Because really, when she sings this? It’s pretty much impossible to stay in a bad mood.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Vpmz4BVU8
* I know most of y’all will probably not watch the video because it’s over 3 minutes long, but you should really listen to the last 10 seconds or so, just to hear the way she pronounces “Thumbkin.” Her “Th” sounds like an “F,” and she doesn’t enunciate the M. So it sounds… well, it sounds like something that should be bleeped, let’s put it that way.
* Diet/exercise update: I’ve been doing pretty well so far. Trying not to eat at night has been about as difficult as I expected, which is to say, VERY. I’m drinking a lot more water, although I’m probably still drinking too much Diet Coke. One step at a time, people. For me, Diet Coke is more addiction than habit, so that one’s a little tougher.
My sister talked me into trying out The Daily Plate to track my calories, and I guess I should’ve expected to be appalled by the amount of junk I was eating, but it still caught me by surprise. The website has its pros & cons: it doesn’t strike me as the most user-friendly, but on the plus side, it does have pretty much every food item imaginable in the database (even menus at chain restaurants). My main gripe with it, or any type of food journal, is that it’s just tedious to keep a log of every single food item you put in your mouth. (Of course, I also see the benefit, that it makes you think twice about it when you know you’re going to have to see the calories on the screen right in your face later.) I’m still debating on whether or not I’ll use it long-term.
I’ve worked out the last three days in a row. On Friday, I did pilates. Saturday, I did the first couch-to-5K workout (which was hard, but I survived), and then today I did the Biggest Loser Weight-Loss Yoga. Tomorrow it’s back to the couch-to-5K, and so on & so forth.
* We went to Target today and it was insane. We shop there all the time, so I didn’t account for the traffic increase on Sunday afternoon. That’s a mistake I won’t be repeating. But listen, I get that it’s August in North Carolina and it’s insanely hot outside, but y’all: wearing a teeny-tiny swimsuit cover-up and a pair of flip-flops (and nothing else) is not appropriate shopping attire. What happens if you have to bend over to pick up that 12-pack of soda? Lord help us all. And I’m not talking about one person, there were many women that I thought, “oh wow, she really should’ve put on a bra before leaving the house.” I saw lots of kids running around the store barefoot too, which, eww. Yuck. Seriously? Really, really not ok. I think we needed the fashion police up at Target today, is what I’m saying.
* Catie continues to be almost 100% successful at peeing in the potty (she had an accident in her Pull-Up at Target today, but it was her first mistake in 5 days, & she was distracted by the toy aisle, so I’m overlooking it). Still no poops in the potty, but I think she’ll get to it soon. I’ve been shaking her Pull-Ups into the potty so she’ll have the visual “this is where it’s supposed to go” clue. And she’s been acting out scenes in which one of her toys poops its diaper and she tells it, “no no, poop goes in da potty!” (my favorite was when Molly, one of her Thomas the Tank Engine trains, pooped her diaper; I can’t even begin to wrap my head around how that’d work).
* Random kid funny: Last night Beaumont climbed across Catie, trying to get within head-scratching distance of me. Somehow part of his giant cat self ended up on Catie’s foot, which made her irate. She screamed at him, “No, Bun-bun! It’s MY foot! It’s Catie’s!” I can’t explain why that made me laugh for the next 10 minutes, but god, it really did.
I apologize in advance if you can’t get this damn Wiggles song out of your head.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpYBANpkHew
Note that she’s wearing Thomas the Tank Engine underpants (which are actually boys’ underpants, but they don’t make Thomas for girls, and really, who cares at this age? It’s not like 2 year-old boys use the flap in front either).
But, yes. Underpants. Not diapers, not Pull-Ups. The real deal. She is still wearing Pull-Ups sometimes; always at nap and bedtime, but if she wants to wear them other times, I don’t really care as long as she keeps it dry. The other day she wore the same Pull-Up for about 24 hours, because she kept it dry the whole time – even when she was asleep.
She’s not 100% there yet, as we have yet to see a single poop in the potty, but still. MAJOR progress. She’s even used the potty at our neighbor’s house and at Dave’s office. I’m sort of stunned at how much easier it was this time compared to three months ago. I guess giving her some time to get used to the idea was all she needed.
So, that jumping & arm-flailing dance of pure joy you see at the beginning of this video? That about sums up my reaction to this whole potty-training business. Jump to the front & back, indeed, Wiggles.
*Note the shirt that Catie insisted on wearing to bed last night. She must’ve known it was a Tuesday.
I’m scared to blog about this since last time was such a disaster, but potty-training is… going much better than I expected.
Excuse me while I pause to look around and make sure no anvils are about to fall out of the sky and land on my head.
