What a difference a year makes

Today marks Kinley's half birthday and makes her officially 2 1/2 years old.  I can't help but think of how much she has changed in the last year.  It was just one year ago that I was sitting in the doctor's office having a discussion about her lack of words and what to do about it.  Now, a mere 12 months later, I can't get the girl to stop talking.

Last week Kinley and I were reading a book and I pointed to a picture and said, "there's the frog".  Kinley responded with, "no mommy, it's a red eyed tree frog".  Oh really smarty pants?  Well nobody likes a know-it-all.

Then, after 2 days of pure torturous potty training, Kinley woke up from her nap and announced, "I not want to potty train.  I quit".  

Though I do enjoy being able to communicate easier with her, I must admit, I kind of miss the peace and quiet.  She sure is cute though.

Potty Training Round 2

Today is the second of our recent attempts to potty train Kinley.  I read several books and articles about potty training and came to the same conclusion that I always do.  My lovely little daughter just doesn't really fit those books.  So, instead of following one book or one method, I just took bits and pieces from each and came up with my own "plan" for Kinley.  I guess time will tell if it works out.

We turned yesterday into a "learn to pee in the potty" party.  The inspiration came from the "My Little Ponies".  Those silly ponies have a party for everything.  I tried to make the day as fun as possible.  We had special treats and snacks, and of course, lots of fun things to drink to give us a reason to be in the bathroom.  I don't think that I have ever been this tired in my life.  Apparently trying to find creative ways to entice your child into the bathroom every 20 minutes just wears you right out, that and sitting on a tiny pink stool and cheering for somebody to urinate.

I decided to use Pull-Ups, even though I'm not completely sold on them, but poor Kinley has a panic attack when her pants get all wet.  We'll move on to Pull-Ups with underwear and then just the underwear.  However, all steps are subject to change.  We finally had one successful attempt last night and after spending the majority of the day in the bathroom with her, it was literally like I had won the lottery.  We sang about 1,148 songs, read 287 stories, talked about Nick Jr. characters for about 2 hours, and sat in the bathroom every 20 minutes, and we ended up with one potty chair half full of bodily fluids.  Whew!  What a day!  We've had some accidents again today and zero successful attempts, but we're making progress.

This is Kinley "checking for goo" as she calls it.  Apparently kids these days call toe jam "goo", or at least mine does.  She does this several times a day.

Welcome to Ponyville

For the last 2 weeks, the majority of my time has been spent "playing blocks" as Kinley calls it.  Playing blocks consists of building some sort of a shelter/castle for Kinley's My Little Ponies.  I'm not sure why, but these ponies are always under attack.  Last week I made the mistake of showing Kinley how the pony could use the giant blocks like steps.  Now Kinley insists that I build castles with "a lot a steps" as she says.  I find myself cursing these stupid ponies.

A typical day will consist of the ponies being chased by "a big green dragon".  Then she helps me build a castle so they can "wook out for the dragon", hence the need for steps, they act as the "wook out post".  Today Kinley grabbed her ponies in a complete frenzy and announced that "the pumas are coming".  I said, "the what are coming?"  PUMAS, she yells at me.  Then she tells me they are like big cats and they eat ponies.  Really?  I had no idea.  So of course, we built a shelter for the ponies so the pumas couldn't get them.  I am happy to report that all ponies are safe and accounted for, even "Grandma Pony" who runs slower than the rest of the pack, and yes, Kinley named it Grandma Pony.

I had no idea that to be a good mom you needed a degree in engineering or architecture so that you could build decent looking creations with your giant legos.  Please, don't be jealous of my mad building block skills.

Reasons

We are all getting ourselves prepared for round two of potty training.  I've been mentioning it to Kinley, showing her the wonderful "big girl undies" she has, and doing everything I can think of to get her excited about being a "big girl".  Today, she gave me her top 5 reasons for not using the potty.

1.  I'm too little

2.  I'm too scared

3.  I'm too cold

4.  I have work to do

5.  It not look like fun

Nice try chica, but I am sick of changing and paying for diapers.  P-day is in less than 2 weeks, so I suggest you work out your issues and pee in that stupid potty.

  

Inconsiderate

I took Kinley with me to Target yesterday, it really is one of our favorite places.  We had a short list of things we needed, but as usual, I saw a giant clearance sign and stopped to check it out.  I was just looking at some adorable little sweaters for Kinley when I hear the sounds of some kid barfing.  Apparently I am not one of those moms that can handle the sight, sound, or smell of vomit, especially when it is not my kid.  Obviously this meant that I had to cut my clearance shopping off abruptly and get back to my actual list.  We took a detour through the toys on our way to pick up some diapers.  Kinley was trying to select a toy that I could bribe her with during our next attempt at potty training.  When we finally made it to the diapers, I see two Target employees cleaning up more vomit.  So now I am wondering, what are the odds that two different people puked in this store, keeping in mind that I have seen very few other shoppers.  I have come to the conclusion that the mom of the first puker must have continued shopping until her child barfed again.  Who does that?  Honestly?  If it were my child that puked in the store, I would have abandoned my cart and fled to the door faster than a human being should be able to move.  I most definitely would not have lingered in the store long enough for my child to let loose again.  Really, Target has great stuff, but was there really something in the store you needed so badly that you let your child puke twice in there?  Doubtful.