Crossing Our Fingers or Mission Accomplished?

This last week I decided it was time to commit to potty training Abygail. It's gone pretty well so far. There is usually one accident a day (when she is too busy to be bothered with going to the bathroom). She's been in big girl underpants for pretty much the whole week - even in public. Yesterday we were at Home Depot and for the first time she actually TOLD me she needed to go potty (well, told is relative...I'll get to that). She used the potty 2 times during that trip!!! We are so happy and proud of her. Today at church she even used the potty!!! We came home accident free. She's still in diapers during nap and at night time but we are sooo incredibly proud and happy for the progress she's made...I think it's just the right time and things are starting to connect for her.

She doesn't actually tell me when she needs to go potty. She usually makes up a story (she LOVES telling and being told stories) about when she told mommy or daddy she had to go potty or she talks about it to herself. We have to pay close attention and listen so that we catch those clues and then we ask her if she needs to go and she inevitably says 'yes'. Mostly I'm still on potty patrol and just make her sit on the potty every couple of hours. (she goes way less frequently than I do...I bet her bladder is bigger than mine in it's current state :) The only time she is still in diapers while awake is in the morning. She is very sensitive after waking up and we don't dare try to change her night time diaper until she is good and ready for it to be changed.

Other progress beyond that is that she is very fluent in her colors. She is also actually counting things now - she no longer repeats her numbers 1-10 (1-14 if you count the extra 13 before the 11) now she will physically count her fingers, items on the page, etc - and she almost always gets it right.

Now we just need to work on her letters, she still struggles a bit in that department.

She is smart and talented, sweet and sensitive and we love seeing her develop, learn and grow.

As for the potty training...I'm not sure if we will call it a Mission Accomplished yet...we'll probably just keep our fingers crossed.

A Week In Review

Silly Songs:
Abygail loves to have us sing to her. Most of the time that's how she goes to sleep. Lately (the past month or so) she has been requesting some interesting songs. This is my favorite song for this week:

Abygail: Sing Abygail.
Mommy: Ok, 'Abygail, you are my sunshine...'
Abygail: NO! Sing Butter.
Mommy: Ok, 'Butter, butter, who's seen the butter...'
Abygail: NO! Sing Pancakes.
Mommy: Ok, 'Pancakes, panny cakes, everybody likes panny cakes...'
Abygail: NO! Sing Butter Pancakes.
Mommy: Ok, 'Butter on my pancakes, what's better...'
Abygail: NO! SING ABYGAIL BUTTER PANCAKES!!!
Mommy: OK! 'Abygail likes butter and she like pancakes...'
(a sigh of relief that we've finally found the right song)

Testing the Limits:
Abygail has also started testing the limits. She likes to try and demand to run around diaper-less (nekky bum). She also wants to go to the bathroom "by self" and closes the door behind her among a vast number of other things (playing during dinner, pushing Jackson...)

Wiggle Wart:
Jackson is such a WIGGLE WART. I was cracking up the other morning when he woke up for his 5:30am feeding. I was nursing him and his legs were pushing and bouncing, his eyes are closed and he's moving! It's so hard to get him to stay still long enough to get food into this crazy boy. I just love him so much and it really cracks me up!


Daddy Date:
Wednesday we had a "Daddy Date". Since it is still pretty cold here and there is still snow remaining on the ground there are not a lot of places where the kids can get out and stretch their legs for very long. There is a mall here that has some indoor play equipment (it's pretty small but beggars can't be choosers). Wednesday we decided to go to the play place in the mall and Jason was free for lunch so we swung by and brought him with us. Of course, no family outing is complete with out a little car sickness. We got to the mall, I was looking for a parking place and I started hearing the signals that Abygail was about to do her thing. I quickly stopped, Jason and Abygail got out of the car planning to meet us inside. But...It was too late! Jason got as far as Abygail out of the car and in his arms about ready to close the door for us to drive off when IT happened...all over the ground and on his shirt! It was a good thing we were at the mall, he got a new shirt out of it.

We got to see the Easter Bunny. Abygail was very cute. She was shy and didn't want to touch him/her or have him/her touch her but she told him HI.

