Growing Up

Lately I have been having a lot of those moments where I look at Bailey and think, "wow, this works...this while parenting and teaching things pays off!" Going through everything for the first time sometimes I just dive in and think, "I hope this works." It is encouraging to look at my 2 1/2 year old who has manners, language, joy, and personal interests and feel like a very blessed parent.

One of Bailey's biggest changes over the past few months has been language. She was always a quiet observer and now she talks my ear off. She knows what she wants and what her likes are and she does a great job at expressing herself and her needs. Bailey pronounces words a lot better now and it is funny to see her have conversations with other children or strangers in the store. She no longer calls Sleeping Beauty "P Pee Doo Doo" and our dog Frani is being called more and more by his name instead of "Rough." She pronounces her own name now instead of referring to herself and "dadda." Bailey struggled with the "B" words for some time. She can pronounce Jaemus instead of only calling him "Baby" or "baby JJ." Still though some words or phrases still come out funny. She calls her friend Ethan "E E" and her friend Emily "eye-lie."

Bailey's biggest miles stone recently has been her conquering of the potty. We have been casually potty training for a few months but I have been real laid back especially since Jaemus was new and I didn't want to deal with pee and poop all the time. I also was waiting for her to show me enough interest to really commit to a daily practice of no diaper. After a lot of wet panties and potty conversations Bailey began to tell us every time she went pee or when she had to go. The real clincher however was when she would yell to us at 9:30 at night, after she had been in bed for an hour, that she went pee and wants a new diaper. This for us was what pushed us to commit.

Last Tuesday I told her we weren't going to wear diapers at home anymore, only to bed or when we leave the house. Having us all committed to this has been a great success. One week later Bailey has not had any accidents for two days, goes pee and poop on the toilet and yesterday at church she went twice with the caregivers and this morning she went at the bank and Target! I was stunned at her initiative to want to go when we were out and about. I told her she could go in her pull-up when we were out or at church but she wanted the potty. I am very proud of her and so far the ease of her willingness. I am sure we will hit more bumps in the training process but so far I have been so relaxed and impressed with her ability to adapt.

However, it does make doing errands a bit more tricky. I was in no hurry to have her use public toilets and deal with Jaemus in the carrier and all but once you start you can't just stop.

Bailey's potty chart. She took months to fill up this one but filled up her second one in one week! When she fills up the potty chart she gets to ride a train at either the Spectrum or Irvine Park. Way to go Lucky Bug!

I just love this picture of these two! So much love.