Luggage lost

This seems to happen a lot to us. Of course, when my husband arrived at his destination airport, his luggage was not there.
Fortunately, I married that man for his brains :)
He cleverly packed the luggage to account for the likelihood that the main luggage would get lost. He packed a spare set of clothes for Sasha and himself in the carry-on baggage. And some extra pull-ups for Sasha. And anything really necessary to survive a day or two without the main luggage.
He also packed the toilet seat adapter in carry-on. This was wise, as Sasha's been day-time potty trained since before she turned two.

Before they left, my husband and I talked about Sasha and how she would fare with going potty during and after her trip. Every time I've ever tried to take her to a public restroom, she became anxious and scared. She's always refused to use a public toilet. Factor in the automatic flushing toilets they usually have at airports, and I feared it would be the equivalent of a toddler horror flick. (Hah, automatic flushers as a toddler horror film. I crack myself up.).
But I was wrong. At the airport, Sasha announced to my husband that she had to go potty. He took her and they did have those horrible auto-flushers. He put the adapter potty seat on the public toilet. She hopped on and went potty as usual. Everytime someone flushed, she asked my husband "What's that noise?". ("What's That Noise" has been a fun game of hers lately, especially when she's submerged in the bathtub). She also asked "What's that noise?" everytime someone washed their hands or used the hand dryers.
But she did fine.

They did find the lost luggage, but they refused to ship it to him. They claim they had it rotating on the carousel all along and that my husband merely failed to recognize his own luggage. Um, no. Totally untrue but whatever. So he has to go back to the airport tomorrow (which is not a short drive) to pick it up.
At least my husband and daughter made it to their destination safe and sound. And Sasha can go potty as usual :)

Ouch

Okay, I warn you in advance, this post is a bit disgusting and graphic.

Really, skip it if you're squeamish.

Sasha, our picky little eater, doesn't really eat many fruits or vegetables. She loves her rice, her goldfish crackers, and can't live without her chocolate milk. There are some other foods she likes, but most are not fibrous or bulky foods.
So she's always had a little bit of a constipation problem. Usually her poo is like little bunny turds. Sometimes I wonder if her chronic constipation might be the cause of her umbilical hernia.
Anyways, she had the worst case of constipation that she's ever had in the two years of her little life this weekend. It was horrible. I was worried that I'd have to take her to the emergency room before she did herself some damage. I do hope the trauma of it hasn't scarred her. It was that bad. I was so afraid she'd rip herself open or do some physical damage to herself, and she was screaming for what seemed like an hour. She was trying to pass a poo the texture of sawdust, but it was so big! Too big for her little butt. I thought she was going to rip her butt right open, poor little thing.
Her dad had to intervene. It was unpleasant, to say the least. All the while, he comforted her as best he could to try to reduce the trauma of it.

Immediately after the incident, I went to the grocery store and bought her some prune juice, some prunes and raisins, some apple juice, and some children's yogurt drinks. She's been actually doing well with eating them. The next day, I purchased some children's chewable probiotic tablets. I'm hoping that those items, if she consumes them, will help her with her constipation issues. For now, I'm taking milk out of her diet. She's drinking the prune juice and apple juices.

Any other advice on constipation, please, I'm all ears. I prefer preventive maintenance rather than go through all that again.

She hasn't gone potty since then. I'm worried about her. It's been two days. She's been eating well though, with a good appetite. I won't stop worrying until she goes potty again.

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'.
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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!

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!

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.

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.

You can't make this stuff up

I think the yahoo instant messenger conversation tells the story better than I can.
I was at work, and as usual, my husband was telling me the about this evening with 16 month-old Sasha.

Jon (1/26/2008 10:05:06 PM): damn! little girl decided that potty time wasn't over.. carried her little toilet into the living room by herself
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:05:15 PM): interesting
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:08:35 PM): she's pretty strong sometimes!
Jon (1/26/2008 10:09:46 PM): surprisingly strong
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:10:01 PM): good balance too
Jon (1/26/2008 10:10:04 PM): running around naked, really trying to go potty on her potty

(Previous post, I mentioned how she suddenly likes to take off her clothes and run around?)
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:10:12 PM): hah
Jon (1/26/2008 10:10:24 PM): she *knows* the routine, about like making tea
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:12:24 PM): clever girl. so long as we keep it up and she doesn't experience any 'potty trauma' she'll probably be potty trained pretty early

It was quiet for about 16 minutes, when Jon sends me an emoticon of a laughing and crying smily. I asked him what was going on but he stayed silent for another four minutes. Then he began to explain what happened.

Jon (1/26/2008 10:30:24 PM): well.. naked sasha running around, then sitting on her potty, making grunty faces.. managed to poop something out
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:30:44 PM): ohno!
Jon (1/26/2008 10:30:45 PM): unfortunately, not while she was on the potty...
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:30:56 PM): gah! ahaaha
Jon (1/26/2008 10:31:03 PM): but don't worry, she caught most of it with her hands...
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:31:07 PM): uh
Jon (1/26/2008 10:31:11 PM): and smeared it all over herself..
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:31:18 PM): you're joking?
Jon (1/26/2008 10:31:20 PM): the rest just hit the carpet
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:31:24 PM): omg
Jon (1/26/2008 10:31:40 PM): then she tried really hard to taste it
Jon (1/26/2008 10:31:46 PM): (failed there)
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:31:47 PM): OMGOMG
Jon (1/26/2008 10:32:09 PM): so.. emergency bath, no real fuss from her there
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:32:16 PM): yeah she likes baths
Jon (1/26/2008 10:32:38 PM): ..emergency cleanup of carpet (with sasha trying really really hard to help wipe up her mess)
Jon (1/26/2008 10:32:55 PM): aaaand we're back to normal

Potty!

Sasha made her first poo in the potty! Yay big girl.
She was grunting and making her potty face so my husband ran her to the bathroom, dropped her pants and diaper, and sat her on the toilet. He said and signed potty to her and she made it clear to him that she understood what he wanted. She then went potty on the potty!