Our Kids

That is how the girls are doing.  Lela is kicking booty on her potty training surprising even her mother with her understanding and abilities.  She is accident free (not that I would mind an accident, its just that she is not having them).  I know she may  have them and that is okay.  She is in panties, not training pants.  We can go out and she is fine.  She is pretty much telling me when she needs to go but will also go with me before we go out etc.  She has great control over all her muscles for both pee and poo.  You can tell that she is practicing with them stopping her flow and then starting again or getting up and coming back a few minutes later.  She is doing so well, I am continually amazed at how much they know and how quickly they can learn.  Piper is doing great sitting on her potty and is back to where she was before we started training.  She tells us when she is wet or soiled and we change her right away, she sits on her potty (lid down) all the time and knows all the words.  I think one of the things that is holding her back is that she is a little shorter and doesn’t feel as at ease sitting on the potty.  I did buy  her a shorter potty but she wants to have one just like Lela so we will just keep doing what we are doing until she feels secure.

Since this post is turning into the Lela post I thought I would share one of the things about Lela that is sooooo “Lela”.  Lela has an incredible sense of where she is and where things are at all times.  To showcase that fact here is something that she does on a daily basis.  Lela will be running full steam ahead and looking back at you, just when you think she is going to crash into the wall or hit her head on something she does a full stop or turns just in the nick of time.  It is so frightening but every single time she turns or stops right at the last minute and she wasn’t even looking where she was going, freaky and cool.  The other thing that Lela does that seems to be a bit at odds with that first snippit is that she always always always falls onto her knees when we go out for walks.  Never inside but as soon as we go on a walk, especially if I have decided to let her wear shorts, she falls and scrapes her knees.  It is uncanny, sometimes it happens before we even get out of the driveway.  I think I need to sew patches on all her pants for extra protection or line them on the inside with something soft and fuzzy.

So there you have it Lela has a keen sense of her surroundings as she runs full speed and looks behind her, and is as clumsy as they come when it comes to walking forward looking where she is going.  Ironic!

Today I have the day off from work… labor day gives us “working stiffs” a day off from the daily grind we call “work.”  Hah.  Please… I know I’ve said this before, but I’m going to say it again.  We’ve got it easy.  If you’re the working spouse (like me), and you’ve got today off, go give the real worker a hug and a kiss and extend a helping hand.  That’s the one… your spouse who stays at home and gives care to your kids.  They’re the heroes.  My work isn’t half as hard as it can be here.  And not even close to half as rewarding, but sometimes that’s hard to realize when it seems like you’re just trying to get through the day.

For example… it’s hard to explain how great Lela’s doing with the potty training.  The difference from a week ago is like night and day.  Lela rarely has an accident, and when she does it can easily be blamed on a parent.  Like me, yesterday… coming into the house after spending some time at grammy and grampy’s, I was too concerned with bringing everything in in one trip (silly), and I wasn’t paying attention to Lela telling me she had to go.  She went… on my shorts just before we got to the potty.  Good for her… that’ll teach me.

Now she’s telling us when she needs to go, and she happily sits there, either reading a book or watching a DVD.  Her favorite song is from Signing Times and it talks about family.  At one point the song says “me, me, me” which both Lela and Piper have grasped and now use to tell us when they want to hear that song.  Cutest thing ever… both of them sitting on their potties saying “me, me, me” complete with the finger pointing to their chest.

Kudos to Lela and Mystique for doing such a good job.  Piper’s hanging in there… she’s gotten pretty good at telling us when she needs a diaper change, and she knows wet and dry.  Not sure when she’ll start down the potty road, but there’s no hurry.

I’m probably being way too optimistic here, but… it’s starting to cool down just a tad here in Arizona.  We actually went to the park on Saturday where the girls got to swing and climb on the playset.  Instead of taking a stroller there we decided to ride in the cool wagon.  For a bit.  Then the girls decided that they wanted to pull the wagon.  Not really the easiest thing for a couple of 20-month olds, but they did a pretty good job of it.  It certainly made the trip to and from the park quite a bit longer than with the stroller, but they got a lot of exercise and pretty much went down in a snap that night.

Last night was kind of fun… the girls were getting pretty cranky around 5:45pm for some reason, so Mystique tried taking them for a walk around the block.  They came back and were still pretty cranky so we put them down for bed at around 6:20pm.  They didn’t really like that, so after 20 minutes of pulling weeds in our front yard, we got the girls out of their beds.  Piper insisted on going into our bedroom and she wanted to do nothing but lay on our bed with her bear and her blanket.  Oh, and I had to be in there, but I couldn’t have the TV on, even on mute.  She would gesture angrily when I tried… which I did, a few times.  Every now and then Lela would wander in looking for Piper (‘bah bah’), and then go back to sitting with mommy.  That lasted for about 20-25 minutes, and finally Piper sat up and we were able to return to the living room, have some milk, then go to sleep without a peep at 7pm.  I guess we all just needed some quiet time together.  We’ll see how tonight goes.

Well I am getting better at knowing when Lela should be going and she is getting better about knowing when she needs to go.  Today we ventured out of the house with our training pants on, I had on my normal underwear and she wore training pants;)  When we were in Babies R’ Us returning some items she crossed her legs and had a moment of discomfort, I asked if she had to go potty but she declined.  We continued to return our items, play on the horses outside the store, head to Barnes and Noble for some new potty books, play on the horses some more, eat a banana and an apple and then head home.  The whole trip took about 1.5 hours and she stayed dry the entire time, and she did not want to potty after getting home and eating a bean, rice and broccoli quesadilla (minus the queso).  So she went down for her 2 hour nap and stayed dry that entire time.

After her nap I took her to the potty and she went right away.  She had her BM in her potty later in the day and had no accidents all day.  For her BM she came up to me and said Poo Poo.  She is recognizing the sensation but is still having a little trouble relaxing the muscles, she does it but sometimes it takes her a few tries.  We put on her favorite music video (Signing Times, Me, Me, Me) about a family and how they love each other and that really helps her relax.  She doesn’t always require the video but I figure it is better than bribing her with candy like some of the books suggested, its all personal preference.

Tonight I knew she had to go but she was not ready so I just took off her panties and let her run around the house in her dress and shoes.  While I was changing Piper’s diaper she went to her potty and peed all by herself.  When Jason entered the room she was standing up and pointing at it!  It was pretty exciting.  We always take it to the big potty and say bye bye so she was waiting for someone to get it so she could wish it well on its journey.  I would not go so far as to say she is potty trained but she is doing very very well.  Such a little trooper.  Just goes to show how smart the little ones are and how our role is to show them the way and let them decide if they are ready.  Okay so sometimes they require a little push but don’t we all.