Lauren’s director, Wendy, approached me this week about starting to transition Lauren to preschool a bit early. It’s about 5 weeks early as preschool at Canterbury is for ages 2.5 - 5. Wendy said that Lauren is on “that” end of the curve and was probably ready for preschool when she turned 2! I always thought she was brilliant, but that is a requirement as her mom, right? 
She spent the entire day in Australia (her preschool room) yesterday and had a blast! She told me a few stories about it last night which involved playing with Thomas and learning “Humpty Dumpty”!
In potty training news, Lauren hasn’t had a single pee accident since the 2nd day and we’re on day 12!! I can’t believe in 12 days, she only had those 2 accidents that 1 day! We don’t even have to ask or remind her anymore, she has is all under control. She’s asked to go to bed in panties a few nights and has managed to stay dry all but one night too! As far as poopy goes, we’ve had some issues with her holding it so we had to do suppositories a few days, but she hasn’t had an accident in over a week and has poopy’d on the potty every evening for the last 5 days! We are just so proud of her! Who would have thought she’d potty train herself?!
Lauren did SO good on the potty yesterday. She only had 1 accident at school, right before lunch. She told Miss Robin that she had to potty, but told her a bit too late. We even picked her up for her 1 year ENT follow-up appt (her tubes still look great, yea!) and she did awesome, went on the potty while we were there! Then we kept her in panties for gymnastics. She peed at school before we left (and it was SO cute to watch her run into their little bathroom, pull her pants and panties down all by herself, sit on the potty, go, wipe, and pull everything back up. She’s growing up so fast!) Then she drank a ton of my water in the car on the way to gymnastics, so I knew there was going to need to be a potty break. Well, she didn’t want to go bc she was having too much fun and in the last 5 minutes of class, she got up to get ready to jump in the foam pit and grabbed herself and got this horrified look on her face and said “mommy, I need to potty” and it was all over. =) She then did this spread apart leg walk to the bathroom while daddy got the diaper bag with fresh clothes, it was cute!
So, I say all day in panties at school, gymnastics and home, only day #2 of potty training, and only 2 accidents is a pretty big success!! She woke-up dry again this morning and then went on the potty like a big girl. I’m just so proud:). Keep it up Lauren!
I don’t want to jinx anything here, but I think we’re on the road to potty training! As I mentioned, she’s had a potty chair for probably 10 months and will use it a few times a week, but we haven’t pushed it. If she wants to sit on it, it’s there for her to do it. Last week she was waking up dry almost every morning so we’d ask her if she needed to sit on the potty (we got her a padded seat with handles that fits on the big toilet that she loves!) and she would say yes and some day she potty’d and some days she didn’t. Then came this weekend.
Grammy came to visit on Friday and Saturday and they picked out new panties together at Gymboree on Friday and talked about how she couldn’t poop/pee in them. Her and grammy talked about it on Saturday and put the panties on them and wore them around the house a bit and she went on the potty and got her Hershey Kiss (we upped the ante last week at some point and she loves it of course). So since grammy got us started on the right track, we decided to keep it up. Today when she got up, we went potty on the potty (and she did). Then we went to the gym (in a diaper) and when we got home, she was dry, so we tried the potty and she went, twice before lunch and she put on panties! Then she went again after lunch and before nap. We put a diaper on her for nap but she woke up dry, so we went to the potty and she went again. Diaper for the grocery store trip, but dry when we got home so tried the potty and she went! And on and on and on. She had no accidents today AT ALL. She never had a wet diaper either!! There were several times she was playing and stood up and said “I need to potty!!” and we took her and she went perfectly! She even asked to go a few times during bath (which she has done pretty consistently for a few months). She went to bed with her nighttime diaper on.
We are SO proud of her!! It really seems like it’s “clicked” for her! She’s totally motivated by the Hershey Kisses as well (and was on a pretty good sugar high by the end of the day!) We are going to send her to school in panties tomorrow (with several changes of clothes) and see where it goes. But we kind of feel like we’re at a good place and just need to keep it up and not revert back. Lauren really wants to wear the panties and not be in a diaper because she’s a “kid and not a baby” as she likes to tell us. =) Wish her luck!
Our lives have been so wonderful over the last 2.5 years. It’s hard to believe that on her next birthday (which she talks about all the time) Lauren will be 3. Time goes so fast. We just love the little person Lauren is becoming, temper tantrums, spirited, bossy and all. Because along with that comes a really funny, intelligent, loving, caring child. Here’s just a few milestone’s that we’ve reached in the recent months.
