Potty Prize

Violet has turned the corner with using the toilet, I'm so happy to report. She earned 10 button/magnets on her "Dry Days" chart in 12 days, and stayed dry during the daytime all weekend for Grandma and Grandpa. On Monday evening we made a family trip to CVS so she could get the kitty key chain she's been eying for months.

Cora spent her own money to buy this little hamster key chain, which she brings to school hanging off her lunch bag. She's named him Chippy, and he likes to go everywhere with Cora, be tucked into bed, and eat meals with us. He speaks in a language only Cora can understand, so she translates for us. Cora hasn't played with a stuffed toy like this for at least a year, maybe two, so it's pretty funny to hear her doing it again.

Violet also really loves her new kitty, who she helped use a pen to write.(Violet has been liking writing with a pen almost more than coloring lately, and pretends to write letters she puts in the family mailbox in the playroom.)

Back Home

 Now that we're back home, we're making a greater effort with Violet and the toilet. She's again doing very well at home, and on Saturday I noticed that she stayed dry the whole day. We made a big deal about it, and started a chart. She'll get a magnet each day she stays dry, and we'll get her a special toy she's been eyeing once she has 10 magnets.

On Sunday, she wet herself once, at church, and on Monday she also had a small accident. But Tuesday, despite being out and about most of the day, she earned another magnet! Hopefully we'll have potty-training success this time around.










Random moment in the kitchen that made me laugh. Cora was getting her own snack, tortilla chips and Trader Joe's pineapple salsa.

Violet also helped herself, to chips and butter. Mmmm, mmmm.

Our first week back home was nice and relaxing, a little two relaxing, because Cora caught a bad cold. She spent most of Thursday and Friday in bed or on the couch with a fever, which has turned into a bad cough.

So, we had to cancel several playdates, and Cora and I couldn't join Stace and Violet with Genia and her kids at Scooter's Jungle. Times like these make me remember how blessed we are to have such generally healthy girls, though.

In this photo, Stace is reading The Magic Faraway Tree, a classic British children's novel that he fondly remembers his Mum reading to him as a boy. So far, Cora is loving this story, originally published in 1943.

 On Sunday, Cora was feeling well enough to help Stace sweep out the backyard and then tackle putting together the girls' Christmas present from Nan and Pop. Yes, a giant trampoline!

 

Fun, fun, fun!

Violet update

Here's Violet, with what she called her "bum bracelet." It was a pretty bit of silver curling ribbon, tied around her waist.

She is such a chatterbox, and her comprehension is remarkable. She asks good questions and gives solid answers.
For example, I was planning to get gas but the station's credit card connection was down. When I got back in the car and we started pulling away, Violet said, "It not working, Mummy?"
She realized I hadn't filled up and wondered why.

When we got home, Spencer's tail was straight up in the air. Violet pointed and laughed, saying, "A flag! Spencer's tail is a flag!"

The other night, she told Stace something (I can't remember what) and Stace told her not to tell him what to do, and then asked, "Who's in charge?"

Her answer: "Cora."

Silly girl. She likes playing with the kitties, with her sister, with fairies, little dolls, bigger dollies and trains.

Unlike a lot of toddlers, I normally don't need to worry if Violet is "too quiet" in another part of the house.

When she's tired or maybe a bit overwhelmed, she's usually to be found in her room, door shut, reading books or lying down on the rocking footrest to  her glider, with her pacifier. We limit it to her bed, but she can usually seem to find one when she needs to chill out in her room.

Of course, Violet can get into things. I left her in the car for a minute while I brought in groceries, and when I went to get her, I found she had pulled out my Listerine breath-freshening strips, one by one. Kind of like the day she pulled out yards and yards of dental floss.

She's not above throwing the occasional kicking-while-lying-down tantrum, either.
But generally, Violet is still an easy-going girl who loves to smile and laugh.

In other news, we're making a push on the potty-training front. I've started giving her one M&M or similar "sweetie" when she uses the toilet for No. 2, and for staying dry when we're out and about. We also have the little potty out in the front of the house, so she can use that while she's playing.

So far, I'm going back and forth with her wearing her training panties or a diaper while we're out of the house. I did training panties for a few days straight, and she would use the toilet fine while we were out, but she also would pee in her panties. So she's been in a diaper the last few days, and wouldn't you know it, she stayed dry while we were out.

