Month 27: March 14 - April 13

These sections are in no particular order, though they are generally somewhat in chronological order.

TEDA ANDREWS’ PLAY GROUP
The month started off with a bang! Madeleine and I spent a day with Teda and her four (4) girls. And Madeleine actually sort of played with Liberty! It was kind of exciting. They usually just play around each other. This time, they interacted. Fun, right?

And Liberty wanted Madeleine to sit by her at lunch.




The BIGGEST excitement of the day, by far, was the trampoline. Madeleine saw the kids jumping on it at Liberty’s birthday party, and she’d talked about it ever since.

WELL. She finally got to get on. We’d meant to just have her with Scarlet, since they are close in age, and Liberty jumps too big for babies. But Liberty wanted to be there, and she did great, jumping gently around the little ones. It took some time for Madeleine to even try. She wanted to, but she was also wary, seeing Scarlet throw herself down on the trampoline, and Liberty hop on her knees and such. My sweet little only child. All those little girls are so “crazy” and “wild” and Madeleine often just watches them interact, kind of with a “they so crazy!” look on her face. LOL.




Anyway. Jumping. Was a hit! She practiced and watched and watched. Practice, watch watch. She ended up having a total blast, and whenever she had to come in, for whatever reason, she just wanted to go back out.

For the week after, she mentioned the trampoline, Liberty and Scarlet on a daily basis. More than once. Always, “want to go there,” “want to jump on the trampoline.” Literally, it’s probably the biggest thing in her life so far. Haha!

Since this fantastic trip, Madeleine has been “practicing” jumping on a trampoline. By that, I mean she jumps on the chair-and-a-half (under certain conditions) and her bed. Over this month, she has grown quite good, and she can jump very well on just the floor now. She keeps asking about going to “Miss Teda’s” house, but things have just kept it from happening. Hopefully, soon!





HOME DEPOT
One Saturday morning, we went to Home Depot to get some materials to make a little bookcase to sit beside my new desk. While there, Matt directed me to a back corner where there an activity for young children. He thought we could watch, so I wheeled our cart (the big orange car cart) to the back.

They’d set up some pallets with stacks of plywood on them at a good table height. There were kids and parents hammering, gluing, making things out of wood. There was a woman manning a table, and she encouraged Madeleine and I to make something. I didn’t think we could, really, since Madeleine is still so young—don’t quite trust her with a hammer yet!—but she said I could do most of the work.

Sounded good, so we chose the little flower plant holder thing, then found an empty stack of plywood. I set Madeleine on top and opened the little package. It was pretty simple, four nails and some glue, but she really enjoyed our time. I let her do some “hammering” but she only kind of tapped the nails. The glue, however, was a hit. She was a big help with the glue!





PICTURES
The Saturday before we started potty training (so March 24), Madeleine and I got to do an Easter/2-years-old photo session with our favorite photographer! It was a perfect spring morning, the azaleas were in bloom, and Madeleine was in a great mood—a different story from the Valentine’s pics!

Here are some of the best:





FOOD
I’ve noticed this month that Madeleine is a little more interested in new foods. Nothing crazy, mind you, but instead of just ignoring new things, she kind of looks at it, touches it, even sometimes puts them in her mouth. One night, for example, she ate TWO green beans. Not just one. She actually “liked” it enough to eat two. But that was all, even though she had at least 5 more on her plate. Still!

She’s taken a liking to soy cheese, which is great. More snack and meal options, yay! Nothing too exciting, you might think—it’s just cheese, and who doesn’t like cheese?—but this is the little girl who won’t really try new things. Even things I KNOW she would like. Or, at least, things she SHOULD like. Like hash brown casserole. Who wouldn’t like that!?!? So, cheese is a big WIN here.

What else? Let’s see… oh, she loves croutons, but we never just give her straight croutons. I make the Publix Caesar salad kits for dinner about once a week, and she not only eats the croutons, but she eats the lettuce. Seriously! If she wants more croutons, she’s got to take more lettuce. And she eats it! Granted, it’s got yummy, tangy dressing on it, but again, this is new and it is a BIG DEAL. :)

LIBRARY
I can’t remember exactly why, but I got the idea to take Madeleine to the library. I think I mentioned it in last month’s post? Anyway, we went for the first time near the end of March. She had a blast. She wanted to pull all the books off the shelves, spend two seconds looking at it, and move on to the next one. I told her one book at a time, and I have to stick right by her to make sure the book goes back where it’s supposed to go.

It does make it hard to really look, but at the same time, she doesn’t have a clue what to look for in a book, and it’s all trial and error anyway, so we just grab some books!

