25 months

I know, it's weird to post about Payton's 25 month "birthday", but I feel like she's made a lot of changes in the past month, so I wanted to record things so I remember them.

The biggest thing is the potty training, yep, she is potty trained, she pees and poops in the potty, and seems to be staying dry at nap time!  It's been well over a week and I still put a diaper on her for her naps, but it's quickly dawning n me we may not need to do this for much longer.  Funny how different your kids can be!  Payton really potty trained in one day, Garrett wasn't peeing in the potty until 3, and he wasn't pooping consistently until 4.5 maybe, he drove me crazy with the poops!

She is also quite the talker now, she repeats a lot of what we say, but I've noticed her talking in complete sentences so much more lately.

She doesn't say again or another, she says more.  She'll say things like "more somersault" or "somersault more", instead of again.  of course, now I can't think of the funnier expressions she uses that are all jumbled up, but I'll add them as she says them.

She still loves her shoes, but now she loves taking them off and trying to put them on, her favorite shoes in the house are Garrett's, because they are big enough that she can put them on herself but small enough that she can walk in them and not be tripping all over the place.  She's outgrown almost all of her size 6 shoes, so yesterday at Wal-mart I grabbed a new pair of sneakers for her, and she refused to take them off so she penguin walked in them all the way to the register, she got quite a few laughs in the store.

She HAS to walk everywhere, the stroller isn't really an option unless I'm walking for exercise and going fast, and the shopping cart is  a huge fight, she will demand to walk "I walk, momma".  And she's starting to exhibit her temper when she isn't allowed to walk.

Yes, she is starting to show us her temper more and more.  She's not as bad as Garrett was, but she's still young, so we'll see where it goes.  Usually she's upset that she has to come inside or that she can't play inside my car, for some reason that is her favorite thing to do.

She's playing dress up and puzzles and loves to read and is pretending more and more with her baby dolls and her kitchen.  It's quite precious to watch her, because most everything she does is just mimicking or repeating us, and it's so heart warming to watch her sing to her dolls and rub their backs, because these are the things we do to her.

She is still a great eater, she'll eat most anything you give her, even things I sometimes think she won't touch, she'll gobble up.  Oh, and she loves to eat outside, it's warming up here so we've had lunch outside almost every day for a week, she's starting to understand that it's only lunch we eat outside, but for a few days she asked to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner outside, lol.

She is still not a cuddler, she does like to sit with you to read books, and while she may not always sit on your lap, she will sit right next to you and rest her hand on your leg.  But, forget rocking and singing songs at night, it's just not going to happen!

She's very polite, and it's always "thank you, momma".  And she'll say it for everything you give her.  We are still working on please.  Garrett barely says please without being prompted, it drives me nuts, I don't get why thank you is so easy for my kids but please is so hard.

And she's still a great sleeper, bedtime is later now that it's warmer and we are spending our evenings outside, but she generally sleeps 12 hours at night and naps are 2-3 hours depending on what's going on.  And yes, she stays dry those entire 3 hours!!

She is such a joy to us, she is very loving, she has to kiss everyone for naps and bedtime, and when we drop Garrett off at school she has to kiss and hug him, same for pickup.  She's starting to just randomly come over and kiss us when we are playing or working outside.

Oh, and her hair is still a mess, it's too short still for a pony tail (due to Garrett's handiwork).  The pigtails work, but her hair is so fine even the tiniest ties start slipping out by nap time.  She doesn't love having her hair done but she doesn't like it in her eyes, so she'll let me do it.  But, ties only, no bows, no barrettes, no headbands.  Yes, I have hair envy of some of my friends daughters hair, lol.  I know when it's long we'll fight over combing it, so I'm trying to enjoy it as it is.  It still has curl to it and is very blond, all traces of red a re gone.  Her and Garrett have almost the exact same color hair.  It makes me want to be blond again!!

