Potty Training

After a few false starts, we started committed potty training this week. By that, I mean that this time I'm really sticking with it. No more giving up--at least for today. Before I started this most recent effort, I read a book about early potty training, which it turns out can mean anywhere from 4 months to 18 months, depending on what one thinks of as early. My momma always taught me that babies under the age of a year who are supposedly potty trained, aren't. It's their parents that are potty trained, but after dealing with a reluctant two-year-old, I'm starting to see the benefits of potty training early. Sure, the parents do most of the work, but the kid is used to the potty long before she can pull her own pants down, meaning that when that day arrives, it's not traumatic or temper-tantrum inducing.

Now that said, I also realize that I'm not dedicated enough to learn Evie's signals for eliminating (as the book so nicely puts it), and I don't want to carry around a potty for those times when we're out shopping and she gives me the signal that it's time to drop trou. But it did get me thinking about getting on the stick with Anna. Several more experienced moms have told me to just wait until Anna tells me that she's ready and that's what I originally planned to do. They all promise that when she's ready, the potty training will be over in a day, but I've also heard about four-year-olds that refuse to give up their diapers. Then I read that lower-income families and single moms tend to potty train earlier than more affluent families, the theory being that the cost of diapers motivates some to get their kids out of them. My book also promotes the conspiracy theory that the diaper companies are behind the movement to hold off on the diaper training until the kid is ready. I admit that I'm a little bit competitive and I figure if lower-income families can do it, then I certainly can too. I don't know that I entirely buy into the diaper company conspiracy, but Huggies does feel a little bit like The Man.

So with all of that in mind, yesterday I put Anna in her training pants and committed to keep her in them all day, no matter what. It was tough. She "went wet" in the potty once in the morning and it really didn't count since she didn't put much at all in the potty. Every time I put her on her potty, she'd hold it until we put the panties on and then it all came out. "I went wet Momma!" all over my floor. I only have three pairs of training pants--I told her I was saving the Elmo panties until she could keep her training pants dry--but by eleven in the morning, I was out of clean training pants. I'd also learned to put her plastic swimming pants on over the training pants and that helped a bit with the mess. By the end of the day, I was at a loss as to how to get her to actually eliminate in the potty. It was also getting to be quite a fight to get her to sit on the potty because that was boring.

So this morning, I gave in a little bit and put the potty in front of the TV. I was hoping to keep the TV out of the equation, but I decided that it was more important to get her to sit on the potty until she could become comfortable actually using it. She sat on the potty most of the day and successfully eliminated in the potty five or more times, which was a huge improvement over yesterday. True, she was sort of hypnotized by the TV, which didn't leave much room for accidents, but at least she's not holding it in until she gets off the potty. I've got to celebrate any victory no matter how little. We did have a few accidents, so I gave up on saving the Elmo panties when once again I ran out of the training pants early in the day.

I guess the next big step is to get her to figure out how to recognize that she needs to eliminate before she actually does, but I figure that might take a few days. My goal for tomorrow is to get her to regularly sit on the potty a few minutes before she needs to eliminate, rather than leaving her on the potty all day with the TV running. We'll see how that goes since she's not going to be too happy about giving up the TV.

Bed Head

This is what I found last week, after I gave Evie a bath and then put her down for a nap with wet hair.

Evie's Blessing and Sealing

Last Sunday Dan blessed Evie in Church and then on Tuesday she was sealed to us in the Mount Timpanogos temple. A friend of mine took photos of our family after the sealing, but I didn't manage to get any of my own photos of these events. At any rate, it's nice to know that Evie is now officially a child of record in the Church and that she's sealed to us. Lately, except for some occasional squeals when she's bored or getting hungry, Evie has become a very quiet child. For some reason she's stopped babbling and she hardly ever cries. So she was also very quiet when the temple workers brought her into the sealing, but she seemed to be so attentive as she looked at Dan and then at the sealer. Anna was also very quiet as she sat on Dan's mom's lap and watched Evie being sealed to us. To say it was special seems to understate it and sounds a little trite, but I don't know any other way to describe that moment. We're so grateful that Evie is a part of our family and so grateful to Heather and her parents for making this day possible.

Anna's Shopping Cart

Anna has a little routine when she wakes up in the morning. Until recently, she couldn't open her door by herself, so she would always knock. I think I've mentioned that her knock almost sounds like a gun going off, it's so loud. I've mistaken her knock for a knock on the front door and one night a neighbor knocked on my door, and I was totally startled to see her standing outside because I thought it was Anna knocking.

Even though she can now open her door, often she still knocks. Whenever we open the door, she's always standing on the other side, with her shopping cart. Inside are her two favorite blankies and whatever else she feels like she needs for the day--a story book or a stuffed animal. And if we try to put her to bed without bringing her shopping cart into her room, she knows. It's hard to describe, but it just cracks me up that every morning she's loaded up her shopping cart, and as soon as we open the door, she wheels it out.

Preferences

With Evie, we've successfully introduced her to all the veggies and now she's getting to taste the fruits. I find it fascinating how little babies have such clear preferences. Evie seems to prefer squash. She's always happy to eat it and will go on eating it until the cows come home if I would let her. But she HATES carrots. I've noticed that she wasn't a fan, but today when I was feeding her carrots, every time I put some in her mouth, she would make this funny face as if she couldn't decide if she should spit them back out or gag and her face would slowly turn red. And we just laughed at her and gave her more carrots to see her make that face all over again. Poor kid.

