Potty update

Well, as is expected around these parts, life got in the way with potty learning. Plus, school was not super enthusiastic about the whole idea and that coupled with our own hectic few months led to us backing off. She still used the potty quite a bit and often wore big girl panties on the weekends, but we didn't keep pushing school to try it much during the day. 

However, she's been sporadically asking to go during the last few weeks and even "took" herself (walked to the potties, pulled down her pants, and took off her diaper and went!) when they were busy helping another kid. So, on Tuesday night at a parent/board meeting, her teacher said that we might give it a try! She had been dry all day for 2 days in diapers. So, on Wednesday morning I dropped her off at school wearing big girl underwear and with a bag full of extra panties and pants (for the inevitable accidents). Surprise! Only one accident on Wednesday! 

So, I dropped her off this morning in her big girl underwear as well and am crossing my fingers that things will go well. She seems so proud of herself when she uses the potty (plus she gets to demand books at home while sitting on the potty and that's always a plus for her).

We unfortunately have a busy weekend already planned so we're also hoping that this doesn't derail the potty adventure too much. It's our 6th anniversary (and I actually did do the math for that. I tend to forget how long it's been!). So, we're headed out to Knoxville (no, not Tennessee) for a beer and music festival with some friends. The Froglette's coming as well and we booked a hotel room for the night so we don't have to drive home at the end. So, now we need to pack a million pairs of panties, a potty, diapers, and a few dozen pairs of pants along with all of our normal supplies for a little trip. It'll be good to get away for a little while and enjoy each other. 

Potty like it's 1999

Well, the Froglette seems to think it's time for Adventures in Potty Land! We bought a potty for her a while ago on a whim, but it was mostly "decoration". She loved to use it as a step stool and sat from time to time for fun. But, on Sunday, we were talking with Aunt K and she was sitting on the potty and she peed! Oh how exciting! And then she did it again, and again, until she had peed 3 separate times and pooed once as well. We were stunned. On Monday she peed in the morning and in the evening. Tuesday she peed and pooed in the potty. Wednesday am she peed. She's even peed at school now.

We're still stunned. I don't know what step to do next. We bought some big girl panties as well as some trainers (cloth panties with an slightly absorbent crotch) and I'm thinking that we'll try those over the weekend along with a lot of naked time. It's been fun and exciting! Plus, I've gotten to leave a lot of voicemails to my family that involve songs like "She peed in the potty" and "Poop in the potty" and my favorite "Yay yay yay, potty yay!".

We're not in a rush, but I don't want to get in her way either. We are traveling to Portland at the end of next week, so we're scrambling to figure out how potty learning will fit into our vacation plans (step 1, have Gma buy a potty, step 2 ?). At some point I'll get to stop talking about someone else's bodily elimination, right?

Learning and growing

Well, the chickadee is 16 months old already! The time has flown by.

We've been busy bees with a trip to San Diego at the beginning of March for a wedding (and quality time with Grandma and the ocean) and then some fun playing in Capitol City for my birthday.

We're headed to Chicago this weekend so that I can present at the national conference for people who study what I study. PEter and the chickadee are coming as well, not to the conference to Chicago, so we're working on planning some fun as well as work. If you have any child-friendly suggestions, let me know!

For those in the know, I've added a bunch of pictures to the shutterfly share site. If you'd like access and you don't already have it, send me an email and I'll invite you. We've password protected it so that we can share all sorts of family photos.

new words

More pictures and stories from our trip to the coast next week (I'll have time over spring break) but just a quick note to document Froglette's latest words.

[æp˺] for apple

She can also moo, baa and woof for the respective animals.

Her receptive vocabulary is bigger and it's clear she knows and can response appropriately to many different words. She knows boots, sit down, cracker, milk, coat, shoes, gentle (well, she might know gentle, she's not always actually gentle!), kiss, hug, mouth, nose, toes, tongue, head, bite (she bites her toes sometimes during diaper changes) and nurse (she laughs with a maniacal little laugh when I say "nurse?" in response to her nurse sign. Like, "yes, dummy, that's what I just said!")

