Bathroom Progress x2

We have made some serious progress in the bathroom department around here - in a couple of ways.

A.)  The bathroom remodel is going swell.  Peter and Jim are hard at work on phase 2 of the project, which is replacing the foggy in-shjower window with pretty, clean glass blocks.  This required some reframing of the space and then the placement, indoor and outdoor grouting of the blocks and lots of discussion.   Mattie and I stayed out of their way by working DOWNSTAIRS in the basement on the new baby room.

Thank GOODNESS for my mother.  She is amazing.  She, without blinking, swoops over and paints the room, ceiling, repairs holes, helps me move things around and re-arrange and always has great ideas for decorating (as I am a bit uninspired i.e. tired right now).  Not sure what I would do without her.   While we were cleaning, purging and moving, we went ahead and took a bunch of misc. furniture and fixings to my rental house which will soon become the 4th house on the Vacation Rental Property List! Shameless Plug:  Please, come stay in my darling 3 bedroom home this summer when you visit (tell your friends too).  There will be much more to come on that. 

I am not sure what people do if they only have 1 bathroom and rely on "do it yourself" timelines with bathroom remodels.  We are thankful to have the downstairs bathroom in full working order and Mattie has loved getting to lay in the bottom of the shower for her "bath time."

B)  The other progress in the "bathroom" department is actual cold-turkey potty training!   Yes, I chose to force Matine to use the potty in the middle of the bathroom remodel.  We can look back at that later and discuss, but for now, I am not going to judge myself too harshly - it's working!  Day 4 begins today and we have only had 1 pee accident and 1 poop mishap (I will spare you all the details of each).

(By the way, these photos are just to show you her new cute hat from Nona... she LOVES it and wears it everywhere)

After talking to Melynda on our last trip I decided it was time to just do it!  I thought back to her weaning from the pacifier (which I thought would be hard) and it literally took me saying, "hey, there is no more pacifier."  She nodded, said ok and we never heard another word about it.  It has been the same with the diapers.  I woke up and told her all the diapers were gone, she would be 3 years old soon, and she just can't wear them.  She has to wear her panties.  She smiled, nodded, and informed me that "I don't want to wear diapers anymore."    She is getting a total kick out of the whole thing and has been doing great.  She enjoys changing her panties for fun even when they aren't dirty -  because she "wants the ones with the flowers on them." Just like changing an outfit throughout the day.   Such a girl.

We picked three days that we didn't have much going on outside the house, I have pumped her with whatever she wants to eat (including salty and sugary stuff) so she will drink lots of liquids, and I just ask her every 1/2 hour if she needs to use the potty.  She usually tells me when she needs to go and we go, I read Olivia Books about 12 times in a row as she holds me captive on the cold bathroom floor.... and success!

The big carrot that we are dangling at her is if she will go #2 in the middle of the day again she gets a new board game (CandyLand).

I will keep you posted on our progress!

School Bound

Well, we have reached and conquered a major milestone!  Matine has successfully completed her first 2 days of "preschool" at Montessori Island School with great enthusiasm and success.

It went a little something like this:
-  We get the call that her name finally came up on the waiting list and that she can start attending anytime.
-  Peter and I go visit the school, with Matine, to check it out, get the paperwork and make sure it's a good fit.
- While we were there for our "visit" before we have even given them a check Matine walks into each classroom, trying to sit down, declares to us and everyone that "this is my school" and "these are my friends."  She even ran and got in the single file line with the older kids on the playground when the bell rang.   As she stood in line for the class that she wasn't even in she waves at us and says, "by mom and dad, see you later, I have to go back to school!"

So, we wait an entire WEEK (this felt like an eternity to her) until her first day of school (yesterday).
- The night before we pick out and hang up her school outfit (this is required given her intense "preferences" for her ensembles each day... without prior night coordination I was terrified we might have WW3 on our hands in the morning).  We packed her backpack with her "indoor shoes" that she will wear while at school, her extra changes of clothes, diapers, and wipes.
- Morning of she awoke well rested, requesting "german pancakes" (of course) and got dressed "all by herself".  She has now mastered getting ALL her clothes on, shoes, jacket, and one glove.  She is so determined to get everything by herself.  Really helpful and cute, I must admit.

Day one of school:
- I take pictures of her at our house all dressed up and we talk about the manners we are going to use, I remind her of  her teachers names and tell her to be nice to her friends and share.
- We arrive at school, she SHRIEKS as we pull in the parking lot and exclaims, "this is my school!!!!!!!!"
- As we stand in front of the school I ask her to stop and take her picture and she says, "no pictures mom, I want to go inside!"
- She walks in like she owns the place, heads straight to her room and we find the teacher, Miss Chelsea and see that they have made a cubby for her jacket and belongings.  She is very excited to hang up her things.
- As we put on our "inside shoes" she can hardly sit still.  She smiles at Miss Chelsea as she greets her and then Sully pops his head out of the classroom and giggles at Matine, she giggles back and she looks at me and says, "bye mom, you have to go to work now."

And that was it.  Sully put his hand on her back and led her into the classroom (which they tell me he did all day) and I watched as she sat right down with her friends and started playing at the table.  I hear she calls Sully, "her boy" to all the teachers and other friends in class.

When I came back at 12:30 she had eaten her lunch and protested leaving.

She loves it.  She was totally wiped out and took a nice long nap when we got home, but was eager and excited to go the next day.

On day Two, she started telling me BEFORE we even parked the car "mom, don't take my picture."  I am ALREADY embarrassing my child.  I think she might start asking me to drop her off 3 blocks away from school by next week.   As we were putting on her shoes and hanging up coats three kids walked by and said, "hi Matine, hi Teen, Hi Matine."  And of course, she smiled, waved and said hi back...

Miss Chelsea

On day two I went 30 minutes early to peek in and see what lunch time was like.  She was scarfing down her mac and cheese, carrots and oranges and apparently she had eaten FOUR carrots earlier in the day.   When she is at home she chews them up and then spits them out in corners....

I guess little Miss Social was ready for school and this next phase of her life.  I am so happy there were no "transition" problems... at least, there are none on HER end!  Momma needs a little counseling after all this, but the kid is fine.  Just fine.

Matine Walks!

For real, all on her own, no help, and ALL across the house! Game over! Watch out mom and dad, this kid is going to rock your world now! June 1, 2010 - 1 year, 3 weeks (55 weeks) old.

Baby Genius - Idiot Parents

About 2 minutes into watching our child do "supernatural" and uniquely genius stunts at 7.5 months old, we realized we created a monster!

Below is Matine, not a stunt baby, excitedly eating, by herself, with a spoon, her own lunch. For you baby food junkies out there - it's fresh avocado & pear puree - yuummmm.

As quickly as we were cheering her on, we realized that she now DEMANDS that she feed herself and that creates massive messes. What kind of parents would we be if we encourage an activity that is so fun and satisfying and then tell her she can't do it anymore? I figured since it's harmless (sans the mess), encouraging her development, and she's not wielding knives or beating the dog, we have to just let her explore her newly developed feeding skills.

Here we go . . .

Will she do it?

Over the river and through the woods, to Amy's house in Dillon we go.... Santa got the change of address memo and we hope he arrives there. I have all sorts of new family traditions ready to go- designed to embarass my husband and make lasting memories for our new little family.

Matine is "soooo close" to crawling. She has mastered the "commando crawl," "wounded soldier," "baby scoot," whatever you call it. Will she take off by Christmas day?