i haven't posted in a while

i had a long rant about how can i possibly raise my girl to be confident and have self-esteem when i have none myself, but i can't copy and paste it so never mind... for now.

Lately Char and i have been swimming. A LOT. Her teeth (canines) are obviously killing her as her hands are in her mouth 24 hours a day, she's super attached to her pacifier more than ever (bedtime only), she's the biggest fuss-bucket of all time, etc etc. And i'd much rather have fun with her after work in the evenings than hear her pathetic whine (poor girl), so most nights we eat dinner, get dressed in our "shoo-shoots" (swimsuits) and go "a-wing" (swimming).

She's really quite amazing. She has ZERO fear, actually swims with her arms and kicks with her legs, jumps in off the wall repeatedly, uses noodles and kickboards and loves to go underwater. At 20 months, she swims better than my 35-year-old husband :). i can't wait to go somewhere beachy with her this summer! Meanwhile i'm going to sign her up for formal lessons. They have them at the Y for $300 for 6 weeks, so i've not made the plunge, but i did find a place that offers 6 weeks of lessons for $60, but they're only 30 minute lessons. Still, we can do 3 series of lessons in a row and be better off. Right now the only real "issue" is that Char doesn't like to go on her back. It was identified as an issue for her in the occupational therapy, and it shows here. i'm just working with her on relaxing and having fun on her back. Until then i know it will be hard to learn to float.

What else? Well, not a lot. She's really into puzzles right now, which suits me fine, but she's really a little too good. She can even do this one without much help:

i'm working on her birthday wish list. Right now it's mostly wooden puzzles, a few books, a Spanish Sesame Street DVD lol, a sand and water table, and the biggy is a balance bike and helmet. i have a feeling we'll be scared crapless by her trying to go in the street in the balance bike all summer long lol.

This weekend Char and i are heading to Knoxville to visit my sister and my in-laws, and to meet my very good friend who will be driving through on the way home to Chicago from NC. i got a hotel with an indoor pool :). i have a feeling my in-laws will be amazed if they see her swim.

Trilingual

English, Russian, German. Heck, she can even say "no" in Spanish lol. She's amazing!

SUCH an independent girl!

i took Charlotte swimming again on Monday. i'd like to say i take her weekly, but it's been since they closed the outdoor pool. FWIW i LOVE swimming with her. It's not the swimming, it's the 20 minute ordeal in the locker room afterward that i avoid. ("Charlotte, we don't look under the stall doors." "Char, please be careful, the floor is wet.... awww, poor baby, did you slip on the wet floor?" "Charlotte, that's not our bag." "Charlie, come back in here, i'm not dressed yet!"... get the picture?)

Anyway, we both had a blast. Char discovered jumping in. Which was totally awesome the first few times, but she soon grew weary of mommy catching her and desperately wanted to run away and jump in ALL by herself. Um, no! She doesn't have any sort of flotation device... more on that later.

Even when i was holding her in the water, she wanted to be on her own. She seems to be a natural, kicking her legs and paddling her arms. She even put her face in on her own and thought it was funny when we went under together for just a fraction of a second. At one point, i had one hand under her chest just supporting her a little and she was paddling and kicking so hard that she actually swam faster than i was able to walk along the bottom! The cutest part is she kept saying "excuse me" (or "me me"... too stinking cute!) and trying to remove my hands from her body! Like that's going to happen lol!

About those flotation devices... i tend to avoid them because my sister was an INCREDIBLE swimmer who very nearly made the Olympics in 1984 (she was 3rd in her event and they take the first 2 athletes, so she was THIS close - ::holds fingers really close together::), and my sister always said "swimmies" are bad because they don't teach proper swimming form, etc. i wonder if she still feels that way about them; i'll have to ask her.

Next time i'm going to insist that DH go with us with the camera, just to get some cute pics of her swimming and/or jumping in.

OK, i admit it

i have baby fever. i'm fighting it off so it's not tooooooo bad, but it's still kinda bad.

Yesterday we had a couple of e-friends over who are both expecting, and both plan to babywear and cloth diaper, so they wanted to see my stashes. It was a lot of fun, but it made me feel a little sad that i don't have a new baby coming (that i know of lol) to plan for.

