Your First School Year...

Dearest Charley Cate,

Your first tiny school year has come and gone, and you have grown as a little lady SO much! 

During the first few months at tiny school you were timid, a bit of a loner, and you cried your little head off when mommy dropped you off. Now you absolutely adore going to school, looking forward to playing with friends Cassie and Frunwi. You rarely even notice when I leave, let alone cry or tell me bye bye! You have learned so many sweet songs about Jesus, the itsy bitsy spider, happy and you know it, and some mommy can't even understand (like the one you sing at bedtime when you say, "carver, carver..." with praying hands!). 

You've picked up some not so good things at school too.  Like step throat, three total ear infections, and several gross runny noses. That's ok though, as we all know it's just part of being a kid! 

Here are some adorable things you've accomplished as a direct result of attending tiny school:

-You are potty trained and love to pull your panties down on your own. You even like to use the big potty but occasionally still ask for the little potty :)

-Your vocabulary has grown tremendously! You've always had a keen awareness of words and their name association with objects, but I think tiny school has helped you become more vocal and taught you extra words! Some of the most impressive ones? Otoscope, diagnosis, please and thank you, excuse me, windmill, batteries, and motorcycle. Also, for the record, I make you say California all the time because it's so cute the way you say it... Ca-liiii-fowww-nya. :)

-You are no longer a loner around other kids and you ask for your friends all the time! "Play Mason Mallowy" "Play Frunwi" "Play Cassie" "Play Laindey (Laney)" "Play Kip". 

-You no longer take a paci. I finally made the jump to get rid of those bad boys after learning you napped at school without one. You also nap at school without a diaper (but not at home because at home you sleep much longer). 

-Mommy: "How does the dinosaur say I love you?" Charley: "raaaaaaaaawwwr"! Yup, you learned that at tiny school! 

-You have become more outgoing yet still decide when you want to be shy. Typically before we go on an outing where we will be around friends you will either tell us, "play" or "shy". In which case do you say shy then it takes you a while to warm up. 

-You have learned impeccable manners. While we work on these at home daily and mommy and daddy are sticklers about this, I can tell it's being reinforced at tiny school. You are getting so much better at no thank you's rather than NO, bless you's, excuse me's, and please and thank you's. We are currently working on may I's but it might require the ability to form more complex sentences first :)

-You have learned the social norms and rules for playing with other kids. This is evident at home when you interact with Liza and tell her things like, "no kicking, Lizie", "no touching Charley", and "share toys". Tonight when daddy asked you to go with him for bath time you requested that he say please! You even told mommy the other day that daddy needed to "share toys" when I was dusting his model sail boat! Haha! 

-You've certainly developed a style all of your own, all of a sudden wanting input on your outfit and shoe choices, often telling mommy, "nother one shirt" or "different shoes". Sigh. Adorably so, you want to wear your "cowboy hat" Fedora most every day and always pick something that totally mismatches. Still, you're individual and unique and we are eager to see where that takes you! 

Charley Cate, you make our family world go round and we are constantly proud of your many daily accomplishments and milestones in toddlerhood. You are such a kindhearted, compassionate and sweet spirit, but you've got some fire under your tail too! 

The first day of tiny school...not too thrilled about mommy taking a picture :)

The last day of tiny school. Mommy forgot to take one before we got in the car, but it's ok, you're precious anywhere! 

You and your first tiny school teachers. Miss Jessika and Mrs. Kristie. 

Crazy sock day at tiny school! 

Superhero day at tiny school! You and I made this paper cape together and then you decided you didn't want to wear it. But you DID insist on wearing those rain boots. In hundred degree weather. Sigh...

A little bit of your personal style: dress and Toms, backpack, and kitty cat ear headband! 

You absolutely adore your daddy and everything daddy does, so naturally, you love all things music. You ask daddy to dance and when daddy plays guitar in the music room, you pull up a chair and play guitar with him. 

Daddy also works with you on the piano, although at this point it's him guiding your fingers or you banging and singing :)

You're getting better at washing your hair at bath time and love to play in the water with Liza. After bath, you run around declaring, "Nakey baby!"  

