January 2004

    Happy 2004...a month late.  We've had a busy first month of the year here at the Pearson Compound, so let's get to it, shall we?

    On the very first day of the year, we had 8 inches of snow in our yard (~500 ft el).  That has never happened in my 8 years here in Oregon.  Ellen and I went outside to play.  She was re-enacting creating the tracks in the snow form her  book, "the Snowy Day".  We attempt to make a snow man, but the snow packing wasn't good, and Ellen prefered to stomp on the snow balls when I would stop rolling.  Ellen had lots of fun.  The kids on the block were sledding down the street.  Since it was a day off for just about everyone, there was no traffic anyway.  The snow was almost completely gone by the end of the weekend, but on the following Tuesday (1/6/04), we got hit again!  That hasn't happened in Portland in over 10 years, I'm told...How was I told, you ask?  Well the local news teams slid into action to provide around the clock coverage of the snow storm.  We were stuck in the house for 3 days thanks to that one.  We probably could've have made it out the first day, but I don't think we would have made it back up our hill after.  The city came to a stand-still.  Freezing rain followed the next day to give everything a nice glaze.  I hiked out to the Safeway about a mile away to get more formula for Phoebe since we had run out.  It was a nice walk actually.  It was fun to get out in it.  I just walked down the middle of most the side streets since the sidewalks were too solid from the rain.  The final day I shoveled the drive and sidewalks with my dirt shovel.  It never occurred to me to even own a snow shovel, but I think I'll buy one now to make sure if this ever happens again, I'll be prepared.  I finally made it into work on Friday, but school was cancelled.  Jada was going nuts stuck in the house, so she ventured out to the library, but got stuck halfway up our hill.  She went back out to make it the rest of the way after getting the kids down for naps.  She had planned ahead for such an eventuality, and brought Ellen's boots for the walk up the hill if necessary.  That was our January excitement.  It gave us lots of family time, and I was able to finish 3 of the four books I had received as Christmas presents.

    I'll start with Phoebe's update since Ellen's has mostly to do with potty training, and I know how much some of you love to read about that.  I'll save it 'til the end.  Phoebe seems to be working on breathing through her nose, but she ended up the month not being able to due to a bad cold and her first ear infection (1/28/04).  Her mouth is filling in as well.  She had her 3rd tooth break through on 1/5/04 (Upper front right), followed closely by her 4th tooth on 1/7/04 (Upper front left).   Phoebe seems to have discovered some new head movements.  She is shaking her head now, and doing this cute thing where she leans her head to one side or the other and rests it on her arm.  It is also obvious that she really looks at books.  She'll sit and turn the pages and study the pictures and find the parts that she's supposed to touch in those sorts of books.  She has one we just bought her that she will find on the shelf, pull off, and sit to go through it and touch everything.  She started off the month very close to standing on her own, and as the month comes to a close, she will let go of what she is holding on to for brief periods and stand for several seconds before grabbing back on.  She often changes between objects that she's holding on to.  And she loves to dance.  She really gets into it hanging onto the table working her legs up and down or just sitting and bobbing enthusiastically up and down..  At the end of the month now, she can finally walk while holding onto our hands.  It doesn't even have to be both hands.  However, she still crawls like greased lightning (Grease lightning, go greased lightning).  So when we want to put her down to play, we close all the doors and gates, and let her have the run of the place.  She's almost a free-range baby.  Even with all the activity, she is still caking on the pounds.  She's already 20 lb's (as we found out at the Dr's appointment where she was diagnosed with the ear infection).  That means she gets to turn around in the car seat next month.

    As far as non-potty training Ellen news, she can now count to 40 on her own (first time 1/11/04).  She still loves to sit and read books with others or by herself.  She makes up songs, does some interesting interpretive dance, and enjoys playing with the Play-doh she got for Christmas.  The tantrums are still stubborn and long and involve a lot of very loud screaming.  She has rebelled a few times against her day care provider which we have made clear will not be tolerated.  Some times she'll go to her room on her own and wait quietly until the timer goes off, and there are others where we have to put her in there behind a gate (which is now bent from her kicking it with her shoes on).  Ellen also continues to grow.  We are going to need to start looking into booster seats for her in the car.  She's near the limit on the seats we have in our cars.  It always seems like there's something else to buy, doesn't it?  It'll have to wait until we find out if we give or receive from our taxes.

