Thursday, August 12, 2010

Playin' Toys

Rockin' with the chick. And he has party beads on, too!
OK, that was a funny face, now how about a smile?

Am I not devilishly cute?



Wednesday, August 4, 2010

The Whole Thing

Yesterday, as Lily was lying on top of me, my arms wrapped around her holding her as she was squirming to get comfortable, getting ready to nap, she suddenly held up her head, looked at me, and said, very seriously, "Mom? I'm dreaming about my WHOLE life!"

In the Family

Nora, the young woman who comes to care for Lily a couple afternoons a week, and has been doing so for more than two years now, is going away to college in a couple weeks. Nora is like a part of our family now, and it's going to be so hard to see her go. She'll be back on holidays and I know she'll want to sit for Lily then, and not just because she'll need the money! Still, I know it's going to be a huge adjustment.

Enter Martin: her brother! He came over today with Nora for the first time, after Nora and her parents convinced him to meet Lily and see that she was a wonderful child, not at all like the terror he babysat a few years ago who soured him on being a sitter for small children.

Well, of course he loved her immediately. At least that's how I saw it. I mean, who wouldn't? When I asked him how he thought it went at the end of the afternoon, he said it went well and that he "actually had fun." He seemed pleasantly surprised. Hooray! And Lily had great fun with him. Oh, yeah, and of course I liked him. He seems like a sweetheart. And Cocoa likes him, too.

I am so happy this is working out. Nora and family just moved, so now they only live 4 blocks away. Perfect! He doesn't even have to worry about transportation, he can walk if he wants/has to.

I found Nora because she is the daughter of one of my art friends, and I really love their family. So I'm very pleased that we're sort of keeping it in the family even though Nora is leaving. And this will keep us closer to Nora, too, even when she's away.

I feel very blessed right now.

Potty Trained!!

YES! Except for overnight, Lily has been using the potty since the day after T. came over to play last week. T. is already potty trained and I think it had some effect on Lily somehow, making her finally decide that she was going to use the potty instead of the diaper. Let the angels sing!

And she doesn't even need us to ask her if she has to go, and we don't have to do the Nazi potty thing, where you take the child to the potty and make them sit on it every half hour for three days and then they're supposedly trained. Nope. I never wanted to do that anyway. When I heard that as a potty training method, I was like, "You're kidding." I always wanted to just show her how to do it and then let her decide when she was ready. And darnit, it worked! She just suddenly was ready. She knows when she has to go, and tells us. If I ask her if she has to go, she'll say, "Don't ask me that, Mom." And she's doing poop in the potty just as easily as pee. It's glorious.

And she's very proud of herself, which I love. If she goes by herself, then when she's done, she'll call me up to see, and she'll be holding the potty with her pee and poo in it to show me.

She has no problems with naps, either. Still not quite there with overnight, but that will come.

We're ready to move the changing table out of her room NOW! Hey, we need another bookcase (or two, or three) for all the books we get her, I'm proud to say. John just got a good haul of probably 20 books at a garage sale from a Montessori school, and I get her books every time I go to the thrift store.

I still remember that crazy mom in the ECFE class I hated, saying that yes, you could have too many books. She said it so authoritatively and condenscendingly. Well poop on that! You can not have too many books, especially for a child. Lily is excited about books, loves to read them, and is already sitting by herself sometimes looking at her books. That makes me so happy to see that.

So, next step: wiping. Yeah, too bad that isn't as straightforward as sitting on the potty. The whole wiping front to back thing is going to take quite a while, I think. That's okay. Being out of diapers is a huge step.