Multitasker

My lovely daughter is what I would kindly call a multitasker when it comes to going to the bathroom. Not-so-kindly it would be described as a completely annoying child to put on the toilet because she insists on playing with everything within reach....or sometimes not-so-in-reach.

In China, they tend to potty train earlier than here in America (or at least earlier than I do here in America), so she came to us what I would call about 75% trained. She does her business on the toilet as long as a catch her in that brief moment before she goes, but is not yet to telling me that she needs to go. (Well....maybe she tried to tell me in Chinese for a while but gave up when she got no response.) She has a quite obvious look about her when she needs to use the bathroom, so I am pretty successful in getting her to the toilet in time.

Once she is placed on the toilet, it is a mad rush for me to quickly remove the toilet paper roll from the holder, lest she get a hold of it, tear off a piece, and try to start wiping herself before anything even starts happening. Then I move on to firmly holding the toilet seat lid, since her next move is to turn around and start banging it against the tank for effect. Once she sees I have that secured, she moves on to to trying to wriggle herself around to try to start taking wipes out of the box on top of the tank lid. And somehow in all of this she manages to do what she needs to do, usually without much mess.

Today we entered a new realm. The first was during breakfast this morning when that telling look came across her face. I ripped her our of her booster seat, ran to the bathroom while pulling down her pants, and set her on the seat. Only then did I notice the banana still in her hand. I tried to remove it, but she had it in a death grip. I figured, what the heck, maybe it will keep her from messing with everything else while we are in here.....and I was right! I did have to take a picture because it cracked me up. Just close the blog now if you are opposed to seeing a toddler on a toilet. (And no, I do not make my children eat their breakfast naked. She still had on her feety-jammies, so going to the bathroom requires a full stripping.)
And then this afternoon she had to go with the thermometer from a play doctor's kit in her hand. Again, I went with it since it meant I wouldn't have to do my usual routine. She then took it a step further and started lounging on the toilet. Again, it cracked me up and out came the camera. (I assume if you are still reading you are not opposed to toilet pictures, so I won't warn you to close the blog again. )

a few too many clicks

On a recent visit my parents taught Sam how to use a mouse (the computer-kind). About 6 months ago I started entertaining him every once in a while with computer games from his favorite shows I found online, and he was content to pick the game and watch me play it.

That has now ended. On one hand, it is a very nice development, as I can now leave him at the computer alone while Sadie is napping and get a few things done around the house, checking in on him as I walk by. On the other hand, it's a little scary to have a just-turned-3-year-old able to navigate between websites. I start him off at Bob the Builder and he knows how to get to Barney, Thomas, and his current favorite, Roary the Racing Car (which, incidentally, has websites in different languages and Sam always like to pick "not where we live." I was quite amused to find him listening to sing-alongs in French and Spanish one day).

He also knows how to close the browser's window when he is done. That is fine, except that he then has a tendency to move on to rearranging my desktop icons. Not that big a deal, but I am afraid of what he may accidentally delete someday, so he has been given strict instructions not to click on anything that is not on a game. He is usually quite obedient. However, today I came down from running some laundry upstairs and found him with a few different windows open, including a lesson for a math book I wrote some time ago. I stopped, looked at him, and before I had the chance to say anything he blurted out quite guiltily, "Ummmm.....I did something."

I really should not be encouraging this

by taking pictures of him doing it, but he was just having too much fun for me to stop him. And he did prepare himself a great landing spot full of pillows. So I am a responsible mother, right? I made sure he had a soft place to land.

The day he has been waiting for

Ever since I nixed Sam sharing his fruit snacks with Sadie shortly after we came home from China, he has been asking when she will be allowed to eat them. (I did let her eat most everything before her surgery, figuring most food items would eventually disintegrate and make it out her nose if they got stuck up in her cleft. However, I drew the line at fruit snacks.....those things would never disintegrate on their own!) I explained to him that she had an owie in her mouth and it needed to be fixed before she could eat them. So, every time she had a doctor's appointment (and she had quite a few pre-surgery) he would get excited afterward and ask, "Can I share my fruit snacks now?" The poor kid was disappointed with a few too many negative responses, I guess, because he hasn't brought it up since early December.

Tonight Joe broke out a new box of fruit snacks he had gotten for Sam while grocery shopping and Sam could hardly believe it when we told him he could share with Sadie now.

Me: Sam - you get to share your fruit snacks with Sadie!
Sam: Her mouth is fixed?
Me: Yep - it's fixed. She can eat them.
Sam: It's really, really fixed?!

Here they are - fruit snacks! Look Sadie! (But then watch me eat it myself!)
Hurry up, Sam - find one for me!
Here you go!
And she patiently waits for more........
...and gets to put one in her own mouth.
More, please!

Guess who got dressed ALL BY HIMSELF this morning

I tried to talk him into changing either the top or the bottoms to no avail. While in the bathroom at a store (yes, I took him out in public like this) came the best part - the Handy Manny underwear on backwards (to go with the backwards pants and shirt, I guess). The outfit was made complete with the black and red tennis shoes he wore.

Less is more

I subscribe to the "less is more" theory of housecleaning - the less you clean, the more exciting it is when you actually do! Those of you that know my mother will be quite surprised at this I am sure, since she cleans her house every Saturday morning, and you would think that observing that (and even taking part in it when I was younger) would have rubbed off on me. Not so. I won't even tell you how many Saturday mornings have gone by around here without a dustcloth or toilet brush in sight.

My biggest downfall is my bedroom - I have a tendency to lay things on the floor instead of putting them away (though I can always find what I need). I could tell things had gotten a little out of hand lately when one morning (after having had a major clean-up session the night before after the kids had gone to bed) Sam looked around my bedroom, paused for a moment, and then said, "Wow. There's a lot of carpet in here!"

I need to improve my computer skills

Since I do not know how to compress pictures from my camera to email-able sizes, all you blog readers will have to put up with seeing pictures of random things I want to show people. We had the blanket for Ellison back in November, now the nursery items for Jen. Someday I will figure it out......