This Potty-Training Thing....

....is quite humorous.  I swore up and down that Kate would not have her own size potty chair, she would magically go in the big one right away.  Boy was I wrong.  She's pretty terrified of the big toilet, so we scratched that idea right away.  I bought a chair that is her size, and some training panties.  Every time we're just hanging out at home, I don't put a diaper on her anymore, she gets to wear big-girl panties, and she loves it.  There is just one big problem, she won't do anything while she's wearing them!  She'll strut around the house (and I do mean strut, apparently she thinks the big-girl panties are quite a fashion statement), and she'll sit on her Kate-size potty, but she won't "go" unless she's wearing a diaper.  And let me tell you, she goes as SOON as we put the diaper on her.  Yesterday I think she held it for about 5 hours.  I can't even hold it for 5 hours!  Plus, now she's doing this thing where she walks around the house and sits on anything that is the same height as her potty chair, and she pretends to "go" on it.  I walked in her room a few minutes ago and she was sitting on a pile of books grunting.  I have to try SO hard not to laugh because it's pretty much the funniest thing I've ever seen.
I've read many books on this subject and most of them say to wait until your child is ready for toilet training.  If you try to do it before they're ready, you're going to create more problems for yourself and the child.  Right now, I'm pretty okay with just having fun and laughing while she learns how to be a big girl.  Why rush things? I figure that she'll be able to go in a big potty by the time she's 30, at least I hope.  In the meantime, I'm just going to enjoy my "free" entertainment!
~Molly

P.S. I detest the words potty, toilet, and panties.  I much prefer restroom, bathroom, and underwear.  For the sake of this post, I used the words I don't like knowing that they are a little more appropriate for potty-training.

For Sale....again

That's right, we're moving...again. We moved out of town to get away from noise, hustle and bustle, traffic, and for Brandon to be a little bit closer to his job than our previous house. Now we're trying to get away again. This time, we're trying to get away from the rattlesnakes, the two roads that intersect near our house with heavy traffic (people who drive in the country drive FAST), and having to drive forever to get anywhere.It might sound petty, but I believe that this girl

should get to play outside.  Most of my memories from childhood were spent outside, and I want the same for Kate.  Every time we go outside, she wants to run straight for the mailbox, never mind that the mailbox is located on a street that 70 mph is considered slow!  We cannot take our eyes off of her for one second outside because of the many dangers lurking in our area.  I also think that these dogs

need a place to run until they crash, which is most definitely their nature!  We have killed over 10 rattlesnakes since we've lived here (plus our cat killed one), and this city girl has had enough!  Sadie and Scout have both gotten bit, and poor Sadie was bit again just a few weeks ago.  We lost one cat to a rattlesnake early in the summer, and another one of our cats was recently bit, but we never found the snake.  All of this, not to mention that this girl (never mind that I chose an old picture of myself with a nice tan)

really wants a place to run that is not always a treadmill!  I have no safe place to run at my own house.  Maybe some people don't understand why we want to move again, but I really feel as if we have a few reasons to justify our decision.  A nice neighborhood with other running, playing, dirty-faced kids and other people walking their dogs in the evenings sounds heavenly to me.  I couldn't care less about granite and nice tile, just give me some peace of mind!!
~Molly