Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Potty Training and Mountain Lions

After our return from Colorado, Claire and Marin were still sick. Claire was having trouble with asthma and Marin had cold symptoms along with a fever. They went to the pediatrician and Claire was diagnosed with bronchitis and Marin with pneumonia.

Poor Marin had to get an antibiotic shot. I made her dad hold her for that and left the room. I went back in right afterwards and Marin climbed up in my lap saying, “Owie, owie!” They both did a course of oral antibiotics as well which then led to the baby having terrible diarrhea. Which then led to a terrible diaper rash as tends to happen. I hid acidophilus pearls in her yogurt and that cleared up the diarrhea remarkably fast.

Everyone is pretty healthy again and we are trying to adjust to the new summer schedule. One of the difficulties is that the girls like to stay up later. It’s light out longer and they are almost impossible to put to bed. Claire has always been somewhat of a night owl, at least on the weekend nights that she was permitted to stay up late. She is usually very pleasant and well- behaved and keeps herself occupied with art projects or a movie. Katie staying up later throws that all off. It just extends the hours of fighting in the day. I have been working on getting them to bed earlier but it’s a battle. The only one that is on a normal schedule is Marin.

The girls have been spending a lot of time playing outside. Marin would really like to go out with them. Marin is a maniac outside and requires chasing. My right knee is still not up to actual running so this presents an obvious problem. Since I hate the idea of a toddler on a leash, I usually keep Marin inside with me while her sisters play. Like everything around here, that leads to more problems. Marin has learned how to remove the main obstacle in her quest for freedom, the doorknob covers.

She has learned that if she hits the covers repeatedly they will spin and eventually separate. Then she tosses the two separate parts under a piece of furniture and simply opens the door and walks out. I think she is trying to discourage me from putting the covers back on since it slows her down.

I now have to lock the door after the girls go out. Initially I thought that locking it would keep her in even though the covers clearly wouldn’t. She promptly learned how to unlock the front door. Now I use a second lock that is up high on the door. The height of the lock isn’t really a factor since she is a tall baby and she stands on things to reach the object of her desire. So far the only thing that stops her is the little hook and eye latch that has a little spring loaded part that she can’t manage with her chubby baby fingers.

The girls showed her how to climb over the gate that blocks off the upstairs of the house. They thought it was funny. I don’t find it nearly so amusing since I now spend much of my day looking for the baby. She likes to hide and then pop out smiling and laughing.

To make things even more difficult, Marin has decided that she wants to use the potty. As everyone that has been reading already knows, she is not a big fan of pants. I explained to her over the weekend that if she was going to take her pants off then she had to sit on the potty. Much to my surprise she ran to the bathroom demanding help climbing onto the toilet. She proceeded to pee on the toilet which meant that I had to run out and buy her an actual potty chair.

That led to further trouble. She loved it so much that she didn’t want to get off the potty, let alone bother with pants. I have tried to convince her that the kitchen is the best place for her potty but she keeps picking it up and carrying it to the bathroom demanding that someone open the door so the potty can go where it belongs. I have given up and now keep the potty in the downstairs bathroom. That means that Marin has a legitimate reason to be in there, unrolling toilet paper, repeatedly flushing the toilet and standing on her potty in order to play in the water in the sink. I have had to retrieve Katie’s favorite stuffed dog from the toilet and run it through the washer twice already in less than a week. Katie claims that it still doesn’t smell right.

I have come to the conclusion that I just can’t get anything done without help. I have been giving the girls jobs for money and the best paying job in the house is that of “bathroom buddy”. The bathroom buddy is responsible for staying with Marin while she uses the potty and keeping her out of trouble. Katie had the job today and somehow Claire’s toothbrush still ended up in the toilet. At least Marin now has some indoor activities to keep her occupied.

The outside business isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be anyway. Just last week Claire stepped on a snake and was stung by a bee all in the same day. I had my own wild life encounter. I was sitting in a lawn chair and heard a rustling sound behind me.*

So, I looked behind me and didn’t see anything. Then I felt something bump the back of my bare leg. I jumped up, shining my cell phone light and discovered an large opossum looking back at me. I suppose it wasn’t as scary as a mountain lion but yucky nonetheless.


*I have an irrational fear of mountain lions, which may or may not be in our area. I saw one in our area despite the fact that they shouldn’t be here and know of other sightings as well Even though I am rationalizing this fear, I do realize that it’s not likely for a mountain lion to wander into my yard and stalk me in my lawn chair.

5 comments:

Stacie said...

You always have the best stories. Your girls sound so full of personality!

Good luck on the potty training. I'm not sure I'm looking forward to that in a year (or so).

bernthis said...

My kid has an ear infection, now a fever, being a mom is soooo much fun.

Jenny said...

Just stopping by from another website to check out your blog. It's very good and I'll be bookmarking it for updates :) Have a great weekend.

AnnQ said...

LOL....I have to agree with you - the changes of a mountain lion getting you are probably (hopefully!) pretty small. :-)

- AnnQ

S said...

Just don't run; big cats use that to identify prey. It's a good thing your knee slows you down.

I was reading about a deer repellent that uses a Puma hiss to ward off various animals. The fear is hard-wired and they instinctively know it's danger without having to have ever encountered a big cat...Maybe you are a reincarnated deer.