So, finally back on here- and I have much to report. Mainly, O just was 'tumbling' on our bed while we finished dinner, and we heard her get down, go into the bathroom, then I went and peeked. Sorry if this is too much detail, but for posterity's sake, please note that she just turned 2 1/2 last week, and that she's been yelling 'POOP!' or 'Pee pee pee pee' as she runs to the potty for only a week, with us saying, 'GO OLIVE GO!'.
Okay, so this time, she had stopped playing, went into the bathroom, pulled her pants and underwear down, used the potty, wiped, flushed the toilet with old toilet paper in it (she doesn't yet adhere to 'if it's yellow let it mellow'), got her own potty and poured the pee into the big potty, then flushed it again, put the little potty in the bathtub to rinse, then pulled up all her clothes and was heading back to play some more. WOW. She'll ask me lately if I want some privacy when I'm heading to the bathroom, and it seems she's cool with takin' care of bizniss on her own, too! Again, may this be the beginning of the end of diapers for this one. Score one for awesome independent girl.
For all the hoopla about the 'terrible twos', I'm really enjoying the new sassier, more 'no' inclined Olive just fine. We did just do our first close her door with her inside after an hour of trying to 'nap' and tell her that she needed to stay in her room for quiet time. That was a hard decision, because earlier, after the dance class (awesome 2-3 year old Toddler Parent fun at the local non-professional track dance studio) we went into a toy store (best day ever, right?) before the birthday party, and yes, it was a toy store, but when it was time to leave, she was being a real toughie. Many parents all around, and me being awful, pulling her away from the Calico Critters. Seriously overpriced cute stuff. At any rate, back to the 'NO NAP!' tantrum at hand---after a tear (or 500) and some stress from my stomach wondering if I was being awful for closing her door to her room-- though she really did seem exhausted, and it was almost 3 pm after a big big morning of dance class (!!!) and a birthday party where she was the only one nude for 90% of the time- there was a kiddie pool...so finally it was silent, finally meaning after only about 6 minutes. I opened the door, and she was asleep on her arms on the hardwood floor. We hemmed and hawed and decided to leave her there, surrounded her with a blanket and some pillows if she were to roll over, and left the room. Okay, time line:
3:00-- said have a good rest and closed the door.
3:06--O was asleep on the floor.
5:30--she starts to make some sleepy noises, so Andy puts her on the bed. I rub her back and assume she's waking up. She doesn't, and goes back to sleep.
7:30--this time when we check on her, she's back on the floor, next to her bed on a pillow and rug. We change her diaper, again thinking that waking her up won't be a big deal, and that she had slept plenty. She doesn't wake up. We put her on the bed, and she's still asleep. She snuggles in on her pillow in bed.
Seriously--
3:30 am--I wake to, "mommy?" silence. "daddy?" I go in, lay down with her and talk for maybe 5 minutes, then she and I fall back asleep. We had actually made up a simple meal for her to eat in case she woke up hungry in the middle of the night. Never used it.
7:45 am--she and I wake up for the day. Grand total: 16 3/4 hours of sleep.
So. I was right, she needed some rest!
Other amazing things-- she's really into saying thank you a lot, and it feels natural to hear it, so I love love love that. She's also becoming more and more physical, which I like. She's climbing more, and tumbling around, and seems to be a pretty happy kid. She still doesn't like new people, especially not if it's ever someone she has to interact with and it was supposed to be mommy/olive time. No dice for the poor folks. She covers her eyes with her hands and pretty much growls. I know everyone else can just deal with it, but I do find myself using words like 'shy' and 'introvert' a lot more, feeling like I'm labeling her as soon as I say it, and because it's with her right there, I'm pushing this identity on her. I am working to try not to use those words directly and just shrug or something, letting her do her own thing with people. I do tell her that it's okay not to talk with people if she doesn't want to. I think there's a direct reaction from some like, "Oh, Amelia! How can you have a shy kid??" and at times I'm almost insulted. I know I can be friendly friendly friendly (I've started talking even more to check out people and the like-- thanks mom!) but it doesn't mean I always want to talk to everyone that walks in front of me. I tell Olive to let me know if she needs some space, and she seems to be learning how to do just that.
She deals with social issues at school a lot-- some kiddos are more regularly aggressive (whether they're being friendly or not, just space invaders) and she's dealt with some pretty intense hair-pulling, or at least I hear about it every. single. day. I don't care if this kid and her are friends most of the time, I hate it that she's formed this identity for them and for her. However, maybe she's learning skills that will be helpful for her since next year her class (the ones her age) will be 5 boys and her all day. There will be a couple girls younger, and then maybe 2 more much younger ones, but she won't be with a group of mixed genders, and I'm still trying to figure out why my stomach gets all twisted when I think about this environment for her. I certainly know that kiddos at that age don't deal with much in terms of gender issues, but when she is peeing and talking about her girl parts, nobody else is going to be. She's also got extremely long hair, and so I'm wondering if and hoping that there will be some boy with hair down to his butt, too, upping the possibility that she won't be the only target if there's any kiddos that won't let their hair-pulling habit go. Any thoughts on a class of 6 with her being the only girl are welcome. Her only main issues they've ever discussed with us from her school (at last P-T conference) were the ones surrounding her tendency to play alone or away from the other kids when there are group gross motor activities going on-- let's see how that works with all boys. I guess I just need to be more hyper aware of whether she starts to self-isolate from them. She may just have an awesome time, love em all, and never want to leave, and I could be freaking out for nothing. She's been with 3 boys for two years (in classes of 4) and with her being at school for full weeks, I am always less likely to arrange more social activities for her outside of 'school' (though I know it will change as she ages) and so I feel the need to try to get her together with other girls more.
She's an awesome, thoughtful kid. She says 'why' probably 300 times a day- including just using the word 'why' to create whole sentences. "why why why why why?"
She says things like-
"Okay, mommy. Time to give you a shot, but here's a bandaid, and so it should feel better in a couple few minutes."
"Mommy, let's have a conversation." What do you want to talk about? "Daddy". Okay, what about Daddy? "What does daddy do at his work?"
"Mommy, I am going to make a parfait for you and one for me. I need a knife to cut the strawberries."
"That's called arabesque (shows me). And it's good to have something to hold on to. (starts singing) And a partridge in a pear tree!"
Favorite songs: 12 days of christmas. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (by Al Martino). Macha's "Cat Wants to be Dog". Pavement's "Cut Your Hair". "Little Boxes". The Name Game (at the beach she went through all our beach things, and even did 'bucket'. I didn't laugh--out loud). She writes her own songs now, too, starting to move beyond saying one word over and over with an imaginary melody-- it used to be that she'd sing one word or sound to the tune of a song (like "no" to the tune of 'Rudolph').
She also could care less about much in terms of videos and tv (HOORAY!). today we watched a little PBS (we don't have cable) and after a show or two, I asked her if that was enough, and she wanted to play and stop watching. How cool. Yesterday, all day, she pretended to be her friend Wiley, and told me that I was Wiley's mom, Elizabeth, her baby doll was Archer (Wiley's little brother) and Andy was York, Wiley's dad. We didn't act any differently (other than Olive saying 'Olive Polive' like Wiley does) and were that family pretty much all day to her.
Maybe I'll write again soon. So much to share.
