Potty Milestone

Yay, after over a year's attempt at potty training Miss M, she finally pooped in her potty chair for the first time yesterday!!! We'll see if we can get consistent repeat performances in the potty chair. (Peeing in the potty has been fine for several months now)

We have been trying to plan a little getaway for some time now. It's been about 2 years since we took Miss M to Monterey, CA. During that visit, we stopped by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Miss M was so much younger back then, I'm pretty sure she doesn't remember the trip at all. One thing I remember clearly is that it took us 5 hours, with stops along the way, to drive from San Francisco to Monterey.

We've been thinking about another road trip for a while but never made any plans because we knew that we could not sleep in the same room as Miss M. She could never fall asleep if we stayed up later with the lights on. And DH & I do not want to go to bed at 8 PM.

We have finally made plans for another trip to Monterey. I think I've found the perfect place for us to stay; it has a "family suite". As I understand from the room description, there is a sofa bed in a separate room AND there is a door (very important!) between that sitting room and the bedroom. Hopefully this means we can put Miss M to bed around her usual time, around 8PM, while we can stay up later without distracting her from her sleep. Hopefully DH will manage to catch up on some reading and I can catch up on my knitting.

Christmas gift ideas

It's that time of year where we rack our brains to figure out what Miss M would like/should get for Christmas. We know she loves Elmo so I thought she would like a Tickle Me Elmo. I haven't actually seen what this looks like. He comes in a box, and there isn't a display model to see what it does. However I do remember that there was some big thing about it many years back, and I'm guessing Miss M would love it.

Miss M has also developed an imagination, so I think/hope she'll love this Lego set. She's such a lucky girl. I never had Legos when I was a kid. I keep looking at this box and wanting to open it up so I can play with it.

We also have a large Pooh Bear stuffed toy for her, you can see a photo of it's bottom here, from when we got it from the store and she managed to identify Pooh Bear from his bottom. Since Pooh Bear was probably a bit dusty/dirty from being in the store so long (don't wanna know), I wanted to give him a bath before wrapping him up and giving him to Miss M. When I brought him to the washing machine, I realized that he would not fit in the top-loading washer. So I brought him over to my MIL's house where she has a newer front-loading washer.

Now I guess I should get a head start on what her birthday present should be...

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Miss M is potty training now. We've been working on it for a while, sometimes she's interested, other times she's not. We had the Baby Bjorn Potty Chair (left photo) for the longest time; all she ever did was use it as a chair. However there was some success in it when she stayed overnight at my MIL's house. We leave this Potty Chair there now.

I bumped into a woman at the park a couple months ago who suggested I try one of those things that sits on top of the toilet. So I picked up the Baby Bjorn Toilet Trainer (right photo) to give that a try. Miss M seems more interested in using the toilet now. We try to get her to sit on it and do her thing. Sometimes she pees, other times nothing happens.

Another thing we just picked up was some pull-up diapers.

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Miss M is growing. Some of her 24 mos or size 2 clothes are getting small/short on her. She's started to wear her size 3 clothes. I think she's all set in that dept. The only thing I need to pick up for her are 2 more sets of long-sleeve PJs, and maybe some short-sleeve ones too for summer.

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Miss M is quite the chatterbox these days, and is getting pretty good at forming simple sentences (and commands too).


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Marisa's Size 7 Visual Clothing Inventory

M is currently wearing 24m/2/2T size clothes, but I'm getting a head start with larger sizes. This is just a visual inventory of M's clothes so I don't have to dig through boxes to see what she has.



LONG SLEEVE SHIRTS (14):





SHORT SLEEVE SHIRTS (19):

Note: 2 are identical




PANTS (3):




SHORTS (1):





JACKETS (1 fleece):





VEST (1):




ANORAK (1):

This is the same anorak as her size 5/6 anorak, both pack into its own pocket. I figure it'll be great for keeping in the car.





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Learning pronouns

M is starting to learn her pronouns. She started by saying "mommy hold you" when she meant "mommy hold me". Now she's started to remember, from time to time, that she should say "mommy hold me".

And she's started to use indentifiers "this" and "that" in her sentences.

This was a book I got for Marisa a couple months before she was born. I got it signed by the author and illustrator. She's not quite old enough for me to read this to her. Too many words. She loses interest. It's a cute story with beautiful pictures.

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It was bound to happen

M took her nap this afternoon and then when we went to get her, we found her socks, pants, AND DIAPER off. There was a wet spot in her bed, and who knows what other secondary transfer there was. And of course I had just changed all her bedding in the morning, so I ended up washing 2 sets of her bedding today ... making a total of 3 loads of laundry today.

This photo was taken last week. It was her first time wearing 2 pigtails. It's hard to keep them on. Sometimes she moves around too much, other times she just pulls them off.
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Marisa's Size 6 Visual Clothing Inventory

Marisa is currently wearing 24mos/2/2T size clothing. I've been collecting clothes in size 3 and size 4, one item in size 5, and just started on size 6. I need a little help keeping track of what I already have. They all go into a box and I can't remember what I've already bought her. So this will be a Visual Inventory to remind me of what I have in the box. This will be easier than trying to go through the box cuz everytime I do that she will try to "help" by pulling everything out of the box. Then I end up having to refold everything...


SHORT SLEEVE SHIRTS (1):




LONG SLEEVE SHIRTS (2):




PANTS (14; 13 full lenth, 1 capri):







SKORTS & SHORTS (7) :




SKIRT (1):



PAJAMAS (6; 2 short sleeve w/ long pants; 4 long sleeve w/ long pants) :







OUTFITS/DRESSES (2):

This cute top & skirt is from Vicki, she picked it up during her Shanghai/Hong Kong trip in May 2008.




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