I don't have to contemplate my grey hair...

I know where it is coming from...

One hour on a Saturday morning, and I know!

The morning started very calm and peaceful with more watching of the Olympics, and a later breakfast at home... A perfect Saturday!

Then all hell broke loose!
The Toddler all of a sudden complained about her stomach, very low-down. Something was hurting her quite badly, or so it seemed judging by the screaming, and the whirling and curling around, AND THE CRYING!

It started just when we were beginning to get ready for the day and her Tiny Tumbles' classes...

We could not see any mark on her stomach, but we put on some cream.

We took off her panties just in case it might have irritated her.

We carried her upstairs to lie down in her bed.

We were trying by some questioning to get to the root of the problem. You know all those questions that immediately swirl through your brain when your child is in pain:

- Did she hurt herself at school/at home?
- Did she fall?
- Did somebody else hurt her?
- Did she hurt her vagina? (Especially just after reading Melinda's concerns this week about her greatest fear!)
- Does she have worms?
- Is she naughty?
- Is she trying to delay getting dressed and going to the gymnastics?

There were even some "exchanges" going on between the "elders" about the correct handling of the situation... (In terms of "Is she naughty?" or "Is there something really wrong?")

A final blood-curdling scream gave the answer! With the bed and the Toddler getting soaked in pee!

She forgot to go to the toilet! (We did not remind her!)

After a bath she announced she was feeling just fine , and we were just a little bit late for her gymnastics lesson on Saturday...


I do not have to wonder at all where my grey is coming from!

Nobody as surprised as the surprised mother

I wanted to write the blog post last night, but we had a sleep fail night, and the off switch did not work, except for both parents! (Nothing new!)
We staggered out of our room after 11 last night, with washing that still needed to be hanged, and the lights to be switched off in the rest of the house... (No wonder I don't get time to read!)

The Toddler was 35 months yesterday. 3 is a month away.
And.... Ta-da-ta-dum!-ta-dum! is nappy free.
She announced last Thursday evening that she did not want to have a nappy on at bed-time, and that was it!

The status update on Friday
about the first nappy-free night at MomAgain@40 FB page

She is wearing panties 24-7, and she tells us when she wants to go...

Nobody is as surprised as me!
Something just clicked!

I was beginning to worry about the deadline of next year and the new school...She is supposed to be potty trained by then.

It just shows you! All in their own time...

"I can do it!"

It dawned on us last night! We don't need to buy those expensive pull-ups or Pampers or Huggies... anymore!
*Happy dance!*

Related posts:
Up close with the toilet
Potty training - report back
Wordless Wednesday #69 - More uses for the potty

Up close with the toilet

Another title: Potty training adventures

There is nothing like potty training to get you up close and personal with a toilet...

A toddler has intense fascination with a toilet, and there is nothing more exhilarating than flushing it. (Woot-woot! squeamish parents!)

I am of the opinion that you should spend as less time as possible on a toilet, and get finished with your business... Well, quickly! There is the minor fact of germs and multiplying...

That’s why I still don’t understand why people would want to read while there. It’s the germs multiplying, people! Take into account that if the previous occupant flushed the toilet while the seat was not closed... More germs multiplying all around... 

(Not to mention those magazines stacked up in toilets... Germ palaces?)

(Maybe it’s just me, or I have watched far too much of The Doctors!)

But potty training brings the toilet very close:
-    The toddler touches the seat with both hands while getting on. (I can do this myself, Mom!)
-    She sits with both hands on the seat.
-    She even checks inside the bowl...
-    She comments about anything landing in the bowl!
-    She lingers while sitting there...
-    She wants to flush immediately! (Please close that seat, Love!)

Potty training is teaching me a few things as well! Patience is definitely one of them!

Luckily we can wash our hands afterwards. Also something the toddler enjoys immensely...
And the promise of washing hands also helps to move things along considerably!

We have been very lucky the last two weeks! Fingers crossed! (Don’t tell Murphy...)
It seems the Toddler will be potty trained by next year. Err.. Toilet Trained!

Sick with a sick toddler

Being sick, with a sick toddler, is not a recipe for bed rest when staying at home. 

