two and a half years, and we have her insisting she doesn’t need a pull-up for bedtime (but not before asking to pee at least three times before going to sleep!). she’s been going without in the day for three months now, but we put her to bed in them just in case, and they’ve been dry in the morning for the past few weeks, and i probably should’ve just let her go without it earlier coz it’s irresponsible to the environment and all, i mean, what DO you do with dry-but-used overnight pull-ups anyway, right?! you don’t, say… recycle a dry-but-used sanitary pad, after all. O_o

so i figure, my slight reluctance to let go of her pull-ups was for a solely sentimental reason – it’s most likely the last diapered baby bum we’d ever have. you know, all puffy and cushiony and, like j.lo’s best assets, looks SO good in tights and pants.

now, let’s hope she proves herself right in the morning…

update: aaaandd she’s dry!

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was discussing insurance for the girl the other day (her brother’s was done when he was two too), and our financial advisor estimated we’d need a cool $85k in 16 years time if she were to go for a local tertiary education – i mean, IF we’re fortunate enough for her to want to pursue it, that is. (well, a mom’s gotta hope.)

made me wonder how much my parent forked out for mine, coz i have NO idea. they’d split costs – mom paid for my brother’s overseas education, dad paid for my local one. and i was fortunate enough to not have to repay any student loans whatsoever either. (dear dad, thank you for giving me my education. and while i’m at it, thank you too for paying for my driving lessons. and basically, for everything you spent on me. as my brother would constantly remind me, i was a spoilt princess – still am, yeah i know. :S)

so anyway, we’d settled on a whole life and term policy thing, same as her brother’s. i don’t know, i’m generally not very good with money (seeing how i’ve not been made to handle much of it in my life growing up), and just hope that things will work out for them in the future…

meanwhile, in the present, was updated of the girl’s progress in child care (she’s in a half-day programme for now). all good things so far. she especially likes the home corner and dress up corner (oh the gurly gurl she is turning out to be), storytelling and art, conversing with friends and teachers, discovering things, always the one to help distribute others’ water bottles… and i’ll spare you of the superlative adjectives her enthusiastic teachers had for her. :p

one thing the teacher DID ask me to work on with her was fine motor skill, in particular threading work, which she, for some reason, did not like doing. i’m guessing she doesn’t have the patience yet for it, but since it seemed like another activity we could do together at home, what the heck…

and the last thing we talked about was toilet training, which we all agreed she was pretty ready for. the past few weeks, she’d cooperated on the potty before bedtime, and the previous weekend she’d woken up, walked straight to our bed and asked to pee in the toilet, so i think all that reading of Princess Polly’s Potty came to fruition after all. well, that and the fact she has her older brother to model upon, and me, whom she follows to the toilet all the time to observe. (yes, that open-door policy still stands here at izadnhana’s abode, sigh.)

and so, am happy to report that this was her third day in preschool undiapered, and doing pretty okay (minor mishaps, ie. half-accidents, notwithstanding).

so yey to less diaper wastage! (and to mother earth, sorry we didn’t get started sooner).

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ahh, home studio lagi bagus. :p

she’s started on solids, one week shy of turning six months. so far, very diluted brown rice (which was boring), and mushed up bananas. erm, trying to remember what other stuff we fed aniq the last time, but bananas are like the easiest thing.

as for the boy, he’s totally refused any form of diapers or pull-ups. two years ten months old. just noting it down for posterity. his total ‘self-weaning’ began on the first day of his new school. changed the sheets two nights, after which i sneakily put on his pull-ups while he was asleep, but yesterday i decided to let it go and things are lookin’ dry. gotta buy more underwear for him.

ok go!

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his first attempt at modelling for calvin klein.

the rule is to look serious, like mark wahlberg. while holding a, erm, weapon in one hand. very macho.

ok, so those aren’t calvin kleins. (on aniq, that is. on marky mark, they’re the real mccoy, all right. not that i’d know, though. too much distraction to see actual label on those tighty-whities… ouh.)

it was on a whim that i picked out a pair of bright bots’ training pants and shoved it to his daddy. not to try on, but to ask for his opinion. we wanted a bright red one (!!), coz we planned to tell him they’re part of Superman’s costume. but they didn’t have red in his size, which we guessed was M (though now we know they’re a little tighty-err…bluey, so we’ll get a size L for the next few ones).

he got all excited when we told him we bought him Superman underwear, and he ripped open the plastic bag, just like Superman would if told he’s got a new pair of undies.

