Miss Iva

Our Miss Iva is two and a half already. Two and a half going on eight. It's finally time for the potty training post. It feels like we can't move on past the first week of April in this blog. Hahaha! But that first full week in April kind of started out with a bang for Iva. Around April Fool's Day, Mom showed Iva her fun big girl panties that were just waiting in her drawer. They are Inside Out (the movie) undies and have the days of the week on them. (Bing Bong had to be thrown away in the tragic potty accident during my babysitting attempt...see previous posts on that. :p ) Iva was excited and put on a pair and Mom walked away. Soon Iva came to her crying. She was very frustrated. It turns out she had tried to put on every single pair which warranted a photo, but no actual peeing in the potty. 

A little back story here. She has had basically no relationship with the potty. Well that's not true. We have a fun potty training potty that sat in the living room or in Mom and Dad's room and Iva would sit on it bare bummed and watch her movies, but never actually going potty. There were a few times several months ago when she would accidentally pee and it would scare her. The potty would play music and we would all scream and jump and down and essentially scar her emotionally. She really wasn't interested in peeing in that potty. Or in the big potty. She wasn't scared of the big potty, but didn't get how to release her pee. She was actually quite good at holding it in. She only peed on the floor a handful of times otherwise she could wait until she had on a diaper or pull up. Mom really wasn't feeling like pushing her although she would dream about being able to just put her in underwear. Anyway, in February Iva actually developed this huge problem with pooping. She wasn't constipated. She just didn't want to poop and would SCREAM. Not just kind of scream, a full on freak out if she was pooping. This actually facilitated being able to use the potty because you knew when she had to poop and could move her on to the big potty, but you had to endure shrieking and crying. It was kind of awful. People who witnessed it thought for sure she was in pain, but we don't think she was. It was truly an ordeal. She was only pooping three times a week because of it. We use to refer to her "poop alert level". She would start to freak out a little bit, but you knew it wasn't imminent until she reached that orange level of freak out. It was stressful especially if she had to poop in public or at Grandma's house. We went to Disneyland knowing that this was part of the issue. Luckily, she actually managed to do her pooping at Grandpa Great's house and then quite loudly at his church which was moderately embarrassing, but at least wasn't in a crowded Disney bathroom. 

And now I also have to mention that Iva was also not wanting to take baths or showers. She just didn't love it and didn't want to wash her hair. She was fine with swimming, but no thank you to getting clean. 

Now back to that first week in April, Mom was getting into the shower one morning and Iva was playing around in the bathroom. Mom invited her to take a shower too and was surprised that Iva said yes. The water was running and warming up and Iva was naked in the bathroom. She looked up and Mom and panicked said "I have to go pee pee!" So Mom plopped her on the toilet and she went! Iva was so happy so was Mom. Mom tried not to get her hopes up and thought at least it was a good experience we can build on it. Iva proceeded to wear diapers the next few days, but also managed to pee on the potty at least once more. Showers also turned in to her favorite thing. If you get in the shower, she comes running and stripping. 

And then Tuesday morning, April 5th, at 4 am, Iva was having a freak out in her sleep. She was crying and writhing around and make it impossible for Mom or Dad to sleep. Mom was nursing Sam in bed and said to Dad, "Go put her on the potty. She might have to pee." He got up, carried her to the toilet, set her down and she peed. She woke up all the way, was thrilled, flushed the potty and then told Dad, "I don't sleep in Mommy's bed, I sleep in MY bed." and demanded to go back into her own room and sleep. From that moment on, Iva has only had one accident. ONE. She peed the bed once and unfortunately for Dad he was lying in bed with her. Oops! We traveled to SLC for that surprise weekend and she never peed in her pull up. Mom had just bought a huge pack of pull ups and OPENED it. Iva just mastered the potty in her sleep. Mom was putting her in pull ups every night because of the one accident, but it has been unnecessary. Mom keeps saying that if there was ever a poster child for waiting until the child is actually ready it is Iva. She potty trained herself. 

Aside from potty training, Iva is Sam's favorite. He lights up when they make eye contact. She loves to lay with him and regularly fights with people who try and talk to "her brother". 

She's also starting to drop her naps. If she naps later than 1:30 pm, Mom and Dad are in trouble and she is awake much past her bedtime. However, she can't quite make it to 7:30 pm, let alone our normal bedtime of 8 pm, when she doesn't nap. This has led to several hilarious sleep moments for her.

Mom also ends up yelling and singing loudly in the car to try and keep Iva awake.

She has turned into Mom's buddy though. They hang out together and shop together. Sam is always in tow, but Iva is the one who does the talking.

She loves to swim and jump and play with the big girls outside.

One last thing about her! She HAS to drop the big girls off at school with her own backpack. Her epic bedhead and the fact that she had packed her own drink made the moment picture worthy: