A Momentous Day for Me...

Before I became a mother, I had a couple of preconceived notions about how things were done (or weren't done) in the world of mommydom. One of these notions was that it was the mother's fault if her child was still wearing diapers past the age of three. This is where reality came into my life and taught me a humbling lesson...

No matter how hard I tried to get Lia to buy into potty training, I couldn't get her to do it. We dove in head first when she was almost two years old and again when she was just two and half years old. Both 10-day stints resulted in lots of messes on the floor that I had the good fortune of cleaning up and a constipated child. So, I hung it up this past fall.

However, with the new year came new year's resolutions. After the pacifier was miraculously pulled from her life in January, Ron was ready to try round #3 of potty training. For apparent reasons, I dragged my feet for many weeks, but a miracle happened on the afternoon of Sunday, March 20th. I walked into our house after being gone for a few hours at a church meeting to find Ron and Lia sitting face to face on our two potties in the downstairs bathroom. Within a matter of seconds, Lia successfully did her thing in her little toilet. As one can imagine, there was much clapping and screaming and hugging and doling out of rewards. The princess panties immediately went on and Lia has not looked back since. We are now on day #12 with NO ACCIDENTS (well, pee pee that is)! I couldn't be more thrilled.

So, today was a big day for me. After a final, thorough washing and bleaching, I happily packed up two boxes of cloth diapers that I have used faithfully since Lia turned six months old. That's right, with the exception of bed time, our weekly trip to church, and most vacations, we have been cloth diapering in the Hartland. As my saying goes, I've been "saving the earth one diaper at a time" and also saving a few dollars along the way. Regardless of the perks, I was one happy camper today when I carried the boxes up into our attic to store for the next baby who I hope and pray joins our family one of these days.

Until then, I will enjoy my diaper free world...

Our 21st Century Toddler...

Ever since Lia discovered how to climb out of her crib two weeks ago, her nocturnal activities have increased ten fold. While Ron and I were in bed tonight, we could hear her get out of bed, run downstairs, come back upstairs, and shut her door. Obviously there were all sorts of shenanigans going on, but it wasn't enough to get either one of us out of bed to check on her. However, a few minutes later, Lia came walking into our room and this is the conversation that ensued:
"Hi Lia. Did you go downstairs?"
"Yes."
"What were you doing down there?"
"I was trying to check my email!"

Is that so? I wasn't even aware that she had an email account. Guess I will have to keep better tabs on her online activity from here on out...especially at night!

A Moment of Discontempt...

Today a miracle happened. The sun came out. Yes, after many weeks, our favorite friend decided to poke her head out of the clouds for a few hours. With the sun shining, Ron decided to take Lia outside to mow the lawn and throw around the balls with her while I painted our master bathroom. When I was finished with my project an hour or so later, I wandered out back to check in on everyone. After Lia proudly demonstrated her new skill of climbing the chain ladder on our play set, I informed her that it was time to come inside for lunch. She immediately declared that she wanted to stay outside and play. With a little more coaxing from both Ron and me, Lia suddenly changed her mind and dashed past me, obediently running towards the house, yelling, "I'm not happy with all of this!"
Lia's little moment of discontempt just had Ron and me in stitches. This girl just cracks me up.

A Small Dose of Liaisms...

I have been meaning to find the time to sit down and record some of the funny comments that have come out of Lia's mouth lately. I am loving this stage of life when she is able to express so many of her thoughts, but doesn't always use the correct words while doing so. In no particular order, here are some of my favorite Liaisms as of late...

1. While reading a Winnie the Pooh book together the other night, I foolishly chose to skip over the title page (in order to get through the book quicker which would result in Lia getting to bed quicker). However, Lia was not to be fooled! As she saw me turning this page without saying any words, she immediately commanded me to "Talk to the page!" Well, I never thought of it that way, but I guess when we read the words from a page, we're kind of talking to it...right?

2. Lia loves drinking water morning, noon, and night. She loves to make trips to the various faucets in our house, fill a cup up with water, take a few, very serious sips, then carelessly toss the remainder back in the sink. It's a regular routine around here. The other day she made me laugh out loud as she announced "I need some piece of water" before we could move on with whatever we were doing. A piece of water? That's an interesting way of putting it.

3. Lia and I were talking recently about growing our garden again this spring/summer when the sun comes back. Lia declared,"You can grow the tomatoes and I can grow the groceries." As funny as it sounded, it made total sense to me. I mean, we grow the same vegetables in our garden each summer that we buy in the grocery store the other three seasons of the year. I guess we just need to start calling our vegetable garden a grocery garden!

4. Lia is the queen of adjectives. Since Ron and I are both former English teachers, we just love this attribute of hers. She will sometimes string three adjectives in a row when describing a queen from a princess movie or a dog on the street. I especially loved how she used a particular adjective the other morning when I walked into her bedroom after she had woken up from the night. Her hair was as bed-heady as you can get and all over the place. Since Lia is not a fan of her hair being messed up, she immediately said with some disgust, "My hair is cranky today." Cranky hair? Love the personification and the message it got across.

I'm sure with this little talker there will be more Liaisms to come...so stay tuned!