Winter Wonderland

Our beautiful, freezing, building that we're considering leaving for the suburbs. I love living in the city and we're only considering heading for the hills for one reason: spanish immersion. There is only one school in the whole hampton roads area that offers any language immersion and it is in a small school district in Virginia Beach. Even it is a lottery right now to get in, but hopefully by the time Nadia went to school there there would be more staff and resources for the program. We figure if we're going to take advantage of this buyer's market, we might as well position ourselves for Nadia's school years so we don't have to worry about moving for a while. The things we do for this child. We can always come back to the city when she's older, it will always be here. I just want to give her the same opportunities I had and I think most of school is a giant waste of time, so why not become fluent in a new language in order to offset that waste?

Oh, and the neighborhood has tons of walking trails, wooded areas, large sidewalks and roads on which a person could do long runs without having to loop a 2 block radius 17 times like I currently do. So that's a plus. And it's within walking distance to a farmer's market, something that is only within driving-through-the-ghetto-distance here. And jet noise. Lots and lots of F-18 sightings. God bless America, indeed.

Adventures in Potty Land

Warning: Toddler bodily functions discussed below. So. Here we are. Possibly the most stressful event for parents and children of pre-school age. Potty training. I knew from the beginning that I really wanted N trained around 2, if not before. Why? I was trained at 20 months (as were most kids back then, no?) and, though there is nothing wrong with kids training later, I knew I couldn't be the mother of a 4 year old that was still in diapers. Ok, 20 months to 4 years is a big leap, I know, but we've all heard the stories. We've all met the kids. At about 16 months Nadia started showing interest in what was to be done on toilets, even going so far as to be put on them occasionally. Nothing happened but I was glad she was at least curious. When we got back to VA (18 months), we got her a potty and she had a couple of successes, though it was clear they were by accident. So we dropped it and she lost interest. Dang. I thought maybe I had missed the window (yes, I believe there are windows for achieving peaceful transitions from baby to toddler) and had visions of future battles with a 3-4 year old will. My sister-in-law sent me the how-to-train-your-kid to potty train in one day book and I bought the doll in the hopes that this method would work. At the time N was about 20 months. I know some people have had success with the laissez-faire attitude but I also know many people that haven't, and furthermore, I am no laissez-faire kind of person. So I read the book and, at the time, felt that Nadia would not understand the concept of a 'potty party' and that it was geared toward older children. Dang again. I had already given her Emma, the doll. How was I going to get her to train this early without a book to guide me? Fortunately I had a couple of friends who told me of their 2 year old successes. I knew that I was going to have to dedicate a weekend/week to do this, that we would have to commit to not going anywhere until it was done. Weekends sped by, things came up, but finally I committed to the 16th of January. I had no real plan other than showing her a weird Elmo potty video and reading her an Ernie book on the subject and letting her run around the house pantless, in her new underwear. I was prepared for accidents and our mostly-hardwood house made it a perfect stage for such events. One of my friends had carpet when she did it and she told me she just put plastic down everywhere for a couple of days. I had been talking about underwear with her for a few weeks and I knew she was excited about being like mama so that morning we had no trouble getting her to put a pair on. She spent the rest of the day peeing on the floor until I got the idea, knowing she was now old enough to understand incentive, of promising a sticker (our potty came with stickers and certificates) if she got the pee in the potty. At that point she started talking about how she didn't want the pee to go on the floor and, finally, about an hour before bedtime, she successfully announced "pee pee!" and made it to the potty in time. It's a good thing too because by this point J and I were exhausted and weren't sure this was going to work. Somehow she/we came up with the idea of having a pizza party once her certificate of 70 stickers was filled, figuring at a rate of one pee per day, we would have months before it happened.

Well, one pee turned into several pees, which turned into over 10 a day and that pizza party was on Friday, just a week after we started! (See top picture of the few bites she took out of the homemade pizza. The next calendar is only for poop, at the end of which she gets a new book.) She hasn't had an accident in a week and rarely is her nap diaper even wet. (She wears diapers for nap and nighttime - she still wakes up an hour earlier than I in the morning and I'm not ready to give that up.) Poop, on the other hand, took a bit longer, to the point where I was almost willing to have her go down the road of so many other toddlers that ask for diapers when they need to go number 2. But I stuck with it and helped her get through the first few awkward and slightly painful days, (potty training often causes temporary constipation) and she is now comfortable with that as well. So yeah, now at just under 23 months, she's potty trained. And it's wonderful. I have to plan my day/outings a little differently, and it is tiring running her to the bathroom at stores, but she is getting better at holding it and I think overall our life is easier. I. Am. So. Relieved. (For the record, I'm not taking full credit for this. I know N is an exceptionally easy-going kid and adapts quickly to new situations.) Though I was a little annoyed at the Y today when I discovered that they won't help the kids go to the bathroom. I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised since this Y doesn't change diapers (I know others do), but come. on. Ok, yes, she can pull her pants down (though I'm usually impatient so I do it for her), but wiping? Especially if she goes poop? I think I was quite old when my mom stopped helping me with that. So they came and got me in the middle of my class. What's going to happen this Saturday during my massage? And no, we're not doing the pullups thing. I don't see any difference between them and diapers and I was told by my friends who trained their kids at 2 that they can easily derail the whole process.

Coming soon: To Buy or Not to Buy? (A house, that is.)

A Wild Week of Words

New words this week:

Potty, diaper (diapoh), floor (ie. I don't want to pee on it- can you tell we're potty training?), ready, already, underneath, find it, 'Chelle (Rachelle, her doll), self (ie. I can do bad all by myself), actual letter names instead of words they begin, bafroom, eight, and nine. (She counts to four correctly and then sometimes jumps to 8 and then 9.) I'm sure there are more but I just wanted to jot down a few before I forgot.

Also improving is her ability to form Polish-esque sentences, ie. they have no articles.

Weird Virginia

Here are three things I find weird about Virginian drivers/cars:

1. No one signals. This is not so much weird as it is highly annoying and dangerous.

2. There are a lot of personalized license plates... like, A LOT. Some are really dumb, like displaying love for a football team, and then others are quite cryptic. Which probably causes a lot of accidents.

3. More and more people are memorializing loved ones on their rear windows. Weird.

Ok, I guess I should go get the Moop up from her "nap," a.k.a. my lunch break. I forgot to move the wipes so I'm sure there will be a mountain of them on her pillow. Sigh.

Pictures and Plans

So happy new year everyone. Our eve was quiet to begin with and then sobered by the news that a Canadian solder friend of mine was killed in an IED attack in Afghanistan the day before.

Our Christmas was busy and a bit stressful. Both J and N were sick with chest/head colds and N got an obscene amount of presents despite desperate pleas to the in-laws to restrain themselves in the purchasing department. This in sharp contrast to our 3, quiet and somewhat solitary, Christmases in Sicily which were actually quite nice.

N loves bubble baths. And running away. From everything and everyone. Including things she wants to do. She especially loves running away during the transition from pjs to clothes or vice versa so, ie., naked, and in stores and sidewalks/streets. Not so safe these last two. "Run, 'way!" she shrieks and is off.......

22 months and playing with her new "tea thup."

In the plan department, my 'plan' (note: not resolution), is to run 1000 miles this year, which, at my current rate, is quite doable. This, of course, only being possible should I remain pregnant and major injury-free. Not to equate the two conditions. I would obviously be able to run more pregnant than injured, but as to how much, that would depend on a lot of things. And no, I'm not yet pregnant, and no, we're not absolutely sure this is a possibility. I'm just sayin'.

We're also looking for another place to live but again, I'm just sayin'.