They also have some puzzles out on a table, and Madeleine enjoyed looking at each one and playing with a piece or two.

We got home with 5 books: “Olivia and the Missing Toy,” [by Ian Falconer] “Lunch,” “Mama Cat Has Three Kittens,” [both by] “Brown Bear, Brown Bear,” [by Eric Carle] and another book I cannot remember (boo). Madeleine really liked the Olivia book, and the two books by {} were also favorites.

While we were there, I saw a sign for “Toddler time.” We took Madeleine to baby book time there when she was smaller but just kind of forgot about it, or didn’t think about it. So I decided to bring her back the next week, on Tuesday at 10am, for Toddler Time.

Well, that was the week before Easter, and I don’t know if that’s why they didn’t have Toddler Time, but they didn’t. So we got some new books and returned the old ones. This set of books, also 5, included: “Olivia Goes to Venice” [Ian Falconer], “Hello World” [Michael Foreman], “No More Diapers for Ducky” [Bernette Ford] (since we’re potty training, more on that further down), “Ellie’s Breakfast” [Sarah Garland], and “Where is the Green Sheep?” [Mem Fox]. Olivia was again a hit, especially the scene where the tower falls down, but the winner of the bunch was “Green Sheep.” I loved this book and so did she! And Matt enjoyed it as well.

The Olivia books are interesting. They seem kind of random in a way, and there’s definitely content that, to me, seems aimed for the parent reading than the child. For example, in “Olivia Saves the Circus,” it starts by saying that Olivia makes pancakes before school. Then it says “it’s a big help to her mother,” but shows a pile of dirty dishes by the sink. I’m not sure what toddler or small child is going to get the irony. And I don’t see the appeal of the message without the irony to a toddler or small child either. So, whatever. I did enjoy seeing LOTS of scenes of Venice in that book.

But the Green Sheep. LOVE.

I think my favorite thing about this library trip was coming home and sitting with Madeleine on the big chair and reading every single new book we borrowed. With her nestled close beside me.

SLEEP
It wouldn’t be a post without SOME mention of sleep, right? This month saw a lot of great sleep but she has started taking a long time to fall asleep at bedtime again. Not sure what to do about it. The last time, we fixed it by giving her bath before dinner instead of after because bathtime is too stimulating.

We tried a lot of things, but nothing really helped—except the days when she didn’t nap at all, though that only happened in the first half of the month. So, we will continue to trouble shoot and see if we can’t help her fall asleep quicker. Sometimes, there’s just nothing to be done.

CRYING?
Madeleine has started crying when she doesn’t like what we say. I can’t really tell if it’s like a tantrum, because she doesn’t throw herself on the floor, kick, scream, etc. I’ve also wondered if she thinks we’re upset with her because maybe we (or I) use a different tone of voice? No idea.

POTTY TRAINING: ROUND 2!
Yup, here we go again. Basically, we decided that when we ran out of diapers, we’d do potty training again. So as the day approached (Monday, March 26), I told Madeleine what was coming. My plan was to do the same method as before, the 3-day training method. That’s what we started with. Here’s a quick recap of the method:

* She goes in underwear after breakfast.
* I say to her frequently, “Let me know if you have to go potty.”
* We do frequent “dry checks” and praise when dry.
* Naps and night time are supposed to be trained at the same time. (Tried with naps, not with night. We weren’t going to start out the process by setting her up to fail with bad nights of sleep.)

But after less than two days, I wanted to quit again! It wasn’t good. I was stressed, she was stressed, accidents were increasing instead of decreasing, we had many of the same symptoms we had when we quit the first time, she was anxious… just not good all around. I thought she must not be ready still, but I wasn’t sure.

Last time we potty trained, there were lots of accidents at first and then they slowed, but we still had them on a regular basis. However, I was able to help her “learn” to go pee on the potty, so that whenever she sat down, she could control it. We did not have that skill learned with poop, as there were so many fewer opportunities to practice.

Since potty training, round 1, she has really learned to hold her poop. Which she does now, again. There aren’t poop accidents during the day, but when I tried napping her in underwear, that’s when she pooped.

There were some things she’d learned and retained from the first round. For example, she might start to have an accident, but then stop, and we’d rush her to the potty to finish. That didn’t happen much the first time.

Because of some of the obvious improvements since the first attempt, I wasn’t convinced she wasn’t quite ready. So I did a little research into another method I’d seen. After discussing with Matt, we decided to try it. We did diapers (or something? Can’t remember?) for the rest of day 2, and then on Day 3 of PT:R2, we switched to the new method. Here’s what that involved:

I set a timer for anywhere from 15-30 minutes. If, when the timer went off, she was dry, she got a treat. Then we’d go and sit on the potty. If she went, she got another treat. If no, we would just get up, set the timer, and repeat the whole process.

