Surviving the first week of school

Surviving the first week was met with relatively little pain. The 6:15 wake-up time is rough, I'll admit. It's just cruel to rouse my Sleeping Beauty when she clearly needs the sleep.

Joe has been gone for this week at a conference, so on Wednesday night, I had to bring both kids to Mutual for the Young Women. It's basically youth group, except just for the girls ages 12-18. It starts at 7 and goes to 8:30. Since the kids' bedtime is 7, it was an evening of me chasing them down the halls of the church.

The next morning, I decided to let Dottie sleep in until 6:30 since she was so tired. I got everything ready for her to go, and simply slipped her clothes on her and gave her a bag of cereal (I still don't trust her with eating cereal and milk - it usually ends up all over the floor). We made it; we were ready with time to spare.

However, I neglected to have Dottie use the bathroom before heading out. As we were waiting for the bus, she started to do a dance. I sent her in the house (the bus stop is right outside of our house), and told her I'd tell the bus driver to wait if she was still inside. She ran in, and just as she was approaching the door, the bus came. Dottie started screaming hysterically. She still went potty, but left her book bag and cereal inside. She was still screaming when she came out. I got the bus driver to wait, and quickly ran in and grabbed her book bag and cereal. She was still pretty upset when she got on the bus, and I worried it would ruin her day.

When she came home, she was fortunately in good spirits. She still mentioned the bus that morning, and I reassured her that if she missed the bus, I would take her to school. So, the next morning, Dottie tells me that she would prefer if I took her everyday, instead of her riding the bus. Being the non-lenient parent that I am, I let her know that I would only take her if she missed the bus.

So, yesterday morning, I could see her anxiety levels building as the bus approached. I knew she was in fight-or-flight mode. So, when the bus driver opened the doors, she cut all of the other kids waiting in line and got on first. She must have thought she had a 2-second window to make it. Or something.

But that's really the most drama we've had all week. She's happy, although tired. That didn't prevent her from still waking up at 6:15 on a Saturday. I'm already ready for it to be summer ...

While Dottie's been gone, Elliot and I have been mastering the art of potty training. As you may remember, it's been a long road. I think we started maybe in February? But we've had so many trip interruptions, this is the first opportunity I've had to be consistent about it. We're using the same method that I did with Dottie: lots of sugar-free koolaid, and gummy caterpillar rewards.

As you can see from the picture, he's a self-starter. I'm glad in my pregnant state I don't need to be lifting him off and on, off and on. He climbs like a little monkey on to the potty, like so. I tried to get as tasteful a picture as possible, but I thought my mom especially would enjoy how he climbs up there. Yes, we do potty training "in the nude." Not me, just him.