Potty Training Day 5, Gymboree, Eating habits..

Summary of Day 5: worst potty training day of all. Only 1 [pee] this morning, and it was barely anything. I'm almost starting to think she's holding it until she's OFF the potty, to go in her diaper! Could that be possible? Does the potty make her hold it instead of relax? We're on that thing for at least 5 minutes at a time... plenty of time to 'relax'.. but then it seems like as soon as that diaper's back on her, she goes. COME. ON.

Oh well. Again, what can I do but be persistant and hopefully we'll catch her here and there and maybe one day it'll stick and start to sink in for her. She's very young yet. I'm not at all stressed out over this.. this was something I wanted to start early, and I think the overall process will be just long. But that's ok because in the end, it will probably still be sooner than the typical child potty trained.

My goal is by 18 months. So, 6 months of potty training... and I'm just thinking during the day. Through the night is a whole different ball park, but if we could be day-trained by 18 months, that would be awesome. I'll be happy to accept any tips or tricks if you have experience with successful potty training at this age.

Otherwise, we went to Gymboree today and it was a full class! Avalyn just wanted to play in this 'ball pit' thing and refused to climb or play with anything else. It's not even a ball pit. It was a circular structure with balls in the middle, and she honestly climbed over the side and dove in head first. The sides were as tall as her chest.. so you can imagine the face-first plunge she took, but came up with a big smile every time! Everyone was laughing at how 'crazy' she was - it was so funny to watch her! I tried moving her across the big room to play with something else, but she practically RAN to get back into that 'ball pit'! When it was time to take it away, she almost had a melt-down, but I told her we were "all done" and "bye-bye balls" and she said "all done" and "bye-bye" to the balls and was ok. This is our new trick to leaving anything without getting a tantrum. Note to self.

Bran went hunting this morning at 4am and came home around 9am, gatorless. He said they saw more gators, but still none as big as they wanted. He had a training today so was able to stay home in the morning a little bit and then go to his training in the afternoon. Tomorrow is meet-the-teacher night, so it makes up his difference in times for work.

Avalyn's eating habits seemed to have improved. "KNOCK ON WOOD" she not longer spits her food out all the time. The trick is to not let her see all the food choices she may have for a particular meal. If she sees something she may want over what she's currently eating, that's when the spitting occurs. Otherwise she's been eating a very balanced diet of veggies, fruits, beans (for her protein), grains, and now dairy! She drinks her soy milk fine, eats cheese, and loves her yogurt! Yogurt has become her snack now, which I think is a good snack for that 3:00 time frame, with some cheerios or puffs or crackers. It's just enough to hold her over for dinner, but not too much to fill her up. Her breaskfast is probably her smallest meal... I think because she nurses a lot in the morning.

Oh...I wanted to mention that today Avalyn did the funniest thing. She was holding her drumsticks (musical instruments) and walking around in her playroom, then she held them straight over her head, walked over to her blow-up ball pit and stood at the entrance, and then just belly-flopped face first into the balls. So, imagine someone doing a trust fall (which is falling like a board backwards), but she did it forward into the balls, on purpose! It was SOOO funny! She just loves to flop in there - I wish I had the flip video going to catch it! Speaking of which, we seemed to stop taking pictures and video of her now that she's one. We've stopped the daily picture thing, which is actually kinda nice, but I feel like I haven't taken her picture in a long time. I need to get on that. These blog posts are so texty... more pictures needed!!!

Aren't you proud of me for blogging everyday lately? I can remember a WHOLE lot more this way, and actually write details instead of just a quick daily summary! Let's see how long THIS keeps up! HA!