A Glimpse of Normal

Jon spent much of spring break building a shed. I spent most of my time with the girls, but we tried to be "helping" as much as we could. Ella is good at climbing ladders, picking up screws, digging in the dirt, whacking me in the head with a broom. . . Kate is good at making me smile (as her shirt says). They are happy days when I get so spend them with these amazing people.

All About Poop

Yes, that's right. In the Wiebe household, we hear a lot about poop these days. (This got much longer than I anticipated, and it is all about potty training, so. . . read at your own risk.)

Ella's been really interested in the potty since last summer when she was around 18 months. This was also around the time she adopted specific "poop spots" - between the ottoman and her rocker was her favorite. I got such a kick out of her process: drop whatever she was doing, run to her room, close her door, and then stand in her special spot. If I ever went to check on her, she would tell me to "Go away, Mama" if she wasn't ready yet. Sometimes she would even run back to close the door on me. Other special places - behind a chair, behind a curtain, and under the table. She'd ask to sit on the potty, and we would let her, but nothing ever happened which led to some pretty tired arms. So we got a little potty which she would sit on (often in all of her clothes) when one of us would go. It wasn't until November  that she actually went pee on the potty. She even went poop (like it was no big deal) soon after that following a conversation with Oma. Soon, I'd put Ella on before a bath, nap or leaving the house and often she would go. We decided we'd do some potty training boot camp (in a nutshell: drink a lot, be naked from the bottom down for three days) when we were both home over Christmas break. (Jon was gung ho for potty training since October, but, being a nursing mother of a newborn, home alone with the kiddos most of the day, I was dragging my feet.) Ella made it clear to me that she was ready when she would run to her poop spot to pee too. (One of the many things Ella has proved she is ready for before I think she should be. I should just always tell myself she will be absolutely fine because she handles everything in stride. It is usually me that is not ready.)

Her reward for going pee was a sticker and an m&m and a sticker for going poop. The first few days, she had only an accident or two each day, but was able to stop herself sometimes and make it to the potty to finish. Although not perfect, she went many, many times those few days. I'd set my timer for 30 min, then 20 min, then 15 min and she would still beat me to the punch; she'd announce she had to go more frequently than I could predict. On the third day, she even went poop on the potty again. I thought she was doing great. For the next couple months, she would only go poop on the potty every five days. . . maybe.(Not that she'd hold it that long, but she would save it until she was in a diaper at nap or at night.) We even tried having her talk to Oma if we thought she had to go, but was holding it since it worked the first time. These successes felt huge. We'd clap and cheer, she'd get TWO m&ms, she'd tell Kate, I'd text Jon, I even sent him a photo of it once (gross, I know, but don't under estimate the excitement of a mother not having to deal with poopy diapers), we'd call Oma and Opa or Grandma and Grandpa. There was major celebration. Then about two weeks ago, it seems like something clicked and she realized she could have an m&m if only she'd poop. So she'd go eek out a little turd all the while talking about m&ms. When she got up to pooping 4-5 times a day, I cut it back to only one m&m per event. Since then, she's only pooped in her pants/diaper twice. I feel like we are getting somewhere. 

She still has pee accidents regularly - maybe once a day or every other day, and it is always at home. I really want to get away from using a Pull-Up when I am out with the girls by myself (I hate Pull-Ups. I need a cloth version of them or something.) Depending on where we are going and how far away it is, I split maybe 50/50 on whether she is in a Pull-Up or panties. She occasionally uses the Pull-Up, but most often it is dry when we get home. If it were just me and Ella, I'd just suck it up, but I get nervous when I have Kate to deal with too. I may just need to get brave. Jon and I decided we would give her some incentive to not have accidents. We bought a couple sets of Lego Duplo blocks, and split them into 15-ish sets. She can earn a set for a day (or two or three days later on) without an accident. Yesterday was flawless. . . except we had company that stayed till slightly after her bedtime. Just as they were leaving, she had an accident. I was so excited for her to have an early success, so she could see that she could do it. I feel bad that, had it been a regular day, she would have already been in bed and have earned her first set. Maybe tomorrow. . . 

