Quick Trip

A couple of weekends ago, Peter and I made a quick trip to South Carolina to attend the wedding of our college friends, Caroline and Brandon. Saturday, before the main event, I  palled around Columbia with my girls friends while the guys watched soccer. The wedding was lovely! What a dearly loved couple Caroline and Brandon are! I have never been to a wedding where the church was so full.

While we were away, the girls stayed with Scottie and Bigs, my mom and step-dad. Despite efforts to make this as easy for my mom as possible, I dropped off a potty-training two year old and bottle-refusing, night-waking nine month old. Somehow, she managed! I don't believe they left the house at all but no one seemed to mind. Cole was ready to go back as soon as we pulled out of the driveway.

*Every single one of these pictures is borrowed. Either from Facebook or my mom. 

Potty Trained

Two weeks ago today, potty training chose us. And now, Cole is wake-time potty trained.

Around 17 months old, Cole was showing many of the textbook potty training readiness signs. But I wasn't ready. I was very pregnant with Ibbie. I had come to peace with the idea of two in diapers.  I wasn't ready to have a newborn and newly potty trained toddler. So we waited. I got Cole a little potty seat and let her use it whenever she felt inclined, which was fairly often, actually. Peter and I agreed that we'd potty train Cole once she was asking for it. And I've always heard to wait until the child is ready. So we waited.

After 10 months of sporadic potty use and requests for diaper changes, we realized that the time had come. Driving home from a furniture pickup, Cole let us know she needed to use her diaper and immediately requested to be changed. Peter looked at me and said, "So, it's time."

We prepped for three day potty training (which in our case would be 3 days with 10 months of practice). I made a little sticker chart and let Cole determine her own rewards. We explained to Cole that she would need to use the potty when she felt the urge to go. Then we took the diapers away. 

She took to it right away! For the first two days, for whatever reason, after nap time she begged to be put back in her diaper. I obliged for two days but on the third day her request was denied. There was an epic meltdown, followed promptly by a trip to the potty and then to the store to pick out panties. 

We boldly left the house on the second full day in panties and she went 80 minutes between potty breaks! I was impressed. Apparently we waited to potty train until she was more than ready. Now we have a potty trained two-year on our hands, which means we have a potty in the car and stop all the time when we are out to make potty breaks. (I line the bowl of the car potty with dog waste bags and keep wipes and hand-sanitizer at the ready. It makes on-the-go clean up a breeze.)

Note: We're going to hold off on sleep-time potty training until she is a bit older. 

A Little Zoo

After years of living in a major city and taking full advantage of urban life, living in Newark has been quite a shift. Newark, which is home to University of Delaware, is a pretty typical college town. There are plenty of things to do, but you have to look. I found a little zoo about twenty minutes away in Rising Sun, Maryland. It is cute as can be.

At the ticket office, you can buy a cup of feed to give to some of the animals. Cole was delighted to feed the goats, sheep, donkeys and alpacas. She was disappointed she couldn't feed the bears but after I explained they may bite she applied that reasoning to every animal she couldn't feed: Camels may bite. Tigers may bite. Peacocks may bite. It worked out just fine. 

Since we were already in Rising Sun, we made a quick trip to Kilby Cream for ice cream. We were pleasantly surprised to find they had a playground and little animal display for the kids.  Not that Cole could could focus on anything but her pink ice cream with jimmies.