Tired

So, this last week I found myself just dragging, I was depressed, sad, just plain tired.  I wasn't getting much joy from anything.  I do get homesick for my family, and I honestly just feel like I"m on an island all by myself.  Matt is and will be working a lot more hours and I can either go insane or fight my way out of the depression.  I will say, it was Matt who dragged me up and out of it.  I've been wanting to do "something", I had no idea what, but the daily grind of nothing has been wearing me down.  I'm constantly on edge waiting for him to call to run and do something for work, so I find I'm not even enjoying my kid time, I'm too stressed over money and him working and dwelling on how many hours it will be until I have an adult to talk to.  So, I'm getting back onto a project track.  Sunday I spent 4 hours, yes 4, weeding one side of our front flower bed, it was that bad.  For some reason I just kept thinking Matt was going to do it, I finally realized, I need to be doing it.  I do draw the line at cutting the grass, I don't think that's in any way safe with a 2 year old running around, esp one scared of loud noises, so I don't know when that will get cut, but somehow Matt's going to have to find the time for it.  But, I've decided I am going to paint the front door, make a wreath and start a garden. 
I originally thought about doing the garden in the front yard, but Matt decided we really need to tear out what's there and redo the rocks and bring in new dirt and mulch, it's looking really dated, so I was disappointed, starting a garden from scratch could be really pricey, but this morning I realized there's plenty of room under the trees in the back yard.  It is going to require serious weeding, but I think I can do it.  My kids LOVE being outside, so this way, even if Payton isn't helping me weed, we can be outside together and maybe my work will start rubbing off on the kids and they'll become interested.  I've got some ideas of what to plant, it'll be at least a week, it's going to take some serious work on that area to clean it up.  But, I'm hoping this gives me some motivation and something to look forward to.  I'm also hoping that Garrett will get involved if I let him pick out some things to plant.
My biggest issue is money, we never have enough, but I need to just spend a little bit here and there and hopefully it will not break the bank to do some projects and keep me feeling like I'm accomplishing something!

back to school

Payton has been off of school for 2 weeks, she had strep throat then we had Spring Break, so imagine her teachers surprise when I said she was potty trained.  She said, you mean you're working on it, I said nope, she is telling me when she has to pee and poop in the potty.  The teacher was skeptical, then about 11, I got a text, she had no accidents and had even told her she had to poop.  Yep, I have to say, I was surprised too, but in less then 1 week Payton is peeing and pooping in the potty.  I will admit the pooping is less consistent, but we've had 2 days in a row with making it to the potty on time, so I think she's starting to get it.
The director at Garrett's school noticed Payton using their potty and asked me about it, sadly she remembers how hard it was to get G potty trained, so she was impressed too. 
We do use potty's everywhere now and have even stopped by friends places of business just to borrow a potty, but that's ok with me.  She's been staying dry at naps a lot too and this I never expected at her age, could it be that easy?!?!?!

Potty Training, day three

I do not plan on posting every single day, but I have to brag about my little peanut!  Yesterday, was day 3 of potty training.  Tuesday night Matt said the kids and I would need to drive to Humble to pick up a sink for a job he was installing.  So, in the morning, I decided to put her in a diaper, it's about a 2 hour drive and I didn't know how she would do.  That girl stayed dry the entire trip out there, which ended up being 2.5 because I needed to go to the bank and the gas station, she peed in the store there, then stayed dry all the way home!  I am amazed at how well she is doing. 
We've had some pooping issues, not really issues, she just hasn't been going until either right before bed (in her diaper) or first thing in the morning (in her diaper).  Well, yesterday about 11:30, she was walking around McDonald's grabbing her boom saying poo poos, I had her sit on the potty there, but no luck.  Then after dinner, she started doing it again, she kept running back and forth in the house and saying poo poo's, and Matt & I kept telling her to put the poops in the potty, she even brought us a diaper and I decided to say no to that.  Next thing we knew she ran to the potty and pooped, but wasn't quite fast enough so it landed on the seat.  Gross I know, but the point is I think we're making serious progress there.  Her teacher said if she's pooping on the potty at home she won't need to wear a pullup to school.  We have a full week to work on this, but it amazes me to think that in only 3 days she might be potty trained!!  We'll see how today goes......

Potty Training, day two

Day two started off fantastically, I woke her up and we went straight to the potty and she peed, then picked out her own Minnie Mouse panties, and was quite excited.  Then it started, back to asking to sit every 5 minutes but not peeing! 1.5 straight hour of this and I thought I might go insane, so I decided we needed to run to the bank.  I put a diaper on her, just in case.  Then we stopped in to visit Stefani while she worked and I got a much needed adult chat in while the 3 kids played.  Then we came home.  I had her immediately sit on the potty because her diaper was still dry!  No pee, while I fixed lunch, she sat 3 more times, still no pee.  Then while she was eating, she asked to pee again, the second time, I had had enough and told her no, she needed to jut eat, and that's when she peed, all over her chair and the floor.  I, of course, felt like the worst mother ever!  I had her sit on the potty, apologized for not believing her, cleaned everything up, we finished lunch and i laid her down.  She slept 3.5 hours and woke up dry!  I was shocked.  The rest of the afternoon went great.  She peed right after her nap and then exactly 2.5 hours later started the "every 5 minutes pee" thing again, but this time, after her third trip, I told her if she sat still and peed we'd go for a walk, that didn't work, so the 4th time I promised a piece of chocolate, I also turned the faucet on.  I have no idea what worked, but she finally sat and peed, of course, she jumped up to check her progress about 3 times, but finally we had an empty bladder, so she got a piece of chocolate and we took a walk.  She then stayed dry until after her bath, when she asked to pee again.  Then she pooped in her diaper.  We are still working on putting the poops in the potty.  Since that took Garrett well over 1.5 years, I'm hoping to have a bit more success with her on that!  But, in all I'd say she's doing fantastically!!

