Ellie

It wasn't necessarily pretty, but Ellie went poop on the potty for the first time the other day. We found her crying in Lisa's closet (her favorite hiding place), and we couldn't figure out why. Apparently, she had pooped, but in her pull-up diaper. There was nothing wrong with her, but she was bawling because she was upset about going in her diaper.
About 15 minutes later, she hops onto the potty, and after I turn the light on, she tells me to wait for her. Then, I hear the distinctive "plop." Yep, she pooped on the potty! She did a little bit again this morning, but got her underwear a little dirty in the process. I think she's still getting comfortable with the pooping, but she's definitely making progress. Way to go Ellie!

Posted by Brian at 2:56 PM | Permalink

We, as parents, had an epiphany the other day, which in turn led to a breakthrough for Ellie.
Since the weather has been pretty darned hot lately, Lisa has been letting Ellie run around naked a lot more. Ellie's had her share of accidents as a result, but she also showed interest in going on the potty more often. So we decided to go out and buy some underwear, to encourage the process. And lo and behold, it actually worked!

Ellie sporting her new "Thomas the Train" underwear. Yeah, she picked them out herself, and passed up Elmo and Dora in favor of Thomas. She's been showing them off to everyone in the neighborhood too.
At any rate, it's turning out pretty well. Yesterday alone, she went pee on the potty three times in a single day! Pretty impressive, I must say. We're very proud, to say the least. Let's hope it keeps going well.

Posted by Brian at 8:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Ellie has always had her own way of talking. Most toddlers do have their own sort of language. You have to strain to understand them, and most of the time it's just figuring out the pronunciation of things. Perhaps you've seen the Wendy's Frosty commercial: "The only Soquid you eat with a Fpoon." Fpoon is just Ellie's way of saying "spoon."
Now, in addition to having to learn to understand Ellie's pronunciation of words, we have to contend with her making up entirely new words. My favorite: to-later. Ellie is just beginning to grasp the concept of time: past, present, future. For most things that will take place some time in the future, we just tell her they will happen "next week." To her, it's far enough away that she knows it's not happening any time soon. She also knows tomorrow, for things that will in fact take place tomorrow. But to her, there's also to-later. Things that could happen not just later in the day, but potentially tomorrow as well. Those things will happen "to-later."

Posted by Brian at 9:54 AM | Permalink

Huge news in the Dauernheim household today.  Ellie went pee on the potty for the very first time!  She's gotten old enough now that there aren't a whole lot of "firsts" any more, so this is a big deal.  Just the other night, we let her run around naked after her bath, and she proceeded to pee on the carpet.  After a firm talking to, we weren't sure if she got the message.  But today, Lisa let her go pantsless for a while again (hey, it's frickin hot out there, I wish I could go pantsless too!), and she went into the bathroom on her own, put her potty seat on the toilet, and did her business.  She even came running out to tell Lisa (who had to begin Lesson #2: wiping afterward), and she flushed after she was done.
This is big news for us, as the preschool encourages, if not requires, kids to be potty-trained to go there in the fall.  Up until now, Ellie would sit there and pretend to try, but really wasn't showing a lot of interest in it.  So hopefully, this is the first step in the right direction.

Posted by Brian at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)