Doing so great!

I'm so proud of the progress McKenna is making with potty-training. Every day she asks to use the potty on her own all throughout the day. Since my last post, she has gone pee 6 more times and pooped twice more! She is SO proud of herself when she goes and loves counting out the Jelly Bellies when we give them to her. The funniest/grossest thing is that when she has pooped, we take her potty seat to the big toilet and dump it in so she can flush. One time, right as she flushed she said "Bye Bye poopoo" and blew her poop a kiss. LOL!! Um, ok. Whatever you need for closure I guess?

She's also been doing great in the sleeping department. She still waffles back and forth between one and two naps. But every day this week she has gotten up between 8am-8:30am. That has been really nice. If she gets up at 8am, she naps from 10:30-12 and again from 3-4:30 (bedtime at 8pm). If she gets up at 8:30 then she naps from 11-1 (bedtime at 7pm). I wish there was something I could do to ensure this late wakeup but all I can really do is make sure she gets her naps and gets to bed at a decent hour. After that, I'm pretty much at her mercy! LOL!


I actually haven't been benefitting from her late wakeups though. This week, I've been filling in at my old position at the church (High School Ministry Secretary for those who don't know what I did in my pre-Mommy days). So I worked 9-2 and then my regular 5-8 evening shifts. Erick was off and was able to get a taste of being a Stay-at-home-Dad so he's the one who got up with her since I was usually up and dressing by that time. Erick did very well as a SAHD. He kept up with the daily chores, he did great keeping to McKenna's nap schedule, and he was really consistent with her potty-training. He admits, its pretty tiring. But really, I knew he'd do great. He's always been very hands-on in all aspects of caring for McKenna so he knows the ropes pretty well. Good thing because it looks like I'll be filling in for another week, possibly two.

Her bedtime routine is really so much fun. Which is ironic because it used to be the part of the day that I dreaded. It just used to take so long and I never knew if it would be easy to get her to sleep or not (I'm talking about before her first birthday so this was a while ago). Now, she has a bath or a shower. Depends on which she is in the mood for. The showers are great because I don't have to sit with her and I can clean up. Our shower is totally safe for her. Its very small, there is nothing to climb on, all the shampoos are about chest-height to me so she can't even reach them. I set the water temp and she can't reach those either. About the only thing she can do in there is play in the waterfall with her toys. When she is done she will either call for me or she'll push the shower door open and come out and tell me "Mommy, I done!" Then I wrap her in a towel and get her dressed. We then sit on the bathroom counter where she brushes her teeth with her Dora spinbrush and I brush her hair. And then I take my little finger toothbrush and get the spots she missed. She rings the butterfly chimes that I have hanging in the bathroom and we go to her room where we tuck her baby dolls in. If Erick is home, she will run out to him asking "Kiss? Hug?" And she gives him her kisses and hugs, telling him "yov you" (love you) and "seet deams" (sweet dreams). Then she closes her door and I pick her up. She holds onto my face and nuzzles my nose and I tell her how proud I am of her for being a good girl all day (and if she went potty, I specifically mention that). Then comes the silly part. I leave the room and I hear her call out "I yov you!" So I open the door and tell her "I love you too!" Then close the door. She'll say again "I yov you!" And I'll open the door "I love you too!" We do this 5 or 6 times before I come running back in saying "I love you I love you I love you!" and she jumps up and wraps her arms around my neck and nuzzles my nose and gives me kisses. She'll hold on to me for a minute or two and then I tell her its time to go to sleep and she'll lay back down. She always says "I yov you" one more time and I tell her "I love you too. Now its time to go night-night." The hardest part is not going back in when I hear her say it one more time. But I know she'd keep it up all night if I let her. I can't resist playing it at least once though.

And even her eating habits are doing well. Aside from her Jelly Bellies, she's been snacking a lot less and eating more at her regular meals. In fact, tonight she ate an entire Gerber Graduates Lil Entrees meal which I have never seen happen. I even had to heat up some extra raviolis for her because she wanted more. She does still snack of course. They need snacks to keep them going at this age. Right now her favorites are reduced-fat Pringles or Care Bears Fruit Snacks. Although if you have any cantaloupe in the house, she will eat every last bite. She has eaten an entire cantaloupe over the course of one day before.

