Big Girl Underwear

Today on my way home from work, I picked up some Pampers Easy-ups and some big girl toddler underwear for Sasha.
The Pampers Easy-ups will have to wait until the Huggies Cool Wave Pull-ups induced diaper rash finishes healing up. It looks much better today than it did yesterday, and Sasha seems to feel better too.
Sasha wore her new underwear today, for the first time ever. She took to it like a natural. She tries to put them on and take them off. I bought her a few varieties, so she was switching between them. She would put one pair on, then take it off to put another pair on.

She had one accident today. She did pee in her new underwear one time, and made a little puddle on the floor. She said "OH-OH!" and curiously examined the mess she made. Even though she had one accident, she had many many successes. I do think she went potty successfully at least fifteen times today. She is getting even better at the whole 'routine'.
---

I came home from work to put Sasha to sleep tonight, and as she was trying to fall asleep, she was singing a song to herself. Like really singing. It was such a beautiful little singing voice.
After she finally fell asleep, I told my husband about her singing. He explained that Sasha had just watched Feist perform on a rerun of Saturday Night Live right before I came home. Sasha loves Feist songs. His explanation made sense. She was singing that song (Feist- "I feel It All") to herself. How sweet!

New Pics

I haven't pulled the pics off my camera for a while, so I updated some of the posts below with the pictures that were supposed to go with the posts. If you are a regular reader, be sure to check the posts below for updates, especially the post about our zoo trip, and the post about Max :)

Then there was this series of pictures. I didn't see any particular post to put them in, so I'll just share them here.
My little copycat likes to watch me get ready for work every day, especially when I put my makeup on. I stepped away for a moment and came back to this:

Putting on her makeup

Pull ups and potty training

After our potty success last week, I decided to get some pull-ups to help put Sasha on the potty easier. I purchased a small package of size 2T-3T Huggies Cool Wave Pull-ups. These pull-ups are supposed to give the child a cool sensation when they wet.
We have never had a problem with diaper rash. Suddenly, Sasha has developed a horrible diaper rash. She is very obviously in discomfort. She keeps scratching herself and chanting "Diaper? Diaper?" at us to try to get us to take it off of her. The rash is very red and painful looking.
So we are discontinuing use of these pull-ups.
In an effort to try to heal her, we allowed her to go diaperless today. It was a small blessing in disguise. She actually told us every time she had to go potty today. She had no accidents! I have no idea how many times she went to the potty today. At least two poops and countless pees.
She knows the whole routine. She tells us potty, or she points at the light switch in the bathroom and says "Light on!". When we turn on the light, she sits on her potty and goes. Then she stands up, proudly admires her potty and announces what it was (poops or pee), then wipes. My husband or I empty her potty tray into the toilet. She waves at the toilet and says "bye bye potty!" then flushes the toilet.
She went about once an hour.
I'm really impressed. She is almost completely potty trained!
I'll have to try some normal pull-ups once she heals up. Something without that cooling sensation stuff. Even though she went a day without accidents, I'm not brave enough to do just underwear yet. She isn't even two so I do expect to have accidents and possibly slip backs.
But I'm really feeling good about how well she is doing. I want to see if she keeps it up for more than just today, but if she does, I think we can reasonably say she is potty trained!

Haircut

We took Sasha to get her hair cut today! This was her 2nd haircut, but her last cut was just a very minor trim. This time we gave her a good cut with a chin length bob.
We went to one of those neat kid's haircut places, with the seats that are like cars. Sasha got to sit in a car and play with the steering wheel. They also had a dvd player with a Baby Einstein video, so she was like hypnotized. She did great! No fuss. She just sat there and behaved perfectly.

Here is our "before" pic. She is sitting in the car chair, with her long "baby" curls:


Here are a few of our "After" pics:

They gave her a sucker for being such a good girl, and we got her some cool new sunglasses

Playing with a toy drill set at the toy store next door after her haircut. She LOVED that drill (it works, just like a real drill! We bought one it.), even kissed it a few times in the store. She didn't want to take off the sunglasses either.

Back view (after a nap so a little bit of "bed head")

Ta-Da!

