Potty training is going very well!!! Emma Kate woke up yesterday morning dry, and proceeded to keep herself clean and dry all day long! It was a bit of a crazy night, with an accident around 11pm, and then she woke up at 5:30am saying she needed to peepee- she got to the potty and did actually pee, but then I realized her panties were already wet... I think she's figuring it out though- she has been dry all day long today as well! She has perfected the art of the "stall" technique now though, and it is nearly impossible to get her to go down for a nap or bedtime- she constantly says she needs to go potty as soon as she is laid down, and then it is usually a practice run, or she manages to get out a tiny bit of pee which then sets in motion all the resulting actions of cleaning up, praising her, and doing her rewards. It's quite the conundrum, since I don't want to discourage her from going to the potty if she needs to go, but somehow I need to make it clear that when it's time to sleep it is no longer time to "practice" going potty... without making her think I'm saying not to go potty!! Luckily she slept this morning in the car for an early nap while we were orchestrating dropping the Volvo off in town, beacuse I could NOT get her to stay in her bed this afternoon for her nap! I finally had to get her dressed and out of the house and get something else for her to focus on besides the potty!!!! Tonight she was pulling the same stunts as prior nights, but luckily tonight it only lasted an hour before I was able to convince her that she was all done going potty for the moment and it was time to go to sleep. I still had to stay with her until she was asleep (I tried getting up about 4 times), otherwise she would be up and in the bathroom again. I still can't for the life of me tell if she is peeing a tiny amount and cutting off the stream so she can go again later, or if she's emptying her bladder and then future attempts are just waiting for a little urine to accumulate so that she can get her rewards... she's a crafty little one! :) By the way, this is all more for my benefit of documenting the process for future reference, not that I think anyone else reading the blog really has all that much interest in the details of Emma Kate's pottying!! :) She's doing great though, I am thrilled to be where we are in the process in about a week's time! And she is so proud of her dry panties and going in the potty- the grin on her face says it all!!!

As for the little Gretta baby, she is doing really well too- she is getting so strong standing and will often times stand holding onto something with one hand stretched out. She did get a knee up on the bottom stair just this evening, so hopefully that doesn't mean we're going to be stair climbing already... We've been offering her food at our meals and she seems really interested in regular food- she was NOT into cereal mixed in breastmilk at all, and that is putting it lightly. A lot of foods have been offered in the mesh feeding bag, like grapes, blueberries, apple, melons, raspberries, etc, and she has started eating mashed up avocado really well too. Tonight was her first night trying sweet potato and she LOVED it! I was surprised at how much she ate, and she got it ALL over herself! We had a quick bath and then off to bed while Emma Kate was still in the tub- luckily Greg is home tonight and could help keep Emma Kate occupied while I got Gretta down- it is inevitable that when Gretta is just freshly asleep and I'm almost ready to move her into her crib, Emma Kate does something in the potty and I have to respond! Poor little Gretta has been cheated out of many a nap and decent bedtime because of potty success in the last week!!! I never would have imagined that potty training would upset our nice, well-established routine so much for both girls... I guess you never know how one child will handle it! I'm trying to be sure to always remind myself of how well Emma Kate is doing with it all and try to take the rest in stride- hopefully once this is all old hat things will settle back down again for both of them...