Potty Training

We were suppose to fly out Tuesday morning to visit grandma and grandpa in Utah, but on Monday I started having really bad stomach pains and ended up in the ER to get it checked out. My entire abdomen ached and was sore and felt really huge. They took blood and ran some tests and even did a CAT scan of my stomach but everything came back within normal ranges. So very frustrating not to know what was going on, but thankful it wasn't anything serious. On Tuesday instead of flying out, I tried to take it as easy as possible. The main pain that I'd felt the day before had faded a little, but I felt like I'd been beaten around the abdomen and back with a baseball bat. Not my most favorite couple of days. Thankfully by Wednesday I was feeling quite a lot better.

So, with some extra free time on my hands since babysitting and tutoring had already been cancelled, and as Mia's lately become more aware of her bodily functions, I thought, "Hey, let's try potty training." I'd read on BabyCenter.com that some people start potty training super early, and though 18 months seems really young when you're looking at your little 19 month old.

Omf blahbalee wehwe! Oh, silly me, you probably couldn't hear what I'm saying cause my FOOT was in my mouth. My bad.  :)

Let me try that again - Mama, I'm totally ready for potty training!

I'd already bought a potty chair and a package of panties the previous week to have on hand for when I decided to try potty training, so we started with the potty training on Wednesday and I was actually pretty blown away at how well she did. I was surprised that they only make underwear for ages 2T and above. With how skinny Mia is, panties are almost a joke - Zeus teased that she might as well be wearing HIS since they fit her so poorly!  lol

So, on Wednesday morning when I got her up, I put her her in her big girl panties and set the timer for 20 minutes. Every twenty minutes I'd say, "Let's go potty!" and she'd take my hand and we'd walk into the bathroom and sit her on the potty chair. (Can I say how horribly slow yet fast your day goes when you are walking to the bathroom EVERY 20 minutes!) I was so surprised when she actually WENT in the potty! Of course, she wasn't a huge fan of actually sitting ON the thing for very long. That made for two or three accidents in the bathroom because she'd sit down and then walk around for a second and then go back and sit down. There were a few occasions where she'd stop and do "the freeze", and on the few occasions I didn't catch her fast enough, she'd leave a little puddle on the floor. Thankfully it was super easy to clean up off the bathroom floor! I bought some M&M's to give her when she goes, but it doesn't really phase her either way, though she IS a fan of eating them.  :) She is, however, a fan of the clapping after using the potty. She went the whole day without wetting on the carpet, and successfully used the potty about 5 or 6 times - until papa came home. I guess I wasn't being as diligent after he got home and she had two accidents. Oh, and I put her in her diaper during nap time since she's a big fan of pooping at some point during her nap. That was a very good idea.

I was really super proud of Mia and how good she'd done! On day two, we had quite a few successful events on the potty chair, and a few accidents - I think once in the bathroom and once in her pants. Today she had no accidents in the bathroom, had an accident in her pants and once in the living room - I swear I only got distracted for a second and I remember her taking off her panties and thinking, "Uh oh, this could be bad, I need to get those back on her," and half a second later it was too late. Good thing we are finally getting our carpets professionally cleaned soon.

Mia's little undies fit really loose around the waist and bag down to her knees, oh yeah, and she's all about pulling them up and down. Guess it's time to get out that sewing machine and take in those cute little undies. :)

What? You're telling me tea parties aren't more fun in big girl panties?!? I find that highly unlikely!

After wetting through one set of pants later this afternoon, I let her run around in her new pair of panties. My little dear devil trying to stand on her stacking bucket. She thought it was the coolest thing ever and was belly laughing SO  hard and was so proud of herself and her new trick. She's getting so big so fast! 

Yet as she tried on papa's shoe tonight after he got home I couldn't help but realize that she's still not quite THAT big! (This is our new anti-diaper-digging pajama configuration - with onesie buttoned over the top of the pajama bottoms.  :) Works like a charm so far!

