Con-artists have nothing on toddlers

At almost two, my daughter has taken an interest in the potty. While I would hardly say she is potty training, she likes to sit on the potty and a few times the timing has been right when she is sitting there. Once she even told me ahead of time and we got to the potty in time for her to pee. But for the most part, peeing is done in the diaper and that seems just fine with her.

So why on earth was I sitting in the bathroom with a naked toddler who was on a frog potty at 4:00 AM this morning? Because she conned me, that's why.

It started with some stirring in her room right as the clock hit 4:00. I ignored it. Then she started talking. I ignored it. Then she said, Mommy. I still ignored it. This happens a lot. If I ignore it, she will generally entertain herself for a little while or even go back to sleep. But not today. Today, she pulled out the big guns. "I go pee pee on potty," she shouted.

Me: What did she just say?
Scott: Grmph, huuh. Zzzzzz
Caroline: I go pee pee on potty (louder, this time)
Me: She said she wants to pee pee on the potty. Can she be serious?
Scott: Zzzzzz zzzzzzz
Me: I know she is lying but I'm going to do it anyway, just in case.

So I stumbled to her room, pulled her out of bed, stripped off her footie pajamas and diaper, and put her naked on the froggy potty. She sat there, we sang a song and nothing was deposited into the potty. It didn't matter though. She had achieved her real goal.

Mommy was up and she was naked. Life was good.

Halloween recap

Last October 31st my daughter was just under 10 months old, not walking and certainly not eating candy yet, so we never considered taking her trick-or-treating. She just crawled to the door and smiled at all the kids and gummed the credenza. Being the ridiculous person that I am, I did buy her a costume. And it was, of course, ridiculous. But adorable.

That's my little witch on the right. The costume was over the top and of course Caroline hated it. But my God it was cute.

This year, being full-fledged, card-carrying toddler meant Caroline got to go trick or treating for the first time. I was determined not to be insane when I picked out a costume. As much as I loved the froo froo Tinkerbell costume, I knew it would be cold on Halloween night and a coat would simply not go over Tinkerbell's wings. Yes, I am the Mom who makes her kid wear a coat over her Halloween costume. It snowed two days before Halloween here, People. Anyway, I poured over the costume catalogs and after consulting Scott, decided she would be an adorable gnome.

Adorable, yet not too hindering or obnoxious. Right?

Of course, my child hated it.

By the time we left the house, there was no hat and no cute little shoe covers. But there was an awesome pumpkin. (The only Jack-o-lantern in our house actually, because some of us never found time to actually carve the pumpkins we bought weeks ago).

It didn't matter though, she was all over the trick-or-treating. My formerly shy little monkey, went right up to the doors and showed no hesitation taking candy from strangers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=3qOiQJsqeOc

It was going great until a zombie/monster type thing opened their door and Caroline promptly lost her shit. That was the end of trick-or-treating and the beginning of a very long crying freak out. I was afraid she would be scared to go to sleep or have nightmares, but neither was a problem. The crying was stopped by introducing her to the wonderful world of lollipops.  Sugar is a cure all.

My fears that she was traumatized by it all were for nothing as last night, she tried to go trick-or-treating again.