Summer toys?

I felt very against getting a huge plastic toy (mainly for environmental reasons) for the backyard until I saw this sandbox/pool and table combo on the toys r us website. My original plan was to check kijiji for something used. I haven't seen anything yet that was what I was looking for, and what I did see was really visibly worn. Soooo....maybe we'll get something new knowing we will give it away in the future!! Anyway, this one from Toys r us seems perfect since our backyard is pure sun all day long (and we have lots of space with nothing but grass in our backyard). I would love to be able to have snacks outside with Paige, and let her play in the pool under the umbrella. I thought at first that maybe the sandbox was a good idea, but hot sand in 35 degree weather doesn't sound as appealing as refreshing pool!!

A conversation at the pool....

me (at the front desk): Is diaperfit running today? (I asked because it is March Break and I wasn't sure. I chanced going to the pool since I thought we could just go to the indoor playground there if the class wasn't on)

guy at desk: um....yep!

me: is it busy?

guy: I'd say moderately busy

(go in changeroom get dressed, shower, go on deck. See no signs of diaperfit...strange...)

me (to lifeguard): am i the only one here so far for diaperfit?

guard: ya, looks like it.

(put paige down the slide a few times, guard comes back)

guard: um, there isn't actually a diaperfit today, sorry!


What on Earth??? Lack of communication or what!?? We played around the pool for 30 minutes since it was public swim.

Food chucking....

We created a problem that I don't know how to fix. The other day, while in her highchair, Paige made a mess so great that we couldn't help but say "No!" "no throwing food", etc. etc. Ever since then she has been chucking food to see the reaction. Yesterday she made another big mess in the blink of an eye by dumping a soup bowl. We made her stand in the corner--Big mistake # 2. She now is throwing food and immediately asking to stand in the corner. She says "corner?" as in, "if they put me in the corner I will be out of my chair! ha ha ha suckers!" Today we had applesauce all over the wall. One second she was eating the applesauce, and the next second it was on the wall. Granted, she has an extremely small appetite the past few days which accounts for why she would just be bored in her chair with her food but still! Can't we just go back to "all done? ALL DONE! down DOWN DOWN MOMMY DOOOOWWWNNN" I prefer that to the food chucking.

In regards to the time out, it generally doesn't work for Paige, I guess we just tried it with the food incident to see what would happen. It reaffirmed that it does nothing. I guess the thing is she wasn't wanting to stay in her chair, so why would she care if she was taken out of the chair for a time out? She responds best to discipline that is directly related to the behaviour. Ie. If she starts colouring on the table I tell her only colour on the paper. If she does it again I take the crayons away which makes her upset. I tell her why they have been taken away, and she is usually fine to continue with only colouring on the paper. If she were to then colour on the table again I take this as she does not want to play with these again (obviously only using them to get a reaction rather than have fun playing with them), and redirect her to another activity. So that pretty much works with no freak outs.

So anyway, applying the same principles to the food throwing is what I have to work with. Take away the food and even take her out of her chair or give her something else to do. I'm just wondering if this is rewarding negative behaviour, or just redirecting?

Oh well, we'll see what tomorrow brings. She's obviously been sick, and today she had so much fun at the pool and the indoor and outdoor playgrounds that she was really tired out by lunch and dinner time. So maybe tomorrow will be better.

More potty...

Tonight in the bathtub she told me she had to poo. I took her out and put her on the potty where nothing happened. After a little playing around in the bathroom she started to go and I put her on the potty and she went. 1 more sticker on the chart! Don't worry....I won't post every time she goes....and this may be it for a while, who knows?

Update: instead of another full post on the potty, I'll add to the current one. We had another poo in the bathroom tonight. Again she wanted to come out of the bath and stomp around for a bit on the bathroom floor. Eventually she started to go in the middle of the floor and I whisked her onto the potty. After this we played around for a bit in the bathroom and she had an accident on the floor before I could get her to the seat again. But while she was on there she peed a bit and I noticed it later. So 2 more stickers on the chart!

A trip to see Dora and Diego!

Dora and Diego were appearing live at Walmart for a couple of hours this morning, so we took Paige and Amy in the same car to go see them. In both Katharine's and my mind we pictured them wandering around the store, but in the end they were standing in one spot for photos while kids and parents waited in a long lineup (obviously--it's March break) . We distracted the girls with snacks in the line and they were really good. They seemed a little unsure of the giant characters in the end, but both did fine for the photos! We then took them to the park in the bright sun and semi-warm day.

A trip to the Potty!