And one of my favorite photos from last week - Mia chilling after her nap at Gideon's house. This utter sweetness is what I was greeted with as I walked in to get her up. Is she not the cutest thing ever!  :)

Holy Crap

Argh! Mia seems to have decided that she needs to dig in her diaper any time she has a bowel movement now! Gross, gross, gross, gross, gross!!! Yeah, I think she's ready for potty training because she does NOT like to have a poopy or wet diaper and she's also, as previous posts have revealed, able to get out of her clothes by herself. She usually has a bowel movement during nap time. So, needless to say, a few days last week I went in to find a poopy smelling room and a poop-covered-hands baby. Talk about crappy - literally!

Poop covered face and hands. Ick! At least THIS day the poop stayed in her diaper, even if it WAS smeared on her palms and face and back and shirt and crib. Sigh! Unlike the FOLLOWING day, to which I was greeted with:

No mom, you are not at the zoo with an angry poop-flinging monkey. I dropped the "kuck" over the side of my crib, I didn't FLING it! (Yeah, that's poop on the floor.) Ick!

Mom, you look a little worried and a fair bit disgusted. Is everything okay? Are WE okay mom? Oh, and Mom, why is my eyebrow crusty?

Yeah, the other side of her hand looked even worse. Gag! Do you know how hard it is to get caked poop out of baby fingernails?!? Very, VERY!

So, if you're having a crappy day, just remember, it could be worse.  :) You could literally have crap caked on your face and hands and under each and every fingernail.

Isn't she just so stinkin' cute, though?!?!  Literally, stinkin' cute.  :)

Oh, and yeah, I'm totally saving these photos for her wedding video. lol

Hello Houdini, good-bye sanity...

So I went into Mia's room this morning to get her up after hearing her stirring on the baby monitor and was greeted by a happy, naked, waving baby. Oh my! Someone had climbed out the neck of her pajamas and then taken her diaper off. She's occasionally gotten an arm out the top of her pajamas and once got both arms out and had them down around her waist, but this one definitely took the cake!

Hi Mama! I learned a new trick!

The empty jammies and the escape artist.

So I snag her up to put a diaper on her and am SO thankful that she didn't have a bowel movement! I inspect for damages and find a wet diaper (so HOPEFULLY she had it on most the night!) and a little wet puddle, but other than that things weren't too terribly bad. I put a diaper on her and then put her on the floor in her room to play for a second while I change the sheets on her bed. I turn around and can't help but shake my head and laugh to find this:

Someone has escaped from her diaper AGAIN and is happily sitting at her table eating pretend strawberries!

Hmmm.... there's GOT to be some way out of these things!

Uh oh, it may be potty training time. My baby's growing up!  :(

18 months

I can't believe Mia's already 18 months old - that she's been in our lives for a whole year and a half already. It seriously boggles the mind. Technically it took about half that long to "grow" her and now she's a walking, babbling, curly haired screecher who loves to chew on baby wipes. Go figure.

At her check up on Monday, I was happy to hear that, even though she's started walking, she hadn't dropped in weight at all. Yay! In fact, she went from the 5th percentile in weight to the 15th percentile. Yay!!! The doctor said she actually had a spike in both her height and weight and we were thrilled!  :)  I guess the nutritionist's advice to add butter and mayo to her food along with some other tricks really worked!

So, at 18 months old, here are Mia's stats:

• height: 31 3/4 inches long, which put her in the 50th percentile
• weight: 19 pounds 13 ounces (still not twenty pounds, argh!), which put her in the 15th percentile
• head circumference: 48 1/2 centimeters, which put her in the 90th percentile

Mia has a collection of signs as words that she uses to communicate and amazes us at how quickly she picks up language in word and sign. She mimics what we say a lot, and she leaves off a lot of the ending sounds of words, but it's fun being able to see her learn new things. I'm not sure how many OTHER people would be able to understand her on the street, but we sure appreciate that she is starting to be able to let us know things. She has the following signs and words that she uses to communicate:

• signs: hungry, all done / no thank you, more, stop, please, drink, hot, cookie, owie, brush teeth and baby
• words: up, dog, woof, cat, meow, hot, more, all done, hi, bow, mama, dad, car, flower,boo, thank you, go, bye-bye, outside, down, duck, quack, hello, banana, moo, vitamin, baby, drink, cookie, agua (for water), tickle-tickle, knock-knock, ding-dong and (our absolute favorite) I love you!

