Evie Update

The Week of Pee

/ Shane / 4 Comments

Evie has been potty trained for well over a year now, but still wearing a diaper at night. She quit wearing diapers for her nap a long time ago, but every morning her overnight diaper was soaked. Every once in a while she would have a dry diaper or two. For the longest time we told her that, if she had dry diapers for 7 nights in a row, she could switch to panties overnight. She was excited at the prospect, but it was never quite enough motivation to go for it. She also got to pick a prize from the prize bucket for dry diapers. Every now and again we would give a little push to try and get rid of the diapers (for example, having her go potty a 2nd time after her bath), but we weren’t really that concerned with it. We thought she could do it, but if she didn’t want to, we were fine with that.

Then, something happened that clued us in.

When she started back at daycare, she got a diaper at nap time. She hasn’t had a diaper for her nap in probably 6 months, and she never has an accident. However, when they put a diaper on her, she wet it. Ah ha! Having the diaper on made her feel like she didn’t really need to worry about it, almost like giving her permission.

So we decided to just go for it. No diaper at night, and if she wet the bed, she wet the bed. We’d try it for a week, if it worked it worked, if it didn’t, it didn’t. We even bought extra sheets in preparation.

It only took 2 nights.

After the second night of wet sheets she was done going overnight. She’s had one accident overnight since then, but that’s it. There’s nothing like quitting cold turkey! I have to say, it was WELL worth those two nights of extra laundry!

1st day of school

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Yesterday, Evie had her first day of preschool.

Everything was sort of disastrous. First off, it so happened that Sara and I both had dentist appointments scheduled for that day. We spoke to the dentist and I rescheduled my appointment and they promised to hurry Sara’s. However, because Sara had this appointment, she ended up having to leave this morning before everything was ready, meaning I had a lot of running around to do, and she didn’t get to take pictures like she wanted.

Finally, we got out the door and met Sara at the school on time. However, something was wrong, nobody else seemed to be there. It was a ghost town. I went inside to check, and it turns out that the first day (which is only an hour to sort of get her used to it) started at 10 instead of the regular 9. So we were an hour early! So much for all our hurrying. I could have gone to my dentist appointment.

So it was sort of anti-climactic because I had to leave for work, and Sara had to go kill some time. Evie was disappointed too, because she was excited to go to school and didn’t want to be told it wasn’t time yet. It was like we were building up for this big moment and then…nothing. Oh well.

It sounds like Evie took everything pretty well. She insisted that she wasn’t going to play with anything because she, “didn’t want to help pick anything up”. But when she saw the duplos, she just couldn’t help herself. So she ended up having a pretty good time.

This sending your kids to school thing is sort of a head trip. Obviously there are all the feelings about how your kid is growing up so fast, etc. But there’s more to it than that. When you’re old enough for preschool, your life starts happening. I met the best man from my wedding in preschool. I have memories of preschool.

It reminds me of a Louis CK bit I heard one time about how now that his daughter is in preschool, there are no do overs anymore because now she will remember things, the way he remembers things about preschool (EDIT: you can hear the bit here, from minute 3:00 to 3:32). As he says, they press record at age 5, nothing you do before that matters. You could punch her in the face before that and it doesn’t matter because they’re going to wipe the hard drive.

Not that I’m considering punching her in the face. I just mean that any mistakes I make now she could remember for the rest of her life. That’s heavy stuff! No more do-overs!

Milk

/ Shane / 1 Comment

When Evie was younger, the doctor wasn’t happy about her weight. This is well documented on this blog. The doctor insisted that she needed to be drinking more milk.

We tried everything we could think of to get her to drink milk, and she just wasn’t interested. However, we didn’t want to push it and force her to drink it, which would result in her hating it. No big deal, we thought. She likes drinking water and we didn’t want to discourage that. We just made sure she got calcium in other ways, such as vitamins morning and night and encouraging her 3 yogurt a day habit.

“Not good enough!” shouted the doctor, “She has to drink MILK! Milk, milk, MILK!” “You know, people haven’t really been drinking milk all that long in the grand scheme of things,” replied Sara, “What did they do before there was milk to drink?” The doctor replied sweetly, “They were all malnourished and died back then.”

Quite frankly, we didn’t buy it. And now our strategy has paid off. Evie chugs milk like it is going out of style. It’s gotten to the point that we get tired of filling her glass, and tell her she can’t have any more. That’s right, we’re actually restricting her from drinking milk! Whoever thought we’d get to the point that she would actually cry because she couldn’t have milk?

It can be hard as a parent to do what you feel is the right thing to do, especially in the face of opposition from your doctor. However, I feel (in this one case at least) completely vindicated by this turn of events. A short-term weight gain does not out weigh a long-term childhood love of milk.

Take that modern medicine!

(By the way, she still calls it Outback Milk)

Quote Monday Eats Oatmeal and Tactical Bacon

/ Shane / 1 Comment

Evie: “Grandma is a good person. She never lets the oatmeal boil over.”

I guess I’m never going to live that one down.

Evie had built a big tower out of duplos which then fell over when she turned her attention elsewhere. She said, “I need to teach my blocks better manners!”

Sara: “I don’t even want to see the back of your can of tactical bacon.”

Well, excuse me for planning for the future! I’m sure she’s not going to be complaining about that bacon when we’re traveling the post-apocalyptic wasteland, and we’re able to trade the last bacon on earth for the safety of our children. Or we’re just able to eat some delicious bacon, either way it’s a win for us.

Sara: “We’re going to stay at Grandma Butterfly’s house, but Grandma Butterfly isn’t going to be there.”
Evie: “But who’s going to take care of us?”

Sara: “Your present isn’t going to come in the mail on time, so we won’t have it for your birthday. You’ll have to open it when we get back.”
Evie: “That’s okay, I still like presents.”

Little House on the Prairie

/ Shane / 5 Comments

After we finished our previous chapter book, Evie and I started on the Little House on the Prairie chapter books.

I can not stress how much Evie loves these books.

I had never read any of these books, a fact that surprised Sara. We started with the first one, Little House in the Big Woods, and then moved on to Little House on the Prairie. We are currently in the middle of On the Banks of Plum Creek. (Note that we skipped Farmer Boy because Evie likes to hear about Laura and Mary, and we didn’t want to break the rhythm).

I have to say, these books really are good. As we approach the end of each book, I find myself wanting to read ahead after Evie goes to bed. Sara and I often discuss what’s happening in the book. Also, one night when my mom was over we were reading a chapter, and she enjoyed it as well. They are as enjoyable to adults as to kids.

As we know, Evie loves nothing more than playing pretend, and Little House on the Prairie has been no exception. I can’t even think back to a time before Evie insisted on being Laura. Of course, our family is a pretty good analog, since I can be Pa, Sara can be Ma, Oliver can be Baby Carrie, and Evie can alternate between Laura and Mary based on her mood. Nala, of course, is Jack the brindle bulldog.

It actually works out pretty good, because the book is full of things to pretend. For those not familiar with the books or the tv show, it is basically a picture of pioneer life. So you can pretend to  farm, build a log cabin, hunt, ride in a covered wagon, etc. Evie usually pretends the chapter from the night before during the day the next day.

The books are also very age appropriate. I think I’ve skipped maybe two things so far in the three books we’ve read (I remember the last one was a vivid description of leaches that I thought might give Evie nightmares, and maybe I skipped some anti-Indian stuff), but 99% of everything is pretty good.

Actually, the way that Laura Ingalls Wilder was able to tell a tale for children that is also interesting to adults makes me really respect her as an author. (authoress?) So, if you’re looking for a good set of books to read your kid, this one comes highly recommended.