pool season

I love the pool.  I love the sun.  I love to tan.  No lectures please, I know the hazards of basking in the sun.  Did you know that new research shows you can actually become addicted to tanning?  So there ya go, I can't help it, I'm an addict.

The summer after Morgan was born we went to a pool once and it wasn't a success.  Morgan was cranky.  Big shocker.  She was about 5 months old and lasted maybe 10 minutes in the pool.

The next summer she was 15-18 months old during 'swim season' and she enjoyed the pool much more, but that's a tricky age at a public pool.  There is a nice pool over in Weirton that we go to, and we would go about once a week.  Morgan would stand at the edge of the baby pool, taking it all in.  I could see in her eyes, the wheels churning in her head....'hellooooo babies....all of your toys are now MINE....and I will get away with it because I'm one of the youngest here...mwahahahahaha.'  And that indeed is what I had to deal with; Morgan stealing all of the toys.  She was the pool bully, making other babies cry.  And she knew she could get away with stealing a plastic watering can from a 2 year old because the other mother would always say 'now now, she's just a baby, don't cry, let her play with it...' and I was slightly embarrassed and amused; ashamed my cute little chubby baby in her pink ruffle butt bathing suit was making other babies cry, but couldn't help laughing at the little pool punk.  We usually lasted 2 hours at the most before Morgan was ready to fall asleep after all of the sunshine and thieving.

Last summer Morgan was 2 and it was a little easier to be at the pool with her.  I could actually sit on the side while she played, whereas the previous summer I had to be with her constantly because every time she got knocked over (seriously, why do 3 or 4 year olds try to pick up babies?!) she would fall into the water and flail like she was drowning and then I would have to calm her down so she could go back to stealing toys.  But when she was 2 she was a little bigger, a little more sturdy, and sadly, a little more mean.  Not only was she stealing toys, but she was old enough to know better, and she would fight the other kid for a toy that wasn't even hers.  The battle usually ended up with both toddlers screaming and Morgan trying to beat the other kid over the head with a ball or water gun or plastic shovel.  And yes, I would take toys for Morgan to play with.  She didn't want HER toys, she wanted the other toys.  However; whenever another baby would touch any of her toys she turned into a Chihuahua guarding a food dish, complete with growls and biting.  After 2-3 hours I would gracefully make my exit with my rabid toddler and the other mothers would sigh with relief.

This summer....Morgan is 3.  Since she's turned 3 she has been a much more cooperative human being.  Half of her previous issues can be blamed on her speech delay.  It's hard to rationalize and reason with a human that can't communicate.  Now she understands pretty much everything we say, even if she pretends she doesn't (we had a ten minute ordeal this evening where I tried to get her to pick up a pillow from the floor and put it back on the couch and she tried everything in her power to distract me from it, pretending like she didn't understand what I wanted her to do).  I took her to the pool yesterday for the first time this season (it was also my first time ever wearing a maternity bathing suit....which is uber sexy...it even has a skirt).  What a great day!  Not a cloud in the sky, unusually hot weather for this area (the main pool is heated in the summer if that tells you anything about what sort of summers we usually have), and the pool was packed.  Morgan mostly wanted to stay in the baby pool and the 'splash zone' area, and I realized for the first time I could just sit and watch and she could play and be independent.  She can't swim, but she can play in the baby pool without any problems, and run through the splash zone.  I had to use my 'teacher voice' a few times...I have zero tolerance for splashing, especially when a kid is splashing my kid in the face over and over.  And there were some little pool punks with this huge water gun and they were spraying it everywhere, getting all of the 'mommy bags' wet so I had to say something.  And there were some bigger kids randomly running through the baby pool knocking all of the little ones down.  I don't know where the parents of these children were, I really wanted to congratulate them on raising animals.  I know that Morgan has been a pool bully in the past, but I intervened every single time.  And now she's so different!  Yes she played with abandoned toys, but as soon as the owner came to claim it, Morgan gave it right back.  I was so proud.  And she ran over to every new kid in the pool waving and saying 'hi!'  She had so much fun.  I took her to the 'big pool' a few times and tried to work with her swimming skills but she's the laziest swimmer I've ever seen.  She barely moves.  Some parents just throw their kids in the water and wait for them to swim; if I did this, Morgan would just sink to the bottom.  The big pool has several small slides and Morgan kept asking to go on them, but I kept telling her they were for big kids.  So after a while she would ask 'I'm a big girl?' and I would answer 'yep!' and she trapped me.  'I can go on the slide?  I'm a big girl!'  Dang it Morgan!!  So I let her go on the slide.  I waited at the bottom to catch her since she can't swim.  She climbed up, put her feet down, panicked, backed up, and all of the kids on the ladder had to get out of her way while she climbed back down.  I knew she would chicken out.  She always does that to me when it comes to water slides.  Last summer there was an incident with a water slide in the shape of an elephant.  I had to climb over about 13 little kids to get to my kid blocking the top because she was crying out of fear and refused to go down the slide, but the stairs were packed and nobody would move to let her back down. 