Mia is a little mimic and is making a lot of new sounds and copying a ton of words. It's so fun to have a little echo and to see her realize that words are how we communicate. Of course, this can also lead to frustration when she can't communicate what she wants. She also loves helping and is my little shadow - she follows me around and always wants to be doing what I'm doing whether it's dishes or vacuuming or sitting at the kitchen table.

Mia is a big fan of taking shoes and socks off. I rarely bother putting shoes and socks on her at home unless they can be double knotted - and even then they aren't always Mia-proof. More often than not, when we drive somewhere and arrive at our destination I have a happy bare-footed baby in the back seat - shoes and a sock tossed around the back seat. She usually only tosses one sock and keeps the remaining sock to put on her hand. I'm not sure if she sees it as a sock puppet or a mitten, but man is she a fan.

Mia's also enamored of the wipes container. She can find them anywhere, even inside the diaper bag (which she also loves to empty) and loves emptying them out. She keeps one in her fist and squeezes it over and over so that it "juices". lol  Then she loves to stuff it in her mouth and munch on it - chewing it like bubble gum while drool POURS out her nostrils and mouth. Man, she's such a little goof ball.

She also loves to crawl onto things, whether it's the play structure at the park, the coffee table, rocking chair, couch, etc, Mia's all about climbing onto it. One of her favorite things to do is climb up onto the back of the couch and either throw herself onto the couch cushions or sit on the back of the couch with her feet in the window sill and look out the window. I fear that one day she'll try it and instead of putting her hands on the window she'll push on the screen and tumble out the window. It makes my heart stop just thinking about it. Luckily she can usually be distracted by something else.

Mia likes to eat by herself with a fork and spoon, and she's actually pretty good at it. Unfortunately, once she's got it sufficiently covered with food, she likes to comb her hair with the utensil like Ariel from "The Little Mermaid". I try not to laugh, but at the same time it can be a little frustrating when she JUST came out of the bath and smells so sweet. She's such an independent little soul and is starting to want to do things all by herself such as wash her face and hands and high chair tray as well as brush her hair and teeth.

Her new favorite things are this little cat she got for Christmas and the book "Buenas Noches Gorilla" (Goodnight Gorilla). There is a gorilla on the front cover that has his finger to his lips as if to say, "Shh", and Mia not only does it every time she see's the book or him doing it on a page, but also throughout the day. It always makes me smile and just want to hug her to pieces! She also loves to point out the banana on various pages. I was confused at first as to why she called it "aba" all the time until I realized that I would always ask her if she wanted a banana, or I'd point and say that it's a banana. "A banana" has become "aba" to Mia.  :)

Mia is awesome at giving kisses. She's the best little pucker-er! You ask her for a kiss and she'll turn to you lips a-puckered. lol She's also just starting to say, "Muah!" when she gives kisses. She loves when daddy comes home from work. She shouts/squeals, "DA!" and hustles down the hall to greet her papa. She also loves it when daddy calls from work and sings her "Eensy, weensy Spider". She gets this huge smile on her face and will bob her head back and forth to the music and sometimes try the motions. When papa finishes she'll holler "moe!" (more) for papa to sing another round.  :)

She's a great little sleeper - goes to bed at 8 pm and wakes up between 7:30 and 8 am and usually goes down so wonderfully. I snuggle her and sing her a song and sometimes she's already arching for me to put her down. I lay her down with her pink knitted blanket and close the door. She'll sometimes complain a little in a talking voice in her crib and occasionally fuss for a moment, but often she'll just go right down. It's SO nice! She's dropped a nap so she only has one afternoon nap. She'll usually go down for a two hour nap after lunch.

Mia also likes to play with her kitchen and pretend to wash her hands and drink from the little cups as well as chew on the plastic carrot sticks. Sharing is still kind of tricky but she will usually quickly and happily "trade" for something else. She's a little turkey as well and likes to get a rise out of mama and papa by catching our eye and then holding eye contact as she does something she knows will get our goat -  like stuff a wipe in her mouth. She's also a big fan of throwing herself on things - on the couch, love sac (beanbag) and mama and papa (which is scary when we don't see her coming).

