New Beginnings

We heard many horror stories about people forcing potty training on their kids too early, so we decided to take a casual approach, watch how our kids respond, and adapt to their schedules. When Norah turned a year and a half, we decided to place her on the potty before bath time every night. We only wanted her to become used to sitting on it, and didn't really expect anything more than that. Norah is now over two and a half and we decided to officially get serious about potty training her since she is showing us she is ready. She knows when she has to use the bathroom, and has successfully verbalized it to us on several occasions throughout the last six months. We have pulled out the pull-up diapers and the big girl princess panties. Jeff and I are aware that this will not be a quick or easy process, though we would not be disappointed if it turned out to be! As several friends have said, "It's incredibly hard, but completely worth it!"

Norah and Justin have started playing together with toys, games and other activities. Norah asks him to dance with her or sing with her, and is always looking out for him if she has a toy and he doesn't. I frequently find them playing together in one of their rooms, or discover them hiding together behind our bed or under the dining room table. Their giggles are contagious and it's so wonderful to see them playing so nicely together. I recently spotted them hiding behind a chair, coloring together in a coloring book. I regularly find them hiding under the blankets in our bed, giggling and waiting for someone to enter the room so they can surprise them. I have also watched them shove every toy off of the coffee table so they can climb on it and dance and sing together. They laughed hysterically, mostly because they knew they weren't supposed to be on it. I let them have their fun for a couple of minutes, and held up the phone so there great-grandparents could hear the rebellion taking place. They laughed, sang at the top of their lungs, and then tried to shush each other before starting to sing again. I have to admit it was pretty fun to watch, even as I played the "bad guy" or "responsible parent" depending on your point of view and removed them from the table top.

When it comes to pretending, Norah's favorite thing to do right now is hide under a chair or the dining room table and pretend to be a puppy. She barks and pants, and waits for us to find her. The only way to extract her from her hiding place is to go along with the game, and "call" for the puppy. She will come out right away, curl up in our arms, and give us puppy kisses. It's very sweet except when she decides to be a puppy at the grocery store, or any other place that has a lot of foot traffic and dirty floors, and gets down to crawl on the ground.