So we’ve decided to go cold-turkey for a weekend and see how CootieGirl does wearing only underwear and not a diaper or pull-up. She’ll most likely FREAK OUT but I’d like to have her completely potty-trained by the time we go to North Carolina and figure we might as well bite the bullet and give it a shot. We’ll let her wear pull-ups at night and at church, but during the day and during naps? NOTHING BUT NET.

Okay, so when I got home I steeled myself for CootieGirl’s arrival home from daycare. I planned how I would diffuse any difficulties and laid out her swimsuit and Little Swimmers diaper and called ahead to our neighbors to make sure we could use their pool. I figured I’d keep CootieGirl in the pool as long as possible to tire her out and then put her to bed before she could think to start an argument.
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Okay, so once again it was a battle of the wills this morning. This parenting thing has all of a sudden gotten really hard and annoying.

This morning CootieGirl and CootieBoy wake up and so CootieDad goes into their room and picks up CootieBoy to change his diaper. CootieGirl gets out of bed and as CootieDad leaves the room saying a cheery “Good morning!” to CootieGirl, she slams the door shut behind him and begins to push against the door when he tries to open it again. I was gratified to hear the sound of “Go away, Daddy!” come from behind the door.

I get out of bed and go to the door and gently push my way in, which causes a fit. She tries to fling herself to the floor but I held her arm just high enough so that she was required to stand or hang by her arm. Eventually she stood on her own feet and I asked her to go over to the big bed to have her pull-up changed. She went over there and we changed her pull-up with great success. Then she wanted to put on her new bathing suit and got ticked when she couldn’t do it right. Then she picked up another article of clothing and tried to put it on without success. Then another. Whenever she started to get fussy I would say, “It’s not worth crying over – here let’s try this one.” Eventually I managed to get her dressed.

But then when I tried to have her go down the stairs by herself she had another tantrum because she wanted to be carried. I told her she was a big girl and should go down by herself, and she promptly stuck her fingers in her mouth and screamed and tried to make herself gag. I took her fingers out of her mouth and managed to get her about halfway down the stairs even as she screamed the whole time. Finally she went into a full meltdown, and I briefly thought about picking her up to put her on the naughty chair but then I thought, “If I pick her up and take her to the chair she will have won the battle over going down the stairs.”

Instead I forced her to sit on the step and told her “Sit there, no screaming, no crying, no fingers in your mouth. Two minutes.” She continued to scream and make herself gag. So I picked her up so that I was holding her up by her armpits and got her face level with mine and said very sternly, “NCootieGirlCRYING. NCootieGirlSCREAMING. STOP THAT RIGHT NOW.” She saw I meant business and immediately shut up and sat quietly on the step once I put her back down. Two minutes later I let her get up and she calmly walked down the steps and picked up her sippy cup of milk and took a big sip then asked to watch The Wiggles.

I went up to take a shower and even while I was in the shower I occasionally heard her high-pitched scream. Once out of the shower CootieDad came up for a few minutes and I told him that we needed to be a united front and NEVER GIVE IN TCootieGirlHER TANTRUMS. As my dad said in his comment on yesterday’s post (and I totally agree), it’s a war that only we can win – anything less would be detrimental to her.

Okay, so tonight was Meltdown #3. Number two’s meltdown was easily difused yesterday because I had CootieDad as backup. However, meltdowns don’t end easily when only Mama is here and the child is really angry that Daddy went out for the evening.

Add to that her frustration and not being able to dress herself yet (she desperately wants to and (to put it plainly) gets really pissed when she can’t put her clothes on herself), and you’ve got a doozy of a tantrum.

All she said between the screams was, “Go away, Mama!” which is her favorite thing to say nowadays. She wants nothing to do with me these days. I suppose it is because I’m the main one to discipline in the house (although there are times when I’m not home that CootieDad is with her, so I know I’m NOT the only one – but when CootieDad IS home I’m the one that disciplines).

No naughty chair this time – we were in her room and instead I dumped her into her bed, told her I loved her anyway, turned out the light and closed the door. What was ironic? CootieBoy happily bounced around his crib during CootieGirl’s entire tantrum and the moment I turned out the light he flopped facedown and settled in to go to sleep.

These “terrible twos” need to end pretty quick. After four days of this it’s getting old.

So a couple of hours ago CootieGirl went into a complete raging meltdown because she wanted milk and we wanted to give her water. Complete. Raging. Meltdown. I thought I had an Exorcist baby over the weekend with the vomiting? This was the demon possession. The child from two hours ago was NOT my precious sweet little daughter who says please and thank you and gives wonderful hugs and kisses. No, this was Spawn From Hell – screaming, gagging, red face, screaming, kicking, flailing on the floor and did I mention the screaming?

Over 2 oz of water in a sippy cup.

I got down on the floor with her (remember the flailing) and tried to reason with her, and when that wouldn’t work I picked her up, took her to the recliner and told her that she had to sit there for two minutes. No crying. No screaming. No getting up. For a good 30 seconds she protested and tried to get up, but I put her back and explained again that she had to sit there without crying or screaming.

