Emma on naps

Scene: kitchen table, lunch time, sunny day.

Mama: Mama might need a nap today! (while yawning)
Emma: No, no, no, no. (while shaking head and sticking out lower lip)
Mama: I'm listening to my body and it is telling me, go to sleep.
Emma: No, no, no. (pause)
Emma: I am listening to my body and it is saying, Emma wake up!

A few pics

Sleep Mode

So if you have been reading the other posts from today you might be wondering about Sleep Mode (AKA lock mode). It all started when Emma figured out how to open doors by herself (even with child proof locks on them), broke an outside hook lock, was waking up multiple times at night, was not falling asleep in her room or anywhere for many hours at bedtime, was waking us up at all hours of the night and was not going back to sleep after repeated trips back to her bed.

We tried it all to encourage good sleep habits and discourage unwanted sleep habits. Candy, stickers, colorful charts, colorful sleep rules, locking other doors in the hallway, taking toys and privileges away, emptying her dresser, talking about her health, sitting at the top of the stairs and putting her back in bed or in her room. Nothing, yep, nothing worked. So we (actually Steve) turned her door knob inside out. The locking mechanism is now on the outside, effectively locking Emma in her room. We are calling it sleep mode, mostly to make ourselves feel better and to avoid any CPS calls. :) Of course, sleep mode does not help Emma sleep in her bed. No, that would be too easy. She still sleeps on the floor behind her door. (We need Grandma here for this, too. In CA after two nights on the floor, Grandma had Emma sleeping in the window seat bed for the rest of the visit.) But the good news is that Emma now falls asleep much more quickly and last night she stayed asleep until right before wake up time this morning when she had to go potty. (That's the other great bit of news. Although she wears a Pull-up for nighttime sleeping, they are dry in the mornings! Amazing!) Wish us all many nights of good sleep and good sleep habits so that sleep mode will someday soon not really mean lock mode.

PS Yesterday at nap I explained to Emma that the door was going to be in sleep mode when I left so that she would be able to help herself make better sleep choices by having to stay in her room. I told her that sleep mode meant the door would not be able to be opened by her. She thought about that for half a second and then said: Mommy, will the door be locked? She is just too darn smart for her (our) own good. :)

Potty update

Emma is almost 100% potty trained! Yippee! Hooray!

The almost part comes in to play when we cover the poop factor. Pooping in the potty is still scary and hard to time just right. The typical progression for the pooping process is as follows:
1) Emma is pacing with her knees bent and somewhat pained expression on her face.
2) We ask: Emma do you have to go potty?
3) Emma answers: No. while sort of grunting.
4) We head into the bathroom while explaining that bodies really do not like to hold poop in.
5) Emma may or may not sit on the potty and always nothing happens. She may or may not grunt and make "poopy" faces.
6) She then states: I do not have to go anymore.
7) To which we reply: are you sure? Please listen to your body. It will not be comfy to have undies full of poop.
8) repeat steps 1-7 up to 5 times.
9) Successful pooping in the potty most of the time!

Just today she had to poop; well it was clear to us but maybe not to Emma. She disappeared around the corner and was quiet for a bit too long. She came back and said: Mommy, I just had a little poopy on the floor. And sure enough there was a little poop plop right on the carpet next to the couch! Of course nothing else came out in the potty.... until later and then it was only because I put her poop there.

Emma was all tucked in for the night when I heard her crying in her room. Since she cannot get out of her room by herself anymore (starting yesterday at nap time) due to the door being in sleep mode (AKA lock mode) I went up to check on her. Emma was doing a half cry when I peeked in on her and she said: I have to go poopy. When she walked past me I said: It looks like you already went poopy. Her pull up was quite droopy in the back and had a foul odor. :) So we dumped it in the potty and cleaned her up. She didn't get any chocolate covered raisins for that poopy scene.

