Lexi woke up at 10 this morning. And that’s never a good sign. That usually means a sick day is upon us. Sure enough, I went into her room and she had thrown up. Here’s how our conversation went:

Me: Did you throw up?

L: Yeah. I froed up on my jammas and my bed. Can you get me my bucket. I’m supposed to fro up in my bucket.

Me: Let’s get you cleaned up.

L: Then I need to go downstairs and watch T.V. in my chair with my towel and I’ll fall asleep in my chair. I want to watch the Jonah movie and then the Muppet Show.

Me: uh…okay. Good to see you have a plan.

So, the reason for our trip to Target. Tomorrow Lexi is getting potty trained and we needed supplies. I read a book called Potty Train Your Child in One Day. And I’ve also had quite a few people recommend this method. At this point, I’m willing to try anything

We went to Target to get supplies for tomorrow’s “potty party”. Yup, we’re having a potty party. It’s Elmo themed. The basic concept behind the book is that your child wakes up to a party at their house. They get a present which is a new “big kid” doll. And the doll wears big kid underwear. Preferably underwear that matches the big kid underwear they will be receiving later in the day. You spend the morning having your child “potty train” the doll. So, yes, the doll has to sit on the toilet, sometimes has accidents, gets rewards for staying dry - the whole bit. Then after lunch/nap your child gets big kid underwear and it’s her turn to sort of practiced what she preached all morning long. On top of that, you feed them juice and water and fruit and smoothies and anything else that will make them need to pee more than normal so they can have more success at it. At the end of the day, they get a big reward and you repeat the process the next day with less fanfare. (No party, but still little rewards here and there).

Oh and Lexi’s party is Elmo themed because a) I can draw a semi-decent Elmo b) she’s in love with her Elmo underwear that she picked out and c) I had some random Elmo fabric that I can make “big kid” underwear for her doll. That and her little toilet seat ring to make the hole smaller has Elmo all over it.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Those of you who know me and have been in public with me and Lexi know that I don’t worry too much about her running off. Okay, that sounds like she never runs off. Not true. The kid takes off like a rocket all the time. I just don’t worry about it too much because she’s so loud that I can find her no matter how far away she is.

These might come in handy. At first it seemed a little close to micro-chipping my kid, but then I realized that if Lexi ever were truly lost, she’d really have no way of telling anyone any information that would be of any help. And as a classroom teacher, these would be great on a field trip (as it is, we always put a piece of tape on the kids’ backs with the school name and our cell phone numbers and those have come in handy on a few occasions).

Here’s Lexi’s afternoon, from about 4:00 p.m. until 8:30 p.m.

4:00 - 4:45 She stood at the kitchen sink playing with bubbles and water. And the kitchen rug, counter top and her shirt look like a tidal wave hit. Oh well. It’s just water. It’ll dry and tomorrow I was planning on washing the floor.

Before that she unloaded about half her toy baskets into her bed. No clue why but she was entertained, happy, and completely focused on something for over an hour.

4:45 - 6:00 We ate dinner. She tried to entertain the restaurant and then offered to cut everyone’s food.

6:00 - 6:30 Took a bath. Repeatedly put cups on her head and called herself a birthday cake.

6:30 - 7:00 Took all the couch cushins off the couch and piled them on the floor. Tried to get Mazie to sleep on the “bed” she built but Maize wasn’t having it.

7:00 - 7:30 She wanted to color. With markers. I gave her a box of markers and a huge piece of paper. She colored happily for about 30 minutes. She also got some on the table (on accident) and her hands are very rainbow colored but it all washes off (and she liked washing it all off too). Should’ve waited with the bath.

7:30 -7:45 Now she’s back at the sink again - more bubbles and water. My favorite part was when she set the cup with holes in the bottom on the counter and tried over and over to fill it up. Took her about 3 tries to realize there were holes in the bottom and water pouring on her feet.

7:45 - 8:00 Okay done with bubbles again. Now all the toys that are on the living room floor are going into her doll buggy because the baby wants them. Nevermind. There back on the floor again.

8:00 - 8:11 Went into her room packed up several little back-packs and bags with her toys (for the baby) and is back to piling them on top of the baby in the buggy. The baby has just been dumped on the floor because “the baby is crying and doesn’t want the toys”.

8:11 - 8:12 Pulling empty yogurt containers from the Tupperware drawer and filling them with water to feed the baby. (Which really means she almost dumped a cup full of water on her doll’s head.)

8:12 - 8:14 Back in her room. Came back out wearing 2 necklaces and a bracelet. And all her doll house furniture is shoved in a backpack that she is desperately trying to zip shut.

8:15 - 8:30 (This has not happened yet, just a prediction) Bedtime. I tell her it’s bedtime. She runs, yelling no and telling me she can’t because she’s “finishing.” I put her to bed and tomorrow the day starts all over again. (Which by the way, today started with her shouting over the baby monitor “Daddy! Hey Daddy! Come get me out of this bed now!)

