Some New Things

Recently we have introduced Kayley to her very own potty. We haven’t officially started potty training, but we’ve been talking about it with her for a few months and she seems to be more and more interested in us going potty and wanting to sit in the bathroom when we’re using it. So this week we bought her a potty so she can sit on it if she likes. So far she seems to think it’s great that she has her own potty and that she can sit on it. She sits on it a lot longer than I thought she would, and she likes to read or have you read her potty book to her while she sits there.

No official “training” has started, and we don’t plan on adamantly training her for a while with Cub arriving soon. We figure that will be a big enough adjustment for her to make. Instead it’s more of a “you can ask to sit on it when you want” and asking her if she wants to sit on it after nap time and dinner, or before a bath. Things like that. Amazingly today she actually went potty while on her potty. She got her poo-face on and I asked her if she had to go potty. She shook her head yes and pointed towards where her potty is. So I rushed her to the bathroom, took her pants and diaper off, and wa-la. She had her first going potty on her special potty experience! It was very exciting, though I don’t expect it to happen frequently yet.

Other new things are sounds and words she says. We love her new babble sound that sounds like “ticka-ticka-ticka,” like you’re tickling someone. But she does so much more than babble now.

She does animal sounds for: Lions, tigers, dinosaurs, ducks, sheep, horses, doggy, kitty, bunny, crow, snake, elephant, monkey and bear.

Then she can say (or has her own words for) things like: bubble, bath, bible, Jesus, mama, dada, Maimie, kitty, done, dog, cookie, cracker, car, airplane, God, Jay, hot, book, ball, beach ball, blankey, Violet (her toy dog), hi and bye . There are other things she says, but these are the most defined.

Then she has hand signs or body language for: please, more, all done/gone, bye-bye, hi, thank you, blow kisses, pointing to want something, “I need a changed diaper,” shrugs for I don’t know and so much more that is hard to explain. It’s so fun to watch and learn about her every day as she watches and learns from us every day.

We are also starting to enter “the terrible two” stage of life. Or in child development lingo, Kayley is transitioning from Erik Erikson’s stage one of development (trust vs. mistrust) to stage two (autonomy vs. shame/doubt). It’s been a rough transition so far, but that is also because her ninth tooth is coming in. Poor girl is going through so many changes and soon will have to adjust to having a sister. We’re loving on her as much as we can in hopes she’ll know we’ll always love her more than we can express, and that our love for her will not diminish or be divided. Of course our love for her can never come near to how much God loves and cares for her, and we tell her that all the time too.

Lots of new things are taking place around her, and we know the biggest change of all could happen at any time! It’s so exciting! And yet a little overwhelming at the same time. It should be interesting to see what our family dynamics are in 6 months. 

She loves reading her books

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