She has two new favorite activities this week. She loves her new Pooh Bear ABC book. She can tell me most of the items for each letter and her favorite part is at the end of the book when we sing the alphabet. We have to go through the book at least twice in a row. And she recently asked to watch Snow White. Made her Mama so proud. I've been waiting for the day when she'd want to actually watch the Disney Classics with me. So we cuddled up on her Dora couch and watched Snow White. She also asked to watch Beauty and the Beast but then Audrey and Stephanie came over so that was much more appealing to her. Soon. Soon. (Which is what McKenna says when she asks for something and I tell her "Not now." She will say "Soon. Soon.")

And one other thing she did this week that just made me so proud.....

Erick usually works double or evening shifts. So family dinners don't happen too often. But anytime we do eat together at the table, we hold hands and pray. Well the other day, we went out for lunch and I guess it didn't occur to either Erick or I to pray before the meal. But McKenna remembered. She grabbed my hand, reached across the table for Erick's hand and said "Pway? Pway?" So we bowed our heads and Erick thanked God for our food and for our daughter who apparently has better spiritual manners then we do. LOL! And afterward she smiled and said a hearty "AMEN!" I'm so proud of my little prayer warrior. She has a little doll that my Aunt Dawn gave her that says a bedtime prayer. Every night I can hear her over the monitor playing the prayer over and over again, trying her best to say all the words along with it and ending with a sweet "Amen". I always think "That must be the sweetest sound to God's ears." But then I guess that's true when any of his children pray to him, whether they are babies or adults.

And one thing that I'm not so sure I should be proud of.....

McKenna has wonderful manners most of the time. She says "'scuse me Mommy" (excuse me mommy) if she needs to get past me or if she burps and "bess you mommy" (bless you mommy) if I sneeze. She says thank you, no thanks and please all when she needs to. But recently she has discovered that it is just HYSTERICAL if she farts (or if anyone farts!) She will announce "I FARTED!" and just laughs and laughs. Usually that's the one time she really needs to be reminded to say "excuse me". But I won't deny it....we laugh along with her. We're childish, I know. But farts really are funny so what can you do?

I don't have many pics this week since our schedule was so hectic. But here are two:

Each morning when she would wake up this week, I'd get her and we'd go wake Daddy. She had to bring all five of her baby dolls AND her bedtime book AND her sippy cup of water with her. Then she would climb into bed with Daddy and make sure all her babies were surrounding them for some morning snuggle:


Here she is with Audrey and Stephanie. She makes them squish onto her Dora couch with her so that they can all watch the Care Bears movie together:


Its probably not a good thing but it sure is a cute thing that she can act out an entire scene from her Care Bears Journey to Joke-a-Lot dvd. I think only Erick, myself and my Mom have watched her do the whole thing. Maybe one day we'll be able to get it on video. She starts at the part when they all get on the carousel (she sits on the arm of her Dora couch like its a horse) and she goes through the whole scene (which I really can't describe for you unless you've seen the movie. And really, unless you have a toddler why would you subject yourself to that?) And she goes all the way through to the part when Grumpy falls down (she falls as well), then he gets sooooo angry (as does McKenna) because Funshine Bear makes fun of him. One of the other bears tells Grumpy to calm down. Grumpy (and McKenna) say "Calm down? Calm down?" He (and McKenna) then point accusingly at Funshine Bear and say "All Funshine can do is make JOKES!" I mean the girl goes through the words, the actions, the emotions. She's quite the actress.

Wow, this update turned out to be much longer than I thought it would be! As much as I enjoyed working this week (and being affirmed that I do possess other skills besides potty-training and knowing all the words to the Wiggles songs), it is not nearly as enjoyable as watching my beautiful daughter find fascination in every detail of the world around her. I doubt I could find as much to say about a day in the office. Well maybe I could. But I guarantee it wouldn't be as fun to read nor would the pictures be as cute. :)