Paige had her first successful pee on the potty last night. Mike was giving her a bath and thought she was staring to poo, so he took her out of the bath and stuck her on the potty, and she peed right away! Apparently she made a surprised/happy face. I was skeptical and thought it was just water that dripped off her into the potty, but I saw it and it was definitely pee! I created a chart for the bathroom and put a nice big sticker on it. We'll see what/ if anything happens next!

Sticker Example....

What you can't see are the 3 stickers in her hair, stickers on her chair, and stickers on the floor.

Keeping busy....

Since Paige has been sick, she's been pretty uninterested in her toys. Instead she has prefered to paint or play with stickers. We were going through paper and stickers like nobody's business so we made a trip to the dollar store this morning for reinforcements. I got 3 big packs of stickers and a pad of construction paper for, you guessed it, $4! woohoo! When she's not stickering or painting, she asks for tv pretty much non-stop. Dora has actually become second favourite to the preferred "In the Night Garden", of which we only have 1 episode. I mistakenly put this show on the other day for her when she was really sick since it is a lot softer than the ever-shouty Dora. Now she only wants to watch "Igo-puggle" as she calls it (there is a character named Iggle Piggle). I much prefer Dora, so I find this slightly irritating, but the show has made her happy the past few days while we have been inside. I don't plan to continue watching tv at this rate, but when you're talking hours upon hours of indoor time, I don't mind the tv being on for a few episodes.

We also looked at our Big Book of the Dog (pictures and descriptions of all the breeds--an adults book) this morning and after looking at a few pictures of dogs ("Abby's" as she still calls them), she says "lots of Abby's". I was impressed as I didn't know she understood the term "lots of". Other phrases she has been saying are "Paige do it", "I'll do it", "mommy do it", and "daddy's home". She still doesn't know to say "Carry me" and instead says "carry you" when she wants to be carried. She'll also say "carry you milk" when she wants me to hold her cup as she climbs up the stairs. I assume she thinks the word is something like "carryu". cute.

oh--and just to add...when we were out i also scored some matching boots for paige's spring coat as well as a new fishing rod bath toy for the bath. She has played with the same duckies and cups for 12 months now and i thought she could do with something new.

argh

I thought maybe I would share my frustration with an article I saw in the Toronto Star yesterday.

http://www.thestar.com/article/599942

There is the link for the full article. Basically it is a soon-to-be-mom journalist who is writing about environmentally friendly diapering practices and her plans for her baby:

"It's not just baby brain. I'm planning to start practising elimination communication: a method that teaches parents how to read their wee one's signals so the infant can go in a potty (with assistance, of course) rather than a diaper."

She's talking about a newborn infant.

"Here's how elimination communication works: In the first months of life, parents learn baby's approximate elimination body clock (infants consistently go after nursing and sleeping) as well as the subtle signals that indicate a spontaneous need to go."

Hey, I'm all for this if it works for her. Who am I to say that it won't work? But what I think is so annoying is that there seems to be no recognition that maybe she will have a baby with colic, or one that won't nap, or will have problems with nursing. These will become huge concerns and putting a squirming, crying, irritated baby on the potty 15 times a day may become not as much of a concern. For myself, I know that I had a lot of misconceptions about babies until Paige was actually born, and it seems that this writer might too! I also love how she thinks that in the first few months parents simply learn the cues, then....problem solved! This one article is part of a 3 part series on environmental issues with babies. I'm interested what she has to say next.

I browsed through the comments and am happy to see that other readers share my sentiments. Comments such as "this article is hilarious, "let babies be babies", "I wonder if you'll post if you fail", and others were fun to read.

Update!

I took Paige to the doctor this afternoon since she had another horrible night last night, and didn't seem that well in the morning. I mean, she was better than the morning before, so we were making progress, but I knew that I wouldn't feel good until I knew she had been looked at.

Anyway, the doctor gave her an inhaler to take 2 times a day. The sad part is that I have to spray the inhaler through a tube with a mask over her nose and mouth since she is just little. It just looks really cute-sad when I put the mask up to her face. I thought she would hate the whole thing considering I have to leave the mask up to her face while she takes 8 full breaths. But oddly enough, she really likes it and just sits there. I think she likes the way it feels to breath into it. And I made sure to show her that there was a picture of a bear on the side of it.

So we'll see if that helps. I would like her to get better so we can go out and do something. This week was the conclusion of this session of programs, so we missed the last swimming lesson tonight (and as a result the night seemed sooooo long), and we will be missing the last session of Our Special Time tomorrow morning. Then next week we have no programs since it is march break. Oh well, I just want her to be better so if it means that tomorrow will consist of sticking more and more sheets of stickers on paper, than so be it.