Potty training bootcamp

Edited to say: Cameron stayed dry all day and came home in her original clothes. Go, Cameron!!

It is fitting that we put Cameron through a potty training boot camp during Veteran's Day weekend, don't you think?

DH and I met with Cameron's teacher on Thursday for a parent/teacher conference. So cute! We learned, not to our surprise, that Cameron can be a little aggressive with other kids. She is certainly bossy with me and DH and that has resulted in some time outs at home. Her teacher is also using time outs (not that they are allowed to call them that) so we will just continue to reinforce that Cameron needs to be nice to her friends and that they don't have to play with her if they don't want to. Considering that Cameron comes through her bossiness naturally (I'm referring to Grammy, of course) we'll just have to keep an eye on it.

During the discussion we broached potty training. For the past few weeks Cameron has consistently been using the potty at school and at home. However, she has this habit of only going a little bit so she either needs to pee again in 15 minutes or she has an accident. But trying to explain to a 2.5 year old how to fully empty her bladder is an exercise in frustration. Plus Cameron wouldn't poop in the potty. She's gotten to the point when she's wearing underwear of asking me to put her in a diaper so she can poop in it. If she's asking that then clearly she is ready to use the potty instead.

DH and I concurred in the car on the drive home that the order of the weekend is underwear and nothing but underwear. For 3 days (she didn't have school on Friday) we hung out at home and watched a lot of TV. We limited liquids and made sure she was on the potty every 45 minutes or so. And we had success! She even pooped on the potty a few times. We still kept her in diapers for nap and bedtime but that was it.

We ran a few minor errands (groceries, Target, library) and she did great. It helps that she likes to try out bathrooms in public places. There was one major accident last night right before bed but I blame myself for not being as insistent as I should that she at least TRY to use the potty. Lesson learned.

So for the first time ever, Cameron is in underwear at school. Along with 3 changes of clothes. DH bet me a million dollars that she would not come home in the same pants she left with. Needless to say, I am no fool and did not take the bet. But I'm still secretly hoping Cameron kicks ass. Wish her luck!

The Pacifier Plan

Over the past year plus we have made major modifications to when Cameron can have her pacifier. First it was not during the day except car rides or naps/bedtime. Then it was not in the car (except for long road trips that incorporated nap time). Then at age 2 she moved into the 2s room at school and she was not allowed to have her pacifier at school. But we did still let her have it for naps and bedtime at home.

Now that Cameron is over 2.5 years old it is time to start weaning her completely. If we let her keep having the pacifier then she is more apt to sooth herself back to sleep when she needs to get up and go to the bathroom, thus halting our potty training efforts (which are not going well, which is a whole other post). So the pacifier must go.

It's a rite of passage for many toddlers, I know, and it's something that has to happen sooner rather than later. But a part of me is sad. Not so much that it reflects on my baby becoming a big girl, but more about how we are removing a comfort from her and telling her that she can't have something precious to her because it's somehow "wrong." Intellectually I know as she gets older it is bad for her teeth (although given our family histories Cameron will not be able to avoid braces), and I'm sure there are other psychological impacts that I'm not willing to troll the Internet to look up and depress myself with.

So here's our game plan. For the next 6 weeks we will be prepping Cameron for the final removal of pacifiers. Friends of our recently had a second baby and we are leveraging him like crazy to bring Cameron into compliance. We are doing this gradually with a lot of talking and prepping because that's how Cameron rolls. She is not a "rip the Band Aid" kind of kid. She needs to know exactly what is happening and why or she goes ballistic.

We are telling Cameron that she is a big girl now (she agrees) and that Gabe is a baby (she agrees). Only babies need pacifiers (no real agreement yet). And Cameron has to give her pacifiers to Gabe because he is a baby and needs them (sometimes agreement, sometimes wailing "NOOOOOO"). We have 6 weeks to prepare her and the pacifiers will be officially given to Gabe after our trip to Florida in early December.

So, what do you all think? Do we have a chance of success or is dragging it out that long too painful for all of us? What did you do to remove the pacifier from your kid(s)?

How did this happen?

How exactly did this baby

Turn into this little girl?

As of today, Cameron is 2.5 years old. And she is growing up far too fast for my taste!

Is there a child in that bed?

As I mentioned in my last blog post, Cameron has been in a toddler bed since we returned from vacation. It was an easy transition for us since she got used to it at Grammy's house and she absolutely loves her "big girl" bed.

