The Bribery is Working

She's doing it, folks. My amazingly smart daughter is finally coming to terms with her need (and my desire) for her to be potty trained.

She climbed on the potty herself last night, and then 2 more times on the potty chair. She's earning pretzels left and right. So fast that I've run out.

She did it again this morning and poor Daddy had no pretzels to give her. So a little cup of chocolate milk had to suffice.

Bribing your child

I am wholeheartedly for this...when it comes to potty training.

It has taken us, what, 6 months to find Lili's trigger on this potty training thing, but we did. CHOCOLATE COVERED PRETZELS.

They are her 'surprise' when she goes like a big girl. She went 8 times in the span of an hour yesterday just to get them.

Hey, it worked. And I'll keep doing it until she is totally potty trained if that is what it takes.

To have the kiddo out of diapers is my ultimate goal (whether she likes it or not). We played the waiting game with her, we let her fight us, we made her sit there and cry, we've even let her run around naked (which she loves by the way and now has really good control of her bladder). Now it is time to do this.

Are there better methods? Probably. But the stubborness of this kid is unmatched. I think we had to work ourselves up to be in the mindset to get this accomplished. I hope we have done just that.

I'll let you know.

Lili and the Move

She is fantastic. She is really enjoying the new house (which she calls "New House", by the way). She loves to run down the hall and to play on her truck and ride it from one end of the house to the other.

She had a rough couple of nights in the new bed, but she loves it. She still sleeps with the pillow on top of her even though she has sheets and blankets. Her headboard is against the window and she has lined up all her stuffed animals on top of it. Kind of like her night time sentries to protect against bad dreams.

She has the rail to keep her from falling out of bed, which she sleeps almost up against. I bet it reminds her of the crib. But she is loving it.

She has a star and moon light we turn on at bedtime, and a sound machine she likes to fall asleep to.

We do have to keep her out of the kitchen. She came walking down the hall with two broken eggs in her hands last weekend that she had snagged from the fridge. We decided that was enough of that.

We are just getting going really well with the potty training. I hope she takes to it like she did her big girl bed. Positive reinforcement and encouragement. Plus she just might have to wet herself without a diaper a couple of times. We'll see how it goes.

She is amazing folks. I've said it before and I'll say it many, many, many more times. She is the best kid ever, and I'm so thankful she is my daughter.

New things

For the move we decided (and we are still second guessing ourselves, too) that it is time that Lili graduated from the crib to a big girl bed. It is a lot of change in a really short span of time. Wish us luck. She is getting just terribly long and if we don't do something soon she will be bonking everything as she sleeps. Ok, she does that anyway. But it is a comfort to her and we've not had sleep issues with her in the crib. I guess I am worried the new bed will pose a big problem with the routine.

Above is the picture of Lili, Matt and Punky with Lili's new bed set. She found it today at Nana's house. It had been washed and set aside for when the bed gets delivered to the new house tomorrow. I think she really likes it. She said "Ooh big stars" according to Nana. I'm hoping this will help with the transition from crib to bed.

Family time in pictures

My water baby
Liliana wants YOU to take her swimming
She is actually eating watermelon.
Uncle Blake, Lili and Foxy
Auntie Tasia is SO happy to see Lili

Breakfast with Lili

What a weird last couple of days. Last night while waving 'bye bye' to Daddy as he left for softball, I managed (and I still don't know how it happened), to pull the mini blinds right off the window. Quite a shock. Lili was on my hip and just kept repeating "uh oh" over and over and waving.

I think I rigged it back into place ok, but I forgot to replace the towel over the curtain rod that keeps the early morning sun out of the kiddos room. So she was up at 7am. Bad for Matt, good for me. I got my hugs and kisses. She and I even got to eat breakfast together (Eggys and Toes) at the table. She and I ate eggs off the same plate and talked. It was so cute. She's quite messy, I must say, but she is so cute.

I got kisses, I got hugs, I got told all about everything she had on her mind (whether I understood it or not), and we just got some good quality time.

I love my girl SO much!!!

Perfect girl

Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, I AM the cutest girl of all (or so says my Mommy, Daddy, Nana, Pops, Grandma, Papa, Aunts and Uncles...and everyone else that meets me)
Matt is seriously out numbered and he loves it.

Moments to Cherish

My sweet girl was just the cutest last night. We put her to bed. Stupidly, we thought she was asleep (dumb parents).

I went to check on her around 9:30 and she was sitting up in her crib with a smile plastered from ear to ear. I changed her and you could just tell she wasn't going to go to sleep. So I took her into our bedroom and cuddled with her on the bed. She was talking and singing and just being SO CUTE!!!

She jumped on the beds, cuddled with both of us, stole my pillow, laughed, and the best part is she laid on the pillow next to me and looked me in the eye and rubbed my cheek. It was the best moment. Matt came and laid down on the other side and she patted him on the back with her free hand.

The bad part of the evening was when the Tickle Monster came after Lili and she threw herself backwards to escape. When she did that, she cracked the back of her head into my forehead. She's fine. Totally unfazed. I, on the other hand, have a goose egg and a giant headache. But I digress.

