Oh poop

Lately a lot of my posts have been about talking, though I've posted much less than I intended. Talking is exciting because I can understand a bit about how she sees her world. On our overseas trip we planned to get started on her potty training. We had the pull ups all ready to go, except she didn't like them and we didn't have space to pack them. Ok no pull ups then.

She could tell us when she needed to go poop but often too late. More recently she hasn't pooped into her diaper at all. She's been getting pretty good at it.

She's not so good at peeing yet. Just after her first time pooping into the toilet, she pees on the floor while waiting for the diaper to be put back on. Another time she finished her bath and again was waiting for a new diaper. My wife said she heard her say "wipe wipe" and found she was trying to wipe up after she peed on the floor again!

I like to think that I've played a role in potty training but the fact is my wife has much more impact and she is just learning at an incredible pace. I can't help but feel that I'm being left behind, unable to keep up in her changing world. It sounds silly as an adult but I've had trouble understanding what she's going through. Am I oversimplifying things? I hope I figure this out soon.

First airplane travel

Last week Jasmine got on her first flight. We didn't know what to expect. How would she feel being cramped in for 14 hours? We've all been on a flight with a crying baby and it can be stressful worrying about being bothersome to others. It seems people are getting better at accepting these scenarios.

Jasmine loved her flights. She was excited to see the airplanes. She had no trouble with the air pressure. Definitely a lot has changed about air travel since I was a kid. Nonstop overseas flights didn't exist back then or they were prohibitively expensive. Being able to fly nonstop means kids can sleep for longer,  or through the whole flight. Jasmine managed to sleep for most of our flights only waking towards the end after she slept her regular hours.

The jetlag was rough. With the time difference her naps mostly coincided with her usual naps. Overnight though we were all up around 3am. I can't blame her though - I was wide awake at that time as well but I'd try to go back to sleep. We'd all be back asleep by 5am.

When she's older I hope she will be just as excited as her first time. Long flights can be boring but there's a lot to look forward to once we land.

Talking is hard!

Jasmine has been talking for a few months now and her vocabulary and pronunciation improve daily. She loves talking but I think sometimes she gets frustrated at having to say so many things.

She didn't really rely on pointing at things as she generally knew the words or could get things herself. These days she seems to be forgetting words sometimes or just doesn't want to say the words. We have been teaching her to be polite and ask for things that she wants. It's tough to form sentences at her age but with repetition there's no reason she can't get it.

So I mark it down as frustration in communicating being so difficult. I'm getting better at being able to tell when she is being demanding and when she is genuinely troubled. It makes her so sad when she's troubled. She cries with such sadness and frustration. It pains me but I  can't let her just give up. If she attempts to repeat what I say, that's enough.

Yesterday she wanted me to blow some bubbles but forgot the words. She was pointing and pointing and I was guessing the wrong item. She cried but eventually got it. We played with some bubbles for a while and got a nice video. Today she asked for the bubbles again, with the right words, and we played again. I was so happy she said it right.