The new haircut seems to match her personality more. I originally wanted to grow her hair out and long. But as we watched her grow, she just seemed more like a spunky, shorter haircut kind of girl. Our whole family loves the new hair-do on her.

Tutu

I read some instructions on Flickr about how to make a tutu. It sounded easy, and even though our upcoming birthday party for Sasha will be small and personal, I've been thinking about a special little birthday girl outfit for her. So I figured a mommy-made tutu with a big sister-made t-shirt would make a perfect, inexpensive but very special birthday outfit.

Today, Sasha and I hit our local fabric store. We perused fabrics. Sasha loved to touch and explore the colors and textures of all the different fabrics, but she especially loved the chiffons. As she sat in the seat of the shopping cart, she liked to grab the ends of the chiffon fabric reams and cover her face with them while repeating "chiffon! chiffon!". To my surprise, she grabbed some satin fabric and said clear as day "Get this one". (We didn't get that particular one, but I was impressed by the clarity of her words).
We left the store with some pink and purple chiffon fabric, some pink and purple nylon tulle fabric, and also a small amount of pink satin.

When we got home, I cut the chiffon fabric, and with the help of some elastic, I turned it into a very adorable fluffy tutu. Although I thought to myself superstitiously that it was probably not a good idea to let Sasha wear her birthday tutu, I couldn't help myself. After all, I had to make sure it fit and looked okay right?
I debated with myself whether to take a picture of it, but I figured I'd just wait until her birthday to start taking her picture with the tutu.

Well I should have taken that picture while I could have. She wore it for maybe an hour. I really should taken it off of her right after I tried it on her for size, but it looked so darned cute that I let her wear it.
Just my luck. She had an explosive diaper. I realized in horror that the back of her tutu was covered in poop. She has not had an explosive diaper like that in a long time. After our awesome potty-training experience the other day, I thought we were done with explosive diapers.
Sasha required an emergency bath. Her clothes needed some rinsing and hand washing. I got all the poo off her tutu that I could.
Unfortunately I wasn't completely done making the tutu. The ends of chiffon fabric are very stringy when cut, and I had not taken care of that problem yet. Once the fabric was washed, the fabric went nuts. Strings all over the place. It looks like a half-drowned poodle with a bad hair day.
I may have to abandon the chiffon tutu and go with a tulle fabric tutu instead. Which is okay, as I have tulle fabric also. It's just that I like the drape of the chiffon fabric better, if it wasn't for all the darned strings.
Oh well. Multiple lessons learned.

Meet Max

At our local big chain bookstore, I saw that Brain Quest came out with a set of their flash card books for ages 2-3. Or at least it's the first time I've ever seen one for this age group. I thought to myself, "Wow, Sasha is almost two. I guess she qualifies for this set now". I was looking for some educational materials for her, so I got it for her.

When I opened up Sasha's set, it was a little different than I was used to.
This set has a foam cut out of a monkey, named Max. Max is pointing his finger.

A set of parental instructions inside the box says that parents should use Max to point at the pictures on the flash cards, and parents should talk to Max about the pictures. This I can do! I have a great, high pitched voice I like to use when I make inanimate characters talk, and young kids seem to like it.

So we've been using Max and the flash cards, and Sasha LOVES it. She absolutely LOVES Max. One day at naptime, she even cried for Max, and fell asleep holding him in her arms:
Cuddling with "Max"
Max and the flashcards have helped her language development. She is already in a huge language explosion, and the cards have accelerated it even further.
Sometimes, we run around the house, making Max point at things, and I use my "max voice" to make him say "What's that?". Sasha likes to answer his questions. It's cute how she directly talks to him, not me.

One of these days, I'm going to have to write those Brain Quest people and let them know just how much my daughter loves their Max and his cards :)

Potty!

