Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Communication meltdowns

Natali is still amazing the both of us.

She has started to use multi-word sentences such as "I see the park", "Go home get gogurt, see doggies" and, "When will Obama leave?"

That last one took Kelli off guard.

Sometimes though her desire to communicate causes a meltdown because she doesn't have to words to say what she wants. It's frustrating for her and me. She will make sounds and look at me waiting for a response. Since I have no idea what she wants I have to start guessing. She repeats her request with gibberish. Tantrum ensues.

Natali has been forward facing in the car for a while. Most of the time she is just observing the ride, listening to her Elmo CD (we all listen to the Elmo CD!) and talking.

I find it interesting just how much she observes. When heading to the park...even a mile or two away she will say, "Go Park?"

As I make the final turn she gets very excited and says, "I see it! I see the park!"

Similar things happen as we head home.

Potty training is going slowly. Kelli and I talk about taking the challenge on full steam....but then forget about it. We had a great 3 day weekend to do it. Nope.

Natali announces when she goes #1..sometimes before she does it. As far as the other end...eh she only announces AFTER she does it. She will "request"...ok she DEMANDS to go sit on the potty every now and then. Sometimes the small potty...sometimes the big potty. It's a learning process for all of us.

We are doing a pretty good job of managing her Ipad use. We find it interesting Natali only associates the word "Ipad" with her Ipad. When we take it away she has zero desire to use ours. She uses it about an hour in the morning and about an hour in the evening.

She spends about 40% of the time watching Elmo/Mickey Mouse/Yo Gabba Gabba (all locally stored on her Ipad), 20% of the time watching baby videos of herself  (also locally stored) and 40% of the time using her apps (Educational and just fun apps). She has memorized almost all of the food flash cards and a few of the animal flash cards.

Natali knows the sounds of most of the ABC song and can count to 4...sometimes 5. We sing the ABC song when we brush her teeth. One full time for the bottom set and one full time through for the top set.

Finally, this website is officially 5 years old. Five years ago this month we decided to have a kiddo. It was a very rough road. Many have had it worse, but it was worth it.  I don't want to go down that road again (Kelli still wants to) as one perfect, crazy, tantrum throwing child is enough for me.

 

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

My turn with the potty

Natali is pretty easy. I've been around a few kids. I know we have it easy.

She loves Elmo...currently....I might hip her to something different soon.

On her Ipad (yeah our 21 month old has an Ipad....remember we are raising a geek!) she has several Elmo videos along with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse videos.

One of her favorite videos is Elmo's Potty Time.

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Kelli has more experience with potty training Natali than me...it just happened that way.

Over the last week Natali has watched that Elmo's Potty Time at least 4 times. She knows "Pee Pee and Poo Poo". She even knows what the words mean.

This week is Father and Daughter week as I have the whole week off. It's the Daddy and Daughter game everyday...no daycare this week!

Several times a day while home she has said "Pee Pee, Poo Poo , Potty" and pointed toward the restroom. Off we go, I plop her down on the her potty and she then says , "Daddy Pee Pee!" and points to the toilet. Fine...down I sit.

Up until tonight we both just sit there. Tonight AFTER her bath I was drying her off when she pointed to her potty and again said, "Daddy Pee Pee Potty". Ok I put her down...she directed me to go as well.

Natali sat there for a moment and I could tell she was trying to go. She squirmed a bit.  Sure enough out came the pee. She waited a few more moments and waved her hands "all done." Nice.

So far we've only had #1's no #2s. Not bad for a a kid basically training herself through Elmo videos. I am somewhat confident she will be trained by age 2. Small baby steps.

Also of note today...no nap. They are slowly going away. I'm going to miss them.