The only thing that has me scratching my head is how the removal of 1/3 of a rail has somehow resulted in the accumulation of objects in her bed that Cameron.cannot.do.without. Nothing can be removed and every item must have it's special place before she is put into bed with a last kiss goodnight. I don't mind Cameron's OCD tendancies. Hell, I have a few myself! But I worry we are rapidly running out of room for her among all the stuff.

Here's what she is currently hoarding:

• Two blankies (made curtesy of Mimi)
• One lovie
• 3 pacifiers (don't judge, she only gets them at home for sleeping)
• 1 Raggedy Andy, 1 Raggedy Anne doll (handmade by a family friend)
• Two stuff dogs (named Buddy and Doggie respectively)
• A camo bracelet (one of those "Live Strong" type bracelets I got from work for a training bootcamp and I have no idea why she is obsessed with it)
• A medal from her last day at Little Gym
• One baby doll (named baby, natch)
• A random McDonald's Happy Meal toy (BTW, what is up with paper bags instead of boxes for Happy Meals? Total rip off.)
• Elmo doll
• Elmo figure from her BFF Holden
• Pillow
• Big blanket

So far DH and I have just kind of rolled with it but I see that list in black and white and I kind of cringe a little. What things do your kids bring to bed? Are your lists as ridiculously long as ours? I will note that Cameron is content to stay in her bed playing until past 7 on weekends so perhaps there is a silver lining to this?

Things I'm learning about my child

I don't regularly do updates on Cameron's development but a few things have surfaced over the past few weeks that I just had to share with my Internet friends.

Cameron likes to talk....a lot. My daughter has always been very verbal. But over the past month she has taken it to new heights. Every car ride is her chatting away with us. We are having real conversations with decent grammar and correct use of pronouns (mostly). It's no longer just DH and I repeating things back to her. Now we can ask Cameron about her day and be reasonably sure we understand (and believe) what she is telling us.

Cameron is bossy. Wonder where she gets that from? I think this is partially related to how verbal she is. When I picked her up from daycare last week I could hear her from down the hall (bossiness = loudness, I guess). She was in the bathroom sitting on the potty. There are two and Cameron was insisting that her friend go potty RIGHT NOW. It was very cute but has reinforced our perception of her demanding nature. We have had to do a lot of correcting (use the word please, don't talk to mommy/daddy that way, etc.) to try and nip the negative bossiness behaviors in the bud. Our success is mixed so any advice is welcome.

Cameron's favorite color is blue. I had hoped that she would follow in my childhood footsteps of loving purple (that is the primary color in her room) but she has shown no real interest in that color. At first it was pink she gravitated to, due in part to the over abundance of pink related toys she has acquired (damn that gender profiling!). But over the past two months she has been consistently asking for blue things. Go on potty successfully? She wants a blue M&M. Time for her vitamin? She wants a blue one. DH and I keep trying to explain to her that if she takes all the blue ones there won't be any left but apparently we have not done a good job of getting through to her.

Cameron has decided to be a big girl. Even last month when I would ask Cameron if she was my big girl she would shake her head and say, "Not big girl, mommy. Cameron is mommy's baby." Cute right? Although we need to work on the third party references. Cute but also a bit demoralizing because I couldn't manipulate her into doing things because she was a big girl. However, ever since we changed her crib into a toddler bed Cameron has been super excited about sleeping in her big girl bed and now wants to be a big girl. While I'm glad to have another weapon in my parenting arsenal I am also a little misty-eyed over losing my baby. Sniff. Sniff.

What new things have you discovered about your child(ren)?

Starting our potty training journey

I’ve written before about not being ready for the potty training to commence in our household. Unfortunately my disinterest did not communicate itself to Cameron. It is with a medium level of enthusiasm (and it’s that high only because Cameron is so excited about it) that we start our journey towards a diaper free future.

I had been planning to wait until Cameron transitioned to the Twos room (T-minus 1 month!) and let daycare take the lead as I do for so many other things. Cameron had other ideas. We’ve had a potty in our ½ bath downstairs for about 2 months. Every once in a while she would ask for a “diaper change” which was her code phrase for using the potty. I would strip her down and hand her a book while she sat on the toilet. She would always insist that I sit on the toilet next to her which is freaking adorable but grew old quickly.

Cameron also loves to give “diaper change” to her “babies”. I picked up a Circo set for her and we spend far too much time performing diaper changes on a monkey, creepy Little Pony doll and some kind of fairy doll. Sometimes her Santa doll (there’s a story there, and I’ll tell it one day) even gets into the act. The cheap Circo set is no longer available from Target but here is a link to a similar one.

