Monday, January 18, 2010

In addition to being my personal babysitting angel, my neighbor is also part of the system as she is hosting foster kids.  One of the things they suggest foster parents do to help the kids is to take pictures of them and make a small album.  Whenever Heather has some new kids I go over and make sure some pictures are taken of them.  Mostly because it isn't known really if the kids will ever have a professional picture taken of them.  They aren't in the system because their parents have lots of money to do things like that. 


This is Xyla's friend Aroura.  For the last little while Xyla has been very excited to have a new friend next door.  These kids were very loving but Xyla was having a hard time with sharing the affections of her mommy.  I don't know why she has become so clingy lately.  She was clingy even around her family this weekend.  Most kids hit this phase long before now.

It didn't stop her from coloring though.

 

Friday, January 15, 2010

The Potty problem. Part 3


Because I haven't used either since the dog was a puppy, it took me another 20 minutes after her bath to find the scrub brush (which I hadn't thrown out, just packed inconveniently) and the Resolve Carpet Cleaner.  If you have to clean poop of any origin I recommend this product freely and I have not been paid by anyone to say it.  

In the end it was really no big deal because for the first time I was able to clean the "stuff" up with out heaving.  I have opened up a whole new career avenue for myself even though I am still not ok with how frail old people are.

Now about the problem . . . while the first adventure in potty training ended with a decided victory for the Pampers manufacturer, I am not sure how to handle the actual problem.  I have never heard anyone else talk about it.  There is no literature on it.

When I brought the potty home she was almost as ecstatic about it as she was about "Marney"  (Yes, the big dopey purple dinosaur.)  She would stand on it, sit on it, open it close it.  She wouldn't let me keep it in the bathroom, it had to be front and center in the living room.  She closed the lid, she lay across it.  I am sure I even saw her kiss it.  She had no problem sitting on it for long periods of time in her "free" state.  When I say this you need to think of the Rock Biter near the end of The Never-Ending Story)  These all seem like very good things.  The problem is - when she feels like she needs to pee, she stands up, runs across the room, peeing on the floor as she goes.  Apparently, in her mind it isn't so much a urine receptacle as it is a princess throne useful for storing small treasures and accessories.  

I caught her making the poo-poo face and dropped her diaper and plopped her on the potty.  She was very upset that excrement was depositing in "her potty".  When she was finished I let her get up and praised her for a job well done.  We took the bowl to the bathroom and dumped it in the toilet.  She didn't want to help me say "bye-bye mean poo-poo".  She seemed sad.  I washed out the bowl and put it back in place.  She hasn't been even remotely excited about the potty since then.  She has let me help her up on the potty ring on the big toilet and tinkled there but gets upset all over again when I suggest that if she needs to go she can use her potty.

The obvious solution is to train her on the ring and let her use the potty for what ever she deems appropriate.  Since I made her violate the sanctity of the potty, I don't know how to restore the relationship.  Any suggestions?
And now we bring you the comedy of Xyla Laniece:


"So this goes on there huh?  Then what do you do with it?"


Did you know that chicken goes in your ear?

My bologna has a first name . . . and it sticks to the tv.

The potty problem. Part 2


In our house at this time, this is what it means to be on the potty.

So like I said the suggestion came across my desk to let her run around nudie booty for a couple of days and "poof" she'd be potty trained.  Let me qualify that I am not really a fan of the "let nature handle it" methods.  Mostly because nature doesn't come over and scrub poop out of the carpet.  I have raised enough puppies to know two important things about potty training: it never takes just two days and just because someone says it should work, doesn't mean it will.

I was seriously considering buying bulk remainder newspapers.  I ruled it out when I figured my little girl is more adept at relocating papers than a 6 week old puppy.  I bit the bullet just to see if this "miracle" technique would work.  If it did I had plans to sign up Billy Mayes and hock it on QVC . . . what's that you say?  He is?  I am sorry to hear that.

I stripped her down to nothingness and let her go about her business.  She learned one important lesson.  She likes being "free".  I decided to unload the dishwasher while she discovered the world in it's new definition.  Xyla is very introspective when it comes to discovery so I don't usually worry if it is quiet in the other room.  She comes and checks in on me now and then and we're both cool.  Somewhere around half way through unloading the first rack, Xyla comes trucking around the corner with her cute little doe eyes all big.  She looks at me and starts chattering like a woodland creature.  In her world she in communicating clearly and effectively.  I mostly depend on her inflection to understand.  All I was picking up was that something was really important ou . . out . . . there . . . in the . . . hey, do I smell poop?  (I have become sort of an expert on sussing out the source of a particular smell.)  

She turned a little and I didn't see anything but I was sure this was more than gas.  I started to lift her by her arms and there it was.  She felt it dump down her leg and took a step back wards. Then, realizing she was standing in something unfamiliar took a step to the side and put the other foot in the middle of this new "texture".  Of course she had to come tell me the situation was anything but normal.

Have I ever told you my reasons for deciding not to be a nurse?  Besides being incredibly uncomfortable with the frailty of old people, the prospect of experiencing the nudity of others even in a non-sexual way and being too immature to accept that people pass away as a natural part of the living process, ther eis also the fact that I have never (and my sister will confirm this) been able to handle the things that secrete, ooze, flow or project from the human body.

This is the moment my sister would have paid to see.  I was going to have to face the big dark green monster that was mushed into . . . I was really hoping just the linoleum, but as I turned the corner I could see her tiny path as she made her maiden news announcement.

