not to forget...

regression is a sad thing. or maybe more disturbing?

amelia has been dry in the morning for about 6 weeks & then on & off  for months now. about a month ago she began begging to wear underwear instead of a pull up to bed...& she did! awesome-opossum, right? yes!

then over the last week she refuses to wear undies to bed & only wants a pull up...even though it's still dry in the morning. then she wants her little potty back after she saw it in the basement, tucked under some other toys (total failure to hide it on my end). so we brought it back up to the bathroom she shares with addy with the agreement that amelia would be the one to clean the potty & dump all its contents into the toilet.

so the other day i kept smelling something totally foul. i flushed all the toilets (the girls apparently have a difficult time remembering to flush), i cleaned the little potty & all 3 toilets. i mopped up around the toilets. i sprayed lysol in the girls' bathroom. i took the trash out in their bathroom, in case something funky had ended up there. (btw: 3 toilets is nice when you need them, but a pain in my ass otherwise, as in cleaning. ugh.)...still the foul smell.

forward to bedtime, oh 8 hours later. serious foul smell going on. the girls overheard wes & i talking about it, wondering...then amelia pipes up: i DID dump my poopy in the toilet. see? 

& then points to the base of the little potty, where 2 fairly large hunks of poo lay resting.

me: gag relfex

wes: serious gag reflex

addy: AMELIA! that's not the toilet you dump your poop in, it's the BIG toilet!

amelia: (totally serious face) i didn't know! (hands over her nose)

i think we need to be a bit more clear when giving instructions to our 3 year old.

& not to forget the pull up situation: we told amelia that once we're out of pull ups, we're not buying her anymore. last night, the pull up bin in the bathroom was empty...she fretted & threw a fit but wes & i reminded her that we warned her this day would come soon.

suddenly, the fit ended & she told me she would like to get her pajamas on now & left the bathroom. i joked with addy that i bet amelia would come back with a pull up on, somehow.

sure enough, a few minutes later, amelia joyfully bounds into the bathroom with a pull up. i think she has a stash of them somewhere...maybe from all the ones she's put on her dolls. or maybe ones she's taken off in the morning that are dry (uh, yuck to re-wear?). at any rate, this girl is totally a few steps ahead of her parents.

***

mom failure story

yesterday, i was tired (i'm trying to go down on my sleeping pills. the first few nights were okay. the past few have been horrible. i don't function well on 6 fractured hours of sleep). so yes, i was tired but the girls wanted to make rice krispie treats.

i turn to get a bowl & step on binoculars. i ask addy to get them out of the kitchen & she complies.

putting the bowl in the microwave to melt the marshmallows took a minute. i turned around & immediately bump into the bar stool, with a doll propped up by a small metal bucket. everything crashes loudly to the floor. i flinch, my tinnitus screeching, headache increasing, muscles cramping. but adeline moves the bar stool & takes the bucket away. 

as i stir the marshmallows, the nannied boy comes into the kitchen & throws the bucket--which now held some matchbox cars--on the floor. i wince again, but explain to him that the bucket & toys should be in the other room. he nods & runs into the next room with the cars in his hand. i put the bucket up on the counter, away from little hands. i say yet again to the girls that toys are not allowed in the kitchen right now, okay?

suddenly, they are both up on the counter somehow, sitting criss-cross-applesauce (as they like to say, from preschool) & i ask them to get their feet off the counter...as they do amelia somehow knocks the bucket onto the floor, again.

i sigh & take the bucket into the other room. by the time i come back, addy had propped up her doll on the counter, totally disobeying. i ask her to get the doll off the counter. (remember this was the doll found in the asparagus patch, the doll that lays on the floor of various rooms & places of business, of playgrounds--it's sorta like putting a purse on your plate. to me, not okay).

addy starts to argue that her doll is real & not a toy. i tell her to get her doll off the counter, she continues to push her side, that the doll is real. amelia starts putting her hands into the bowl, trying to grab hunks of hot marshmallows, hurting her hand. i help amelia wipe off the hot marshmallow & tell addy again that the doll must go.

after i get amelia's hand clean & cool i turn to see addy putting the doll between her legs that are dangling off the counter. i lose my cool, completely unhinged. 

i grab the doll & throw it into the den, saying in a steely low voice that toys are not in the kitchen right now.

*sigh*

of course, adeline begins sobbing & jumps off the counter to hold her doll & amelia shouts out: mommy hurt emma on the head! mommy threw emma!

ugh. somehow, within a few minutes, i had calmed addy down, quieted amelia, apologized for acting like a crazed mommy & explained to addy that her doll wasn't truly hurt.

i'm sure this will be the memory addy has of me in 20 years, right?