(indulge me – I’m posting a new poem)

I thought motherhood
would be easier
the second time around
but you changed everything.

My Emily,
born with a burden.
Where is that baby,
bright-eyed and brave?
There are no more special bottles,
no more arm restraints
and the surgery is done
for now.

You are my strong one
with eyes as big
as my hope for you.
you are Emily who laughs
at the raindrops.

You say good-bye to the moon
and love to pop bubbles
you are Emily who smiles at everything.

Emily whose smile is everything.

Emily had fun playing in an empty pull-ups box today. It was pretty much the only way I could safely take her picture since she was walking around without a diaper all day due to (drumroll please) the start of potty training!!

And she did SO great!

We actually started a bit on Friday afternoon, and more so yesterday, but today was the big day. We kept her diaper off all day which pretty much meant no pants and a whole lotta naked. She had several accidents (I tried putting her in underwear for a while, but she would just wet them like they were a diaper). She did not like having accidents and would say “ew! yucky!” or “pee!” when she’d go. So I started putting her on the potty whenever this happened and she went a little bit each time.

Then it just seemed to click. She went into the bathroom and looked at me with a very concerned expression and said, “potty!” and I actually put her on the potty and she peed! Then she refused to get up. hehe. It took a couple more times with me helping her this way and then she started doing it on her own. We’re still putting her in pull-ups when we go out (I mean, it’s just day one) and a diaper at night. When she seems more comfortable going on a regular basis, we’ll venture out of the house with 15 spare changes of clothes.

Go Emily!

That’s her “I’ve reached another milestone” smile. Isn’t it cute?

Emily is doing so well with sleep that I almost don’t want to write about it for fear of jinxing myself. After the desperation I expressed a month ago, things have gotten a lot better. Getting rid of the crib was a huge help, but I also want to give credit to a book called “The No Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers” by Elizabeth Pantley. It’s a thick tome of a book that has every sleep issue you’re likely to encounter in kids from one to five. Ms. Pantley describes how sleep cycles effect children and how a child’s daily routine is connected to bed time. To say it really really really helped is an understatement.

We made a few changes besides removing the crib. We started bringing Emily up to bed a full hour earlier than we were (7:30 instead of 8:30) and spending a generous amount of time with her in her room. She loves this so much.

She will read one to three books (she won’t let me read them to her – she likes to flip through the book and we sort of read together with her pointing things out). Then I turn the light out and lay down next to the bed for about 10-15 minutes. I then leave and sometimes she protests and I just say “shhhh” as I leave. She almost never cries! In fact, yesterday I really think she wanted me to leave so she could relax and settle in on her own. The best part? She’s sleeping through the night more consistently then ever – I’m talking a good 10-11 hours a night! We do this same routine for naps and she almost always gets a good 1-3 hour nap.

We went to the Catskill Game farm in New York and Emily loved feeding the sheep. Considering they were practically at eye level with her, I was pretty impressed.

Another sheep shot.

Ana insisted on feeding a pig…

I’ll end with the rhino. This is a perfect representation of how I felt after three hours of trudging around the zoo with the girls on an extremely hot day.

My first attempt at posting a video clip. Here’s Emily eating (playing with) some sweet potatoes. She still eats them from the jar. We try to think of it as though it’s yogurt. There’s no sound in this clip because I used my camera to take it. Isn’t this cool?? Courtesy of Google video (and thanks, Colleen, for giving me the idea).