Need Versus Want

Does anyone have a good way to explain the difference between the words "want" and "need" to a toddler (and a baby too... but I'm willing to give her the benefit of her age and not scream because she doesn't understand). Today seemed to be an all day battle over listening and responding to what I was asking. For example, I want to sleep later than 6:30 a.m., but it's not a need. And today it didn't happen since Abby decided to crawl into my bed, kick for about 30 minutes, and then loudly announce that she needed breakfast (which she consequently did not eat, so it must have been a want, not a need). I, personally, needed coffee. Not wanted... needed.

Then there is my favorite recurring dialogue:

Me: "Abby, do you need to go potty?"
Abby: "No, I don't want to."

Two minutes later she pees her pants (or worse...). We did this at least 3 times today. Apparently when I ask if she needs to go potty what she is hearing is more like "Abby if you want to use the potty that would make mommy happy, but you can also pee all over yourself and the floor since you are insisting on wearing big girl panties... your choice." Ugh!

Apparently "you need to take a nap" is also not translating well. Fortunately "stay in your bed or I will give you a spanking" was heard loud and clear, so eventually Abby did take her nap. Olivia... not so much. She is going to be one crabby baby later this evening.

Getting There...

Abby did a #2 in the bathroom today all by herself. And I want to emphasize the all by herself. She went in without telling me, had her pants off, and couldn't figure out how to get onto the big potty, so she went on the floor. At least she knew what room to use...

Olivia has slept in her crib the last 3 nights and has slept all night. Hooray!!! Now I just need to start sleeping all night again.

Big Girls

My baby is no longer the youngest in the family. We are happy to have a brand new niece, but now Olivia has to be a big girl to make room for the new babies. I don't think she'll mind too much. In fact, in the next few days she'll be starting rice cereal. Wow... time is flying!Here's a cute Olivia smile. Of course, we can only get one kid to smile at a time, so I have another "model pose" picture of Abby for you.
Abby has finally figured out the potty training thing. She is finally using her potty all the time when we are home, but nothing outside home yet. At least it's a good start! And yesterday I finally got both girls to take an extended nap at the same time so that I could get some yard work done. It was great!

We are still working on de-mite-ing our house. Hopefully sometime mid-week next week we can spring our furniture from lock down and get it steamed well to kill anything that's left hanging out (and hopefully make it all smell a lot less like dog). It is going to be a lot of work, but in the end we should have a cleaner, mite-free home.

I "Mite" Go Crazy

After about 10 days or so of Abby having an itchy rash on her underarm and elbow and Steve starting to get one on his hand, we decided yesterday that we had better take Abby in to the doctor's office to see what was going on. It was a very disturbing discovery - scabies, caused by little mites burrowing into her skin. Eewwwww............................

So, 24 hours later we have either closed off or washed everything that was made of a soft surface (clothes, toys, furniture, bedding) and steam cleaned the floors and hard surfaces. It may be overkill, but we don't want Olivia picking up her own infestation. A lot of things that Abby had worn or touched also got ironed, just to be safe. We figured in a week we'd bring the other stuff out, vacuum it or wash it and put it back away since the lifespan of a mite is apparently 3 to 4 days if it doesn't have it's human to feed on (yucky, ick, ick, ick!). So we are having an experiment in living without comfortable furniture. And we wrapped all our mattresses in plastic, since we are pretty certain that Abby picked up her "den" of mites from the hotel bed on our trip to Fargo.

On a positive note Abby is doing great potty training for her number ones. The number twos... not so much. But, at least she is either telling us or going herself when she needs to pee. That is a big improvement.

Earthquakes and Other Random Events

Yep... I really mean earthquakes. We apparently experienced one that had an epicenter about 500 miles away. Neither Steve nor I felt it, but lots of our friends did. I was trying to put Abby down for a nap and she was walking all over on the bed during the earthquake. I think that combined with the fact that we have a cinder block house made it unnoticeable for me. Steve was working on a patient and was concentrating on what he was doing, so he didn't notice it either. But Dave, Steve's co-worker, saw the waves from the earthquake ripple across the belly of his very overweight patient. I can imagine it was a very weird experience (and probably hard not to laugh, which would have been pretty mean).

So... other than being earthquaked, we have been trying so hard to potty train. Abby had one morning where we tried the drink until you have to pee every 15 minutes method. She went 14 times in the morning, then decided that "I can't" (said in her most whiny voice). So... we are back to refusing to sit on the potty chair after her recording breaking morning. Ugh...

Olivia laughed at me for the first time last night when I was blowing raspberries on her belly. It was just a little laugh, but it was pretty adorable. She is still trying hard to flatten out the right side of her head. I can't seem to figure out how to keep her from rolling over onto it in the night. I've tried the sleep positioner, rolling blankets under her right side, putting her to sleep on her side, basically everything I could think of. No luck.

