Two By Two

A good friend of Nan's has 8 grandchildren, varying in ages from getting ready for college to starting solid foods.  One of the activities this friend does with one of her younger grandchildren is a summer program at the zoo designed for two-year-olds and a caregiver.  My mom couldn't wait for the summer the Wee One turned two so they could enroll in Two By Two At The Zoo.

Ready to go, Day 1

Waiting for pickup, Week 2.By then we had received our special too-big shirt to wear.

 So, after a couple of weeks, the novelty wore off for my mom. She had conflicting plans, so the third week Grandpa and Mommie took Wee One to Two By Two.

 After we did the program and saw some animals, we did some sightseeing around the zoo.  Which mostly consisted of posing for photos.

The last week had too many time conflicts - I was back at work for fall semester, and Nan had something come up.  But Wee One seemed to really enjoy her summer trips to the zoo.

Motivation

Potty training is going spectacularly well.  The advice that worked for us was "wait until she's ready" and "use non-food rewards".

I had bought a bunch of Dora stickers for the Dora-themed birthday party that we had.  They never really got used, and got put away in a bag.  So when the books said find "special" stickers for potty training, I dug them out.

The Wee One saw them and went nuts.  She totally wanted one of those stickers.  In fact, the first morning that we were "training" she got mad when she'd sit on the potty and not get a sticker.  I had to make up a rule that if her pants stayed dry she could get a sticker, just to have something to give her stickers for.

It totally worked. 

This sticker chart came from a book that we ended up with (Target $1 rack, I believe).  When we first started trying, I hung it up and made a big deal about getting stickers.  She got little stickers for sitting on the potty at first (since she really didn't want to do it).  But she wouldn't pee on the potty.  Then she'd have an accident 5 minutes later in her training pants.  The one time she leaked some pee on the potty I went nuts with the praise and she thought I was a lunatic.  She wanted to put her sticker on the chart, but I was trying to be all anal about "this box means today and so put it in this box".

After two half-days of the no-potty-then-accident rerun, I shelved potty training.  But I left the chart up (what else was I going to do with it)?  So when she announced, a week ago Thursday, "I go pee pee in the potty", we had all the tools ready for the positive reinforcement.  She wanted to put the sticker on herself, and I managed to talk myself down from my anal retentiveness to let her put it wherever she wanted, instead of in the box that I decided means "today".  I think that gave her a little bit of sense of ownership about her stickers.

Yea, see, my OCD did NOT do well with this!

The sticker chart at Nan's house.

When spending the day at Nan's in the middle of training, we just printed out a piece of paper with her name on it and stuck one on each of the bathroom doors.  So then the randomness of the sticker placement didn't matter (as much).

A pediatrician I follow on Twitter (@SeattleMamaDoc) posted that she had success with her kid waking up dry and peeing in the potty first thing (how freaking awesome is that?).  She wrote a blog post about using sticker charts as positive reinforcement.

Probably because they seem to work!

The other motivation that developed was my mother and I dancing around like idiots singing a high-pitched "you pee peed in the potty! you pee peed in the potty!" that got termed "the potty dance". The three of us dancing around and singing that song makes my kid smile, so that was also positive reinforcement for using the potty.  So, you know, whatever works.

I Made A Magic Mountain

Anyone who follows my Twitter stream has figured out that I watch The Rachel Maddow Show most weeknights.  Like most fangirls, I also contribute to the online conversation about the show, using the #maddow hashtag.

A couple of weeks ago (July 1, actually), as her "Best New Thing In The World", she invited some folks from Iowa who own a restaurant to make their specialty on her show: something called the Magic Mountain.  (There's some connection to an Obama town hall and ... the details are in the podcast).

A Magic Mountain is a piece of Texas Toast with meat, french fries, cheese sauce, and onions (to look like snow on top).  If you put chili on top, it's called a Volcano.

OMG.  I craved one for like, three days before I could get to the store and get the stuff to make one.  If I had picked up a can of vegetarian chili, this could even be a Project Veg recipe.  But its not.