Lately, Sasha has been interested in her potty. For the past few days, she has been 'helping' her baby doll go potty.
Today, she told me that her baby had to go potty. So we went into the bathroom. She put her doll on the potty seat and pretended it was going potty. After she was done with that, she told me "Sasha potty", indicating it was now her turn to try.
I helped her take off her diaper and she sat on her little potty chair, which is in the bathroom across from the "big" toilet. She grunted and pushed, which is normal even if she isn't really going potty. Sometimes she does pee, but more often than not she usually just pretends by grunting and making funny strained faces.
To my surprise, she grunted and grunted, and I finally heard a little plop! She pooped :)
She stood up and looked in her potty's tray. She was surprised to see something there. She pointed and squealed "Poops! Poops! Poops!". She admired her handiwork. She dutifully wiped herself with some toilet paper as I instructed her. She was very proud of herself as I emptied her potty tray into the toilet. She happily chanted "Bye bye Poops!" and waved goodbye to her poop as she flushed it and it swirled away.
Then she signed "more" and said "more poops!", then sat herself back down on her potty again. She wanted to try it again. Stubbornly, she grunted and grunted away, and finally success. She did it again!
We repeated the whole routine again. Cheer, wipe, cheer, empty tray, cheer, flush, wave goodbye, and cheer some more.
She was having such a grand time. She wanted to do it again. So she sat herself down for another round. She signed "more" and asked me "more poop please?". She persistently grunted and pushed for quite a while, and was finally rewarded with another poop! We repeated the routine again.
This went on at least 6 times! Where she got so much poop, I have no clue. Just when I finally thought she had to be empty, she did it again. She was having so much fun and was so excited.
We were glad that those 'poops' were diapers that we didn't have to change.
Finally, to her dismay, she could just not make any more poop, so we had her wash her hands (which she LOVES to do) and it was done.

I do believe this child might potty train herself. I am very optimistic about the whole potty training with her. I really don't think it will take much "training" on our part. She will probably gradually insist on going potty more and more until one day we'll realize we're done.
And as much fun as she had going potty today, I think she will gladly use her little potty in the future. I will be terribly surprised if she intentionally poops in her diaper during the daytime from now on, unless mommy and daddy miss her cues.

I do have some concerns about the potty training thing though. Sasha is a tall, skinny child. The smallest sized disposable pull-ups that I can find are sized 2t-3t. Way too big for her. I guess the diaper manufacturers don't think someone of her waist size should be potty training yet. I do wish that I could find some pull-ups that fit her so that she could actually pull her pants up and down at her will. That way she won't have to have mom and dad completely take off her pants and diaper to go potty.

Anyways, I'm not sure if we'll start potty training yet. I think for now we'll take a wait-and-see approach.
For now, we're celebrating her first 'intentional' poop. Although this previous post here (when she was 16 months old) probably counts as her first real poop.

Freshman

Today was my daughter Cassie's first day of High school! My little girl is growing up. She came home and told me like every detail of her day, awww.

So far, she loves her teachers and her classes. For electives, she chose Orchestra, German, and a shop-type class called Engines and Power Technology.
In Orchestra, my daughter is a bass player and has been for several years. Her high school has only three bass players and she is one of them.

She loves foreign languages, so German was her selection. She heard that students who take four years of German get taken on a field trip to Germany their senior year, so that is her goal. She also intends on joining her school's German club.
Her FAVORITE class is the Engines and Power Technology class. It's a small class, and the classroom is full of engines. She says she is the only girl in the class, and that makes her very happy, haha!

I think she will also be joining the school's freshman girl's volleyball team.

Toys

Sasha's pretend play has started picking up lately, and I know it's really going to accelerate soon. Yesterday, we gleefully took her to the toy store to get her some new toys.
She's been fascinated by vehicles lately, especially busses. She got a toy car, a toy bus, and a toy train car. As I expected, she has been playing with them. She makes the car and bus drive around the house, up the walls, across tables, over people's legs, whatever. She likes to make them crash together and exclaim "Accident!" in her careful enunciation.
I was also looking for a toy dump truck for her. One of those nice big ones that you can fill the back up and then dump the load somewhere. My husband found one and we got her that. He taught her how to fill the back full of blocks and dump them on the floor.


My husband saw a toy tool set and we got it for her. He knew it would appeal to her emerging engineering side. In Montana, she was always carefully watching her grandpa and dad when they worked with tools. The tool set has little toy nails with a hammer, and toy screws with a screw driver and a wrench. She likes to try to turn the screws with the wrench while saying "turn turn turn". She also likes to run around the house with the toy hammer and bang on everything with it.

