I'm A Lucky Girl!

Ella's been going to the potty pretty frequently now. I have to say she's primarily doing it on her own. We started offering the potty after each diaper change and now she's starting to ask to go potty before she actually wets her diaper. She also had her first poop in the potty Friday night. I have to say that was our highlight. Furthermore, the celebration was cut short by the mere noxious smell of it all. Thank God for the individual in human history who decided we should "go" into a bowl of water. As a friend once told me, potty training is NOT for the faint of heart. True that...nor for the weak of stomach.

Sorry if that got too graphic for you.

On a happy, cute, odorless note...after a recent positive potty experience, after the good jobs, high fives, and a rather loud send off we gave the pee pee as it swirled away down the big potty, Ella ran naked and excited back to her room and jumped up into her bed. Standing naked as a jay bird on her bed she exclaimed, "I'm a lucky girl!" The kid cracks me up.

Piggy, Go Potty!

I heard those words and wasn't sure what to expect might be happening in the next room. Then I sneaked around the corner to find Ella teaching her "piggy" Zoot to go to the potty. I got the camera in time to catch Blue Bunny giving it a try.

Happy Valens Day!!

Nearing a candy coma...

"Happy Valens Day!" Translation...Happy Valentine's Day. Ella was very cute about the holiday for sweethearts and she was equally excited about her party at school. She was not overly happy about writing her name (with Mommy's assistance) on eight little cards for her classmates. But we spread it out over a few days and eventually she signed all of them in big fat sloppy red marker; the sweetest notes I ever saw.

I made "healthy cupcakes". I can't believe as the mother of one who is only two, I'm already making food for her "classroom". At any rate, my dear childless (at least at this point) friend, Rosemary gave me that Deceptively Delicious cookbook, penned by none other than the well nannied Mrs. Seinfeld, and so I thought I'd give it a try since I have lots of time to steam veggies and such. Really I was a little guilted into it after a note came home during the holidays encouraging parents to bring "healthy" snacks for classroom parties. What has happened to all the fun in the world?

At any rate, you really couldn't taste the pureed yellow squash secretly added to the cake batter and the cupcakes themselvers were quite tasty, the carrot pureed icing left a lot to be desired. Next go round I'll just dust them with powdered sugar, breaking all the rules of course. Or maybe I'll just buy a bag of pretzels, low sodium ones.

A Pee Pee For Your Thoughts

Okay, I'm not going to post any more pictures of the potty full of yellow urine but I am going to share good news, and you can use your imagination for the rest. Ella pee peed three times in the Potty on Saturday and again today (Monday). After diaper changes and before bath time she's been asking to go potty and every time she's asked she has actually tinkled in her little potty. She's very proud of herself and gets very excited about putting the pee inside the big potty, flushing it and saying, "bye, bye pee pee!!" She also likes to remind me, "Ella's go potty like a big girl!"

Once today when she was sitting on her little pot and I was sitting on the edge of the tub (as I was instructed to do) I caught her studying her safari shower curtain. She turned the tables and asked, "Mommy, where's the turtle?" I pointed to the turtle, after pretending to struggle a bit, and she said, "Good job, Mommy, you're very smart!" And when I started to argue by saying, "no you're very smart," she said, "no Mommy, you're very smart!"

Who knew a two year old could be such a benefit to one's self esteem?