I used the Texas Toast I had in the fridge, which has cheese on it.  I mean, you can never have too much cheese, right?

Fries.  I didn't put the meat, b/c at this point I thought I was doing this veg.

Melted cheese (I didn't have sauce, sorry).

Onions, to look like "snow" on the mountain.

Okay, it looks really awful.  But it was SOOO good.

Church

Sigh, where do you start a post about church?

Chronologically, with a little quip about the churches you grew up in, the church you went to during college, the one you drug your new husband to where you listened to him sigh and pull his collar, the one where you were on the pet ministry committee so you helped organize a pet blessing ...

Theologically, with how you started out as Lutheran, but then went to a Unity church, and now you want something in between the extremes of Unitarian Universalist and Episcopalian?

Emotionally, with my departures from the church, my experiences with the born-again Christian supervisor who was determined to guilt me back to worship, my thoughts about belief in God versus worshipping Jesus while my mother believes Revelations a little too much ...

Sigh.  I'll try to stick to the parts of the story that are most relevant:

When I lived "where I used to live" I walked into a church that felt so much like home it scared me.  It was  Lutheran church that used the same "green book" that I had grown up with - in fact I could recite the service without looking at the weekly pamphlet.  The sanctuary was sunlit and airy and beautiful.  The minister was a caring and devoted woman who had been in a science field before becoming a pastor, whose other gifts were a knack for history and skillful storytelling.  I started going regularly, then - as I tend to do when I start going to church - I didn't go back for six months.  When I started going again, I was greeted by name, with a smile, and heart that was warmed to see me, no matter how long it had been.

I cried through tons of baptisms at that church.  Every time there was a baptism I was determined not to cry.  But I cried at every one.  (Why do they do those right before the "sharing of the peace", so everyone gets to see your tear-stained face and embarrassment?)  When I found out I was pregnant, I held my hand over my belly as I said my thank you prayers.  Then my daughter was baptised in a ceremony just like those I had cried through.  Photos in this post.

But, as you all know, I don't live there anymore.  I live here.  So I assumed I'd be going back to my old church, the church I grew up in.  We did that a few times.  Each time my mom and I would whisper afterwards in the car "it's just changed so much, you know."  When I was a tween and a teen, there was an active youth group and lots of families.  It was an active, vibrant congregation.  Now it seems that attendance and enthusiasm is dwindling.

Subsequent conversations with members have helped to shed light on some of the reasons.  The pastor, while many agree that he is a fantastic biblical scholar, doesn't seem to be as active in his pastoral duties as the congregation would like.  Doesn't visit shut-ins to bring communion, doesn't visit the hospitalized or sick, and doesn't make much of an effort to put forth a caring personality.  He's had some health issues of his own, and even (according to one story) was offended that people weren't more understanding of his own illness.  There are many people that we see in the community that have now gone to other churches.

We tried.  My mom and I taught Vacation Bible School last summer, and we tried to attend Sundays.  But there aren't many families attending anymore, and the atmosphere is no longer vibrant and enthusiastic.

I didn't go to church for a while.  After a week of workdays, I'm fine to hang out at home with my kid on Sunday mornings.  But I feel a compulsion to raise her in a church environment, so I started on my quest to "find a church".

We went to a Presbyterian church that some of my friends attend.  In the plus column - lots of families, a well appointed nursery, an active church community.  I just couldn't get past the "aw, shucks" southern accent and paternalistic presence of the minister, after the scholarly, story weaving pastor I'd left behind.

We went to a Christian church, where my mother continues to attend and is becoming more active.  They have a high quality nursery program (despite the fact that they inaccurately diagnosed my kid as having head lice).  I just couldn't get past the blatant misogyny in the sermons.  I know that I won't feel comfortable in a conservative setting.  It was at that point that I had a conversation with my mom that suggested that she and I don't need to find membership in the same church.