When we were out two weeks ago I came across an Elmo potty insert (to be used on a regular toilet). I thought that Cameron would respond well to it so I picked it up and took it home to be used in my bathroom. Side note: I use the “guest” bathroom in our house because the master bath has a shower so small it is impossible to shave in. Essentially Cameron and I share a bathroom. It is fairly small so I didn’t want to add a potty. I need that space for my scale because I still have 2.5 pounds to lose! Another reason is that Cameron wants to do whatever I do. Which means she doesn’t want her own potty, she wants to sit on the regular toilet.

Picking up that $12 toilet insert was what really kick started the process. Cameron wanted to sit on it right away. And then she started asking regularly for a “diaper change.” On Saturday afternoon after nap she peed on the potty for the first time. DH and I made a big deal out of it (of course) and she repeated the feat before bedtime. Sunday morning she wanted to get on the toilet right away and again we had success. That was followed by 2 more successful (pee only) events.

Monday during my day off (I love a BigFinance holiday while daycare is open!) I bought some training underwear (Target only had the boy ones in her size) and some regular underwear. We have now incorporated potty trips for first thing in the morning, after school and before bed. Cameron still gets the order of the code phrase wrong. Sometimes she says “diaper change” after she pees/poops but about 50% the time she gets it right. Another advance is that when she poops in her diaper she now wants to be changed immediately and walks funny to keep the poop away from her skin.

Cameron has yet to have any success using the potty at daycare (they ask, she says no) but it’s only been 3 days. I’m sure peer pressure in the Twos room will accelerate the training. In the meantime I am happy that we still use diapers (for ease) and I haven’t had to go to pull ups yet for daycare. Those things are freaking expensive. Now, since I’ve done little/no research, what else should I be doing? Please keep in mind that I’m not ready to do cold turkey training, or anything like that.

The post where I admit I can never be a Gymboree parent

For the past 4 Saturdays Cameron and I have traveled out to the suburbs to take part in a Gymboree class. It was a Groupon deal that my friend Amanda alerted me to - a month of classes for $30 (normally $68). It took us about 25 minutes to get to the location so we never had a chance to go for "free play" and stuck to the Saturday 9 AM classes.

Cameron was a little tentative at first and it wasn't until her last class that she ended up going under the parachute without me. If anyone has been to a Gymboree class, you are familiar with the parachute. I think it's their hat trick for little kids. Anyway Cameron loved the singing and had a weird obsession with the big Jimbo dolls. Mommy was less impressed.

The class was pretty crowded, a result of the Groupon deal, I'm sure. But with more than a dozen kids, it felt really crowded the whole time. And toddlers don't exactly share well so I ended up having to put Cameron in a few time outs. Cameron was one of the oldest there and probably should have been in the next level class but I didn't know any better when I signed up. So the activities didn't really stretch her at all from a learning point of view.

The teacher was super annoying. She had one of those odd voices that was like nails on a chalkboard when she started singing songs. But mostly I think it was the other parents that turned me off of Gymboree (except for my friend Amanda, of course!). Every parent seemed to be from the same socio-economic bracket. Sure, there was diversity in terms of races (quite a few mixed race couples) but it wasn't really diversity, if you know what I mean. It was about as yuppie as you can possibly get. And the parents were obsessed with their kids. Constant hovering, not really interacting with other parents or kids.

What I struggle with is finding a good range of activities for Cameron that can help fill up our weekend. Most places require a 30 day notice before leaving which means a minimum of two months for an activity. That is far too much of a commitment for me. I hate missing classes because it is such a waste of money. But I have also been the parent who goes with Cameron to all the classes (swim lessons last year, Gymboree this year) and I get bored after a few weeks. How have other parents juggled incorporating regular activities for your little ones on the weekends? Do you switch off with your spouse?

Cameron definitely hogged Jimbo. She dragged that damn doll around the room with her. Clowns are kind of creepy, don't you think?

A new favorite activity for Cameron is to play basketball. A toddler basketball hoop is most likely in her future. Good thing her birthday is less than two months away!

New toddler, new tricks

I realize I haven't written a lot lately about Cameron's development. Our focus on illness and juggling work with travel woes has left me little time to reflect on her advancements. Just 2 months away from the age of 2, Cameron is already developing signs of the "Terrible Twos". Willful, defiant, constant mood swings...basically a preview into what we can expect when she is a teenager.