She was very concerned for me when that happened. She has this soft side in her that is so wonderful to see and be around. She is kind and loving and trusting and generous of spirit. She is learning to share. She has imagination already. She will play in her kitchen for a long time pretending to make smoothies (like Grandma makes for her) and drink them. She even does the "ahhh" after a pretend sip. It makes me giggle and beam with pride.

She tries to sing along to Caillou and Shaun the Sheep theme songs, and usually gets about one word per line of the song. And she shouts that one word for emphasis. She dances like a maniac. Oh and her new thing is to stand on the bed or the couch, flip her legs out in front of her so she lands on her butt, bouncing off the furniture, and she comes to a standing position without missing a beat. My heart is still stuck in my throat after seeing that last night.

She's the reason I have grey hair. I will worry about her for the rest of my life. But that is my job as Mommy. And for her, I'll happily worry. She is perfect.

Spakle, baby, Yeah!

This is Lili showing us how to spakle. I guess we were doing it wrong :-)
You have to love a happy kid

Look, mama, like this.

Updated pictures.

Lili rolling out her own little pizza. It never got baked because she ate the dough. Bleck. Raw dough.
Helping make pizza for Papa's birthday dinner. She is such a good girl.
All smiles after the Diamondbacks beat the Pirates. Plus she is loaded full of junk food and had no nap.
Funny Face
Daddy and Lili right before she and Papa ran the bases at Chase Field.

A Moment In Pictures

The hazards of unloading groceries around a 2 year old is she sees the occasional goodies that are bought and stored out of her sight. In this case, Drumsticks. Or "eyes ceem" as Lili calls it.

It was too funny not to take pictures of.

Eggys and Toes

Lili came downstairs this morning and asked Daddy for "eggys and toes". Eggs and Toast for those of you that don't speak Lili.

She is the cutest thing ever.

Last week she had her first 5 word sentance, "hey Mom, I have juice". And she did have juice in her little cup. It was pretty neat.

She makes more sense everyday. She's using words correctly to describe things. She still has trouble and gets frustrated and throws things, but she is only 2. We tell her to calm down and use her words. It makes her stop and try to think things through. And usually with a little work we can figure out what she is talking about.

I still can't get her to say truck without it sounding like the dirty F word. Everyone laughs when she says it so she thinks it is right and will get a laugh. And clock just doesn't have an L in it when she says it. Again, everyone laughs. As funny as it is when little ones say naughty things, but it is hard to correct, too.

Mommy is a Mush and Lili KNOWS It

There are some days with Lili that I get aggravated with her. Then I smack myself and say "what is wrong with you, this is the coolest kid on the planet!"

This Mom thing has me spun. But admittedly I love it despite the occasional frustration and tension. "Am I a good Mom?", "Is she well-adjusted, and if not, I'm sure it is my fault?". But one look in that smiling face and I melt.

The other day she was tired on a long trip back from Peoria, or the other side of the world to those of us in the East Valley. We stopped at our favorite bagel shop, Bagel Nosh. The owner is a good friend of Matt's. Well, they closed early for Father's Day weekend. We have been telling Lili for 5 minutes or so she was going to see Danny. When we pulled away without seeing him, she sobbed. I mean crocodile tears, snot, the whole nine yards. She was crying "Uncle Danny, Uncle Danny" and was a general wreck.

We figured ok, she's tired. We get about 5 minutes away and she says "Lili Sad" and starts sobbing again.

BROKE MY HEART. Matt's too.

Instead of going home we went to Toys R Us. Admittedly, we are weak when it comes to her, and I sure as heck wasn't going to have a sad Lili.

Yes the trip helped. She did stop crying and she decided she wanted a pink plastic princess outdoor chair and to ride the Dino ride by the exit.

We got home a few minutes later and she was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

I'm a complete and total sucker. I know. But when your little girl says "Lili sad", you want anything in that moment to make sure she doesn't stay that way long.

She owns me.

Lili

My baby really is turning into a little girl. Her features are going from slightly rounded cheeks and arms and legs, to lean and muscular.

I swear her smile gets bigger every day. She's trying a few 3 word sentances like "what is that?" & "where'd it go?". Mostly it is 2 words questions "what sound?", "what happened?", etc. She loves it when you get what she is saying and she feels like she is really communicating.

She seems to be grasping and understanding a new word a day. I love it when she tries to pronounce a new word. She sometimes mixes syllables or creates her own version of the word. Tickle is ticky, and wiggle is wiggy, things like that. She can say noise perfectly, which to me seems odd since she can't say truck (it sounds like a naughty word when she tries). And clock is missing the 'L'. Super hard not to laugh, by the way.

She is loving her pool and goes in it about twice a day. She mostly puts her feet in and plays with toys (the water has been a bit chilly). But she is out for about 45 minutes at a time either before the sun is in the patio or after. She kind of knows the schedule already.

Her laugh fills the room. And she knows to say "Bless you" when someone sneezes (though it sounds like Bessy). She also knows a fake sneeze from a real one. And the fake ones she mimicks which is seriously adorable.

I just love this kid.

