Potty Training – The beginning stage

One of the goals we set as a family for 2008 is to potty train Coconut a.k.a. Secondo. She’s 2.5 years old now and that was the age we started potty training Danielle. Back in 2002, as a first time mom, I didn’t know how to go about it and the suggestion that I liked best back then was to going from diaper to underwear. Pull ups are great but the child don’t feel any wetness so the process takes longer. Danielle got the hang of it within 2-3 weeks with major support of her pre-school teachers. I remember packing 5 sets of clothes for school in anticipation of many accidents and on the 1st day, I called and checked in on her during the day and the teacher told me that she was doing well. When I picked her up that afternoon, I found out that she did not pee all day when the teachers sat her on the potty. Before I picked her up, she had a big river type accident.
We are not as brave 2nd time around by going direct from diaper to underwear for the following reasons
1. Coconut’s care taker isn’t fully on board with my proposal
2. Coconut’s personality is very different than Danielle so the time it takes her to get the hang of it may be longer
3. It was stressful when we had so many accidents (#1 & 2) that I’m traumatized and don’t want to go there again
With Coconut, she had her first success this pass Sunday. She told me that she pooped so I checked her diaper and it was clean so I sat her on the potty and she took a dump on her little potty. We cheered, celebrated by giving her a candy & sticker. I said “ I’m so proud of you Coconut” She said “I’m so proud of you mama!” I also gave candy to Danielle and she said “ Why are you giving me candy? I didn’t poo in the potty?” I said “ You’ve been helping Coconut potty training so you deserve a candy too.” She seemed happy and proud and she has been prompting her sister to go potty every since.
This week, coconut has peed in the potty when we asked her to do so at home but still goes in the diaper at the sitter.

Happy New Year!

This picture was taken in October of 2007 at a beautiful wedding of one of my 2nd cousin's wedding down in Laguna Beach. They were a young religious couple who have bright and promising future ahead of them. I felt like posting something pretty on the blog while I home.
We spent New Year's Eve with our local neighbors/ friends. Our Thai neighbor wanted Chinese Food and requested ma-po tofu. I made it for the first time and it turned out OK. It could be a little spicier. I also made Vietnamese papaya salad with beef jerky, My neighbor made Egg foo -young and garlic shrimp. It took him a while to make the Egg foo-young because he was anal about the shape of the omelet. It had to be perfectly circular so he used miniature cheesecake pan to bake the omelet individually and then brown them on the pan. I'm not a big fan of Egg foo-young if there's no real crab meat in it so it seemed like a lot of wasted time and effort for a dish that is simple and quick. Garlic shrimp was not that tasty. May be they forgot an ingredient. After we ate dinner, we headed over to our other neighbor E&K's house to spread more cheers. There were a total of 8 kids in that house when we got there and they were having a blast having a dance party. Secondo (who from now on will be known as coconut) joined in with the older kids and had a great time. Later on, we went back to Thai neighbor's house and played poker while we waited for the count down. Danielle was playing Lego Star wars and Coconut was falling asleep. Others were drinking wine and I was drinking coffee to stay awake. After the count down, we all went home, I put the kids to sleep and I wasn't able to sleep until 2 AM.
During my time off, I played dance dance revolution (Xmas present from Bullseye. Thanks Bro!) with Danielle, read "Time Traveler's Wife" which I loved and visited friends that I have not seen for a long while. My friends P&G came over and I made Pad Kee Mow Noodles, Thai Green Curry and also Tom Yum Kung. Our traditional way of spending Xmas were to go out for Thai food. In 2007, I was able to cook all my favorite dishes and they said they were tasty.
We went to the Grove by Beverly Hills to see my friend A and her dog Cooper who is super cute.
From this picture, can you tell that Danielle was in love with the dog. We learned from my friend that having a dog is as much work as a child. Shots, hair cuts, check ups and etc.. etc.. I don't think we'll have a dog until Danielle is on her own. She's working on a dog painting at the moment so when it's done, I'll post her artwork on the blog. We ate at the farmer's market food court and the food was average and pricey. Next time I'm going to eat at the restaurant across from the American Girl store.
I went back to see my old dentist, Dr Chu and he still remembered me and Dad after not seeing him for over 10 years. He said that Dad helped him once at the airport and he really appreciated. From the check up, he found 2 cavities under 2 of my resin fillings and I was really shocked. One filling is at least 10 years old so I wonder when the cavity started to form? He was able to drill out the cavities with out any shots. He also has this green indicator that will turn the dentin green if there's still decay on the area. This is a great tool because they usually drilled away the brown decay and stopped in the beige area of the tooth. I have to go back again to take care of some other issues I can't ignore anymore. I'm so glad I found Dr. Chu again because he's a good ethical Dentist
Today is monumental milestone because Coconut actually pooped in the potty! We've read "Everyone poops" many many times and she finally did it. We praised her, I gave her some nerds candy as reward. Hopefully she'll do it again tomorrow. I got to let the sitter give her some candy for reward if she poops in the potty.
I did workout during the holidays but it must not be hard enough because today I'm really sore. Both my legs hurts when I go up and down stairs. My new year resolutions for 2008 are

1. Walk 30 minutes a day for 3 days a week
   
2. Lower body fat by 5% via healthy eating
   
3. Continue reading

Danielle's new year resolutions are

1. Play more brain age 2
2. Paint more pictures
3. Take care of her hamster more