The Heat Is Rising

…in more ways than one.  The tension between myself and Kirsten as we try not to get angry with each other and the mercury in the thermometer.  The high today is supposed to be somewhere between 108-110 (42.2-43.3C) and then tomorrow, Saturday, we are supposed to be about 112F (44.4C) and then Sunday up to 113F (45C).  At one point they told us we were going to be up to 116F (46.6C).  Thankfully that has gone down a little to 113, but we will wait and see what happens.  Of course every time the dogs are let out for a potty break Kirsten wants to go out so we fight while I try and explain to her she cannot go out and play on the grass or the swing.  She’s too little to understand and yesterday she forced her way out until halfway across the grass to the swing she sat down and yelled with her bare feet waving in the air for mummy to come and get her (yup the grass was hot…it’s synthetic not real).

It’s 4 weeks until Kirsten starts preschool and I haven’t even started thinking about what she’ll wear and how I’m going to label everything so I suppose I’d better get started on that.  I can’t believe that she’s starting “school” and the heat will still be way up there.  Thankfully she won’t be getting any outside time until the temperatures cool down, but hopefully she’ll get so much stimulation it will tire her out.  She will also continue with her swimming lessons on Wednesday mornings and we are now looking into gymnastics as I’ve found somewhere about 20 minutes from home.  We had hoped for her to do trampolining, but as the only class is the same afternoon as swimming we don’t think that’s a good idea yet.

John’s parents have now booked their tickets to come out to visit so we now have 7 weeks of guests through September, October and November.  My parents come out first on 4 – 20 September.  I then have 24 hours to change the sheets and then my youngest brother, Conrad and his better half Marie-Claire arrive on 21 September – 5 October.  John’s parents arrive on 29 October – 17 November.  John, Kirsten and I are hoping that we might get across for a trip to San Diego the second week of October to explore and visit Seaworld, the Zoo and of course, Legoland.  There are no definitive plans there though so we’ll just wait and see.

Well have a good weekend everyone and make sure you stay hydrated in this heat.

Potty Training On Hold

So potty training didn’t quite work out as planned.  Kirsten decided she wasn’t interested so I’ve decided to put it on hold.  To a certain extent she has regressed in that she wants to wear diapers rather than pull-ups, but that is fine by me as that is the requirement for preschool which she starts on 6 August.  I’m leaving the potties about the house so they are there for her to see and if she decides to ask to use them then all the better.  We are still continuing with the potty at bathtime, but Kirsten has been using the potty in the bath since last September.  I don’t want to scare her off the idea completely.  We’ll just take it step by step.

It’s July 4th today.  American Independence Day.  We don’t have any big plans, but our friend Steve Dingley is coming over around 4pm this afternoon and we’ll all have some pool time and I’ll cook up dinner for us all on the BBQ.  He’ll keep the dogs occupied…they love it when he comes over.  Now we’re just waiting for Daddy to get up so that we can get on with the day so to speak.

Potty Training…End of Day 2

So we went a step back today.  I decided maybe I was going too fast too soon and after her first wet pair of knickers just after John left for work and the fact that she was asking for “Dora” (her pull-ups) I decided to give it a shot.  The plan was to set the kitchen timer for 30 minutes and then put her on the potty.  The problem was she kept peeing between the kitchen timer going off.  This afternoon has been a battle of wills…plus the excitement of my cousin, Rose, coming for a short visit.  So today we’ve succeeded in nothing.  With all her trips to sitting on the toilet and the potty she’s peed nowhere except in her pull-ups or her knickers today.  I think I’m just going to leave the potties out for the rest of the week and every time she tells me she’s soggy I’ll sit her on the potty and see how she does.  It’s not as if I can bribe her as there’s nothing she loves one go that will be useful the next.  She changes her mind so frequently. 

I’ll keep you updated of progress.

