Brave Girl

Emily is scared of the dark.  She doesn't like to go to our bathroom by herself, since when the lights are off, it is very dark (there are no windows in the bathroom, or in the hall outside it).  This usually leads to frustration on both our parts, since I insist she can go to the bathroom by herself (since she is capable of doing all bathroom-related tasks by herself, and I forget the lights are off), and she says she needs me. 

A few days ago, she was doing her usual potty dance, and I told her to go, and she, as usual, ran over to the bathroom, got as far as the dark hall, and came back.  I was in my bed, from which I can see all the way to the bathroom, nursing William.  She ran back and told me there were monsters.  In a moment of inspiration or desperation, I told her they were friendly monsters.  She marched back to the bathroom, loudly addressed the monsters, and turned on the lights.

Today the kitchen light was off, and I could hear her singing to herself from the living room:

I'm not scared
Brave girls are not scared

I peeked in while she was singing those lines over and over, and saw her pushing past our trash can to get to the light switch.  She looked up at me, still singing and then finished with:

Brave girls are not scared of anything

This week

This has been an emotional week for me. Being pregnant and missing my baby makes life hard sometimes.

I am going to be teaching a class tomorrow, on etching glass. So on Saturday I did my first glass etching. It was fun, although apparently the etching cream can burn your skin, so I had to keep it away from Emily, which made me a little nervous, since she loves to help and do art with me. Also, I have been working on a quilt this past week, and I got the top finished today. I ordered a new foot for my sewing machine which should make it easier to machine quilt. That should come next week, so I will finish it then. Next week is also my ultrasound. And yes, we are planning on finding out what we are having.

Emily seems to be taking two steps forward and one step back with potty training. Just when I think she's about got it, she has several accidents in one afternoon. But she is definately interested. She wants to do so much herself, with potty training and other things. Her two new phrases are "I do it myself," and "I want to help, too.". And she wanted to help me with my blog, so here is her contribution:

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Mnkmm memo Mel,lam m k,l. ,,,..

And now for some good news

Emily is in the midst of potty training.  We have no more diapers for Emily in the basement (her GranB says she has a couple upstairs).  I am resisting buying more diapers because if we have them, Emily and her dad, (okay, and me, too) find them much more convenient than potty training.  Unless I think about changing stinky diapers.  Then I am sure I want her potty trained.

Plus, she is 3, and we've been working (well, sort of working) at potty training for quite some time.  And she's ready.  If I was good about taking her to the bathroom, she wouldn't have hardly any accidents.  True, this morning, she had one just a few minutes after Dan tried to take her to the bathroom.  But that isn't usually the case.  So, she is getting closer to being potty trained, which makes me happy.

But that isn't really my big news, which I told you all I would share last week.  My big news is that yesterday, Emily, GranB, and I took a little trip.  I got some pictures.  Here's one:

Turns out I am having a baby at the end of July.  I'm 13 1/2 weeks along.  We don't know if it is a boy or a girl yet; I'll have to go back in a few weeks to find that out.  Either way, we are pretty excited around here.  Well, Dan and I are excited.  Emily says "no" if I ask if she wants a brother or a sister.  (And yes, I know not to get upset about that).

Thanks

Yesterday, Emily, Tabitha, and I went upstairs so they could take a bath.

I was the only one home (besides the kids, obviously).  My mother-in-law is off visiting her daughter, my father-in-law was out, and Dan was at work.  He didn't start work until 4, but he'd been tired (despite getting sleep the night before) so I told him to go take a nap.  And thus ended up alone for most of the day.

When we went upstairs for the bath, it was just after 7:30.  My visiting teachers had just left (I guess I wasn't completely alone all day) and I felt like it was still a little early to try to get Emily to go to sleep.  So, in the interest of killing some time until bedtime, and because they needed a bath desperately, we ventured upstairs to the bathtub.  Emily was excited about the bath.  She loves to get into water.

First she tried to climb into the bathtub with all her clothes on.  Then, she helped get herself undressed.  Which included taking off her diaper.

For those who don't know, Emily is in the midst of potty training.  Yay!  She had lots of accidents yesterday.  Boo.  The last one was after I took her to the store.  No, she didn't have an accident at the store.  Or even in the car on the way home.  No, she climbed BACK into her carseat with my purse to look for the candy I had put there (which was fine, I told her where it was), and then had an accident.  She had already had an accident on my bedroom floor and my bed (two separate incidents).  So, back to diapers.

And, back to the bath story.  So, Emily takes off her diaper, and I realize that she needs some cleaning before she can get in the tub.  As I am cleaning her off, she says thank you, Mommy.

Totally unprompted.

Your welcome, kid.  Thanks for making my day.  And thanks for falling asleep in time for me to watch the show I REALLY wanted to watch at 9.  I appreciate it.

Bad Mother?

Anyone not interested in toilet training read no further.

So, Emily pee'd on the potty today.  Well, she pee'd on the potty because I decided to put her on it, and she just happened to pee.  Her first time sitting on the toliet.  I praised her, but refrained from giving her a prize, although later she got frozen yogurt.  But that was more because I was trying to get her to stop fussing through Project Runway, which we were watching because her dad is at work, and it was girls night.

She would have enjoyed a Japanese cartoon a lot better.  That's what her dad watches with her.

At work (daycare) there is a little boy who is younger than Emily who has started going on the potty.  And I said in my head: Emily is older than him.  But I should wait until she is interested.  Yeah, that's what I'll do.  I just have to be patient.

Then after we got home, I had to use the bathroom, and she was interested.  But she also likes to stick her hand down my shirt and pull up the bottom of my shirt to tickle me.  She may just be interested in Mommy.  I let her flush the toilet after I went, and then I said, hey why don't I put her on?  And she pee'd. And we flushed the toilet again, which was fun for her (although she insisted on shutting the lid first, because I got into that habit once Emily could walk, and then I opened it a little to show her where the water goes) and then we washed hands, which she is a pro at--although today, she kept on getting more soap.  Apparently (and the kids at daycare confirm) washing hands is fun to do.

So am I a bad mom for caving into my internal pressures and pushing my child to achieve non-age-appropriate behaviors (cause 1.5 is really too young to potty train) or a good mom for getting her used to the whole process before it becomes a big issue?

(Not that I really think I'm a bad mom.  The lady at WIC told me I was a good mom because I don't give Emily honey or syrup yet.  I mean, why start on syrup?  Emily likes pancakes without them.)