Eleanor 3.5

This month Nora finally felt ready to potty train. She had been attempting it on and off over the last few months, with some successes and plenty of setbacks. I just kept putting her back into diapers and telling her that she could tell me when she was ready. I also promised to take her to Ikea smalland once she could keep underwear dry for a whole week. She desperately wanted to go ever since I went there a few months ago and Will got to go in and she didn't (because they only allow potty trained kids in there), so it was a good incentive.

Finally one day she came and told me that she wanted to wear underwear that day. It was a Monday and that is my busiest day of the week. I have to drop off and pick up Will from preschool, we have a regularly scheduled play date and they both have swimming lessons in the afternoon. We basically go, go, go, all day from 8-5. So I told her we would have to try it a different day. That night Daniel was up every hour and I was a wreck the next morning, and didn't have the energy to clean up a million accidents (which is what happened each of the other times she requested to wear underwear) and I told her the next day she could try underwear again. So finally Wednesday rolls around and I decided we would stay home all day and I would let her try going diaper free. To my utter surprise, she kept her underwear dry all that day! And the next and the next! After 9 days of being dry with no accidents, we went to Ikea to celebrate and she was SO excited.

Since then shes been doing very well and has only had fewer than a handful of accidents. The other day we were in church and she tells me she has to go potty. I take her and there is one other lady in the stall next to us, in an otherwise empty bathroom. Nora starts by asking me what everything in the stall is (trash can, toilet paper, toilet paper dispenser, purse hook, etc). Then she announces loudly that she has to poop. Then after shes done she asks to see it. After giving it an inspection, she tells me that its a BIG ONE! And that its REALLY STINKY! I was just shaking my head and I'm sure the lady next to me was silently laughing to herself. Toilet training kids sure is an adventure! I for one am VERY glad to be down to one in diapers again! Now we just have to work on getting her to stay dry at night. One step at a time though!

Nora is growing and changing in other ways as well. We bought her a pink balance bike when she was 2, but she was not tall enough to really ride it. For a long, long time, until this past month really, she refused to even TRY to ride it. Mostly Will rode it! Suddenly however, she to
ok an interest, figured out how to balance on it, and now after a few weeks, is zooming around like a champ. And she has taken full possession of it too. If Will tries to ride it, she gets outraged and loudly declares that it is HER bike and he CAN'T ride it!Will does not relish this attitude, suffice to say.

The last big change this month is that she finally graduated out of her baby booster seat, into a big adult chair at the dining table. For a long time she was not tall enough, but the other main issue was that she was an incredibly messy eater. We had to dress her in a full smock and food catching bib just to keep her clothes from getting covered in food, and after every meal her tray and the floor surrounding her seat would just be covered in bits of food. I eventually told her that until she could learn to be a clean eater, she could not sit in a big chair. It took about a week and a half, but she diligently worked on being a cleaner eater - with noticeable results! At the end of that time period, I allowed her to move and shes done well ever since. She suddenly seems so big this month with the potty training, bike riding and seat sitting! My baby girl is growing up!

One scary thing that happened this month is that Nora almost drowned at the pool one day. We went to the Mountlake Terrace Pool where there is a very shallow kiddie area, separated from the normal, deep pool with only a length of rope. I was watching them play and one minute she was in the shallows (like 1-2' deep) and the next moment she was in the deep over her head and this other dad had to pull her out coughing and puking out water. I swear I blinked and she was gone and then the next moment I see her being carried by the life guard. I almost had a heart attack. Of course afterwards we were all panicked about secondary drowning and watched her like a hawk for 24 hours. She was NO help at all either! She LOVES to pretend to be sick and fake coughs all the time. So whenever we asked her how she felt, she would say says "sick" (just like every other night), then let out a fake cough, or if she could breathe ok, she would say, "no" and fake cough again. But then she spent the evening running around the house like a madwoman so we had to assume everything was fine. But man that was a stressful 24 hours! I was up all night checking on her! The weird thing is that she has never shown a proclivity to water before this. In the bath she sits right up, refuses to dive like Will does, and generally does not like water over her head. Of course, after this incident, she has proclaimed herself 'brave', and dives just like Will does. SIGH.

Nora had her first dentist appointment the other day and it went really well. The dentist said he was amazed at how well she did for her first time, and of course she loved the goodie bag she got at the end. I had to laugh though, listening to Nora talking to the dental hygienist who was cleaning her teeth. I heard Nora tell the lady that she went to preschool and had lots of friends (she doesn't - must be wishful thinking), and the kicker was when she loudly proclaimed that she has a butt and a vagina (gy-na!) and that she farts out of her butt. Fortunately the hygienist didn't understand most of what Nora said there, but I was dying of laughter in the next room while they were trying to take x-ray pictures of my teeth!   

We have this book called Have You Filled a Bucket Today and its all about how everyone has an invisible bucket and if you are kind and nice, you fill other people's buckets, and if you are mean and unkind, you dip out of other people's buckets. We talk a lot about whether the kid's actions are categorized as bucket filling or dipping. The other day we were in the car and Will told us that he was holding Daniel's hand. Nora asked that he hold her hand as well. Will declined and Nora announced, "Will's being a bucket dipper mom!" I had to stifle my laughter at that one!

When you tell her that you love her, she replies, "I love daddy!" At first I was slightly offended, but the kids have been so attached to me their whole lives, its good for Michael to get a little taste of that from his little girl!

This has been a big month of firsts, and I couldn't be prouder of my sweet, funny little girl!