Let the good times roll

Will has been traveling for work a lot lately.  When he is gone, it throws everything off in the house. Evie acts out and Cora doesn't sleep well.  Yet, somehow, things worked out okay this past week.  He was gone for the third week in a row and it was like we almost hit our stride.  It helps that Cora is in a fantastic stage right now.  She is so engaging, laughs all the time, and recently started saying "mamamamamama".  When she does it, I look at her and give her a huge smile and she half waves at me, and then gives me a massive grin.  It's perfect.  She's doing much better with baby led weaning (Self-feeding), and has been pretty successful at eating some fruits and veggies, with banana being a current favorite. Cora has also mastered the art of rolling from back to tummy, and she now does this at naps and nights.  At first she wasn't thrilled to be sleeping face down, but now she seems to have decided she likes it and is giving better naps and nights as a result.  Still up 1-2x per night, but I will take it.  On Saturday we're going to attempt to have a babysitter put her down for the night for the first time ever.  Fingers crossed miss easy-going keeps up the good attitude for someone other than mom or dad.

Now, I say we hit our stride, but that is not to say that things have been perfect.  More than anything, I think I'm just handling this week better than I did the last two.  For the last two weeks, Evie was seemingly under foot (and thus under my skin) constantly.  She still wasn't her best this week, but rather than snapping at her as I had found myself doing (and then later being super upset with myself for doing...), I found a new coping mechanism.  I somehow decided to start singing God Bless America at the top of my lungs whenever she was pissing me off.  It helped to keep what I really felt like saying out of my mouth.  One day I sang it so many times that Evie actually started chiming in at the end--she had learned the words.  Side note to say that Will returned home tonight and I currently hear him putting Evie to bed.  It is NOT going well.  Poor guy.  She's probably giving him a hard time because he has been gone so much.  I hope he knows that she's testing him and doesn't get too upset... I KNOW it's not easy to let it roll off your back.  God Bless America.  

The other current challenge with Evie is she's gone back to having a ton of accidents again.  It is so hard not to lose my cool with that, seeing as she's been potty trained for over a year.  But, sadly I've learned that reacting negatively only makes it worse.  So, now I'm trying the approach of saying "I'm so sorry this happened.  It's okay.  I'm not upset.  We need to go sit on the potty now, because that's   I have done a lot of reading and potentially a few things are going on.  One of which could be that she has stressed her bladder by holding it for too long, thus overworking the muscle to where it has spasms and causes little leaks.  Apparently this is relatively common for kids being potty trained.  And it makes a lot of sense as to why she will continually have tiny accidents throughout the day but still never goes to the potty.  The advice is to reduce the stress around the whole thing and start building regular trips to the potty back into the routine.  Hell, I'll try anything because I know it's hard on her too.  Especially when it happens when she's playing with a friend.
where pee goes.  Then, please go change and I'll see you when you're dry."

But this post was to be about the good times.  Evie's vocabulary and communication skills continue to astound both Will and me.  I know at three years old it's totally normal to be communicating the way she does, but it's still amazing to us to see.  The other night she had a full conversation with Will on the phone about her day and asking him about his.  She was engaged. She was acting like a little person.  Yesterday she spent a few hours at the Inzi's house and after playing for a bit, she asked Molly (Mrs. Inzi) if she could have a snack.  Molly offered her raisins or watermelon, too which Evie said "yes, please. But, also, do you have any cookies?"  She has had cookies there in the past and that certainly hadn't escaped her memory.  Molly, knowing Evie was to have dinner back at home soon, said no, and Evie's response was "Hmm. Can you open your cabinet?  I think they're up there" and pointed to where they in fact would be.  Molly got such a kick out of it, meanwhile I was so embarrassed as she told me the story!  But, you can't knock the kid for trying... And then there was the other day as we were driving to school.  All of a sudden Evie just announced "Sometimes I wish I was a boy."  "Why's that Evie?"  "Because then I could stand up to pee..."  Touche little one.  Don't we all wish that. 

Finally, Evie has started playing soccer on Thursdays.  At first she wasn't too thrilled with the idea of it but she is really enjoying it now.  She plays with 3 other boys (normally the classes have 10-12 kids, but we lucked out!), one of which is Luke from school.  The first day Luke came, he didn't want to come in the room.  Evie was already running around and kicking the ball but she kept coming to check on Luke to see if he would join.  When he finally came into the room, she ran right up to him and gave him a kiss on the lips!  I was SHOCKED.  Luke's mom started laughing and said the funny part was the two of them acted like that was a normal exchange.  Where on earth...?  Anyway, Luke is about six months older than Evie and she follows him around the room.  Fortunately she's still kicking her own ball and listening intently to the coach, but she is always right on Luke's heels.  It's partly adorable and partly frustrating because I want her to be her own independent woman.  She follows Coco (also six months older) around ballet in a similar manner.  When we had her in gymnastics she was very much doing her own thing, but I got bored of it.  When she plays with kids other than the two of them, she does do her own thing.  So, I guess I'm not too concerned about the behavior.   But it's still hard to watch her follow them around!  At least I love both kids, as well as their parents, so I don't feel like she's got bad role models.

Anyway, that's all for now.  We have our highs and our lows, but we're hanging in there and enjoying it when it's good!