But Emma is doing great and I am very pleased with her potty skills. More importantly, Emma is very proud of herself. She has become quite good at telling us in public places that she has to go; and then peeing in the big toilets with help. She is also using the potty at preschool after having one accident and two days of wearing pull ups. It is all undies from here! And all of this is due to Grandma. Thank you Grandma! If it weren't for our trip to CA I don't think that Emma would be as successful as she is at using the potty. Grandma just laid it all out on the line and had Emma cruising around in just undies all day- even for naps. There was one accident in her bed while we were there and a couple on the floor, but Emma quickly found out that Grandma knows best- it does feel icky to have pee run down your leg and poop stuck to your bum. I owe my mother-in-law every ounce of gratitude and appreciation for pretty much potty training my daughter. And I would do that all again!

Preschool

Yep, Emma started preschool at the local Montessori school just down the street from us. She started 9/13/10 at 8:30 am. She attends Monday through Thursday from 8:30- 11:30 so we are able to enjoy lunch together every day. The first week she had a couple of mini-meltdowns where she did not want to go to preschool, but they did not last long. She really likes it there! This past week she had a very feeble attempt at not wanting to go. Over breakfast she said in a quiet voice, I don't want to go to preschool. Then less than one minute later she busted out with, I wonder what is for snack today at preschool.

Snack is indeed one of the highlights of her day. Asking about what she ate tends to open the conversation up to other avenues such as what work she did, if she had any lessons, or what her teachers said to her. And of course she is always eager to tell about her friends that cried or did something they were not supposed to do. I think we need to talk about what it means to be a friend. :)

I asked her point blank the other day if she likes going to preschool and if she likes her teacher. An emphatic yes was Emma's response.

Overall I think it is safe to say that we are seeing positive changes in Emma. One day at lunch she was moving her fingers and hand in the Montessori fashion that precludes writing. Emma is great at counting up to ten, not just the words, but counting objects. She still loves to read and actually has been requesting that we read chapter books or much longer books to her. The Velveteen Rabbit is one favorite. The Magic Finger (Roald Dahl) is a humorous book that she likes to listen to. Farmer Boy and On The Banks of Plum Creek (Laura Ingalls Wilder) have become two favorites, too. It just amazes me that she can sit and listen (and absorb) stories without pictures at her age! And finally, Emma is becoming more and more comfortable socializing and interacting with other kids. She is still shy at times, but now she will walk up to kids and tell them things or ask them questions. Like today at a baptismal party, she marched right into a room full of boys playing with Star Wars toys, despite the fact that one boy said that girls were not allowed. :) Not that I think preschool has everything to do with these changes, but I am sure it is doing more good than harm.

As for me, it is hard to say goodbye every morning, and I really miss having Emma's company at the nature center for Wonder Bugs. But, it is easier knowing that she likes preschool and is learning tons. Plus, I do tend to get more done everyday, which will be great for my own schooling. More so than anything, I am just bursting with pride at her accomplishments at her tender age of not quite 3.

But I have to go potty!

I feel much like I did when Emma was a baby and on a sleepless schedule. Except now that she is going on 3 there are certain elements added to the scenario that truly are turning my hair grayer faster and making me feel a wee bit insane.

1) Crankiness from not sleeping well. As an infant the crankiness meant crying. Only crying. No one likes a crying baby, but when you compare it with a screaming, throwing, thrashing, arguing, inconsolable 2.75 year old I am not sure which is worse. The time out chair has been used way more frequently lately than in any other period of the terrible twos.

2) Feeling the urge to use the potty. I read somewhere that potty time should not interfere with sleep although it does tend to because trainees start to use the potty as an excuse for everything. Boy have we seen that! Before nap and bedtime she will say, I have to use the potty. Today, that happened successfully both times! yay! But then at bedtime it turned into a game of how-many-times-can-I-come-out-of-my-room-before-falling-asleep?! The answer is really astronomical. I have taken to sitting out in the hallway, but it turns out she can see me from under the door, and the minute that I get up (because she is quiet for a goodly amount of time) she jumps up, opens the door and makes a beeline for the bathroom. Thankfully tonight I learned my lesson and only went as far as my bedroom so she never had a chance to make it to the bathroom, pull off her diaper and sit on the potty. I also instituted "Emma's Sleep Rules: at bedtime we..." There are 5 rules only and we read them through before I kissed her good night. Perhaps one of the reasons for the ineffectiveness of this evening is due to the poor wording of number one: Stay in bed. Emma does not have a bed and will not sleep on the mattress on the floor. Maybe it should read, " stay in one place on the floor." One of the rules states that going potty will happen only once after we say goodnight. That also didn't stop Emma from telling me many times tonight as I silently herded her back to her room, "But I have to go potty!"

