Potty Training.

I feel like I'm getting a lot of questions about potty training lately. I personally don't think we're there yet. For one, Ellie is not even two yet. For two, she will usually tell me WHILE she's pooping, but she won't tell me that she has to go poop (which means I can't get her into the bathroom in time.) For three, *I* am not ready. Potty training means a lot of long days at home, lots of trips to the bathroom, and then having to make all errands very short, while also learning where every public bathroom is located (and how clean or disgusting each bathroom is.)

Plus, I feel like people act like potty training means you're done dealing with your kid's bathroom functions, and as I understand it, you still have to supervise and wipe their butts. Potty training does not mean I'm done asking the question "did you poop?" And there's no award for having the youngest kid ever to quit using diapers. I mean, you don't have to buy diapers anymore, but they're not that big of a deal.

Anyhow. Long story short. Yesterday we were playing at a friend's house, splashing around in the water table in just a diaper. And then Ellie begged to take off her water logged diaper, and I told her she could, but reminded her that she'd need to tell me if she had to go poop so we could poop in the toilet. You know where this is going, right? She totally crapped in the backyard. You can call her Dog Baby.

I did however, finally buy her a little potty. It might be worth to just start practicing. I promise I won't start taking pictures and posting on facebook about every time she poops in the potty. Blech.

Discipline.

We have moved on to that super fun part of parenting where we have to start disciplining. Not every one of Ellie's problem can be solved with a diaper change or a feeding. Now, there is whining. There are wants that cannot be met. There are neeeeeeeeeeeds that have to be ignored, because sorry, you can't pet Lulu while she's trying to use the litterbox. Cry all you want kid!

I always felt like my parents were strict but fair growing up, and I'd like to hope I'll be the same to Ellie. We are trying not to use the "smack the kid around" school of discipline, which leaves us with 1) ignoring her behavior and letting her be some wild, untamed hippie brat or 2) having to use our words with her (sometimes sternly) and administer time outs. The latter strategy seems to be working pretty okay. She knows what behavior earns her an instant time out (hitting, kicking, generally being a horrible, mean little child) and even though time out means being put in a room by herself for literally, a grand total of 30 seconds, the threat of such a wretched fate usually causes her to straighten right up.

We also spend a lot of time saying things like, "how do you ask?" (prompting her to say please) "please use your listening ears" and a lot of "I can't hear you when you whine like that."

So, yesterday morning she started whining to watch the Cat in the Hat. I told her no, we weren't going to watch Cat in the Hat until after our walk (ie: when I need to take a shower and have the television baby sit her.) She kept asking, so the conversation quickly went from "not until after our walk" to just "mommy told you no!" When she kept whining, I picked her up, plopped her on the step in the foyer and explained "mommy told you no Cat in the Hat. You need to use your listening ears. Mommy said no," and then walked away, and ignored her. She sat on the step for a good five minutes, just whining and weeping. When she calmed down, I asked her if she wanted to read a book, and she wiped her snotty nose on the back of her hand, came over and climbed in my lap to read the Poky Little Puppy. But on her way across the living room, she told me "I sit on big step. I cwy. I sit on big step and I cwy." She also made sure to tell Cara that she'd sat and cried when we met for our walk a half hour later. Because you know, I am SO cruel and mean.

The good news is, when I made her explain to Gigi why she sat and cried, she told Gigi that she'd cried because she hadn't used her listening ears. Thank goodness some of it is finally sinking in.

More Park Photos.

I know you're surprised to hear it, but we had another busy weekend last weekend. Saturday, since my parents were out of town, we decided to take over their house and throw a pool party (since I never threw any parties when my parents were out of town during my high school years.) It was mostly Tim's coworkers, hence, no photos. The miles of buck white skin would have probably ruined my camera. We had brats the PROPER WAY (grilled first, soaked in beer in and onions second, obviously) and lots of chips and dips and ice cream. The biggest kudos goes to Auntie Sara, who was auntie of the year, entertaining Beans so that I could participate in adult conversation for the first time in what feels like months. I always feel like Ellie will be easier out in public now that she's not a screaming infant, but ugh, I'm always wrong and have to leave when I realize that I can't get a single word in because she is demanding so much of my attention.

Then on Sunday we had Mimi and Pa over to hang out with their girl (and celebrate my birthday.) Ellie was mostly good at dinner time, but was at her best when we went to the park on the way home.

Suffice to say, we had a good time.

It continues to be hot here, so Ellie continues to live most of her life in just a diaper. On days where we have nowhere to be, it's not worth the fight. Plus, she is like a miniature furnace - yesterday she was sitting in the rocking chair, watching the Cat in the Hat for a half hour, and when I picked her up, she'd sweat through the back of her pajamas. Just sitting there.

