Potty Training, Round Two

We've had a fairly good couple of months since my last entry. No huge parenting challenges, except for potty training. A week or so before her 2nd birthday, Helen decided that it was time for her to start using the potty. She would take her diaper off, and if I left it off, she went in her little potty when she had to go. I can not believe how much easier this is than with Irene! It's been a month and a half now, and she has had a total of three accidents as long as she has a bare bum. She's been wearing dresses lately because she wants her bum to be covered and training pants still haven't conveyed the idea that she needs to still use the potty when she wears them.

She is starting to talk more and more. The word of the week is "akshey" or actually. Yesterday, she was feeding her daddy play ice cream and after he "ate" it, he asked for more. She went and picked up a plastic egg, and he asked if that was more ice cream. She said, "no, egg, akshey".

Irene has been a joy these past few weeks. She's gotten to spend a lot of time with both parents, and that is very important to her. She is starting to be able to reach things on the countertop, so I can ask her to run little errands for me. She is usually glad to do it, but sometimes she is in the middle of something else and doesn't want to stop. I can certainly understand that! We're working on conveying things like that respectfully, rather than whining about them. Whining doesn't get her out of anything, but respectfully giving me her reasons may make me decide that I can do it myself after all.

In other news, baby #3 is on the way!!! I'm about 11 weeks along, with an expected due date of August 16. The past month and a half, I've had morning sickness. Yes, potty training started around the time morning sickness started; *I* didn't choose the timing! It actually has worked out pretty well, because I can handle emptying poop from a little potty MUCH more easily than changing a poopy diaper. Nausea seems to be on its way out, and I'm getting interested, even excited about cooking again. The sink is starting to look like a sink again, rather than a dirty dish receptacle, and the dishwasher is starting to get loaded more regularly again rather than run only when we run out of bowls.

Both girls have been sick, too. Helen got sick the day before we planned to leave to visit Mark's family right after Christmas, and Irene got sick two days before we planned to leave for the substitute visit in mid-January! They appeared to be sick with the same thing, as the symptoms were the same and the illness lasted for the same length of time. Irene had been well for one day when Helen woke up in the middle of the night with croup. I took her immediately to the bathroom and ran the shower on hot for a few minutes, but I quickly realized that once wasn't going to be enough. We both slept on the bathroom floor for much of the night, well she slept and I tossed and turned. We had pillows, and even thin foam pads to cushion a bit, but it was still extremely uncomfortable. She had a nasty cold, but the croup was the first symptom! We battled it with a humidifier in her room, starting the second night, and she only had the croupy symptoms that one night. The cold is still around, but it appears to be in the final stages by now. I'm praying that they are both well by this weekend when we try yet again to visit Mark's family!