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Tuesday, August 24, 2010

More potty stories

Today Lucas frantically called for me and came running into the kitchen where I was doing a load of laundry with a diaper in his hand. Apparently he really needed to go cos he then climbed happily (usually I ahve to chase him) onto our bed so I could put on the diaper.

After he finished he promptly came to me and pulled me into the bathroom and said "shower, wash bum bum".
That was when I noticed that Lucas had earlier peed into the potty and then emptied the potty in the bath tub, and put back the potty in its corner...

Monday, August 23, 2010

Potty training made easy

If you have read my older posts about potty training Lucas, you would know the frustration I have been feeling as he has been so stubborn and resistant to being potty trained for many many months...

But what I've learned through this experience is that even though your baby may show signs of potty training readiness, you have to be patient and wait until they feel they are truly ready.

After many months of showing Lucas and telling him and teaching him about the potty, Lucas finally decided that he was ready to go to the potty everytime he wanted to pee.
3 days ago, he decided he didn't want the diaper anymore and he is now standing over the potty and peeing. He actually runs to the bathroom (where his potty is) and shuts the door to do the deed!

He still asks for his diaper when he wants to poo. When we ask him if he wants to poo into the potty or toilet he says "no". For me that means he is not ready, and I will continue to wait because he will be ready one of these days.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Screaming toddler

Lucas has discovered another way to irritate us - screaming. No longer does he throw tantrums (i.e full body slam on the floor, legs kicking, arms waving, crying), no, now he realizes that his tantrums will not get him anywhere. He recently started screaming and crying at the same time; especially when its time to take his nap. Yesterday he screamed non stop for 25 minutes before falling asleep at 4.30 pm and woke up grumpy. Today I decided to put him to bed earlier (I think he's acting up cos he's tired), and we put Lucas to bed at 12.30 pm. He cried and screamed (Fred says his ears are ringing....) for about 10 minutes before he calmed down but he didn't fall asleep til an hour later. Instead everytime we thought he'd fallen asleep, he would call out to one of us. And when we didn't take him out of his cot he would start crying again. This went on another 2 times and then, total silence.

I know I need to curb the screaming habit but ignoring his screams do not seem to work; neither does he listen when I tell him to use his normal voice. What can I do? Any suggestions? Will he grow out of it? Do I just let it be for now? Lucas goes to school in the next 2 weeks and I worry he will start screaming in school...

Love the Way You Lie- Eminem feat. Rihanna (HelenaMaria Cover)




These 2 girls are seriously talented! I just had to share this video with you all.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Movies!

I am now a proud member of Video Futur! I don't know why I didn't think about DVD rentals earlier, I guess I always thought the movies would be in French. Thanks to Cathy & Nadine I now know about DVD rentals and no longer need to wait for DVDs to be sent to me :)

Of course rental for 24 hours of 2,90 euro is enough to buy 2 DVDs from home and they only have movies that are already out on DVDs (in KL I can even get movies that have not been shown in Malaysia...). But we finally got to watch Alvin & The Chipmunks 2 (not as good as the first one), 2012 and Have you heard about The Morgans?

Now if only I can find a shop that rents livres en Anglais...

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Lucas at 34 months

One significant milestone is that Lucas is now stringing words together to form sentences. He is also half potty trained - yay! Lucas now pees in the toilet and in the potty.
It just happened last week - at lunch he turned to Fred and said "papa, pee pee" and Fred put Lucas on the toilet (I continued eating lunch, not expecting Lucas to really pee as he's been doing that for months now, sitting but not doing the deed and then I heard Fred going "Bravo! Bravo!) and voila! Our baby boy is now happily peeing in the potty :)
So that's bye bye Halte Garderie and hello Ecole Maternelle in 2 weeks!!!!

We found that as Lucas grows older, he is also more obedient and listens more now. When I call him to come to me to get changed and he runs away, I start counting 1... 2.... and I say "don't make me count to 3", he actually comes to me!
When I switch off the water in the shower, there is no more screaming or crying. When I bring him out of the bath, he doesn't cling onto me anymore - instead he lets me dry him with a towel and slather moisteriser and dress him.
When he asks for ice cream for breakfast and I tell him no, he doesn't throw a tantrum.

Nowadays when Lucas does make a fuss and cry, I tell him to tell me what he wants as he is able to speak now, he promptly stops crying and TELLS me what he wants.

At the church yesterday for Roger's funeral, Lucas was really good. We decided to bring Lucas (I insisted on it even though my MIL said I should get someone to watch Lucas at home as I wanted Lucas to say goodbye to Roger as well) and before we left for the church I told Lucas that he needed to be quiet and to be good. And throughout the funeral, he was good. My MIL who was seated up front with Fred thought Lucas and I were outside the cathedral when in actual fact we were seated on the last pew. Lucas maintained calm throughout, even when he wanted to go up front to see what the priest was doing (preparing for holy communion) Lucas whispered to me instead of talking in his normal voice! AND we left his pacifier at home...

One thing that was important to note is that with Lucas, he needs to have boundaries and limits. And as parents he looks to us to show him his limits. We found that if we tell him no, we cannot relent to his tears or tantrums later. Also, we have to mean what we say. For example if he misbehaves and I tell him "if you do that one more time I will put you back in the stroller/ we will go home" I have to make sure I do what I say or else Lucas will do the forbidden thing again and again. Since we put this into practice Lucas has been easy, and stopped being tiring.
He now sits with us for meals. He now also knows that he won't get ice cream for dessert if he doesn't eat or if he throws his food. He knows better now how to express his frustration because we keep telling him that when he screams and cries we do not understand him and that he can tell us in his normal voice what is making him so angry. He plays independantly now and we often find him in his room reading or listening to music.

Lucas' last day at the creche

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Rest in peace Roger

We got news that Roger passed away in his sleep yesterday afternoon. I am unsure of what transpired at the hospital but from what I can gather listening to everyone around me talking in rapid french, the doctor didn't want Roger to suffer from the pain any longer and induced him into a coma and Roger slipped away after 2 days.

Today we were at Roger's house putting a CD together for his funeral. Tears flowed freely for this wonderful man who loved Lucas like his grandson. And Roger is the only paternal grandfather Lucas has ever known, even though he was never married to my MIL they were together for over 2 decades.

Its been exactly 6 months since Roger took a fall after his birthday trip to Andalucia and the doctor told him that his remission from cancer has ended and that the cancer had spread with a vengence. Even with that news I remember Roger was determined to fight the cancer again.
The last time we saw Roger, he was upset that his hands were shaking too much for him to feed himself properly and refused to eat his dinner. He was happy to see Lucas and as usual, Lucas was up to mischief, running into the kitchen where we were all seated with grass he'd uprooted from the garden. It always lifted Roger's spirits to see Lucas and his antics. Lucas & I were supposed to go back to visit in a couple of days but the next day, Roger was admitted into the hospital in Bagneres and we never got to see him again.

We will lay Roger to rest this Friday. But he will always be in our hearts. He is no longer in pain, his hands will no longer shake from medications and he will be able to go hiking as much as he likes in heaven.