Bowling. And Underwear.

Sunday our friends invited us to go bowling, which we'd been wanting to do with Ingrid for some time.  We got a couple pitchers of beer, the kids ran around while we waited for our lane to open up, and we reminisced about the days of yore when bowling alleys were smoke filled.  (Ahh, the good ol' days.)

 They had shoes in Ingrid's size, it was pretty cute.

She had such a good time trying to roll the ball.  Otis had a harder time but he seemed to like it, too.  He just didn't want any help, and at one point his ball stopped mid-lane and we had to have the guy run down the alley and get it for us.  Ha!

zAnd in underwear news, we got some for Otis today.  He won't wear them, but we have them for when I decide to start.  I know you're supposed to wait for them to want to but I swear to god, Otis knows how to go on the potty, he just doesn't feel like it...So the underwear got played with today.  Many stuffed animals got to wear undies today.

I guess I should just think of in two years when he's totally potty trained and I can't even remember this time of having to work at it.  Right?

Back to "Normal"

From how things were going at the beginning of the week to how they are now, it's like a whole different family lives here!  I haven't been on my prozac for a month or so and it's been so hellish.  I have been on this medication for years and thought, after forgetting to take it for a week or so, why not see what it's like off it?  Oh my god, not good!!  I am such a bitch without my meds, I yell and get crabby and, therefore, Ingrid is in a bad mood and upset and Brendan gets that way as soon as he comes home to a houseful of stress.  Aaaahhh!  The other day I finally broke down and wanted out of my life.  I just wanted to not be a mom, and certainly not a mom of two.  I wanted to be able to SLEEP and take a break and watch non cartoons on TV.  I started to cry and then suddenly it hit me--honey, your depression is coming back with a vengence.  Take your stupid pills!

Two days later and here we are, happy as can be.  Ingrid and I had a lovely day today.  We went to Trader Joe's and they have these little kid sized shopping carts that Ingrid just loves.  We did a lot of block tower building and coloring and reading books.  We played outside after lunch in the amazing cool windy weather.  Ingrid's obsessed with the rocks in our driveway lately, she will sit for an hour just looking at each one, putting it in her little wagon, and then going on to find another perfect one. 

We had a gift certificate to a local brewery so we went to dinner.  Ingrid was a model child, coloring quietly at the table and eating her veggie soup.  Brendan and I got to have a conversation and it was just so pleasant and I realized how awful the past few weeks have felt. 

Another thing that helps in the calm is putting Ingrid back in diapers part time.  For two weeks she boycotted the toilet so I was changing her clothes and mopping up pee at least five times a day.  Not fun.  And the horrible thing is even though I KNOW you're not supposed to yell or make a big deal of it, after the third or fourth time a day, after days of this happening, I would yell.  Why didn't you tell me?  Why won't you go on the potty?  And then I heard myself and stopped and read up online about setbacks and how common they are and how you just have to let them have their time and they'll get around to it.  So back in diapers she went, but she now will tell me when she has to go.  And I haven't had to worry about pee on the couch or rug for two days!  I see a major change in her attitude already, so here's hoping she'll get back on the potty train soon.

Things I Want to Remember

Time goes by so fast and there are so many things I forget about!  I feel like the only way I'll remember is if I write them down, usually on this blog.  So here are the things I want to remember about Ingrid being 2 years, 2 months, 2 weeks, and 2 days old (which is today!)

1. She has an imaginary friend named Hano.  No idea where the name came from, but it's always the same--she pretends the strap hanging down from her high chair is a swing and says "Hano's swinging, Mama!"  And just this morning she knocked some books off the bed and said "Uh-oh, Hano, what did you do?"  It totally cracks me up because I used to have an imaginary friend named Kelly that lived in the flowered wallpaper of our bathroom.  I'm not worried a bit about this kid's imagination!

2. She is really into being a big girl lately.  She has figured out how to get on the potty all by herself using her step stool.  She went upstairs while I was doing something downstairs, and a few minutes later came down so proud of herself sayings she went potty all by herself!  Every time we go in there now she says "I do it all by my big girl self." 

