The Life and Times of Baby Gordon

Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk

Maddie dances to James Brown just before bedtime, in all her pantsless glory.

Superpotty

Maddie woke up last weekend and decided she was done with diapers. It was quite a surprise to all of us. After the initial success we had had with her peeing in the potty, she hadn't done it again. Occasionally she would spot the potty and decide to sit on it for awhile while I read A Potty for Me, the adorable Karen Katz book that I'm convinced ultimately helped Maddie make the decision. But mostly her attention span waned after a few minutes and she was off to other things.

This past Saturday, she was sitting in the living room watching morning cartoons when she announced, "I have to go potty." Although I've been a bit lazy about pushing her toward potty training (candidly, with travel and our crazy schedules the past few months, diapers have been more convenient), my rule is to never discourage her from doing it, so if she wants to try, we try. This time, she peed right away, and her face lit up. "I DID IT!" she exclaimed, in much the same way the little girl in the book shouts with joy. We clapped and cheered and made a big deal out of it. I asked her if she wanted to wear underwear and she said yes, wholeheartedly.

About an hour later she accidentally peed in her underwear. She was very upset by it, and cried and cried. Andrew and I reminded her of the part in the book when the little girl has an accident while playing outside, and told her "It's OK!" She seemed to be consoled by that, but afterwards wanted absolutely nothing to do with the underwear. When asked why, she said, "I make pee in underweah and I cry." She was traumatized.

Assuming that was the end of pottying for awhile, I put her in her diaper and we went about our business. But no: Maddie was resolute. Later that afternoon she asked to go potty, and made her first poop in the potty. Her face was priceless: she beamed with pride. I've never seen a kid so very proud of herself.

I started noticing after that that she was getting up in the morning with a dry diaper, and she began almost exclusively peeing and pooping in the potty while at home. I knew it was for real when, this past weekend, we all made a visit to a local garden center. While there, Maddie asked to go potty. Not sure what to do, I took her into the bathroom there. I was a little worried she would be freaked out by the strange surroundings or by having to balance on a big toilet, but she was very cheerful and confident about it. Since then we've successfully gone potty at restaurants and even the car wash!

Last night, for the very first time, Maddie woke up at 4:30 and called out that she had to potty. Rather than going in her diaper, she waited until Andrew took the potty down to her room and then peed in it.

I got her a Dora the Explorer sticker reward chart that is hanging on the wall in the bathroom and is almost completely full with stickers! After a few mishaps with pull-up diapers, we have finally bought Pampers Easy-Ups in the right size for when we're out and about, and she's still wearing diapers at night, but during the day she is in underwear exclusively.

I've been shocked at how fast it's all happened, and how we really had very little role in it. But everybody tells me it's a girl thing. While waiting in line for the restroom at Skipolini's Pizza the other night, the woman in front of me asked if we'd like to go first, since it was obvious Maddie had to go. I told the woman about Maddie's sudden resolve to use the potty, and the woman laughed. "That's a girl for you," she said.

Play-Dohs

A few weeks ago, Maddie and I enjoyed a "Maddie Monday" (a non-work day for me, no daycare for her -- probably one of the few we'll get together this year) and went to Studio Grow. It's been awhile since I've taken her, and it was fun to see how much she enjoyed many of the activities that she was too young to get last time. She particularly liked the arts and crafts room. At one of the tables, the studio had laid out Play Doh and cookie cutters, and we spent probably 15 minutes "making cookies."

A few days later, she and I were playing outdoors on one of our unseasonably warm afternoons, and I remembered that we had some cans of Play Doh that Maddie received as a door prize gift at a birthday party last year. She had been pretty indifferent to the stuff when we first brought it home, so I had stashed it in a cabinet in the laundry room. I pulled it out and got the Christmas cookie cutters that we had used to make sugar cookies together during the holidays, and we started making cutouts with Play Doh on the picnic table.

Thus began the Great Play Doh Obsession of 2009. Every morning after that afternoon, she came upstairs from bed and immediately went to the back door, asking to go "OUTside 'n' play Play-Dohs!" (even though it was still dark). Finally we allowed the Play Doh to move back indoors.

What has been so interesting about this "Play Dohs" obsession is that it's the first time I've seen her really use her imagination. She spent days making little cookies with the Play Doh, laying them out on her tea tray, and putting them in and taking them out of her little play oven – honestly, it's the most attention she's paid to that play kitchen since she got it for her birthday. Then she made us each birthday cakes and put her little birthday "candies" (candles) on them, singing "Happy Birthday" to us as she offered them up. She even made one for Bentley.

