MY BABY FOOTSTEPS

I’m proud of her gungho-ness.

Here’s the daughter of parents who can’t skate.

 
So we may not be the best skate coaches. Any volunteers? :p

For months… our conversation would go:

Me: Are you wearing diaper?
She: No, I’m wearing panties!
Me: Can you pee pee in the panties?
She: No! Pee pee in the toilet!
Me: That’s right. What happens if you pee pee in the panties?
She: Mama will be angry and I will sleep all by myself!
Me: Promise?
She: Promise! 

Friday the 13th, 2012…

9.00pm:

Saw the girl doing her usual holding-pee-yoga-pose. Asked her if she needed to go to the toilet. Reply was a loud “No! I don’t need to pee pee!”  Fine. Whatever you say…

9.15pm:

We were in the study when she suddenly screamed “I NEED TO PEE!” and in that very instant, she started peeing in her panties as she tried desperately to run to the potty for the rest of it.

Naturally, I got into an anger fit and started scolding her. Naturally, she got into a crying fit and promising once again (as like before), that she’ll never do it again. “Sorry Mama, I won’t do it again! I won’t pee pee in my panties again! PROMISE!!!”.

Told her that tonight, she’ll have to sleep all by herself, just like she had promised. Crying intensified.

10.00pm

After reading her a book with her still sniffing away, I told her it’s bedtime and to lie on her own bed.  Turned off the lights… told her she had to sleep by herself… and walked out of the room. SCREAMS AND WAILS!

Our night battle officially begins…….

I walked into the study. She followed screaming and crying, apologising and promising that she’ll never do it again. Told her apologies accepted, but that she still had to go sleep by herself as she had promised.

10.13pm

After standing there crying for 10 mins and seeing me not moving from my chair, she finally walked off back into the bedroom. And I thought I had won the battle so easily!!! Except she stood wailing at the bedroom door for me. “Mama!!! Mama!!! Come here Mama… come here Mama!”

Nope.

10.20pm:

I was doing the laundry when she walked out of the room and peed in the potty. Thereafter happily declaring at the top of her voice that she had peed and “I’m all done!!”. Cleared the pee but told her she still had to sleep by herself cos she has already peed in her panties just now. Crying resumed…

10.30pm:

She screamed, insisting she wants to go toilet again – in the hope that I’d be appeased. But I told her to pee in the bedtime diaper that she was wearing to sleep. Crying continued…

11.00pm:

In between her screams, I would periodically go to the bedroom and told her she has to sleep by herself just as she had promised. That if she doesn’t pee in her panties tomorrow, then I’ll sleep with her tomorrow. Then she insisted she wanted a big hug. Gave in, hugged and carried her… but still put her back on the bed to “sleep by herself and left the room. “Mama… mama…. Don’t go, mama… don’t go!”

11.06pm:

It’s been 1+ hour and her crying and screaming for me carried on non-stop. I felt bad for the neighbours and brought in her toy dalmatian dog and told her Dalmatian will sleep with her instead…

11.09pm:

FINALLY… Her crying had a slight 5 seconds pause before it’s return. I see that as a sign of exhaustion…

But of course she would be exhausted. Who wouldn’t after crying since 9pm when the crime was committed?

11.12pm:

*silence* !!!

11.16pm:

Peeped in… Eyes closed, and sniffing in her sleep. *SUCCESS!*

Sigh… Honestly, I could have said “It hurts me, more than it hurts you”… But it’s not true. Surprisingly, I’m not even near the point of giving in. I suppose after so many times of her insisting she doesn’t need to go, even when it’s so very obvious with her clutching her privates and doing her yoga pose, I am so very ready for this final lesson of potty training.

Fact is, she is toilet-trained. She is able to verbalise her needs when she needs to go… And when we bring her there, she’ll settle her business nicely. But the problem is, sometimes, she just refuse to do as we ask… especially when there’s no goody-bag out of it.