I think I know what I want to get Sasha for her 2nd birthday! A play kitchen. We're considering maybe setting it up in the kitchen so she can pretend to cook while we do our 'real' cooking. This is the one I have my eyes on (click pic to view larger):

It's the Lifestyle Partytime Kitchen. This one has a telephone, microwave, clock, drawers and storage spaces, oven, refridgerator, and even some toy spices. How cool is that! Okay I think the spice rack is what got me ;)
However I noticed it doesn't have any "stovetop burners". How can a kid pretend cook without some pretend stovetop burners? My husband saw another kitchen set that had a coffee maker. But then again, they do sell realistic toy coffee makers separately so that's always an option too.
Decisions, decisions.

Another birthday present options I'm considering (click pic to view larger):
It's a doorway playhouse. Great for small spaces, and highly recommended by online reviews.

Sentences

Cuddling with her daddy.
Sasha is speaking simple sentences.
This has been going on a while now, (like in the "light broken" story posted a few days ago) but it's official. I do believe it started while she was in Montana, but it's been accelerating. Her verbal skills in general are definitely accelerating lately.
She is able to string two or more words together, and lately especially a subject and a verb. For example "light broken".
She has already been saying possessive phrases for quite a while, for example "mama's ninning" (translation "Mom's knitting"), or "Cassie's juice". She has been fascinated with possession for a while.
The thing I love about how she speaks sentences right now, is that she takes a good pause between the two words. It's not a long pause, but it's much longer than an older child or adult would take between words.
She also is good at indicating turns. What I mean by this is say for example she is eating some crackers. She'll say "Mama!" and force feed me a cracker whether I want it or not. Then she'll say "Sasha!" and feed herself a cracker. She refers to herself and all her possessions as Sasha, which I find cute.

She has been trying to say more complex, multisyllabic words such as "accident".

Anything we say, she repeats, including and especially the bad words. There have been multiple occasions where she has said words that we should not have said in her presence.
There was one instance especially, where she used a naughty word in good context. She was walking when suddenly her pants, which were too loose around the waist, fell down to her ankles. She stopped, looked down at her fallen pants, and loudly exclaimed, "Sh*t!". And you know, I do believe I would have said the same thing if I was in her situation. She pulled her pants back up and carried on.

More Zoo

This weekend, I took Sasha to the zoo....twice!
I took her on Sunday, but it was so crowded and hot. We only stayed about 2 hours. It was still great fun though. First I took her to the children's zoo. I let her run around and look at all the animals in the children's zoo section (farm animals). We spent most of our first zoo visit in the children's zoo only. Afterwards, we went on the carousel. Watching her enjoy her carousel ride was very heart warming to me. I want to always remember the expression on her face. It wasn't a smile. She was just soaking it all in and very thoughtful.

Because it was so crowded on Sunday, I figured I'd have to come back to do some of the other stuff that I wanted to do but skipped due to the long lines.
On Monday, we saw the butterfly exhibit. Sasha was mostly disinterested in the butterflies and flowers, and found the sewer grates, rocks, and water hoses more fascinating.
The exhibit was very beautiful. Sasha did wave hello to some of the butterflies, and tried to swat at one. A butterfly landed right on her head but she didn't notice, as you can see on the pic to the left. (butterfly on her head)

Next was the elephants. At the elephant exhibit, there was an elephant shaped water sprinkler that children could turn on and run through the water. Sasha had a BLAST with that. Every time we passed by the elephants, she would start chanting "lalalalalala" (lala means water in Sasha language). She liked to run through the water and watch the other children as they ran through the water. She loved pressing the on button, although her little hands weren't strong enough to push it successfully.


Playing with the sprinklers
We went to the monkey exhibit, the children's zoo again, then we watched the polar bears for a good 20 minutes. Sasha LOVED the polar bear. We caught it in a playful mood, so it was very entertaining. The polar bear was leaping into his pool of water, swimming around, playing with his toys. Sasha was highly amused and wanted to climb over the fence to play with the bear (yikes!)
After some more playing in the water sprinkler, we hit the carousel. Sasha spent a good part of the carousel inspecting the gears above her, trying to figure out how the thing worked.