I went to the Episcopal church.  There were very few people in attendance the morning we went, because it was very snowy.  So there was no nursery.  Meaning I had to entertain my kid in a loud, echo-y wooden sanctuary and follow a worship service I don't know.  The experience did inform me that I like the idea of traditional service.  Oh, and a nursery.

I went to a United Church of Christ.  The minister there (female) did a good job of the history and storytelling - as she read from her notes (ugh).  And the sanctuary was too small.  Am I nitpicking because there is some other reason I don't like this church?

I went to a Unitarian Universalist service.  I thought maybe the problem was that I was visiting these Christian churches, when I'm not totally sure I identify as Christian.  So why not try something more progressive, and more in line with my liberal views?  As I expressed to a good friend afterward, it felt like I had been to a consciousness raising, rather than a church service.  While I don't mind a good jab at Sarah Palin in a "sermon", I always thought I would raise my daughter in a more traditional setting than that.

Okay, back to the Christian churches.  And if I'm going to do that, I'd like to stay with the tradition I'm most comfortable with, the Lutheran church.  There are no other ELCA Lutheran Churches on my side of the river, so we start heading across the bridge to go to church.

First, a Lutheran Church in a quaint little part of town, and near one of my favorite Irish Pubs (that's a reason to go, then, right?)  Their website makes a point to demonstrate that they are accepting and open.  And it doesn't take nearly as long to get there as I thought it would, since we were half an hour early the first time we went.  The church is a beautiful old church with a huge church building.  And yes, they have a nursery.  But the weekend I went was a big Synod meeting, so the regular minister wasn't there.  Can you get a feel for a church if the minister is a substitute?  Either way, this was on the "possibility list".

Next, a large Lutheran Church a little farther from home, but not much.  Much larger congregation.  So big, in fact, that we were not personally greeted and not informed where the nursery was.  A nice little old couple said after the children's sermon they take them to the nursery.  Only ... they never had a children's sermon.  So I spent much of that worship service in the hallway chasing my kid.

Another Lutheran Church, this one near the campus where I teach.  A much older congregation.  Again, the minister was out (this is the problem with doing church tours in the summer) so it was all old white men giving communion to mostly old white people.  I was hoping for some diversity, wasn't I?  But the sanctuary was beautiful.  My kid was well behaved until she'd had enough, and then a teenager took her to the nursery.  And brought her back to me for communion.

I've pretty much narrowed the selection down to the last three, the Lutheran churches.   That's where I get stuck.  I was thinking that the question would come down to whether I wanted to attend a church with a larger congregation or a smaller one.  I would think larger, with more families is what we want (even if we weren't personally greeted, which was likely my own fault - I'll be less absorbed in not dropping my kid or my diaper bag next time).  But they don't start worship until 11:00 and with the driving distance, that doesn't fit well into our schedule.

The two smaller congregations (both worship at 10:30) are close together and often work together on joint ministries - for example they are having a joint VBS.  So I feel the decision is slightly less "either/or" there.  And with a smaller congregation comes the opportunity to get involved and practice leadership, right?

All three churches do communion every Sunday.  None of them have a Saturday evening or a Sunday evening (my ideal) worship service.  They all three (I believe, at least two do) have kneeling benches and have an opportunity for kneeling during the service.  (See, I'm getting into really wonky details here to try to set them apart in some way).

So how do you decide?  How do you pick a church?  Does it feel hard because I haven't found "the right" church yet?  So do I keep looking, week after week?  Does it feel hard because, despite my trying, I'm really looking for my last church in this city and it's not here, so nothing feels quite "right"?  What's more important, families and opportunities like youth groups for my kid?  Size of the congregation?  A fantastic historian/storyteller/caring minister?  Openness and inclusion?  Diversity?  Having a Library?  Having adults in the nursery instead of teenagers?