Because she knew HOW to pee, this worked really well! And she really liked the treats.

Still, I was super discouraged because there continued to be accidents. I remember that Friday was particularly rough for me (we started on Monday 3/26 with the 3-day method, and on Wednesday 3/28 switched to the timer/treat method). I was exhausted, frustrated with poop and naps, and just about ready to throw in the towel for another month or so.

But then, right before dinner, Madeleine told us she had to go potty, so we went, and she went! It was fabulous. After that, we had dinner, bath, and bed, so we ended the day on a really good note. I needed that to press on another day.

That seemed to be a turning point in the process. I think she maybe had one start-then-stop accident on Saturday, but then she went a whole week with no accidents! And I started extending the time on the timer by 5 minutes a day. (30 minutes between potty trips on Friday, 35 minutes Saturday, 40 minutes Sunday, etc.) If ever she didn’t go potty, I’d set the timer for 15 minutes, and she usually went then.

It got to where she’d look at me when the timer went off with a happy glint in her eyes. I’d ask if she was dry, she’d say “I want to get a treat.” We used M&Ms, and she loved picking out which color she wanted. Her preferences were blue, green and brown. Orange was last (sorry, Mimi!). After the treat, she sat on the potty, went pee pee, and got another treat.

I was thrilled that on Sunday (4/1), at worship, she didn’t have an accident. I brought extra underwear, wipes, and a pull-up, just in case. But when I took her the first time, she wouldn’t go on the big potty, so I just put her in the pull-up. At the break, Matt went home and got her little potty. I took her when he returned, and she hadn’t gone in the pull-up! I was thrilled! And she sat right on the potty and went there!! Yay, Big Girl!

I didn’t bring the timer with me, but I took her regularly. No accidents, not even through lunch.

Now, a word about naps. I mentioned above that they are frustrating. AND THEY ARE. I get Madeleine all ready for her nap. PJs, sleep sack, dark room, white noise, medicine—whatever. We read a book, then rock and sing. I put her down when it’s time, get the monitor and sit down to get some work done. And what happens? Within 5 minutes, she’s standing up, going poo-poo. And this was going on before potty training! If she didn’t get some time by herself in the morning, she wouldn’t poop until naptime. It’s one reason I tried hard to get IP in every morning—to avoid this!

Because she did so well pooping on her own during her room time, I had a stroke of genius to try giving her room time with her potty in the room, thinking she might just go in the potty and get over the fear. So the first Saturday of training (March 31, to be exact), I got it all set up. We took the rug out, put the potty on a towel on the floor, got her toys and books all ready, got the video monitor set up so I could see her bed and the potty, and took off her pants and underwear. I told her to call me if she went potty. She played for about 40 minutes, and I was about to get her out, thinking we’d try again the next day. Well, just as I was about to get up, I looked and she had JUST pooped … on her bed. LOL. But then she hopped down to the potty and sat down. On the monitor, I could see a little tiny piece of poop in the potty.

I went into her room with a big grin on my face. She was on the potty again, and she looked devastated. I praised her like crazy. She then started to cry and pointed to the poop on her bed. I hadn’t even looked at it, not wanting her to think I was displeased. I just praised her for going on the potty, showed it to her, tried to make her feel good about what she’d done. Eventually, the tears stopped. I cleaned up the mess, and then we called Dada to share the good news. I tried to make a REALLY BIG DEAL out of the poop in the potty and completely ignored the poop on the bed. LOL. Eventually, she felt a lot better, and even seemed happy about going in the potty.

I was thrilled and sure of poop training in the near future.

We tried the whole thing again the next day, Sunday morning, and it was a mess. She didn’t want to be in her room, she didn’t want the potty in the room—she wanted nothing to do with any of it.

So much for that idea!

I continued to give her room time because she likes it and it is good for her. Over the weeks, she would fuss when she had to go poo, but she never managed to do it. She tried many times. I’d see her sit on the potty over and over, but without actually pooping. But at least she was willing to try, right?

At some point during that accident-free week, I took her out somewhere. Oh, maybe the library (the second trip). She did great, no accidents! I started to get more adventurous and figured out a good system. We bring the potty, plus some wipes, and of course extra underwear and clothes and rags for cleaning up messes. But so far, we haven’t had to use them! No accidents during this month while on an outing, and she always goes in her little potty. WOO-HOO! THAT is different than the last time.

