A Good Spot to Read

This weekend we are tackling potty training.  Evelina has been peeing on the potty for months now but I don't think Chris and I were really ready to take the potty training plunge yet.  This weekend we don't have anything going on so I thought it would be the perfect weekend to make the transition to underwear.  So far it is going okay.  She's had a few accidents and leaks but for the most part, she makes it to the potty (after we ask her about 1000 times if she needs to go).  Pooping on the potty is another story though.  The first time she actually pooped on the potty was last week at school and we have yet to have a successful #2 this weekend.  She had said she needed to go, so on to the potty she went (after bribing her with Caillou on the iPad if she was successful).  I left her with some books and went away to give her some private time.  She started reading Thomas and Friends Blue Mountain Mystery to pass the minutes.  She had no idea I had come back upstairs to spy.  Chris and I love how she licks her finger to turn the page. Hilarious...she learned it from her teachers at school. Oh, and in case you were wondering, no success on the poo front. 

Potty Training Fun

Evelina Tidbits

As Evelina's second birthday was approaching, it was becoming increasingly difficult finding time to write her monthly posts.  I'm happy I was able to keep up with it during her first two years, and I know I will look back and be glad I captured some of her milestones, new discoveries and habits.

I would like to continue documenting her development in some way without it being too time-consuming, considering Siby is due to arrive shortly.  There are endless tidbits of information that I could share, but it would result in another full-time job. So, instead, I may start writing "Evelina Tidbits" posts every so often, similar to this one.  I think a "Conversations with Evelina" post may be in the future as well.  Who can resist cute toddler talk? 

• Favorite sentence of all time:  "What's that?" or "What's that, Mama?".  She must say it about 1000 times a day.  Even if she knows what something is.  
• Teeth:  All 4 2-year molars have appeared!!  Yay!!  That means, she has a full set, although the molars still need to push through a little more. There is space between all of her teeth and I often wonder if the gaps will close once her teeth push through more. I think its time she goes to the dentist.  That should be quite the experience.  
• She lives and breathes so she can have a Flintstones vitamin everyday. She calls them "ryans". If she could eat the entire bottle in one day she would, she loves them that much.  Her color of choice is purple.  If Papa gives her one in the morning, she will try to convince me that I need to give her one in the evening as well.  Little does she know that Papa and I speak during the day.  Thank goodness she is *usually* receptive to the "one a day" vitamin policy. 
• She now sleeps with a pillow in her crib which she seems to enjoy...until she slips off of it in the night.  
• Favorite TV shows:  Elmo/Sesame Street, Wiggles and Thomas the Train
• Favorite songs to listen too:  Hot Potato, I like to Move it, ABC Song, Wheels on the Bus
• Evelina LOVES to sing and has an endless number of songs in her repertoire.  She sings some better than others. A few of her favorites include, the ABC song, Row Row Row Your Boat, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Ring Around the Rosie
• She will shake hands and say "Nice to meet you!" 
• She is a total rock-star when it comes to identifying colors.  
• She enjoys counting and will point to things and count as she points.  She can count up to 15 or so. 
• "I peepee on the potty!!" is one of her favorite and most enthusiastic sentences. She will take every chance she is given to attempt to peepee on the potty and she has been extremely successful in the evenings and at diaper changing time if she has a dry diaper.  She tries soooo hard to make pee come out, it is quite hilarious.  Many times she "thinks" she has pee'd because she tried so hard, but her potty is empty.  Even so, she still celebrates.  
• In addition to peeing on the potty, she is an expert toilet bowl flusher.  She waits patiently to flush the toilet after Chris or I have gone.  Luckily, she doesn't flush until someone has actually used the potty...our water bill thanks her for that. 
• She will lift up my shirt and yell "WAKE UP" to Siby.  She also has been giving my belly more hugs and kisses, and even referring to "Siby" in some of her little conversations to us.  It is quite adorable. 
• Thank goodness we decided to purchase a big girl bed instead of another crib.  Miss Lina climbed out of the crib 2 times over the weekend.  She was in the crib jumping and playing around while I was tending to some chores upstairs and all of a sudden she appeared!!  WHAT?!  So I put her back in the crib and asked her to show us how she got out.  After our vacation next week, the big girl bed transition will begin.  
• She likes to tickle so beware!!  Especially bare bellies after she has lifted your shirts.  
• She is a typical, exhausting 2-year old, testing boundaries, throwing frequent tantrums, not listening to us, and causing mischief at every turn.  Even though she challenges us everyday, she is so sweet and caring.  A sponge trying to absorb as much information about her world as she can. Gosh, we love her to pieces. 

 Now, I need to get better about talking photos again.  I'm really slacking. 

Potty!!

Evelina used the potty tonight!! We are by no means potty training, but I did buy a potty months ago and put it in the bathroom to allow Evelina to get used to seeing it.  Hoping that when we did start potty training, it wouldn't be a foreign object to her.  

Every now and then I will put her on the potty during a diaper change to see if she needs to go since I've read that it can help build a connection to diapers and actually going potty. Recently, Evelina has started sitting on the potty herself, while dressed, when we are in the bathroom getting her bath ready or I'm washing my hands, etc.  

I've noticed, since her first bath ever, that Evelina likes to potty immediately after her bath, so this week, I decided to put her on the potty once she was dried off.  We didn't have much success on Monday or Wednesday, and she even pee'd on the rug after sitting on the potty for a couple of minutes...but, tonight, she actually went on the potty!!  I was shocked!! Of course, I didn't think she would actually go so I had turned around to empty the tub and put toys away, but when I turned back around, she was standing up and I looked in the potty and there was pee!!  So exciting!!  It may have just been a fluke, but either way, I'm proud of her!!  Way to go Bean!!