We're Having a Potty!

Potty time = Story time

Ellie has been practicing her potty skills for a while now. We started with a potty-tunity before bath once Dad mentioned that she wasn't peeing as soon as he put her in the tub. Turns out, she pees pretty reliably before bath. So, once she could sit unassisted, it occurred to me that we should try her on the potty other times we had her diaper off. She has taken to the potty very well. She's excited by the attention and the sense of accomplishment. And, it doesn't hurt that she gets a string of books read to her until she gets tired of it. Favorites include; Baby Giggles, Once Upon a Potty, Duck Goes Potty, and the simply titled, Potty. Mom has just about got them all memorized because we sometimes read them twice per potty. Luckily, Ellie is making herself useful and has started to help turn the pages.

While she doesn't go every time she sits on the potty, we do get lucky more often than not. And, we've been catching almost every poop for the last week. We've only had a couple poopy diapers, which, since she's started solids means that there is very little scraping of the diapers anymore (Yay!). The next step(s) are for Mom to get better at reading her body language to anticipate and for her to start signing when she realizes she needs to go. Easy, peazy....

She's still "sleeping through the night". At minimum, she'll go 6 hours altogether. Last night, she went 10. Generally, she gets about 11 total per night. Currently, we're still doing about 3 naps, usually about 2 hours apart. She gets 2-3 hours per day. We've got a regular babysitter, E, who comes in two afternoons a week so I can go work out. Ellie wouldn't nap for her the first time she sat, so we've moved her to a non-nap slot and now, they get to do supper time together. Since E is still in high school, I've got feelers out for supplementary sitters since I seem to have a lot of appointments/meetings that crop up. An old roommate recommended care.com and I've started combing through the listings. I've got a short list started and may start contacting them here soon. Still, Grandma is our preferred sitter, so she gets first shot.

We're still not mobile. Baby Center indicates that she should be crawling by now, but then, she's never been on schedule for much so far....