Potty conversations

We are still working on the potty training. I know that she is ready, but she doesn't want to. I think she is just stubborn. Sigh.... We just keep working on it.

I know she is ready because we have days that are very promising, like yesterday. She went potty at school, at daycare, and at home before bath time. Because of that she got a big prize:



Aren't they adorable, I love them and want them for myself!!!

Then today, she did not go pee in the potty simply because she didn't really want to.

Mama Bear: Did you go potty at school?
Baby Bear: I don't go potty at school?
Mama Bear: Why not?
Baby Bear: I no go. sorry. I don't' want to.

A conversation during bath time:

Baby Bear: I go pee.
Mama Bear: oh no, you go pee in your bath?
Baby Bear: (smiles) next time I go potty in the potty. Sorry. Next time. I promise.

Thankfully, it was the end of the bath and so I just took her out. As a friend told me, at least she didn't go poop in the bath.

I guess when she really wants to go she will go. Hopefully I can convince her to go pee in the potty more regularly. She is definitely capable, she just needs to actually want to do it.

Conversations with Baby Bear

I am constantly amazed by the things that come out of Baby Bear's mouth. Fortunately, no swear words have come out of her mouth (yet). We have some of the most interesting conversations. I love having conversations with her, she talks so articulately and she has so much to say. Every day she surprises me with how much she knows already. She is so verbal.

The other day, I picked her up from grandma's house. So on the way home we had this conversation:

Mama Bear: Did you take a nap at grandma's house today?
Baby Bear: no. I don't nap at grandma's
Mama Bear: Why not?
Baby Bear: I had too much playing to do.

How can you argue with that reasoning? She is just so cute.

Baby Bear love birthdays and is learning about months.

Baby Bear: My birthday is in June!
Mama Bear: Yes it is.
Baby Bear: When's your birthday.
Mama Bear: My birthday in February (yay!).
Baby Bear: Daddy's birthday is in March.

She is just so smart, she remembers the month her birthday is in. What amazes me most is that she remembers the month of daddy's birthday. She keeps asking about mine over and over again, but I think that might be because February is harder to say (and spell). But then again, if I ask her she knows what my birthday month is. I think she just likes to ask.

The other night on the way home from dinner, out of no where.

Baby Bear: Bamboo!!
Mama Bear: Bamboo?
Baby Bear: Panda's like to eat bamboo
Mama Bear: yes, they do.
Baby Bear: Bamboo!!!

I have no idea where that came from. I guess she really wanted to say the word bamboo. I know that we watched The Wonder Pets before bedtime stories and one episode had a panda stuck in a bamboo tree. She must have been thinking about that and wanted to talk about bamboo. She is just so funny sometimes.

Sometimes, she just has a lot to say. Gotta love that girl.

Little Miss Manners

Baby Bear had some manners! We have been teaching her to say "thank you" and "please." We know it would probably take some time so might as well start early. Yesterday, she started saying "thank you." She may not know exactly when to say it, but that is a start.

Baby Bear is a big talker. She has so many words and many signs. It is great that she is better able to communicate. Sometimes she says "no" when don't want her too, but at least she is communicating. She often understands when I ask her simple questions, it really helps to find out what she wants. So far her running list of words:

• mama (although I have been called dada)
  
• dada (and Papa Bear has been called mama)
  
• papa (for Grandpa Bear)
• no
  
• nana (for banana, although she says it other times and I am not sure what she means yet)
• milk
• eat
• more
  
• stop
• thank you
• what's that
• bye
• hi
• baby
  
• chasss (for Chase Monster Cat)
• jack (for Jack the dog - Grandma Bear's dog)

In addition, she knows quite a few signs:

• more
• milk
• eat
• sleep
• baby (she actually does a modified version that she made up on her own. For weeks, we were wondering what she was doing with her hands, until finally she verbally put the word with it)
• all done
• bath
  

First Sign Language word

I had been trying to learn a few signs to teach Baby Bear. I started with the signs for "eat," "more," and "all done" to teach her. I haven't been very great at being consistent, but I would use those signs during meal times. In spoken words, Baby Bear has about 6 words in her vocabulary: mama, dada, hi, papa (Grandpa), chassss (Chase Monster cat), and nana (banana). Baby Bear also will babble many sounds to us while playing or while she is sitting down with a book. It really is so cute, she will sit down and read out loud to herself.

Today Papa Bear and I were talking about language development and when she would start "really" talking. I recall from my developmental psychology classes and books that 18-24 months is the language explosion and children begin to speak in one-word sentences. He was excited to hear what she has to say. I was telling him that children will learn to communicate with sign language a little earlier. He wasn't too convinced of that and told me that I had been signing to her for months and she hasn't done it yet. I told him that she can sign "more" and he was doubtful that it was a deliberate sign for communication. We later went out for dinner and Baby Bear was eating a french fry, she signed "more" to indicate she wanted more and she did it consistently throughout the dinner. Papa Bear then retracted his comments from earlier today.

I am so glad that Baby Bear proved her daddy wrong and that she showed him that she could sign and communicate in a non-verbal way. Gotta love my baby girl, she is just so smart!!