    Ellen has begun a new class at the Tualatin Hills Park and Rec District Conestoga location.  Soccer is now added to her list...well, not so much soccer in the pure sense.  More sort of running around a gym where soccer balls also happen to be on the floor.  She has quite a good leg, but isn't much for passing yet.  She really likes running around though.  I need to work with her more on listening to the instructor and to me while she's there.  We've only had 1 class so far at the time of this writing.  Her music class with Mr. Bob has started up again, and all her friends from our child birth class are back in the same session as she.  She's pretty excited, and Jada's happy too since she has some people to talk to.

    We spent a couple mornings and an evening visiting pre-schools for Ellen next fall.  Jada and I visited 3 together, and Jada visited one with Ellen.  It's amazing how competitive it is to get kids in there.  Not so much from an entry exam point of view, but in house families get first dibs on any openings.  We're on 2 waiting lists, and the other 2 we are going to try to get on.  They'll all work we think, so it's just a matter of which one we can get Ellen into.  The first one we'll try has one of Ellen's little friends already signed up, so that'd be nice if we can make it, but I don't think she'll have difficulty making friends.  It's such a big step.  She's just growing up so fast.

    Due to the holidays and the following snowstorm we had not had a playgroup date since early December.  So, on MLK Jr. Day, we invited our friend to play at our house.  Ellen, Emily and Alycia enjoyed playing with each other, but also spent much time with the three little ones-Phoebe, Clara, and Keila(the daughter of another kindergarten teacher from Jada's school.)  We have found that closing the doors, gates, and even placing the childproof protection on all door knobs is imperative.  The only door that the kids could open was the bathroom and that room saw lot's of use with three girls learning to use the potty!

**** The following section deals a lot with the making and cleaning up after human excrament.  This is your only warning.  If you do not wish to read about this topic please stop now. ****

Ellen's Potty training Progress: 

    With the large amounts of falling snow, and our subsequent detainment in the house, Jada and I decided that it'd be a good use of our time to start really working on the potty training.  On 1/1/04, Ellen poops in the potty twice and pees once, and gets to wear panties.  She then makes it 2 hours before peeing in the panties during lunch.  At which point we put her in diapers for nap time and try again with the panties after nap.  Jada starts putting Ellen in panties in the mornings.  She was making it about 2 hours before wetting them usually during snack time or lunch.  On 1/6/04, she made it all the way until nap time, so we put her in pull-ups instead of a regular diaper.  [This was the first day of our snow-bound state].  Stuck home again on 1/7/04.  Ellen doesn't want to try to potty in the potty.  She doesn't want to be a big girl until I point out all the things that she'll no longer be able to play with if she's just a baby.  This game progresses way too far until she calls our bluff at which point we just calm her and ourselves down and started over.  1/8/04 - still stuck at home.  Ellen has a massive poop in the potty.  We're talking, "wow, that's some heavy duty dooty!"  She was very proud as were we.  Jada took a picture of her with it (pictured here).  We're hoping this is a breakthrough for the potty.  She's gotten to wear panties all day for the past 2 days (except for nap when she wears a pull up). 

    Today (1/11/04) we were out running errands, so Ellen had on the pull-up.  As we were about to leave CostCo for Babies R Us, Ellen asked us if she could pee in her pull-ups.  We asked her if she could wait until we got to Babies R Us, and she said yes.  As soon as we got there, we ran back to the bathroom, and she pee'd in the big potty!  She's really doing well.  We just need to keep working on the pooping.  She's at least trying now.  And it's been 5 days since her last accident in panties.  She's still in pull-ups for nap times and bed time.  This week, we'll continue to work on it with the help of her day care person.   Pooped in the potty on her own twice-once before daycare and then again in the evening. 1/14/04.  Ellen poops again on 1/17/04 in potty.  Started working with her to poop in the big potty now that her feet can comfortably reach the step stool while sitting on it.  Another successful field pee as well (at the library).  Still peeing fairly well in the potty.  Last week of January had it's share of set backs.  We've had to throw 2 pair of panties away due to poop-related accidents, but the peeing is still going well.  I worry that I'm putting too much pressure on her, and I get a bit frustrated as does Ellen.  We're both working at it.  All the books that talk about it seem to have really easy kids or they're lying.  It just seems like an insurmountable task at this point in time.  I often wonder if Phoebe will be trained before Ellen is.  It seems like it'll never happen, but there are millions of people in the world who can poop and pee in the potty, so it must happen. 

Journal Entry: February 1, 2004