Operation Potty: Part 2

Day 4:
All morning she was in underwear and pants.
0 accidents!
0 pees in the potty.
0 poos in the potty.
Several attempts on the potty but with no success.
How do I teach her that she doesn't have to squeeze until her face turns purple while trying to make the pee come out?!?

I think she's holding out for the diaper at nap time.
Wet diaper after nap time.

0 pees in the potty.
1 pee in pants just before bed.
0 poos in or out of the potty.

Cassidy was resistant to the idea of sitting on the potty all day.

Day 5:
Underwear and pants all day (with the exception of nap time - wet diaper after nap).
3 pees in the pants.
1 poop in the pants.
1 successful pee on the potty! Cassidy initiated sitting on the potty for this one! I think she's cutting it off before she's done in her excitement to stand up to look because she had an accident shortly after this with a whole lot of pee.

Cassidy was more open to the idea of sitting on the potty today. We still had a lot of "no"s when we asked her to sit on the potty, but some of the time she went willingly.

Operation Potty...In progress?

With a week off for the holidays, I decided to give toilet training a shot.

We introduced the potty chairs months ago, allowing Cassidy to sit on them whenever she wanted, either with or without diaper, and encouraged her whenever she was interested. We only had a couple of times where she actually deposited anything into them, and celebrated excessively each time.

So on tuesday morning, we stripped her down to only a shirt and told her that her peepee and poopoo belonged in the potty. We started out just grand!!

Day 1:

After beginning to pee on the floor several times and cutting herself off mid stream, Cassidy finally ran to the potty chair and made all of her pee into the potty!

We continued with NO accidents and 3 successful pees in the potty for the day!

Day 2:

The success continued ...

We started the day with a successful poop right in the potty chair completely initiated by Cassidy.

2 successful pees in the potty.

1 accident while eating dinner.

1 accident during time out for hitting mommy.

Day 3 (that's today):

Our success completely disintegrated.

Cassidy had absolutely zero interest in even sitting on the potty. Not only is she uninterested, she's defiant and refuses to sit on the potty.

She peed on the floor 3 times, completely emptying her bladder before saying, "Oh NO!" and then running to the potty tracking pee footprints all the way there, only to sit down for about 2 seconds and then pop back up again.

We managed to put 1/2 of her poop in the potty only because I scooped her up mid-squeeze and rushed her there with her whining "NO" the entire way and then holding her on the potty chair while she continued pushing the poop out and whining "NO".

We followed this up with her peeing on the floor during her time-out for biting daddy.

Hmmmph.

I expected this on day 1 or 2, but not after two REALLY successful days! I also expected accidents, but not outright defiance.

So what do I do???? Do we continue with this tomorrow, or decide she's not "ready" and call it quits? Do I chalk it up to a bad day or do we wait until she's in a more cooperative phase? Part of my frustration is that I go back to work on Monday, and daycare doesn't potty train. She needs to be well on her way before leaving diapers, and if she has 2 or 3 accidents in a day, she goes back into diapers. When I asked the daycare workers what they recommend a month or two ago, their only words of wisdom were, "she'll do it when she's ready."

What does that mean!?!

This is learned skill isn't it? Not something she's inately born with and suddenly will reach the milestone whenever she's "ready"? If I was at home with her, I'd just work on it continuously. But I've read that the worst thing you can do is start and stop and do it half way.

So can we do diapers at daycare and just work on it evenings and weekends?

Will that make it harder?

So all of my mommy friends out there .... If you have any words of wisdom on what worked for you, or what you would do, I'd greatly appreciate it! I'm so frustrated, not with Cassidy, but because I don't know how to handle this!

Send me an email. Send me a text. Leave a comment on here.

Please.

Cassidy goes to the Insectarium

We purchased an Audubon membership for the year, which gives us unlimited trips to the zoo and the aquarium, and discount tickets to the Insectarium.

We visited the insectarium where Jeff and Cassidy ate some bugs (I did not).

Cassidy's favorite part..... the fish.

I guess we should have gone to the aquarium!

26 Months -- Weekends at City Park

Thanksgiving Weekend

With Cassidy acting pretty much her normal self on Saturday and Sunday after her surgery, we enjoyed the nice weather at City Park with Nana and Papa!

Surgery Update

Cassidy's surgery went well. Our little girl was hilarious after they gave her the sedative before taking her off to surgery. We told her they were going to give her some "goofy juice" to make her feel funny. I asked how long it would take to work and the nurse said about 10 minutes. Within 2 minutes of the nurse leaving the room, Cassidy started roaring like a lion and thought it was the funniest thing ever.... Jeff and I thought it pretty funny too. I wish I had it on video for all of you to see, but we didn't have the camera with us.

