Alli's Getting a Bed

We've know for several months that Alli could climb out of her crib. The first few times she did it were out of frustration, tantrum really, when we put her in time-out in her crib (a bad practice that we stopped shortly after starting). We weren't too worried, however, because we stopped punishing her by putting her in her crib, and she stopped climbing out.

We knew it wouldn't last. For the past couple of nights, Alli has been climbing out of her crib because she wasn't ready to go to sleep. Jenny and I would put her to bed, then a couple minutes later we'd hear her door open and hear her walk into the kitchen to tell us something. I think we both laughed a litte, regained composure, and told Alli that she wasn't allowed to climb out of bed. That didn't really work as she's been getting out of bed 2 or 3 times per night. She asked that we keep her door open when we put her in her crib. We obliged thinking that would keep her happy enough to keep her in bed. Sometimes we'll check on her after 5 or ten minutes only to find her standing in her doorway, listening to us.

This morning, the girl who normally wakes up at 6am-ish, walked into our room at 7:30am. She's so cute. Jenny and I both said, "Good morning, Alli!" She ran to me at the side of the bed closest to the door and said, "Daddy, I poopied." Jenny and I laughed.

-- Kim

What's Been Going On

It's been a while since I blogged, so I figured I had better talk about some of the changes in Alli.

In the last month, more words/sentences have been coming out of her mouth. Baggy (or Geera) has turned into Bagheera. Phrases have turned into complete sentences - like "Bagheera, what are you doing under the table?" It's quite fun to watch her blossom!

Potty training is...well...still challenging. She still hasn't made the connection of when she has to go, so we still have to make her go sit on the potty periodically. And poopies have not been on the toilet at all - those she still goes and runs away and pushes while hiding in a corner. :)

She is learning lots of new songs at school, which is fun. And she has finally learned her colors. Yay! But it's now a big deal if I pull out a sippy cup and she doesn't want that particular color today... Ugh!

Alli is *very* independent. While it's frustrating to wait for her to finish something, it's also more time consuming if I don't. For instance, if I try to help pull her shirt off of her cause she's having problems getting it over her head, she winds up in a complete melt-down because *she* wanted to do it. So we have to put the shirt back on and start all over again. There are times where she walks an item back to where I got it from just so she can pick it up herself. Sometimes that's really funny, and other times, well, when you're in a hurry...

Her teacher (Miss Flo) says she often confuses Alli with a 3 year old because she is mature for her age and she hangs out with the 3 year old girls when they get the classes together. As soon as she figures out the potty-training, she'll be moving up to join them. :)

We also started her in a little gymnastics program at a place called "The Little Gym". She *loves* it. They have all sorts of gymnastics equipment which Alli gets to explore. She really likes the balance beam and hanging from the bars. :) We (the parents) are also learning how to spot the kids so that we can help them with flips, learn how to teach them the beginnings of hand stands, cart wheels, etc. It's a cool little place and Alli gets excited when I tell her we are going to the gym.

And speaking of work outs, mommy started running consistently again. So what happened? Alli wanted to start running. Last night she decided she wanted to go and we took off and wound up going probably 1/4 mile!! Nice work little girl!!! (She had to walk half way up one of the hills.)

Alli also had her first boat ride last weekend. She was soooo excited and did an excellent job swimming in the middle of the lake with her life jacket on. I was pretty amazed that she didn't get scared. She even jumped off the back of the boat holding my hand to get into the water. Big girl!!!

2nd Day of Daycare

Today was Alli's second day of daycare and she came home with only 1 pair of soiled underwear (a poop) and the same clothes we put her in this morning. Holy cow - that's some progress in the potty training department!

She is very chatty all the way home, which is quite fun for mommy. Both mommy and daddy keep thinking that in 2 days she has matured months. It's crazy - but also exciting!

Alli before her first day of day care ("school")

Potty Training Attempt #1

Well, we weren't really planning on potty training Alli because she didn't seem ready, but the opportunity presented itself so we figured "why not".

If you take Alli to the toilet, she will go - even if you ask her if she has to and she says "no", she will typically manage to get something out.

So yesterday I went to pick her up at Marcie's and we wound up staying and swimming with all the kids. When we got out of the pool, Marcie said "oh yea, I forgot to tell you that I was running low on diapers, so now I don't have any." Well, there was nothing we could do except put her in big-girl panties, so we grabbed a pair of Reegan's (4T - a bit big for Alli) and told her "you have to go potty on the toilet now - you have big girl underwear on." We assumed this would work, plus we were planning on setting her on the toilet every 1/2 hour or so.

5 minutes after getting the underpants on, she pooped in them. Ugh. Okay, so I took her to the bathroom, cleaned her up, set her on the toilet (nothing came out), and got another pair of Reegan's underwear. "Alli, if you have to go potty, you need to tell Mommy or Marcie and we'll help you sit on the toilet."

10 minutes after that incident: "MOMMY!!! AHHHHHHHH". "Alli - your pants are wet..." Ugh. So, we cleaned up mess #2, sat Alli on the toilet again (and again, nothing came out), and grabbed yet another pair of Reegan's underwear.