But along with the emotional ups and downs, Cameron has advanced quite a bit with her verbal, social, cognitive and physical development. She has well over 100 (we've lost count) words and is putting together 2 and 3 word sentences regularly. She engages in imaginative play with her tea set and taking care of her "babies". Cameron can kind of jump although she doesn't really get much clearance. She still can't walk up or down stairs without a lot of help from me or DH but we'll get there soon.

Cameron is getting good at saying "Please" and "Thank you." Needless to say, please was an easy one because we wouldn't give her what she wanted unless she said it. Thank you was a bit harder and she often says thank you to us when she is handing us something. It's very cute though. She has yet to master sharing and was quite the queen bee when we hosted a play date last weekend. Cameron regularly employs the word "mine" in when playing.

We have been using 1-2-3 Magic with time outs for the past two months. Cameron seems to like going into time out so I'm not sure it is having the proper effect. She does say, "No" when we ask her if she wants to go into time out so at least the punishment concept has sunk in.

We've been working with Cameron on her colors but the only ones she's consistent with is Yellow and Green. She can kind of count from 1-10 with some help. She can definitely say her ABCs as evidenced in the video proof below.

I know that development evens out for kids in the 3-4 year time frame. But I plan on pushing hard to get Cameron moved into the Twos room at daycare as soon as she turns 2. Given how long it took us to get her moved up the last time, I better start the process now!

Toddler development and ongoing challenges

I know I’ve been bad at blogging lately filling the void with a lot of picture posts and not much content. But now that I’m back on my feet post-strep throat fiasco I thought it was time for a sharing of our current Cameron challenges. At 20 months old we are still struggling with hitting and biting. She is very good about not hitting and biting other kids. Mommy? Not so much. If DH or I deny her anything it’s a wide open mouth going for the chomp on an arm or a leg. Heck, sometimes even a boob! We’ve tried 1-2-3 with timeouts, yelling, ignoring, you name it, we’ve tried it. Except hitting or biting back of course. I’m just going to keep hoping this is a phase. It is a phase right? Just a long one?

Cameron and we are still addicted to the pacifier and I have no plans to remove it anytime soon. DH and I were both finger suckers. And I find that when Cameron doesn’t have her pacifier she sticks her hands in her mouth. We are trying to limit pacifier time to right before bed and only in the car and in the crib. Unfortunately that fell completely by the wayside during Thanksgiving (4 days of whining was enough to give plenty of lollypops and pacifiers) and my illness/DH’s travel. I feel some guilt for still having the reliance on the pacifier but I figure how many college students bring a pacifier with them to campus? Right? The problem is that Cameron now says “paci” and asks for it constantly. She’ll usually put a “please” after it which totally melts my heart. DH and I are trying to stand firm on limiting the paci time so please send us good thoughts.

Cameron still sleeps great for the most part. Usually she only cries when she has had a nightmare or is sick. Our biggest challenge in the sleep area has been keeping her warm enough. We bought a big fleece blanket to put in her crib and have done away with the sleep sacks. Cameron isn’t a big climber (watch me jinx us) so I’m not too worried about her climbing out of her crib. We have her in fleece footsie PJs and she won’t keep the blanket over her. Her feet are a little cold in the morning so perhaps I need to bite the bullet and order new fleece sleep sacks? Would it be a safety issue to use our little space heater?

Our biggest challenge by far has been eating. Cameron will usually eat whatever daycare serves but with us? No way, no how. We seriously serve the same meal every night for her. Fish sticks or chicken nuggets, some kind of potato (usually tots), green beans (occasionally carrots) and fruit. Sometimes she is gracious and will eat Annie O’s but only the plain O’s, nothing else. I think part of the problem is that she eats before us. But I don’t see that changing any time soon as she goes to bed by 7 PM. When I was sick I gave her pasta and had some with her but she wanted nothing to do with it. Should I just go ahead and serve her something and attempt to not worry when she eats nothing? Will she wake up hungry in the middle of the night? Or start waking up at 5:30 AM instead of 6:30? What is a parent to do??? Yes, I have food issues so nothing stresses me out more than not having Cameron eat.

DH and I guesstimate that Cameron knows as many as 100 words. It’s a very rough guesstimate. She says words back to us very clearly and now says Mommy and Daddy instead of Mama and Dada. Our problem is when Cameron initiates a conversation with us. 75% of the time we have no idea what she is saying. At this age they just don’t enunciate very clearly so most of the words sound the same. I’ve been trying the old, “Show me what you want” trick but Cameron usually just looks at me like I’m an idiot and just repeats herself. We’ll get there, I know, and when we do I’ll be lamenting the fact that I ever complained about not understanding her.