  Poop in the little green potty. Ella (purple) Mama (yellow) and Kate (orange) with BIG smiles!

Some funny potty related Ella quotes:

- "Yay! Mama went pee on the potty!" *clap, clap, clap

- On a Friday, after a few days without going on the potty, I included pooping on the potty to the list of fun things we were going to do the next day. After a long silence, Ella added, ". . . or maybe on Sunday." (I'm sure she has no concept of days of the week. Just a lucky guess.)

- under the door while Jon was in the bathroom. "DO YOU NEED AN M&M?!"

- Ella leading me by the hand to the bathroom, "Mama, I made a Christmas tree!" and "Mama, I made a sheep!" 

- Complete with hand gestures: "There are some big ones. . . and some little ones. . . Yay, Ella!" *clap, clap, clap

Sweet Kate

I have never been very consistent with blogging, and recently I've done much more with facebook and sending photos the the grandparents directly from my iTouch. I have become terrible at blogging. It doesn't seem fair that our Kate is now almost 5 months old, and there is almost nothing written about her.

















I don't know if Kate is super easy, or if the 2nd child just always feels easier, but she has been a dream. I know logistically, there is undeniably more to deal with with two children. I think with the first, there is so much emotionally to deal with - not being on your own schedule, being responsible and "on-call" 24/7, loving (and worrying) about a little person more than you can ever imagine. I felt like a zombie for at least the first 7 weeks with Ella. With Kate, I felt like myself already when we got the the recovery room even though I'd been approximately 40 hours without sleep. Personally, I thought being pregnant with the second child was much more exhausting than having two kids do deal with day to day.

Kate is fairly laid back about eating. She is quick (which I SO appreciate with toddler running around) but recently has become very distractable. She will look at me with the biggest smile when she should be eating - cute, but I'd rather socialize while I'm covered up. Until today, she's been perfectly happy to share my lap with Ella while I feed her and read a book. I'm afraid Kate is just getting a little too big and interested in the book and Ella to make it work anymore. Kate still wakes up a couple times during the night to eat, but she goes right back to sleep. She's had stretches where she'd consistently go 6-8 hours at night without eating, but has reverted back to every 3-4 recently. (Although, last night we had a sixer, so... fingers crossed.) After Jon had a hard time getting Kate to stay asleep while I was out the other night, I broke out "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" again. I'm not ready to require her to put herself to sleep at night, but I have been putting her down awake for naps for the last couple days. With a maximum of maybe 3 minutes of crying a two naps, she's out like a light. I'm not completely surprised; about half the time she is not already napping when it is time for Ella to go down, I've laid her down with the mobile on, and when I come back she is asleep. I'm not sure if I ever gave Ella this opportunity at this age; Ella's nursing and napping were so intertwined. I'm sure the first time Ella actually put herself to sleep, I cried because I was so proud of her. This time I cried because Kate doesn't need me. I won't complain though, this is much easier. So far, Kate is a champion napper. The two things I worried most about handling with two - nursing, and napping - have been easy. Now what I worry about it how to get them to share a room at night and not wake each other up.

Kate is quick to smile. She doesn't mind other people holding her. She seems pretty easy going. There are many times Ella scares me with what she does to her, but very rarely does Kate mind. Ella's probably only made her cry twice - once by accidentally hitting her in the head with a book, and once by throwing (intentionally) a toy at her. Not too bad for 5 months. I was so protective of Ella when she was this age, but it nice to see I probably didn't have to be. I think Kate is going to have to be pretty tough to survive her older sister.

Kate has a whole head of hair. It is really cute, and makes me want a pixie cut. (Except that I would have to keep getting it cut frequently for it to look good - and I haven't paid for a haircut in. . . maybe ten years. I might have to wait till I go back to work.) The downside to having this much hair on a child that takes two or three naps a day is there is constant bed-head. These are the times I put it in one or two pigtails (that look like antennae) which is also cute. Upside to having this much hair on a child this age, she can't put the rubber bands out.

