“I’m a big girl now!”

Last night marked a (long awaited) milestone for my littlest (3 year old) girl. She has been toilet trained for over a year with wees but I could not for the life of me get her to do no.2’s.

Last night, I sat in the bathroom with her and we sang songs (distraction) until – AMAZING – she used the toilet. Last night when ‘the event’ occurred we danced, we sang, we ate chocolate and high fived until our hands were sore – big sister joined in the festivities and Daddy ran the victory lap around the house with Miss 3 on his shoulders. She is STILL, almost 24 hours later, telling me what a ‘big girl’ she is and is so proud of herself.

Such a small thing, but such a BIG deal.

Personally, when it comes to toilet training success, I don’t think you can make a big enough deal about it – if that means forming a conga line around a potty, then so be it!

Another ‘big girl’ moment in this house today – Miss 5 took it upon herself to pull the vaccuum cleaner out of the cupboard. She then proceeded to vaccuum through the ENTIRE house! I had to withold my “Who are you and what have you done with my child?” remark and instead asked her why she decided to vaccuum. “Well, Mummy… the floor looks a bit dirty and I am growing up. I’m a big girl so I thought I should vaccuum!” She then told me that it was usually ‘Daddy’s’ job to vaccuum, but he is at work today. 😉

Miss 3 joined in on what has been the most enjoyable experience I have ever had with housecleaning – she pulled out her little toy vaccuum cleaner and together the sisters have made our home ‘sparkly’.

Compliment Circles in Preschool

At preschool, we have been taking part in what I call a ‘compliment circle’ (thanks to Teacher Tom for the idea!).

We sit in a circle and one by one we go around and tell the person to our left something we like about them.

When we first did this, the compliments were fairly superficial – “I like your jacket” for example. This was fine as it still brought a smile to the face.

Very quickly though, my wonderful 4 year olds have progressed to comments such as “I like playing with you because…” and “I love you for being my friend” – enough to bring a proud tear to this teacher’s eye! The children are also big fans of the ‘group hug’ at the end – a creation all their own!

We love our compliment circles and I have noticed a significant drop in ‘nasty behaviour’ – because (as we say in my room) it ‘feels better to say something nice than to do something nasty‘ – right? 🙂