Monday, January 18, 2010

Roundabout

Oh my gosh. As soon as I win the lottery I am buying a laptop. Then I can once again be in touch with the outside world. It's not just about the cold of the back room, it's about TIME. All day long I think about blog posts, but I have zero time to get back here actually type them out. Anja usually wakes up either when I do or only about half an hour later. And she doesn't take naps, so until 6:30 I'm unable to get back here for any real amount of time. Then there's Greta who does take a nap, but it's when Anja is awake, and then she doesn't go to bed until... well, she never really goes to bed. She kind of takes cat naps from about 10:00 until 9:00 in the morning. Sleep an hour or so, wake up to play for awhile, sleep for another hour or two..... you get the picture. It's a definite repeat of the Anja days, but at least this time we know not only that they WILL end, but we have a good idea of when that end will come! And sometimes that light at the end of the tunnel is all you need.

Martin had to sort of work today. Ivy Tech had a "day of service" and he was leading part of it, so he was gone for most of the day. He ended up going to coffee with some people afterward and felt bad about it so he brought me home a mocha and a magazine then (after an errand to Von's for a sticker sheet for Anja who went potty TWICE in her little potty today!) sent me upstairs by myself to read my magazine for awhile. It was heavenly. And it's SO WARM up there!

Yes, we are dabbling in potty training these days. I don't really have much of a choice since Anja refuses to wear clothes most of the time. We've had some small successes and some accidents. We've put the potty in the bathtub, we've accidentally stood next to the potty and pee-peed on The Poky Little Puppy. We've almost pottied on the couch, we've pottied on the dining room chairs, the kitchen chairs.... gosh, it's no wonder my house smells like a hampster cage. All this pee pee combined with our cat who has some seriously jerkish bathroom issues adds up to one stinky house! I think I won't be inviting anyone over until we have potty training conquered. (which might be a few years.)

The thing about potty training is that I don't really care if Anja learns to use the potty or not. It's much like sleep and bottles. I am reasonably sure that she won't still drink a bottle of milk to go to sleep when she's in college, and I'm almost as sure that she'll know how to use the toilet like a grownup by the same time. And if she doesn't learn before then, we'll just save her the embarrassment and homeschool.

Oh, Martin's home! He's going to help me with something on here and then we're going to embark on the most glorious adventure of all: Sleep.

6 comments:

SamG said...

Amanda was pretty easy to train. Ryan was not. I believe the stickers are a good idea, as Hot Wheel cars get mighty expensive as a bribery tool. But, you are correct, she will not start school still in pull-ups (or whatever you decide to use to train her).

Sam

Anne said...

I posted a potty training post today, too!

Anonymous said...

Annie and Anne: I doesn't hurt (to much) to try, but a tip from the Dugger Mother (you know, the one with 19 children). One of her most important tips (which she learned after five children) was not to begin potty training until the child was 1. old enough to really understand what was wanted
2 old enough to go in, pull his pants down, do his business, pull them back up, wash hands and come out. Before that, in her opinion (and I have to admit kind of mine, too) you are only potty training yourself. Just my two cents, but you do notice I don't have any adult children who wear diapers and I was VERY relaxed about the potty training thing. I waited until I could say, "Hey, this is what Daddy and I do" and that was the end of that. No hassles, no great chunks of time spent hanging around a toilet when there were other things I would rather be doing!!
Mama

Annie Hatke Schap said...

Mama,
I fully agree. But I figure it's worth a shot, since she's running around naked all day anyway. And I mean that--the only way I could get her to put clothes on today (even though she was turning blue and splotchy) was to give her a too-big dress from a box of stuff from Aunt Sarah and tell her it belonged to Grace. Then she was MORE than happy to get dressed. As I told Martin on the phone, I can practically see hearts coming out of her mouth when she speaks the name "Grace."

Joannie said...

wow, I thought that the anonymous poster was my mother when I saw that she mentioned Mrs. Duggar.

I love Mrs. Duggar. If that's how she says to potty train, I'd believe her... she certainly knows by now! ha!

Anonymous said...

I cannot wait until we meet sometime so our children who like nightly bottles (our 2 year old is still addicted to hers) and not too interested in really doing the potty training thing can play together! God bless,
Teresa