Well, there’s a lot to talk about and it’s been a long time since we posted here. Needless to say, we’ve been busy lately. Let’s see if I can remember back to before Christmas.
The most notable development through December is Lizzie’s much improved potty performance. By about mid December, it became clear that we could not ever suggest that she go to the potty. She simply had to decide for herself. It took a while for us to learn to trust her, but by the end of the month, accidents became a rarity and are now almost non-existent. Lizzie still naps and sleeps in a diaper, and occasionally makes a poop in her diaper, but she has become very regular about pooping, so she gets most of those in the potty. And she likes to talk about her poop.
“I made big poop.”
“I made snake poop, sssssss.”
And my favorite (after producing a very round turd):
“I made ball poop.”
Most mornings she has pee in her diaper. A note for the future is that waking her in the night was very successful at getting her through the night without peeing in her diaper. We’ve been so tired that we stopped waking her in the night to go pee. Oh well, maybe we’ll start that soon.
Lizzie and Anastasia continue to get along quite well. Playdates have become very relaxing – the girls usually just look at each other, giggle, and go do something. The beta-dads can sit and have a beer. Both girls are growing up so fast. It is great to see them playing together.
The next big event in December is Christmas (of course). We got a tree and Lizzie got to help decorate it. Only one or two ornaments got broken! O’mama and O’pa visited from NH, and brought with them oodles of presents from the collective north country crowd. There was so much, I can’t remember it all or who it was from. Maybe Mommy can chime in here? She has a better memory for such things. Lizzie received lots of new toys and clothes (thanks everyone!). Many had to be stashed away so they can be brought out at a later date. We had a great time, but it was overwhelming for just about everyone.
January has been a busy month for us all. Lizzie returned to school, Grandma visited, Mommy took 2 trips, everyone got sick (perhaps multiple times), and Mommy and Daddy both started teaching for the spring semester. I’ll leave out some of the details for later posts (but hopefully soon).
Lizzie’s return to school from Winter break was welcomed by everyone. She got to see her friends and Mom and Dad got a much needed breather. Of course, she brought a number of colds back home. Her nose has been running constantly, she’s had one trip to the doctor, but seems to be getting back to normal now. We had some difficult nights when she didn’t sleep well at all. Of course then she is irritable during the day, has tantrums, cries until her throat is sore, won’t nap, gets really tired, and then has another lousy night of sleep. A vicious cycle. Last week she stayed home from school 3 days, and got some much needed rest, and it is certainly paying dividends because she is much healthier now. One morning, I found her sleeping on the couch in the basement. She had fallen asleep watching Signing Time. We went upstairs, played for a bit, had some lunch, and then went to sleep for an early nap. Another day when Anastasia came over for a playdate, Lizzie totally burned out and had to go down for her afternoon nap at 11am.
Lizzie’s return to school also brought us a comment from her teacher Jane that she is “coming into her own in the classroom,” or something like that. This really means she is a bit of a troublemaker. Apparently she, and Oliver, are very skilled at running around the classroom and can sometimes get other kids going too. She certainly is an energetic toddler. I think Jane said “effervescent.” Anyway, its funny because that is the person we see at home. I suspect that she has been very shy at school up until this point (at a parent-teacher meeting in November, Jane asked if she talked much at home? Um…yes…). Indeed it is nice to see her “coming into her own” at school.
Jane also commented that she is a kid who challenges boundaries (and needs boundaries), and we all agree about that. She certainly needs to have some rules and some structure because she is not good at self regulating, but she is always pushing the limits. Speaking of which, I thought she was getting better at regulating herself and calming herself down after a tantrum, but she is just getting sneaky. Here’s what happened. She wanted to watch Signing Time before school, and we said, no, that she could watch in the afternoon after her nap. Then she screamed and cried for 5 minutes and finally declared that she wanted to go upstairs and sleep. So we went upstairs, put her pillow and blanket on the floor and she curled up with Coco for a few minutes. I thought “great! She had a tantrum and wanted to go upstairs to calm herself down.” Five minutes later she came downstairs and asked to watch Signing Time. Then it dawned on me…sneaky kid.
It is astonishing to see the language development unfolding day by day. Lizzie learns new words after hearing them just once or twice. Her pronunciation is vastly improved: sometimes we all play a game where we sign and say “one more.” Then we sign and say “ner-ner”, which is the old way of saying “one more.” I think she knows how she used to say it, and how it is correctly pronounced. She is saying sentences with 5-10 words: “Mommy and Alice go up the stairs,” and “Lizzie have pasta and yogurt for dinner” are a couple examples.
OK, I’ll take a break and write some more later. Bye, for now.
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