I made a list of criteria that I would like to use.  Things like "the pastor" and "youth group opportunities" and "openness and inclusion" ... but then what?  How do you decide between a church with a fantastic female minister - who is an interim and won't be there permanently - and a gay male minister who is young and might move when he finishes divinity school?  How do you decide between a really large church where you feel like you'll get lost - but that has awesome youth opportunities - and the smaller church where you'll be able to get to know people, but where there are currently like three kids in the youth group?  Is the church that says they are open and welcoming to all, but has a sanctuary full of old white people on Sunday any different than the church that has a couple of gay people?

How do you decide about church?

Yesterday morning I saw a car pull up out in front of my house.  My kid and I had been outside blowing bubbles.  She was in panties that were drenched by the bubble solution she had spilled, and it had just started raining so we came inside.  I saw someone get out of the car and run to the front door.  My doorbell is broken, so I opened the door to find a woman with a gift bag containing a fresh baked loaf of bread.  The sprinkles had stopped, so I stepped out onto the porch to talk with her.  She looked familiar, but I couldn't place where I knew her from, until she started talking.

She is from one of the churches that I visited.  I've been twice now, once when the pastor was at the Synod meeting, and once last Sunday to meet him.  She brought me some information about the church, and the bread, and a wonderful little card.

All I got from the big church was a form postcard that said "we're glad you visited, see our website". 

I feel really guilty now, like I should totally join this church just because this woman brought me bread.  I decided that the Wee One and I will should probably go again today.  I was planning on us going to "church" I just wasn't sure where we would go, so this helps make that decision.  The pastor had a neat one-on-one conversation with Wee One in the nursery, and I met his partner who was singing this morning.

Is "they brought me bread" a reason to choose a church?  Is any other reason any better? 

So how do you decide on a church?  The people all seem nice enough.  I mean, I can totally put on my academic hat, make a list of questions like "what is your approach to catechism education" and "where do you see this church in five years" and "how does your church support alternative family lifestyles" and interview the pastors and make an obnoxious ass of myself in the process.  But since it now appears I'll be living in this area until I retire (God willing and I get tenure), then this could be a long term commitment.

So I'm open to any and all suggestions and advice, because at this point, I'm probably going to just keep going to the church that brought me bread.  (Except I keep thinking about the other churches too.)

A Girl And Her Dog, A Year Later

My Wee One loves dogs.  The first day this summer that we went to the farmer's market, she saw two dogs that she got to pet.  That was around the time that we were starting to say our nighttime prayers more routinely, so we said Thank You God for the good food we had purchased at the farmer's market, and Please Bless all the people that helped to grow the good things we eat.  "Dogs!" chimed in the kid, so we said "Thank You God for the dogs we saw at the Farmer's Market, and Please Bless all the dogs."

Well, "Dogs!" has become a nighttime staple of our prayers.  So far we have seen at least one dog each time we have visited the farmer's market, so my kid assumes that's just part of what happens there.

I have let myself begin to think in the direction of "what if we get a dog".  I had a dog that I loved so much that I can't even bring myself to write her tribute on this blog.  Two anniversaries of her death have passed, and I can't bring myself to boil her life down to a post of words.  I feel guilty thinking about getting another dog, and then I lose myself in the details of how much time it would take to housebreak and how to teach it not to bite, and ...

So in the meantime, my parents dog serves as our surrogate dog.  At the current moment, she is staying with us, since my dad is out of the country and my mom is ... well, off being my mom.

So tonight we ate supper, then went outside to blow some bubbles.

Why yes, that is my kid in the big-girl panties who tells me when she needs to go inside to pee pee in the potty thankyouverymuch!

Post title refers to this previous post.

Walking to (Nan and) Grandpa's: 4th of July and Potty Training Editions

Because of the delayed nature of this posting (um, two weeks late) we will combine some of the photos taken on our walks to Nan and Grandpas house.

First, the 4th of July Edition:

Then the first Potty Training edition (that's why she's in a pajama top and undies)

Then the Second Potty Training edition (short dress and undies)

I kept her in dresses for the first week.  We moved into shorts yesterday and had success!  It's the little triumphs ....