20 minutes into dinner: "MOMMY - OUT!!!" "Alli - you went potty while you were eating??? Ugh..." By this time, Reegan was protesting us using her underwear and decided that what Alli needed was a pair of Gage's underwear. I surely didn't mind if Alli wore boys underwear, but Marcie said no and Reegan had to give up yet another pair...


15 minutes later, we went home. The first thing I did was put her in a diaper. :)



Today we decided we would just see if it was a fluke last night...

Alli has a little training toilet at our house that Marcie gave us and Alli likes to use (cause she can do it herself). This morning we dressed her in big girl underwear and before we left the house, I told her we had to go potty. She told me to stay in the hallway. She went to the bathroom, closed the door, and wanted to do it all herself. Well, she needed help pulling down the underwear so she finally let me in to help, and then shoo'd me out. She went potty in the little toilet and even picked up the little toilet and dumped the pee into the big toilet. Then I helped her get some TP and we finished the process. What a big girl!!! Surely last night was just a fluke...

Verdict today from Marcie? Alli wet her underwear twice in a 30 minute period! And then she wet a 3rd pair while standing in the garage, and instead of wanting to be changed, she wanted to ride a bike.

We're going back to pull-up diapers for a little while....

I Go Potty Mommy

Lately Alli has been going potty on the toilet more and more. Typically nothing comes out, but I never refuse her when she asks to go.

Yesterday I just sat her on the toilet a few times and 3 times for that day something came out. Hooray!!!

Tonight we were out to dinner and I went to the bathroom. When I came back she said "I go potty mommy" so I turned around and took her into the bathroom. I put her on the toilet and low and behold - she went! I was SOOOO excited!

Gonna go out and buy more pull-ups!!! :D

I'm Two!!!

Such a big girl. She turned two and had a birthday part at the McCormick-Stillman Train Park. We had lots of friends show up and all the kids (and adults) seemed to have lots of fun.

Our theme was Elmo.

Alli ate her entire cupcake (vanilla, with whipped frosting).

Things she is doing:
- Echoing *everything* we say!
- Talking in sentences
- Pretend play
- Doing puzzles
- Sorting (although I can't tell if it's by color or shape)


And one thing that I'm noticing is if I tell her "5 minutes and then we have to go to bed" or whatever we have to do, it avoids huge fights and tantrums. She just stops what she's doing and says "okay Mommy".

2-year doctor's visit not scheduled yet, so weight/height stats will be coming later, but based on our scale, she is tipping a huge 22 lbs. :D

No More Bottles!

Last weekend we took a trip to Houston for my oldest nephew's confirmation. In all the hustle and bustle of packing and trying to get out the door, we left Alli's bottles of milk in the fridge. So, we decided it must be the weekend we break her of bottles. I've suggested a few times in the past that she drink her milk from a cup, but it never has worked - she always chooses to skip milk and I was never ready for her to stop her milk intake. Now however, she's almost 2 and it doesn't seem like that big of a deal. So hence the decision to use this mistake as our opportunity to break the bottles.

It was a little struggle in Houston, but she did pretty good. When she asked for milk, I told her she could have it in a cup because we didn't have any bottles. She always chose water instead. Coming home was a different story. I ran into the house before we unloaded her and I hid every bottle we had in the house. When she asked for milk and I told her it had to be in a cup. She started digging through the drawers to find a bottle. It is now the weekend after Houston and she is rarely asking for milk, but she also doesn't raise quite the fuss when I tell her it has to be in a cup, she just moves on to water.

Success!! Now if she'll only start drinking her milk again...

My Best Friend

Ovajita. No doubt. That little lamb goes everywhere with Alli now. We try to keep her at home as much as possible, but sometimes she rides in the car to our destination. Alli feeds her (and then eats the food herself), she helps her color. Tells Ovajita when it's Jita's turn and when it's Alli's turn. It's quite cute, and we are glad to see her imagination start to blossom.

Swimming

Today we decided it was time to heat up the hot tub and go swimming. After all, the hot tub is our "kiddie pool". So we did. And we took Alli in expecting to go over quickly all the things she could do at least year's end and then play. But....that didn't really happen. She didn't like going under water. She didn't like the water in her ears (or her ears hurt - hard to figure out). But every time she went under, she came up and put her hands over her ears. Huh. That was odd. She wouldn't float on her back either. And so she eventually go to the point where she just wanted to sit on the top-most step and splash the water. Well, okay, if that's the way it's gonna be....

Daddy and I kept trying, slowly. But we didn't want to push her. So we stayed in the hot tub for about an hour - throwing the ball for Bagheera who is currently the only one in the family brave enough to face the cold water in the swimming pool. (He's also not allowed in the hot tub, so that probably has something to do with it.) By the end of the hour, Alli was comfortable enough to walk along the entire outter seat of the pool, and even kneel down until her mouth went under water. We figured that was good enough, and we also realized that we had better take her "swimming" every weekend now, and possibly once a month through winter so she doesn't lose so much between seasons.