The procedure went well, and the toughest part of the day was when Cassidy woke up post surgery but was still to groggy to console. She was PISSED and ripped the pulse monitor and oxygen monitor off, and made a really good attempt at the IV before we had to pin her arms to her side. Once we got her to drink some juice and got the IV out, she fell asleep in Daddy's arms, slept the whole way home and for a couple hours after that. When she woke up, she ate some ice cream and started jumping up and down.

(No, we didn't lock her in the crate post surgery...

she decided it was great fun to hang out in there with Bilbo who was taking a nap on Baxter's blanket.)

She alternated between sleepy, codeine Cassidy and her normal self for the rest of the day. By Saturday morning, she was her normal self and was off the codeine by Sunday morning.

Unfortunately, she came down with another cold the following week. At her post surgery appointment 3 weeks later, her ears looked great, but she had developed bronchitis again. So we are back to NEB treatments with pulmicort and xopenex 2X each day.

Medical Update: Ear infection Season Has Returned.

It's that time of year again. Cassidy's had two ear infections in the last 5 weeks, or one nasty one that just didn't quit, resulting in 5 days of azithromycin, 10 days of another antibiotic which I can't remember the name of, and then 2 antibiotic shots 24 hours apart.

We started seeing a new pediatrician after the first round of antibiotics. We really liked our doctor, but just couldn't take the wait time anymore. We were consistently waiting around 1 hour past our appointment time for our well visits... completely ridiculous. Anyway, our new doctor is amazing. It's a night and day difference compared to the other doctor. He is so much more thorough, and has actually made me question the care she was given previously.

Our new doc said that it's time for us to see an ENT for Cassidy's ears. Our appointment was Monday and it went well. We practiced opening our mouth for the doctor before we went, and after the doctors assistant said "There! That was easy!" following looking in her first ear, Cassidy continued to proclaim, "EASY!" each time they did something to her. She whined and fussed a bit when they dug the wax out of her ears to get a good look inside, but overall she did great.

The diagnosis: Her hearing is fine, but she's got yellow fluid built up in both ears so its time for surgery. We are having tubes inserted and her adenoids removed on November 26. The adenoid removal should help prevent the sinus infections, and the tubes should help with the ear infections. It's an outpatient surgery which should last about 30 minutes, and we should be able to take her home after 3 hours or so. Recovery is 3-5 days.

In the mean time, our new pediatrician agreed that it was time to take Cassidy off the neb treatments and see if she still needs them. Our last day of treatment was last Wednesday. We're hoping for the best.

Tinkerbell Goes Country

True to Cassidy form, she insisted on wearing her boots with her Tinkerbell costume for trick-or-treating! It was a bit cool out, so we threw on a tshirt under her costume and headed out to collect some candy.

We made our way down a few blocks of our neighborhood to collect some candy and see the decorations. For over a week we had been making a nightly walk to visit the "purple spider", the ghosts, and the skeletons (which she had to shake hands with) that decorated the lawns of the houses down the block. We also made our way a few times to visit the giant (seriously, as tall as the house) black cat that was often blown up around bed time.

Papa handed out our candy on the corner (for some bizarre reason, in our neighborhood the kids just go around the outside instead of down each street) while Nana walked along with us. Cassidy was a bit overwhelmed with all the people on the street but caught on quickly when she saw that there was candy involved. She did really well in spite of getting a late start because of dinner, a meltdown while putting on the costume (she couldn't decide if she should be tinkerbell or last year's lamb), and repeated requests for mommy to carry her.

We are still eating something from the pumpkin every night for "chocolate eye", though we have run out of the "good candy" and are resorting to tootsie rolls in various shapes and flavors.

Our Little Diva

(Check out my boots!)

Cassidy is becoming quite opinionated about her clothes and accessories. She decides what shoes she will wear (boots on most days when I can't manage to talk her out of them), how many pony tails she'll have in her hair, and which hair clips she'll wear WITH her pony tails and on which side to put them. She likes to check things out in the mirror when I've finished her hair and show off her boots whenever she wears them. This of course goes right along with our "Love and Logic" parenting which allows Cassidy to makes decisions whenever possible. (Thanks for the tip on those books, C & E! Love them!)

I still pick out her clothes, though she does veto my decision from time to time. If it were completely up to her, she would wear her Saints or Vikings Cheerleader outfits, or her pink Saints jersey every day.