I really want her to learn to use the potty, but she also needs sleep. Did I mention that she has been super cranky this past week? Plus in my reading about potty training I have heard that learning to use the potty during sleep is the hardest part. Since she still hasn't mastered the art of using the potty during the day, I don't really expect her to magically stop peeing at night in her diaper. Plus, even if she dribbles on the potty 3 times before actually falling asleep (as happened last night due to my absence from the near vicinity for a short period of time) she still manages to have a very wet diaper by morning. Have I justified myself yet?

3) Steve is not home this week. That just about covers it.

To not focus entirely on the negative...
Today Emma and I went to visit the preschool again. This time she started peeking in at a girl who was using the potty. The teacher asked Emma if she wanted to see their potties and Emma said yes and got a tour. They have the kind of potty where the smaller seat fits on the toilet- Emma' has her own separate potty chair at home. Then later, the teacher asked Emma if she wanted to use the potty and if she wanted the teacher to help her. Emma said yes and then promptly ran away. From across the room she answered no when asked if she wanted to use the potty. (I know that you are intensely curious as to whether or not Emma wet her special undies or soiled the floor at the preschool. The answer is neither. Emma kept her undies dry and peed a whole gallon once we got home and had lunch. Wow!)

After waking up from her nap this afternoon, Emma sat on the potty but nothing happened. So she put on her special undies and we went to the library and also stopped to pick up our CSA box of veggies. When we got home, she used the potty and her undies were dry! Super cool!

Special undies: two pairs of underwear from Nanie and Papa that are sewed together with half of a very old diaper folded up in between. As Steve would say, you have to love DIY projects.

How adorable

Most would say that I am biased but Emma is stinking adorable. Sort of an oxymoron- is that the right word? Anyway, it isn't just me that has said that recently...

We are going to be starting Emma in preschool in the fall after our CA vacation. (If this were a blog just about me I would now go off about how things have changed and how my little girl is suddenly not so little...but I won't.) We are going to send her to this Montessori preschool that is really close to our house (within biking or walking distance) and has a great little place- plus a wonderful learning environment. So Emma and I went there last week to observe. Well, I observed while Emma jumped right in. Now, it is summer so the class was much smaller than it will be during the school year, but Emma only looked to me a few times for guidance. Otherwise she was content to play with the bean bin, introduce a little girl to her Baby Katie, splash in the tub of water and touch the cards, math manipulatives, and other items in the classroom. It was pretty cool to watch.

Then we went downstairs to have a snack and check out the library. Emma crawled right up in the recliner that is just her size, admired the fish tank, and asked me to read her a book. When she was hungry for snack, we went to the snack area and the teacher explained the process of first washing your hands. Emma went right with her to the bathroom and politely followed her instructions. Back at the snack counter, Emma climbed in the chair and listened to the teacher's comment about what was for snack. That was when I noticed the cute, ceramic plates and mugs, all displayed on these metal racks with hooks. I said, "Oh, look at how cute these are," as I handed them to Emma. When the teacher came over to check on her Emma said, "Oh, look at these plates and mugs. Aren't they so adorable?" To which the teacher replied, "That was adorable." Aww.

