Potty Training

It has begun! I always told myself I wanted my children potty trained by age 2. And I read about the 3-day method and thought that would probably be the easiest way. If you don't know, the 3-day method is basically letting your child run around naked and correct them to go potty in the appropriate places (potty chair or toilet, whichever you want to use i guess...we are using a 3 step potty chair). But then we learned we are going on leave at the end of June and then again at the end of September. So I figured we'd do it a little here and there and after we get back in October, really kick some butt on it. BUT it's been so hot here and we have no A.C. so I was letting her run around in her diaper....then I brought her potty chair to the living room and took her diaper off and she knew what to do from having done it a few times before. But then she kept doing it. And she I guess she thinks it's fun, because she does it every few minutes....I have no idea if that's normal or not, I need to do some research and ask her pediatrician, but she gets it and I'm so proud! We don't even reward her yet, just a "good job" and "what a big girl!" and she's completely content with that...hopefully that doesn't change but if it does, we'll get some starbursts or something (a few kids I babysat years ago loved that reward for their potty training...one piece for peeing in the toilet, and two for pooping). Anyway she didn't poop at all yesterday so today I figured it would come. And sure enough, standing right next to her potty chair, she goes on the floor lol. Well she hadn't done that on her chair yet so she didn't know what to do with that. When I saw what she was doing I was like "nononononononon Lili! You do that on your potty chair!" So she went and sat on her potty chair. As I was cleaning up I feared she was already done and wouldn't have anything to go in the chair with so I couldn't get excited for her and she'll realize that's where she poops too. But I was wrong, she stood up and there was a little left in there for me haha. So hopefully she'll remember to do all her duties in there too after I got excited. Now the next step is to buy some pull-ups and hopefully that will help her learn when she's dressed to let us know since that's my biggest concern right now. Seeing has how she doesn't even put two words together yet to ask for something or anything like that, I have no idea how she's going to let us know....but we'll figure something out.

So I totally wouldn't be so detailed about pooping haha but, all of you who read this (that I know of anyway) are mothers who are going to be going through this before you know it, or have done it already. :) Don't worry though, I don't have pictures to share...too weird haha.

19 months

Lili is 19 months old as of today. I think all of us mothers ask ourselves on the month mark our child ages up, "where did the time go?" But really, WHERE does it go? It's like you pop out a kid and all of a sudden, time multiplies it's speed by like 980971403740198374091730471. Where did my baby girl go?? It's so fun and exciting to watch them grow and learn new things like walking and talking, but the days of being completely depended on was my favorite. Lilian is VERY independent. She already puts her shoes on and brushes her teeth...by herself! Granted she isn't a very good teeth brusher yet, but she refuses to let me do it. The day she learned to stand up in the middle of the floor without any help from anything or anyone (she did this after she started walking...if she fell she would crawl to grab something and pull herself up) was the last day she crawled. When she does crawl, it's actually weird to see....She gets in and out of bed by herself, climbs up on the couch by herself and LOVES to walk up the stairs. We are slowly working on potty training...she pees in her potty chair already, good pees now. I'm probably going to try the 3-day method at some point, but I just don't know when yet. I need to wait for a time we are less on the go...baby sitting and going on leave in 2 weeks just wont help. Plus I need to wait for some extra money to buy her some big girl panties. My goal is to have her potty trained by 2...maybe not fully, but preferably no accidents during the day and pull-ups at night.

Anywho, I don't think I've met such a fearless, independent 19 month old little girl. In the pool this summer, she tries to get away from me! A few times I've let her try a little, just so she would see she can't swim yet...nope, she just keeps trying. I see all the other toddlers in the pool (we haven't seen a younger toddler than her at the pool yet) they all cling to their parent or are the screamers who wont even step on a step. Lilian already likes to "jump" into the pool...we did that today. She saw some kid run and jump, she laughed so I set her on the ledge and held onto her hands while she "jumped" (she still does the little hop but doesn't really leave the ground lol so I kind of pick her up/pull her into the water). I'm glad she's not afraid of the water, but it was so much easier to enjoy pool time last summer when she was perfectly content in her floaty.

I'm excited for her to keep growing and learning. I can't wait for no more diapers (until baby #2 in a few years) and her to start forming sentences and can actually communicate with me...the only thing she communicates is when she wants something to drink...she'll either hand me her empty sippy cup and say juice, or run to the kitchen, saying juice and tries to open the fridge. But at the same time, I want this back:
<--click to make it bigger.