As for Abby, here are her best lines from the week:
"When I grow big like a mom I can drink coffee and diet coke."
"I am going to get my waffle (it is 3 steps away). I will be back in 3 minutes."

And finally... we are all having cabin fever since Summer didn't get the message that it arrived already. We have had rain, rain, and more rain. We took advantage of the nicer (warm but way, way windy) afternoon yesterday and went to the park with Autumn, Little Abby, Mrs. Hood and their foster boy. Abby had a lot of fun with her friends. And it was great to see people since we've been stuck inside and have had snotty nosed kids. I'm hoping their noses are dry soon.

Sleepless in Sault Ste. Marie

Olivia slept 5 hours last night, which was awesome. Unfortunately Abby was up two separate times during that 5 hours. These girls need to communicate better so I can get some sleep.

Abby has decided she wants to wear big girl "underwears" but she has not decided that she needs to use the potty also, so my laundry is increasing exponentially. And my floors are really clean from all the mopping.

Other than those two events our life has been pretty uneventful in the last 24 hours. I'm enjoying that uneventfulness. Now we just need some really nice weather so we can go outdoors and enjoy some fresh air.

Newsflash!

At 1:00 p.m. today Abby finally did her stinky business on her potty chair - and got rewarded with two mini reese's cups. Let's hope she decides the reward is worth letting us know that she needs to go potty. And it would be great if she'd decide to pee on the potty too. Changing diapers is not something I really enjoy doing.

New Year, New Underpants

Abby is starting out the new year by trying out big girl underpants for the first time. So far we've made it one hour without an accident, which is actually about 45 minutes longer than I thought we'd make it. She just plain refused to put a diaper on, so we figured it would be a good time for her to learn that going potty in underpants in not the same as going in a diaper. This way she will either potty train quickly or agree to put her diapers on without a fuss. A win either way in my book right now.

We are ringing in the new year with a little living room clean up and a lot of resting. I think I started out with a cold, but probably now have a great big fun sinus infection. Since I have to see the doctor on Wednesday next week for my regular appointment I am going to try to tough it out, but it's been a rough day. I had been just dealing with nighttime breathing trouble and congestion, but I now have all day issues along with sore teeth, a headache, and overall blah feeling. Oh the joys of pregnancy and the inability to hit up the medicine cabinet.

Abby was very good at the New Year's party we went to last night, although she did fall asleep around 11:30 and missed the ball drop (but then again, so did the rest of us since we were playing a board game). Abby has been getting braver and braver around people and actually played a little with her babysitter Kitty at the party. She also demolished almost an entire red pepper and probably a pound of veggie dip. She sure loves her condiments. And, to make my day a little better, she slept in until 10 a.m. this morning after her late night escapades.

Potty Success

Abby successfully used the potty again today! Once she gets to two or three successful uses a day we will be wearing big girl underpants during the day :-)

Getting Big

This picture was blurry, but it was super cute, so enjoy. Abby used her potty again today and got her great reward - a peanut butter M&M. Those are awfully wonderful candies and she now knows right where they are stashed in the bathroom. She was a little surprised with herself when she started to go in the potty, but I think now that we've had the candy episode we will be moving in the right direction.

Yesterday we had another hilarious Abby event. She ate her cherrios with milk (she only eats cereal with milk on it) and then tried to drink the milk out of the bowl like her daddy does. Needless to say, she made a huge mess but hearing her say "yummy" when she was done drinking the milk was worth all the cleaning we had to do. She is sure ready to be a big girl, much faster than I am ready for it!

Cherries, Cherries, Cherries

Abby is a nut. Yesterday she would only eat the bing cherries. Today she will only eat the rainier cherries. Why the sudden change of heart - don't ask me!

We are trying to potty train more today. So far we made an attempt that resulted in poop on the bathroom floor. Whoops! Hopefully we will have better luck for the rest of the day :-) More updates and pictures later (I hope).

Big Girl Potty

We are going to have a celebration tonight because Abby is such a big girl. After her nap today Abby went pee on the big girl potty! She did a really good job at sitting still on the potty until her business was done. We had a big cheering party after that great event and tonight we are going to have more celebrating. I hope this will be a good start to potty training.

Abby had her 15 month checkup and shots today - ouch! She was 24.5 pounds and 31 inches tall. She was in the 75th percentile for height and weight, but the doctor thought she was in the 100th percentile for smartness (no joke). He was really impressed with her 30+ word vocabulary and her ability to listen and follow directions. Plus she is a very, very good waver and had all the staff smiling after a nice wave.

We had a very quick trip down to Hastings over the weekend and attended the wedding of Steve's dental school friend Adam Mileski. His bride Anne was beautiful and Abby was on her best behavior at the reception (the wedding, not so much). She even made some new friends of her daddy's old classmates.