“unnerwear!!”

he’d had a brief (pardon the pun) experience wearing dadam’s smaller underwear some time back, which was short-lived as he’d forgotten he was wearing it while playing, and headed to the toilet a micro-second too late. pee had seeped onto the rug in his room.

these bright bots ones are brilliant and i don’t know whyyyy i never thought of getting them earlier, like super-duh. they look and feel like briefs, but have a waterproof thingy in between the layers of cloth on the crotch. like a waterproof bib for the willy ha ha.

anyway, his eyes immediately lit up at the thought of becoming superman, and he said,

“aniq nak encing!”

because, of course, superman must potty first before becoming superman, as stated in the Golden Handbook of Becoming Superman. he promptly proceeded to the toilet to take off his pants, place his potty seat on the toilet bowl, and climbed over it to do the wee-wee.

“bye bye encing!”

that’s him bidding farewell to the liquid deposit as i flushed.

he grabbed his new “unnerwear” and put it on, the way i taught him to – sit down, one leg in, then the other leg, stand up, pull up “unnerwear”, cover beberd (“wait beberd fly!”), and cover “ontot”.

i wonder why little willies are called birdies. must be coined by a coy mother in the olden days to ensure their boys covered up their bits and not let it, err, stray. plus, it’s cuter than calling it “wormie” and less menacing than “snakey”. i think.

aaanyway (why do i always get distracted?), he spotted daddy wearing the SAME coloured underwear (oops, is that too much info?).

“daddy unnerwear same! daddy superman?”. afterwhich he started leaping around the house like superman’s apprentice.

and right on time, the tv played one of those superheroes cartoons and we ALL got excited pointing out how ALL of them wore “unnerwear”! yes, wonderwoman is just like mummy! look at mummy’s “unnerwear”! (admittedly, i was wearing pink, but whaddahell, right?)

“mimmy can fly?”

erm. maybe if i changed into a corset. and eat steroids. otherwise, i’ll probably look more like this:

yes, with the pizza. which incidentally we had for dinner while watching cartoons last night. (i really want to talk about Tom & Jerry, the dynamics of.)

speaking of wonderwoman, doncha think her logo says W&F??

the invisible wonderwoman. with not so wonderboobs. she needs a wonderbra.

oh, and we made a mistake of unleashing those superundies at night coz after his second pee in the toilet, it was time for bed, and he super-refused to wear anything other than his new “unnerwear”.

so he ended up wearing that AND his pull-up diaper over it. (i’m SO not ready to wake him up in the middle of the night to remind him to pee! :p)

wonder how superman does his pee-pee with his unnerwear outside his tights… (i can imagine izad coming up with some theory about how there’s probably a side slit, like boxers. hmm, which brings us to the question, how big IS superman?… ok, what did i say about always getting distracted??)

ps: message to norsita – i got your email, so sorry i’m taking so long to reply! will do so soon.

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we’d recently saved on, ohhh, about two diapers the past two days.

the first day, the lil one decided he wanted to have a dump in the toilet bowl. i wasn’t around to witness it, so it was a second-hand account by our current help. she’d smelled him, err, gassing, and asked if he’d like to use the potty. he nodded and she helped him onto the toilet bowl, and whaddayaknow…

i made a big deal out of it and went “WOW!!! GOOD BOY!!!” so he’d feel the sense of accomplishment of doing the do like the big boy that he is.

and last night, before bed, he’d had a bit of constipation and was a little teary coz it must’ve been discomforting, as he’d not gone the whole day. so the two of us got him to sit on his little potty, remember the blue one?, so it would make the elimination easier.

and just like expert lamaze coaches, we encouraged him to “push, aniq! PUSHHH… erk erkkkk… sikit lagi! dah nampak tuuu… come on! you can do it!”

imagine that, two adults squatting in the bathroom, akin to a labour ward, massaging the little one’s tummy and coaxing the stubborn poo out of him. very dignified, LOL!

he stood up halfway, upset because the poo was obviously stuck between two worlds (!!) and again, the midwives aka izadnhana made him sit down and continued cheering him (and the poo) on.

he gave a final red-faced push and we all, including him, peered down the potty and… what a relief (pun intended)! more rounds of cheers and claps ensued.

as we put him to bed, i told him that THAT was how mummy felt when she pushed him out of her. much, much more painful than that, and with less tears. this was nothing.

he must be thinking mummy pooed him out in a potty.

