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Monday, August 02, 2010

karate and pottytraining

The boys had their first karate lesson today. They were so excited. I told them about it last Friday and it has been all they have talked about the last few day. And now, tonight after their first lesson, Tom is already counting down the minutes until their next lesson on Thursday.

Lydia has decided to potty train herself. For months she has 'played at' using the toilet, meaning that some days she'll ask to go on the toilet and I help her and then days and days go by with no interest. I've never encouraged or discouraged her, I just help when she asks.

Yesterday morning as I was getting her ready for church she refused to put a diaper on and insisted on wearing underwear. I obliged her, although I was very nervous about the idea - I didn't want to end up with a big wet spot on my lap during the middle of church.

At her request I took her to the bathroom at least 4 times for the 3 hour duration of church. She never did have an accident and successfully peed each time she went to the toilet. All my kids were telling her what a big girl she was and praised her. She would smile big and knowingly, feeling like she really was one of the big kids.

That night she asked for a diaper to wear to bed. This morning she went straight for the underwear again. She never had an accident all day and again at bedtime asked for a diaper.

What a kid. Not quite two years old, yet very self motivated. She is funny - when she uses the toilet by herself (when I don't go in the bathroom to help her) she takes off all of her clothes, even her shirt. I'm not quite sure why she takes her shirt off, but she'll come out of the bathroom and throw all her clothes at me and ask me to put them back on her. I guess she still wants me to help with some part of the process because she is more than capable to get dressed herself.

In fact, most mornings she dresses herself and then comes in to show me that she is dressed for the day. Sometimes this is where my laziness pays off. Mornings are slow for me and often I'm still in my jammies a few hours after getting up, often because I like to get my morning chores done before I get showered and I don't want to get dressed twice, once before shower and once after. Anyway, so I don't really think about getting my kids dressed either.

Despite that, or maybe because of that, each of my kids (well, maybe not Charlie) from a young age have gotten themself dressed in the morning. I say not Charlie because most days I have to tell him to get dressed and he is the oldest of them all, so he follows my bad habit.

2 comments:

Heather said...

I would definitely call that a TENDER MERCY! What a girl!!! I hope she keeps it up. I have yet to even attempt potty training with Max and he is 2 1/2. He doesn't ever want to try sitting on the potty. sigh... I think i'll wait until he's 3.

lisa said...

this is amazing! send lydia over and maybe she can teach ellie a thing or two!

where are the boys going for karate? i have been looking into taking jack to estero martial arts, but would be interested in hearing about other options as well.