Accident Forgiveness

So potty training has certainly stepped up my workload throughout the day! Instead of allowing Madalyn to play quietly in her room to her heart's content, I now must check to make sure all that silence isn't adding up to a nice poo-poo on the floor. I must cart the potty around with us in order to have close proximity hopefully aid us in success.

She has already discovered that "Mommy, I need to put my poo-poos in the potty" will get her out of her crib and into a few more minutes of staying up quicker than a wink. Why don't we just take a chance, you ask, after all, she does have a diaper on at bedtime? The answer, dear reader, lies in the "artwork" that she "painted" all over her walls when the poo-poos were indeed deposited in her diaper. Now the simple idea of her repeating her artistic glory is enough to wisk her to the potty each and every time she merely suggests a need to go.

All of these challenges, you know, they're tough. But Dan and I apparently felt the need to step it up a notch. Apparently we were all like,

"Yeah, this potty-training stuff is work, but we need something more to shake up our lives. What else could we do to complicate things further?"

I know! Put Maddy in a big-girl bed! Messing with bedtime seemed like as good of an idea as any.

Seriously, it was in an attempt to avoid further "incidents" as described above. If you've got poo-poos, baby girl, just scoot your heiny out of bed and come tell me. No need to express yourself creatively.

Dan and I have considered getting her an easel and finger paints to allow for artistic freedom, but Dan is afraid it will only encourage her study of the medium.

Anyways, I heart Craigslist, because we scooped up a pretty much brand-spanking-new, beautiful toddler bed and nightstand for $50.00. I was morally opposed to toddler beds (I've been known to call them "a waste of money"), but Dan kept telling me a twin was too big for Maddy. "What if she falls out?" No matter how many times I explained the concept of guardrails, it fell on deaf ears. So Dan finds the toddler bed/nightstand online, shows me the price, throws in that we wouldn't have to spring for a mattress right now since you can just use a crib-sized one, and I caved. Dan picked up the set from another Father-Of-A-Precious-Baby-Girl who was selling it near his work. The guy explained to my husband that his daughter had finally graduated to a twin. He says, "Yeah, my wife wanted to put her right into a twin from her crib, but I was too afraid she'd fall out, so we purchased this set."

Ahh, a kindred spirit for D.

He was only too excited to come tell me that story.

Of course he hasn't been the one to try and wedge his body into the dollhouse-sized bed when Maddy demands "Snuggle me!" at bedtime.

I'll let him have that job a few times, and we'll see how quickly we move up in the furniture world.

In other news, Maddy had her first Gym & Swim class today. Up until now, she has only had Swim, but I thought gymnastics would be a fun add-on. However, all she did for the entire session was half-heartedly walk up and down the balance beam, while asking "Time to go in the pool, Mama?" every 30 seconds.

She was like, "Mom, Michael Phelps doesn't do this ridiculous cross-training. Let's hit the pool and get serious."

You have to admire her dedication to the sport.