Bigs and littles

New shoes at the zoo

Here's the poop

Emmeline is making progress on the potty.  A little while ago I started setting her on the frog potty that we have, and lo and behold, she went a couple of times.  But she still wasn't showing much awareness, so I didn't force things.  A few weeks later, I tried again, and we had more success -- and this time she seemed to understand what was happening.  Since then she's gained an awareness of her need to have a bowel movement.  She can usually tell us when she needs to go (though it doesn't always mean she'll do so once on the potty), and she usually produces.  She's even gone at school a few times.  She will pee on the potty, but it's entirely happenstance.  A few times, she's cried after going in the regular toilet, though other times she's surprised by the splash and makes this hilarious face or claps.  And she has made the switch to the regular toilet.  I don't know if she realized that every one else is using the regular toilet or what, but she doesn't want to sit on the frog potty.  Furthermore, she doesn't really want to interrupt breakfast to go.  She has on more than one occasion sat eating Cheerios from a bowl, her milk on the stepstool next to her.  Her desire to be a "big kid" in terms of her elimination extends even further to her diaper-wear.  This weekend when I laid her down for a nap, she absolutely threw a fit because she had a cloth diaper on instead of a pull-up.

Oliver, in poop-related news, went through an extended bout of constipation, but a mix of prune juice, lots of raisins, and eventually some Miralax took care of that.  I am still dealing with poops in the morning in his pull-up, but it seems like forcing him to try and go before bed just made him resistant, bringing on the constipation. I guess every kid eventually learns to stay dry at night!

In other poop news, this morning I found a pile of bunny poop in the middle of my walkway to the garage.  Seriously, I'm up to my ears in poop. 

Labor Day

A little over two weeks ago was Labor Day, and in usual fashion, while the daycare was closed, classes at Vanderbilt were in session.  Wes took the morning shift while I went to class, and I kept the kids in the afternoon so he could get some work done.

When I came home in early afternoon, Wes showed me pictures from the morning.  Clearly, everyone had a good time.

Swan song

Sometime in mid-summer, Emmeline moved up from the infant classroom to the one-year-old room at daycare.  I was a little worried about the move since she was so attached to her infant room teacher, but the promise of twice daily trips to the playground seemed to assuage her.  The move turned out to be really good for us, too, since she naps so much better there.  I wasn't at all reticent for her to move up -- it's just part of the process, and there's something exciting about it -- but like with Oliver's last move, I hated leaving teachers who had been so good for our kid.  Kendi, the lead teacher in the room, had made Emme's transition into daycare seamless, and both she and Annette (who joined the room later on) had really contributed to Emmeline's independent skills and great socialization.  I went in almost every day for the first five months Emme was in daycare -- and pretty consistently thereafter -- so I'd gotten to know both ladies pretty well.  

I was touched that they made Emmeline a framed poem to bid her farewell.  I wanted to make sure I documented it somewhere, which is why I'm finally putting it up here.  I thought it was a sweet touch to mark her move up from being a baby to a big girl room.  

We miss you, Miss Kendi and Miss Annette!

Sliding and swinging (and a little soccer)

See one, teach one

Any chance I can get the big one to potty train the little one?