Potty Watch 2008

3 Successfull poops and 5 pees is just plain big news to share! And Avery wants the world to know! Potty Watch 2008 continues and a diaper free world is within reach. While Avery still think that a fart equals a poop, and insists that everyone inspects the potty after said fart has occurred....she's catching on quickly! Yeah Avery!
Instead of forcing me to sit on the tiny little stool each and every time she tries, for the duration, I am now banished occassionally because "I need pivasy mommy, I need pivasy like max". At least she's listening to some things I say!
She has also mastered putting on her pull up all by herself, along with her pants. Sometimes they are backwards, but, whenever I try to help her, she gets a very condescending look in her eyes and tells me "me do it mommy, go way".
Each attempt is a lot of work for a little girl who's 2 going on 21, so afterwards she kicks anyone out of the recliner because it's "my seat, mooove" and takes some time to relax.

The conversations one has with Avery are hysterical. I'm convinced that she's even funnier than Max at the same age, which is quite an accomplishment. Yesterday as we sat in the bathroom, she told me a story about a baby lion. She said "I wuv baby ions mommy. Baby ion is sad, let's find mommy ion" I said OK and it turns out this all came out of a book that has a picture of 3 lions on the front. So, we went all through the book and then there was a page of ponies. Avery said "I wuv horses. I want one mommy" I said "Oh, you want a horse?" She nodded her head and looked at me so earnestly and said " I want that horse mommy. Horse has my blanky and I want it back. My blanky has a number on it. Horse took it from me". There are not any numbers on any blankets anywhere in our house, much less in her room, but it was her story and she's sticking with it.

Her interactions with me are serious and very conversational. Her interactions with daddy are another story altogether. Recently, she wanted something and Kurt told her no. She tried crying, we laughed. She tried hugging and we told her sucking up won't work. She looked right at Kurt and said "you suck".

Last night at dinner, Avery was not enamoured with the vegetable beef soup that was on the menu. I know, alert the presses, we've found a food the girl won't eat! She did however, really enjoy the rolls that went along with the soup. Kurt was busy bargaining with her to take a bite of her soup before she could have another roll. Avery took a bite and immediately spit it out saying "I no want any of that daddy" Max thought this was extremely funny and started with this new somewhat maniacal giggle he has been practicing. Avery continued trying to bargain for a roll. Between the two of them, I lost it and started laughing. That made Max laugh harder. Avery stopped, looked at Kurt and said "evewyone laughing at us daddy" She wasn't going down alone!

Max is very patient with her, most of the time. She has really started to get jealous whenever Max is playing with a friend, wanting him to be with her and play. It's quite cute. Max helps teach her coutning, letters and spanish. He's better than Dora! He does get frustrated with her though, as we all do. Her response is count "1,2,6 time out max go in woom now!" Luckily, Max just laughs at her when she does that and will say "Avery you are not the boss of me". Which is exactly where Avery learned to say that to me when I informed her that should could take her pants off and leave them off for the entire day. "You not boss of me mommy. Go way!" She shouted.

It's hard to be stern when you're hiding your face and Max is calling you out saying "Mom, that's not your mad face, that's your trying not to laugh face". Thanks for the support Maxwell.

In Max news....he is hard at work being dad's helper in the great remodel of the basement. What started out as an idea to paint, has turned into drywall, mud then paint. Max appears to enjoy working with the power tools, and regularly runs upstairs to give me updates on what exactly dad is doing. "You've got to come downstairs and see what dad has done mom. It's amazing." They had moved a couch.

Max is also doing very well in school and enjoying playing outside, playing inside, really playing anywhere and everywhere. We're looking at getting him into a starter karate class. They focus on "Stranger Danger" and some basic self control things. I think this will be a good way for Max to start with the concepts of "practice", having something to participate in, etc to get him ready for team sports.

That's about it from our front. Not an especially exciting week, but one filled with a lot of laughter and love. Potty Watch will continue, as will the humilating pictures to torture Avery with in the future. The Basement Caper will continue and next time we'll have some great before and after shots to wow all with!