More Toilet Trouble

Since Sydney was potty trained a couple of months ago, we've been working on getting her to be more independent about it. She has done a fabulous job of going, wiping and flushing all by herself. She even gets herself up in the morning, takes off her diaper, uses the bathroom, puts panties on and then comes to tell us that it's time for breakfast.

Therefore, we no longer follow her into the bathroom to "help" unless she calls for it. Once again, we made a serious error in judgment.

She's been told at least a thousand times that she can only tear off two squares of toilet paper. I tell her that her bottom is little so she only needs two squares. I figured that she could count to twenty, so the concept of two squares should not be an issue.

All was well until yesterday evening. She went potty all by herself and then came to tell us that she needed more toilet paper. Ryan and I gave each other a look because we had just changed the roll the day before. Upon further investigation of the matter, Ryan found a stopped up toilet with almost an entire roll of TP floating in it. One scolding and several plunges later, the toilet is fine, which is great because we only have the one.

So we're back to the constant reminders of "two squares" and surprise spot inspections of Miss Independent's potty usage. Just when you think you've accomplished something you get a huge reminder that a pre-schooler is not to be trusted alone around something as fascinating as toilet paper. Oh, well....the joys of parenting.

Well, duh.......

A researcher concluded that men often lie about how many women they've slept with. Someone actually had to do a study to prove this? Talk about a waste of taxpayers' dollars.....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060217/sc_space/whymenreportmoresexpartnersthanwomen

Another brag.....

The pace at which a child builds his/her vocabulary is amazing. As I listened to Sydney say her bedtime prayer this evening, I thought back to her verbal skills from this time last year.

My Valentine's gift from her last year was the word "Mommy." I cried because I had been waiting for months to hear it. We were contemplating speech therapy because she was so behind others her age in her verbal skills. She'd already said "Daddy" and "WalMart" and even "Home Depot." But she had not said "Mommy."

This Valentine's she said, "I love you, Mommy," and now, not only is she saying "Mommy" non-stop, she is speaking in long sentences. It's truly amazing.

Her bedtime prayer is fairly long, yet she's been saying it for a month now: "Dear God, Thank you so much for baby Jesus, thank you so much for ______________ " (dinner, cookies, new shoes, etc.).

She sings entire songs (over and over and over) like "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", the "ABC's" and a few songs she learned at school or church. My favorites are:

"There are seven days, there are seven days, there are seven days in the week:
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
Today is ______________."

"How's the weather like today, like today, like today?
How's the weather like today? It's _______________ outside"

"God loves me. God loves me.
I'm so happy, I'm so happy,
God loves me."


In one year's time, she went from saying one word at a time to speaking in long sentences. Can you imagine how smart adults would be if we could increase our brain power and vocabularies in such exponential proportions each year? Children are truly amazing.....

How to Deal With Givers of Unsolicited Advice

Those of you who know me well are aware that there is a person in my life who insists on giving me "advice" even when it is unsolicited and/or unwarranted. It drives me crazy to the point of tears. I have avoided seeing this person and have even let the phone ring when I see their name on the Caller ID.

Anyway, the point is that I finally figured out how to deal with the situation. My very wise father-in-law pointed out that this person has a need to be in control of everything and everyone. I thought about that for a while and came to the conclusion that this person would be happy if they "thought" they were in control, even if they were not.

So my solution was to ask this person for advice on something that I either didn't really care about or something to which I'd already found an answer. It works like a charm and I wish I'd thought of it earlier. This person gets their need to control met and I get some peace.

I'm amazed at how much easier my life has become. I just hope this person doesn't figure out what's going on; otherwise, I'll be back to tears and frustration. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy every minute of tranquility.