So earlier yesterday we went with no pants or anything. At one point, she stopped in the middle of the kitchen and froze. I asked her if she needed to go and she ran to the potty and went. Then later she said she peed, but when I looked it was the tiniest amount and she stopped herself and finished in the potty. Does that seem like the understanding the emergency?

Also, we’ve had times where she’s held it for a few hours, been completely dry, and peed a bigger amount on the potty. This has even happened at daycare as well.

Very very rarely. Like only at a birthday party. Juice gets her the most excited

It’s possible, but we do offer watered down juice as a reward. A cup for poop, a sip for pee (usually only when she’s really fighting it). She still needs prompting to go, though.

It’s the cheapest, safest, and most convenient to us. And they do encourage her to go potty and she goes multiple times a day there (just in addition to going in pull-ups). While changing daycares may allow for a different policy in their 3-year-old room, I still want my toddler to be potty trained for a multitude of reasons.

It’s hard to have time off with our work schedules, which is why I tried over the summer initially. She doesn’t care as much as I thought she would about going on herself though. She ran in yesterday with a big smile to tell me she peed in her underwear. I’ll check out the book though, thanks!

My husband and 2-year-old daughter are off on Monday but I still have work. We were talking to friends and my husband mentioned maybe having a playdate at a playground since they are also off. My daughter goes “I want to go to the playground on Monday too!” As if the grown-ups were gonna go and leave the kiddos behind.

We took our daughter to a high school football game last night. As we’re parking she goes, “I want to watch people play game ball!”

When I say I’m a school librarian, most people can make a connection and have an understanding. And as long as their next comment isn’t some Fox News bullshit (which was real fun at my grandmother’s funeral), I can usually leave it at that.

But the actual day-to-day complexities of what I do isn’t going to be understood. Most days I am checking out over 400 books to students, which means my volunteers, me, and my para (assistant) are checking in and reshelving over 400 books each morning. That’s over 800 books scanned each day. Then, I am also teaching six 45-minute classes every day and I see each student in our school (over 700) twice a week in those classes. So I am planning and prepping for those classes, teaching those classes, and running the book checkout. Not to mention managing behaviors and helping some of our new students (especially kindergarten) understand the expectations of the library. I am currently planning our book fair happening in a few weeks, getting ready to start my after school club, facilitating a $500 per grade level order for books and supplies, fielding sales phone calls, balancing my ~$10K budget, and being the team lead which involves monthly meetings to attend, twice a month meetings to run, and many additional emails. So yes, I do read to kids and let them take books home, but that’s nowhere near the end of my to-do list.

The Halloween section at Costco

Today was a big day! My two year old went on three new non-kiddie rides at an amusement park (pirate ship, caterpillar ride, and log flume) and also went number 2 on the potty twice

Please don’t eat your shoes

2 year old taking a big drink of milk. “Tastes like ahhhh”

Yesterday while sitting at a table waiting for ice cream my two year old looks at me and says “I wanna touch the wall. I wanna touch the wall a widdle bit” So I told her to go ahead. Helped her down. She walked over. Placed her hand on the wall. Then came back to sit. Kids.

Using a stroller fan to cool down hot food. I prop up the fan and then my hands are free to stir the food around. Works much quicker than blowing on it and don’t have to worry about getting lightheaded

So an attempted achievement we had was going ice skating yesterday. There was a toddler class where the ice wasn’t clean from the previous day’s practice and kids could go out on their street shoes. They have sleds to pull them around, mini hockey sticks to hit around pucks, Pom-poms to throw in the net, and other activities to get them used to the ice surface. Then they put on skates off-ice and get used to the feeling. My child took three steps onto the ice and stated “I need all done ice”. We tried for about thirty minutes to get her comfortable in various ways and she wasn’t having any of it. I think a big part of the problem was for whatever reason she was literally the only kid there. So it was her and three adults, two of whom were complete strangers, in a completely new environment, with no other kids to feed off of. So while it didn’t go as I had hoped, she did step on the ice for the first time and hopefully when we go back in a few weeks she’s more comfortable with the idea.

Coming home from vacation we sent my husband on the plane first to set up her car seat and I boarded last with LO to get out last minute energy. She saw a plane outside the big window and yells “Hi dada! Go ahead! See you later!”

So here’s one of our conundrums. Toys in the bath. Several months ago a little rubber duckie got caught under the tap when the tub was filling up. This sent our then 18 month old into a panic. We’ve had to completely remove toys from the bath and have only just been able to recently add them to the water after it’s filled up (before that toys even near the water would have her screaming, crying, and throwing them as far away as possible). Toys can stay in the water when it’s draining, but not filling. If the toys are in the empty tub she says “it’s okay. Toys okay.” but you’d think somebody was dying with the way she panics if there’s anything (even a wash cloth) in the tub while the water is on. She loves water otherwise.

Bubble gun in the bath. I shoot bubbles towards the ceiling and it gets her to look up long enough for me to rinse her hair. Also, we have finger paint soap. For awhile she was refusing to get her body washed after a string of bad diaper rashes from daycare. She would stand up to paint the wall and we could get her clean.

I’m a teacher and a few days after my first (and only) was born the Uvalde school shooting happened. Postpartum emotions play a part, but it is really difficult to escape the growing negativity about the state of the world. She’s two now and while I do still have many concerns about the future I’m focused now on making each day as positive as I can for her. In my experience, in time, the intensity fades a little. You do what you can, accept you can’t control everything, and make the best with what you have.

Librarian at a PreK-5 school (3-11 years old). I teach 45 minute classes to everyone each week. 700 kids, 32 classes. Less stress than classroom teaching while still following the same schedule.