'lilah go potty' and autumn artwork

Just over a week ago Lilah I decided to take on the grand task of potty training. I bought the potty about two months ago, yes that long ago! It's a sweet Dora & Boots potty that (needless to say) the lovely Lilah picked out herself. Anyway, I put it out, then put it away, then put it out, then put it away. I kept changing my mind and telling myself, she's too young and I've only been changing diapers for nine months, maybe I'll deal with it next summer when she understands better. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, enough excuses already Jill! All that and my girl went to the potty the first day and has never looked back, okay maybe Monday was a bad day and she had two accidents, but that's it. Honestly, maybe I'm speaking too soon, but this is way easier than I had imagined. It's just a day time thing for now because she still gets a bottle at night. Lilah is loving it too, she enjoys sitting up on her potty and the toilet alike. She also likes to tell us what colour her pee-pee is! The first day she did it, I totally cracked up. I should have expected that would happen, because right now I emphasize a lot of things by colour then name, I guess I'm still in the habit from when I was teaching her colours. I say things like an orange pumpkin, a red car, a blue sky, etc. Oh another cute thing, when she goes to the potty I hug her and say Mama's so proud of you. Now she repeats it back to me, Lilah's so proud of you. Seriously, she's the sweetest girl!

We did this fun art project today, after our swimming lesson. (Oh yes, while I'm on the subject of swimming, today was the first day the instructor had us put our child's head under water, eek! I think Lilah was the only one to scream her head off, poor girl! She got over it pretty quickly though.) Anyway, while we were out for a walk on Monday evening we picked up these Autumn leaves. I left them to dry out and today I added the glue and Lilah stuck them on the paper. She is very fussy, they all had to have their own perfect little spot. It's a big change from when we first came home from China; she enjoyed playing with stickers, however she would just keep sticking them all on top of each other. Cute. She is so so proud of all her artwork on the fridge, and now she has to have her name on each piece. That was instigated yesterday by another little girl, after story time (at Chapters). Today Lilah pointed to each of the nameless pictures on the fridge and said "Lilah name on"!

Here's a close-up of the mouse picture Lilah coloured at Chapters yesterday. I'm thrilled that she is starting to understand more about colouring different parts of the picture using different colours, rather than just ripping her crayon over the whole page. I would say, "What colour do you want to colour the mouse's ears?" and she would say "Blue", she would then find the crayon and try to colour that specific area, more or less! There is a red sun, blue flower, green trees, yellow cheese and blue ears, of course. She is such a thinker.

Lilah also decorated these little buns tonight, edible art!

[ all pictures here ]