Potty Training Week 2

It's as if I have two different children.  Nursery Munchkin is almost potty trained whereas Home Munchkin uses the toilet every now and then.  The Peppa Pig medal for pooing on the toilet has been awarded.  This feat was achieved yesterday... At nursery, of course.  When we arrived to collect Munchkin this evening, we were told that she'd been dry most of the day.  The carers have asked if we want to send her to nursery in knickers next week.  I'll probably send her in the Bambino Mio training pants since she prefers those to the Flip. 

The unworn pairs of Flip pants went back to Lizzie's Real Nappies.  Lizzie commented that they were the best on the market, but the manufacturer hasn't got it quite right yet.  We probably will use the remaining pairs but I was hoping they'd be a substitute for pull-ups and that hasn't been the case.

Peppa Pig Medal

Home Munchkin has been a nightmare.  She has regressed to only using the toilet a couple of times a day and doing everything else in her pull-ups.  And the tantrums... Well, where do I start?  Public screaming fits about going to the toilet and/or wearing nappies, refusing to get dressed, refusing to go to bed... The list goes on... She's been driving me to distraction.  I'm somewhat anxious at the best of times and I just haven't known what to do.

I've tried ignoring her, the "broken record" technique of repeating myself continuously until she gives in, negotiating and letting her do what she wants.  Nothing seems to work very well.  Angmering Daddy thinks negotiation is the way forward but I'm not convinced.  I think she behaves worse for me because she picks up on my anxiety.  She's made me cry twice this week.  I'm trying to find some mindfulness training to help with my anxiety and have also reserved ToddlerCalm by Sarah Ockwell-Smith from the library.  However, AD is really annoyed with me.  He says that you learn to be a parent by being a parent and books are pointless.  I'm still going to read it though!

Hopefully my next blog will be about something more exciting than toilets.  Munchkin had her first sleepover at the weekend when AD and I went on a date, and we've also been to Ferring Country Centre, which has had an upgrade since our last visit, so there's plenty to tell if only I can find the time.

Pants!

Munchkin and I have been too grumpy and busy for blogging recently so you've missed out on two epic tantrums and a family trip to Fisher's Farm.  We'll be going back to Fisher's Farm so I'll blog about that another time.  The least said about the tantrums, the better, though I would like to thank the helpful stranger who got us moved to a later swimming lesson when Munchkin's pool tantrum finally ended.

Munchkin is getting closer and closer to being potty trained.  She doesn't like nappies very much and hates pull-ups but my attempt to put her in standard training pants ended in a puddle, partly because they weren't absorbent enough but mainly because they didn't fit snugly around the legs.  There was no way I could put her straight into knickers, since she was doing half her wees and all her poos in nappies.  I still felt cloth training pants were the answer, but I needed to find the right brand.

I didn't have much idea where to look.  Luckily, Laura from Worthing Nappy Library came to my rescue.  She very kindly contacted other nappy libraries to get recommendations for absorbent training pants.  Two American brands, Super Undies and Bumgenius Flip, were recommended.  Super Undies were out of stock everywhere, which was a shame because they were cheaper and more slimline.  I therefore invested in some Bumgenius.  These pants are adjustable so one size fits age 18 months to 4 years.  They have removable inserts which can be changed if the child has only done a wee.  I initially bought three pairs when they were on offer at The Nappy Lady.  The offer price was £21.49, or thereabouts, for a pair of pants and three inserts.  I wish I'd bought more since I've just paid the full price of £27.99 for additional pairs.  I got the additional pairs from Lizzies Real Nappies because they had a better range of designs, in my opinion.  There seems to be a market for second-hand real nappies so I'm hoping to recoup some of my money when she moves on from these pants.

Munchkin's first pants... They've got bunnies on :-)

We had a nappy dry run yesterday.  Munchkin liked her pants, and it almost was a dry run too.  In three hours, she only did one small wee in them.  They're not as easy to get up and down as I'd hoped so we might have to try loosening them.  I did also put them on back-to-front initially, though I'm not sure I should admit to that...  At the weekend, we'll start potty training properly.  Hopefully I've bought my last daytime nappies.  Angmering Daddy has told Munchkin she can have a Peppa Pig medal when she poos on the toilet... I look forward to making it for her.

I blame it all on the Two TT's

Things have been a bit trying round here recently, and it's mainly down to the TT's; Terrible Twos and Tommee Tippee, that is.  Munchkin has been testing boundaries, which is nice.  She is having to learn the hard way, that if you scream for 20 minutes solidly, it doesn't get you what you want.  On Sunday, she insisted that the only thing she wanted for tea was a chocolate chip biscuit.  Daddy told her she could only have one if she ate her sandwich.  She refused, and spent 20 minutes screaming, "Want a biscuit."  Daddy won.  She eventually ate her sandwich -amazingly, she ate it without deconstructing it in her usual manner- and had a biscuit afterwards.  Dummies have been the cause of many screaming fits.  At some point in the next year, dummies will be doing a disappearing act.  For now, we've told her dummies are for sleeping, and she's still allowed a dummy in the car seat... If she asks for one - I've noticed that she sometimes forgets that she needs one.  However, she's been screaming for her dummy at times when she's not allowed to have it.  The screaming fits always end with Mummy and Daddy winning and Munchkin turning back into a sweet little girl, but they're not pleasant.  I've got a perforated eardrum at the moment and all this screaming isn't helping it...

The Terrible Twos are also causing Munchkin to tell me she doesn't like me from time to time - usually alongside a screaming fit.  I don't think this is unusual behaviour as I believe my late mum told me I did this at the age of two.  All the same, it's quite disheartening to be told that your only child doesn't like you, even if she has said she loves you and every other family member at another point on the same day.

I've come to the conclusion that Tommee Tippee -other brands of infant feeding equipment are available- has a lot to answer for.  My daughter has been coming back from nursery with food round her neck for months.  I always blamed the nursery but I now know what the problem is... Tommee Tippee bibs.  The bibs we'd been using until recently fitted snugly around the neck.  We replaced them with Tommee Tippees -the brand that nursery use, only to discover that they're too loose, even when done up on the tightest hole. 

Tommee Tippee struck again when it came to getting Munchkin to drink from a normal cup.  I tried giving her a TT sippy cup with no lid.  This worked fine for a few weeks but now she insists on having the lid on just because she knows it exists.  I need to buy some child-sized beakers with no lids so that she thinks she's drinking from a "Big Girl Cup".  Tommee Tippee will be reserved for her one cup of milk a day, which Angmering Daddy wants to phase out anyway.  When I say "beaker", I mean a plastic cup with no handles.  I just thought I should be clear since Mrs Bucket and my mother-in-law -who are in no way related- seem to think a beaker is a ceramic cup with a handle.  Now, that's what I call a "mug"!

I'm really hoping Munchkin can make it to her swimming lesson this Friday, for the first time this term.  We both had ear infections last week -I think I've still got mine- so swimming was out of the question.  This weekend, we're off to her cousin, Sweetpea's, birthday party.  Sweetpea will be three and I bet her parents are rejoicing that she'll no longer be a TT!