January-February 2011 (Potty training, big girl bed, & birthday)

Favorite things: Play-doh, raisins & cranberries, mac & cheese, peas, Ollie & Gertie & Gossie books, any Eric Carle books, building towers and knocking them down, helping Mommy cook or do laundry or vacuum, doing things “self” (“I do it self”). She is easily motivated to eat healthy foods if we tempt her with a treat at the end.

On February 7 Lindsay spent her first night in her new big girl bed in her new room. She settled right in that first night, but it did take her about an hour and a half to fall asleep – and she slept on top of the covers and upside down. The second night she was sideways, and by the third night she got the hang of sleeping under the covers with her head on the pillow. We went cold turkey and she hasn’t been back in her crib since she had that first night (and nap) in her bed.

On February 11 we found out the new baby is going to be a boy. We came home from the ultrasound and sat Lindsay down to tell her that there is going to be a new baby soon and that he is in Mommy’s tummy. At first she was confused and wanted to look under my shirt to see my tummy. Then we offered her the ultrasound photo, but that is confusing even for an adult. So we took her upstairs and Paul said to her, “Where do you want the new baby to sleep?” And she immediately said, “My old room!” We got out the infant gear and she definitely understood that we were preparing the room for Baby Reed.

By her birthday, February 21, she was asking to go to the bathroom “self” which meant she wanted the door mostly closed and wanted to bring the stool over to the toilet, put the potty seat on the toilet, and pull her pants and underwear down herself, even going poop with no fanfare.

Lindsay’s birthday: Grandma Fullerton came from Ohio to spend 5 days surrounding Lindsay’s birthday. I made a strawberry layer cake and lasagna and stuffed shells and cousin Karl’s family came over to celebrate with us. Lindsay loved the candles, the cake, and all the attention. On the night of her birthday, she could be heard from her room saying, “Good night, I love you! I be two years old now.”

One more birthday event was getting rid of her “baby” sippy cups with the soft tops. We had her choose which cups to give to baby Reed and put them in a bag. She chose all the correct baby cups and kept the big girl cups. We had been hanging on to them as a comfort for her but she obviously doesn’t need them. (She loved them!)