3. She is just getting to that stage of wanting to play with other kids.  Our friends came over today and the first thing she did was ask Ben if he wanted to go up and play.  Up the stairs they went and we moms got to sit on the couch and talk.  I like this stage!  Then we went to the park and there was a girl behind her on the slide.  She said all excitedly "Wanna go on the teeter totter?  Come on!"  It's fun to watch her be social.

That's all.  Just being a mushy mom.  Loving my kid. 

Oh by the way, happy birthday to my husband today!  I love him, too.  But I don't think you'd like to hear stories about him going potty all by himself :)

My Singing Sensation

Ingrid is quite the singer. Here she is a couple weeks ago singing Happy Birthday to me, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I love how loud she is! So funny...


And yay to me, I got to 150 fans of Applesauce Crafts on Facebook overnight! I really appreciate all the support. I got an order for a custom felt book last night, so I will be busy all weekend getting that ready.

To those who are waiting on a pay it forward package from me, I am slowly but surely working on them and will ~hopefully~ be sending them out on Monday.

I'm also working on a quilt (because why only have one project going at one time, right??) that I'm pretty excited about. I had a basic idea and am kind of freehanding it, so we'll see how it turns out. One great thing is it used up a ton of my little scrappy pieces in my scrap box, the ones I'd been saving for just this occasion!

And on the potty front--yesterday had a couple misses and I ended up putting a diaper on Ingrid while we ran errands because she's not so good at going on public toilets quite yet. She will if no one else is around, but if someone is in the next stall, she is too curious!! But other than that, she's doing really well! I'm so happy it's going so easily. I suppose after all the sleep issues we've had with her, I deserve to have something go smoothly.

Such a Big Girl!

Ingrid has taken it upon herself to potty train.  Seriously, two days ago she said mama, potty!  She ran to the bathroom, put the potty seat on the toilet, and tried to climb up there.  And then she went.  So we went diaper free and had one miss and a bunch of catches!  Yesterday she did not have one single miss.  She used one diaper for naptime and one at bedtime.

Today we went to get some training pants.  They were out of girly print 2Ts so Ingrid is the proud new owner of three pairs of train and car themed underpants! 

It is so amazing to me that she is just 21 months old today and is going on the potty.  I had hoped for this, for sure!  Switching to cloth and having potty seats around since she was walking were all a part of the plan!  But you just never know.  She took forever to crawl, to walk, and to sleep through the night.  So I wasn't planning on full on potty training quite yet.  But, hey, follow her lead, see where it goes, right?  She seems ready, so we're going with it.  And so far, no misses in two days!

In other non-urine related news :)  We started with a sweet smelling hyacinth, and then added some red tulips, and then for my birthday we got some bright yellow Gerbera daisies, and now we have a little garden on our kitchen table.  I love it.  It, along with the sun that has been shining for two days, makes me smile.  Spring is quite possibly near.

And one last thing, I just made the sweetest little baby shoes ever.  I got some tiny buttons and I wanted to see how they'd look on the shoes.  Adorable, that's how they look.

Toddler in the house!

Since last weekend Ingrid has become a champion walker. She is really steady on her feet now, and full of confidence. Once she masters something it's like she's done it all along...I seriously doubt running is very far away.

The good thing about Ingrid walking is that I can now dress her in all the girly dresses we've had hanging in the closet. She couldn't crawl with them on because her knees would hit the dress and she'd get stuck. But now, bring on the girly! A family I used to nanny for gave us a whole box of clothes right before we moved and they had a ton of cute dresses. Here is one we chose for yesterday:

Cute, huh?

Today we've just gone to story time, where Ingrid decided she knew how to walk down stairs instead of climbing down. Even tumbling onto a hard floor didn't sway her--she just got back up and tried again. When we got home, she found a pacifier on the floor that she must have smuggled out of bed and she thought she was so clever by having it in her mouth while she played! Look at that coy look she's giving me!

Other new things--she went on the potty twice today! She knows the sign for it and she's used it a few times and knows how to say potty and yesterday she even dragged the one from her room all the way down the hall. Then instead of sitting on it, she pooped on the carpet. *sigh* But it's a start, right? She's not quite 14 months, so I'm not in a hurry. I just figure one day at a time and she'll learn what she needs to do. So far so good!