We started with one can of white Play Doh and one can of blue, and within several days we had a lot of funky, dried out light blue Play Doh because she had mixed it all together. With no end in sight to this Play Doh obsession (train set forgotten, all other toys sorely neglected, and her former obsession, "paintings" with the art kit from her grandparents, completely out of her mind), I went on the hunt for new Play Doh to replace the old stuff. I found a Play Doh Fun Factory at Longs, and I think I was as delighted to bring that thing home as she was to see it. Within an hour after its arrival the new yellow and blue Play Doh that came with the Fun Factory became one big green lump, and Maddie was making spaghetti and meatballs in her little pots and pans for all of us to eat for dinner.

The Fun Factory kit came with a little brochure advertising the other Play Doh sets available. Maddie got hold of this and pointed out everything she wanted (she was mostly enamored with an underwater themed one featuring a big purple octupus, as well as a Dora set and an ice cream parlor that costs $50), then spent the evening telling anyone who would listen about her wish list (including her grandma on the phone, who was probably confused as Maddie picked up the phone and greeted her in her bossy little voice: "I want oct-pus NOW, and Doh-wa, and ice cweam").

Luckily Maddie had some Amazon gift cards leftover from her birthday and Christmas, so that evening I got online and ordered her the octupus and Dora playsets. The Dora one arrived pretty quickly, and the Fun Factory was old news. (I got it out for her last night and she actually told me, "No, don't want this, put away!")

Play-Dohs are at the center of our universe right now. It's all she wants to do; sleeping, eating and going to the park are secondary priorities. Our biggest blessing is that the rug in our living room is already old and soiled, because now it also contains flecks of blue, green, and strange shades of purple that will be ground into it forever. I can't wait to see how long it will be before she moves on to the next big thing, or whether Play Dohs will always have a special place in her heart.

Life at 2

Mommy has been very negligent in the blogging department. 2008 has been a whirlwind year and overwhelming, and I'm trying to take measures to make 2009 less, or at least to try to handle it all a bit better.

Of course, since my last blog entry Madeleine has turned 2. Life with a 2-year-old is the cliché: action-packed, fun, amusing, stimulating, rewarding, challenging, frustrating and exhausting.

Not surprisingly, Maddie has turned to be an extremely energetic and curious kid, always on the move and endlessly busy with her little "projects." She is fiercely independent. (I wish I could tell you how many times she insists "NO, MANNIE DO IT!" as we try to assist her with impossible tasks throughout the day -- and how earnestly we are trying to teach her that asking for help is OK.)

She is also an early riser these days. She poops out about 8:00 every night, and by 5:30 a.m. she is usually calling out for us from her bedroom: "Wanna go UPstairs!" As a crutch, we have kept the bottle around for bedtime and wakeup time, with the fleeting hope that a morning bottle will help her put her sleepy self back to sleep for awhile, but it usually only works about 25% of the time. Bringing her into bed is not helpful either - she writhes, climbs on the dog, plays with the curtains, climbs in and out of bed, sticks her fingers up my nose and kicks Andrew until she finally decides it's "yogurt time!", and we have to get up and have breakfast.

Maddie is still spending most of her weekdays with Clelia, her nanny, at another family's house (we do a share with a family who has a 1-year-old). Clelia arrives around 8:15 in the morning and Maddie dutifully "goes to work," collecting the toys she wants with her for the day and waving good-bye to me. They usually spend their mornings at the park or on playdates, and on Wednesdays they go to storytime at the local library.

I recently had to pick Maddie up for a doctor's appointment during storytime and got to observe her. Clelia has always commented on how Maddie sits on her mat, hands folded, waiting for the stories to begin and listening to them with quiet attention, while the rest of the toddlers wander about and cry and make noise. It's true - Maddie hangs on every word. Lately she's been "reading" her books to us at home, and she likes to say some words and then pick up the book, turn it around and show the room the pictures, just like the volunteers at library storytime do!

She's also at an age now where she is beginning to play on her own a lot more. She now has a lot of toys that allow her to begin imaginative play, and she can tinker and play for 15-20 minutes at a time sometimes without needing guidance or intervention. It's fun to watch her start to lose herself in play.

I promise more Maddie action as it happens this year - you might even call it a resolution!

The first potty

Tonight, Maddie peed in the potty for the first time!

She's been sitting on the potty for longer and longer periods lately. This weekend she hunkered down with a pile of books, but nothing happened. We bought her a Karen Katz flap book about going in the potty, and she's been concentrating on it really hard whenever I read it to her. She definitely got the idea ... but nothing was happening yet.

Tonight after she got out of the tub she went straight for the potty, lifted the lid and sat down. "Book!" she demanded, so I left her there to go to the living room to get a pile of books for her. A few seconds later she came running down the hall, naked and flapping her arms, visibly worked up.

We went back into the bathroom and checked it out. Sure enough, there was some pee-pee in the potty! She was very proud. We hugged her and made a big deal out of it. Then she got to participate in the aftermath routine ... the wiping, dumping, flushing, rinsing.

I guess I'm going to need to read up on potty training -- I didn't think it was going to happen so fast!