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April 12, 2003
A new hero—Fappi!
We have a bunch of children’s videos that were given to us by Matt and Edie (Jamie’s brother and sister in law and Helen’s parents). I haven’t put many of them in because I don’t like planting Ella in front of the TV too often but one of them was a Raffi video that they particularly pointed out that Helen loved (Helen, 10, is now quick to point out that she can’t stand Raffi now). I don’t know if any of you are familiar with Raffi but he is like a Mr. Rogers who sings, gentle and warm, and I guess he must have been popular around the 80s or maybe even the 70s (I guess I could check the package, huh?). The video is of him doing a concert and all the kids in the audience are decked out in the ultimate in hippy type clothing and all the moms have big flippy hairdos. Anyway, Ella just loves it. She calls the video “Fappi” (in a similar juxtaposition of sounds, a waffle is a fapple to her) and asks for it every time she so much as sees the TV. When we put it on she just stares transfixed and every time he finishes a song she gets all anxious and prompts “Mo… mo…. “ until he starts singing some more. I find myself torn between letting her watch it since she likes it so much and he is good ‘wholesome’ entertainment and not wanting to put it in just because she is so crazed for it.
Fussy fussy fussy!
I have to say, these last few days have not been Ella’s finest. It could be any number of reasons—daylight saving time, a slight cold that she has, teething pain—but it takes very little and sometimes nothing to set her off. Usually, after she is denied something, there is a brief pause while she digests that thing are not going her way. Then she slowly begins to slump to the floor in the characteristic ‘wet noodle’ and a high pitched keen begins to grow and then her face gets bright red and she just starts to scream. Thank goodness it hasn’t happened out in public yet, although I’m sure my day will come. She is also alternating between one and two naps a day but neither really seems to be suiting her. If she only takes one nap she is a bear for the last part of the day and we usually put her to bed early. If she takes two naps she almost always wakes up from the second one upset and crying and takes quite a while to settle down. I love her to bits but am really looking forward to her being able to explain to be why she is upset because right now I am just going crazy trying to anticipate and guess what ails her.
Potty training
Over Thanksgiving Erin and Floyd (Jamie’s Niece and Nephew and parents to Kirsten and Madeline) gave us their old training potty and I took it out a couple of weeks ago to get Ella used to it. We also have a toilet cover that we got for Christmas that we play with from time to time. We talk a lot about going poo poo and pee pee in the potty and what fun it is and all the times that mommy or anyone else might be going in the potty and she seems to like the whole concept. She is happy to point out to us what we are doing on the potty (I am used to this at this point but Jamie still has issues with her running commentary) and will get me some TP when I ask for it. She loves to sit in her little potty or to have her bear, Ozzie, sit on the potty. The other day when Ozzie was sitting on the potty she even went and got a book and propped it up on his lap to read and then, after a little bit, she even opened the book and started to flip through it and point out all the characters to Ozzie. So cute, it made my heart ache.
We have, on a few occasions, taken off her diaper and sat and read books for a while on the potty. No action but she really seemed to like the whole thing. Eventually she would get bored though, but when I told her she needed to put her diaper back on if she was going to walk around the house, she didn’t like that one bit. She would jump back on the potty and screamed when I finally told her we needed to put the diaper back on (she clearly wanted to get up and was bored with the potty game). I know it would be early, but it would be so great if we could get her trained this summer. I will be home with her full time for one thing. For another, there is just a whole lot less clothes to take on and off all day. Plus, I could happily let her spend hours running around the yard naked and then really be able to get at things. I will NOT push her if it isn’t meant to be but, like I said, it would be so nice….
Update (written two days after above paragraph): PEE PEE IN THE POTTY!!!!!! That’s right, let me mark the date (4/11/03)-- during our most recent ‘reading on the potty’ session I was interrupted by what sounded like a small small spill. It really took me a moment to realize what was going on and that she had really peed. Well, between Jamie and I we just about lost our ever-loving minds over this feat. (I have to admit, I was glad that he was around to share the big event). We were celebrating, telling Ella what a great thing she had done, hugging her, singing about her magnificent deed; we must have used that phrase “pee pee in the potty” about a thousand times. Really, we looked pretty idiotic, but hey, this is a BIG DEAL. Nevertheless, I must admit that I really don’t think Ella was too too sure what we were going on about. I think more likely she just had to go so went. But it’s a start. (I still get giddy thinking about it—am I a dork, or what?!?!)
What is it with that cat?
Without a doubt, Ella’s favorite member of our house is our cat Xena. Her first word was kitty cat and her first phase was “Hi Kitty Cat”. She cannot even see the cat (or any cat for that matter) without mentioning it, and nine times out of ten going over to try to pet her. Herein lies the problem. Xena is not too keen on being bugged by the baby. She has gone from skulking away to batting at Ella to out and out scratching her. I imagine Xena is even more annoyed and short tempered with the whole situation now that Ella can chase her anywhere—from room to room, up on the sofa, under the table. All the same, I yell at Xena all the time and do try to keep Ella from bugging her too much. But you would also think after a couple of swipes Ella would get the picture. Unfortunately that is not the case, and despite getting scratched at least twice a week she continues her pursuit of her very best friend ‘ki ka’. Of course I feel terrible, especially since twice a week means she basically ALWAYS has some sort of scab, usually on a nice visible spot like her forehead or nose (right now she looks like an apache warrior with a nice slash across her cheekbone), but I keep thinking the situation will resolve itself and she will learn. I do hold the cat sometimes and let Ella pet her so I can monitor the situation but I cannot do this all the time. Sigh… any advice?
We also have a dog, a Springer spaniel named Coco. I know we aren’t supposed to play favorites but, of my pets, I like the dog much better. She is more friendly, more fun, more cuddly, more interactive. She loves attention, is very patient with Ella when Ella pulls and crawls on her, gives Ella kisses, even brings Ella her tennis ball and happily chases Ella’s little baby lobs. The thing is, Ella usually barely gives her the time of day. A lot of the time, if Coco comes up to her, Ella will yell ‘No’ and swat at Coco. I just don’t get this, I mean, what is it about that cat that is so wonderful yet this friendly happy dog is chump change. I really hope this doesn’t mean when she is dating she will be gravitated to men that treat her like dirt and avoid the ‘nice boys’ as being too boring
(do you think I’m looking into this too much LOL).
So, that’ll do it for now!
Thanks for reading!
Bonnie
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