Me: Do you need to pee pee in the toilet?
She: No, I don’t need to pee pee in the toilet.
Me: Are you sure?
She: I don’t need to!
Me: How about we go pee pee in the toilet and then we go to the <wherever> / I give you a <whatever> / we eat some <whatever>?
She: Oh yes! Okay mommy! Let’s go pee pee and then(A) / (B) / (C)!!!

Well… I hope this is our last lesson on potty training. That she now knows better than to hold her pee in till the last minute when it goes beyond control and too late for the dash to the toilet. But more importantly, that she learns a lesson on keeping promises. 

And for now, I’m preparing myself for a long night ahead with the girl waking up from nightmares and night terrors… as well as a very clingy koala bear when she wakes tomorrow. Thank goodness the daddy is coming home soon… It’s been such a tough week. *whines*

I may not be a fashionista… but watching my girl wear her uniform that looks long enough to sweep the floor…

… I just had to do a quick fix in the few seconds before we leave the house.

THERE! Doesn’t it look so much better? Though this totally reminds me of my secondary school days when we would puff out our uniforms to look a little bit more stylish. :p

Dearest Yahn,

Today marks the second time you’re having your “First Day @ School”. The first time was quite so disastrous that we pulled you out after a week when you were about 20mths old. You were so traumatised that till this day, Mommy still feels the heartache thinking about what you must have gone through in those few days.

But I’m glad you seem to take to this school so much better… YOU HAD BETTER! THIS SCHOOL COSTS 2x AS MUCH AS THE OLD SCHOOL!

You made some new friends who seem to like you tons too. Your new teachers seem more caring that the previous ones… And if I really want to nit-pick, I could come up with several things I wish could be better… But what matters most to me was, you were really enjoying yourself today!

Tomorrow marks the second day where Mommy will still stay with you for parts of the day… and next week, you’ll be attending school all by yourself. What a big girl you have grown up to be, and we’re all so proud of how far you’ve come.

I hope despite you attending school and hence spending less overall time with me, we’ll still be as close as ever. That you’ll know that even though we’re not there with you in school, we still love you tons, and that you’re always the most important consideration in our lives.

加油!!!

And the funny thing is she would pause for the “other party” to respond… and laugh at whatever the “other party” is saying.

… should I be worried?!?!

I posted about Potty Re-training some 3 months back, lamenting how my girl was kindof potty-trained… and then somehow un-trained herself and started “going” in her pants.

3 months on… after various hot-cold methods and ultimately giving up and investing more money in diapers just so we won’t kill each other in the potty training attempts, i think she’s finally… 80% potty trained? And all it really took was for her to see her cousin go in a potty and now she thinks it’s great fun to do so too. *Sigh*…

And then cos she’s *QUITE* potty trained now, I have funny instances like:

• She seeing a potty selling in Ikea and attempts to take off her skirt and diaper THERE AND THEN in front of all other shoppers so she could go! I had to run and stop her as another mommy tried to keep her giggles under control…

And frustrating moments like:

• She so happy that she’ll semi-pee in the potty… scream for me to go look (in the same enthusiasm as her doing a somersault for the first time)… and then do a celebratory dance. And then just seconds after I wash the potty and put it back in position, she’ll sit down again for the rest of the pee JUST SO SHE COULD DO IT AGAIN!

And the 20% of potty training that’s still not completed:

• She doesn’t poop when she’s not wearing diapers. So if I leave her in her panties… yes, I’ll save on the diapers… but I’ll have a constipated girl who just won’t clear her bowels for days until I surrender and put diapers back on her. And then I’ll have a whole day of mega-stinky-poop-cleaning to do.

Oh well… I really shouldn’t complain. All in good time… Maybe I just need to get her to witness her cousin pooping in the potty and then my problems will be solved.

If they have physical fitness test for kiddos… I think she’ll ace it…

at least in the standing broad jump section.

easily clearing two circles in a single leap.