* At 28 months, she weighed in at about 25.5 pounds and 33 inches tall. She’s still in size 6 shoes, inching towards a 6.5. Tiny little girl!
* Lauren started saying her days of the week last weekend, out of the blue. Had no idea she knew them…Monday, Tuesday, Wedneday, etc….even in order!
* Lauren’s had a potty since last May and will go potty on it a few times a week or so. She’s pooped on it a few times. But she just really hasn’t shown a lot of interest and we haven’t pushed it (waiting until Spring when there are less clothes and when she’s in her preschool class which focuses on that more). However, she’s becoming a bit more intrigued by the potty since some of her friends are doing it (Ethan and Brayden are both potty training). She’s asked to sit on it every morning this week (and had several dry diapers in the morning). Today she actually did potty just a bit and was so excited to get her sticker and a mini chocolate chip (come on, who isn’t motivated by chocolate??)
* This morning I sneezed and Lauren said “Bless you!” and again after I sneezed again.
* I had a zappos shipping box full of shoes in the car yesterday and she asked what it was and I told her presents for her. She asked “It’s my birthday now??” I told her no, it was Valentine’s Day but instead it was Shane’s birthday next week (my brother). She talked about Shane’s birthday all night. When we woke her up this morning and asked her what she dreamed about she said “Shane”.
* We noticed last week that she’s started recognizing letters of the alphabet, notably W and H. She also is seeming to recognize some numbers.
* She’s been reciting her alphabet for months and counting to 13 without fail. We can line up objects and she’ll count them.
* Anything she can find to drag behind her, she calls her dog (leashes, sticks, belts, etc) and she names them. Generally the name is “Abby”, like grammy and papa’s dog.
* She made up her first name for one of her stuffed animals, a dog, she named him “spinach”.
* Lauren started taking gymnastics in November. It’s a parent/tot class, so we walk her through the different apparatuses with the coach leading and helping. She’s loving gymnastics and asks to go everyday after school. She does one of the best bear crawls in the class! But her favorite thing is the foam pit. This week they had a balance beam across it and she was one of the only kids that would try it, and she did perfect, even walking sideways for a bit! Last week she jumped into the pit backwards! She’s getting really close to doing a somersault.
* Her newest saying is “mommy, I love _____”. This could be any interest of the moment. Last night it was Nemo (we let her watch Finding Nemo for the first time while doing her breathing treatment). Other favorites include, popsicles (which we are working on saying, for months her pronunciation of popsicles has been “fuckels”), Elmo, Doodlebops, Brody, her new shoes, drawing, etc. She’s been telling us unprompted that she loves us for a few months. Love it.
* She’s becoming very independent and wants to dress and undress herself, which she can do about 90% of. Just needs help with the head holes on shirts.
* She’s been interested in her Signing Times dvd’s again and is continuing to learn more signs and is really good at them. Then she likes to teach us the signs.
* Her memory amazes me. We do something ONE time and the next time we pull up to the building or see that person or do something, she’ll remember about the last time and talk about it. Even if it has been months since the previous time.
* She’s in the 2 year room at daycare (preschool prep room), but will be transitioning to the full preschool room (with 2.5 - 5 year olds) in March. Eeek!
* She hears EVERYTHING you say. Billy and I will be talking about something quietly while she’s playing further away from us, and she’ll chime in on the conversation. We’ve resorted to spelling a lot.
* A few weeks ago at school, she went up to Maggie, the asst. director, lifted her shirt and said “It’s in my tummy” and Maggie asked her “what’s in your tummy?” and Lauren said “my baby”. She’s been very interested in Megan’s pregnancy!
* In the last week, she’s wanted to take bubble baths, she had one with Ethan last weekend. Prior to this, bubble baths have always scared her! Also, after about 2 months of being terrified of the bath, she was just over it one day. Who knows.
* She is still very much into pretend play. She always has a doll or stuffed animal she’s carrying around feeding, singing to, rocking, putting its paci in, changing its diaper, putting in time out, etc.
* Hide and go seek has been the favorite game of the evening for the last month. She will generally go and hide in the last place we hid though! But she really does count 1-10 and then yells “ready or not, here i come!” (sounds more like “ready or not, ear coming!”)
* She is almost always singing something whether it be while playing or in the car. Favorite songs are Jingle Bells, Happy Birthday, Frosty the Snowman, Ba Ba Black Sheep, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (for which she also does the hand motions).
