Big steps for the big girl

By: Ann

So for a few months now we’ve been planning for this weekend. This was the weekend we were going to start totally weaning her from her pacifier. We decided to give her one more weekend due to her receiving her 18 month well baby check vaccines the week before last. I have a trusted source that says that there’s no damage until after 3 years of age, but I’m reading some things on the American Dental Association’s website that damage can be done as early as two years of age with overbites and such.

It hasn’t been easy for Athena. But it’s no walk in the park for us. We hate hearing her cry before she goes down to sleep. It’s like we’re sleep training her all over again, but we’re not thinking that she has stopped breathing every time she stops crying. However, she is doing better than we thought she was going to do so far (hopefully, this is not preemptive). We know that she takes security and comfort in her pacifier, but she can’t be a baby forever. She’s going to have to learn to find security and comfort in something else. We just have to keep repeating to ourselves that we’re doing this now because we love her and so she doesn’t have a hard time later in weaning or get made fun of for having any teeth deformities. I don’t think I took a pacifier when I was little, but I did get made fun of for having horrible teeth. I’d never wish that upon any kid.

On another note, Athena has been giving us cues that she is just about to urinate or more. We weren’t planning on starting the whole potty training thing until after we had weaned her from the pacifier, but given that she urinated twice on the floor yesterday (once after taking off her own diaper), we decided it was time for her to be introduced to her potty chair that she was currently been standing on in order to flick on and off our hallway light.

Yesterday I just sat her on it fully clothed. But today, I sat her on it and four out of the five times I sat her on it, she peed. She was surprised the first time it happened, as was I. She looked at me and thought she was in trouble the first time that she did it. But then she saw I was so happy and she was pretty proud of herself. Unfortunately, every time I take off her diaper by the potty, she immediately starts to go. We have to work on aim, but that’s okay. That will come later. We are also trying to teach her it’s not okay to step in her potty. It has a “toilet cover”, but she just gets around that.

In more serious news, Jason’s stent removal surgery is tomorrow (Monday June 7th) at 9:00 PST. If you follow me on Facebook, I’ll give updates from there if you haven’t heard from me via cell phone (you know who you are).

Lastly, I hope all of my Toledo area friends are safe and sound after that horrible tornado that hit last night. Pictures from all the damages are pretty sad. I know it destroyed Lake High School so much that they had to postpone graduation. One of my high school friends (who lives in Germany) even told me that the tornado made news there in Germany.

I hope all is well with you. I should be going to bed soon in order to prepare for tomorrow (and any possible nighttime awakenings by my little gal.

Before I go, here are some pictures off of my new camera. My camera is pretty fancy, but nothing compared to Jason’s camera. We’re waiting for his new lens to come in the mail in order for us to shoot some 18 month portraits.