Potty talk

And the potty training has begun!!!


Officially, 2 years and 7 months of diapers and we are on track to a world of "ummy-wear"!  I picked Evey up from daycare last Friday and she told me she had to go potty.  When we got home, we sat down and went through the regular charade of singing, reading and turning the water on.  This time... something happened!  It's potty time.


Evey and I  had to put together a potty chart for her stickers and so  rummaged through mommy's scrapbooking supplies until we found letters "e - v - e- y" and the perfect patterned paper to glue together.  The first sticker was a bunny sticker (shh... it's left over from Easter).  Throughout the week, we've gathered 10 stickers and just tonight had to make Chart #2 to hold sticker 11.


What's in store for us now?  We're going shopping for a new book since she filled up her first 10 stickers!


I've heard this from others... but didn't fully believe them until now: "She'll start potty training when she's ready."  I must have an independent and stubborn little girl! :)

Books and Bedtime Routines

Evelyn is constantly talking, observing, memorizing and learning new things!  One of her new favorite books is "Chicka Chicka, Boom, Boom" and we read it almost nightly.  However, she skips through all of the pages of the story so we can get to "letters" where there's the alphabet at the end!  She sings along with me and repeats all of the letters - being very careful to pronounce the letters correctly.  We were reading the letters tonight and instead of me saying the letters first and her repeating, I pointed to the letters and she was able to say 60% of the alphabet!!  I couldn't believe it!

I'm sure I've mentioned before that Evelyn goes to bed really easily.  We are very lucky parents!

1. We pick out pajamas (jama-jamas), 
2. read three books, 
3. say goodnight to ducky (a wall hanging in her room), 
4. "good night lights, 1-2-3" and turn out the lights.
5. Evey snuggles in to my shoulder for a few minutes before laying down in bed
6. I now have to say goodnight to Dolly Mary, Dolly Sinead, Giraffe, Doggy Keya, Elephant and Bear... then tuck each of them in... then give kisses to everyone!
7. Tonight, Evelyn went through the entire routine with her stuffed animals/dolls - rocked them, kissed them, tucked them all in...

Halloween 2.0, Volume 1

Before I forget all the cute little stories, I better write them down.  This is the first year we took Evelyn trick-or-treating.  While we did a dry run the weekend before at Como Zoo Boo, she wasn't actually interested in carrying her trick-or-treat bag around herself.  At least we found out how comfortable she was with wearing her lady bug costume!  




Halloween 2.0:
Halloween weekend started off with a costume parade and party at my work on Friday.  In retrospect, I realize that this was a little overwhelming for Evelyn - to be whisked away from daycare after barely waking from a nap and brought to mommy's work to be faced with 20 kids of various ages - dressed as princesses, monkeys, dragons, cowboys and pirates.  


It started innocently enough when she ran to the front of the line and started off the parade around the office - keeping pace with a little boy dressed as a Lion (ROWR).  We managed to get halfway around the office in good spirits!  However, at the moment we reached the halfway point,  when we rounded the corner and saw thirty people (including all of the Principals/Partners) lined up...watching the parade... cameras ready... that she lost it.  She wanted to be picked up in an immense hurry and apparently we weren't quick enough.  She resorted to flopping down on the ground, crying big alligator tears while I pretty much wanted to crawl under a desk and hide at that point.  


We eventually made it beyond the line-up of people/cameras/paparazzi and managed to open up a packet of m&m's as a last ditch effort to restore the balance.  These proved to be an invaluable resource for us... she perked right up and started running around and chit chattering away... she was talking a mile a minute and suddenly wanted more... more... more.  Oh no, a little candy fiend?  We switched to animal crackers and grapes after that.  


She warmed up to the other kids and the rest of the party went swell.  She played really well with Grant, dressed as Puff the Magic Dragon, a little boy who is 3 weeks older.  


On second though, there was one last "incident" before the party ended. A little girl was sucking on a piece of candy (airheads, I think) and Evey decided this looked pretty tasty and enticing.  Evey proceeded to take said candy right out of the girl's mouth and hands and tried to eat it herself.  This wasn't cool and the little girl stared in shock that this just happened.  I tried to intervene and go through the "we ask, we trade, we share... etc" lesson.  No fussing from Evelyn, she was okay giving the airhead back and then picked up a handful of animal crackers to "share" with this same little girl.  However, by this point, the little girl was wary of Evelyn's intentions and kept backing up saying "no, thank you".  What does Evelyn do in response?  THROWS the animal crackers at the little girl.  Oh me, oh my... we have to teach her something about her red-headed temper.

Curiousity, Compassion... and Cell phones

Our little explorer is really cruising now!  She can stand up on her own and will even twist and turn without losing balance!  We broke down and bought her a walking toy now rather than wait for her birthday and Christmas.  It's the same one as at Grandma and grandpa's hosue and she loves moving around with it!  Little Miss Independent will stand up, squat down, walk around, climb on and play with her new toy... however, she recently caught me trying to steady the toy as she was using it to help her stand. She stopped what she was doing, reached over to my hand and pushed it away.   I can even hear her little voice saying "Mam" as in "just let me do it myself".

At ECFE today, I was the parent volunteer to help out in the play room during parent time.  It was really cool to see all the kids interacting - both independently, together and as parallel play.  Evey did great while I was in the room and wasn't jealous when I was playing or helping the other kids.  One of the little girls 'A' started to cry after her mom left and Evey searched around for A.  She crawled over to A and touched her on the cheek as if to say "it's okay, you'll be okay... I feel for you."  Then throughout the hour she would periodically check up on A and make sure everything was okay.  When we were getting ready to leave and singing the goodbye songs, Evey again crawled over to A to say hi.  What a big heart she has!!

After eating her entire dinner tonight, I gave Evey one of her new Maple Teething Bisquit cookies.  She had a grand time chomping and sucking away at it and was having fun chattering away to me.  Then she took her bisquit (it's a 1"x2 1/2" rectangular cookie) and placed it up to her ear and squaked loudly "ehh! grmmpa, Ahh!".  She was calling Grandpa on her "cell phone"! Then she would look at it, play around with it, put it back to her ear and chatter away.  WOW! 

We tried real milk tonight and she didn't mind the different flavor!  I think we will start to take her off the formula over the next month - we want to check with her pediatrician to make sure we are supplementing her vitamins and nutrition correctly with her meals.  Yeah for being almost done with formula!