And you wonder why parents of toddlers are tired.

I’m a free-range parent. I’m a big fan of letting kids become independent. I don’t like to hover over her. When we go shopping I don’t insist that she stay in a stroller or keep her on one of those kid leashes, she wanders around, picks things up, sometimes gets out of my sight and comes back when I ask her. I didn’t do too much baby-proofing. We put those locks on the cupboard and the little plugs in the outlets. There’s a baby-gate at the top of the basement stairs but it’s rarely closed.

I don’t panic about dirt and germs. When her nuk dropped on the floor, I just picked it up and gave it back. My kid is the one who spills her box of raisins on the floor and then sits down to pick them up and eat them

She climbs stairs by herself, without us watching and plays in the rooms that we aren’t in.

When she’s older she’ll get to stay home by herself. She’ll ride her bike to the park. She’ll take the bus to friends’ houses.

I’ll teach her about strangers and crossing the street safely. She’ll always wear a bike helmet and wear her seatbelt. But I think she’ll enjoy her life much more with out me hovering over her worrying about if she’s hot, cold, tired, hungry, thirsty, if the kids aren’t sharing, if people aren’t being nice, or that they didn’t get the toy they wanted.

For those of us who don’t want to read the entire Dr. Sear’s Library.

Simple and straight to the point.

When I started student teaching the first place I worked had a policy of not making the kids apologize to each other. I remember being at work and after stopping some type of argument I said you need to tell so-and-so you are sorry. The classroom teacher came flying around the corner and told me they don’t make the kids say sorry but failed to tell what to do instead. About a month or so later, I found out. The kids had to say “I was wrong for (fill in the blank with hitting you, taking your stuff, calling you a name, etc).” And I got on board with this instantly. And it’s carried over into my parenting and my teaching.

I never make anyone apologize. An apology has to come from the heart and so when a teacher or parent says “Say you are sorry.” the kid will say it but not mean it. Plus, they may not be sorry. But they were wrong. A 3 year old may not be the least bit sorry for taking a friend’s toy. But they were wrong for taking it without asking. If a child wants to say sorry after they have said they were wrong, go right ahead because I’m not forcing the apology.

I also like making them say they were wrong because as kids get a little older I also make them correct the problem in a way appropriate to their age. In my class it goes something like this:

Kid A: I was wrong for dumping over your puzzle.
Kid B: Please don’t do it again.
Kid A: Instead of dumping your puzzle I should have asked you to move it or found a different place to play.
Kid B: Can you help me fix the puzzle?
Kid A: Okay.

It does take a lot of coaching to get a dialogue like that but it’s completely possible and my kids do it on a regular basis (at our school we call it Walking the Peace Path).

In a culture where the word sorry carries very little weight anymore, I think saying you were wrong is a more meaningful alternative.

We’ve been saving the yogurt containers for, well, forever. We have quite a collection in our tupperware drawer. It pretty much fills the drawer. The containers are the kind that come with a lid. Tonight Lexi entertained herself for over an hour by pulling out a larger plastic storage bowl and stuffing the lids inside. She would put them in and then pull them all out, rearrange them, and put them back. And repeat the process over and over again.

Lexi had her 2-year check-up today. She’s 29 lbs & 2′9″ tall. She loved sitting up on the table and have the doctor poke and prod at her. I think her favorite part was that light they shine in your eyes/nose/ears/mouth. She even convinced the doctor to do it again. She also had to get her toe pricked for two blood tests. One was a hemogloben check and the other was to get a baseline on the lead count (or something like that). Basically, a precaution for all the recalls on toys with lead paint, etc. She only had to get her toe pricked once but the nurse has to fill up two vials of blood by catching each little drip. The whole process took about 5 minutes. Lexi just sat in my lap, sucked her thumb and occasionally commented that it tickled. The nurse actually commented that it takes less time if they are screaming because the blood is flowing faster. Then she had to get a shot. She almost had a melt down but quickly recovered quickly at the promise of a sticker.

Has anyone ever used these diapers? I am torn right now about what to do about baby #2. I was raised on cloth diapers, I have lots of friends who use cloth diapers, and before Lexi was born I really wanted to do cloth diapers. But the washing machine in our old house was horrible. I’m pretty sure our clothes were never clean - just sort of swished around in water. And the dryer was even worse. Plus, the cost of buying all those diapers at once was a little overwhelming. But, now that we have a very nice new washer and dryer and we could possibly have 2 kids in diapers I’m beginning to see the cost effectiveness of going cloth. Not to mention I really don’t want the Hendricks’ Memorial Landfill that is made up entirely of diapers.

Back to my original question - has anyone used the gDiapers? How do they compare to cloth or disposable?