After about 4 hours I noticed Morgan's cheeks were getting really red....and the tops of my legs were stinging.  I had a really hard time getting Morgan to leave.  i finally told her if we stayed too much, the sun would make us sick.  She cooperated and followed me to the car, wailing the entire time.  And then she cried all the way home.  When we got home I realized how sunburned we were.  *high five* to myself for an awesome mommy moment - I forgot to take the sunscreen to the pool so there was no reapplying.  The bottle was still sitting on the kitchen counter when we got home.  Morgan's shoulders and back are so red and painful.  My back and the tops of my legs look like bacon.  We've been lubing up with lots of after sun lotion....and Tylenol.  We have to heal so we can hit the pool again soon!

Here's a picture of my little pool diva...she's learned the 'duck face pose' at an early age....sigh....

getting peed on for medicinal purposes

So today Morgan and I woke up and did our morning routine.  She sings in her bed for a few (or 20) minutes while I work up the energy to drag myself out of my bed.  While she drinks her Pediasure Good Starts (or the Kroger equivalent) I make my bed, get dressed, trip over cats, decide between Cheerios or oatmeal, and open my computer for what possibly be the only time all day.  Morgan has been doing fabulous with her potty training.  We are so proud of her.  This morning she woke up with a dry diaper and went straight to the potty, yelling 'mommy I'm on the potty!!' (I'm learning that will be a phrase in my life for a long time) so I abandoned my Cheerios to go help her.  Her potty is located in the living room because that's where she wants it.  Whatever works.  I wiped her and then took her little potty to the bathroom to dump and clean and she followed me crying that I 'wiped her too hard' and I was like 'nuh uh!'

She tends to have a flair for drama.

But she cried for about ten minutes.  And then asked for a 'botsie' which is a pacifier we keep in the fridge for when she is hurt (especially busted lips).  We still also have teething rings in the fridge because...well....who knows.  I just haven't cleaned it out and what's the point now with Jack's eviction date about 7 or 8 weeks away.

She took the teething ring and put it on her naked backside saying 'ahhh that makes my booty feel better.'

What is UP with my kid?!

But she stopped crying. 

Oh and I gave her a dose of ibuprofen, because when she is throwing a fit, chances are some sort of drug will help....ibuprofen, claritin, tylenol, zantac, morphine...

Then she asked for a diaper, which is really strange, because she has been wearing 'potty pants' all day every day and only wears diapers at night. 

Then she got on her potty to pee....and wouldn't get off.

I kept saying 'okay Morgan let me wipe you and clean the potty' and she kept saying 'not done yet'....but she wasn't even doing anything other than sit on the potty and play with whatever Little People were within toe grabbing distance.

She sat there for over and hour and that's when it hit me...

somethin' ain't rite.

I texted my friend that works for a pediatrician and she said yes it sounded like a possible UTI and to call her doctor.  I tried to called Morgan's doctor but they were out to lunch for another half hour.  I paced the living room, called Michael, texted my mom, and finally decided to not wait for her doctor; because honestly they would have to 'work me in' and they are always so busy.  I don't feel like sitting in a waiting room for 2 hours.  I persuaded Morgan to abandon the potty with promises of getting to pee in a cup.

She was uber excited about that.

Plus she loves going to the doctor.

I took her to EZ Care, which is an urgent care sort of emergency place.  I love it there.  It's never busy and the staff is so nice.  I packed sippy cups and bottles of water and explained to Morgan on the way there she needed to drink a lot so she could pee in a cup for the doctor.  She drank and drank.  When it was time to go to the bathroom I took a deep breath and gave myself a pep talk.  I could do this.  I had dressed Morgan in a sundress to make the event easier.  I took off her pullup and she had peed.  A lot. 

Dang it.

She really couldn't help it; she had drank a lot of water and whatever was going on with her made her feel like she constantly needed to go to the bathroom even when she didn't need to. 