A cute moment though: One of them has a 3 year old son, and when Char went to the potty and DH and i were singing "Charlotte went pee pee on the potty, Charlotte went pee pee on the potty, Charlotte went pee pee on the potty, yeah yeah yeah!" and the little boy shouted "YEAH!" and raised his arms in a V. Too cute!

Hope i'm not jinxing it

But today marks the 5th consecutive day without any accidents. The only one to speak of was the incident with the diaper box and it was good because she recognized the trickle as it happened and stopped it, getting onto the potty and finishing.

So, yeah, i definitely think she "gets it". i'm so very, very proud of my girl! Less than 3 weeks at 18 1/2 months :). Go Char!

Backward pajama wrestling should be an Olympic sport!

Well, the potty learning has been going really well. Perhaps too well...

Saturday she had a very minor trickle while playing in (ironically) the last box of disposable diapers we ever bought. She likes to play like it's a boat. Anyway, the tiny trickle resulted in her newest trick: the super-melodramatic "Ohhhhhh nooooooooo!!!!!!!"

That's the background. Now, this morning she pooped in her diaper before DH got to her after she woke. She wakes quietly these days, and since she has a loud sound machine to shield her from noises from the dogs and the airplanes, sometimes it takes a few minutes for us to wake and realize she's awake.

Unfortunately, she used that time this morning to unzip her pajamas and remove her diaper. There isn't a diaper in the house she can't remove, from aplix to snaps to side snaps to disposables.

i'm really not sure what to do at this point. It's only a matter of time before she climbs out of the crib (i'm actually really surprised she hasn't yet!!!), but i fear for the trouble she'll get into in a toddler bed. We could put her in a toddler bed and put a portable potty in her room, but i bet she'd try to empty it. (World's biggest piddle pad, perhaps?) Someone suggested toddler-sized sleep sacks, which seems like a pretty good idea since they zip in the back, but i'll have to order them online.

Meanwhile, i decided to try turning her PJs on backwards. That was far more difficult than it sounds! It's hard enough to put them on normally before she takes her diaper off lol. First, she was NOT okay with putting the feet in backwards at first and rotating them. So i had to put the feet on normally (but opposite feet) and twist the PJ's. That could work with a skinny baby maybe. Oy! Anyway, i finally got it situated, and when she tried to do the usual nightly "snuggle" (read: her jumping on the bed while i read 2 books), she couldn't even stand up. So "Llama Llama Red Pajama" was punctuated regularly with "Ohhhhhhh nooooooooo! I STUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!" While i just tried not to laugh too much. Who knew LLRP was a comedy?

OK, loyal readers, any other brilliant ideas?

NOT about potty learning

i have to tell you about the crazyness that is Charlotte's newest trick. i'm telling you, if she lives to adulthood, she's going to be an Olympic athlete or famous ballet dancer or circus performer or SOMETHING. Her balance and motor skills are off the charts!

We have an exercise ball that we use/used for her therapy. Sit her on the ball, bounce her, sing "Five Little Monkeys" lol, fun stuff. Sometimes she pushes the ball or even attempts to roll on it. Friday she was sort of doing that and Alan held the ball. Wouldn't you know it but somehow the little stinker climbed up the ball and tried to stand! So i came behind her and sort of helped her balance but i didn't do much really. We caught about the third or fourth attempt on video:



We did it again Sunday and oh my gosh she is amazing! She actually started pushing my hands away so i couldn't hold her. So i made her hold my index fingers in each hand. Which apparently she took as an invitation to jump up and down and up and down on top of the ball! We didn't get that on video unfortunately (memory cards full) but trust me, it was about twice as impressive even as this video, which alone blows me away.

And here's where i confess a parenting secret. i get a little, sometimes a lot but usually a little, worried about what other people think of how i parent this kiddo. i try to find a balance that keeps her safe, but when you have a kid who knows no fear and is an even bigger adrenaline junky than you are, and is so focused and determined that you can attempt to redirect her 200 times in a row and she'll run right back to the scary activity undeterred, it's pretty hard to find that happy medium. i feel like other parents would see this video, or see her in action on a playground or whatever, and judge me for letting her do these things. But it's practically impossible to NOT let her do those things! And i figure these traits are part of her amazing personality, and we need to respect that. So, i do what i can to let her do things while keeping her safe.