New Pool & A Great Weekend

Lili got a pool for the patio. I must admit I am a tad jealous. It is one of those hard plastic ones with a slide. The kind I always wanted when I was a kid, but I always got the plain ones, sans the slide. I know, I was deprived :-)

All weekend all I heard was "poo" (Lili for pool) and her pointing to the patio. Yesterday we filled it, got her in her bikini, and she had a blast. For about 20 minutes before she pooped. That quickly ended the pool session. But it didn't stop her from wanting to go back all day.

She has a cleaner more organized room today. We hung my shadow box that my Grandfather made (he made one for each of us girls, and they are really cool). Now she has a place (hung high and out of the way) for all her nicknacks.

We moved the crib and it seemed to help her sleep better. The A/C isn't hitting her directly and she didn't wake up choking and crying, thank goodness.

There are just a few boxes left to go through and we need to fix up her closet. I'd love to paint, but unless we get new carpet, it is kind of a pointless pursuit. I vacuumed what was left of the life right out of it. If I knew then what I know now I would have insisted the previous owners recarpet before I purchased the house.

All in all, though, it was a great weekend. The kind of crappy ender to the weekend was when Lili woke up an hour before my alarm went off this morning. Matt and I are walking around in a sleep deprived fog (that's what I get for letting him teach me Chess at 11pm). He's home dealing with the grump, and getting ready to go see STAR TREK with his brother this morning. This will be his 3rd time going, so I'm a bit jealous. But he's so tired I don't know if he'll enjoy it.

I'm at work. The boss is getting ready to go to Disneyland, so it is a quiet week.

Lili & Sofie

She only likes those with four legs, a wet nose, and a tendancy towards nipping her when they are excited.

Lili and Punky

Adventures in E. Coli

Ok, so this whole infection thing was caused by E. Coli (harkening back to the whole bathtub incident on Easter).

The Dr. at the urgent care did not test the samples as he said he was going to or we would have known that it was E. Coli causing the problem 2 weeks ago. Our Dr. caught it on a retest. The Bladder Infection was from E. Coli, from the tub. The antibiotic they gave us did nothing but constipate the poor kid.

Now they have to retest her again to see if it is gone, then they will determine if she needs more antibiotics.

But in the mean time she is on Miralax at bedtime for a month (and an adult dose, no less). She gets very limited amounts of dairy to make sure she isn't having a lactose problem. Plus, she has a contact irritation on her thumb (i.e. her saliva has given her thumb sucking thumb a rash), so we have to treat that, too.

The poor kid can't win. She is actually feeling better, so there is no real rush on a retest, so we didn't have to catheter her at the Dr. We can get the sample at home, thank heavens. She's had enough trauma for awhile.

I still can't get her to take a bath without screaming, so it is sponge baths and quicky showers with Mommy holding her. This too, shall pass...at least the Dr. thinks so.

I hope this is the end of all this. 3 weeks of a sick kid is too long. I don't know how parents who have kids with chronic or life threatening illness handle it. They are far stronger than I am. This infection was horrible on all of us, but really very minor in the grand scheme of things. Matt took it the worst (emotionally) and is second guessing every decision he makes.

We will get through it. We are very lucky to have a kid who is usually very healthy, and I have to remember that when I want to complain about things. She is healthy, happy and wonderful. And I am so blessed she is my daughter.

No More Ammoxicillian for Lili

Every time I think Lili is better we have another issue to deal with. This poor kid has been miserable for a week. The antibiotics almost did more harm than good. She's been off them for 3 days now and the effects are still apparent.

It is very frustrating to see a kid go from happy to completley miserable and inconsolable. I've talked to the Dr., and I'm doing as directed, but it still sucks.

I don't want her in pain or upset or fearful, and that is what she is right now. In pain, upset and fearful.

Urgent Care and Other Medical Tales

Well, as most of you know I had to leave Uncle Blake's wedding reception to take Lili to Urgent Care. My Dad went with us since I'd had a Cosmo AND was an emotional wreck. We were there well past 10pm, but were still home before the party broke up.

She has a Bladder Infection, possibly from soap in the bath water. There was a whole bath time incident that happened several days before that leads me to believe that was the cause.

I think she is permanantly traumatized for bath time. Ever since when I go to give her a bath it is tears, screaming, running from the bathroom. I broke down yesterday and got in the shower with her, instead of forcing her to sit in the bathtub, and she clung to me screaming while Matt washed her. Not fun, not fun at all. She used to love bath time.

Anyway, she is on 7 days of antibiotics and it has wreaked serious havoc on her digestive system. We've got her eating yogurt, drinking as much water as possible, watered down juice (including prune juice), and now I'm contemplating OTC digestive aids. I've got a call into her Dr. to see if they concur, but I'm pretty sure they will.

My Mom suggested that we go this route and she hasn't steered me wrong yet. Heck, it was her and Dad that figured out that she had the infection in the first place. I thought for 2 days she was just being 2 and grumpy (oh, and yes I feel like the world's worst Mother for not figuring it out).

Anyway, while she might be on the mend from the infection, she's now got another problem from the treatment. Side effects suck enough when you are an adult. My poor little girl is suffering now and it hurts my heart to know she is not happy.