Modeling behavior & a few insights

- We had another CC gathering on Wednesday which was really nice.

- Dd has started using her potty on her own now. She was naked one morning, and suddenly told me "pee pee", got up, went to the bathroom, sat down on her potty and peed into it.
This is pretty much how I modeled it to her. I say "Oh, I have to pee", go to the bathroom and use the toilet.
I have little attachment to when exactly she goes without diapers all the time. I feel neither like pushing nor delaying this. I assume she will use the potty more and more often with time.

- Reminded myself of something that Alexsandra Burt shared with me: Don't try to make the child happy - try to meet the child's needs in the best way you can.
I find it important that other people are not too attached to my happiness. In fact, someone you can share deep sadness with is very valuable! It's nice to be allowed to feel not-so-great sometimes, without anyone trying to fix it.

- Forgot to mention that dd did cut herself a while ago. She was eating sweet corn from a can and must have cut herself with the lid. She still hasn't cut herself with a knife, even though she sometimes uses one as a spoon. It's quite hard for me to watch sometimes but she seems to be ok.

- One day hubby and I were talking with each other and dd started to wander around. She came accross a fluff ball in the corner of our bedroom. She went to the kitchen, got herself a hand broom, came back and cleaned it up. I am more and more convinced of simply modeling how things are done in our culture. We said "oh, thank you", but otherwise did not make it a big deal to preserve her inner motivation - I want to avoid making dd dependent on our praise. 

- Oftentimes giving dd a few seconds to do something makes a major difference. I often remind myself to take things slow and not just rush through everything.

- Not really CC related, but: Dd is totally into blueberries at the moment. Blueberries make for blue poop - I feel like I am diapering a smurf!

Trusting the child's abilities

A few pics of dd's little adventures at home - these were a few times I had the time to get my camera ready.

She often amazes me with the oddest positions, and (almost) always without hurting herself.

climbing up a ladder, 18 months old

Still, I have no idea how she managed to stand on the edge of her potty for so long, or sit on the edge of a wooden box, without falling. From every angle it looked physically impossible to me, but hey. The worst thing that could have happened was falling, so I just let her experiment. She was fine the whole time though and seemed to enjoy herself.

balancing on the edge of her potty at 17 months

Sitting on a wooden box, 13 months old

Starting to use the potty

Dd has started to use the potty a few days ago.

She has been interested for quite a while now in what I do in the bathroom. Now she follows me to the toilet, takes a piece of toilet paper, and sits down on her potty. I normally help her with her clothes and her diaper. Often times she just sits there, and when I get up from the toilet, she gets up from her potty, too, and says "empty". But she has also used it quite a bit as an actual potty.

I tried not to get the super-excited-wow-you-did-it-proud-mommy-look on my face, but I'm not sure if that worked. It want using the potty to be something normal and not scare her off of it by an intense reaction. But secretly I think it's great - it's one more thing she can do by herself, and it means less diapers.

This approached has worked best for us so far, me doing things the way I do them, dd observing me, and then starting to imitate me when she's ready.