Wow! I can’t believe it. Gabi is 5 months old! I am finally feeling like my life is coming back into some order. Gabi has been sleeping through the night for a few weeks now, so I am better rested, so I’m ready to get back into establishing a consistent schedule. I felt so tired, and discombobulated for the first few months that I feel like I kind of missed her tiny stage. I have said this before, but I’ll say it again. When she was so small, and not eating well, I was urging her to “grow, grow, grow.” Now that she is big and strong and eating well, I’m telling her to “stop growing, stop growing.” I’m telling you, if I come back here next month and Gabi has the nerve to be 6 months old, I’m gonna be mad!
I sing in a Barbershop Chorus (the Pride of Kentucky Chorus). We had rehearsal Wednesday night. Gabi always comes with me to rehearsal, and Jeff stays with Rachel. This past rehearsal Gabi was more talkative than she has ever been. She has been vocalizing for several weeks, but not very much. Well, Wednesday night she was singing up a storm at rehearsal. There was some debate about which part she was singing (her notes were not 100% accurate), but her choreography was right on. Anyway, she has kept up her singing/talking since then. Now both Rachel and Gabi will challenge us to keep them quiet in Church.
So Gabi’s accomplishments at this point include talking/singing, rolling over (although it’s not consistent), smiling (a lot), eating cereal, sleeping through the night, trying to sit up, not crying in her bath anymore, and overall cuteness. There’s probably other stuff, but I can’t think of it right now.
Rachel is always an adventure. After she woke up from her nap this afternoon I asked her if she wanted to use the potty chair. She didn’t say no, so I figured that meant yes. So she sat, and sat, and sat, and sat, and sat, and sat, and sat. Get the idea? Nothing happened, but she seemed content to sit on her potty, so I let her. I didn’t have anything else to do. Then I heard Gabi wake up from her nap. Rachel had been holding my phone. It has a recording of my chorus singing “Happy Birthday” to her on it, and she likes listening to it over and over. So I left her in the bathroom while I went to get Gabi. After changing Gabi’s diaper I returned to the bathroom, and there sat Rachel on her potty chair, happy as can be, but without my phone. Oh no! The damage a bathroom can do to a phone is kind of big, but I checked the toilet, and it wasn’t there, so I was relieved about that, but I couldn’t find it. So I went downstairs to my computer to see who was online that I could have call my phone so I could find it. There were 4 or 5 people, so I sent them all a quick “Are you there?” note. Then went back to Rachel. After a few minutes my sister-in-law Trish responded. I asked her to call my phone, which she did, and I found my phone in the laundry hamper.
During all this running up and down between the bathroom and the computer, Rachel was busy. At one point I came into the bathroom and Rachel had gotten the detachable portion of the potty chair on the big toilet where it was latched on (correctly), but she seemed to want it off. So I took it off. When I came back again it was back on, although not latched in place, but there was a poopie on the floor. (It was of the easy to clean up variety, thankfully.) So I latched the potty to the big toilet again and had Rachel sit on it. She immediately pee-peed, and even got out a little bit more poop. If I hadn’t been up and down with the whole phone thing, I would have hopefully been there and been able to help her, and she might have successfully had her entire potty duty end up in the big toilet. So I counted it as a success and gave her a sticker anyway.
I’m really nervous about potty training Rachel. I don’t know why. She is clearly ready. I guess I’m the one who is not ready yet. Nevertheless, we went to Wal Mart in the afternoon and bought Rachel some big girl panties. She kept calling them a shirt, but whatever, she’ll catch on. Anyway, she wanted to hold them in the shopping cart, in the car, and carry them into the house. Fine with me. I was unloading the other purchases, and taking care of Gabi, and by the time I turned my attention back to Rachel, I couldn’t find the panties anywhere. I thought they were somewhere in our room, where Rachel had been playing, but I couldn’t find them. Jeff came home and I started fixing dinner, and there were her panties, next to the freezer downstairs. So now I have all the tools in place: a willing and apparently ready Rachel, a potty chair, a potty poster with stickers, underpanties, and me too nervous to do anything about it!
Wish me luck!
Good luck with the potty training! I can't give you any more advice, because unfortunately, every child approaches it differently, so I wish you the best.
Can you please post the website for the online video streaming and the date so we can see your chorus perform?
Thanks!
Yes, good luck potty training. Faline gave me a suggestion that worked pretty well for Joey. She suggested I give him one mini-M&M each time he did anything on his own that was in the direction of using the potty. He was older, about 3 1/2, but he was trained in a week. He backtracked some, but re-instituting the M&M's got him back on track. Justin watch the whole process and was very motivated soon after that. He took a little longer, but he started younger. He sure wanted those M&M's though. If he pooped or peed in the big potty, I gave him 2 M&M's. That really motivated him. In general, it was a positive experience.
I too would like to get streaming video of the performances in Tennessee. Wish I could have followed through and been there with you.