***

on a different note, i’ve been reading the ‘zero to three’ magazine again, and found some articles really interesting. (sheesh, what happened to girly fun mags like cosmo and cleo, hana?!)

this issue focused on childhood obesity, and some points i noted:

“Unlike adults, young children do not decrease their attention to TV during advertisements. This may make infants, toddlers, and preschoolers especially vulnerable to ads on TV at an age when food preferences and eating habits are forming rapidly. Indeed, watching a 30-second ad only 1 time increases a preschooler’s liking for the advertised product. Young children are bombarded with TV commercials for food: 2- to 5-year-old children see just under 5,500 commercials for food, or 30 hours of food advertising, each year, most of which are for foods high in saturated fat, sugar, and salt.

Many commercials use themes centered around taste, fun, and happiness, with a focus on branding. Branding is a form of marketing that promotes product recognition, which focuses on creating long-term consumers… Children as young as 2 years were able to recognise 8 out of 12 advertised brands, and their liking for recognised brands increased with age. Perhaps not surprisingly, young children will request more advertised food at home and at the grocery store, and parents are likely to comply with these requests.”

i think it’s true – kids are known to LOVE tv ads! even the little one is not spared, often stopping to intently watch the commercials, especially where kids are shown. one time i gave him a cup of jelly and he associated it with that ad where the kids sing “give me one, give me one, give me one more!”, and proceeded to sing along to it – “one more! one more!”

and whenever the honey stars or coco crunch cereal ad comes on, he’d get all excited and point, “NAK!”

of course, it’s cute that they have the ability to imitate, but hmm… there may be some subliminal ‘brainwashing’ thing going on coz then they instantly want all those things on tv instead of boring ol wheat crackers or vegetables. which of course leads to higher chances of obesity, or poor eating habits. :S

another article on eating and emotions in obese toddlers brought this to my attention:

“In addition to the negotiation of autonomy during feeding, infants also must learn to differentiate between internal sensations related to eating (hunger vs fullness) and emotional experiences (wish for affection, feelings of anger or frustration). It is, therefore, of utmost umportance that caregivers recognise the infant’s hunger and satiety cues and respond accordingly. For example, parents should offer food when the infant signals hunger and should not offer food when the infant is upset and needs affection or calming. Likewise, parents should end the meal when the infant is satiated and should not insist that the infant keep eating until the plate is empty.

If the parents consistently differentiate the infant’s hunger and satiety cues and respond appropriately, they will support the infant’s internal regulation of eating. The children will become attuned to internal sensations of hunger and fullness and will be able to tell the difference between these sensations and other internal sensations such as anger, sadness, and pleasure… However, if parents respond to their infant’s emotional needs by feeding the infant, the infant will confuse hunger with emotional experiences and will learn to eat when sad, lonely, frustrated, or angry.

Parents may also further blur the line between the child’s hunger sensations and emotions by trying to soothe the children through feeding them – that is, by using special foods (eg. sweets) as rewards or to express their love and nurturance.”

i think this probably explains why we have ‘comfort foods’ as adults, mostly in the form of ‘junk’ food, like ice cream and chips and chocolates! feeling depressed? let’s reach for that tub of ben & jerry’s…

i’m aware all along of how i shouldn’t force him to finish up his food if he didn’t feel like it. i always tell the helper to just stop giving him any more porridge if he doesn’t want anymore. sometimes i fall into the trap of ‘sayang makanan’ and try to coax one more scoop into his mouth, even though he’d shown signs of having enough. we always think it’s not enough! and sometimes i end up regretting, coz occasionally he’d throw up, and there goes all the food, much more of a waste. so i think there’s something to be said about kids and their “internal regulation of food”.

the article continues to say that restricting appealing foods focuses children’s attention on the restricted foods and increases their desire to obtain and consume those foods. of course, there has to be limitations! so i guess those “poks” and other bad stuff i give him occasionally are justified. (haha, making myself feel better here.)

