Dear Olivia,
With my second pregancy already half way thru(!), I have a few things that need to get done around the house. 1. Potty training and 2. Bidding adieu to your beloved binky. Both are huge mountains that I vow to tackle before #2 arrives. Btw, I’m seriously considering naming your sister/brother number 2 – I personally think it would be much easier at the end of the day. Potty training has commenced and after a few rough days and a call to your Grandma Sparks, I feel like I can do this. You cried the first few days and I couldn’t keep you sitting on the potty for more than 10 seconds. I second guessed myself that maybe you’re not quite ready and maybe you’re still a little too young but you always use the potty right before and after your bath and you genuinely get excited at that time to use your potty. I decided to tread ahead and not look back. You will be potty trained and I have to remember that patience on my behalf, will be the saving grace. I definitely should have planned this pregnancy better because between you potty training and dealing with toddler drama, I could sure use a very large drink at the end of the day.
The second task on that list is finally tossing the ol’ binky. You only use it at night but it’s one of those things that just drives me insane! You don’t really need it. It always ends up on the floor 15 minutes after you fall asleep. One night last week I figured, I’m just going to get rid of it cold turkey. I give you the binky anyways without you asking for it and you’ve been sleeping perfectly so hey, why not? Wow, I think we managed to survive 45 minutes of you screaming before I said, fine – give her the damn binky! I did some much needed web research to see what advice was floating around out there about eliminating this damn contraption. I found this promising site called Bye-Bye-Binky which essentially claims you can be done with a binky in as little as a week. The idea is to cut a small piece from the binky each night so that it slowly loses it’s luster and eventually by the end of the week, you will be left with a stub of a binky and will essentially toss it. I am excited to do this but have yet to bring myself to do it. I have a deep fear that you will understand that we have tricked you and you will go demonic on us and I will be left with nothing to comfort you because I would have cut them all up.
Fort building is your new forte. You like to grab every pillow you can find and stack them on top of each other and then proceed to climb in them and hang out. Not only are you fond of this daily activity, you are also fond of removing your shirt while you do this. Yes, your exhibitionist stage is nowhere close to ending. In fact, I have had to stop you from removing your shirt in restaurants. You scream and pout when I make you wear a shirt but you will learn one day that clothes in public are a necessity.
Your doctor was correct when she mentioned that an explosion of vocabulary would happen around this time, I just didn’t know your favorite phrase would be, “oh god.” I see the brows of strangers furrow when we’re in public and you mutter these lovely words and I think to myself, ironically, oh god, why? And then I realize, wow, I use that phrase an awful lot myself and am most likely going to hell because of it.
I enrolled you in swimming lessons again just to give you something to look forward to. I have never seen a child look so bored in my life. You wave a restless finger at the television when it’s turned off and I think that there is no way I can spend another minute of my life listening to we care/we share songs. I so desperately did not want to raise a child that was so dependent on television but you are. You wander aimlessly around the house bored out of your mind opening every drawer and door you’re not supposed to. Despite having a ton of toys, all you want is television. Personally, I think you’re so smart that you know the things you’re not supposed to get into but you have figured out a way that if you get into those things enough times, either your Father or myself will cave in and turn on the television. Well I fooled you kiddo because next time, I’m just going to stick you on the potty. I might as well make the most out of your boredom and potty train you.
I think we’re just scratching the surface in realizing just how smart you really are and I really need to brush up on my mom skills if I’m going to stay one step ahead of you. You keep me on my toes little one but in the words of your beloved “Olivia” character, I love you anyways.
Love,
Momma
