Just another week

Last week was a little rough. On Tuesday when I picked the kids up from MMO, Leo hadn't eaten anything while he was there. When I brought him home, he nursed and then threw up. Then Olivia woke from her nap fussy and upset. I went to the monthly Mom's night out that night anyway (Thanks, Nicholas!), which I hadn't been to since May, since both seemed to be doing okay by then. I nursed Leo and put him to be at 6:45 so that Nicholas only had Olivia to get into bed on his own. Olivia got whatever Leo had and started throwing up on Wednesday. I stayed home from work Thursday since the kids were sick. They were feeling better by the evening, though. On Friday I had both kids in the car by 7:30 AM to run to Target for prescriptions and some groceries. Olivia was eating the rest of her breakfast in her car seat with a bib on. She asked me to take it off of her because it was bothering her, so I pulled over on our street and did so. Then when I was pulling back out, I hit a mailbox. I did A LOT of damage to my car--my passenger side rearview mirror is totally off. We take it in tomorrow to have it fixed. Ugh! What an idiotic thing to do!!!

We went home after telling my neighbor I had hit his mailbox. We made it to Target later that day, though, and Olivia told me that her friend, Laura Kate, at school was using the potty and Olivia wanted to, too. Olivia wanted me to buy her a Dora potty seat for the big toilet (not just the little potty we have) and more panties. We did that, and on Friday night I made the potty chart, put out the M&M's and stickers for rewards, and washed all the new panties. I thought I was ready. I was; Olivia wasn't. Saturday was slightly disastrous. Olivia has the concept of the potty, but she can't quite relax enough to let it go when she doesn't REALLY have to and she can't hold it when she REALLY does have to. We started the morning with two "I can't go" potties, then we had two accidents, both of which were full of tears. We made it to the toilet just in time for the very last of it, though. Then we had two successful potties--complete with stickers and M&M's, which made Olivia super excited. Then Olivia refused to drink and didn't go for two hours. Then nap time with a slip-on diaper. It was full when she woke. Then she had one accident and one successful trip and lots of "I can't go" potties. She never told me she had to go because I now believe that she really can't tell.

At the end of Saturday, I was tired and debating whether to go on. The answer came during the night when she woke every hour to hour and a half for comfort. Daddy was up working on his career proposal, so I didn't field these. He told me when he came to bed at 6 AM. This morning I put diapers on Olivia and told her that she could still go on the potty if she wanted to, but she was going to wear diapers today. She was happy with that. I asked her first thing if she wanted to go on the potty right away, but she didn't want to. Then she went in her diaper and told me about it. She said she wanted to go on the potty then. She wasn't able to. I talked to my sister Steph about this, and she said that she had a similar episode with Abby when she was 28 months. Steph waited two more months, and then Abby was ready and did great. I am just going to wait. I took down the chart and the stickers tonight.

In other news, I keep meaning to write down things Olivia says. I have forgotten so many; here are two snippets of conversations:

In her crib on a rare night when Daddy isn't there for bed time:
Me: I had a great day with you today.
Olivia: My favorite part was playing with Daddy! (She is well on her way to being Daddy's girl! Of course there is also lots more conversation about her having a hard time falling asleep and trying to bargain for more stories and milk.)

In her crib almost every night now:

Me: Night, night, Olivia.
Olivia: If Leo cries, you go check on him. And don't break anything! (I seriously don't know where that last part came from! Maybe from hitting the mailbox? )

Some pictures of Daddy and Olivia drawing in the living room while Olivia was wearing her crown. When she is wearing this, she is Mariana, the princess of mermaid kingdom.