9 days

What a difference 9 days make. That was how long DH was away on a trip to Barcelona. And in that time,

• mini-b was potty-trained! (something that I never thought would happen)
• micro-b grew.... visibly
• micro-b made his first crawl
• micro-b found his toes
• I lost my marbles on a couple of occasions

On the potty training bit, it was his school who initiated the first step. I remembered his teacher, Miss Lauren, writing in the Communication book about being potty-trained as a goal for the new year and I remembered thinking, yeah right. I couldn't even get him to sit on the elephant potty let alone on the 'big boy potty', which is what we call the 'potty' that we big girls and big boys use.

But 2-3 weeks before school broke for the Lunar New Year holidays, Miss Lauren embarked on a no-diaper policy. And so upon arriving in school, mini-b changed out of his diapers and into training pants. The first time he peed into the tiny urinal, he got a two thumbs up from Cullen a 3 y.o in his class and a group hug from his friends. How sweet! Over the course of a week, he got the hang of it. There were several accidents with the washing machine kept very busy everyday and once or twice where I picked him up in school without his pants because mummy had forgotten to pack a spare one. My bad. I can just imagine the severe disapproval I must have gotten from the Chinese who would point out to me that the kids are cold without woollen beanies.... and mini-b going barelegged in winter. Tsk tsk!!!

Anyhow, when the 2 week long Lunar New Year holidays started, I bravely took that step of weaning him off diapers. (Incidentally, DH's reaction was one of pure terror when told of my plan.) As expected, there were many hits and misses. Progress seemed like a 2 steps forward, 1 step back tango. Along the way, I lost my marbles a couple of times when he peed in his high chair, sofa and even once on his bed (no, not when he was sleeping). And the worst was when he pooped in his training pants :#

Come Day 4 however, we had made significant progress. He still didn't go to the toilet on his own but I'd learnt to read his cues, like when he kept moving his feet in the hair chair, squirming on the sofa and basically acted like there were ants in his pants. He still had to learn how to aim and shoot though. Gosh, why did God made that equipment so complicated? I had also gotten him to sit on the 'big boy potty' with a duckie insert to poop! Yes! That was a major accomplishment. And I later found out that the reason for his resistance was his fear of the hole ("high up") and how he would "fall down". I broke that resistance by putting him on it, sitting beside him and giving him the car magazine that was in the bathroom. After a couple of minutes talking about Lamborghini, Ford & Volkswagon, the 'big boy potty' wasn't so scary after all.


And as for micro-b, he gained another form of mobililty by lifting his bum and with some luck and traction, inched forward towards that rattle/ stuffed elephant/ sock that he just MUST have. Most days he was sleeping through the night again but he was drinking tons of milk which translated into less time for me. I couldn't wait to start him on solids!

It had been a most eventful 9 days.


microbeanie is 5 months & 2 weeks old
minibeanie is a 2.5 year old toddler

Telling a Fib

It's inevitable, I know. But I'd no idea I'd be facing this issue so early on. Child development experts say, "Lying Behavior Begins Early - Children May Lie as Early as Age Three". Ok, but minibeanie isn't even 1 and a half!

This evening after dinner, he was bending over at his waist in obvious discomfort so I asked if there was kakka*. No, he replied by way of shaking his head. And lo, a few minutes later when there was an unmistakeable pong, he had massive kakka. Maybe he didn't understand, u may think? In fact, he'd answer in the affirmative 'Ugh' when there wasn't kakka. This had happened more than once with great predictability now, which suggested he had done so wilfully. Washing his bum probably counted as his least favourite activity as I always had the impression I was running after a chicken gone amok when it was time for the sink.

So, any suggestions on how to deal with this phase?

Where's your belly button?

A Happy New Year to everyone!

minibeanie is 1 year, 5 months & 6 days old

* Finnish for poop

Rise & Shine

As recounted by DH,

"oh man this morning I got up at 7 when he was saying "kakka* kakka kakka" :D The problem was not the 7am time, it was the HUGE back-poop! biggest I've seen. Even his shoulders and upper arms had some by the time I carried him to the sink...

After I first used the sink, then gave him a quick standing shower in the tub (sans hair), and put new clothes on, I had to clean the mess in the 2 rooms..

-I had to wash the baby changer's top and mat
-even the _underside_ of my bathroom's sink had 'kakka' handprints!!

Then off to feed him. He finished all porridge like a good boy and 120ml milk too. By the time he was happy and back in his bed, it was 08:11 and I just managed to rush out to the bus :P geesh.."

* kakka = poop in Finnish. It's the 3rd word minibeanie has said after dada & down; and the 1st Finnish word.

minibeanie is 1 year, 2 weeks & 2 days old

Turd

Before the baby came along, poop is never discussed in polite society. Period. Now with a baby, there's keen interest in the what, when & how. I must have mentioned 'poop' 68 times in this blog and this 69th time, is about the 'turd'.

Couple of days ago, after I'd started minibeanie on solids, DH cried out from the bathroom. "Come and see the turd!" With all the eagerness of a teenage girl going to meet Brad Pitt, I bounded to the bathroom. Indeed, instead of the sticky, bottom-smearing poop of the past 6 months, was an almost playdough-like piece of err....turd that came off easily from the bottom. Fascinating.


minibeanie is 6 months & 5 days old

A day of MESS

Poop, throw-up, throw-up again & pee all in 1 day. Not in the diapers where the poop & pee belong but everywhere.

At 8:30, I was unceremoniously woken up by a loud thump in the bathroom that was followed by some Finnish cuss words. It was DH who was filling up minibeanie's bath tub with water. This was highly unusual since minibeanie never takes his bath at 8 in the morning. Then I discovered why, minibeanie had pooped and thrown up twice in quick succession so that him & daddy had been holed up in the bathroom for 1 hour 15 minutes. Little wonder for the Finnish cuss word that began with 'v'. sigh, like the saying goes, shit happens :P

To round up the day, as minibeanie was taking an afternoon nap on our bed, he peed. No biggie except that his diapers were undone! How on earth did that happen?!?! So I guess all the sheets and quilt need to be washed after this. The little devil!

chewing on daddy's thumb

U mean I can't do that?

minibeanie is 4 months, 2 weeks & 3 days old

Poop

minibeanie is 1 month 2 weeks & 5 days old