I will admit I kind of panicked a little.  Not, surprisingly, about having to clean it up but about which I should tackle first: the floor or the kid.  This was my exact thought process.  Try to read it as fast as you can:

Where's my resolve, ugh it's in between her toes, I knew this was going to happen, I can handle it, it's for the greater good, this won't be the last time either, ugh I can't hold her against me it's all down her leg, I'll wear puke but I refuse to wear poop if I can avoid it and I can, if I could just, wait she's naked I can put her in the tub, what did I do with the scrub brush, I used it to clean up the dog's messes but . . . I might have thrown it out when we moved, stupid superstition, don't bring old dirt to the new house, but I guess if you have to have one, oh man where is it, I smell it but I don't see .  . . oh, Lord is next to the couch, three steps to the right and it would be on linoleum, that'd be easy to clean, don't even think about the newspapers, she isn't a dog, she's a toddler, there's the wipes, will that work, o man I'm gonna need two hands for that, just put her in the tub, where'd it go again, don't step in it, ta-da, now I am going to have to scrub under Dora, I hate cleaning the tub, but my baby is worth it, why is she smiling at me, this is fresh poop why isn't it coming off, I didn't grab a diaper, should I put a new one one her or not, what would brandy do, she'd keep pushing through but honestly I don't want to do this again today, diaper it is, now where's that scrub brush . . . ?

Stay tuned for Part 3.  Yes there is more . . . 

Sunday, January 10, 2010

The potty training problem. Part 1

When do you start potty training?  It's a question so many parents are eager for the answer to.  "Wait until they are ready" is what all the literature says.  I think my little girl is ready.  I bought a potty ring quite a while go because she was having "back up" issues.  She would have times when she knew it was going to hurt to poop so she would hold it in.  You could tell she just had to let something go.  When she got that look on her face I'd pick her up and set her on the potty seat and stay there with her until she passed the big mean poo-poo and let her flush it away and say bye-bye.  Did you know it is difficult not to pass bm when you sit with your feet straight out from your body.  Try it next time.

The best thing that has come of that process is recognition.  She knows that the toilet is for "eliminating".  She knows the toilet makes loud noise when it flushes and she isn't scared of it.  These were all excellent things in my mind.  A great start down a good road.  I figured all I needed to do was wait until the other signs started popping up.

She goes to daycare and she sees her friends doing it.  I have that going for me.  She sees me do it.  She even tried to put a diaper on me once.  She was serious about it too.  I didn't have a way for her to get up to the stool yet so I thought I'd buy a potty seat so that she could start getting used to it being in the house.

Even I think I am being overly ambitious but it pays to be prepared.  I buy the $10 potty from WalMart (and so ends my personal strike)  We get it home . . . pull it out of the box and . . . 

You'd think she just reconnected with a long lost friend.  She hollers "potty, potty, potty".  The "does she know what it is" half of the battle is won.  Now we move on to "does she know what it's for."  I set it down and she began stepping up onto the lid.  She tried to open it even asked for "hep-peas".  (Yes I am pleased as punch that my daughter can ask for help courteously.)  

Once she gets it open she sits down directly over the pot.  I think to myself "maybe potty training is going to be like everything else has been with her - easy."  I don't know why I let myself think stupid things like that.  She is a great kid but it hasn't been easy and I should know better than to tempt fate.

Since she'd made it that far I thought maybe I'll start right away on weekend one with the potty in house to see how things go.  Modern diapers may be the enemy of potty training.  Yes they are amazing for times when you can't get to a bathroom to change her for 6 hours but for establishing a pee schedule they are impossible.  The hold so much I don't know sometimes when she has peed.  Darn those Huggies - they just work too well.

A suggestion came across my desk to strip her down naked (yep in November) and set up her potty in the living room and just let her run around and eventually she will get it.  Tune in tomorrow for part two of this exciting adventure . . .

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Just one last post for the day.  You are going to be sick of pictures by the time I am through.  These are just a few of the things we have done since I went off the grid for a couple months.


The Wildlife Expo.  The first year I was there I was pregnant.  The second year I was nursing.  I knew it would be next to impossible to chase around a toddler so this year I enlisted help from her dad.  He was out of his element and out of cell phone range but I think they had some fun together.
Then we went and spent a day taking some pictures for some derby girls.  That was a great day.  They may look pretty but they can be down right mean if you get in their way.



We attended Ms. Meka's OKC wedding reception.  Xyla got to stay up late and ate some soul food style chicken.  She was doted on by everyone there and loved every minute of it.  This is the first anyone has seen of these pictures so don't tell Ms. Meka.



Early in October we moved to Stillwater, OK.  Ninny came down and helped us move our stuff from the city to the home of the OSU Cowboys and Eskimo Joes.  That bottom picture is the last one of the two of us in the old house.

But just because we moved an hour away doesn't mean we can't break bread with family.  We spent Thanksgiving with Gegee and Papa James and the whole James family.  I have other pictures of the food but I don't want you to drool on your keyboards.
After that last post I wanted to be sure to lighten the mood a little.  I think my baby girl has a fantastic sense of humor.  She may not know it yet but she does.  For instance:


This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine.  


Xyla wonders what life would be like if we all had cups for hands.


Do you know how to tell you are dancing with someone with two left feet?  Two left shoes.


Honestly I think this speaks for itself.


Didn't you know that's what you do with crayons, you wear them on your head.