She loves to dance in the car and wear her sunglasses - well, she loves putting them on and taking them off. Today I went to the mall with my friend Olivia. She was looking for ear rings for piercing her baby girl's ears so we were in Claire's looking around. I'm pushing the stroller and the isles are really narrow. I turn to say something to Olivia and turn back to find this:

That's a headband you say? My sweet Mia sees sunglasses.  :)

Playing with her kitchen and food with the "big girls".  :) 

I guess I need to get my rear in gear and get an 18 month photo of Mia with her blanket and giraffe to add to the collection. I'll try and get it done this weekend.  :) Feel free to get after me if you don't see one.

Okay... UPDATE... here are her 18 month photos finally. I had them on the big camera and I don't download from it as much as I should. My little girl is growing up! (And I now have to bribe her with a sucker to get her to stay still for a half a second!

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Man, she's getting so big!

Look how little she use to be and how much she's grown!

Mom! You're really cramping my style!

My little snuggle monster, so darn tiny!

Bribery (aka, sucker) will get you anywhere!  :)

Man, in another 18 months, my little Mia-moo will be three and starting pre-school. Boggles the mind!!!

Cutie Pattootie!

Man, I'm just so in love with my little Mia. She's smart as a whip and sassy to boot and she amazes me with all that's going on in that little noggin of hers. She's learning new signs like crazy, her two newest being "cookie" and "owie". We went into the doctor for her 18 month check up on Monday. I was trying to put her shoes on without undoing the laces by 'shimmying' them onto her foot and she starts saying "ah ee" and doing the "owie" sign which is touching her pointer fingers together. I'd been doing that sign for the past few days, but didn't realize she'd incorporated it already. I told her I was sorry for the owie and gave her a big hug and promptly untied the shoes to get them on her little feet. She only had to get two shots this time as opposed to the four she had to get at her 12 month appointment - yay! She also had a little growth spurt and went from the 5th percentile in weight to the 15th percentile - hooray! Of course, she's STILL not quite 20 pounds, but on the new growth charts they use she's had a spike.  :)  In height as well, but I'll have to look that up because I don't quite remember what it was. She's over 30 inches though now and it boggles both our minds that she's gotten so big so quickly. It seems like just yesterday she was our brand new baby girl and now she's our walkin' talkin' spit-fire toddler!

Man she's a little sweetie though and it's so fun to watch her grow and develop and learn new things! Monday was also super gray and rainy and cold. We went for a walk after her nap to go get the mail when the rain had stopped. Since it was so chilly out I put a couple of layers on her for the walk to the mailbox. She looked so stinking cute walking along that I just had to take a photo.

This walking is serious business.

She, of course, had to stop and lean down and touch every stick, rock, leaf and puddle. That one right behind her got a shout out of "agua" (Spanish for water) and a happy hand splash before mama convinced her to move along and not tough all the puddles of cold wet agua. I love it that she has a few words in Spanish as well and I try and keep after Zeus to talk to her more in Spanish. Speaking of Spanish, Mia got the book "Buenas Noches Gorilla"(Good Night Gorilla) for Christmas from Uncle Michael and Aunt Deena and it's her new absolute FAVORITE book. The gorilla on the front cover has it's finger to it's lips like it's saying "shush" and Mia does it all the time now, but also whenever she sees the book. The funny part is that she puts her finger to the side of her nose and makes this cute blowing sound. It totally cracks us up and brings a smile to our faces. She also likes the page where the lights go out and all the animals say good night because she knows the surprised face is coming up next and she'll squeal in delight! She's such a funny little turkey and we love her so!

Alcoholic's Anonymous?

Nah, I don't think Mia's a candidate for AA, even if she's a heavy drinking biker chick.  lol

I think her bike helmet is almost bigger than she is. Especially at this angle. :)

SOMEBODY'S excited to go for a bike ride.

I finally got around to jolly-rigging the baby bike seat so that it didn't cause the handle bars to get so loose that they become useless. Scary! Got it all worked out last night and this morning we went for a ride around the neighborhood. Mia thought it was so cool as we started off on our bike ride, but that only lasted for about three rounds of the block and then she was over it. It was even trash day today, *BONUS!* so we got to see the truck pick up and dump some of the neighborhood trash cans. 

Note to self, it's not so cool to follow the garbage truck around the block when you're downwind. Ugh!