Potty Training, day one

I'll admit it, I'm in denial and very gun shy about potty training Payton.  Garrett was a nightmare, took 3 tries and he wasn't potty trained until 2 weeks before Payton was born (he was 3), and didn't poop in the potty regularly until well past 4.  A NIGHTMARE!  But, lately, Payton has been more and more verbal about her bodily functions and all weekend, every time she peed or pooped, she immediately brought us a clean diaper to change her.  So Sunday night I did a bit of email/text research and decided to just go for it.  It's Spring Break, so both kids would be home all week and we had no plans.  Well, by noon, I was thinking I was all wrong!
When Garrett got up I asked if he would help me, he was pretty excited, so when Payton woke up, we made a big deal about it all, on went the panties and we sat on the portable potty, she was very excited, then proceeded to follow me into the office and peed on the floor, lol.  But, I knew there would be lots of accidents, I just cleaned it up, put fresh panties on and kept talking it up.  By nap time we were 0 for 4, she'd say she had to go, sit for exactly 1/10 of a second, then jump up and run off and then pee.  But, as the pee was running down her leg, she's shriek pee pee, so I took a small victory in the fact that she at least recognized what she was doing.  I did put a diaper on at nap time, I am not even remotely assuming she's ready for that, lol!  She woke up after a very short nap, quite hysterical, but dry.  Then the afternoon proceeded with peeing literally every 5 minutes on the potty and peeing about a drop.  I could not figure out how to get her to sit long enough to empty her bladder.We read books, we sang songs, we watched Elmo.  But every single time, as soon as the pee would start to come out she would get so excited she'd jump up to show us.  I finally had Garrett sit on the little potty and show her that you sit for a while and then we looked and saw how much pee there was, and I think she finally got it!  She finally sat and peed a bunch and then lasted at least 30 minutes before telling me she had to go again.  So, in the afternoon we had one accident, but she was literally peeing every 5 minutes!  No poops all day, so I was a bit worried about constipation, but I was hopeful she'd poop early in the morning while still wearing her diaper.
So, we'll see how day two goes!

Gymnastics

Today was Payton's first gymnastics class and I think she really enjoyed it!  She was a bit apprehensive at first, so I was worried she'd cry at the start, but her big friend Keira (she just turned 5) is also going at that time slot.  All the kids start out together and then break off into smaller classes divided by age.  So, Keira and Payton headed down the stairs together and Keira showed her how to sit on her little carpet square and wait for the teacher.  I could tell P was a bit lost during the warm up, she tried doing some of the stuff but was often an exercise behind or just sat starting at them all.  It just happened that only one other little boy was there for her age group, so that was really nice for a first day.  She got a lot of attention from Ms. Barbara and a lot of chances to practice.  You can watch the entire class from either upstairs in a parent viewing room or outside the 2 gymnastics rooms.  I started out upstairs but then they moved into a room and I couldn't see her, so Stef and I went to watch her.  BIG mistake, she saw me and started crying, Bad Mommy!  I know better then that!  But, I don't think she cried long and before too long they moved back into the big gym so we could continue to watch her.  She did seem a big uncertain, but she did everything the teacher told her to do, she carried her little carpet square all over the place, sat when she was supposed to and jumped up to practice when the teacher called her name.  She is the youngest kid there, so I imagine she'll need a bit extra help, but she did so great and was just grinning from ear to ear when the class was over.  There were a couple times that she'd wonder off and go stand back by Keira, but she didn't cry when the teacher guided her back to her group.  Her "ta-da" needs a bit of work, but that's what makes it all so adorable!  She just stared at the teacher every time she wanted her to do "ta-da".  In all honesty we've been working on it for weeks and she just stares at me too, apparently it's not her thing, lol!!
I wish I could have videtaped the entire class, she was just SO stinking cute!