mia play contently outside in our stairwell. Regardless of the fact that there were dishes to wash, laundry to be folded and I still hadn't gotten showered or dressed for the day, it was a perfect moment. The kind I treasure as a mother.
I also treasure this short amount of time of having a little baby to snuggle as well as watching Mia grow into a young lady. Each day as I watch Mia learn new things and develop new skills I realize how fast babies grow up! I feel like in just the last 2 weeks Mia went from being my baby to this adventurous and independent toddler as well as a caring big sister.
Here are a few of the new developments with Mia.
Mia's vocabulary has exploded! She is starting to put sentences together and remembers words to songs, movies and books. I can't wait for the day when we can have real conversations together!
It's still just as fun as ever to watch Mia play. She has little Woody and Buzz action figures that she takes everywhere with her that she loves to play with. This includes constantly stealing Livy's blankets and burp cloths to tuck them in "nigh-nigh".
One day Mia thought Buzz needed to take a nap with Livy.
And not only is Mia my little princess, she is in love with princesses herself. We watch princess movies, read princess books, sing princess songs, have tea parties and she is always wanting to look like a "pretty princess" as she likes to say. I hope that she will grow up always feeling beautiful and worth just as much as any princess.
One of the things we did this week to make her look like a "pretty princess" was paint her toe nails. I hadn't tried this since almost a year ago which she hated sitting still for then. This time was a whole different experience. We were in the bathroom doing her hair when she saw the nail polish and help it up and said "pretty princess!". She sat patiently and still through while I painted her toe nails with a big smile on her face.
And the best new development that I hope is not a one time thing...
Yes this is Mia taking her first nap in her room since stopping a few months ago and yes this picture was taken from underneath her door :)
Lastly, Mia has taken an interest in sitting on the "big girl" potty. I have sat her up on the potty a couple of times being just surprised she has actually asked and wanted to. She has yet to do anything while sitting on it, but it makes me wonder if I should just suck it up and start potty training. And I apologize in advice if the following pictures offend anyone. The outcome to having an Iphone that allows you to always have a camera on you...you sometimes feel the need to capture moments you normally wouldn't run and get your actual camera for.
Thoughts and advice would be MUCH appreciated on the subject of potty training and what you mother's who have potty trained your children have found has worked because I'll be honest...I have NO idea what I'm doing or what I could be getting myself into.
haha! those last pictures are the best!
ReplyDeleteYou might get comment overload with the potty-training question, ha ha. What is great, as I am sure you have seen time and time again, is that each kid is different. I personally had success waiting till my kids were just shy of three. Elden-- I waited until he was three. Basically all of my kids were potty-trained in a week.. with no diapers day or night (sleeping through the night dry) and being able to urinate or have a bowel movement on the toilet. (If I remember right Shanna and Haley did have a few accidents for a little while--nothing to cause concern on my part. Elden struggled a little more with accidents, but they weren't everyday and he eventually grew out of it after a few weeks.) I do not like the little potty chairs--I think it's great you have Mia sitting on a big toilet. I have used the toilet seat insert things. I kind of did a boot camp of staying home all week--I would start Sunday after church and have them wear underwear...no diapers after that. The plan was to have them ready in 7 days (basically) so they could go to nursery the next week with underwear on. The first few days were painful, and it is hard watching them practically the WHOLE day just to get them to the toilet. The kid is like a walking time bomb! Elden went through 14 pairs of underwear the first day!!! So I would pick a week where basically all I did was potty-train and didn't have anything else going on. I also never used pull-ups. I figured it would confuse the kid in a way, AND I was done paying for diapers! Why buy more? Having them come with you to pick out cute underwear is fun too. I actually liked the thick training underwear your mom gave me. It would soak up some of them mess. Having them run around with a shirt and underwear all day isn't a bad thing either. When you do venture out in public, it might be handy to have some sort of treat to coax the kid who has-to-go-potty-but-doesn't-want-to, to go. Thankfully my kids never had issues with playing too long and forgetting to go to the bathroom (say if they've been potty-trained for awhile and just wet their pants at the park or something). Also, some parents have to limit liquids before bedtime, but thankfully I haven't had to worry about that either. Some advice I've heard is to just go home and leave the playground in that instance, or later if your kid is at a friend's house, make them come home and stay home. One dr. would tell his kids something about how the kid's friends are big kids and don't wet their underwear...and they can stay home for the rest of the day as the result of that. Anyway, I hope you don't have to deal with that! Also we would make a sticker chart for each child with a picture of a prize on it when they filled it up. The prize could be in sight but out of reach, like on the top of the refrigerator. Also, the sticker chart was hung in the bathroom. I spent lots of time in the bathroom!!! After they would go to the bathroom on the toilet they would put a sticker on the chart. I think this was overload, but we would give them a little piece of candy too...say an M&M or something. So there's my two bits...or novel. It will be fun to hear about the adventure! Oh, when I potty-trained the girls, Lee took a week off of work. He was in charge of one girl and I was in charge of the other. Oh and something else I remembered, if you are going on a big trip or something, it seems better to wait until after to tackle potty-training. I've heard that kids can regress if big events come up in their life soon after potty-training, like a big vacation, a sibling being born, or moving. Okay. I'm done.
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