Potty Training

First of all let me tell you that this is probably not one that Payton's gonna love me for in 5-10 years, but hopefully in 20 or so she'll forgive me.

I've been dreading potty training, but when the kid takes off her diaper and goes,well it's time. Jason and I have practically been doing rock-paper-scissors the last few days each time she runs into the bathroom, but progress is being made.

This morning I was upstairs trying to find something in the guest room closet while Payton played. I came out of the guest room to find her standing next to the toilet, naked, with poo spread all over the seat. Not cool. I'm thinking, crud, now I have to clean that up. If only! So I start to clean the seat off, and realize it's all over her butt as well. Double crud. I start working on the bum with TP, and decide that I need something stronger so I run to her room and grab the wipes. So I get her in ok condition and grab the Clorox wipes for the seat, while she starts unrolling all of the TP roll in an effort to help in her own twisted way. WARNING, do not try to flush a toilet with wipes and a gob of TP or you will end up running for the plunger, even if there is only little girl poo involved. Now I'm trying to explain to her what a plunger is, and that she is NOT to try this on her own. Of course by this time she'd wining that she needs to potty! Trying to maintain my composure, I tell her to hold on a minute while I grab the diaper that she discarded - SURPRISE -now there poo falling out of it and onto the floor. Fabulous, sure is a good thing that the Clorox wipes are handy. Payton's still whining that she needs to potty so we move on to the next bathroom that actually does have a potty seat in it, and that is when I was finally able to grab a camera to remember the moment by. I was shocked, even after all the mess in the first bathroom, she really did have to go more. I've often thought that she was full of it, but now I'm certain!

Saturday Night

There is no cute photo or video to go along with this post. There are two reasons. First of all, I don't think it would be possible to capture this in either. Secondly, I was just too busy enjoying my baby to bother. Last night I had one of those great moments that I always want to remember but I'm afraid will fade into the ciaos of life. Really, I'm writing this one for Payton, so someday she'll read it and maybe remember when.
Payton is very much into Mommy these days, and maybe it's more of a jealousy thing than anything, but I'll take it. So after I put Parker to bed and curled up on the sofa by myself she just had to be with me. She crawled under my blanket, but apparently that wasn't close enough so she crawled on top of me, giggling like we were on the most exciting roller coaster in the world. That's what I am to her right now, the most exciting ride in the world. We rolled around tickling and playing together without a care in the world. We snuggled and kissed and that all just made us giggle more. She doesn't know that I'm just boring old Mom, instead she thinks I'm cool and she wants to hang out with me! She loves me so completely, and I her. As much as that kid can make me shake with frustration at times, her sweet sweet voice makes me melt, I wish there was a way to capture it all, but there just isn't. She is so stinking wonderful. She loves to snuggle with me and it makes her so happy she can't control the giggles. She sits in my lap and we read all her favorites, she's getting to the point now where she can kind of tell me the story in some of them. She's genuinely hurt when I'm too busy to give her my full attention, and I feel terrible for that. So when I can I must be sure to do it, because I know this isn't gonna last forever and before I blink again she's going to figure out that I'm just Mom, and Saturday nights are not cool when your hanging out at home with mom.

Diaper Change

Parker loves to have her diaper changed. I'm afraid that it's because it's one of the few chances she gets to have our undivided attention and to escape the swing and car seat, but regardless she loves it. She grins and grins, and does her best to talk us into keeping her there all day. She is such a sweet baby and just doesn't understand at all why we have to put her down to do other things.

What Are You Doing?

This is a question that is asked a lot in our house. To Payton, to Parker, to Mommy and to Daddy, from each of us to the other in MANY different tones. Sometimes it's a question, sometimes an exclamation, sometimes an accusation. So here's the conversation that Jason and Payton had a few days ago.

Jason had gone upstairs to work at the desk on the laptop and Payton had followed. As she often does, she climbed up into the chair in front of the desktop computer and started typing away.

Jason: What are you doing? (A genuine question)

Payton: Doin' bisness.

A few minutes later...

Jason: What are you doing?

Payton: Makin' money.

Apparently she really does listen to everything we say to her!

Gymnastics A Hit

Yesterday was the first gymnastics class and it went pretty well. Payton is by far the youngest in the class, and has not completely decided that the instructor is really in charge so she doesn't always do what everyone else is doing. She stood and watched the group do their stretching exercises for a while, but eventually started tagging along with the group, at least most of the time. Ava ended up joining the class as well, so it's almost all of the girls from the hood; Ava, Payton, Kaitlyn, Annika and Jordan, but this was Jordan's last week as she starts kindergarten on Monday. Charly is still too young, but did enjoy open gym after class. It was really funny to watch all of the girls. At one point the whole class, sans Payton, had raced across the room at the instruction of the teacher. Payton was hanging out on the other wall and the whole class had to call her over to join them. She loved that and ran to there side grinning all the way. Here are some photos and a video of one of the exercises they do. You will notice that at the end Payton takes off on one of her little side trips instead of heading to the back of the line.

Somersault

Payton will be starting gymnastics tomorrow with two of her older friends, Annika and Kaitlyn who are both 3. She's been practicing so that she'll be ready to wow the crowds. Hopefully she'll be able to handle the 3&4 year old class even though she's not even 2 1/2 yet. The toddler class would have me tagging along to help keep her on track, but her friends are in the older class so I thought we'd give it a shot. She does fine without me in swimming class, so hopefully this will work out too.

Not to be forgotten

Parker's not the center of funny stories quite yet, but she's just as cute as a button. Although I've never been big on the whole "attachement parenting" theory, apparently she is. She LOVES her mommy dearly and is very happy (read only happy) when she's being held or is in the sling attached to me. I think that yesterday she spent at least 16 hours on me in some capacity, either sleeping next to me, in my arms or in the sling. Here is a photo of her after swimming at Grandma & Grandpa's house on Sunday. She apparently wore herself out in the pool.

Why, why, why???

This post could go two ways. One could be the story I intend for it to be. The other could be telling you all about Payton's favorite word, Why. Why Mommy, why? Why? Why? Why? It's pretty much every fifth word. Even more common than MarMar Jackie, which I have just learned doesn't only refer to Jackie, it also refers to Grandma Orr. Another story.

Last week Aunt Robynn left a few containers of yogurt here that she'd bought for Addy while they were visiting. Payton wanted one for lunch and after she ate her nuggets I sat her down at her table behind the sofa with a spoon and container of yogurt, and I moved on to clean up her mess of toys that had spread out over the living room. After only a minute or so, I realized she wasn't talking to me and thought that strange as we don't EVER go more than 30 seconds without conversation from the little chatterbox. SO, being the great mother that I am, I decided to check on her. This is what I found. She was proudly and enthusiastically giving her hair a yogurt treatment. Beautiful. Only two hours after a shower, now she needed a yogurt bath. Here's where the great mother skills fly out the window. I scream, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!! This photo is seconds later as I realize I might have overreacted a bit and start to see the humor. She's not seeing the humor. From here I continued to scold (as I was laughing my butt off in my head) and grabbed her, lay her on the kitchen counter and washed the hair in the sink. Hopefully no more yogurt treatments until she's a teenager and can wash it herself!