Back in Action

Hi all, sorry for the long absence. I tried to post a few times over the last few months, but just never quite felt up to it emotionally. I’m doing great now and ready to get back in the ring!

Jenna’s still amazing, smart, beautiful! But, now she’s also potty trained, learning a few letters and numbers, speaking in complex sentences, and so much more!

A few weeks after her birthday Jenna started telling me that she needed to use the potty and she would get upset when I put her in a diaper. Unfortunately, this was also right around Christmas, so we were in the car a lot and it just wasn’t the right time to put her in underwear. So, we took her to the bathroom when she needed to go, but kept her in diapers. In January, we moved her to underwear and started using the potty all the time. She got a small piece of candy (a Smartie or mini-M&M) for each time she told us that she needed to pee. It only took a couple of days and she was only rarely having accidents. She didn’t take to well to going #2, but I told her that she could have a mini-Reese’s if she went in the toilet. Imagine this, she started using the toilet that day and didn’t look back. She got a Reese’s the first day and then got three the second day (she did her business 6 times that day, so we had to cut her off! Yeah, I’m not sure how that’s even humanly possible!). Of course now, 6 weeks later, she still asks me for a Reese’s.

Last summer one of our neighbors put a Crayola easel on the side of the road, so I picked it up and cleaned it and put it in the playroom. Jenna likes to use the chalk to draw. A friend mentioned that she put alphabet letters on her son’s and he got really interested in learning the alphabet, so I decided to move Jenna’s to the living room and to put the letters on it. She loves to play a game where she brings me a letter and then has me hold it up and ask her what it is and then she has me draw it on the easel and then she “draws” it, too. She has known J for quite a while and also knew O, but now she’s started learning a few more letters. I keep thinking that she’s going to suddenly know all of them because we play this game so often! She also likes to point out letters in books, on signs, etc and will ask what they are one-by-one.

Jenna’s language is still amazing and advanced for her age. Sometimes she really surprises me. She loves pretend play. Just today she was pushing her stroller through the house and asked me to follow her because we were going shopping. She pretended to pick something up and then handed it to me. She said, ‘here’s an antique for you to buy’.  Antique? Really, at 2?