Storytime

Yep, that's my (barely) three year-old reading If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Now if she'd only use a toilet. I just don't get it. Reading is WAY harder than peeing in a ceramic bowl.

Fun with Uncle Brent

My sister and her husband came for a visit this weekend. Katherine absolutely adores them and this is a video of her and Brent playing some sort of weird toddler game that Katherine calls "Doink." On a side note, Katherine voluntarily sat on the potty TWICE and without a diaper while they were here. Still no pee though.......

Move Over Susan Boyle...

For those of you who don't speak Two Year Old, she is singing "Once Upon a Dream" from Disney's Sleeping Beauty. Her repertoire also includes a number of selections from Sound of Music, Mary Poppins and other Disney animated films. If Katherine cooperates, some of those may make it on here too.

A side note about the state of the background. When Katherine was born, Casey kindly donated his office to her so she could have a bedroom. Now, all his math stuff and the old unclaimed tests of past students (which he is required by law to keep for some number of years) is crammed into a corner of our bedroom. Like Hermione Granger's hair, this portion of the house will not yield to any amount of grooming, cleaning or organizing. But hopefully in a year or so, he'll graduate and find a wonderful job. Then with all the wonderful money from the wonderful job, we can buy a bigger wonderful place so I can have my bedroom back.

Pottygate

There comes a time in the life of every parent when they stop and think, "You know, I am REALLY tired of changing diapers. Let's get this kid potty trained." For me, that day came shortly after I got home from the hospital.

So, I waited 2 1/2 years and then I went out and bought the arsenal of potty training supplies: the Disney Princess step stool, the Sesame Street potty seat toilet insert, the potty itself, and the stickers....lots and lots of stickers. The idea was that I would bribe Katherine to sit on the potty and give her a sticker. Gradually, I'd become stricter about sticker distribution and require her to sit on the potty without a diaper and eventually get her to go to the bathroom. I had this whole thing planned out in my head, but of course, things never go according to plan.

First of all, Katherine was terrified of the potty seat and wouldn't sit on it, no matter how many prismatic fishy stickers I offered her. Then, a week or so later she tried to go potty on the step stool. Luckily she forgot to remove her diaper, so I was saved from cleaning up an icky mess. Then, a few days after that she decided that the potty was doing nobody any good in the bathroom and tried to move it to the living room and go potty while she watched TV.

It is now two months later and Katherine still has not successfully used the potty. She will not voluntarily sit on any toilet-related items in our house unless she is fully clothed. However, the potty is her favorite conversational subject. Whenever Grandma calls and talks to Katherine, it's all about mommy and daddy's bathroom habits or about how Elmo uses the potty (we've also been checking out potty movies and books from the library). She even tricked her nursery leader into thinking she had to use the bathroom. They got to the bathroom only to have Katherine balk at the sight of the toilets.

So, I have decided to wait. The potty is in the bathroom; the stickers are sitting in the kitchen, and eventually Katherine will decide that she wants to use them. I just hope I have it in me to wait with her.

Sesame Street has two new characters

Katherine enjoys Sesame Street and pointed out two of her favorite muppets to me the other day: Burps and Hernie. Only time will tell if the Sesame Street creators add any more characters to their "Digestion is Neat!" line.

Advertising works....

Katherine, my 2 1/2 year-old, has learned a new word...Lipitor. This is the latest in a string of slogans and brand names that she has picked up through TV. Her other newly-acquired words/slogans include "Moving Forward" (Toyota's catch phrase), "Eat Fresh" (Subway), "Wah-mert" (Wal-Mart), "Berdonalls" (McDonald's) and Nasonex (she can't actually say that one, but she recognizes the cartoon bee).

We don't have cable or satellite and most of the TV she does watch is the educational stuff on PBS. PBS is virtually commercial-free, so these words must have crept into her vocabulary while I was watching the news or Thursday night TV. I can't imagine what things would be like if she regularly watched other kid channels with all their toy commercials.

So, congratulations American marketing execs! You have convinced my toddler that she needs to reduce her cholesterol after she has eaten at "Berdonalls" while driving her Toyota and shopping at "Wah-mert." I, however, am still not convinced. I prefer Target and plain old Benadryl...and I drive a Chevy.

And incidentally, Katherine also knows all her letters, upper case and lower case and can count to 13, so I'm not a terrible parent. I just happen to be the mother of a sponge.