So as some of you might know, I've been encouraging Natasha to use the potty for quite some time now but the child had wanted nothing to do with it. Her usual response to anything to do with the potty was this, "NOOOOOO!!!" followed by running away and having a huge meltdown... *sigh* it never failed.

But yesterday - to my HUGE surprise - she did something totally odd: I was washing my hands in the bathroom and here comes Natasha behind me, picks up her red Dora toilet training seat and happily goes, "big girl!" shortly followed by, "seat???" I just started at her in disbelief, but sure enough, instead of screaming and throwing a tantrum, she allowed me to seat her on the toilet... fully clothed. Progress...

After about 2 minutes of sitting, she asked me for "underwear" which means Huggies Pull-Ups training pants. So off we went and put those on.. Once she had those on, she once again asked to go on the potty. This time she wanted her "underwear" off, but she managed to pee in those two minutes so of course I wasn't expecting her to go... but it's still PROGRESS. She made me read her a Dora nighttime story book while on the potty....

Well this morning sometime after she woke up, I went to change her pull-up only to realize she was wearing a regular diaper.... hmmm?? How did that happen?? (*cough* Matthew!). The diaper was changed to her "underwear" and she was a big-girl again. For the rest of today she reverted a bit and would only sit on the potty fully-clothed, but this evening she finally agreed to sit on the potty w/o clothes, BUT - I had to read her her Dora book. (she didn't go, either, just warmed up the seat!)

So... all in all, we're making good progress - on Natasha's terms, that is. But from what I understand, it has to be on their terms for an easy training process. I am not going to force her into it, but I will wait for her to tell me when she's ready.

Someone posted this on another website I visit. I thought it was totally something Natasha would do!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATASHA!!!

p.s. you can officially become terrible now!
Love,
Mama, Papa, and Nika!

Natasha started a gymnastics class today! It was the funniest thing ever... I signed her up for an 18-week session of a parent-n-tot toddler tumbling, and it really went much better than expected. She had a blast... When I was signing her up a few weeks back, the coach told me they usually have between 5-8 kids per class, but surprisingly she was the only one there! Another little boy signed up for the Friday session but didn't show up so she had a personalized class today.

The warm-up was joined with the older 3-4 age group - they had a 10 minute running/dancing session (all to music), and then they did some mini-stretches. Then the older kids went off with their own coach, while Natasha, her coach, and I did exercises for her age. She got to do mini-cartwheels on the mats, walked on a high balance-beam, practiced sliding off an elephant slide, jumped on both a toddler-trampoline and a huge adult trampoline (her favourite part by far!), got to hang on a bunch of ropes, and practiced jumping on these huge mattresses. She found the whole thing so amusing and was laughing her head off the entire time.

She was so sad we had to leave and while I was putting her shoes on, she kept pointing at the gym and going, "jump? jump? more?" After we got home, she ate, and took a 3-hour power nap. She then spent the rest of the afternoon practicing jumping!

Two nights ago we transitioned Veronika to the playpen... She just got too long for her bassinet. The bassinet saved us a ton of room over the past 5 months, but the time has come to retire it. So we brought in the playpen from the living room and that's where Nika sleeps now. And she did GREAT! She slept there fantastically at night, but is still getting used to napping in there during the days... But I figured that if I cover her with a tight blanket and tack it in on each side, she falls asleep in there way quicker. I think she needs to feel secure and the playpen is really wide and spacious. The bassinet is going to my BIL & SIL who're expecting in October.

Sept  9 - Fringe. This is a new show, but the first episode leaked into the 'Net a long time ago. We watched it and were hooked. Can't wait!

Sept 22 - Heroes returns! Season 3. It's been so long since season 2 (due to the writer's strike), but now it's back! I know Matthew can't wait to see Claire again... he even started calling Veronika "Claire-bear" as her middle name is Claire *roll eyes*

Sept 28 - Dexter is back! Also season 3. Dexter is America's favourite cereal killer. That show is so perverted, you can't help but like it.

Yesterday we finally started Veronika on rice cereal... just 2 days shy of being 5 months old. It's kind of funny but with Natasha I couldn't wait to start her on solids, it was such an exciting thing to add more items to her milk-only menu. But that's such a first-time-mommy thing. Now this time around, it's completely different. I was in no rush to start her on solids because solids scream MESS! We literally dirtied a whole bib while feeding her a 1/5 cup of cereal. Yuck!

She looked so cute and she loved it! She doesn't know how to eat from a spoon quiet yet so she was pushing most of it out with her tongue, but after a few spoonfuls she started 'getting the idea' and actually leaned her face forwards whenever she saw the spoon coming.

I completely don't remember how long it took Natasha to learn... unfortunately, these moments just get erased from your memory.

What's this, mama?

Mmmm, it's not as bad as it looks!

But how exactly do I eat it???

I guess I better learn...