Finally TV watching and toilet training are non-existent at this point. What I wouldn’t give for Cameron to be interested in some TV for even five minutes at a time!! She has zero interest in it which makes it hard to get her dinner ready or small chores completed. Every time I try to duck into the kitchen there she is tugging on my pant leg whining, “Up, up”. Sometimes Mommy needs 5 minutes of alone time! That used to be bathroom time but we are attempted to indoctrinate Cameron into the wonders of toilets so she visits the bathroom with me. Not that it’s resulted in success. This weekend she said, “diaper” and DH checked it but it was fine. Two minutes later she said “diaper” again and there was poop! We were all excited at this signal and started running her to the potty whenever she said diaper. Biggest waste of time ever. If there was even one pee success I’d keep going but the taking off the diaper, trying to get her to sit still and then getting her dressed again is taking too much time and effort. So potty training won’t really get started until well after she turns two.

Parent’s of other toddlers, what else are you struggling with at this age?

Is this her veterinarian stage?

Cameron's language development is phenomenal. I can't count the number of words she knows (granted, only DH and I recognize a lot of them) but she is picking up one or two a day. Just today she learned the word "match" when I put her hair in a ponytail like mine. She also wanted to match me by wearing her sweatshirt and sneakers. Too cute!

A few pictures from warmer days in October. Here Cameron feeds carrots to the goats.

As you can see, she loved it. She fed both goats and then moved on to the rabbits. I am pretty sure we weren't supposed to be feeding the animals but at least it was just carrots.

Cameron has also been obsessed with wagons lately. I'm on the fence about getting one because I just don't think we'd use it that much. She pulled her pumpkin a good 100 feet before I took back over.

Cameron loves animals. No fear, regardless of whether it has feathers, fur or scales. We have been reinforcing that love with an increase in her vocabulary. When we were in Hilton Head, I picked up a box of picture cards. I took this video of DH "quizzing" Cameron on the cards. It is in two parts because like most kids, as soon as I said something and she realized we were filming her she decided not to do it any more. Cameron either knows the correct word, sound or gesture associated with the 16 animals in the deck. Check out her hand gestures for the word crab. Adorable!

I don't want to brag but I'm pretty impressed with Cameron's language development. Now on to sentences! When can I expect that to start?

Language explosion

My sister, Mommy, Esq., predicted that Cameron would go through a language explosion soon when we saw her on our family vacation. Well, she was right! Cameron rarely says words spontaneously but she can parrot, very clearly, a ton of new words. These include*:

Ball
Mirror
Bag
Picture
Milk
Melba (her teacher)
More
That's Izzy (which is what we say when we see the neighbors' dog so Cameron thinks it's his full name, freaking adorable)
That
Book
Diaper

Some of these words I just shake my head over. Did DH really have to teach her picture and mirror? How about some useful words instead? I'm working on teaching Cameron to say "up" but it's not going to well. She prefers throwing herself at me and whining instead of saying "up". Good times.

Cameron will be 17 months next week (sniff, she's growing up far too fast!) so I'm glad her language is on track. I'm sure the doctor will ask us about it during her 18 month appointment. Good thing I write this stuff in my blog or I'd never remember on the spot! So, now when can I expect her to start saying things without prompting regularly? And is there another common age for another language or perhaps grammar (sentences) explosion to be on the lookout for?

*I'm probably forgetting a few others but you get the idea.

Growing up

In the past week Cameron has shot up at least an inch. DH and I have both commented that we feel like we can actually see her growing. Aside from her gains in height, Cameron has also picked up a lot of new words. She's been saying Mama, Dada and uh-oh for quite some time. She's now added bye-bye, hi, more, ball, woof-woof, vroom-vroom and lee for Charlie. Cameron also calls Charlie woof-woof.

Cameron has gotten good at picking up after herself too. I credit daycare entirely for this one. If we're in a store and she picks something up I just tell her, "Cameron put that back" and she does! I have no doubt that this is just a phase but I'm glad of it. She also likes to imitate me while I'm doing chores. When folding laundry I take an article of clothing and snap out wrinkles before folding. Cameron will reach into the dryer and once she has a shirt or really anything she will attempt to do the same thing. Unfortunately this doesn't extend to actually folding the laundry but I can already see her doing her own clothes in a few years. Yeah, right.

DH and I were in stitches this morning with Cameron's dancing ability. I use the word dancing liberally. She likes to squat down and bounce a bit and sometimes throws arm movements in. It's absolutely hysterical.

