I want to sleep as well as she does

I would love to get a night of sleep as deep as she sleeps to not notice... we had another overnight pee incident.  Again it didn't wake her.  No biggie other than her disappointment that I wouldn't let her keep the wet panties on as they were the ones with a dinosaur on the front.  It's been a month and a half since the earlier incident.  I still think she's doing awesome.

It was bound to happen

This morning I found Avery and her bed wet.  We haven't had an accident like this before, but it was bound to happen eventually.  Of course I just assured school on Friday that she doesn't need a pull up for nap time, go figure.  It didn't even wake her up, which shouldn't be surprising as she is a good sleeper, but it does surprise me.

Not your average Christmas

We have been rocking undies overnight since the change a week or so ago!  As another update we heard of a third teacher and a classmate that tested positive.  It's been over a week and no signs or symptoms here -- from anyone -- so I think we're okay.

Christmas wasn't what it normally is, of course.  It was good though.  Avery had plenty of time to open and enjoy her gifts.  She's also had lots of practice picking them back up.  She has plenty of things to keep her busy so I can get some work time in at least; I will deploy the Shrek blu-rays to assist this week.  Avery also helped Saffy open her gifts and distributed them to us.

She seems to be quite pleased with the big T-Rex that Santa brought her.  Her favorite seems to be her Spiderman shoes from Mommy and Daddy though.  She is wearing them all day in the house.  They're a size too big, so I hope she doesn't wear them out before she can wear them out of the house.  The pair of big trucks are also winners this year as is the "hungry little potomases" game (since she knew what it was when she opened it I suspect they've played it at school) from Aunt Jackie.

At our holiday meals she has demonstrated that she likes cranberry sauce as much as Mommy does.

Truly Diaper Free

 Avery has resisted the diaper at night for a while.  I've joked that she liked how it felt to breathe free.  Well lately it has become a thing.  It culminated in a melt down last night.  When I got her to use her words she told me she didn't like diapers, so I asked if she wanted to try wearing undies overnight.  She's been dry overnight for a while -- heck she doesn't even want to pee when she gets up in the morning.

She isn't up just yet, but I do have high hopes.  Admittedly I am a bit nervous because she strolled into my room at 4am and she's asleep in my bed at the moment.  She does come over periodically, but not every night.  It is usually after she wakes from a dream, or so it seems based on what she says when she arrives at my bedside.

Family and Holiday Season Begins

My worries in my last post were unfounded.  She's holding it through the night and not waking up. Avery has only had one or two slight accidents (where she caught it after a few drops as she rushed to the bathroom). She really has the potty thing down, even if we're out somewhere! In the past week she started saying she didn't need the seat insert and can climb up there and balance just fine w/o it.

This month has been very focused on family too.  Avery's Aunt Jackie and Cousin Dani came to visit for a couple of weeks, during which time her Aunt Susanne also joined us.  We had a full house.  This was the first time Cousin Dani and Avery met - and I am pretty sure, although Cousin Dani will never admit it, she digs her.  Always good when my two favorite rugrats get along.

For Halloween this year Avery had her dinosaur costume for the school parade.  The parade was outdoors this year due to the virus and a bit chilly, but Aunt Jackie and I stuck it out to watch.  Then Aunt Jackie put the finishing touches on a Zero the dog hat and with some help from Cousin Dani we rigged up something to keep a sheet in perfect placement to complete the costume for trick or treat.  Our weather was so much nicer than last year.

I didn't think this part through

Avery has woken several days with a dry diaper and made it to the potty.  Don't get me wrong, it is great that she is mastering the whole potty situation.. but I didn't think about some of the implications.

Last night she strolled into my bedroom somewhere after 3am and woke me.  She needed to potty.

I guess it's time to really start letting her wipe herself and taking steps to get confident that she won't unfurl the whole roll of paper.

In total control

 All 5 days this week Avery went to school in undies and returned in the same (dry) undies and pants.  Today we headed to soccer and out to shop, which made me nervous to attempt in just undies, so we put on a diapie with undies over top.  I'll put it like this -- the girl has it down.  I also now understand what they mean that you'll learn where every bathroom is.  We hit the one at Target, the one in Bed Bath and Beyond, the one in TJIFridays, and the one in Burlington.

She also proved her ability to hold it for a little while before we hit the bathroom in Target.  She was crying pretty hard and I had to get the need out of her!

High and Dry

Avery came home with the same underwear and shorts on yesterday that I dropped her off with. She claims that she didn't have a pull up on even for nap, but my trust in what she reports isn't always 100%.  Regardless, day two off to school in undies!  She even woke up with a dry diaper this morning. 

Big Girl

It has been a busy and exciting month for Avery. She moved up to the first pre-school class early in the month.  While her besty didn't move up with her, he wasn't too far behind.

School photos are done and are cute, even though she isn't doing more than smirking, not really smiling.

Today she went to school in underwear!  We had a great day yesterday, she made it the whole way through and earned herself a candy bar after dinner.

She doesn't really look like a toddler anymore.  Her legs are long and she can run pretty darn fast.  We have had a good time outside with the neighbor girls, last night we were playing with caterpillars off of the kale plants.

On the go, gotta go.

Avery had a really good week at daycare.  One day she pooped on the potty twice, one of those times she told them she needed to go!  There were successful potty trips the rest of the week as well.

