Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Have We Found Our Baby Name?

Now that Reagan is going to be a big sister, we've been trying to include her in the pregnancy and birth in little ways. Recently, we've been asking her what we should name her baby sister. Her responses have ranged from "Snow White" and "Belle" to gibberish that we can't understand.

This past week, we asked Reagan again what we should name baby sister. Her response: "Kellie Pickler." Now, unless you're American Idol devotees like we are (well, mainly Reagan is), you may not know that Kellie Pickler is the very country-fied blonde contestant who always seems confused about something Simon Cowell has to say to her. She certainly has a likability factor and a charming accent, but she's not exactly the most brilliant young woman on the show.

Nevertheless, Reagan is sticking to her "Kellie Pickler" name choice. Mama and Daddy aren't on board just yet.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

More Potty Talk

I realize potty training is a subject that I've revisited several times on this blog, but we have a new development that I thought was worth mentioning: Reagan is finally pooping in the potty!

She has been consistently peeing in the potty with very few accidents since my last entry. We still put pull-ups on her for sleeping, and sometimes when we leave the house for errands and such. And until several days ago, Reagan would wait until one of those opertune pull-up times to do her business. In fact, she would even ask for a pull-up. That's when I realized we had a problem. She was intentionally avoiding pooping in the potty.

I'd like to say that I came up with some great motivator. The fact is, even after bribery, she resisted. Our luck came in the form of constipation. We had been in Indiana visiting my parents for a long weekend, and Reagan had gone four days without pooping. She still didn't go on our first night home. The next day, knowing it was bound to happen, I decided to forego the pull-up for her nap and deal with the consequences--hoping she would not go in her panties.

By late afternoon, she still hadn't gone. I guess by evening her prune juice finally kicked in, and she was able to go in the potty with me cheering her on. It wasn't pretty. She was upset and her tummy hurt (constipation doesn't make for the most comfortable bowel movements). But when she got immediate praise--and a treat and a prize from her reward bag--she felt much better about the situation.

Three days and four prizes later, she is consistently going "shoo shoo" in the potty. And she says, "I so proud!" Don't know how long we'll have to keep up with the bribery, but I'm not ready to cut her off until the whole system is well-established. For now, I'm just happy not to be changing any more stinky diapers.