Best Ellie Says Yet.

(with a fat little arm around my neck)
I love my mommy.

You Know Your Baby is a Californian When...

You go out to a sushi place for lunch

And she eats a bunch of edamame, a cucumber roll, and then delights in eating an entire spicy tuna roll all by herself.

Ellie Says.

(while having her diaper changed)
There might be some poop in my butt.

Me: Oh shoot.
Ellie: Shoot, I forgot my keys.

Me: (sneezing about a million times)
Ellie: Bless YOU mama!

(this morning, as she's leaving the house in a romper to beat the heat)
I don't have any pants on!

(then later, when I was relaying the story to Gigi and Grizz)
I don't have any pants on. I have my romper.

(whilst dropping my broken phone off at the repair place)
Oh no! Mama hello!

Home Safe & Birthday Gifts.

We have returned back behind the Orange Curtain, after a lovely time with Bob and Nancy in the Bay Area. There was a little drama with Tim's car, and I dropped my phone in a gas station parking lot and cracked the heck out of the screen (still useable, but probably not for very much longer - I'm sure to drop it again soon and just shatter it to pieces) but otherwise it was a wonderful time with some fabulous friends. Baby Amelia is a little doll, and Ellie enjoyed hanging out with her, pushing her in the swing and watching her get her diaper changed. Though she can say Amelia, she mostly called her "her." And would ask for more her, her mama, her dada, her fresh diaper... it was very funny and cute.

Ellie was a great little traveler, but when deciding when to come home, we opted to not risk having her in the car, awake, for 7 straight hours and instead came home a little early, leaving Sunday night. This time, we put her in her pajamas straight away, so that she could fall asleep whenever she felt like it. When we were in Gilroy, she started whining for cow milk, and thankfully we could stop at a gas station and fill her sippy. A half hour later, she was sound asleep, and she didn't make a peep throughout the rest of the ride. Rolled into our driveway at 1:45, and Tim and I were asleep in our own bed at 2. AM. But still! We were home in our own lovely bed.

And of course, our well rested daughter was up at 7am on Monday morning. The good news was that Monday was also my birthday, and as a lovely present, Gigi took Ellie home with her after lunch, and I got to climb back into my bed (now with freshly laundered sheets and a down comforter fresh from the dry cleaner) and take myself a fat old nap. It was like a tiny slice of heaven.

I got to spend the rest of my birthday with my family - swimming in the pool was great, even though Tim beat me at zip and Dad dunked me and then held me under water, and mom made taco salad and strawberry shortcake. PLUS there was canned whipped cream, and we were total pigs, spraying it into our mouths. Ellie thought it was pretty great too. She was really funny on Monday - after the pool she refused to put her clothes back on, so was wandering around in a diaper and a paper crown from her toy box. She actually spent most of dinner like that, sobbing because we were eating instead of taking her out to see the hop hops, the little snot. She was enthused about helping me open presents though.

Being on vacation was interesting in that being out of her routine really shook things up for her. The biggest thing is that we're done nursing. We'd been done to just the mornings for a few weeks, and while at Bob and Nancy's she was so busy in the mornings that she never even asked. This morning I went into her room armed with a sippy cup of regular milk, and she curled up in my lap on the couch, sucked it down and then went about her day. Totally painless for both of us. I'm grateful that we made it this long, because I think nursing has been a good parenting tool and obviously great nutrition, but I am also SO ready to be done. I just didn't want it to be a huge fight. I get to fight with her about enough things related to eating (like... her desire to eat two popsicles all the time.) Speaking of eating though, she seems to FINALLY be mastering the use of the fork. She has had trouble with "poking" her food hard enough to actually spear it, but did much better at Bob and Nancy's dining room table, putting away an entire pancake one morning and an entire hamburger patty that night.

Since we got back, the cats have been over the moon to see us. Thor is so desperate for love that he actually let THIS happen.

That's right. He let her touch him. She is smelling his fur. She said he smells good.

You know who doesn't smell good? Her little white cat friend that she has latched on to as her one true love.

Pictured here during Biscuit Story Time with Grizz (wearing only a crown and diaper.) That cat was a gift from our friend Shannon, and was actually the first gift Ellie received at the hospital. He's been sort of kicking around our house with all of her stuffed animals. For a long time, she was more into babies than stuffed animals, and never really seemed to pick one animal friend over another. Now, it's all kitty cat, all the time. She sleeps with him clutched like that. She walks around the house like that. She plays like that. Tonight, she was running around and kicking a soccer ball, without ever letting Kitty Cat out of her chokehold. He needs a bath, but I'm not sure when I can separate the two of them for the two hours a fluff and fold would take.