What is not so adorable are the early wake ups that keep all of us from sleeping, potty time that keeps Emma from napping or going to bed on time, and the NOs of the terrible twos. Emma seems to like using the potty as an excuse to stall sleep time. No big surprise there, but man is it frustrating. We don't want potty time to be rife with angst but we have to draw the line somewhere! So now she will use the potty (if she asks) before bath, after bath and ONCE after we shut the door and say goodnight. The trouble arose because sometimes she really does need to pee but most of the time she just fools around on the potty. As for the early mornings, we told her that if she wakes up soaking wet or with a poop she can come out of her room to tell us. (Oh, and the biggest break through in the last 2 weeks was that one day after nap, we both (Emma and I) realized that she could open her bedroom door all by herself! That was a momentous occasion that has had multiple repercussions as you can imagine.) So, she has woken up every morning at around 5 am with poop, pee or some other potty emergency. yeah, no one sleeps much after that even if she does return to her room for a bit.

Tonight as I was sitting down to post I thought I heard some thumping noises coming from upstairs. Once I ruled out Steve as the culprit I realized that it must be Emma. Sure enough, there she was looking down at me through the bars of her cage, I mean the bars of the gate at the top of the stairs. When I asked her what was going on, she said that she had to go potty. Are you sure? Yes! So off came her diaper and down she went on the potty. After a few false starts (playing with TP, walking out of the bathroom, almost crying because I moved her books back into her room) she peed in the potty! What a big girl Emma is! Thankfully Steve and I were able to talk her out of the normal potty reward of sunflower seeds. Before you go getting ideas that we are really crazy around here, let me clarify that these are chocolate covered, candy coated sunflower seeds. They are small and she only gets about 7. (A poop in the potty will come with chocolate covered raisins!) The look on Emma's face as she yells down the stairs, "Daddy, I went pee-pee!" is too adorable.

I want to do it!

No, not me. Emma wants to do it! The terrible twos can be fairly terrible it is true. Emma wants to do things her way, by herself, all the time. When we are in a hurry and she still needs to tuck in all her baby dolls or finish preparing food for 3 different stuffed animals, her way is a bit trying.

On the flip side, she can now put her sandals on all by herself. She still may need help with threading the straps through the loop, but that's minor. And most of the time she gets them on the correct feet. She is still working on shoes; those are a bit more tricky.

In the kitchen, Emma will help with anything. She wants to wash dishes, put them away, take them out, stir and mix and of course, eat. Thankfully Nanie and Grandma have given her aprons to keep her clothes clean. Plus she has her own mini- rolling pin. In the picture she was helping to make monkey bread.

She's almost tall enough to turn on the water faucets by herself. If they didn't need to be pulled straight up she would have it. She can, however, reach the water stream without standing on anything. Then she washes her hands all by herself or it could turn into a real water-works.

Just last Friday, one week ago, Emma, Aunt Susan and I were at our Friday morning haunt- Crema Cafe. Susan discovered this place on the east side that is just wonderful. So she treats us for breakfast when we can all go. Anyway, I took Emma into the bathroom to wash her hands, and out of nowhere, completely on her own she says, "E-M-M-A spells Emma." I just about did cartwheels. She could tell I was excited so as we headed out the door, down the hall, through the dining area and out the entrance, she repeated that many times to every person we passed. It was quite the sight.

We got a play structure from Craig's list a couple of months ago. The only way to climb up to the house part is to climb this curved, fake wall type thing that has large and small holes cut out of it for feet and hands to grab on to. She has no fear. I want to do it! That's what we will hear if we get too close to her.

Emma is still a sweetheart even if you include the terribleness of her age and stage. Just before lunch today she asked to snuggle with me. It was so cozy. She curled up as small as she could on my lap, and I made up a story about a girl named Ella and a frog named Mr. Green. She asked me for more while she was eating, but I think I will save Ella and Mr. Green for snuggling sessions.

Horsin' around

Coming up Lanie

Background info: 1) Steve has been out-of-town since Tuesday so Emma and I are on our own. Aunt Susan, as luck would have it, has been working late every night so we don't see her much, either. Consequently, meals are very simple. 2) Emma has been practicing with rhyming and making up nonsense words. She sometimes spends many minutes just saying crazy things that mostly don't make sense. If she didn't have an amazing vocabulary and spend lots of time speaking clearly and logically, I would be worried. 3) Grandma has a goat named Lanie, whom Emma remembers quite fondly. Lanie may have come up in other posts- one time Lanie called Emma on the phone (thanks to creative Aunts KA and Susan). Grandma and Grandpa sent Emma a stuffed animal goat and kid. Emma calls them Lanie.

