Conferences, Teeth, & Poop

I know, that's an odd combination of words. But that what my week has been about. Yesterday we had parent-teacher conferences for Paris & Tripp. Easy was able to go to both of them with me - what a blessing! I know that Tripp's teacher in particular was very pleased to get to meet him. I'll try to post over on Monkey Dance about T's stuff so I'll skip it here.

Paris' teacher confirmed what we expected to hear. She's doing very well in school and aside from the periodic need to refocus her attention on her work, Mrs. Ball finds her to be a very pleasant student. What that means for us is simple - she saves all the whining, foolishness, and drama for home. We had a feeling that was the case, but it is now confirmed. At home she seizes up in a crying fit if she can't sound out a word, or shakes her fists at her paper when she has to erase a mistake. She's known to say things like,"I'm no good at writing words" or "I'm not smart enough to..." Baloney. 100% baloney and all saved for the two, well three since she does it to Graggie too, people who love her more than anyone else in the world. I undertand where it comes from - with the Tripp dynamics in the house and all, but it doesn't make it any easier to handle. I mean seriously, what do you do when she creates and entire fit complete with tears and shaking over a word in her reader? or having to erase a B that is backwords? So, I figured since she does so well at school we'll just make homeowrk and reading time more like school. Tonight I made her sit at the breakfast table after the littles went to bed to read her book from school. She did fantastic! Who knows, maybe the structure helps......

Since I'm talking about the Goose I need to report that unlike the whining baby she pretends to be at home, she is quite the big girl! Today at school she pulled a tooth all by herself! Now, in order for you to understand how AMAZING that is you need to know that the last 2 teeth that came out I had to pull. Both of them took about 45 minutes of prayer, and talking, and bribing, and threatening, and phone calls to Graggie. The drama around homeowork is nothing compared to the drama she dishes up over me pulling a tooth. Needless to say I was quite surprised when she came home today and showed me that she had pulled her own tooth at school! They gave her this neat little tooth shaped carrying box on a pink string so she wouldn't loose it. My big girl! Do you think I could convince her to pull all of them at school? By the way, this is the fourth one she's lost and they are all four right in the front. She now has an enormous empty spot dead center, top & botom. It is so cute!!!!

And now for the poop. My sweet little cherub is still refusing to put it in the potty. She has, however, decided that she doesn't want it on her. Result? She poops in her panties or pull-up and then strips. I've had to clean poop out of carpet. One day she stripped and then squatted in her closet and went right on the floor in there. Today she went in her pull-up at school and then proceded to strip. I think they caught it before any hit the floor. And then the best came this afternoon. I hear Paris yell,"Mom! Vivie's got poop!" I look up to see my sweet, beautiful, baby girl walking naked out of Tripp's room with a wad of poop in her hand. Nice. I took her to the bathroom where she promptly threw it in the potty. I took actions that made it very clear that playing with poop is unacceptable and plopped her on the toilet so I could go find the rest of her mess. Turns out, there was no rest. While she sat crying on the potty (apparently the action I took made and impression) she put the rest of her business right where it goes. What I still can't figure out is how there was no poop on the carpet. I mean, did she catch it or what? So I went from mean mommy taking disciplinary action to happy proud mommy handing her candy in under 5 minutes. I know I've asked before, but please - PLEASE, pray that this doesn't last too long. I can't have her stripping with poopy pants in public places. This simply won't do. Oh, and did I mention that she has a nice heat rash across her lower back from her pull-up rubbing when she runs around all day? What's the solution? Poop in the potty Viv, then you won't have to wear a pull-up. Did I mention I HATE POTTY TRAINING??!?!?!!

A Nemo Moment

This weekend Paris decided to watch Finding Nemo. She's been watching this moving since she was tiny so we thought nothing of it. I little while later we hear squeals of laughter and our precious daughter repeating over and over "Nemo touched the butt!" We couldn't help but laugh. It took her 6 year sof life to discover that "Nemo touched the butt" (which is actually a boat in case you haven't seen the film) was funny. I'm going to go with peer influence in making a previously innocuous (sp?) statement the joke of the century.

I have to also say that this is one area we've done pretty good with as parents. We have a "no buts" rule in our house. Your "butt" is to be referred to with other terms like hiney, caboose, rear end, bottom, and on rare crass occasions - booty. And if a child in our house ever begins a response with "But...." - well, that's a straight to the corner offense. The rule is simple - No Buts.

Sadly the "no whining" rule has not been as effective.