I also saw my first example of Cameron engaging in imaginative play. We bought her this awesome KidKraft kitchen. It's not fully stocked yet but I put some cheap plastic bowls in one of the cabinets. Cameron took them out and pretended to eat out of them, complete with "yum" declarations.

Cameron has also learned (kind of) how to give kisses. She usually aims for the legs or a stuff animal. She's tried to kiss Charlie but he's a little wary of her still so he usually runs away. I kiss and hug her all the time so I'm excited she is close to being able to really return affection.

Updates

The summer is a tough time to blog, isn’t it? I find it hard to find the time. Although I do also have to blame the fact that I can’t blog at work anymore. True, there are the evenings but once bedtime and dinner are done DH and I usually watch a show (Leverage is a big favorite these days) and then I go to bed. I hope to post more regularly next week once we are on vacation but considering it’s a family reunion (33 of us!) I’m not sure how feasible it will be. In the meantime here are some updates.

I’m attempting to de-clutter. We must have 10x as much stuff as we did when we first moved it. A lot of it is Cameron’s of course but I still hesitate to sell her baby equipment. Instead I’m focusing on getting rid of clothes that are too dated or big (down 2 whole dress sizes so far – or is it considered 4 because of how women’s clothes are sized?) and crap that we haven’t used in more than a year. Included in that list are all of my MBA books. I figure that if I haven’t used them after 3 years at BigFinance I don’t need them and they are taking up an entire shelf in our library. I’m in a Women in Technology & Operations not-for-profit group at BigFinance and they are running a book drive. The goal is to collect books that will help women re-enter or enter the workforce. It’s a great idea and a great way for me to get rid of all of those accounting and finance books. I’ve made two trips so far with one more to go. Damn, those textbooks are heavy!

Cameron has started running. It’s not real running in the sense that she still doesn’t know that she should bring her knees up higher to get more momentum. But she is moving much faster now and with much more purpose. It also seems as though she has inherited my clumsiness. While running through the parking lot at the JCC she took a face planter. It resulted in a nice scrap on her face and her knee but they’ve mostly faded already. I find myself needing to grab her arm or hand to keep her moving at a more sedate pace, especially around sidewalks or uneven ground. The number of falls has increased dramatically over the past week. I only see that getting worse when she hangs out with her older cousins next week! And now I understand how so many kids get Nursemaid’s elbow.

The temper tantrums are back. They don’t usually last long but any little thing can set them off. Cameron usually plops down on her butt and then rolls over and moans and cries while kicking her feet. It would be funny if it wasn’t also annoying. The biggest driver of tantrums is if we take something away from her. We usually try to redirect with another more appropriate toddler item but Cameron wants nothing to do with “safe” toddler items. She wants to take everything out of mommy’s purse or wallet. Or basically play with anything that isn’t a toy. We aren’t planning to bring too many toys with us on vacation. Between us, my siblings and their 5 kids I think we’ll have enough to go around, don’t you? And why do I find myself still buying toys when she clearly prefers “real” stuff instead? I guess I’m just holding out hope that that perfect toy will occupy Cameron for more than 2 minutes and I can go to the bathroom in peace. Too much to hope for?

Work has been kicking my ass lately which is another reason I’ve been so remiss in blogging. I have been trying to get lots done before vacation. I am hopeful that by putting in longer hours now I can avoid anything work related while on vacation. I’ll still bring my Blackberry but will only check the urgent messages and then just pass them off to my teammates to follow up on. It doesn’t help that I’m also sick. I’ve got something sinus related and I’m pretty sure I can point the finger to Cameron for this one. It’s not as bad as when I had my sinus infection earlier this year but I still wake up with crusty eyes (no, it’s not pink eye, thank goodness) and sinus congestion. Cameron had the same thing about a week ago and she’s fine now. So here’s hoping I bounce back and can enjoy vacation to its fullest.

Have you noticed I mentioned vacation like a million times? It’s the first time DH and I have gone anywhere for vacation since last August. We took a week off in mid-December but it was a staycation. The logistics of coming up with a detailed packing list and then actually packing the car are obsessing us. We have a list of about 150 items that need to be packed. Guess how many of those relate to Cameron? If you said most of them you would be right. We’re bringing Charlie with us too since the rental allows dogs. It’s the first time he will be at the beach and we’re hoping he isn’t wimpy about it. But I’m not holding out much hope for that one. Wish us luck fitting everything in the car!

