binky and potty update

With all the binky talk on a few of my family and friends blogs, I figured I would give a binky update.

Hailey is binky free except for when she is sleeping! I am one who doesn't mind binkies at bedtime, but when it was the constant companion of a 2 1/2 year old I felt enough was enough. If you remember awhile ago I tried cutting them down and it worked for a short period, but I always kept one that wasn't "broken" around and so the broken ones became forgotten and the unbroken one always found :-) It seemed after I gave up on this approach her binky obsession because worse. I hit a wall around christmas when we were out and she had a temper tantrum at in the mall because she wanted binky and banky. Granted she was tired, but my personal feeling is at this age she didn't need to be walking around the mall with them.

So our new approach was to put a shadow box above her bed and that is binky's new home. During the day they stay in there only to come out when she is tucked in bed. I didn't know how this would go over, but within a week binky and banky didn't exist outside of bed. This is a HUGE milestone for her. Just last month we couldn't go in the car or leave the house without binky or we would pay HUGE consequences. Now she doesn't even ask for them.

On the potty front, slow and steady wins the race. There is ALOT of potty talk going on in our house and she prefers to walk around in "undies" when she is home - thank God for the absorbent ones! She has gone a few times in the potty, but only at my mom's house. Go figure! She even requests to sit on the big potty now and will sit and read books for 5 minutes or so. Haven't we trained her well! Ha, ha! Right now she seems to ask to sit on the potty right after she has already went which means she is aware, but its too late. I am not pushing anything, but kind of letting her guide us. The pictures of her on the toilet in her towel are priceless. For the past few nights at the end of her bath she looks up at me and requests to sit on the "big" potty. I had to get a few pix, she will look back and yell at me for this someday :-)

Lastly, I have just been thinking of something lately. Do you ever wonder what your kids remember from when they were born till now? I know it sounds crazy and at my age I don't remember anything from that young so you think they don't ... I beg to differ. Ever since Hailey was little when she sees pictures of herself in the NICU or watches her one year video montage she gets all sad, clingy and whiny. Especially when she watches the video montage. We haven't watched it in awhile and yesterday at my mom's house she pulled it out and asked to watch "Hailey video". My mom said she kept saying over and over as she was watching it - "baby, boo-boo Nana" and I know she realizes that baby is her because she says, baby Hailey. Does she cringe because of the pictures or is there something still in her sub-conscious mind where she remembers a little of the pain she went through?! I guess we will never know for sure, but I bet it is a little of both and that makes me sad for my little baby. Sometimes I feel guilt for her early birth and repeat over and over how I could have prevented it. Then I think of how blessed we are that she has no lasting issues beside reflux and I realize what a GREAT blessing came out of that bad situation.

And to end a couple cute pix from the other night at Meme and Papa's house.