27 months

This is going to be a short post. Mostly because I feel like there's nothing much to report. Not because Meera hasn't progressed but rather its just more of the same things. More talking especially. She's also able to eat quite neatly nowadays. So I no longer wear a bib for her when we eat out. At home though she still rather get fed. I think I stressed the neat factor too much and she thinks it's neater if I feed her ( she even told me once that 'Meera feed self messy'). I figure since she's okay to eat by herself when we're out I'll continue to feed her at home (especially since it's a lot faster).

Potty training is going well. She never poops in her diaper (unless it's an emergency). I tried to get her to poop when she wakes in the morning but so far that has not been happening. Most of the time she does it during her nap time (after milk I usually try to get her to poop before I wear her diapers but strangely she can't do it then.) After she lies down in bed she will suddenly feel the need and I will have to take her out again to the toilet. Sigh.... Not sure what to do about this. Is it her way of delaying nap time or maybe it's like a routine for her?

I've started to do a bit of 'tot school' with her again but still not very regular. I realise she knows most of the colors and also alphabets! She can even differentiate lower case and uppercase letters. I shall try to get this to be a regular part of our day at least for the most part of the week.

I don't know if I'm being biased but I think Meera is quite a well-behaved child. She seems to be quite in control of her emotions and hardly ever has tantrums. I think a lot of it has to do with our expectations and how we communicate with her. Lately she seems to have picked up on the idea that if she a 'good girl' she can get to do lots of things like 'go roadtrip', 'go swimming', etc... So nowadays all I need to say is 'Are you being a good girl?' and she will immediately comply. Sometimes when she knows she's done something wrong she will plead to us that she's been a good girl. I think she's worried all the fun times will end if she's not a good girl! I must say it's been quite effective in getting her to follow instructions and be a 'good girl'.

Her sleeping has been a bit disrupted lately. Not sure if it has anything to do with potty training. She wakes up in the middle of the night saying she needs to 'kaka'. Initially I thought she had really had to go so I would take her to the toilet. Most times she peed but that was it. I guess she's still trying to work it all out.

Potty training..again

Potty training Meera was something that I had been dreading for quite a while. I had no idea how to go about it or even when to start. After a bit of reading up I was quite prepared for it and the peeing part was accomplished quite easily (in retrospect) but at the time it seemed like it hell ;)

The pooping part was quite difficult though. For some reason she was never comfortable pooping in the potty. I tried to tell her to poop in the toilet but she just kept insisting she needed to stand and 'kaka'. Sigh...So much so that it became a habit for her to poop just before her nap (when I would put her in diapers). Which was ridiculous because after her milk I would put a clean diaper on and she would immediately poop in it and then I'd have to change her again and put her to bed! So whenever this happened (which was pretty much every time) I would feel so frustrated. It was either that or she'd poop after I left and then not sleep till I changed the diaper. Arghh!

I'd read a lot on this and apparently it's hard for the child to come to terms with the whole toilet thing especially since all they've ever known is the diaper. She had done it a few times in the toilet but it was never consistent. I was getting to the point of just not bothering about it.

But a few days ago (Thursday - 16 June), I think she had to poop a lot earlier than her nap time so she kept saying she wanted to poop and I'd take her to the toilet but somehow she just couldn't get it out. So every time I put her on the toilet she tried but nothing happened. On this day when it came to nap time I told her that she musn't poop in the diaper and to call me if she needed to. I was very firm and just kept repeating it to her over and over as I put her to bed. A few minutes after I left her I heard her say 'Mommy???...kaka'. I went in fully expecting her to have already done the deed in her diapers (as she quite often did) but there was nothing! So I asked her if she wanted to go to the toilet and she said yes! We went and she did it! I was so amazed. Of course after that I had to give her a chocolate (cos I was always trying to bribe her with that) so that day she only had her nap like at 4.30! I was so pleased but then after her nap I found she had pooped a bit in her diaper (so the toilet part was not 100% complete).

The next day (Friday), I tried the same thing but she took her nap without pooping. As usual we go to Chadstone on Fridays, so I just kept reminding her not to poop in her diapers and so when we came home that night she actually pooped in the toilet.

Saturday - I decided not to go out and try to get her to poop in the toilet again. She went down for her nap and during that time kept asking to 'kaka'. After 3 attempts she finally did it. Then at night, she went again. So twice in a day.
Sunday - So it's been 5 days now and she has continued to use the toilet. It's been a bit trying though cos sometimes I have to sit with her for ages in the toilet. But over time I can see she's getting more comfortable with the idea. Initially I could tell she was really troubled with actually letting go in the toilet. She was really trying to get used to the whole concept and over the past few days she is slowly starting to accept it. A couple of times she will tell me she wants to kaka but when we go to the toilet nothing happens. I just try to keep positive and not let my irritation show (really tough) but I just encourage her and keep telling her good girl etc..
Today she did it just before going to sleep and when she asked for chocolate I just said that since she already brushed her teeth she'd get it tomorrow and she accepted it. It never fails to surprise me whenever she accepts my reasoning. I am always preparing for her to get upset and it's a wonderful surprise when she doesn't.