Baseball Game

On Pioneer Day, we took the kids to an Owlz game. Anna didn't really want to sit with us, or maybe it was just that roaming the stands was a lot more fun than sitting still. But eventually other people came to sit in those seats. So then we had to go explore other parts of the park, including the playground they have there. Anna loved the playground, and I guess I really shouldn't be surprised. We did manage to get her to watch some of the game though.

Evie doesn't seem too impressed, does she? She fell asleep before the first pitch was thrown, but some loud cheering during the second inning woke her up.
We stayed until the seventh inning stretch because Anna loves singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." But a week later, she's still telling us that it was "too loud" when everyone stood up and sang. She's always been sensitive to loud noises. She also likes to talk about the foul balls that flew up towards the stands, the old man who hooted throughout the game, the Owl mascot, and getting soda with mom. She doesn't mention the playground at all, so I guess that wasn't as novel as the rest of the experience. As long as she gets a soda, I think she'll be happy to go back.

Photos in July

We met Heather and her parents for ice cream and had a fun visit.

Anna thinks it's cool to stare into other people's backyards. We'll be buying her a pair of binoculars soon so that she doesn't have to involve her dad in her criminal activities.

When one just isn't enough

We went to the park with Aunt Jamie and fed the ducks. Anna loved seeing the ducks, although many of them stayed hidden in the tall grass, probably because it was so hot.

Evie sucking on her dog's tail

For Pioneer Day, we went to the pool. It took Anna a few trips, but she now has the life jacket figured out. She can dog paddle around the pool and flip over onto her back to float. She also loves to jump into the pool. A few days later, we were meeting friends at the pool. Before I could get Anna's life jacket on, she ran away from me and jumped into the pool. Luckily for me, Evie was still strapped into the stroller, so I didn't have to figure out what to do with her. I just chased after Anna and jumped into the pool right behind her, with all my clothes on. I got their quickly enough, that I'm not sure it felt any different to her than when she jumps to me, but she hasn't done it since.

Evie mostly seems to tolerate the pool, whether I'm holding her or she's floating in her little ring. I've dunked her a few times and she's a pretty good sport about it. Sometimes she likes it when I bounce her up and down, but if I bounce her too much, she will suck in and hold her breath, thinking that I'm about to put her under water.

Reliving the good old days

Fun Hair

Sunday night hair

Post-nap--post-swimming hair

Keeping the hair out of breakfast

Six Months Old

Evie had her well baby check about a week after she actually turned six months. She now weighs 18 pounds 11 ounces (90 %) and is 25.9 inches long (50%). So she's starting to thin out a titch, probably from all her rolling and the push ups she's doing.
Two weeks ago, Evie was rocking the tripod. If I sat her down and propped her up on her hands, she did pretty well. After awhile she'd get tired and start to fold in half until she'd roll over.

Now she's getting better at lifting up her chest and she can sit on her own for a few seconds. You might notice in the photo above, that Anna is racing towards Evie with her shopping cart. I was able to prevent a collision just in time. It's hard to learn to sit when your two-year-old sister is often trying to push you down, but Evie's tough and she's hanging in there.
She's also become a real pro at rolling to her right. Then she gets stuck on her stomach. She'll push up on her arms, until she gets frustrated. But often when we roll her to her back, she'll pop back over onto her tummy almost as soon as we get her to her back.

I've been working with her to try and get her to roll to her left, but she's not too interested when it's so easy to roll to her right. This afternoon she finally pushed herself from her tummy to her back, but I guess she's still figuring it out because she wasn't able to do it again. The doctor says that the only way she'll learn to roll off her tummy is if she gets frustrated enough to figure it out. So I've been letting her cry on her tummy, but I can only last so long before I feel bad for her and help her out.

I'm discovering that Evie is the kind of personality that just keeps working on something until she figures it out, where Anna rolled over once, thought about it for a few months and then when she tried it again, within a few days rolled to both sides and from her tummy to her back pretty quickly. Despite their different approaches, both of them started rolling at about the same age.

She's also started rolling over in her crib, and then eventually she'll start to cry until I go into her room and roll her back over. Maybe I should leave her, but it's even harder to listen to the crying at two-forty in the morning.

The vaccinations were also traumatic. Evie doesn't cry much but when she gets her shots it's such a heart breaking, pitiful cry. She also didn't cry too long, but ever since she got her shots, she's had this funny little whine. It's sort of a high-pitched squeal that she tosses out every now and then.

Evie's still figuring out her solids. She is now eating butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and green beans, but the squash seems to be her favorite. If she's hungry, she can easily eat an entire jar (stage one) of baby food and then some days she only wants a few bites before she tries to bury her head in the back of her high chair.

Evie's Finalization

On Monday (July 26), we went to court in Provo and finalized Evie's adoption. Evie missed her morning nap and was a little fussy towards the end when the judge was making it official, so it sounded like she objected, but she's stuck with us now. Heather came and brought her mom Tamara and her coworker Missy. My sister Erica also came. It was nice to have them all there and I was also grateful Tamara for helping to keep Anna quiet during the hearing.