2011, the year of the 3 "P's"

So, a new year is upon us. One in which I have great aspirations for helping Whitney achieve certain goals. They involve, namely, our Princess, the Potty, and the Paci. Now, my loose expectation, at this very early stage, is that when I sit down to write my first blog of 2012, Whitney will be potty-trained and paci-free. :) No more specific timeline has been set at this point. We gave her 2 books for Christmas, both of which she loves, that talk solely about 3 P's as well: potty, pee, and poo. In the delightful, "Princess Potty" book, the princess says "Hear ye, hear ye, I need to pee pee," or "Yoo-hoo, yoo-hoo, I need to poo-poo." Lovely, huh?! We like to think that tiny seeds are being planted and, even though she prefers to stand on her training potty right now, it will all come together one of these days! I don't know, take a look at the picture above. Does that look like a face of intense motivation or what?!

Oh, and the paci. I still remember the first day Whitney took a paci in the NICU. It looked so huge against her tiny features, but she loved it and began sucking right away. That was a hope-filled day. A "normal baby" day. A good day. The paci was encouraged in the NICU to help Whitney start developing sucking reflexes...and to learn how to breathe and suck at the same time. A huge feat for preemies. Whitney still loves the paci to this day. While she only gets it at nap/bedtime, she seems to have almost developed a stronger yearning for it as she has gotten older. She asks for it throughout the day, but we have to remind her that it's not bedtime. Oh, and there's something about seeing that sweet face and hearing the words "Mama, paci, peez," that just melts my heart. When she gets it at bedtime, she shakes her arms in excitement (just like her mama) and grins from ear to ear. It's her little pot of gold.

How could something like that not be recommended by the AAP for children to have through adolescence? I mean, come on! Now you see why I had to put all of this in a post...so I stay accountable to these goals throughout 2011! I began to think about the local story that became national news this week when a Greensburg, IN teenager wouldn't cut his hair (to meet specified rules), so got kicked off of his basketball team. His mom said on TV, "My son did not want to conform to gender stereotypes." I began to picture myself on the news when Whitney is in school, still having "accidents" and needing a paci for emotional comfort and me saying, "My daughter did not want to conform to social and developmental stereotypes." Ha!

Will keep you Posted on our Progress throughout the year..... :)