No, it makes you wish that you have gone to work very early in the morning already!

But the thought of another night of both of us taking turns to cough, and Hubby having to run around between two beds is not something you are looking forward to in a great way! 

Getting the Toddler dressed, trying to get her to eat something before we go, and finally giving up with a banana packed in the bag... Just to get out of the door!

And all you wanted to do was stay in bed in a foetal position for the rest of the day...

Forget it when you have a toddler!

Taking us both to the doctor, getting the medicines at the pharmacy, and coming back home takes a huge chunk out of the morning...

Then it is trying to get her to eat something again, before trying to get her to drink the medicines...

And using the nebuliser on both of us...

And coping with a toddler-in-potty-training as well! She wants to wear panties (or nothing), and we are running to the toilet constantly!

And getting her to stop washing her hands are also something of an exercise in extreme patience!

Exhaustion!

On another note: The Toddler behaved very well at the doctor, and did not cry once. It was a first!

She sat on the bed while the doctor checked her over and the doctor even got a smile and a chuckle!

This little girl has passed another milestone!

Fingers crossed for a better night tonight! We had two terrible nights of coughing in a row now!

Potty training - report back

Potty training has started at the day care this month for the toddler. All that has changed for us is that we have to send pull-ups to the creche. (Costly exercise!)

They say that she participate very well, and sometimes there is a hit!
We are celebrating a pee and a poop when we hear about it, or when she gets it right at home! (Can you believe it? ;-) )

I asked the Toddler to show me the little toilets at day care the other day. She know what she is supposed to be doing there, especially with the toilet paper... If you do not stop her, she would roll down the whole toilet roll. Without anything to show for it...

I can see that it has not yet clicked in her mind! She is not there yet! And it's all fine...
Take your time, my girl!

You are growing up way too quickly!

Some Toddler stuff

Latest news in Toddlerville:

I love listening to the Toddler with her verbal skills at the moment.

She uses full sentences, such as "Mamma, het jy my bottel saamgebring?" (Mom, did you bring my bottle?)
I just want to eat her up when she uses the right words in the right context!
"By wie gaan ons kuier vandag?" (Who are we going to visit today?) - Yesterday morning preparing for the first day of the week
"Wat is verkeerd?" (What is wrong?)
"Voel jy sleg, Mamma?" (Do you feel sick, Mom?) - While I am panting exercising on the stationary bike.


Yesterday morning went off real smooth because she could take cupcakes to day care. They sell it for some extra money, and luckily Hubby got some in the shops the previous night. Not the same as the previous time when I had to make a plan with muffins when no cupcakes were left (Sunday night cupcake conundrum)...

The Toddler made her first stick figures on paper over the weekend. I definitely want to keep the evidence!



Potty training is going very slow, but over the weekend she announced that she was going on her own to the toilet, and proceeded to climb onto the big toilet. We were not allowed to help her...
Slowly, but surely! ( I hope!)

She had a nightmare about Bambi the other night, and woke up crying about Bambi's mother. We can only read the first part of Bambi, before it comes to the part in the story where the mother gets shot... She pages back in the book to the beginning when we read her the story now!
I think we can put the book away for a while! (I find it upsetting myself!)

What an adventure... enjoying the milestones with our Little O!

Please, please don't grow up so quickly!

But, we love seeing you reach another milestone!

(The constant ambivalent feelings... ;-) )

Words you use daily with children in your life

Words that you do not think you would use that much! Words that would make us previously uncomfortable, now rolls with the easiest of ease from our tongues.

Words such as breast, or booby, or boob.

Poop, and pooh and pee.

Bum and bums.

Vagina! We even mention penis in our house a lot more, even though we are girls. We sometimes have to say: “You are a girl, because you have a vagina. Dad is a boy and he has a penis.”

Having children bring you back to the most basics of basics.
It is not supposed to be shied away from at all...
It is good to be back to basics!

Photo: Mieka with her five panties that I showed her today. She immediately pulled on all five, over the leotard she wanted to be dressed in for the day, and over her nappy.
(Potty training not happening very soon here, it seems...)

