Diaper-Free Household

Caroline has been the source of all the little "tidbits of life" that I wrote down this week.  She has gotten very good at recognizing her letter "C" everywhere.  Whenever we read a book and she saw a "C," she'd say, "Me!!" and hug that page of the book.  I quizzed her with the puzzle we have of her name.  She could tell me the names of: C-A-R-O-I-N.  I didn't know she knew all of those!  :)  The poor third child.  I'm sure if it were Josiah, I would most definitely have known that and it would already be written in his baby book.  She also has taken to writing her name.  This is an example of her name:

She will repeatedly say, "I wrote my name." until it is acknowledged with praise and admiration.  

She still feels that she is the second (and bossier) mother to the boys.  Upon walking down the stairs the other morning, Henry was walking behind us.  We could hear him actually hopping down the stairs.  She stopped, turned around and said quite loudly, "Don't jump down stairs Ren-ry! You fall hurt you-self."  This girl is the law enforcement arm of the house.  She knows the rules.  Of course, she also bends them for herself.  When I try to remind her of a rule, she'll pull out the coy smile, "Aren't I cute? How can you possibly discipline such a cute little girl?"  She has also started giving us really goofy faces a la Henry.  I have yet to get a picture of them, but they are pretty cute.

And the other thing I have noticed with her all week long, is that she has been working on a future goal of entering the Nathan's hot dog eating contest.  Whenever I give her food, she requests a cup of water to go with it.  She will dip whatever food I give her into the water before eating it.  It started with her (fake)Cheerios of all things, but has moved into most all foods given.  This is not the neatest method of eating either.

Despite most of the house not feeling great, we bit the bullet and started potty-training Caroline this weekend.  I dread potty-training.  The boys both did really well with it, but after the first three days of "getting it" I spend the next six months always on edge that I need to have her near a bathroom, constantly on guard that she doesn't have an accident, wondering if she'll make it through the night dry.  The end result is absolutely wonderful, but the process is not that much fun.  Of course, that being said, she did great the first day.  The method we use has her go through the house and she throws away any diapers we might have.  This was fairly easy since all the diapers were in one location.  Then she tossed the bag outside.  (I never really throw them away for good until I'm sure it's taken.)  Then we use the phrase, "Tell me when you need to go potty." all day long.  This is supposed to serve as a constant reminder to her since toddlers have short attention spans.  Plus, it is a lot less frustrating to simply say this statement as a reminder than to constantly ask, "Do you have to go potty?" (which requires an answer).  It worked like a charm with Henry (and we were unaware of this method with Josiah).

She "got it" pretty quickly going #1.  She really only had one true accident and it was in the evening after not taking a nap for the day.  We did try to do nap time.  It turned into a 2 hour marathon of her laying in bed for 5 minutes, then jumping up saying, "I have to go potty." Followed by 5 seconds of sitting on her potty (sans action), washing her hands, back to bed for another 5 minutes, back up.  Needless to say, the nap didn't happen.

What!?! Potty Training?!! I didn't sign up for this.

Going #2 seemed to scare her a little.  She kept saying her bum hurt, so in the afternoon I gave her a small amount of Miralax to make sure it'd be easy for her.  Well, a few hours later, it was easy for her.  It easily went in her underwear, on the floor, on my pants, my bare toes, and all over her potty.  She really freaked out at seeing it.  I kind of freaked out, too.  Did I mention I'm not a big fan of potty-training?  Last night I was really praying that today would go better in that department.  (So far no action, if that already isn't too much information.)

Her schedule is totally off, though.  Last night she fell asleep near her normal bedtime, but then greeted us at 1:00 a.m. with wet underwear.  Not a big deal for her first night.  I thought we could clean up the mess and get right back to bed.  She had other plans.  She was up literally every 5 minutes to "go potty."  She had action only one of those times in the two and a half HOURS that she constantly got up.  It was a rough night.

At least we got this ball rolling.  She loves her Hello Kitty underwear, too.  That and her "Frosty" underwear, which is really Olaf from Frozen, but she's never seen it.  So, hopefully this whole potty-training thing will stick!

And these guys have been troopers through it, too.  They've gotten a lot less attention from us and a lot more computer time, so they're probably happier in some ways.  This is Wolverine and Cyclops (if it wasn't obvious).  Although earlier they were Batman and Robin so the clothing matches those characters more.

They got some artwork in as well. I always love it when Josiah draws Marvin the Martian because this is the furrowed brow face he gives us all the time. He is a pro at making this face.  Even the fists out in front come with his face.  It usually comes with a "Grrrr" sound as well.