Tuesday night, I got the ball rolling by telling Catie that she was going to start using the potty in the morning. She’s a cautious kid, and I thought she might need some warning time to process it and prepare. I think it helped. I also decided to use Pull-Ups this time instead of just going cold turkey to big-girl panties.
Yesterday (day 1) was very hit-or-miss. She had a couple of successful pees in the potty, but she also peed in her Pull-Ups a lot. But I was happy with the progress that she made, since we were basically starting from scratch. Every time she peed on the potty, I cheered and applauded her, and gave her lots of hugs & kisses, and rewarded her with a York peppermint patty (her favorite treat). (And yes, that means that this morning I gave her chocolate before breakfast. I know, I’m the worst mother ever. Whatever, I was proud of her.)
(Also, for the record, the little training potty? Does not work for her. She hates it. Maybe because she remembers the last potty-training attempt. So we have a Dora potty seat and put it on the regular toilet for her to use. She likes it because it’s the same “big potty” that Mommy uses. And I have to say, I much prefer just flushing & not having to clean out the little pot.)
Today has been a lot better. She’s peed in the potty four times already, and has only had one accident. She’s pooped in her Pull-Up a few times – which, ok yes, the idea is to eventually get her to poop on the potty too, but after her 6-day poop strike that happened last time? I’m just happy that she’s still going & not holding it in. Baby steps, right?
Also, I told her that if she can learn how to pee and poop in the potty, and if she can do it every time without accidents by the time we move into the new house, then when we move, I’ll get her a Thomas the Tank Engine table just like the one at the toy store. And we can put it in her new playroom. I think that motivation might help her a lot. (I’ve seen about 25 train tables for sale on craigslist. I was thinking about getting her one after we move anyway, now I just have a way to use it as a bribe.)
So, yeah. I think we’re getting there. I don’t know how long it’ll take to get her 100% potty-trained, but at least she’s making progress and I can safely say that it’s a thousand times better than last time.
As y’all probably remember, we tried to potty-train Catie back in May. I’d describe that venture as one great big, epic FAIL. She clearly wasn’t ready, and I had no prior potty-training experience so I had no clue how to help her through the transition.
Now, though, it’s three months later. And she seems to be completely potty-trained when she’s at the baby-sitter’s house. Meanwhile, if I ask her to sit on the potty at home, I get a bunch of histrionic wailing and “NO! NO POTTY!!” Hmm.
Clearly, something needs to be done. To be honest, I think I was thoroughly traumatized by that last potty-training attempt, so I just put it out of my head and figured I’d tackle it again… someday. With no concrete idea of when that would be, because I was too freaked out to imagine revisiting that whole debacle.
My sister Tracy and I were chatting online yesterday and she gave me this brilliant idea, and I’ve decided to run with it. Dave and I talk to Catie about the upcoming move a lot, and we’re always trying to reassure her how it’s all going to be great, because we don’t want her to get stressed out about it. So we talk about how it’s a really nice house, and we’ll all be there (Mommy, Daddy, Catie, Beaumont, & Teenie), and Catie’s big-girl bed will be there, and all of her toys, books, and movies will also be there. And oh, the fun we will have in our new house.
BUT (and this is where Tracy’s genius comes in), I told Catie last night, the one thing that our new house doesn’t have? Diapers. There are no diapers in the new house. At the new house, we all use the potty.
Catie is at daycare today, so we’re going to start working on this tomorrow. I think we’ll probably go the Pull-Up route for a day or two before going cold turkey to just big-girl panties, because that was a disaster last time.
Wish me luck. I’m sure I’m going to need it. (Oh, and if you have any potty-training pearls of wisdom, feel free to leave them in the comments for me.)
Ok, everyone and their grandma has now seen this wedding video, right?
(If you haven’t, you need to watch it now. Really.)
I saw people posting it all over Facebook, and I ignored it because, eh, wedding stuff. I don’t care. I finally watched it, and OMG it’s hilarious and awesome. Catie happened to be on my lap, and she sat there mesmerized for the full five minutes. She immediately demanded, “AGAIN!!” as soon as it was over.
Her favorite parts are the guy who does the handstand (around the 1:15 point), and when the groom comes out (around 3:00). But none of that can top the excitement of when everything goes into slow-motion and she knows the bride is coming out any second. “Where is she? Where da lady? Where da white dress?”
Then when the bride comes out (at the 4:08 point), she squeals with glee and screams, “Dere she is! She got flowahs! She gon’ get mawwied!!” I tried to explain the whole wedding thing to her, and, well, it’s kind of over a 2 year-old’s head. Still, she loves it, and keeps demanding to watch it over & over. Of the 18 million or so views that it has on YouTube, I think we’re responsible for at least a hundred of them. And honestly? I haven’t gotten tired of it yet.
* This lazy blog post brought to you by the fact that it’s Saturday.