Lazy days of summer

After much anticipation, summer has finally arrived in Michigan. E is loving every minute of it! She gets time at the park in the early morning and time in her pool in the later morning. Does life get any better than that?! Her splashing table provides lots of entertainment as she pours water from the table into the pool or waters anything that remotely needs watering. However, I have found that my feet do like to be watered in this heat!

Today, she decided that the splashing table was the perfect place to clean off her feet. She got great pleasure in climbing up on top of it and stomping around in it, much to my chagrin. While she splashed, she said, "Danger, momma, careful". Hmmmm...didn't make me feel any better about her antics.

Catching bubbles is always good entertainment also. She'll chase them all over the yard. She is funny to watch. I'm certain that the neighbors love the high-pitches shrieks that follow her catching a bubble.

Nothing is better than a good push to 'go high'. Swinging is, by far, her favorite activity outside. She'll swing as long as someone will push her. It took a couple months for her to warm up to the 'big girl' swings, but she loves them now. However, she still loves the toddler swing best at g'ma and g'pa's house...it goes REALLY high.

Splashin' in the Rain

Is there anything more fun than splashing in the rain? Or catching raindrops on your tongue? E had a marvelous time doing just that on Tuesday evening with her dad. (I was thankful to remain the dry photographer on the porch and in the house.) Her face just says it all...

She loves 'posing' for the camera. We are going to try and have 2 year pics taken tomorrow...hopefully she'll cooperate.

Her boots were full of 2 inches + of water before she came back inside and Jut emptied them several times before she got back to the house. But the extra water never bothered her!

Pull-ups, a t-shirt and splashin' boots...perfect outfit for a perfect activity.

Newest lesson from potty training...

E has been doing great learning to use the potty! On Saturday, she had 8 successes and 7 yesterday. As long as she's running around the house bare-bottomed, she typically will go sit on the potty when she thinks that she's going to go #1. She's going pretty regularly if I take her out of the diaper and sit her on the potty, too.

This morning was going great. We had 5.5 successes! Life was good. She didn't wet in her diaper while we were outside but came in and promptly used the potty. Steps in the right direction...until nap time came around.

I put E in her diaper for her nap. She has a tendency to wrap up in a 2-layered fleece blanket when in bed and overheats while sleeping. So, I decided not to put on any pants/shorts for nap. (Yes, in retrospect that was a big mistake!) I lay her down and go downstairs to get some things done. After 30-40 minutes, I go upstairs to check on her. I didn't hear anything at her door so I quietly open it and see her diaper laying next to the crib rails...with the inserts laying on the mattress. I hear "I hiding" from under the blanket. I go over to the crib for closer inspection. Yup, the inserts are wet and laying directly on the sheets and when E pops out from under the blanket, she is indeed bare-bottomed. Lovely.

I pull E out of the crib and ask her to go sit on the potty. I ask her "Did you go potty in the crib?" She smiles her devilish grin and says "Potty in crib!" I feel around and the only wet spot is where the diaper inserts are...but I decide that I'm not taking any chances that all of it is going in the washer. So, I strip the bed. Meanwhile, E goes potty on the potty. I take care of that and then head downstairs with the laundry.

Of course the washer and dryer are both full but the cycles are done. So, I switch everything and put in the bedding. Just after I start the washer, I hear "Uh-oh, poop" coming from the living room. E has joined me downstairs and released a 2-inch log from her bottom...and then gives me another piece a foot away to clean up. Lovely. The good news is that #1, she didn't poo in bed...and #2, it was solid and easy to clean up. However, E will go to bed with something over her diaper from now on!!!

Oh the joys of learning to use the toilet and trying to teach someone to use the toilet!

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Update: Jut didn't learn my lesson. I told him the entire story when he got home just as I finished cleaning everything up. I left for my dr's appointment. I got home and Jut told me he'd put her back in her crib and he thought she was asleep. He left. I went up to check on her 20 minutes or so later. Guess who wasn't asleep...nor was she diapered (it was sitting next to the crib again)...nor did my wonderful, loving husband put a mattress pad or sheets back on the crib! Fortunately, she waited until I got her out of the crib before she went potty again...LUCKY MAN!

E's first 'no diaper' day...

Before you start reading this post, let me warn you that it will probably be boring to you and let's face it, you really don't care to know the nitty-gritty on E learning to use the bathroom. So, my suggestion is to just stop now and come back sometime when there are new, cute pictures of the little munchkin. I'm just writing this to document where we are at the end of today so that we can look back and laugh someday. Enough said...you have been warned.

E has been fiddling around with using the bathroom since February. A few times she'd go several times a week or maybe just several times within the month. It varied on her interest level. I never pushed the experience. We let E try it when it suited her. Well, May was a very low interest month but according to several things that I had read she was exhibiting numerous signs that she was ready. So, I checked a book out of the library regarding the whole learning process, read it and decided that June was going to be our month to at least give it a real try.

Well, she had a successful experience Friday, Sunday and Monday...she'd never been so consistent before. So on Tuesday, I decided that I was going to be diligent about asking. On Tuesday, she had 3 successful experiences. It was very exciting for both of us. So, that brings us to today...

The good news is that she had 1 partial success and 2 complete successes. The bad news is that she didn't just release her bladder 3 times during the day. I should have known that we were in trouble when she pooped in her training pants 15 minutes after she put them on...but I am jumping ahead of myself.

