21 Months: Ears, Mouth, and a Hiney

Today she is 21 months old!

While her outie belly button is adorable, her curls get cuter by the day, and her "CHEESE!" grin is oh-so-cute, this month has centered on her EARS, MOUTH, and HINEY.

EARS
- Weekend ear pain had me taking off work and taking her to the doctor on a Monday morning only to find out she had two ruptured ear drums :(  This was only Cora's third ear infection (Jack had had at least ten by this age), but was our first experience with a rupture.  We were prescribed antibiotic ear drops and Amoxicillin, but she never seemed fully better so I wasn't surprised to find out that she still had an infection at her 10-day check-up.  After bumping up to Omnicef, she was clear as of last week.  Fingers crossed her ears won't cause us the same drama as Jack's.  His ear tubes just fell out and he immediately got an ear infection :(

MOUTH

Our mute child has really started talking!  She has had a decent vocabulary for a while, but she showed a definite preference for NOT talking.  She wouldn't play the "say..." game and she would generally gesture or make faces rather than say words she knew.  But this past month, she's started babbling, stringing her words together, and adding in lots of new words. 

Our favorite Cora speak:

•  "wow-wee" for flower
• "a-yi-yi" for I love you
• "a-yeyow" for another (she says this one any time she sees more than one of something, so a lot!)  Jack used to say "nummy"
• "pee-pee-poppee" for pee in the potty (see below!)

 We get a kick out of how she calls herself "baby."  When looking at a family photo, she points out "mama," "dada," "dja" and "baby."  If we ask where Cora is she always points to herself, but when we ask her what her name is, she says "baby."  To which we say, "no your name is Cora - C,C,C-ora"  Tonight, for the first time when we asked her what her name was she said "Tuh-tuh-tuh" :)  She can't make the C sound yet, but it showed she wanted to giver her real name a try.

She loves her Jack-Jack!

HINEY

We brought out the potty at 19 months because we noticed Cora was really aware of our routines and thought she might be interested in trying the potty.  She wasn't.  She only occasionally, by chance, peed on it.  But midway through this month, things clicked and now she pees nearly every time we sit her on the potty and she's pooped several times!

Our experience with potty-training Jack was a long 12 month journey that I was DETERMINED to complete before Cora was born.  We hadn't really been trying with Cora, so to have her all of the sudden peeing and pooping was a very pleasant surprise.

BUT!

Potty training is a double edged sword because it requires a lot of effort from the parent.  We weren't planning to make any effort yet with Cora and now are trying to determine exactly how much energy to invest.  Mardi Gras week was the perfect week to try things out because I had more time off and we were home.

I see POTTY TRAINING as a multi-step process.  I love that we've already gotten started and would love to pack up the diapers, but I expect this will take some time.  I just hope it will be 3 or 4 months rather than the YEAR it was with Jack!

Cora showing off her big girl undies!

The Potty Training Process (as I see it):

1. Child knows how to make themselves pee.  CHECK
2. Child can pee both on a little potty AND a big one (because let's be honest, it's not that convenient when your child can only go on a special-only-in-one-room-of-your-house-container-that-must-be-dumped).  CHECK
3. Child can tell you when they need to pee rather than you suggesting it.  This has happened several times - yeah!
4. Child is invested enough in peeing in the potty that they don't make it into a will power battle at every sitting. We don't push it when she's just woken up and grumpy and any other time she's not in the mood.  She's on board with "pee-pee-poppee" about 80% of the time.
5. Child is comfortable enough peeing in the potty that they would do it for others (i.e. at school).  We're not going to push this yet.  We'll give it another week or so and see if we're still making progress before we mention it at school.  Cora's only there two days and we found with Jack that his teachers weren't invested until they felt he was really all about the process. 
   Cora has peed for her baby sitter.
6. Child CAN poop in the potty.  I have to put this on the list because this was a big obstacle for Jack.  It freaked him out and he resisted for months even while he was easily able to pee in the potty. Cora has nonchalantly pooped several times in her potty.  I was so excited I took a picture and sent it to my mom :)
7. Child can tell you when they need to poop.  Not yet
8. Child sends themselves to the bathroom consistently (i.e. you are no longer prompting them throughout the day to safeguard against accidents.) I see this as a ways off

I hope the next month brings more forward progress!  I have to say that it's actually fun to have the whole family (daddy, mommy, and Jack) jumping and cheering every time we have pee-pee action.  It keeps the joy factor up in our house!