We'll see; it would be nice to be done with the process in a month or so, by the time she's 2 1/2.

Sisters

 It's lovely watching our girls grow up together. They are becoming good friends, as Violet gets older and can play and interact in new ways with Cora. They play fairies, legos and Little People together, cook in the play kitchen and play their beloved sleeping game. When they're not also arguing or crying, it's a wonderful thing to behold.

Since their Mum is so cheap and rarely buys new clothes, this is their first matching outfit in a long time. And even this was done frugally - I saw the 5T dress at the consignment store and thought it looked like something Violet had received in a big bag of hand-me-downs from a friend. 

 I love that Cora agrees to match her sister! And, with a strawberry in hand and doughnut in her belly, Violet was more than happy to smile.

 Cora went through a makeup phase while we were in England. Here, she is sparkling up Violet's nose. Sparkle powder: It's not just for eyelids.

 The Roberts came over for dinner, and the big girls decided to paint their nails. Violet wanted in on the action.

 She might have refrained had she known that her manicurists had so little experience. Thankfully, it was so thickly on her fingers, she had most of it peeled off by the next day.

The scene I came upon the other morning. Yes, Cora was supposed to be tidying her room, but who was I to interrupt her teaching Violet about dinosaurs from the dinosaur book?

Oh, and Violet is wearing her super-thick training panties. I'm letting her wear them around the house and encouraging her to keep them dry. We're certainly not hard-core potty-training, but hopefully this will build into diaper-freedom before too long.

Violet bits

Violet's reached the age where her Thomas sensor began sounding loudly. She now really enjoys books and DVDs about everyone's favorite blue engine. She wanted to color Thomas, and since Dad couldn't find the coloring book (and he's quite a handy artist), he drew her one to color.

Using the toilet can get a little boring, so Violet finds ways to amuse herself. Like blowing her nose with half a roll of paper. Or seeing how many body parts she can get into the toilet.

Violet still uses the toilet several times a day, but I wouldn't say we've made any progress over the past couple of months toward diaper-free living. My current thought is that we'll make that push when we return from our June trip to England.

 Playing the "night night" game is still one of Violet's favorites (though I did have to talk to her about the problem with camping out behind a door that could swing into her head).

Violet is talking up a storm, and it seems that daily, we hear comments on how well she speaks.

(Some of this, I believe, is because she is so tiny - she still looks like she could be 15 or 16 months old, and it's pretty strange to hear a child that age say "Where are you going, Mummy?"  or "What are you doing, Daddy?" or "I wanna see the book.")
Here, you can hear her saying "What you making, Cora?" and answering that she would like a pancake, and a waffle.

We also get some of the negatives of a talkative almost-two-year-old, with too-frequent shouts of "Give it back!" "That's mine!" "My turn!" and "NO!"
Or, of course, just screaming, when Cora and Violet aren't getting along well.

15 months

Our Violet is now 15 months old and enjoying her summer very much!

We cleaned up the outdoor toys, much to Violet's joy. She loves playing on her slide and pushing around the ride-on cars. Today, she was inside the house pointing to the slide, saying, "Wheeee!"

Violet loves going to the pool and playing in the water this month, too. She is very confident in the baby pool, and therefore needs a close eye on her at all times!

Violet is nursing twice a day, in the morning and evening, and, I'm glad to say, has started to drink other types of milk (cow, soy, almond, whatever we have around). She has her two top one-year molars coming through, and the four front teeth are in. (She still has just two on the bottom.)

She has grown more impatient at feeding and changing time, and more prone to fussing and screaming. But, she also is pretty good at obeying simple commands. She still is generally easy-going and happy.

You can see a cute pottying photo here - we have toilet time in the morning before breakfast, when she generally is successful, and a few other times during the day. She always cheers and claps for herself when she goes.

In the photo with the kitty, I was cleaning in the kitchen when I happened to overhear Violet offering Spencer a drink.

I'm happy I was close enough to a camera to grab this photo, but I wish I'd been able to film her saying, "Alguie? Alguie?" as she put the cup on the cat's face.