Story: Tuesday night Emma and I had tortellini with a mushroom, tomato sauce. Emma and I ate our tortellinis and chatted our way through the meal. Then Emma started on one of her silly word binges. I nodded along until she said, "Torte-Lanie!" At that point I was laughing so hard that my eyes watered. That was all the encouragement that Emma needed and she took Torte-Lanie to whole new levels of creative word fun. I have no idea if she was imagining Lanie covered with tortellinis. Or perhaps Lanie was very small and wrapped up like a tortellini. Or maybe it was just the words that worked so well together. Either way you cook it, it was darn funny.

Epilogue: Yesterday morning Emma woke up and said that she wanted steel cut oats with javelinas on them. I obliged, but had to tell her that you couldn't tell the oats from the javelinas when she asked to see them in her bowl. They were mixed in. When she kept insisting I think I mentioned something about it being pretend. Did she really think that I would put javelinas on her oats? What did she think that would look like? Is this something to be worried about?

No running

Steve witnessed a near catastrophe this past weekend when he and Emma were home by themselves. Emma was running around like a little tornado after dinner- running from the family room, through the kitchen area to the back room- from carpet to Pergo to carpet. After clearing the last boundary area Emma tripped on somethig (most likely the edge of the carpet) and went sailing across the floor, landing on her stomach just inches from the edge of the wooden end table. Of course there were tears but no real injuries. Much unlike what would have happened if her little face had smashed into the table. Let's not go there!

So Steve and I decided that we should implement a no-running-in-the-house rule. So we have brought it up to Emma just a few times and for the moment she seems satisfied that running raises the risk of tripping and falling. And she doesn't run in the house.

So the other day when Emma woke up from her nap she didn't want to come downstairs. I had the monitor on so I told her that was fine. I locked the gate and went downstairs to fix dinner. I heard her reading to herself and talking to Sleepy Joe and Baby Doll. Then I heard her voice in stereo saying "Mommy" from the top of the stairs and through the monitor. I walked over to the bottom of the stairs and there she was standing at the top issuing me a directive.
"Mommy, hurry up with dinner so you can come upstairs."
"OK, Emma. Should Mommy go quickly? Should Mommy run, run, run?"
"yes!"
As I began to run away she yelled down the stairs at me, "Mommy, no running in the house!"

Finger-licking good

This morning we had steel cut oats with apple chunks and cinnamon. It was a good switch from the standard steel cut oats and cranberry or blueberry toppings. Emma gobbled up every last bit of the mixture- willingly and without any directives from me. So there I was in the kitchen putting away my dirty bowl and tidying the place up a bit. I look over at Emma who is licking her fingers. She proceeds to tell me, "You can suck your fingers instead of you wash your hands." (That is exactly what she said; I didn't edit the grammatical errors.)

Despite my chuckles, which were no doubt encouraging, we followed standard clean-up procedures with a trip to the sink and some scrubbing. Although, I have to admit, it was much easier to clean her hands this time around!

chocoholic

Emma loves hot cocoa, especially after a fun snow day. We've had quite a few this winter. We get all bundled up and head out to the front yard. Sometimes Emma brings her baby doll and stroller and we walk up and down the sidewalk pushing baby doll through the snow drifts. It is a pretty funny sight I am sure.

Other times we build mini-snowmen because the snow is too dry to make a full-sized snowman. Other times we walk up and down the sidewalk, sitting in the drifts making "bum prints" in our neighbors' front lawns. Sometimes we make snow angels in our front lawn or go tromping through the yard making big foot prints. Or sometimes we crunch snowballs or ice chunks and watch the tiny pieces shoot off to the sides.