Potty Training….Coming to an End of Day 1

So OK I decided I was going to start full ahead potty training with Kirsten this morning so I got her up and stripped her of pajamas and nappy and sat her on the toilet and then to her potty in the upstairs bathroom before putting on big girl knickers and a dress.  We got downstairs and I introduced her to the 2 potties downstairs and she still did nothing (I’ve put one on the floor in the kitchen and one on the floor in the family room).  She was just finishing breakfast when she announced she was soggy so I took her knickers off and sat her on the potty in the kitchen.  She did a couple of drops and then went down to the potty in the family room and did a couple of drops there, then she went back up to the potty in the kitchen and sat on it and peed again.  I thought woo hoo.  We put a new pair of big girl knickers on and about 30 minutes later she announced she was soggy!  Off came the soggy knickers and down she went on the potty….nothing!  This time I left off the knickers and about 15 minutes later she went to the potty in the family room and peed! OK so there was as much on the floor as in the potty, but that was beside the point.  We then had to go out and run some errands so I put one of the potty’s in the back of the car with us and although she told me she needed potty and she sat on it in the car in front of the post office there was nothing.  We went into target and we started out by going to the bathroom….nothing, but of course withing 5 minutes a soggy pair of knickers…of course I’d forgotten to bring my spares so we went and found some and I opened the packet and gave her a pair.  When she went down for her nap I put on a nappy (not pull-ups).  She got up from her nap and we sat on the toilet and the potty and put on knickers they stayed dry.  We went to Jo-Anns and she told me she needed to go potty so off we trotted to the restrooms.  She was dry and I got nothing from her.  After another 20 minutes she announced she was soggy so we ran back to the restroom and of course…she was soggy.  We changed her knickers paid and came home.  As soon as we came home I stripped her down and sat her on the potty.  Within 5 minutes a soggy pair of knickers.  This time I sat her on the potty stripped her and left all clothes off and set the kitchen timer for 25 minutes in under 5 she told me she was wet and I had a big puddle in the middle of the kitchen floor.  She looked as if she was trying to do a no. 2 and she kept asking for a pull-up so I put one on her as I don’t need her even more constipated.  The kitchen timer has just hit it’s 25 minutes so my plan was to stick her on the potty.  She has a soggy pull-up and won’t let me take it off.  I have at least 5 pairs of soggy knickers and I’m only at 4pm on day 1!  Is my child really ready for this…am I really ready for this!!

Potty Training on the Horizon

Well another week has come and gone and I’m doing my best to work out ways to “bribe” Kirsten to avoid tantrums.  This has included anything from getting some chocolate milk to drink to get her out of the car to going inside to wash her toy cow in order to get her off the swing and inside to have a bath.  This week she has also worked out that if she “hurts” herself someone will kiss it better.  The problem is that we kiss it better and then she tells us it was actually the other side and so it keeps on going.  At least she hasn’t worked out about plasters (band aids) yet.  She actually pulls those off as soon as they go on because they hurt!

Tomorrow the plan is to start fully with the potty training.  This week I made sure that I had toilet seats; paper towel; disenfecting wipes and plenty of little girl knickers.  I’ll be putting a potty in the back of the car.  Ask me tomorrow night (Monday) how I’m doing and I’ll probably already have had enough.  I have already removed the toilet paper from beside the toilet in Kirsten’s bathroom as she sits on the toilet seat and stuffs toilet paper into the toilet between her legs and then looks at me and points her finger going “Kirsten no”.  She knows she’s not supposed to do it, but it is great fun none the less.

She’s also picking up on words faster than I would like.  I wasn’t thinking this morning and said “b*gg*r” and she spent the next 5 minutes repeating it back to me.  She and I went out for a little while this afternoon and she dropped the little bag she was carrying and sure enough out of her mouth she started saying the same word.  This afternoon though she learned tomatoe and burger.  I’m hoping that she’ll think she was actually saying burger rather than what she was saying.  Keep your fingers crossed.