I'm a big girl now!

Alyssa is growing increasingly independent. She talks so well and loves to "read" books and play. She will flip through every book she owns. It takes a long time, but it is one of her favorite pass times. She has also started asking if she can go to school. She wants to go to school and "learn about A". She has also started spelling things. Erik made her a poster that has a few items on it with their names spelled out next to them. Things like MOMMY, ALYSSA, DOG, CAT, CAR, DADDY, JOSH & SARAH...When we got back from Utah she pulled it down and started spelling out the words. "M-O-M-M-Y ...Mom. C-A-R...Mommy's car." When she got to Josh and Sarah she didn't know J so she said "Josh, Josh, Josh, Josh Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah." Kids are smart, my friends. Teach them while they are young!

Even though I miss my baby, I love that she is older. We have a lot of fun together playing and talking and reading. She is my partner in everything! I love my girl!

She has her own style. This she comes by quite honestly! Mmmm. Let us never forget the skirt I made out of a dress, thus the skirt having arms hanging off the side of it and a collar around the waste.

She does her own face paint!

She climbs large towers with Daddy at White Clay Creek.

She sleeps in a big-girl bed and wears big-girl panties***.

She cooks and decorates skull cupcakes!

But thankfully she is not too big to sleep for naps and still love on that blanket of hers!

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Sometimes we try to get her to sit on the potty by letting her watch "Jesus moomies". She LOVES the bible movies.

Around the beginning of September we started a potty endeavor. It included stickers for sitting on the potty and a wide range of candy for actually going. Alyssa started to wear underwear and was doing fairly well. But then the treats lost their magical motivation and I quickly realized something (thank you librarian for helping me understand)...Alyssa did not OWN the potty going business. So we went between diapers, pull ups and underwear depending on my emotional well-being for the day. There was another problem. Alyssa's lack of owning the potty was turning into an owning of the bowels. She would hold her #2s for several days, and when we went to Utah she started holding everything for AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. I'm talking 8+ hours even though she was wearing a pull up or diaper. Do you know what it is like to hike with a toddler who has to pee? Or watch a movie in the movie theater? All in all it can be very stressful.

And thus I dropped the subject completely. I put her back into diapers. I never mentioned the potty or acknowledged the rather obvious potty dances (oh we shall never forget her standing on the stool stamping her foot endlessly while trying to eat a gogurt!). We have been back from Utah a little over a week and today she asked to wear underwear and went every time she had to go, even doing a #2 in the potty! There is no bribery to get her on the potty, though candy is always requested afterward. And thus I believe we might be on to something. When people tell you when they're ready, they're ready. LISTEN. And if you don't know what that means...then try for a few weeks, and if it doesn't work exactly how you want then they are probably not ready. That is what my advice boils down to.