Sasha napped well afterwards on both days. I really enjoyed spending that time with her. I know she probably won't remember the trip, but I think she actually learned a lot. She learned the names of a bunch of different animals at least.

Sneaky Chef

I read the Sneaky Chef book by Missy Chase Lapine. Good reading. Definitely got some ideas on how to feed my picky little toddler girl (and picky husband). The book had a list of foods that children will eat, and that list alone was worth the price of the whole book to me.
So I decided to give some of the recipes a try.
First I got a ton of fresh veggies:
I got 3 bunches of spinach, some sweet potatoes, a few heads of broccoli, a head of cauliflower, some carrots, some zucchini, and some frozen blueberries.
Each recipe called for steaming the vegetables, so I was a washing and steaming machine. Then came the pureeing. I pureed according to the recipes. I also saved the veggie water from steaming to use as vegetable broth, which turned out well.
ABOVE: Clockwise from top left: White puree, spinach broth (in blue pitcher), carrot broth (in white pitcher), purple puree, orange puree, and green puree in center.

ABOVE: From left to right, From left to right:
Orange purees: carrots and sweet potatoes
Green Purees: Spinach, peas, and broccoli
Purple Purees: Spinach and Blueberries
White Purees: Cauliflower and Zucchini

I tried a few recipes that used the purees.
The brownies didn't turn out so well. My husband didn't like them but Cassie did. Sasha, my picky toddler, wouldn't touch them. I didn't mind them. You sure couldn't taste blueberries or spinach in them! I think I'll skip the wheat germ next time as it gave it a strange consistancy.

The meatballs were a disaster. Nobody liked them. I made spaghetti with meatballs, and the meatballs were mushy. The wheat germ gave it a terrible texture.

The meatloaf, however, was a hit! Cassie and I both really liked it. My husband (who is as picky as my toddler) didn't hate it, which is saying a lot.

I would probably get more use out of the purees than the recipes. This is sort of like when I was making homemade baby food, and I'd occasionally throw a cube of kale baby food into my chicken noodle soups. I could see myself using the purees, but probably not sticking to the exact recipes in the book.

Kiddie Kandids

We took Sasha for her 2 year professional portraits. A month early but we didn't do 18 month pics.
We took her to Kiddie Kandids, and this time they did a really good job! She really did so well this time. The last time we went to this Kiddie Kandids was a nightmare, but the awful photographer from last time is gone (good riddance) and our favorite photographer was in today.
Sasha did really well too. Here are our pics:

Just getting warmed up to the photographer. Still a little shy. The photographer told Sasha to put her hands on her knees.

By the end of the session, Sasha was playful and was actually teasing the photographer a little. On the last pic, the photographer told Sasha to put both her hands at a specific spot on the arm of the chair. Sasha understood and obeyed, but then she kept moving her hands around just to taunt the photographer a little. Then she'd put her hands right back. She totally knew what she was doing and was just being silly, and you can see it in her smile.

"Light Broken"

We have a rectangular glass lamp in our bedroom (from Ikea, like the one pictured left). It has an on/off switch on the cord that Sasha loves to play with.

Today, Sasha accidentally knocked the lamp onto the floor. The glass shattered and the lamp was broken.
My husband and I were in the room with her, so our immediate reaction was to get her away from the broken glass shards ASAP. I ran over to her, snatched her up, and carried her away, while my husband began to immediately pick up the glass pieces. As I picked her up and carried her away, I think I said something along the lines of "Oh no! You broke the light! The light is broken."

It happened so fast that it seemed to really leave an impression on her. She clearly knew something had happened. "Light broken!" she kept chanting over and over. She had a strange look on her face like she was trying to comprehend.
I had carried and deposited her into the living room, so she tried to run back into the bedroom, but I prevented her from going back. "Light broken!" she kept chanting and she continued to try to get into the bedroom at all costs. She sounded confused and concerned.

After my husband had gathered the glass pieces into a pile, I let him know that Sasha was headed his way. He protested because the glass was still on the floor, but I explained that she really seemed to need to see the broken light. I probably picked her up so fast that she didn't have time to see what actually happened to the light. She was just so concerned and agitated that I figured maybe I should let her just see what a broken light looked like. (HEAVILY supervised of course)
She looked at the pile of broken light remnants and kept saying "Light Broken!". She pointed and observed carefully. She then turned around to the light switch in the room.