food for thought?

mummy says this is “pok” coz it’s crunchy…

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the Quiz says that he is almost ready, but not quite yet. however, being the ever-kiasu first-time mother that yours truly is, i’ve been psyching myself up for the moment, and thinking up of ways to tackle the issue when it comes.

it’s SCARY, you know, going through this for the first time, teaching a life skill. we take it for granted as adults, but to a child, it must be tough, having to learn it. i mean, there are SO many steps to remember – take off pants, wipe yourself, flush, put on pants, wash hands, wipe hands… and not to mention, having to actually HOLD THEIR BLADDER before they reach the toilet! gosh.

(as a side note, even the washing of hands bit is a problem to bigger kids. i’ve seen them kindergarten-aged ones do a pee-and-run, conveniently skipping the sink, thinking no one is watching, some even wiping their hands against the wall. arrgghh! HFMD, anyone?)

anyway, at the library the other day, more on a whim than anything, i’d picked up this cute illustrated book of a boy going on the toilet on his own, with his dog as companion, and his parents AND grandparents cheering him on and patting each other on the backs after he’d successfully done his business. the little one was eager to imitate, patting his diapered groin and making a whole lot of animated gibberish when we read it together. also, he’d been observing me (yes, me!) on the toilet doing MY business, and seemed rather impressed by my special “potty” in the bathroom.

ok, i thought, what the heck, let’s go Kiddy Palace and get a spiffy one for him.

so $5.90 later, he had a test drive…

*poke poke*

“seems comfy…”

“here we go…”

*oof!*

“hmm, fits my butt!”

the first few times or so, he played with it while bathing, happily scooping water in and out of it. i must say, it looked like fun. (then again, bathing with him is invariably fun, coz i have someone to scrub and splash MY back, for once.)

but today, he carried in his potty again, and this time, he ordered me to sit on mine while he did so on his at the same time. i did my exaggerated ‘teran’-ing ala hiro nakamura trying to teleport himself into the future, to emphasise what i’m doing, and he grunted along, facial expression and all – “ERRKKK!”

i didn’t think anything came out of him, but to my utter surprise, he stood up and i looked in…

(now, what kind of mother would take a picture of pee in a potty? why, only the blogger kind, of course, LOL!)

OI! NOT GROSS OK!

and no no, that’s not my pee (or izad’s). really. sumpah.

i couldn’t help laughing and gushing at him simultaneously, coz it was just so… funny, and amazing at the same time. he was mighty pleased, but probably more because of my rapturous approval. i’m not sure if he really understood what he’d done, but i guess he got the concept of how potty makes mummy happy.

it just takes a bit of hiro nakamura-style ‘teran’-ing!

of course, i’m not gonna make him go all the time, not for now. i just thought i’d get him used to the idea of being able to control his bodily functions. admittedly, he still needs a bit of growing up to do.

plus, i need a bit of mental preparation myself. messy floors, dirty carpets, wet bedsheets, waking up in the middle of the night, etc… did i mention this whole exercise seems mind-boggling?

for now, i’ll just chalk this up as one of my many ‘experiments’ on my guinea-firstborn. hurhur.

ps: happy eighteenth month, babe! mummy’s gotta open a fresh new folder to dump your pictures in now. “aniq 18-24mths”. oh my.

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“As his eighteenth month at Hana’s-warts School of Blogcraft and Blogwizardry approaches, Aniq Potter is in full-blown toddlerhood, complete with regular outbursts of rage (“Nak! NAAK!”), a nearly debilitating crush (more objects-falling-on-his-toes than the romantic kind), and the blooming of a powerful sense of rebellion (*self-explanatory*).

It’s been an infuriating and boring June holiday with his cousin, Dadam Dursley, their physical rows often leaving The Dark Mark on each other. Our hero has minimal contact from his non-Muggle friends from the magic playground world. Aniq is feeling especially edgy with the lack of new Sesame Street and Barney VCDs, always dreading when the evil Lord Zzzz will strike. There is even talk of a Dementor Mother with plans of training the young boy on a – gasp! – potty.

Returning to Hana’s-warts will be a ‘relief’ — or will it?”

Coming soon to a theatre near you.

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