Today we went out to do a little shopping and Avery said "I have to potty".  Oh no.  I didn't want to not listen, so we went to the public restroom.  Wow that's a nightmare, especially in the smaller stall.  But she did it - she peed in a public bathroom.  Thank goodness she changed her mind about needing to poo, because I don't know how I would have balanced her and managed to get paper to wipe her successfully.

Kissing Concrete

Yesterday and today were quite nice, so we went outside armed with big girl panties and one of our potties.  We made it quite a while yesterday before the panties ended up wet, and Avery immediately came over and told me.  I had her on the potty several times and she just wouldn't go, so I wasn't surprised it happened.  It needed to though, so she got a sense for how unpleasant it felt.

This morning when we tried the same not too long into the process she told me "I need to poop Mommy".  YAY!  We came upstairs and she immediately went potty.  That's a huge win.  After we went back outside and it wasn't but a short period later that she took a tumble while pushing her little bus along the concrete.  She went booty over teacup and face planted.  I saw the tumble starting from the corner of my eye, but there was no way to get to her in time.  From the look of the resulting boo-boos on the left side of her face, I would say she thumped the forehead high, bounced a bit, and then hit again with part of her lower forehead above her eyebrow, her cheek, the side of her nose, and even her eyelid.

She was quite unhappy for a minute, so I just cuddled her.  Once she was calm and I got a look I was glad it wasn't worse than it is.  She did let me clean it off and put some ointment on it.  Man that's going to be uncomfortable when it scabs.  Lord help me keep her from picking.

I want panties

This request was made this morning.  Unfortunately it's rainy and colder outside - cold enough that we might get snow overnight into Saturday.  That eliminates the way I'd like to approach things:  slap on some panties and go outside w/ a potty at the ready.  Then when she has a few accidents and gets a feel for it - bam, progress.

At least if we're not allowed to go out and live our lives there won't be the obstacle of public restrooms anytime soon.

Won't you be my neighbor

Avery has officially made friends with the neighbor girls. It started through the fence on Saturday morning.  There is nothing cuter than this kid standing there calling for them by name.  Her sweet little voice!  The neighbor girls are sweet and seem to have a bit more structure from their parents than some of the other kids in the neighborhood, so I am hoping they can be buds for years go to come, despite the age difference (they are 6 and 9).

We had a couple of poops on the potty today and a few pees.  I know I need to get crazy about the frequency to bring things home.  If we could keep some warm temps for more than a day at a time maybe we could go outside in big girl panties and see how she reacts when things happen.

Both days this weekend we skipped naptime.  I didn't even try to put her down, and she made it through with minimal hissy-fit.  I am so not ready for her to give up naps, especially right now as I need nap time to get work hours in, but she is also getting better about entertaining herself and playing solo for little spurts of time.

Two full time jobs and potty training

So far we're ok.  Things will get harder as the hours I am with her solo get amplified.  I am grateful her Dad had some vacation days that were use or lose.  Sure he'll have more and I have time too, but I don't want to burn through any of it too quickly, because I think things are going to go on like this for an extended period of time.

We've decided to work harder on potty training and today Avery told me she had to go before it happened twice - once for each 'activity'!  I'm quite proud and she enjoyed her M&Ms.

Nap time however is not going as well.  She's been wailing since 1 and it's almost 3.  I've been trying to wear her out by running around and going outside when the weather has been allowing, but this is hard.

Easy peasy lets us enjoy summer breezy!

Vacation was still easy peasy with this girl.  She did better with the water and sand this go round, even though the water was still pretty cold.  It worked out well having the earlier dining time, for sure.

Since we returned she had another great week at daycare with regard to the potty - she pooed there!

On a streak...

Avery has been managing to pee on the potty once a day since her breakthrough.  We've also had a big poop on the potty right at bedtime the past few nights.  I'm pleased with her efforts!

I also wanted to make some notes on the books that Avery has been adoring.  She definitely gets on kicks with books.  A while back she was obsessed with Pat the Bunny.  As of late her obsession is Dog's Colorful Day.  We often see I'm a Little Teapot too (not my favorite).

As to her Christmas gifts it seems that the art easel is well loved, but I think the biggest success was the ice cream stand.  She plays with it most every night and I can see how her play with it will evolve as she learns and gets older.

I went pee-pee in the potty!

She did it!  Avery went pee-pee on the potty at school today!  I've been waiting for this breakthrough.  I think it's going to help us greatly moving forward.

More Success

We had a banner weekend with the potty, which included several more poopies on the big potty.  I really think a notable leap forward is imminent.  I am so hoping she'll have some success at school in the near term.

I always assumed it would be easier to get the number 2s happening on the potty before the pees and so far it looks like I might be right.  Either way I'm a pretty proud Mama.

Back and forth

She didn't go down too hard with whatever that was last weekend, thank goodness... but then today when I picked her up from school they indicated she had a very short nap and complained about her belly and her head!  She reiterated to me that her forehead hurt.  After we got home a bit of tylenol took care of that pretty fast.

On other news for this evening, while on the little potty she tooted - after which she noted she needed to poop.  I moved her to the big potty and sure enough it happened!  That's the third time on the potty and since we went from surprise to resisting and now to telling me in advance that's pretty remarkable in my opinion.

Surprise!

Tonight before her bath Avery did it!  There was no fanfare, she didn't seem surprised or confused... it just happened.  She pooped on the potty!

I'm very proud that she did it, but equally happy that it didn't happen in the tub.  Is that wrong?