To start the morning, I quickly got E out of her night-time diaper and sat her on the potty. Nothing happened of course because I was probably too late because she was awake for awhile before I got her out of the crib. No big deal. Well, little Miss Independent declared that she was not putting on a diaper. We strike a deal that she can wear her waterproof training pants. Fifteen minutes later I see 'the face' and I thought "No wait...she doesn't have bms in the am!" But alas, today she did. So, I cleaned her all up and let her have some naked time instead. I kept a close watch on the clock because I figured she'd have to do a #1 about 45 minutes after breakfast. At about the 45 minute mark, I ask E, "Do you need to go potty?" She smiles says, "Yes" and proceeds to go all over the floor. I did get her to the potty quickly enough that she went some of it in the toilet, but again another mess.

She had a very small accident while I was in the shower, but had on the other pair of waterproof training pants. So there wasn't any mess...just undies to wash. I tried really hard to convince her that she needed a diaper on before she went outside, but she was adamant that she was wearing 'undies' today. We took the potty outside with us and began playing. We walked the baby dolls over to the church parking lot (her new favorite past-time) and came back. I sat her on the potty because I just knew that it was getting time...but she declared 'no potty'. So, we walked back to the parking lot with the dolls and once we were as far away from our house as possible, she said "uh-oh!" and left a puddle on the pavement. Lovely. More laundry...even needed to wash the shoes.

Came home and had lunch. Had our first completely successful potty experience of the day! Luckily I managed to convince E that she had to have a diaper on for nap (however, she would have worn one regardless...I'm not that crazy!), and I put her down. She didn't actually nap but was poopy when I got her up from her crib. So, that mess was at least in a diaper. Thank goodness.

Had another successful experience before dinner. She was playing (naked again) and all of a sudden ran over to the potty and sat down. So, she is getting the hang of what her body is telling her, I think. We ended the day with more laundry and 2 unsuccessful bouts as she was playing outside. I think the moral of the story is that E needs a diaper on outside!!! However, convincing her of that fact may not be so easy...beside I don't want to discourage her by using a diaper if at all possible. She's very excited about 'undies' right now.

So, we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Take time to smell the flowers

E loves to take time to smell the flowers on our walks. Sometimes her dilly-dallying makes me a bit crazy but really, what smells better than spring-time flowers? It is amazing to watch the world from a child's perspective. Everything is wonderful and amazing. Our slow meandering walks are good reminders to me to just enjoy the wonderful creation outside of our doors. E is very disappointed that the tulips are all gone but she's decided that the iris smells pretty good too. Plus, they are so top-heavy that she keeps busy trying to stand them back up.Although truth be told, her favorite activity is watering the flowers versus smelling the flowers. It is too bad that it hasn't been warm enough to play in the water for a week or so. She's anxious to get back to her 'splashin' table that she got for her birthday that has been sitting waterless for a week now.

Take a lesson from E and slow down for a few minutes and take some time to smell some flowers today...just make sure that there isn't a bee hiding it in when you do so!

The Last Two Years...

We had a great time celebrating E's birthday with the family this weekend. E received some great new toys that will hopefully be keeping her entertained for the next few weeks. I took some time today looking at how she's changed in the past 2 years and I thought that I'd share...

Newborn E...not even an hour old...

6-month old E...sitting up but not crawling or moving about too much

E at 1 year...she wasn't walking yet...but moved around any where that she wanted

18-month E...barely talking had less than a 10 word vocabulary

My 2-year old...runs everywhere, talks constantly

Below is a snip-it of the 2-year old E...

• Loves Super Y on PBS and says "I'm a PBS kid" all the time
• Loves to help sing "EIEIO" and "BI" (Bingo or Bible...)
• Sleeps with a 2-layered fleece duck blanket that she won't give up even with the changing weather
• Favorite breakfast is pancakes...but she'll tell you 'eggs' every morning (but won't eat them)
• Loves to wear dresses and her splashin' boots (although not together)
• Eats hummus for lunch commonly and uses a cracker as her spoon
• Loves apricots and mangoes and yogurt
• Reading is a favorite pastime whether she's reading to herself or being read to...loves her library books!
• 101 Dalmatians and Little People are her favorite movies
• Being outside is her favorite activity...loves going for walks and playing at the park(s)
• 'Cross the bridge' is her favorite destination when we are on our walks
• Enjoys hunting rocks and carrying them in a bucket
• She is enamored with 'Uncle Brent' and loves being outside with G'pa
• Loves to 'swing high' at G'pa and G'ma's house
• Gets upset when the car and her 'seat' leave without her
• Still talks about "toy box, finger, pinch" although it happened almost a month ago...(first bleeding incident)

Happy Birthday, Miss E!

Our neighbor brought E an early b'day present of sidewalk chalk (among other fun 'outdoor' toys). She couldn't wait this morning to get outside and 'color' on the sidewalk with her new 'crayons'.

Intensely concentrating on that chalk. She studied it for a long time. Crayons don't leave marks on your hands...but strangely, the chalk does....hmmm.

Aren't those dandelions huge?! Although, what I really have a hard time believing is that E turned 2 today! It doesn't seem like it is possible that God has left her in our care for 2 full years. It has been a crazy, but very fun, 2 years...and E keeps getting more and more fun each day!

We had a pretty low-key day. It involved a lot of playing outside with her new 'colors', bucket and ball. She also had a great time 'watering the ground', which was really just making some mud to splash in...she hasn't lost her love of splashing. She didn't eat her special birthday dinner...(not really a surprise considering her eating habits of late)...but she inhaled the cool whip on top of the strawberries and angel food cake. Crazy girl. She ended her day watching her favorite 'Cruella-Dalmations' before bed. G'ma brought her a birthday balloon which had to go upstairs with her and it is keeping watch over her sleeping tonight. She's just so precious!!