You are so gentle with Liza and love her to pieces. You call her Lizie :)

We look forward to many more years of progress at school and at home! Love you little one! 

The Chronicles of Potty Training

You may have noticed either on Facebook, Instagram, or previous posts that we are attempting potty training. My original goal was to have Charley potty trained (sans nap and nighttime) before Liza came. So I ambitiously researched the "3 day method" only to give up after day 1.1 back in November. It was just too hard for me to sit on the floor all day long with Char while I was 9 months pregnant constantly cleaning giant puddles of pee.  (Well, that's my excuse anyway!) 

So fast forward to 2014. I honestly had no intention of really initiating any sort of training since seester Liza is still so teeny tiny. But Ms. Jessika at Tiny School one day asked us how potty training was going at home...and my response? "Oh we put her on the potty throughout the day (lie) but she just doesn't go. She doesn't have accidents, but she doesn't go either (half-truth...an accident in a diaper isn't considered an accident, right?)". 

Ok friends, I lied. I panicked under the pressure that oh my gosh is everyone else potty training in class already and my kid is the only one still in diapers? And I fibbed the truth a bit. The truth is, I would daily put Charley in her diapers and maybe 3-5 times throughout the day put her on the potty. Here were the problems with this: 

1) mommy was being lazy and opting for a diaper rather than panties because, well duh, it's easier to throw away a diaper than clean pee all day. 

2) mommy was not letting Char "feel" what it's like to feel her pee and be successful. 

3) mommy was inadvertently telling charley that it was ok for her to pee in her pants even though that was the opposite of our goal. 

When Ms. Jessika and I were talking, she suggested bringing Charley to school on Wednesday in panties. Panties? At school? I was frantic! (especially since Charley only goes to school on Monday and Wednesday...meaning I had one full day to prep!) 

As soon as we got home on Monday night we threw the diaper out, and put on panties, fully expecting lots of accidents and piles of laundry! Since then, we haven't turned back! (We do put diapers on for naps, nighttime, and extended trips out of the house). 

Here are "The Chronicles of Potty Training"

-the time Charley came running into the kitchen with a soaking wet shirt front and said "potty". We ran to find the inevitable puddle, only to be puzzled by pee-foot-prints leading to an empty potty. Charley kept exclaiming, "Bowl! Bowl!", then continued to pick up Addison's (the dog!) food bowl to which she poured out a large amount of pee. Yup, she peed in the dog bowl. 

-the time we didn't make it to the potty fast enough and pooped in the panties. Then mommy proceeded to pull the pooped in panties down her legs, smearing the said poop all over the said legs! :( THEN, mommy accidentally spilled the turds on the back of the potty chair! A load of sh!t + being everywhere = mommy sayin lots of "@$:!@$!" type of words! 

-the time Charley was curled up next to mommy on the couch and peed. On the couch. 

-the time we were playing on the floor with Mickey Mouse toys and Charley kept saying, "Momma, Mickey bath?" while she dipped him into the puddle of pee she was sitting in. 

-the same time ^^^ she also dipped her hands into the pee and made back and forth swaying and clapping motions in the pee! 

-the time I put Char on the bathroom counter with me so I could get ready for the day and she peed all over the counter. 

-the time Charley said, "daddy, poo poo potty" and then really pooped in the potty!!! 

-and all the other times she has successfully told us "potty" and went either pee or poop! 

...and all that's just been within the last week! It was a week ago Monday we threw those diapers to the wind! At first I seriously wanted to cry and just put a dang diaper on, but by golly, it's a very rewarding and freeing experience to flush the poop down the potty rather than stuff yet another gross diaper in the diaper genie! 

We still have a ways to go to meet mastery (having 1-2 accidents a day), but I feel confident for the first time that my child won't go to kindergarten in diapers ;). And for that, I must thank Ms. Jessika! 

(Yup, that's us multitasking while learning to potty! Snack, milk, and Mickey on Disney Jr!)

***also, just a side note, rewards work like a charm for our little chubster! She knows when she goes potty she gets "chocley", or chocolate...just a tiny bowl of m&m's! And daddy also gives her money...a few coins to put in her bank.