We enjoyed lunch together and then the kids played in the indoor playground. There were a lot of kids there but they both had fun. Jackson wanted to be right there with all the big kids too. He climbed up a slide and crawled all over the place.

We all had a lot of fun. When it was over we dropped Daddy back off at school. A perfect Daddy Date.

Potty Training:
Abygail is not completely potty trained. Really, she just knows how to use the potty when she wants to. She has become very adept at taking her diaper off as well. I know I need to be more firm about her using the potty, I just haven't figured out how to do it in a nice way that she will respond positively to.

Yesterday I lost it. She went pooh pooh in her diaper and then took it off and came to tell me that she had gone pooh pooh (nothing unusual there). She also said "uh oh mommy. I poopie on my foot". Sure enough there was pooh pooh on her foot. I told her not to move, I would be right back to clean it up. I walked out of the library and past the bathroom, where right in front of it was laying her diaper with poop in it and poop on the floor as well. I got some stuff to clean it all up and came back to see that she had moved. I told her again not to move, then proceeded to clean up the mess in front of the bathroom (dummy me, should have cleaned up her foot first). When I was done and ready to clean her up, I found she had moved again and now there was poop on the furniture in the library. GREAT! I cleaned her up while yelling. I know, it really wasn't her fault and yelling just scared her but I just lost it. Next time...hopefully there won't be a next time.

Potty Training

For the last few days Abygail has not wanted to wear anything, including her diaper. So, we've dabbled a little in potty training. So far it's not worked but I think she's becoming more aware. She has gone pee-pee on the potty once, poo-poo on the floor twice and pee-pee on the floor twice. I guess we should get more serious about it because she is showing signs of interest. She'll sit on the potty, she just doesn't like to DO anything while she's on it.

I just know that soon enough she'll be a big girl and although I'm tired of changing so many diapers I really don't want her to grow up!!!

**UPDATE** She went poo-poo on the potty tonight! Ya Abygail!!!

The Day's Happenings

1. Jackson crawled out of the living room today for the first time. Life as we know it has changed. No more keeping that boy in one room. If he sees us leave he's headed straight for the path where I disappeared. The Dr. was a little surprised yesterday at his weight gain and asked if he moved around a lot. We replied "He crawls everywhere and we can't keep him in one spot for 2 seconds". She said "He's crawling?" We said "OH YES! He's either crawling, jumping in his jumper or sleeping because that's what he likes to do". Then she said "Well, than, that explains his weight."

2. Abygail had her first REAL conversation on the telephone. We called Daddy at work and he asked her a series of questions in which she responded correctly and then he asked her what she had for lunch and she said (with her thinking look on - rolling her eyes heavenward) "umm, (pause) gapes (translation - grapes), umm, (pause) roni (translation - macaroni), umm, (pause) tuna." It's so amazing to hear her and see her actually responding to questions and responding correctly.

3. Abygail peed on the carpet - this was really my fault. I should have understood what she was trying to tell me. She was pulling at her diaper and said "pee pee". I asked her if she went pee pee in her diaper and she said yes. I asked her if she wanted a diaper change and she said yes so I took it off. Then in the 5 seconds or so that it took me to go in the next room to get a new diaper she did her business in the middle of the living room. Good thing we'll be cleaning that carpet when we move! She's been telling us before she goes poo poo for the last week and we put her on the potty, she doesn't do anything but rather waits until we put her diaper back on (after she tells us she's done and doesn't need to go poo poo any more) then messes in her diaper. I'm sure she's getting close to being ready for potty training. I hope she can wait just another week until Jason is out of school so there will be two of us around to pay more attention to the immediate needs of potty training.

4. A CD was found in the VCR player - hmm, wonder how that happened?! Could it have been my little girl? I think so! It sure did frustrate me when I kept trying to put in the Blues Clues tape and it wouldn't work. I thought "O GREAT, the VCR is broken!"

5. Jason surprised us by coming home before midnight! This week has just been a killer, Jason's final is on Friday and he's had tons of work to do to prepare for the end of the semester so he's been gone by 9am and gone until after midnight for the better part of a week now. So I was gearing up to put Abygail to bed when we heard him come in the front door at 7:30 - Boy was I glad to see the relief squad!