Some Thoughts on the Final Space Shuttle Launch

I opened my first savings account to go to Space Camp.  I was of the generation captivated by the movie of the same name.  As were all my peers in the advanced program.  We were convinced we would be the kids accidentially launched into space, and equally convinced we could conquer/save the world.

Sometimes life gets in the way of big dreams.  I never went to space camp, never studied aeronautics, never became an astronaut (nor anything close).  I did, however, retain a passion for all things related to NASA.

I didn't see the Challenger exposion live, but I saw it replayed countless times.  I was watching television the morning that Columbia was due to land, and followed the news that contact had been lost and debris was turning up in a large swath across the land.

I went through a phase where I stopped following the shuttle launches and landings.  I also stopped going to bookstores, started watching MTV and rap music, and started internet dating.  It was the year I quit my postdoc to teach as an adjunct as my sole source of income, and looking back, I think I was attempting to deny my passion for science as a way to justify the decisions I had made to leave research.

Then I found NASA TV.  NASA has got to be the most transparent organization on the planet.  Who else allows cameras to be trained on them while they work, every minute of every day (and night)?  Would you let someone train a camera on you, with a commentator interpreting your actions, while you do your day-to-day work?

NASA TV makes watching launches and landings incredibly easy to observe.  I turned on the Discovery landing while teaching a lab one afternoon, so as my students were learning muscle insertions, we were also casually discussing space shuttles.  Some of students were surprised to know that you could watch the missions on the NASA website, and many of the students in the class weren't even aware that a space shuttle had been on a space mission.  It became an unexpected teachable moment.

This morning was the final launch of the space shuttle program.  I, like many people I know, don't agree with ending the shuttle program.  I, like many people I know, wish that wasn't the state of affairs.  But if they were launching the last shuttle, I was going to make darn sure I, and probably my daughter, would be watching it.

Wednesday I saw a tweet from our local Science Center that they would be streaming the launch live.  I thought that would be the perfect place to go watch the last shuttle launch.  Surrounded with science lovers and geeks and people who love the space shuttle and the shuttle program.  Maybe there would be some tears, or stories, or sharing.  I thought it would be great.

And if that's what had actually happened, it probably would have been great.  Alas, though, I'm a romantic at heart.  The room was not filled with space geeks and science lovers.  The room was filled with screaming children and harried parents, including my Wee One and myself.

Day 2 of potty training was going well.  She wanted Dora panties, and had been staying dry, so we went to the potty when we first got there.  She didn't like the big potty, and was excited about being at the Science Center, so she didn't really stay still long enough to do anything.  A few minutes later she mentioned the potty again, so off we ran to use the potty.  Same story.  Then in an exhibit about animals she said "I go potty" and I threw her up on my hip to run (we were the farthest distance on that floor from the potty, and I wanted to hurry).  Halfway to the bathroom I felt wetness on my shirt ... she had peed, through her panties, and on me.

But again, she wouldn't pee on the big potty.  So after changing panties and washing hands, we went to watch the shuttle launch.

I was SO EXCITED to see the tweet from NASA this morning that they released the Android app. That way if something went screwy at the science center, I could still watch on my phone. The regular video stream didn't work well, but the alternate strream did, so I thought I was all set.



So in the crowded room, with a kid who wouldn't potty but had peed on me, with talking/crying/screaming kids and parents trying to wrestle their kids to sit still, go sit with mommy/daddy, or walk without stepping on anyone, we try to watch the shuttle launch.  For the previous shuttle launch, I was alone in my office, with headphones in.  I could hear everyone on the comms, I could hear the Nasa TV commentator, I could hear everything that happened to build up to the launch.  But I was alone.  Today, I wasn't alone.  But I couldn't hear.  I tried clicking on the video in the app.  Nothing.  I don't know if it was overloaded with users or what happened, but I was pretty pissed about the failure of the app to show the launch. 