The last photo shows Violet with her friend Owen. Owen is so good with Violet! He always asks for her when we all get together. And Violet is all smiles for Owen, whose name she tries to say. She also says "Ave" to Owen's big sister (but I haven't heard her attempt to say Johnny).

Violet can identify her eyes, ears, nose, mouth and feet, and say the sounds that kitties, doggies, cows, sheep, horses and goats make.

Our 14-month-old

Violet Mae is now 14 months old, and becoming more of a toddler than a baby with every passing day.

She is much better at walking. She still wobbles a bit here and there, but she can sometimes run a bit without falling down. Thankfully, she hasn't yet reached the point of demanding to walk on her own whenever we're out and about.

Violet likes to make us laugh. While we waited for our dinner last week, she was having a grand time playing with Stacey's sunglasses. She also entertained us by being super silly, dancing around and throwing her head back and forth while laughing like crazy.

In the next two photos and video, Violet was being funny by playing with the (clean) silverware by pretending to use each piece. "Yum, mmmm, mum, mmmm," she was saying as she pretended to eat with the spoons.

I'm proud of something Violet did this morning.

Lately, I've been putting her on the toilet, on Cora's princess seat, when I can tell she needs to go No. 2. When she does so, of course, we make a big deal about it and clap and cheer. We've been doing this for a few weeks, and have had a number of successes.
Well, this morning, I could see her standing in the dining room, and it looked like maybe she needed to "go." I asked her if she needed to poo, and Violet immediately toddled off toward the bathroom. She waited until I opened the door, and then went over to the toilet, waiting for me to remove her diaper and lift her up. Sure enough, we had success! So, she is starting to understand.

I should point out that I'm NOT expecting to have her potty-trained any time soon. But I figured, why not get her used to using the toilet, while she isn't into the defiant toddler/2-year-old phase.

A new friend

It's funny how life and blogging are - I can have a week where it's so normal there seems to be little to mention here. And then there is a week with so much going on, I hardly have a moment to sit at the computer.

Anyway, at top we have photos from our fabulous evening Monday with Juliana, Maya, Daryl and brand-new-baby Natalia Marie!

They moved about a half-hour out of SClarita a month ago, and Juliana gave birth to Natalia last week. We were lucky enough to meet her on her fifth day of life! She is gorgeous and so tiny, making Violet look gigantic.

Cora and Maya had a great time together, and their new home is beautiful.

On our way home, Cora asked what freeway we had taken. She is very interested these days on where we are going and how we are getting there - she wants the names of roads, and pretty much exact directions.

I told her we took the freeway, and that people call it the 210 freeway - the "two-ten." I went further, for some reason, and said that it could be called the "two-hundred-ten freeway" but that people say "two-ten."
Cora then wanted to know what Daddy called it. "The two-ten," I said. She asked what Juliana called it, and I said "the two-ten."
Then, she declared. "I call it the fifty-eight."
Typical!

Other recent Coraisms: She was excited to put up a scarecrow in her window as an autumn decoration. She then said, "Can we decorate my room? With stickers? All over everything?!?!"
And, when she and Violet were together in the playroom, Violet started crying. I asked what was wrong, and Cora said, "I just hit her head with my bus. But I said 'Sorry.' "

And a last bit of Cora news - she is now wearing big-girl panties to bed! More than a year after being potty-trained during the day, our big girl is truly done with diapers. She has been dry most nights for a couple of months, and a few weeks ago we started giving her stickers in the morning for waking up dry. That seemed to spur her on to making sure she got up in the night when she needed the toilet.

In other news, we took Somer in last week for another steroid shot. The vet said that if the steroids work, they typically wear off after four weeks, so we were right on schedule with her needing another shot.

She is such a good kitty - Violet was wanting to pet her the other day, and obviously that means grabbing handfuls of skin and fur, and Somer stays put.

Our weekend

I don't have any photos from Friday evening, but it was pretty darn great. I felt better than I had in a month, so I made a batch of muffins AND dinner. Then we took an evening bike ride to the drug store to rent a movie. This was the first movie rental in months... years?

But, we both stayed up too late with the movie, and I felt pretty yucky for a lot of Saturday. So, Stace took Cora for a bit, and they went to Hart Park to feed the animals. They took with them Skippy, the Pioneer Clubs Skippers' mascot/class pet. Cora was lucky enough to get Skippy to take home for the week, so she and Stace thought he might enjoy seeing the animals. (You're supposed to take photos with Skippy, and write up his activities in the Skippy Journal.)

