She got me!

I forgot to post about this when it happened about a week ago. I was taking Lainey with me to the grocery store and we have a water and ice shop that also sells Thrifty ice cream. I happen to love their Chocolate Malted Crunch, so I thought I would treat us to a cone on our way into the store. Lainey is really big on doing things for herself these days and she always has to "hold it." So of course, she wanted to hold the ice cream cone. I decided to let her hold it, but being a chocolate ice cream cone in the hands of a 17 month old, that led to chocolate drips all over the place. I tried to take it back from her and she didn't want to give it to me. So I said, "Lainey, it's Mommy's turn for a bite. You need to share." She let me have it and I cleaned up the cone a bit, but decided I should hold the cone from now on. When I offered to let Lainey have another bite she said, "Hold it!" and refused to take a bite of it while I held it. I tried to explain to her that she was making a mess and I needed to hold it for her. Her response, "Mommy share!"

Potty training update

Just wanted to post a quick update about potty training so far. Lainey is doing pretty well actually. After the second day when I spent the whole day wiping up messes and changing clothes, I decided that a gung-ho effort without diapers all day was really unrealistic for me. It takes an intense amount of supervision and I just wasn't cutting the mustard. Plus, Lainey doesn't understand the concept of trying to go when she does sit down. So we had lots of times when she would sit on the potty for a while, then get up because I didn't want to force her to stay and she'd potty soon afterward. So, my new plan is to go for a few hours each day with her training pants on, but not be so strict as to eliminate diapers all together. Yesterday afternoon went really well. She seems to understand now what we want to have happen and she tries because she wants the chance to flush the toilet. :) We had three successful potties yesterday. Hopefully we continue the trend today!

More words, more teeth, and the official start of potty learning

Lainey is a learning machine these days. I went away for the weekend (my first trip away from her overnight) and I couldn't believe it when I got back. She learned combined consonant sounds while I was gone! She went from saying "cothes" to "clothes" and from "bocks" to "blocks". I told her that she isn't allowed to grow up at all if I'm not there. She's also cutting another molar. The upper left one is popping through this week.

We also are officially beginning an earnest try at the potty. I ordered 12 pairs of cotton training pants in the 18 month size from Amazon. You can't find that size in stores, so we had to wait for them to arrive. Lainey is no longer wearing diapers at all during the day. She wears one for a nap and one for bed. We've spent the last several months sitting on the potty when she wakes up and before naps and baths. So she has a positive association with the potty. Now we are sitting on it every chance we get. We've had a lot of accidents today, but I think it because we got into a bad rhythm this morning in addition to me being a little more distracted than I should be. Potty learning is not a time to put off going to the potty for any reason! I thought today that after lunch I had time to get the dishes in the dishwasher before we went potty. Nope. Oh well. Lainey is napping now and I hope when she gets up we can have a more successful afternoon.

Some of you may be wondering why I went straight for cotton pants instead of pull-ups. The reason is that all disposable diapers, including pull-ups, wick away moisture from the skin too fast for the child to know that they've gone. With cotton pants or cloth diapers, the baby knows right away that they are wet and are more likely to make the association between urinating and getting wet. The goal is to help them learn what it feels like when they need to go so that they are more likely to use the potty. The good thing about today is that despite all of our "accidents," Lainey told me every time that she had gone potty and I could change her immediately.

Some good books on early potty training/learning are: Diaper-free Before 3 and Early-Start Potty Training. Even at 17 months, we aren't that early to start as both of these books advocate sitting on the potty as early as 3-6 months and in cotton pants by 12 months. But we are earlier than most people so I'll be sure to share my experience with it. Supposedly the earlier you start, the earlier you are finished and the less diapers you have to buy! And that's always a good thing. :)