After that whole week with no accidents, there were two on April 9, but then again, a stretch of days without one. The timer was up to an hour, and either she’d tell me she had to go, or we’d have to do something that required her to sit on the potty (like go outside, or get in the car or the bath, or it was naptime, etc.)

But I still despaired on some days. And I don’t know what to expect in terms of her telling me she has to go vs. the timer. It is getting to where she doesn’t ask for a treat anymore—which is nice—but also there’s no more motivation.

When I started with the timer/treat method, I was unsure of how the timer would actually train her to go potty when she needed to go. How would that connection be made? I’m still not really sure. On the day or two that I’ve forgotten the timer or tried to go without it, she typically has an accident. And she still doesn’t seem to really be bothered by it! That is my biggest frustration.

Something occurred to me though. She is only 2 years old. I think because she is so verbal and articulate, because she CAN express herself very well in certain circumstances, I expect too much from her. Here’s an example of a connection that to me seems super easy for her to grasp but she has clearly not gotten it yet. When we did PT:R1, we bought a toy shopping cart for her as a reward for going poop on the potty X number of times. Poop in potty, ball in jar. When the jar is full, she would get the cart. I asked her numerous times to go through this reasoning, and she couldn’t get it. In PT:R2, we used the cart and the jar again. She still doesn’t “get” it. She cannot tell me the path from the potty to getting the cart.

Another example is the timer. I always told her: timer, then treat if dry, then potty, then treat if you go. But every time the timer went off, I’d say, “What does that mean?” And she wouldn’t quite be able to tell me. She just knew a treat was involved somehow.

Mimi tells me that potty training is a process, that she WILL learn this way, even if she isn’t telling us yet that she has to go every time. I sure hope so. I mean, I KNOW she will eventually be trained, I just worried about her making the right connections. But again, she is still very young. And her brain is busy with things other than potty training connections and learning to go poo.

WORDS & PHRASES
Sounds like a Jeopardy category, doesn’t it?

Madeleine can basically whatever she wants. Her vocabulary is awesome. Still, there are some things that amuse us.

Last month (26), I mentioned that she has started calling us mommy and daddy. Well, this month, we were in for a whole new treat. “Dada” got an update to “ba-dada.” Matt thinks it’s an extension of Nana/Banana. But she’ll say, “what you doing, ba-dada?” We just crack up!

Not to be left out, “mama” has been reworked somewhat into “mommock.” Don’t ask, I have no idea. “What you doing, mommock?” It’s ridiculous and hilarious.

Putting letters on the ends of words that don’t belong there was a theme the second half of this month. “Blue,” as in the blue M&M/potty-training treats, became “bluegg.” I guess it’s more words that end in vowel sounds.

She also kind of makes up words, though I didn’t write any down. Probably because I don’t understand exactly what she’s saying. But we feel it’s very advanced. :)

You probably don’t remember when I wrote about Madeleine correcting Mimi about the word “eat.” It was some months ago. Well, this month, she corrected both Matt and I!

~ I was in the kitchen, she was sitting at the table in her high chair. I let Layla in from outside, and Layla plopped on the dining room floor. Madeleine said something I didn’t understand. I asked her what she said, and she repeated herself. Still didn’t hear her right, so I said, “Layla has a cloth?” And Madeleine said, very slowly so I could hear her right, “Cooling off.”

~ This is a retelling from Matt; I hope I get it all! He and Madeleine were hanging out one day, and she was talking to him about something.

She said, “Blah, blah, blah, p’car.”
Matt said, “Fuzzle?”
She said it again and Matt repeated, "p'car???"
So Madeleine slowly said, looking at him right in the face, "Pink. Car."

Is she hilarious, or what??

ARLIN & PAMELA
The preacher in Lyon and his wife have been in the US since September 2011 while he did a sabbatical at Oklahoma Christian University. They came to Atlanta for a too-brief weekend. They didn’t stay with us, but we got to spend a long Saturday with them.

It was fantastic, start to finish. Madeleine took to both of them almost instantly, asking them to read to her, which they both did, multiple books!

We started the morning with a trip to Piedmont Park. Pamela was on the hunt for some azalea bushes, and it seemed the best place to try. We didn’t get to see any of the flowering bushes, but we had a wonderful time. We saw ducks, geese, turtles and fish in the lake, dogs running around, even a cat on a leash! There were two fantastic playgrounds, including one with HUGE swings. Matt in particular enjoyed that swing! I mean, it had chains that had to be 14 feet long or more. He even jumped off and sliced his hand on some mulch when he landed.