But we needed some pee in that cup.

The alternative to the cup is using a catheter to extract some urine.  Or a needle into the bladder.

Yeah, THAT sounds fun for any age.

I explained to her that she needed to try really hard to pee in the cup.  I had her stand with her legs apart and put the cup in place and waited for some action. 

She couldn't do it. 

She wanted to sit on the potty.  So I put her on the potty and had to put my hand holding the cup down under her, but she didn't like the feeling of the cup against her so I have to hover and wait.

She peed.  And I had to play 'catch the pee' before the sprinkles stopped.  I got pee on my hand.  My hand touched the inside of the toilet.

Sigh.

But we got a little pee in the cup!!!  Victory!

Then I had to wash my hands (about 14 times).  And clean Morgan up and wash her hands.  And put the lid on that precious urine in the cup and then wipe it down before handing it to the nurse.

I seriously think I deserve some special mother award for all that.  I got my 3 year old to pee in the cup.  And I touched the inside of a toilet at a doctor's office. 

They tested her sample and there was evidence of some sort of infection.  They are sending it to a lab to find out exactly what's going on.  They went ahead and gave her a prescription for a UTI/bladder infection.  We went to Kroger to fill it and I bought her a new My Little Pony (Applejack) for her cooperation.  And then I looked longingly at the wine and beer aisle. 

But I'm pregnant so I settled for a Snickers bar.  I think I earned it.

And by the way, we have no idea how she got this infection.  Could be the fact that she's naked way too much.  Or that I used something new in her bath last night.  Or that she used toilet paper over the weekend instead of baby wipes.  Or all of the above.  I just hope she feels better soon. 

public potties

Yesterday was our 'monthly outing' to Robinson Township, a shopping area near Pittsburgh.  Morgan and I REALLY needed out of the house.  Plus it was time for another round of Little C lab work so we started our day date at Weirton Medical Center where I have enough blood taken to make me a little woozy.  The ladies in the lab are getting used to seeing me, and unfortunately, they might be seeing me even more often since the antibody levels are starting to rise. 

Afterwards, we were all starving.  Poor Morgan was saying 'I need food in my tummy, it would make me happy' because whenever we know we are going out to eat, we pretty much starve her so that she will eat while we are at a restaurant.  She had her breakfast sippy and that holds her over for a while but it was creeping up on 2:00 and that's a long time since breakfast for all of us.  We went to Longhorn Steakhouse (pretty darn tasty!) and she actually tried the bread and ate it!  See...starving her works...it makes her try new stuff.  Then she ate most of her mashed potatoes and even 2 bites of chicken tenders after a LOT of encouragement.  We were happy!  I asked her if she needed to potty and she said yes.

Here we go...public potty training.

I went to the 'family restroom' because it seemed less used.  I lined the side of the potty with about 500 sheets of toilet paper and helped Morgan get situated.  The very first thing she did was put her hands on that dirty nasty toilet and I wanted to scream!!!  I told her to hold on to my pants....which she did...and then I realized that after touching that dirty nasty toilet she was touching my dirty nasty pants. 

sigh.

But she used the potty!  And then I scrubbed her hands until they were red!  And her face, arms, feet, and all other exposed skin, just in case.

She ran back to our table yelling 'daddy I pee peed in the potty!!!!' and we received a lot of dirty looks from people diving into their steak.  Jeez people, she's THREE years old!  It's not like I encouraged her to run through a restaurant yelling about her potty success....

...or maybe I did.

just kidding...

Then we went to IKEA.  We LOVE IKEA.  It's such a fun place to go browse and find neat stuff you never knew you needed.  Yesterday we bought Morgan a new dresser (white to match her new IKEA bed) and a tall skinny shelf for our bedroom, plus I ran across these awesome washable fruits and vegetables for Morgan to play with.  While at IKEA I asked Morgan twice if she needed to potty...and of course she did.  Sadly, the bathrooms at IKEA were not clean, but that's just how 99% of public restrooms are.  Morgan is too young to learn the 'hover' maneuver.  Thank goodness IKEA offers toilet seat covers.  I pulled about 20 out and formed a protective layer of tissue paper worthy of Princess and the Pea.  Then we took birth baths in the sink to try to rid ourselves of all potty germies.

We survived our first day of public potties!

And we also managed to cram 3 long IKEA furniture boxes into our short Land Rover...I'm still impressed.