Macie's (A)Musings (#7): A Big Week

(As told by Macie. Or at least as it WOULD have been told by Macie if she could spell and write stories.)

Wow. What a last week and a half I've had! Let me just start at the beginning so I don't leave something out...

I've been working on potty training at school for a couple of months now. I say "at school" because, to be entirely honest, I haven't had much (okay, ANY) interest in showing Mommy how I can go potty and poopy in the potty at home. Mommy's not sure why, other than she thinks that I just like Miss D and Miss Madison more than I like her. Truth told, it's just that when I see my friends at school going to the potty, I want to join in! Sometimes it's okay to be a follower, right?!? Mommy says that Miss Rosa was the one that trained Ivie, so I thought I would just follow suit.

So, anyway, as I've been wearing the SAME PULL-UP all day at school, I've been coming home and refusing to sit on the potty for Mommy. And, since Pull-Ups are expensive and Mommy has a new baby that she has to take care of non-stop, she has been in no mood to deal with me and force me to potty train. So we took a break from potty training at home for a while to give me time to "warm up" to the idea.

Then?

Enter Nina.

While she was here visiting and helping Mommy with Bryce, Nina had the great idea of starting a potty sticker chart. I LOVE STICKERS! I mean, who wouldn't go potty in the potty if it meant getting a sticker for it! And guess what I get if I go poopy in the potty? THREE STICKERS. Jackpot!!! I'm in.

So, by the time Nina left last Monday, I was doing much better. And earning my way toward a new toy (which is what I got when my sticker chart was filled up). Fast forward to today, and I've had only one accident in the last 10 days! It was yesterday, in the hallway upstairs, right outside of the bathroom. Mommy came out of her room to me standing in a puddle of potty right in front of the bathroom door. In my defense, Aunt Sarah was taking a shower and the door was shut. So, in hindsight, that's the excuse I'm going with, even though, when questioned by Mommy about why I didn't come find her to go to the bathroom, my immediate response was a pretty lame "Because my belly hurt.". What can I say? It was the best I could come up with on short notice.

So that's the first cool thing that has happened this past week. The next thing is not really cool. In fact, it's plain awful, though Mommy doesn't seem as stressed out about it as I am for some reason. In fact, she seems kind of happy...

On Sunday morning, Mommy and Daddy told me we were going to Target, and that I could get a new toy. They said I could pick out whatever I wanted. It sounded too good to be true. I should have seen right through their little game, because then they dropped the punch line on me. In order to get a new toy, I had to pay for it myself.

WITH MY PACIS.

WHAT?!? My pacis aren't money! Who do these knuckleheads, also known as my parents, think they're dealing with?

But I played along with them, knowing that the cashier at the register would look at them funny and then give my pacis back to me after I handed them to her. By then, it would be too late for Mommy and Daddy to put my toy back on the shelf. And I'd be heading home with the toy AND my beloved pacis. So I was pretty happy at first...


My plan was going really well until THE CASHIER DIDN'T GIVE ME THE PACIS BACK. Turns out she actually let me pay for my toy with them, though, now that I think about it, I wonder what it was that Daddy was whispering to her before it was my turn to pay... But since I only really NEED my pacis when at nap and bedtime, I just let it ride. Surely Mommy and Daddy had kept some at home for me to use when I got tired. Because they love me bunches, right? And they wouldn't want me to be sad over a silly paci. What's the harm in them, anyway?!? Besides, as we walked out of Target, at least I had two new very soft stuffed animals to show for it...



But imagine my dismay when it was nap time and I asked for my paci, only to be told that I had "sold" them all to Target in exchange for my new stuffed animals. WHAT?!? This was NOT going to work. I promptly threw a big fit (heck, it works sometimes!) and told Mommy that I didn't want my new stuffed animals any more. Please return them to Target and get my pacis back. STAT. For good measure, to really make my point hit home, I threw the animals down the hallway. As far as I could.

She said that no matter how mad I was, I wasn't getting the pacis back. So I refused to take a nap. For the first time ever. Boy, was I a pill (that's what Mommy called me, though I have no idea what that means) THAT night!

Anyway, it's been 3 days, and I'm slowly getting used to life without my paci, though I still don't give in easily at nap time. See? In this picture, it looks like my body ultimately just refused to fight anymore. I guess that's what actually happened, since I don't remember ever falling asleep.


That's enough about the paci. I get sad just thinking about it. But really, Mommy, did you have to pull the paci trick the same WEEK that I got potty trained for you?!? Cruel.

The last thing I have to tell you about from my week is something Mommy has been trying to get me and Ivie to do since January. I don't really know my months very well, but Mommy says "it's a long time coming", so I'll take her word for it. You see, when Mommy and Daddy found out that Bryce was coming, they evicted me from my room! Not sure why they thought that was a good idea, but they started telling me that I was too big for my crib (even though I wasn't) and that I would have a great time sharing a room with Ivie (even though I wasn't so sure).

But when I tried to sleep in bed with Iv, she and I couldn't stop talking to each other. Mommy and Daddy did all they could (short of spanking us - I'm glad they haven't ventured down that path yet!) to get us to stop talking and sleep, but we didn't cooperate. The only way they could get me to go to sleep was to put a crib mattress on the floor next to the bed. So that's where I've been sleeping since January.

But last night, after a long day with my cousins and no nap, I asked Mommy if I could try to sleep in bed with Ivie again. You see, she usually lets me try every other week or so, and then has to come into our room after about 30 minutes and boot me back to my bed on the floor. So when I asked her last night, she looked at me sideways for a few seconds and then said we could try it! I could tell by the look on her face that there was no way she thought it would work.

So you know what I did?

I climbed into bed with Ivie and fell asleep (although it might have had something to do with the fact that I was so tired I couldn't even see straight). But I did it, nonetheless, and stayed there the whole night, not waking up until 6:53a (which is sort of a record for me lately, since I'm usually up around 6 or 6:15).

Mommy was ecstatic when Ivie and I came out of our room after our first successful night in the bed together. I think she's grown tired of hitting the closet doors on the crib mattress on the floor each time she tries to open them. She even told us that we could have a sticker on our "Sweet Girl Charts" on the refrigerator. You know, since I don't need a Potty Chart any more.

All-in-all, it's been a pretty good week for me. Now if I could just find that cashier from Target and get my pacis back. I'll be on the lookout for her next time we go...