Chair Progress

I am attempting to sew a chair for Angela. As is normal for me, this has been a long term project. I bought the pattern approximately one year ago. I purchased the material three months ago. I cut out the pattern two months ago and cut out the fabric last month.

I must make the cushions inserts in addition to the chair itself. At the beginning of September, I assembled the arm cushions. Last night I worked on the base cushion. I hope to finish it before Angie is four.

Angie is fascinated by the sewing process. She wanted to help me cut the fabric, but she was satisfied by playing with the scraps instead. On the two nights during which I have used the sewing machine, she was enthralled by the machine. She inherits that from both sides of the family.

She tries to push the reverse button as I sew. Thank goodness she can't fully depress the button or else all the seams would be heavily reinforced in random spots. She also tries to turn the wheel that I use to make bobbins. She did help me stuff the arm cushions--of course, a lot of stuffing was used to hide one of her "Koala Brothers," but most of it did eventually go into the cushions.

Last night she started making sewing machine noises. As I sewed, she looks at me with a big smile on her face and said, "ZZZZZSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. ZZZSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHH." She also tried to climb on my back as I sewed, but I eventually convinced her to climb down and read to me.

She has had no interest in cross stitch, or in playing with her sewing cards, but she loves to watch me sew.

Literacy

Tonight at Gymboree Music, Angie arranged two bells just so. Then she turned to me and said, "Look Mommy. A 'T!'"

I looked and it was most definitely a t. And it hit me that she has been doing that quite often lately: arranging objects to form letters.

While with Grandma in Zanesville, Angie turned to my Mom and said, "Grandma, I'm going to draw a triangle. I'm going to draw an oval." Mom showed me the drawings later. Angie had, without assistance, drawn a rough triangle and a slightly bumpy oval. Actually, her oval was almost as good as the ovals I still draw (I must have peaked artistically at three). I'm very amused that she chose to do an oval rather than a circle.

She has also taken to reading books to us. I'm not certain if she recognizes words yet, but she is definitely able to recite stories as she turns the pages. She will even point correctly at a low foot or high foot in one of her Dr. Seuss books.

I'm really proud.

Our First Potty Success

Yay!

At 10:00 p.m. Angie decided that she wanted to wear her orange Jojo underwear to help her go potty. We have placed shiny new Jojo and Dora underwear (still in their packaging) on the kitchen table for a least one or two weeks as inspiration for Angie. We have frequently told her that when she learns to go potty, she can wear the Jojo and Dora underwear. She even repeats this mantra without prompting.

Over the weekend, we let her wear one pair of Jojo underwear so that she could see how it felt. She was so excited, she danced around, jumped for joy and was simply happy, happy, happy. Then she wandered off and peed while still wearing the underwear. We told her that was fine but that she needed to use the potty so she could continue to wear the underwear, put on her diaper and settled down for the night.

During the past week, Chas and I have taken turns sitting with Angie on her potty in the bathroom. We read books to her while she sat, then we would put her in the tub for a bath and she would promptly pee. We'd tell her that it was okay, but she really needed to pee in the potty, not the bathtub.

As I was saying, tonight, Angie climbed on the kitchen table and retrieved the underwear. I helped her put on the orange Jojo underwear and Angie ran to show Chas then proceeded to dance around the house. 10 or 15 minutes later, she came to me, pulling at the underwear as if it were suddenly uncomfortable. I asked if she had peed and she said yes. We went to the bathroom so that Angie could sit on the potty while I rinsed her underwear. She removed the underwear and I could see that it was quite wet. Angie started to sit on the potty and reached her hand into the potty as she did so. I stopped her then looked in the potty and saw about an ounce of liquid! I think she was startled by my excitement because she stood up and I could tell that she had actually peed in the potty! Now she probably did it while still wearing her underwear and some of it leaked out, but I don't care. She did it!

I called Chas into the bathroom and he confirmed that yes it did look like pee. Angie sat down on the potty and Chas and I praised her with much fanfare and hooplah. Angie looked embarrassed and proud at the same time. She looked as though she was blushing.

This is of course, just like Angie. As a baby she would do some of her big milestones when we weren't looking, and then surprise us with them later. She would cruise around the furniture when we were distracted and move to the other end of the room without noise or comment. Here after months of talking about the potty and watching that potty video, she sneaks off alone to take care of these things privately.

I'm so thrilled, I don't care how she did it.