I stepped a few feet away and she flipped onto her belly and had her legs dangling off the chair toward the floor, and so I said, “CootieGirl, do NOT move from that chair.” So she stayed there – on her belly, legs dangling off. And her feet never touched the ground. The good news? No crying or screaming. Just heavy sniffles, and an occasional post-crying hiccup. Two minutes later I came to her and told her to stand up. I gave her a hug (she hugged me back) and I told her I loved her and that screaming was not acceptable. I then handed her the sippy cup – with the water in it – and she gratefully accepted it and drank the whole thing then asked for more.

See, those Nanny tv shows ARE good for something.

So today CootieGirl seemed to have recovered from her illness. She was playful, giggly and fun. Then around 1 p.m. she became listless, fatigued and complained that her stomach hurt. I took her temperature (with an ear thermometer) and the first ear said 101.7 and the second ear said 102.5. I ran to get the medicine (Elixisure again, hoping she’d take it this time). She smelled the medicine and immediately began protesting. Just as it happend on Friday morning, she got a taste of the medicine and within seconds began hacking. Take note – I’ve officially learned that when she complains about her stomach hurting she means she’s nauseous and should be led to a toilet to hurl. I learned that lesson at approximately 1:14 p.m. when the entire contents of her stomach came rushing out of her mouth with no end in sight.

It was so nasty. It was mainly curdled milk because that’s all she wanted today. And of course, right at that moment CootieBoy decided to wake up from his nap and CootieDad opted to call me (he was out on RE business). I ignored CootieBoy crying from his crib while hastily hanging up on CootieDad in order to let Cooper outside before he decided to see if that stuff on the floor was a snack. And meanwhile CootieGirl stood in the kitchen, covered in vomit, wailing and trying to “get away” from the stuff on her shirt.

I managed to get her shirt off and threw it in the washer along with the rug she had been standing on in the kitchen. Realizing there was no way to escape getting dirty myself, I picked her up and took her upstairs, stripping her remaining clothes and dropping her into the bathtub. Once the water was on and she was content to stand in the tub and watch the bubbles I went downstairs, grabbed a bottle for CootieBoy from the fridge, and cleaned up the sofa (where some “refuse” had landed during her hurling spree). Once the sofa was clean I went to CootieBoy and gave him his bottle so that he’d calm down. Then I went in and the tub was Bubble Central and CootieGirl was playing. I turned off the water and washed her down quickly and just as CootieBoy finished his bottle and CootieGirl was dried and dressed, CootieDad walked in.

I put CootieGirl down for a nap around 2:00 pm and she’s still down with no desire to get up. I’ve gone in there a couple times to check on her or get her to drink some Pedialyte, but she just wants to be left alone.

We kept CootieBoy up for quite a while but finally put him in there for a mini-nap. So far he hasn’t gotten sick. I hope she just has a stomach flu and not something that CootieBoy will get in a couple of days. I don’t think I can handle more milk/formula regurgitation.

CootieGirl is still sick – she had a fever this morning of 100.3. Unfortunately I can’t take time off since I’m at a brand new job. And CootieDad had a lot of appointments that really couldn’t be cancelled today. So we loaded her up with medicine and CootieDad took her to daycare.

We initially gave her one fever reducer and within 30 seconds she threw up. Nice. It was only a little bit – I think it was more a gag reflex against the really thick syrupy medicine (Elixisure). We changed her clothes and gave her a new dose of medicine since she threw up the other dose.

Hopefully she does well at daycare today.

Update at 4:15 pm: Daycare called – CootieGirl has thrown up and her fever has spiked back up to 104 (supposedly – sometimes I think their thermometer is a bit hyped). Either way CootieDad has gone to pick her up and I’ll be leaving work promptly at 5 pm to go home and help.

This morning CootieGirl was very listless – she woke up in good spirits but within half an hour she was obviously out of sorts – she just laid on our bed while I got ready for work and didn’t really talk much. Usually she’s a bundle of energy in the morning, so I knew something was wrong.

Sure enough, CootieDad just called and said that Day Care called and said CootieGirl is running a fever and needs to come home. CootieDad is going to take care of some things and then pick her up around noon and take care of her. Poor little thing.

Last night when CootieDad got home from daycare with the kids CootieGirl pounded on the entry door. When I opened it she said, “Thank you!” and ran past me. I asked CootieDad if he prompted her to say it, and he said no.

Then last night when I handed her a drink she said, “Thank you!” with no hesitation.

Just a moment ago she was attempting to climb into CootieDad’ lap and she said, “Daddy, up, please!”

She has better manners than her mother at this point.

For a limited time only, here is the funny video of CootieGirl from the other day when she pooted. Yes, we’re prompting her a lot in the video, but it’s because she’s so frickin’ cute.

CootieGirl post-poot.