Ah words, so much fun!

Rested

It's amazing how much of it difference it makes to get consecutive hours of sleeping at night. Tuesday and Wednesday nights (both nights) Froglette managed to not wake up at all until after 5 am. And on Wednesday morning, she even went back to sleep after PEter brought her in for her morning snuggle/nursing. He eventually had to wake her up to get ready for school - amazing! I'm hoping for a third night in the row, but I'm not counting on anything. I've learned that lesson at least!

Froglette learned a new word. This morning she said [tʃIti] (which might sound like "chitty" if you don't speak IPA). So, that's "kitty"!! PEter read her Nini Here and There last night before bed and she was enamored with the kitty in the book. This morning we ended up reading it twice before leaving the house and she kept herself entertained with it while I was getting dressed. So, finally she has a word for kitty! I also forgot to mention that she has [bʌk] for "book". She learned that word as well as the sign for it in the same day (or at least first demonstrated that she knew the sign and word. She's signs some - we aren't hard core into signing by any means but she seems to enjoy it and she acquired signs for things well before her first words.

In personal news, I found out that I was cited (an article I coauthored quite a few years ago actually) which is super cool. It's the first time I've known about, and I just happened upon it after googling myself (ironically to try to find an electronic copy of said article, which, no luck). So, that was a nice feeling. Plus, the presentation I co-presented yesterday went fairly well too, so a big sigh of relief. Now to prepare for the one I'm REALLY freaking out about!

So, that's the news from here. It's cold again and dreary. But, the cardinals and robins are out so hopefully it's just a matter of time before the weather warms up.

Happy 15th months!

Whoops, so we neglected the blog here for a few (many) months. Sorry about that! Life just got in the way and we were busy playing and singing and running around like maniacs. But, blogging is back!


Today is the little girl's 15th month birthday. I can't believe how big she is! Check it out!

It seems like just the other day she was nestled in her little plastic box at the hospital.

Not only does she have a smile and an evily little grin, but she also has a rapidly expanding vocabulary. She can say "more" [mo], "mama" [mama] and "dada" [dada'], "no" [no] (which is often nononono in rapid succession). She also uses "whoof" [w^f] for dogs. Her passive vocabulary is vast (by this I mean that she clearly comprehends much more than she produces). When we get her from school each night, we ask her to sit down outside her classroom door so that we can change her shoes. She happily* follows directions and will go find her boots and try mightily to get them on her feet. 

The chickadee also has 6 (6!) teeth now. The first four are fully through but the last two on the top are still struggling to fully descend.**

She got to jump in puddles for the first time last week as we had a spell of weather in the 50s and 60s so the ice and snow melted. Apparently puddle jumping is an innate behavior because she just knew exactly what to do when confronted with a puddle! Splash! She's also been begging for rides in the stroller. When she sees it she starts trying to climb up in it to go out! I think she's has cabin fever too. She's also a fan of dancing and will nod her head (a headbanger in training?) and do cute little gyrations to the music. She just started spinning in circles too - so maybe she's a fan of hippie dance?

Things have been a bit better for Cole recently as well. The pinching and other painful behavior is mostly gone. Now she tries to hug him (which, granted, does often end up in a body slam to the floor, but, well, she tries) and kiss him. She likes to rest her head on his belly which he tolerates for much longer than one would expect. She still worships him and we can't get over how excited she is by his existence. 

We have some adventures coming up soon. We head to southern CA in 10 days for a quick vacation/wedding of a friend. We're hoping to take Froglette to  the ocean and the zoo. And then it's spring break (we're staying here but hoping to play hooky a bit and go have fun as a family) and then we're heading to Chicago so I can present at a conference. Busy busy!

*Okay, so not so happily recently. We seem to be having a grouchy streak. Sigh.

** We think that these teeth may be the cause of some of the grouchiness. We hope. Or maybe it's other new teeth?