Nora 3.1

Shes been slowly potty training lately, and not doing terribly great at it. All day long she will request to wear diapers (when giving the choice of diapers, pull ups or underwear), and when I ask her if she wants to use the potty, she will decline.




After bedtime however, its a different situation. Suddenly she remembers all about wanting to use the toilet. Its obviously a stall tactic. She will yell down to us from her room, "pooping!" So one of us will run up there with her and take her to the bathroom. Usually she does manage to go potty and we are always sure to praise the heck out of her. The other night this happened, and she took the bedtime stall technique a step further. After she had pooped, she was wearing a pair of new pajamas, and she looked at me and insisted that I put on some pjs too. The conversation went something like this:
Nora: " You PJs mom?"

Me: "No I'm wearing my clothes."

Nora: "You pjs mom! Put on!"

Me: "Oh you want me to put on some pjs?" 

Nora: "Yes! New ones!"

Me: "ok, I don't have any new ones but I will put on my pjs (puts on pjs). Do you like these?"

Nora: "Yes, purple!" 

Me: "Yes they are, now go to bed!" 

Nora: (Runs off to bed happily) 

She has the best B.S. detection when it comes to Michael. Whenever he jokes around with the kids, and tells them nonsense things, William will consider it, and often buy whatever it is that Michael says, but 90% of the time, Nora will say, "no dad, no!" And repeat that as often as she needs to, to get Michael to stop joking around. She is all business that one! 

Speaking of joking, Michael likes to joke with them whenever we get onto an elevator together. He will tell the kids that he is going to push a button other than the floor we are headed to, after we've already pushed the button for our floor. For whatever reason this really scares both kids (I don't know what they think will happen). So for example, we will step onto the elevator, push our floor and the following interaction will take place:
Michael: "Should I push this button?"
Will and Nora: "No! No, no no!"
Michael: "Oh I'm going to push it!"
W&N: "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!"

Lately if she asks for something and we can't make it happen right away, we will say 'deal?' at the end and she will repeat, 'deal!' For example, she wanted to go to the park and I said that we can go after breakfast, and I ended that conversation with 'deal?' and she would repeat, 'deal!' Somehow though, funnily enough, just saying 'deal', makes her automatically happier about the situation, even when she is not going to get her way any time soon. Like she has been fighting going to bed lately, but just throwing 'deal' in there, calms her down about it. I will say, 'its time for bed!' and Nora will say, 'no!' and I will say, 'but we can go into your room and get your pjs on, deal?' 'and she will look suspiciously at me and respond, 'deal.' Its clear shes not happy about it, but she has just agreed to the deal and will now no long fight you about it. Its pretty hilarious and I doubt it will last long, so I am milking it for all its worth ;)