V-I-C-T-O-R-Y

Victory is mine! Yesterday, when I picked Sydney up from school, her teachers told me that she asked to go potty, took off her diaper and went in the potty at school. They told me she's ready to get rid of those diapers and to bring her in panties tomorrow (along with several changes of clothes, of course).

So, over the past two afternoons, we've been diaper free and had only three accidents. Sydney goes to the bathroom on her own and comes and gets me when she's been successful so that I can reward her with a hug and a mini M&M.

I'm so excited I can barely contain myself. And I'm sure everyone else is excited that I will finally stop obsessing and talking about it.

Big Butt = No Shots

I knew that having a large rear end would come in handy one day.....I might not have to get shots anymore! See the article below for more info on this sad, yet amusing medical discovery.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article330058.ece

Back to diapers

Well, the potty training did not go as planned. After three days of trying, Sydney got sick. Perhaps it was the running around the house without pants for three days.

We decided to give it a break since forcing a child to potty train while sneezing and sniffling could be considered torture to a two year old. We'll give it another go once Christmas break rolls around. I think it'll be easier because she seems to have taken pretty well to the idea, it's just the consistency that needs some work.

Oh well, I guess I'll get to shelve the mini M&Ms for the next couple of weeks.

They Lied!

Let me just say that all those people who say you can potty train a child in ONE day are LYING!!! We spent most of yesterday and I've spent much of today peeling wet panties off of Sydney. Either she's truly not ready to use the potty or she's intentionally trying to drive us crazy. I'm leaning toward the latter.

WARNING: Those of you who don't want to hear anymore "Potty Talk," stop reading here.

For the past two days, Sydney has been sitting on her potty for long stretches of time. And sitting and sitting and sitting and sitting.... When she's tired of waiting, we pull up her panties and set the timer for two minutes (so we can go try again). Within the two minutes, she wets her pants. Sometimes she knows she has and sometimes she doesn't. Argh!

So for the next few days, we'll keep trying. I've stocked up on mini M&Ms, her reward for successfully using the potty (she's actually received five or six of them), and I've perfected the art of deep breathing. In the meantime, I'm going to focus on the big picture and convince myself that she'll be trained by kindergarten.

Adventures in Potty Training

Starting tomorrow, we will be attempting to potty train Sydney. I say "attempting" because as a two year old, she doesn't do anything she doesn't want to do.

We went to WalMart today and bought vinyl panties to place over her Dora/princess/Nemo panties. We also bought what we hope is one of our last boxes of diapers. She's very excited about using the potty; I just hope we can keep our sense of humor about the whole thing for the next few days.

Stay tuned for updates regarding our progress in this rite of passage. It's official....our toddler is turning into a little girl.

Free Satellite TV Anyone?

Free satellite TV! I may just have to move to Dish, Texas, based on the following article. Of course, I guess I'd better take a look at a map and find out where it is first......

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051116/od_afp/afplifestyleus_051116182138

A Small Rant From my Soapbox

The passing of Rosa Parks got me to thinking about boycotts. Her refusal to give up her seat on that bus so many years ago led to probably the most important boycott in U.S. history. The whole of society changed because of that boycott and that boycott would not have occurred without her.

I've had a personal boycott going for the past several months. I am no Rosa Parks and I do not expect to change society, but I find it important to stand up for what I believe in. After Tom Cruise publicly disparaged Brooke Shields for her use of antidepressants following her post-partum depression, I have refused to watch any film starring him. And because so many other Scientologists came out in support of his hurtful words, I have refused to watch anything they are in as well. To call her crazy and assert that vitamins and exercise alone (not therapy or medication) could cure her of her problem angered me. Andrea Yates probably took pre-natal vitamins for eight straight years (seeing as she had five children in a row) and look where it got her.

I've given up probably ten percent of what I was previously watching, which is not a bad thing because everyone should watch less television, but it sure is hard. I've had to cut out "King of Queens" because Leah Remini is a Scientologist. So is Jason Lee, so there goes one of my new favorites, "My Name is Earl." Forget old reruns of "JAG" because Catherine Bell is one, too. And I can forget about all the movies with Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Kelly Preston, Kirstie Alley, Anne Archer (ie: "Patriot Games" and "Clear and Present Danger"), and Giovanni Ribisi (Phoebe's brother on "Friends"). Do you know how many movies on TV today star those people? I never realized how many celebrities are Scientologists and how hard it is to keep up with a boycott. Below is a link to a website listing "Celebrity Scientologists."

http://www.scientology-kills.org/celebrities/celebrities.htm

Of course, they have every right to believe in whatever they want and say whatever they want; after all, we live in America, where everyone has the freedoms of religion and speech. However, I have the right to not support their opinions or the work they do. It's tough, considering how much I love movies and television, but I'll soldier on. Boycotts do no good if you give up after a few weeks; Rosa Parks taught us all that.

She's Already a Heartbreaker....

This afternoon we took Sydney to the park for a little while before dinner seeing as how it is now pitch black after dinner. She met a little boy who looked to be close to the ripe old age of three. First, he chased her up and down a hill. Then she chased him up and down the hill. And then they chased each other all over the park. It was obviously the two-year-old equivalent of flirting.

He showed her how strong he was by hanging onto a chain and even tried to hold her hand. She would have none of that nonsense. Instead, she held her hand up to his face and said, "Stop!" The poor little guy looked hurt, but continued to follow her around for a while.

After a couple of minutes of being ignored by Sydney, he lost interest and began to wander off and play with some other little boys.

Who knows how many more hearts she'll break in her lifetime, but we'll always remember this little boy as Sydney's first victim of romantic rejection.

Antics of a Two Year Old

Yesterday, my sister, Deyna, brought us a chest of drawers that she was no longer using. We put it in Sydney's room, next to her bed, and I filled it with clothes and diapers and then went ahead and put various items on top in order to clear up clutter in other parts of her room. It was nothing much, just her brush and comb, pigtail holders and barrettes and some Lubriderm lotion. Boy, did I make a mistake.

We put Sydney to bed at eight and as usual, we heard her playing in her room for a while. Since she moved into a big girl bed, she often plays for a while before falling asleep. Ryan went in to check on her at 8:30 and apparently her pink bear "went poo-poo" because she had found her diaper wipes (accidentally left on top of the dresser) and had used about 10 of them to "clean" her bear. Ryan took them away and put her back in bed.

When she still hadn't gone to sleep by nine, I checked on her. Sydney had Lubriderm ALL OVER. It was on the wall. It was on her blanket. It was in her hair. She looked up and said, "Need lotion," and proceeded to smear more on her legs even though they were already covered in 1/4 inch of the stuff. Ryan put a now screaming Sydney in the tub while I stripped her bed. Unfortunately, we forgot to take a a picture, but the image of her covered from head to toe (literally) in lotion will live on in our minds for a long time.

Needless to say, we've learned our lesson about putting things on top of her dresser.