Vampire fever hits our household

No, I'm not talking about the latest vampire movie or TV show (although Vampire Diaries is fabulous and I highly recommend it), but rather Cameron's recent habit of biting every other kid in her daycare. I now have THAT child. In her defense Cameron is getting all 4 canines at the same time (one popped through, three more to go!). I've asked daycare to let her have her pacifier more often to avoid the number of "accident" reports going home with other kids.

Another big fun item is the continued hitting. We've started saying, "no hitting" and then "one" or "two" depending on the situation. We aren't doing time outs yet (more redirection or removal from the situation) but we're trying to lay the groundwork. It's super fun when she gets something taken away from her (for hitting usually) and then she throws herself down on the ground and screams and rolls and pounds her feet. Ah, the toddler time has hit our household hard!

Cameron loves to wear too big galoshes and whatever bib strikes her fancy. I have no doubt that she will want to dress up in my clothes, shoes and jewelry very soon.

Would you look at that hair? This child will not let me put anything in it. Even the teeny tiny elastic bands are no match for her questing hands. But I refuse to get a haircut. I'd rather wait it out.
DH taught Cameron how to put socks and shoes on her hands. Guess what she wants to do all the time now?

The fireplace is strictly off limits unless Cameron is sitting on it nicely. No standing or crawling aloud. I'm actually impressed at how she listens when we tell her "sit" if she starts to climb up on it.

Cameron's hair is tamed due to a bath. She is all dressed up before we went out to a BBQ with our neighbors.

15 month stats

We had Cameron's 15 month doctor's appointment this morning. She took her shots like a champ and charmed the doctor and other parents in the waiting room. Here are the numbers:

Weight: 21 pounds, 12 ounces (29%)
Height: 31 inches (62%) - maybe she won't be a shortie like her mama!
Head: 47 cm? (78%) - I'm assuming this measurement is in cm because a 47 inch head would be ginormous!

We are looking forward to a nice long weekend with fun in the sun, lots of errands and a BBQ. I hope everyone reading this is able to knock off work early and enjoy your holiday weekend! I promise lots of pictures and a picture post to come in a few days.

Toddler discipline

Cameron has a new skill that I'm not fond of: hitting. I'm assuming she picked it up in daycare but for all I know hitting, like biting, is an inherent toddler skill.

We were in the splash area at the JCC and Cameron picked up two buckets that another child had abandoned. The kid, older and of course bigger, saw Cameron take them. He marched over, dropped the toys he was playing with and grabbed the two buckets. His name, by the way, was Adlai according to the buckets. Cameron was not happy to have her toys taken away. Usually she just cries and comes to me for comfort. This time she decided that running after Adlai and starting to push him was the best way to deal with the situation. Being a smart mommy, I figured out what she was going to do before it happened so I swooped in and picked her up before she could tackle the kid.

This redirected Cameron to lash out at me instead. She attempted to hit me with both hands. I held her hands saying, "No hitting" and attempted to redirect her. The hitting has become a pattern with her. If she is frustrated or tired or just doesn't get her way she will lash out. It usually happens once or twice a day. But that is once or twice too often for me. Mostly because I am the one holding her or trying to redirect her which means I bear the brunt of her anger/frustration. I think she's too young at 15 months for time outs but let me poll my readers: what will you/have you done to correct this kind of behavior in your toddlers?

The truth about toddlers

There has been a post going around comparing toddlers to teenagers. There are definitely similarities, particularly the destructive nature of both age groups. At least when you tell a teenager to stop doing something you are assured they understand what you are saying. They may not do it but they can comprehend what you're saying. Despite Cameron's advancements in understanding language we are lucky to have a 30% chance that she understands what we're saying and another 5% chance that she'll do what we ask.

Cameron is learning to walk backwards pretty well. A new trick is spinning in a circle while there is music playing. Two or three turns and she's pretty dizzy. It's a riot! When DH and I are sitting on the ground Cameron likes to walk over and turn around about 3 paces from where we are sitting and sit down thinking that she will land in our laps. So she's not so good at judging distances yet.

In terms of vocabulary we haven't heard new words. But we do have the fun experience of hearing her shriek with laughter. It's a little piercing and can quickly deteriorate into whining but it makes us laugh every time.

Cameron "reads" the newspaper. It really meant she went through the entire recycling bag and pulled out every single piece of paper.

