I was determined to have our usual weekend of wine, comfort foods, and family hugs. We managed to move, sanitize, and re-organize everything on the Saturday, but it took all friggin' day. The cutest part of our day was being mooned by Miss C-Jaz's plumber crack (on account of her pants being too big) as she cleaned the coffee table and stored her books.
Sorry, Miss C-Jaz! I had to. You're too cute!
At the end of our Saturday ordeal, we had amazing 'Indisk' food: butter chicken, lamb biryani, and garlic naan bread. Miss C-Jaz had fun moving, but we were glad to have the move over and done with so we could move on with our lives and have our chill Sunday.
One morning last week, she just said to me, "Mommy, I wanna go poo on my Dora potty on the big potty." I thought, okay, we'll try it again. So she sat there, talked a bit, asked me to hold her hand, and she just did it! She was so happy because she knew J and I would be so happy for her. She was clapping her hands saying, "Yayeee! Nana did it. When Daddy come home...I tell him that I pooed in the big potty, and he say, 'Yay! Nana did it.'" Since then, she's been taking care of business. The only time she wears Easy Ups is for going out and for bed time. So far, knock on wood, she's been just fine during nap time with no Easy Ups. (And in the middle of me writing...as I sat on the couch with Miss C-Jaz napping beside me...I felt my right butt cheek go warm and almost comforting...until I realised...SHE PEED IN HER SLEEP! Oh, well. I grabbed some kitchen towels, soaked up the puddle, woke her up, then stripped the Ikea couch cushions, and was cleaned up in no time. She was so cute..."Sorry, Mommy. I didn't mean to." 'Course it's not her fault, and I told her so. I reminded her for next time that she should pee before naptime.)
My proud little pooper!
It's been a great week for 'Operation Re-Newed Potty Poop-N-Pee', and today's been a great day compared to all of the days last week combined. She's had a few more tantrums than usual, more whining, and more late naps last week, which also meant little or no time for me to write, and any late nights I had I used to research our Disneyland Paris trip. (I think I might want to be a travel agent...) We did have a good adventure at Rum för Barn last Tuesday, which will be for another blog, but today was a lot of fun learning.
I hope it lasts for a while. We seem to do things in phases like semesters. When we first came here we did our daily walks by the water. Then when the rain and darkness came we had short day trips to the grocery store or into the city for Swedish classes. Now, the temperature is starting to drop and being outside makes it difficult with on-and-off rain and chilly breezes. We shall try to venture out to Rum for Barn, but today was fun and felt like home-school preschool.
We started "Today's letter is...", where we write out a big letter, its baby letter, and the sound it makes. Then, we draw and write words that start with that letter. Check out Miss C-Jaz below forming the big letter A with her arms.
After we were writing (see her scribbles above behind her head), we decorated with stickers, she 'spelled' out words with her foam letters, she played with her tea set, cooking steak and chicken, and she built homes with her block thing-ies all the while listening to her little pre-programmed music player. The house on the left, below, is supposedly for J and I, while the house on the right is for Miss C-Jaz and Bo.
After lunch with lots of fruit, she tried to go down for a nap at her usual 'two two-teen', but that didn't happen and she wanted something else to do, and it hit me...playdough. I did a quick search online and found the easiest recipe for playdough WITHOUT cream of tartar which so many recipes had. We were just fine without it.
The Easiest Playdough Recipe WITHOUT Cream of Tartar...
1.5 cups of flour plus 1 to 3 tblsp when neading
1/8 cup of salt
1/2 cup of water
7 ml or 1/2 tblsp of oil
Mix well, adding a little more flour if sticky or a little more water if tough.
"And das it!"
By the time we finished playing with the Cream of Tartar-less Playdough, it was almost 4:30 pm. She did eventually fall asleep, but the pee incident woke her an hour later. It was a really great day. She was so cooperative, eager, and pleasant. She had a few minor moments, but I'm just hoping for more days like today. It reminded me of a day teaching with minimal or no issues in classroom management.
Miss C-Jaz is growing so fast, and I worry about her in every way, whether she gets enough of everything. We were reading my 'Your Toddler Month by Month'. She was looking at the pictures while I read aloud. The important thing at her age is natural learning, doing different activities that help her motor skills and verbal skills, with minimal feelings of anxiety. I'll explore this in a later blog, but today Miss C-Jaz was engrossed in activities that fed her imagination, creativity, and comprehension with minimal anxiety. A+ for today!
Miss C-Jaz is growing so fast, and I worry about her in every way, whether she gets enough of everything. We were reading my 'Your Toddler Month by Month'. She was looking at the pictures while I read aloud. The important thing at her age is natural learning, doing different activities that help her motor skills and verbal skills, with minimal feelings of anxiety. I'll explore this in a later blog, but today Miss C-Jaz was engrossed in activities that fed her imagination, creativity, and comprehension with minimal anxiety. A+ for today!