The kids in the room shouted the countdown.  Finally, my Wee One settled on my lap.  Finally, the liftoff.  I tried not to cry.  I tried to force my breathing to be regular and not ragged.  I wasn't in a room with space geeks.  I wasn't in a room with people who all know and revere the history of the space program.  I'm here with children and parents who care about their children.  I'm here with someone in this room who might open a savings account to save money to go to Space Camp.  Perhaps this moment changes the life of someone in this room.  Perhaps this moment changes the life of one of these children.

So, as always, watching the launch changes things.  Changes perspective.  From now on that perspective will be changed by the Russians.  Or by companies like Virgin that will rent the NASA space/equipment/resources to try to make something better/cheaper/smarter.  Or by .... whatever the next thing is.

After letting my kid run through more of the science center, after she peed all over the seat in the bus in the playroom, after I gave up and put an effing diaper on her and cleaned off said bus seat, after she played in the water area and got soaked, after I put her in the sling to carry her butt out of there, after we went through McD to get chicken nuggets... I looked up at the sky.  It felt anticlimactic.  It felt like I'd "missed" it, even though I sat there and watched it on a big screen TV.

I've come a long way since the Space Camp movie, since 6th grade and Challenger, since planning to be an astronaut.  I really don't know what the future is for NASA, and I hope that they have vision and direction and support.  But I do know that the space shuttle program has influenced and affected many, many lives.  Today was no exception.

Waiting patiently in the parking lot

Not waiting on the pedestrian walkway to the museum

Self portrait

Admission bracelet

Staking out our seats early in the viewing room.

To watch the launch here

About 20 seconds after this photo was taken, this seat was flooded with pee.  Whoops!

More NASA stuff

Oh, look, water play.  (Moth to a flame).

Very sleepy, zoned out kid.

Closeup of the sleepy face.

Potty Escapades

My plan was to start potty training full-on when I was off for my workload was reduced for the summer (still teaching summer classes to pay for expensive daycare, and chairing a faculty hiring committee in my bid for tenure).  I planned to spend my three days a week that I'm home with her teaching her to use the potty in a loving, positive, constructive way.

I emailed a fellow blogger I met through Our Mommyhood, who is a mother and a physician.  I told her I'm having a hard time using my physiology background in parenting my potty training toddler.  I asked if she knew of any research-based methods of potty training, and if she had any other advice for me.

She did.  I really love my online network of friends/mothers/people who have been there/people who know more than me!

In addition, I read two books (they have the same information - in fact, I believe one plagiarizes the other - and I will be reviewing that issue in detail in an upcoming post).

So, armed with my views on attachment parenting and respecting individuality, a custom post from my personal blogger-pediatrician, and information I'd read twice by reading both books, I was ready for potty training, right?

What's that line about the best laid plans?

The first day of potty training was basically a cycle of (1) sitting on the potty trying to keep the kid sitting on her potty and entertained while nothing came out, (2) putting fresh training pants or Dora panties on said kid and (3) cleaning up a puddle 5-10 minutes later.  After four hours of that futility, I beat my head against the wall, pulled my hair out, screamed, and put the kid down for a nap.

Not really.  I did, however, simply give up and put the kid down for a nap.

We tried once more the next day, before I called the whole thing off.  She was still leaking some urine into her training panties, and wasn't releasing urine on the potty.  I concluded that she probably didn't have quite the muscle control needed for the venture at this point.  While she is dry after some naps, and some naps she is just a little wet (a good sign) I wasn't sure that she was physically ready for the expectations of "hold-it-then-release-it" that potty training (and my hardwood floor) requires.

So I shelved it.  Also?  Diapers are easier.  Way easier.  Even though I wash and dry and fold mine, still WAAAAAY easier.  I don't have that "plunking money down every week" thing to really motivate me to get my kid out of diapers.  So we just cooled our jets for a little while.

I started thinking about it again about a week or so ago.  At work we are talking schedules pretty nonstop because of the faculty hiring thing.  When are people available for interviews, when does summer session end, when is the new person due to start, when do classes start?  My kid starts back to daycare five-days-a-week (my checkbook just dry heaved) August 1st, and I had figured she'd be in training pants at that point.  But it's now July and we've been doing just diapers all summer so far.