(Jon just got home, and I asked him how he would describe Kate. "She is a little girl and she is cute. She is cuter than most; our doctor confirmed that." I'm sure our doctor tells everyone their child is cuter than most - "breathtaking" if you will. I'm also sure Jon appreciates more about Kate than that she is cute. He just returned from "Chocolate Day" at his middle school, so I don't think he has the mental capacity to dig much deeper than that.)

September 27, 2011

Katherine (Kate) Naomi came to join us over 3 months ago, and I am just getting to these pictures now, geesh. Besides producing a healty baby, Kate's birth was everything Ella's wasn't. It was a long, spontanious labor, we had supportive nurses, midwives and doctors that acted like they had time for us, we had an amazing doula, I felt strong. Although there were moments of me being super pissed off (like arriving at the hospital after laboring at home for 12 hours - contractions 5 minutes apart - only to find I was only 1 cm dialated, which I was 5 day prior as well or when my "last push" ended up not being my last push) it was the most amazing 35+ hours of my life. A successful VBAC. If I wanted to be a parent to more kids, I would do it over and over again in a heartbeat.

40 Weeks and 4 Days

One of these girls became a big sister a few weeks ago. The other one is still waiting. . .

Marykate and Ella were born 5 weeks apart and it is likely the next set of Suter cousins will be almost exactly that (give or take a week). The relationship these two girls share is fun to watch grow. This time they interacted more, while still engaging mostly in parallel play. Of the time they played together, they were often trying to get the same toy or making loud obnoxious noises. The above picture absolutely warms my heart. Ella loves nothing more than to be chased, and Marykate kept coming after her to tickle her. Both girls laughed and laughed. (I thought I was taking a video only to realize when I meant to turn it off, I was actually turning it on. At least Grandpa got this picture!)

40 Weeks and 1 Day

Another thing about Ella that brings me joy is her love for water. With the crazy heat this summer we hit up many kiddy pools and splash parks. Newton, in my opinion, has the best splash park I've seen, and every town with summer heat should get one. I am in love. The splash park has lots of different apparatuses and holes in the ground that spray water. What I love about Newton, is that they don't all run all the time. So. . . you can be standing in a particular spot that is not being sprayed and then, boom, you get hammered. There of course is a predictable order they run in, but for the mother of a child that doesn't mind being surprised (or maybe even likes it), it provided me with good entertainment. (Another thing I love about a splash park is that this pregnant body didn't have to get in a swimsuit and I could still enjoy the spray.)

40 Weeks Today

I'm going to take my mind off today being our 2nd little girl's due date thinking about some of the things I really love about the little girl that is no longer inside me.

For today: Language
Ella's language has really exploded recently. There are so many things I could say about it. I'll just name a few or this will never get posted. She'll use words for things I had no idea she knew. Like "hang" when she was pointing to where I should put her jacket. Or "band-aid" which was nearly indecipherable except she pointed to her knee and said "ouch" - although there was nothing there, and then ran to the bathroom and pointed to the drawer where we keep the band-aids. Thank you for the clues, Ella. There are certainly things you say that I don't yet understand. Keep trying.

 She puts words together, not always in a sentence but as a complete thought. Here are some recent examples:

*As she pat my belly last night, "come. . . come. . . play. . . me."
*As I was tucking her in for her nap, "Mama. . . go. . . away." (Sigh. Little Miss Independent. Isn't she too young for that? I was sure she wasn't going to sleep right away, but she did!)
*If she wants to be chased, "Get you!"
*When she sees our neighbor's cat run out of our backyard, "Meow. . . Millie's. . . house. . . go." (and, yes, she does use the possessive form of words sometimes. I don't know how these little people absorb and apply so much.)

For a month or so at the beginning of the summer, if she was ever asked to count it was "two. . . two. . two. . " Then one magical moment she counted to ten. Jon and I both were blown away. Ever since that day,  it has been "One. . . three. . . one. One. . . three. . . one. . ." Huh.