Chatting with Lainey

Let's do this!

John loves to teach Lainey funny sayings. She is now saying, "Let's do this!" all the time. He's also taught her to respond to "How old are you?" with "I'm one!" She has also learned, "Sucka!" I'm not so sure I approve of that one.

Potty training is going so well! She's having fewer accidents and more successes. The potty chair moves around the house with us so she doesn't have far to go. And now she gets an M & M each time, so she's very motivated to get her "choc-it."

She's starting to show an interest in the alphabet, so we sing and sign that frequently. She tries to sign and fingerspell too and it's really cute. A new thing in the past couple of weeks is that she is now singing along to songs in the car. It's fun to hear her sing/shout the lines she loves the most. We're going to try to get some of these on video to share soon!!

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. :)

More teeth!

Lainey is cutting some more teeth. We definitely have a molar popping through on the lower left side. We may also be getting the lower left eye tooth, but it's hard to tell with the redness and swelling from the molar. She was pretty grumpy and not very interested in eating for a few days, but now that the molar has popped through the gums, she's much happier.

She's picked up a few new phrases, like "hold it" as in, "I want to hold the whole bag of blueberries Mom, not just the few you give me." Or she'll say that when she wants to feed herself with the spoon or fork. She's getting really good at feeding herself these days as well. She fed herself about half of her macaroni and cheese last night. I was impressed! My favorite new phrase that she just started in the last few days is, "Hold you!" with her arms up. When she wants me to hold her, that's what she says. It's my favorite little kid thing. They don't understand pronouns yet, so instead of "Hold me," we get "Hold you!" So cute!

Fun with words

Lainey is turning into quite the conversationalist these days. While we were in California last week, she was putting on a show for all of her grandparents, aunts, and uncles. We had a great time. One day at my Mom's house, Lainey found Jasmine, my mom's cat, sleeping on the ottoman. She walked up to the ottoman, crossed her arms on top and rested her chin on her arms. Then says, "Hey Kitty, whatcha doin'? Takin' a nap?" I didn't get to witness it, but Grandma and Daddy said it was spoken very clearly and was very funny to watch.

Last week we were riding around the neighborhood in my next door neighbor's wagon with her twin girls. All three girls were having a great time. When it was time for us to go home, Julie dropped us off at our house. When Lainey got out of the wagon, Maisey started to cry. She wanted to come in too! Then Lainey did the same thing she did with Jasmine. Crossed her arms, rested her chin on her arms, all on the side of the wagon to be eye to eye with Maisey. "What's wrong? Whats-a-matter? You cryin'? You wanna eat?" I about died. It's so funny to watch her learn new things and surprise us with what is going on in her little mind. I can't wait to see and hear more moments like these.