"Light Broken?" she asked and demanded I turn on the light switch.

My husband had to explain to her that no, all the lights in the house were not broken, just that one. She seemed relieved.

Finally comprehending the situation, she gave a final, carefully enunciated "Light broken" and was done with it.

Too Easy

Tonight, Sasha went to sleep way too easy. Oh it's not a complaint.

No fuss. No trouble. She fell asleep perfectly. Her dad asked her "Nini, sleep?" picked her up, carried her into the room, put her in her little bed. She laid down on his hand, snuggled his arm with both of her arms, and fell asleep forehead-to-forehead with her dada.
Not a single cry or whine - just one nini kiss for dada, and she was out.

Those two have a special bond. I'll have to talk about that specifically one of these days. My husband has a way of just knowing when Sasha needs him. He can "feel" when she's about to wake up. For example, tonight he felt her waking up for her midnight drink. He was already walking down the hall with milk in hand when she woke up and calmly asked "dada?". She didn't even have to open her eyes. She already knew he was there for her.

More weight gain

Whatever Grandma (and Dada) was feeding Sasha the past few months, it's been working well. It appears that Sasha has gained another pound. That means she has gained at least 5 pounds during her 3 month trip. Amazing.
Sasha actually has grown some chubby thighs and cheeks. She is still in the 40th percentile for weight, if the scales were accurate. This was the same scale that measured her at 19lbs when she first arrived in Montana, so she's been consistently weighed on the same home scale. She was weighed a few days before her return flight home, and she was at 24lbs.
I know that Grandma had a whole area of the pantry that was specifically Sasha's Shelf. All the foods on it were easily accessable and Sasha could just walk into the pantry to grab what she wanted. I have followed this example, and set up a little shelf in our kitchen. It is now Sasha's Shelf. In it, we have some tons of toddler-appealing snacks, such as yogurt fruit snacks, some pistachios, some cheerios, some goldfish crackers. I forget what else.

I am also trying to observe my husband and stay a bit more hands-off for now. He's been with her for the last few months and knows all the little tricks to get her to eat, so it's probably best if I just try to learn from him. Hard for me to do sometimes, but he's great with her and it's best for Sasha.

Tonight for dinner, we had meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Sasha sternly requested rice instead.

Welcome home!

Last night, Sasha and her dad returned home from their Montana trip. They had a layover flight in Denver. Apparently she slept their first leg of their airplane trip. She made a little friend on the second flight with a little girl that was about the same age.
I was scheduled to work during the night, so my husband arranged for a taxi to take them home from the airport. But fortunately the guys at work let me come back home to see my family, and I am very grateful.
I waited in front of the house for their taxi to arrive. When it did, my husband did not see me because he was busy paying the fare, however Sasha noticed me. The moment she saw me, she started chanting "MAMA! MAMA! MAMA!" and got louder and louder. She was squirming in her car seat, trying to get out. My husband let her out of her seat and she nearly jumped out of his arms into mine. She gave me the biggest hug ever. It was such a big hug and she didn't stop for several minutes. She stayed in my arms and let me carry her upstairs.
As we walked inside, Sasha kept looking around at everything. I could tell she remembered everything but she was still examining everything like it was all new again. She had to run around the house and rediscover everything. Re-examine. For some reason, she took great fascination in her little potty chair. She sat on it several times, grunted, wiped herself with toilet paper, and carried her toilet around the house everywhere.
I had purchased her a new bed. Well, the bed itself wouldn't fit in the car, but I got the mattress and all the bedding, so I set the mattress up on the floor for her, and sometime later I can figure out how to get the bed frame home. She investigated that and gave it her approval.

At Grandma's house, Sasha had a well established routine for the past few months. Now her routine was interrupted with new people and new surroundings. Bedtime was difficult for her. She cried herself to sleep while laying on her dad's chest, and then transitioned into her new bed. She slept soundly the whole night. She usually does a lot of night waking but strangely she didn't wake up for her usual drink of water/milk/juice at all.