We have entered the stage of book obsession. I actually have to hide her books sometimes to get Cameron to play with other toys! If we're lucky she'll let us read 1/2 of a book before pulling it away and demanding a different book.
Cameron is somewhat shy but now that we've been going to the splash park for a few weeks she is finally getting a handle on the fact that it is more fun to play in the water than next to it.

Cameron definitely doesn't like to get water in her eyes but she's learning to close them. Good progress!

Toddlers are also like teenagers in that they like to steal things. Most of the kids don't mind if Cameron picks up a toy lying on the ground. Sometimes they grab it away from her and then we get the nice new sound we are starting to dread: the screech/whine.

Toddlers have OCD tendencies. Cameron is absolutely obsessed with these galoshes. They are far too big for her but every time we leave the door to the mud room open she zips in to pull out her boots.

Cameron insists on immediately sitting down, removing whatever shoes she is currently wearing and whining until DH or I put the galoshes on her.

What are the odds that she'll actually want to use these when they fit and it's raining outside? Yeah, I wouldn't take those odds either.

I can read good

After dropping Cameron off at daycare this morning I heard a sponsorship announcement on NPR for an organization committed to teaching children to read by the end of third grade. I attempted to Google this organization but couldn't remember the name so I failed. Regardless, it got me thinking about the standards for reading today in schools.

When my sisters and I were in first grade we were put in a remedial reading class. The reason? At 6 years old we couldn't read fluently and as such were "behind the curve." We were physically as well but I'll save the Special Gym story for another time. In my day (jeesh, I sound old!) kids were expected to start elementary school knowing how to read. Today? Not so much. Despite an emphasis on reading early and often to babies and toddlers most school systems don't expect fluent reading and writing until the third grade.

Because reading is so important to me I want Cameron to be able to read at an early age. My expectations are not unrealistic (I hope). I would like her to know how to read before she starts first grade. We actually made a breakthrough a few weeks ago. No, I did not run out and buy the Your Baby Can Read system that has infomercials on early in the morning. Personally I think it's a scam. But I digress. Our breakthrough is that Cameron has finally learned to sit on our laps while we read to her. Before Cameron would have the attention span of one or two pages. Then she would grab the book and throw it to the floor. Or, when we weren't reading a board book, she would try to rip the pages in half.

It's been a nice change to sit with her on the floor or the couch or her rocking chair while reading the same book over and over again. Her current favorite is Sesame Street's "Everybody Dance!" The book is short and rhymes. Plus it is a board book and each page has a 1/2 page that can be flipped back and forth to show the characters "dancing." I think I had to read that book 3 times last night before Cameron pointed to bed.

For parents with older children what have you done to help progress the reading learning process? And any recommendations for books you think Cameron would enjoy? Or more importantly, books that won't annoy the crap out of me and DH when we have to read them again and again and again?

The queen of busy town

I was talking to my mom today and she asked how Cameron was doing. My response? "She's very busy." And she is, constantly. It doesn't matter what she is doing she does it with such an intentness that you can practically hear the wheels turning in her cute little head. Cameron always has to be doing something. There is never a moment to sit and enjoy the peace and quiet. Looks like toddlerhood has hit us hard!

This is Cameron's pooping corner. Every time she had to poop this weekend we happened to be in the living room and she would head to this corner, grunt a few times and bang, a nice little present for Mommy or Daddy to clean up. I heard somewhere that picking a particular location is an early sign of the ability to be potty trained. Given that she still falls down a lot when she walks I think we'll hold off on that particular learning process for a while.

Cameron always tries to carry her daycare bag when we are entering or leaving the school. So when we were at the mall this weekend I stopped by Claire's to pick up her very own purse. As you can see, Cameron loves it and insists on carrying it with her everywhere.

I had to include this photo because, man, this kid is cute, isn't she? We had some friends over for a BBQ last night and I mentioned that I was surprised she wasn't "discovered" in our outing to the mall. It's about time Cameron started earning her keep :-)
Despite being extraordinarily busy Cameron does love her arm chair, a birthday present from Grammy. She gets annoyed if I sit in it. She seems to realize that it is her chair and no one else should sit in it.

Another cute chair photo...

And now, for a change of pace

In talking about Cameron's progress with walking I equated it more to a gradual progress rather than a leap towards freedom. No longer. Take a look at these two videos taken 4, yes 4 days apart.

This video was taken on Sunday night after bath time. Hence why Cameron's hair looks tamed. The most she walked in a row was 10 or 11 steps.

This video was taken last night. For the first time ever Cameron walked laps around the first floor and didn't need anything besides herself to pull up into a walking position. Looks like it's time to really, really baby proof!