Later in the day, we ran some errands.

We got a new web camera at Best Buy, air conditioner filter at Orchard Supply Hardware, and then checked out Trader Joes' in the their new location, next to the aforementioned shops. TJ's is in a much bigger spot now, and it was nice to meander the wider aisles. Cora was our little helper, as you can see from the photos. She loved pushing the mini cart, and was a very good girl for all our errands.

And, she used the toilet in all three stores! It was kind of funny, we were gone maybe two hours total but she needed to wee three times. The potty training is now going very well, and I think we'll be switching to her new regular panties from her trainers very soon. Maybe it's helped that we've been home so much the last month, with me not feeling well.

On Sunday, we went to church for the first time in a while, and in the evening we enjoyed the pool. We're getting another crazy heat wave so we might as well take advantage of the pool. Unfortunately, since we haven't been much lately, Cora has regressed in her swimming skills and confidence. She's much more scared than she was in June or July, and won't do many of the skills she learned at her June class.

But she did, at least, get in her boat again. See here for the last time she had been in it!

Partying and Pottying

Some photos from a fun birthday party we attended Sunday at "My Gym," a fun place with play classes for little ones.

Cora had a great time, and we were both proud of her for how friendly she was, and how she didn't react poorly when it was time to sing "Happy Birthday" to the birthday twins. (In the past, Cora has disliked the song with some intensity.)

Cora won't be happy about the fourth photo, but how cute is that?
That's the stage we're at with potty-training. The potty stays in the car at all times, and comes in the stroller during Stroller Strides. During Monday's class, she said she needed the potty, and sure enough she used it. She also used it Wednesday during class.

Since Thursday, she's gone one day accident-free, and the other days (until Wednesday) she had one accident. It means that she's using the toilet when we're out in public almost without fail. And she did fine on our long (hour plus) drive to and from Camarillo, and at church and then the Farmer's Market on Sunday.

On Wednesday, she seemed to relapse a bit. After using the potty during our walking class, she later went in her panties while we were still at the park. She also went while watching television. And later in the evening, after we asked her repeatedly to use the toilet, she wet her panties again. So, on went the diaper for our trip out shopping - all her training panties were wet.

We'll see what Thursday brings.

Donkeys and Rock Movies

Stace, Cora and I sadly took Nanny and Pop back to the airport Thursday. It was so great to share our lives here with them, and have all their help with the house and with Cora.

We had a nice weekend, with a great mixture of work and play.

On Sunday, Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Mel took Cora with them to Disneyland! They have annual passes, and Cora is still free until she turns three.

Apparently she was an angel for them, and had a fantastic time - you can tell, look at her smile in all these photos!

Stace and I took advantage of the free afternoon by having dinner together (can you beat Chipotle, I mean really?) and a movie. I honestly can't remember the last movie we saw in a theater.

Anyway, it was the opening weekend here in L.A. for "It Might Get Loud," a documentary with rock guitar legends Jimmy Page, the Edge and Jack White jamming and talking music. Stace heard about it a while ago and we were happy it worked out so well for us to get away together to see it, since it's only playing in a small handful of theaters. We went to the ArcLight Hollywood, a movie connoisseur's movie theater.

Stace nearly finished the bathroom on Saturday, and we also went to Hart Park to see the barn animals. The enclosure for the animals had been rebuilt over the last year or two, and it was the first time we'd been over to see them. Cora enjoyed the pigs, ducks, deer, chickens, pheasants and turkeys. We also bought a small bag of feed and fed the donkey ("Half Pint") and steer ("Norman").
The park was hosting an art event, so we stayed for lunch and listened to some folk music and wandered around the booths. It was a great morning, and not too hot, so we really had a nice time together.

And, a quick potty-training update: Cora is in her training panties just about all the time now, except for overnight (and Disneyland), and is doing quite well with using the toilet. We are having to wash the panties pretty regularly, so she's not, at this point, close to "accident-free."

But I'm very pleased with her progress, especially when she wore her panties to brunch on Thursday, used the toilet at the restaurant, and then stayed dry through the ride to LAX and back, until using the toilet at McDonalds in Santa Clarita.