As I thought about all the things that we have done this summer, I realized I hadn’t really talked about a few things. In the grand view of things I guess I kept overlooking them, but they are worth some remembering.
My baby girl became a little girl this summer.
After our trip to Lake Conroe we decided to stop using binkies. We knew we had a little while before the next trip so it was the time to get rid of them. She had only been using them at nap and bed times; but with our San Antonio and Conroe trip I noticed that we were giving it to her a lot more often. We were using it as a cork and she was using it as a soother. With the boys it was one of those things that we phased down to just bedtime and then went cold turkey. This time we used the same approach. Only problem was she had started to use the binkies more often again, and she started teething. We had some rough days and nights. She knew where the binkies were kept and would try and climb up on things to get to the basket. I had to hide all of them. In a few weeks I don’t think they crossed her mind anymore.
Makaela started to show interest in the toilet, but I’ll admit I’m not very consistent and neither is she. She would want on the potty when I changed her diaper or when she already had a dirty diaper. I got peed on when I didn’t put her on the toilet fast enough at bath time. She also ran to the bathroom without a diaper on and when the bathroom door was closed; she had an accident on the carpet. I hate potty training! After the few accidents it made me think she might not have figured out how to control it yet. Then one day she got up and said “potty”. So, I took her to the bathroom and she went. I thought maybe since she started the day off with it, we will try and keep it up. I set the alarm for thirty minutes and we tried again. Nothing. Fifteen minutes, nothing. Ten minutes, a wet diaper. Thirty minutes, nothing. I was getting frustrated, she was getting mad at me for making her stop playing and go potty, so it was a stale mate. I decided WE were not ready yet.
Within the last month we decided to get rid of Sippy cups. We have been trying to give regular cups to her when she was outside with the boys. I would put a large water cooler out there with a spout so they could get some water while they played. It was supposed to help cut down on the in and out trips all day long. It did a little, but they still had to come in for something else. She also has a cup in the tub that she plays with and we use to rinse out her hair. So, she has had some practice with picking up and pouring with cups. I just had to make the leap of faith that she wouldn’t spill more than the boys. We tried it one day and she did great! I think here lately the boys have had more spills than she has.
This summer she has also turned even more into a diva. She threw a fit at the store when the poor guy tried to go find her size in a shoe she had tried on. I guess she liked it because she cried until he came back with it. We had to sneak it away from her since they didn’t have her size. Never happened with the boys. She sometimes tells me “no” when I try and put certain things on her. Not that she picks out a dress when I try a t-shirt, but just that she decides that she wants control over what she is going to wear. One of her favorites is her doggy shirt. Heaven help me!
When I get ready she is usually in the bathroom with me since I do her hair in there. I have body spray that she likes me to spray it on her too. One day I posted this on Facebook, because I was in awe over what had just happened. “
I was fixing my hair in the morning when Makaela walked in gibbering about something, opens one of the drawers and pulls out the body spray. I, surprised, told her she had to ask mom first. She takes the cap off, and I step in. Another first”. She likes being a girlie girl I guess.
My friend Adrienne has been so nice to share her hand-me-downs. I was putting up some clothes that Makaela had grown out of, when I figured out there were clothes in the bucket that she didn’t fit at the beginning of the summer, that now fit. I had her in there with me so we could check sizes and she would say “girl” as I stacked the clothes into piles. The small clothes would be “baby”. In the clothes we found a night gown, Makaela’s first. She loves it! We wear our pj’s a couple of days unless the kids get messy at breakfast. She looks for it when it gets put in the laundry. One afternoon we had an argument because as I changed her diaper for nap time, she saw the night gown and wanted to put it on. I tried to explain, but no use, she doesn’t listen. She went to bed crying. I guess we need to get her more!
I tell her all the time that she better stay cute, because it keeps her from getting into more trouble. She is a stubborn, silly, dancing, spoilt, singing, hungry, bossy, and demanding mess. But she is a CUTIE! I’m still not over the “girl”. We butt heads a lot already, but I’m a sucker for that cute grin. If she stays just as cute, she might survive the terrible two’s that have already started. I try not to think about what teenage years have in store for us. Hopefully, she is still cute teenager!