After one day of playing outside, we decided to save our hot cocoa drinking until after dinner when Daddy was home. So there we were sitting at the table, watching Emma scoop up the mini-marshmallows and suck up her cocoa.

Daddy asked, "Is it good?"

With a twinkle in her eye Emma replied, "Yes! It's better than milk."

If you pee-peed in the potty

shout hooray! Hooray!
If you had spent the last 2 weeks in our house you would have heard that song probably over a hundred times. It is from this great book that Emma loves, called "Tinkle, Tinkle, Little Tot." All the songs and rhymes have to do with using the potty. Thank goodness there is a limit to the number of times you can renew it from the library.

Anyway, Emma woke up Monday morning of last week and said I want to sit on the potty. I don't think she was successful until that night before bath, but at bath time she said she wanted to go potty and she did! Then, every night before and/or after bath she would go pee pee. For the first few days she would ask for sunflower seeds (her reward) and was so happy and proud to be eating them. (They are chocolate covered, candy coated sunflower seeds.) But by the end of the week she was using her potty without asking for the sunflower seeds. Yay! Also by the end of the week she was asking to use the potty at random times during the day- and having success! Some days she went 3-4 times over the course of a day. It is so exciting.

Now, just like they describe in many books, she hasn't been too keen on using the potty during the day. She seems to like the before/after bath timing. That is just fine with me. I have all the potty books memorized, too. :) Plus, our whole approach has been that Emma is the boss. She doesn't really know that, but we have not pressured her or even asked her about the potty much at all. I think it has been a much more fun process that way, and I am sure that Emma loves being in charge! Don't all 2 year olds?

This morning, Stella (you remember the Cabbage Patch kid without her pants), had some potty time and promptly filled the potty right up with pee pee and poop. I guess Emma doesn't want to be too far ahead of her friends. "Look, Tella peed and pooped in the potty! Good job!" exclaimed the queen of the potty throne.

Apricot Show- the next generation

If you search back through the posts you will discover another Apricot Show posting. Or perhaps you remember what they are all about. But it's always good to have reminders... Before Emma's bath time she runs around all nakey and gives anyone and everyone an apricot show. When she was really little, Steve refered to Emma's bum as apricots and the term of endearment has stuck around since then.

The other day Emma ran to the top of the stairs in her birthday suit and yelled, "Daddy, I have a bum!" She turned around and pressed her apricots to the bars of the gate and giggled like mad. I, of course, was laughing like crazy.
Lately Emma has been asking to see her bum. I guess she is starting to wonder what the fuss is all about. So Steve and I have both lifted her up so she can see her bum in the mirror. If she can't find a mirror (like if she is all wet and soapy in the bath) it is quite humorous watching her try to see her apricots and bum. It's like a dog chasing its tail.

The other day we were all in the kitchen area preparing for dinner. In comes Emma with some dolls, a couple of which were Cabbage Patch Kids. She laid them on her chair and proclaimed, "Apricot Show!" Sure enough, the dolls pants were all pulled down, exposing their apricots, and they were laying face down- probably hiding from their shame. (Cabbies have fairly well defined bums in case you didn't know. In fact there are some Cabbie stories from my youth that I will probably share with Emma someday....)

Again this morning, Emma paraded around with Stella whose pants were missing and whose bum was being shown for anyone to see. "Apricot show!" Giggle, giggle.

Staying warm

It has turned bitterly cold here in Wisconsin so we haven't been outside much these days. Instead we stay inside and watch the world go by. Emma spotted a couple of chickadees at the bird feeder the other day, and we watch for the bunnies to hop out from under the shed and deck.

The other night at dinner we were talking about the cold and how we don't see as many birds during the winter as at other times. Then we named some of the birds that we still see. Emma knows cardinal so she chimed in, too.
"Where are the birdies, Emma? What do they do in the winter?" asked Daddy.
Emma was silent.
"How do the birds stay warm in the winter?" Daddy tried again.
"Think they have a sweatshirt and eat dinner," replied Emma with a grin.

There you have it. Layers and eating are top on the list of ways to stay warm in the winter- whether you have feathers, fur or neither.