Wait, What? Huh? It plays music!

       As I've posted previously one of my main fears with parenting is screwing up. I have studied psychology and child development both prior to thinking about conceiving.  I've also been reading just about everything you can find about parenting toddlers. I know you're not supposed to compare children's development directly to others, and there's no set moment they should just magically develop a skill. The past 2 weeks (sorry I didn't post last weekend we were busy playing). Ducky has helped remind me of this.

See it really is a throne!

        I was off last week for vacation (I think I worked more cleaning and organizing and chasing Ducky than I do at my actual job) so we spent the week working on potty training. To this point Ducky has just assumed that funny plastic chair was just a fun seat/climbing toy. I would sit her down and read her a book, watch tv, play blocks all while sitting on the chair but after 5 minutes with no activity we would abandon the throne (and I would chase after a pant less lightening bolt). She finally actually used it last Monday and I think it was a toss up as to which of us was more excited and surprised by the music issuing forth from the throne! After that she will go once or twice a day so we still have a lot of work to go but we're slowly getting there. I was worried that we were going to have a really hard time getting her potty trained or I was going to make her hate/fear the potty chair. She reminded me just to have patience and while all my friends are posting about how their children are fully potty trained that she'll get there eventually.

       The other way she has reminded me to have patience is with her speech development. I've been worried because other than Momma and Dadda she hadn't mastered many other words than MINE, yeah, and why (I really wish she hadn't learned this one). The only sentences she would use were "I did it!" (normally as she is destroying something) and "No I do it!" (normally when trying to brush her hair/teeth so she really can't). But last week it was like the flood gates opened and actual words poured forth (and wouldn't stop). Her vocabulary has at least tripled and she's using actual sentences now (very short sentences that you can only understand half of but they still count!). She's now fascinated with learning new words by sounding them out, we still have some trouble with frustration when I can't figure out what she wants/needs but we are doing much better now.

         She has given me a new fear this week though. I believe my little bundle of terror has learned/inherited Mommy's obsessive compulsive disorder. So far she has rearranged her bath time supplies by color, her books, tomatoes by size, her blocks by color, and her toys sitting order. Today when we were putting groceries away she was handing me everything and gave me all of one thing before grabbing another even when they were in a different bag and there were still things in the first bag. She then helped me reorganize the fridge. So one fear alleviated and another one initiated. Unfortunately this is how I believe parenting will always be.