What words have you been using more often than you thought?

Wordless Wednesday #69 - More uses for the potty

As seen last night while catching the last of our summer rays...

25 months

The Toddler is 25 months! Yesterday! We are really enjoying the person she is becoming, especially with her new vocabulary!
This week she asked: "Where's my Granddad?" She is used to seeing him every day when he is doing his rounds at the day care. When they told her he has gone home already she said: "NO!", and was very upset.
She can make a very skew mouth when things are not going her way. (See photo.)
Tantrums are the REAL DEAL nowadays! (This too will pass! This too will pass!)
She made her first NO 2 in the potty this week. It is only parents that get excited about something like this! (Sorry!)
25 months is a great age!

Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom - let your email find you!

The toddler is 20 months

The months are rolling by with the toddler! 20 months!

It is such a fun age:

She understands us. Every little task we give her, she is able to do! I love that we are able to get some communication going.

But sometimes she gives us a big IGNORE. When we ask her to tidy up, or put back something, she will continue as if not hearing us... (We know she knows that we know, but she is still able to play her little game!)

She is getting difficult! I think they call it the “Terrible Two’s” or just plain “Tantrums”. Missy wants to do what Missy wants to do, and she gets stomping feet upset when she don’t get it her way.

I think we are beginning to see the beginning of potty “readiness”. She sometimes tells us there is a “pooh”, or she starts pulling down her pants. She has an extreme fascination with the toilet, but do not want to be put on it at this stage. She has a small potty that she spends hours playing with. I see that we are going to have to exercise extreme PATIENCE with regards the potty training thing, and that you cannot force her to do anything she is not ready for...

At day care she has developed a very strong bond with Cindy, one of the assistants, and cry after her when she moves out of her sight. She even sits on the chair in front of the door when Cindy goes to the toilet. She has been crying more and more mornings when I leave her at day care. It leaves me with a feeling of uneasiness for the rest of the day. But it helps to know that she has someone specific to go to...

It is getting more and more difficult to go shopping with the toddler. Dries took her with him today when he went to shop at our local Look & Listen (music shop). He phoned the teen and me to tell us that he is bringing her to us in the mall. He was not able to complete his shopping expedition with her wanting to get out of the stroller, and complaining... It takes two of us to keep an eye on her and to shop! Going to a restaurant also takes creative skills to keep her occupied. I have to take extra titbits of food and crayons and toys to keep her seated at the table! Which does not last for very long...

We love our little girl more and more! We marvel at the wonderful unique being in our lives. She takes up all our time and our ENERGY, but we love being with her! We know it is not going to last...

Related posts:
The toddler at 19 months
The toddler is a year and a half
17 months - toddler update

Small milestones: Potty training 1st and stairs

The toddler and potty training. No, we haven’t started with potty training for the 15-month old, but we caught her doing the right thing!


We have noticed that she regularly shivers and let’s go when we take off her nappy just before we put her into the bath. She loves sitting on the potty with her clothes on. Last night we put her directly on the potty after we took off the nappy, and she made her first pee. We applauded her, but I not sure that she made the link?

The things you get excited about when you are parents... A pee in a pot makes us go “Whoop de whoop!” (Smile)

Mieka also loves nowadays to sit on the first step of the stairs. She goes round in circles before she does a back-up with her bum to land it on the step. Sometimes she misses, and does it again. She then sits smugly on the step for a few seconds before she tries it again.

It progressed yesterday to her beginning to climb the steps. I know; it is very late for her to only now start climbing the stairs on her own. I have heard of babies who climb/crawl the stairs since they were six months old. She is a bit more reserved with regards to trying new things. Which I think is a bit of a blessing for us – we don’t have to check her the whole time. (She loves climbing the stairs when we hold her hands for month now, and she climbs it with one foot on one step, barely making the height of a step with her short legs.)

She started to climb by going up on her knees, and enjoyed it tremendously when we clapped hands. She was going up, and clapping hands for herself on each step. No we will have to close the security gate at the bottom of the stairs as well... (We have a gate at the top of the stairs already.)

Cute, very cute!