July 17, 2011

Sunday:

Annabelle went on her potty this morning, at least once for Ruth and once for me as well. She is coming along on this potty training, of course not without some mysterious puddles here and there. After Ruth and the kids returned from church, she ate lunch peacefully while her older brother fought valiantly to avoid eating anything on top of his cracker / cookie lunch that he enjoyed (unbeknownst to us) while at church.

I will comment on nap and bedtime by saying that Annabelle is not going down without a fight. I admire Ruth for her incredible patience. I wish I knew the secret. I don't have patience like that. People say, 'they're just kids', or, 'wait till she gets older', or my favorite, 'you have to imagine that she's a little person.' F**k that - thank God I have Ruth. Just go to sleep, period. We had to give her two bottles to get her to sleep tonight. It may be her teeth, we are buying some orajel tomorrow. I think my problem is that I can't have dialogue with her, or reason with her, nor will she simply lie in bed quietly; at the end of the day, as long as she is not shrieking from her room, it matters not to me what she is doing.

Backing up to earlier in the evening before bedtime, we finished eating dinner and Ruth was on the floor with her playing, when she noticed that Annabelle was having a poo poo. Ruth hoisted her to the potty, but before she could get Annabelle over the target area, there lay on the rug a bi-colored log. It was quite humorous. I froze, just looking in awe and wondering why there was a clearly delineated division between one half of the log (light brown) and the other half (dark brown). Ruth snapped me out of my stupor (I was probably murmuring something about why the turd was multi-colored) by asking me to get something to pick it up with. I returned from flushing the specimen, Ruth stated that the coloring was probably due to her differing meals throughout the day. Meanwhile, I was advising Liam to move a little further away from the potty (he had his head about 12 inches from the specimen that successfully arrived at its destination).

Bedtime is a pain with Annabelle these days, but it is rewarding when she (and Liam too) smile when they see me in the morning or when I return from an errand, a workout, or the office.