At one of the playgrounds, I took Madeleine to the bathroom and put her on her potty (which we’d stowed in the basket of her stroller), and she went! This outing wasn’t even 2 weeks after we started potty training, and she didn’t have a single accident!

After the park, we drove to Douceur de France for lunch. I asked Pamela what the name meant, and she tried to convey the general idea. It’s something like “the pride of” or “the talk of” or “the glory of” or something similar. But there wasn’t a direct word-for-word translation.

The food was amazing, of course. One awesome thing was learning that the bread at the restaurant was just like REAL bread in France. I’d tried a baguette there once before and thought it was perfect, like we had in France, but I didn’t quite trust my taste buds. Arlin told us that there are actually two different kinds of wheat for making bread, the kind grown here and the kind grown there. They agreed that Douceur somehow was able to obtain the French (or European, not really clear on that) kind for their food. YAY!

Before leaving, we all selected a little treat to take home and eat while Madeleine napped. It was a late nap, and Pamela commented that Madeleine was doing really well, not getting cranky or fussy. I was pretty happy myself! You never know with little ones.

Madeleine slept, we visited with Arlin and Pamela, and then the Hansens came over to meet them with the possibility of giving them some support from our church. They didn’t stay too long, and then we got to eat our treats and visit with Arlin and Pamela for maybe half an hour more before they had to leave. It was a WONDERFUL day. They are amazing people.

And they enjoyed Madeleine, and she really enjoyed them!




MISC “LITTLE” THINGS
~ At rock & sing time before naps, I usually let Madeleine select a few songs. I ask her what she wants me to sing about, and she will answer with … literally anything. Usually her request has to do with something that’s happened that day. Another popular request is about dada—he ate a banana, he had water, he’s not here, he IS here…. This month saw a new theme pop in: people at work. Of course, she wanted to hear about dada at work, but in a surprising twist, two other people were featured quite regularly: Papa Pete and Uncle Wes. And mostly, she wanted to hear about them at work. WHO KNOWS? :D

~ We made Madeleine’s first Easter basket this year. I think we put too much in. Some stickers and books, bunny ears, bubbles, plastic eggs, a bunny we had stored that someone had given us, and some play dough and markers that we already had. We didn’t spend a whole lot, but it was full. Oh well, she won’t remember next year if her basket is less bountiful.



~ Madeleine seems to have grasped the concept of “yesterday.” Matt reported this, I put it in my notes, but I haven’t actually seen it myself. When I asked him for the story, he couldn’t remember either! I am sure it was still true during this month however. LOL.

~ One Saturday in March, Madeleine FINALLY got to see a kite in action. She’d seen numerous kites in books but really had no concept of what it was. We went to a playground, and a boy and his mother were flying a kite. Madeleine and Matt stood and watched them for awhile.

~ On April 11, Madeleine opened her door for the first time. It was during her room time, and she was so proud of herself that I couldn’t be upset. I just hope this doesn’t start happening a lot—like in the morning, when she wakes up before us!

~ On April 13, the craziest thing as a parent happened. I was doing some filing in the playroom. Madeleine was in the Rumpus Room with Layla. I can’t remember why, but I headed to the kitchen to check on her. Upon rounding the corner, I saw that the side door was open. I said, “Oh, she’s outside.” And rushed out, not even able to THINK about what was going on. FORTUNATELY, she was just standing in the neighbor’s driveway (which is made up of rocks—she is fond of rocks), watching a garbage truck drive down the street. I took a deep breath and called her in, managing (somehow) not to sound panicked or freaked or whatever. The thing is, the door had been locked! So you bet we’ll be getting something to go high, high up where little hands can’t reach, in order to secure the doors SHUT.

TRIP TO THE PLAYGROUND










Yes, this was slightly terrifying!
For me, anyway!

ROSWELL
We took a little trip to the Roswell Mill again. I was pretty tired, so Matt and Madeleine climbed up the mountain to go walking. I stayed by the bridge, but I really missed them, so I “manned up”—slowly, slowly—and found them. Yay!





Madeleine got to get her feet wet in the last pic! Cold river water!


A passing couple offered to take our picture. I was only SLIGHTLY worried he’d run off with the camera!

PICTURES THAT ARE TOO CUTE FOR A SLIDESHOW!!


Playing with her buddies!


Playing in the water and dirt and leaves!


Laying in the sun with friends—this is a hit for her right now.


Sweet swinging!


Fun with shredded paper from the Easter basket!


Family picture, Easter morning
(Doesn’t she look like a LITTLE GIRL??)


With the buddies!