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May 16, 2004
Ring the bells! Wave the flags!
Ella is potty trained!! That’s right P O T T Y T R A I N E D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, it was so smooth, so easy, so gloriously wonderful. I have always found (I’ve probably said this before in my diary) that the things that I worry about the most are the ones that give me the least trouble (it’s the ones I don’t give a second thought to that really hit me upside the head) and I have definitely given this enough worry time to last a lifetime. So after my straining to look for signs, my months of gently introducing, (but not so much as to induce shame, or neurotises, of course) potties, underwear, toilet paper, terms… plotting and then re-plotting when would be the best time to do this I went ahead and told her one morning that she was a big girl and could wear underwear all the time now (with the naps and bedtime caveat thrown quickly in). Her response was “Yippee!!” and I'll be darned but she WAS. At first I started by asking her every ten minutes if she had to go and making her sit on towels but quickly realized I didn’t need to do this since she was very good at announcing “I’ve got pee!” and then running along side me to the nearest potty to deposit her teaspoons worth of urine. As for #2, she is like clockwork every morning so we haven’t had any accidents their either. It’s either in her diaper when I get her up or comes out on the first try of the day. Now we are only on day two here but so far we have had NO ACCIDENTS. I’m not so naïve as to think that there won’t ever be any accidents going forward but I definitely think that it means that it was time and she was ready. And did I mention my daughter is POTTY TRAINED!?!?! Hallelujah! Praise whatever-God-you-choose-to-believe-in!
Other news
Wow, things have been crazy around here. Mostly it’s house house house. We cleaned the bejezzus out of it and put everything non-essential into storage. Jamie absolutely loves our stark, shining house but for me, while I can appreciate that it does truly look ‘pristine’ I just hate living in it. I hate having to double and triple check myself whenever I leave a room, being on edge every time I so much as put down a coffee mug for fear of leaving a ring, and as for Ella, forget about it! Basically in regards to her we just try to have her in the house as little as possible.
To relieve the tension, both from worrying about messing up the place but also to keep from having to leave every time someone wanted to see the place, we all went down to the Cape to stay with my mom. We had a nice visit and I spent a fairly low key 3d Mother’s Day down there. I got a few cards and Jamie took us all (me, my mom, and Ella) out for a very nice brunch but other then that it wasn’t too big of a day. Which was fine with me, I assured Jamie that I felt ‘loved’ and ‘like a special mom’ but really all I could think about was our Open House going on that day.
And, gosh be darn it, all of our work churned out seven people coming to see the place with realtors, about 25 more to the open house, and one solid offer. No bidding wars but one offer for asking price and that’s all we need. Delighted and light headed with the speed/unbelievably of it all, we accepted.
All that needs to be done now is the inspection so my worry antennae are still at full attention. While we love this place, and certainly made it beautiful, thoughts of the inspection have me looking at it all over again and suddenly really seeing all of the flaws that we have grown so used to living with that we don’t even notice them any more. It can be quite humbling, actually. Well, if worse comes to worse we will negotiate. I REALLY don’t want to start over again… stay tuned…
Nap Problems
We have been having a heck of a time with Ella around nap time lately. The first weekend it happened I thought it was a fluke, since they hadn’t been mentioning any problems with Ella’s naps at day care (although they have told me in the past she is one of the shortest and lightest nappers). But now it’s been about a month now that whenever she is home with us she just refuses to go down for her nap. She will fight it and fight it and, even if I insist she stay in her room for ‘quiet time’ she won’t go to sleep. It certainly isn’t that she doesn’t need the nap since by late afternoon she is an absolute bear to be around. You can’t say boo to her or she’ll lose it completely. Also if we have to go for a car ride for anything she is out within seconds. Oftentimes I take her on a ride on purpose because I don’t want to deal with cranky pants all evening but even if I just want to go to the store she is asleep before we get there. The fortunate part (although it does confirm to me that she still needs this nap) is that she still is fine going to bed at eight every night but I am really frustrated right now. I have tried moving the nap back to later in the afternoon but it didn’t change anything. Any other ideas? Mostly I’m just hoping this a yet another phase that will pass soon…. Sigh….
And yet ANOTHER phase/right out of the toddler handbook behavior Ella has been into lately is complete obsession with her boo boos and band aids. As the summer comes around this obsession has only grown as being outdoor so much in much less protective clothing has given her ample opportunity to build up a healthy stock of boo boos. And while she will cry and whimper when she gets one, I swear I can see the secret joy in her eyes as she pathetically explains how she will need a band aid since this is a “Really big boo boo”. To anyone who will listen she will happily go all over her body, pointing out all of her boo boos (some look like freckles to me) and all of her corresponding band aids. When she started to look like a patchwork quilt we purposefully let our stock of Sesame Street band aids run out and didn’t restock them in hopes of killing some of her enthusiasm but even the run of the mill brown cloth band aids are better then nothing in her book.
Bonnie’s Book Reviews: Crake and Oryx (Margaret Atwood)—I have to say, I think that Margaret Atwood is becoming one of my favorite authors. This book is fairly sci-fi-ish which I’m normally not so crazy about but I found myself really enjoying it. It was creepy in a lot of ways and somewhat foreboding about the future in general but I liked all the characters and was on the edge of my seat for most of it, wondering what would happen next.
As always, thanks for reading.
Bonnie
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