Well, didn't see that one coming!

Disclaimer: potty-related talk ahead...you have been warned.

Ah, potty training. The end result of which every parent longs for, but the process every parent dreads. When Lillian was 18 months old, we hauled out the little potty chairs that we'd been given by generous neighbors and had one in the upstairs bathroom and one in the downstairs bathroom. L was pretty interested in "bathroom-related things" aka watching us (yep, privacy is a non-starter with toddlers), and we started to talk about the potty. For the next month or two, she would occasionally ask to sit on it but nothing ever happened and she squirmed off in about 3 seconds. We decided to buy a seat for the real toiliet to see if that would help. Nope. I took it easy for a few weeks and didn't ask if she wanted to use the potty but would put her on it if she asked me, which she did every few days.

Right at 20 months T's parents came to town for the weekend and L peed about 2 drops in her little potty. We cheered for her as if she had just kicked a game-winning goal in the World Cup(GOOOOOALLLLLL). The next day, I attempted to repeat the conditions sans grandparents and she cried and squirmed off the seat. I prayed about it, and just decided to drop the whole potty training issue for the moment. I didn't want it to be traumatizing for her, or stressful for me. I came to a peace about two kids in diapers, but most of all, I knew that L would do it when she was ready (b/c she's just that kind of kid). She has all the "readiness" signs--interested in the potty, wakes up dry after naps and in the morning, knows when she is going, etc., but I didn't think there was any point in forcing it. 

On Saturday afternoon, I got a hankering for something sweet and came back with all the fixins' for rice krispie treats with M&Ms. Which I never got to make because SOMEONE decided they wanted frozen yogurt that night instead. :) (No complaints here though!). Anyways, L saw the M&Ms and asked for some and on a wild hair, I told her that if she peed in the potty she could have a piece of candy. Like she'd been doing it all her life, she ran to the little potty and peed. Then she immediately demanded her treat, which we handed to her in a state of shock. Side note, she says "M&Ms" just like she says "animals," and when you think about it, they really do sound alike! She went four or five more times that evening and a handful of times yesterday when we were at home, including the Big Kahuna. Naturally she has figured out how to work the system and oftentimes she will go, come to the kitchen and demand an M&M, then go back and finish up and ask for more M&Ms. At this point, we are being pretty liberal with them since this is all such an experiment. She's enjoying her Elmo underwear and the chocolate candy, so we are sticking with those things for the moment and enjoying a few diaper free hours.

Where is all this headed? Honestly, I'm not sure. We're going on vacation soon and there is no way I'm lugging a potty chair across the country or sticking her cute little butt on a public toilet seat. Ideally we'll take a break for a couple of weeks and "hit it hard" when we come back. Then she'll have a few months to get used to it before Little Bro Regression is born. Don't worry, I will be sure to keep you posted since I'm sure you are all dying to know the ins and outs of L's every potty training move. We are pretty proud of her for her progress so far and we are enjoying how perfectly reflective it is of her personality.

Lillian update

I have officially written more posts this year already than I did in 2010 and 2011. Huzzah! Not bad considering I took a 3.5 month break in the spring/early summer!


Don't get too excited though, because I don't have much to blog about today. Lillian has her first real bug and it is a doozy. Hand, foot and mouth disease, though it is much less gross than it sounds, is still not fun. Fortunately she is feeling better today and is happily playing near me while I type this. She just pushed her little portable piano into our poor snoozing dog and scared the metaphorical poop out of him. If I haven't mentioned this before, Sullivan is pretty much the wussiest dog alive and acts like he weighs 7.5 pounds instead of 75 pounds.
Oh, and L is just about a full time walker! She took her first steps about a month ago, and has been steadily progressing since then. For long distances, she still crawls, but walks or cruises everywhere else. 


I promise to write a more substantive post next week, but here is a picture of Lillian to tide you over until then. Poor kids of today--so many different places to post embarrassing pictures of them!

11 months old! We've almost made it!

sLeEp

Before I had a baby, I imagined that baby sleep was, well, easy. After all, isn't the expression, "sleeping like a baby?" Well, in my opinion, whoever coined that expression obviously did not have children. Yes, babies sleep often, but their sleep cycles are short; they get hungry easily; they can be easily affected by changes in environment, etc.
I thought Lillian's naps and bedtimes would go something like the lyrics to the Beatles' Golden Slumbers:

Golden slumbers,
Fill your eyes
Smiles await you when you rise
Sleep pretty darling
Do not cry
And I will sing a lullaby.

It's a beautiful song, but I quickly learned that just because "golden slumbers" were filling her eyes did not necessarily mean that she would fall asleep easily or here's the kicker--stay asleep. I never imagined how much of my thought process and waking hours (ha, the irony) sleep would consume.
I have spent more time worrying about sleep, thinking about sleep and planning out sleep routines in the last five months than probably anything else. In the B.L. days (Before Lillian), I never imagined myself doing complex calculations to ensure a proper wake:sleep ratio--both of which are, of course, directly tied to her eating. If sweet girl is tired at all, she will not eat. Period. Thus I have to catch her right after sleep times because if she doesn't eat then, she will be too hungry to fall back asleep later...it's a vicious cycle!
I pictured myself as a stay at home mom, blissfully unconcerned with the passage of time. "Why, you're home already, dear? Where did the day go?" Instead, I watch the clock like a hawk in order to fit in the correct amount of naps, feeding sessions, and tummy time adventures, to name a few. Often I am all too aware of the arrival of 5-6 p.m. hour, at which point the kiddos and I are very excited about greeting Daddy. Sullivan practically bounds through the glass every afternoon when Thomas arrives on the front porch.
We are learning, though. All of us. Lillian now sleeps unswaddled and pacifier free at night. The first three nights of this were pretty rough (read: sadness all around), but last night baby girl went from 8pm-6:15am with only a few minutes of crying initially and nary a peep afterwards. Some serious prayers of thanksgiving went up in the Grooms household. I hate listening to her cry, all alone in her crib, but we got to the point where she was unable to fall back asleep without our help (fun fact: baby sleep cycles are 45 minutes long). This started to entail re-swaddling her every hour, reinserting the pacifier frequently and nursing her to sleep when nothing else worked. It was not sustainable. When nighttime parenting starts to affect daytime parenting, something has to give. While I would jump through fire for this little one, both Thomas and I recognized that we weren't doing her any favors by making her completely dependent on us. She just needed to learn how she could put herself to sleep (and back to sleep) during those light sleeping hours. And hallelujah, we are getting there!

My apologies to those of you whom I put to sleep with this post. Just some thoughts that have been swirling around in my head that some of you might appreciate. And here's a picture from her first week of life for those of you who skipped reading the post and just wanted to see L.