Yesterday at daycare I noticed her two bff's were wearing pink Pull-Ups (I keep forgetting that the rest of the country spends excess money on landfill fodder).  We were leaving while they were still on the potties and I noticed my Wee One watching.  At home, she announced "I go potty!" and off we went.  Potty training has begun again.

So this morning when we woke up, I decided to try again.  If she did the cycle of no peeing/accidents 5 minutes later again, we'd shelve it again.  But lets just see where we are.

This morning she did great.  She wore her Dora panties and her pajama top.  I prompted her to sit on the potty pretty frequently.  Nothing was happening at first, and she was getting mad at me for not giving her the Dora stickers, so I made up a rule that if her panties stayed dry, she could have a sticker.  Two panties checks garnered her a sticker each, so when she did finally pee pee in the potty, she got two "Swiper" stickers, which she thought was just Teh Awesomesauce.

Dora panties on, and we play some more.  She wants to go to the basement to play on her climbing thing and read books, and I suggest we potty first.  More pee pee in the potty!  More cheers and stickers! (Backpack, this time!).

Lunch, and then one more potty time before her nap.  A little pee pee this time, but I totally went with it.  This time she got a sticker out of her Potty Book (Fisher Price My Very Own Potty).  No accidents all morning, 3 "pee pee potty"s was the scorecard.

I let her have a choice at naptime of a diaper or (waterproof) training pants, and she chose a diaper.  Good thing, because all the fluids I'd been pumping into her to try to get successful pee pees came back out during naptime!  We also kept a diaper on after the nap for the trip to the bank and to get allergy shots, because our allergist's office doesn't have a bathroom.  It's down the hall, behind a locked door.

We stopped by the photography studio to see Nan and Miss Lori and tell them all about our pee pees.  She pee peed on the potty there twice, but just a little, then had three accidents.  I think the distraction of her favorite people, the ringing phone, and all the interesting things to play with didn't help.  Also, being tired and the lateness of the day contributed.

Tomorrow we are going to the Science Center to watch the final shuttle launch.  I'm trying to decide if I want to mess with training pants or just go with a diaper, since she'll be distracted by everything.  This is the part of potty training that is still a bit of a gray area to me.  Do you just throw the diapers out (well, in my case, stash them away in a drawer) and try going all potty full bore?  (Taking tons of extra clothes to cover accidents?)  Or do you do it a little at a time, with diapers while you're out and training pants/panties at home?  What about daycare - we have waterproof cloth training pants but they won't hold a full pee, just some leaking/minor accidents.  I'm not sure if daycare is willing to go with that if they have to change her clothes 5 times a day.

Last concern: one of the pairs of training pants she had on at the studio caused her to break out on her bottom, thighs, and across her stomach.  I'm going to have to do process of elimination to figure out which pair, but it seems like she's allergic/sensitive to one or more of those pairs.  I'm sure daycare won't want to go straight to panties without some of kind of waterproof layer.  So I'm not sure really what to do there.

So I now have plenty of fodder for future posts, including reaming a certain potty book that is a complete copy of an earlier work, and recommendations for cloth training pants.

I also have poured a glass of wine :)

Grocery Shopping

When we go to Whole Foods, usually the kids carts are all being used (because they have like ONE of them).  So I keep thinking "we need to bring our own".  But I always forget.

Then when mom and I were discussing going to the grocery, the kid politely reminded us by running to her room to get her grocery cart.

We stowed it in the trunk and went to the grocery.

Next time, I'll wait to give it to her until we get into the store.  I was trying to help her steer through fast-moving cars in the parking lot while she yelled "No, Mine!  My grocery cart!  You no touch!  Mine!"

But she pushed that thing through the entire grocery store.  Through the line (Mommie paid) and then back out through the parking lot.

Bananas, fruit juice, chips.  Ice cream in-hand.  What more is there in life?

Have I mentioned how big she's getting?