Luckily, she seems to understand and accept reasonable explanations for why she can't wear them on some days (most often because they are in the wash - and admittedly sometimes because they are hidden in her dresser where she can't find them).

I can see the time quickly approaching when we'll have to redo her closet so she can get to her own clothes ... right now, everything is hanging at adult height.

When we drive through the neighborhood and she sees the Fleur De Lis Flags flying in front of houses, she says "Doh Ains" ("Go Saints").

(Notice the Saints Cheerleader outfit underneath!)

(See Daddy's matching jersey?)

Cassidy in Charcoal

The Birthday Girl: 2 Years Old

Cassidy's Two!

The Checkup:
Weight: 24 lbs = 20th percentile
Height: 32 inches= 10th percentile
Shots: flu vaccine, Hepatitis vaccine. She would have gotten the Prevnar 13 vaccine, but she had already gotten that one from her immunologist back in March.

We got the okay to try to decrease and then stop her breathing treatments. We are decreasing her dose to 0.5mg of pulmicort each night for two weeks, and then planning to drop to every other night for a week or two before stopping all together.

Along with this we are working on eliminating her night time bottle. Doc said she doesn't care if she keeps the bottle if it only has water in it so her teeth aren't damaged by the milk. We'd like to eliminate it all together. Since her weight percentile and height percentile are holding, we got the okay to switch to 1 or 2% milk rather than whole. We've started mixing 1/2 water and 1/2 1% milk for her bottle. So far she's not losing interest at all. I think it's more of a comfort thing than a milk thing, so we'll see if she wants to keep it after it's all water.

Favorite foods:
Black Olives. She LOVES them. Sometimes that's all she eats for breakfast or dinner.
Chocolate. In her milk. In M&M form. Pretty much in any form.
Edemame. She likes to work those soybeans out of the shells.
She insists on trying any sauces, dressing, etc that are on the table during dinner. She usually shakes her head no and squints her eyes while trying them, but continues to dip her food in them afterwards.

Least favorite foods:
Meat of pretty much any kind.... except fish and other seafood. She likes scallops alot.

The Eye Patch.

aka "Chocolate Eye". This is now part of our nightly routine. After dinner, Cassidy gets a trail mix of sunflower seeds, raisins, raw coconut, and dark M&Ms along with her chocolate milk and we usually watch Sponge Bob (her favorite cartoon) with her eye patch on. She usually is willing for around 20 minutes, and is even able to get up and play a bit without ripping the patch off. This is usually her only TV time. Sometimes she prefers to watch various email greeting cards with dancing bears, etc on the computer. Regardless, she's using that weaker eye for all the work.

Potty Learning:

She tells us whenever she is going pee-pee while she's doing it, but not before.

She denies going poo-poo with everything she's got while squeezing, turning purple, shaking her head, and saying "No" in order to avoid that trip to the changing table.

She's becoming more aware of and dislikes when her diaper is poopy, refusing to sit down... but still doesn't want to go to that changing table.

She's showing interest in sitting on her potty chair, and enjoys reading her potty book while there, but doesn't seem ready for the process yet.

Honestly, I'm not quite ready for it either.

"School."

Cassidy moved up to the next classroom when she returned from her August break. She now has a more "structured" day. Less free play, story time in a circle, and colors, numbers, and shapes of the week. Even more exciting for Cassidy is that she gets to play on the "big" playground for 45 minutes in the morning and afternoon. She's adjusted to her new class well and within the first week she was talking a lot more. We are understanding her better everyday.

6 days after the checkup, she came down with a high (103) fever and another stuffy nose. So far, she's not wheezing. The fever finally quit after a day and a half and now she's just got nasal congestion. Today she was almost her normal self, just a bit irritable. Tomorrow she'll go back to daycare. I'm hopeful that we can continue on our course of reducing breathing treatments.

Our Little Football Fan

Happy Day!!!!!

Today is a Happy Day!

Mom and Dad closed on a house in McComb, MS ... 102 miles away from us.

That's right, only 1.5 hours away!!!! I've loved living here, but until now, it's felt like something's been missing. It's wonderful to know that they'll be just a short drive away whenever we want to see them.

(Living room and view of lake)

(Loft above living room)

(Kitchen)

(Master Bath and Bedroom)

(Guest Bedrooms and Bath)

(You hear that wisconsin folks?... Come visit!!!!!)

And what better birthday present to give Cassidy than Nana and Papa?!