Clopening

I have been really busy lately, and haven't updated the blog in quite a while. It is clopening time at school- when we have one week to close this year and open next year. And with me, it has been a bit overwhelming. I'm trying to do too many things at once: plan for my science lab, wrap up some computer projects, gather materials, organize carpool, work on schedules for the scheduling committee... as well as dealing with life at home. Luckily, not a lot has been going on at home.
We finally got a toybox for the living room. Most of the toys actually fit in it, too! We've put the pack-n-play in Gracie's room for now (since it no longer must function as a toybox). We want to convert her bed to the toddler bed here soon, and in case she freaks out, we can just put her to sleep in the pack-n-play temporarily. I have a feeling that she will do just fine with the transition. She's a good sleeper, and I'm hoping that she won't realize that she can get out of the toddler bed and play in her room all night. We'll see, though.
We have 2 more days of school. Then 2 workdays, a day off, a weekend (July 4th), a workday, and then the first day of school. I will have 3 workdays to get moved into my new room, set up, meet with all the grade levels and start planning. I also have schedules to finish, a cafeteria to rearrange, and carpool stuff to finish. Ugh. Wish me luck!

17 months

No.

Gracie has a new word: no. Lovely. Almost anything you ask her, the answer, as she shakes her head, is no. Do you want to go to bed? No. Do you want to stay up? No. Can I have your wubby? No. Do you need to go bathroom? No. Tonight we did actually get an affirmative out of her when I asked if she wanted to take a bath. She promptly said "bath!" and made a beeline for our bedroom door. So maybe she does know what she wants... She has the sweetest little voice when she says no, however. She's not loud or forceful. Just very matter-of-fact. I'll have to get it on video.
We went to Olivia's 1st birthday party on Sunday- Gracie had a blast! There were several other kids her age there, and she got to play with all of Olivia's toys, some balloons, bubbles and the water tables. She was SOAKED from the water table! Check out Sherry's Blog for some pics and video.
We're still going strong with the potty training. We had voluntary poop in the potty for the first time this weekend. I couldn't believe it. We're to the point that as long as we remind her to go (or lead her to the potty or toilet) fairly regularly, we're good to go. I got a new travel potty seat that is padded and fits much better on differently shaped toilets, so I'm excited about that.
Not much else going on. I don't know if I've posted about this, but it looks like I'm going to be teaching science next year, which I am very excited about. I got to do some shopping for my lab last week, and today they gave me a laptop and LCD projector to use. But things change at the drop of a hat anymore, so nothing is set in stone quite yet.

Ba-room

I have been hesitant to write this blog in fear of jinxing ourselves, but I have to brag on my little potty-girl.  The past week or so we've really started working on potty training.  I know it's early, but I just know that Gracie is smart enough to do this, and she is proving me right!  We're doing a loose version of the bare-butt training method, whereby she wears no diaper when we're at home.  At grandma's she wears undies, and at home I just let it all hang out (only because it is easier for me to catch her in the act without something to catch the pee).  Grandma has reported that each day this week has resulted in more hits and fewer misses.  We try to put her on her little potty at regular intervals, and now she's to the point where usually when you put her on there, she'll pee!  We still put a diaper on her when we go out (I ain't takin' that carseat apart to wash it again!), but today we were gone from about 1:00-7:30 and she only went ONCE in her pull-up, and that was because we got busy running around at the museum and neglected to take her to the bathroom.  But I took her at lunch, set her on the big toilet at the restaurant, and she immediately peed, then later at BJs, same thing, and just before dinner.  We went to Babies R Us and got one of those foldable kid-sized toilet seats because she's so little, and it works ok, I guess.  It isn't too sturdy on some toilets.

Now, the big news is that this evening, for the FIRST time that I've witnessed, she was wandering around bare butt and she actually went to the potty herself, sat down and PEED!  ON HER OWN!  This is huge.  We actually thought she was just sitting there for fun, but then she said "YAY!" (which is was we all do when she goes) and I went over and about FELL OUT to see the pee in there.  We had gotten a new, smaller little portable potty to keep upstairs, and she sure knew how to break it in!  I'm so proud of her.  I'm hoping she doesn't regress.  She can hold it for almost 12 hours overnight (she typically wakes up dry), so I'm hopeful that we're well on our way.  Our main problem is that she doesn't know how to pull pants down yet.  But the method we're using doesn't worry about that too much until they get good at going to the potty on their own, anyway.

In other news, I also got my first kisses tonight from her- fabulous, wet kisses (kissy noise included) right on both of my cheeks.  I about cried.  She also adds several new words to her vocabulary each day.  Recent acquisitions have been car, Buh-wies (which is evidently Wubby, but backwards somehow), cracker, ear, nose, see ya, water (wawa) and reliably making noises for a duck, bird and cow (she's been doing dog and cat for a while).  She can point to her belly button, foot and ear, and other people's belly buttons, ears, nose and eyes.  She also claps and says yay when other people are clapping and uses uh-oh appropriately.  She can now climb up on the couch by herself (which is scary because she's not very stable when ON the couch) and go down the stairs in a combination of scooting and going backward.

It just blows my mind how quickly she is picking things up these days.  They say that they just kind of take off around 18 months, and is it ever true.   So much fun, but sad in a way, too- my baby's all growed up!