Covid Diaries Week 8

May 2nd - May 8th

Doing
We took on the epic task of potty training Ollie this week. He is nearly two, so maybe a bit young for it. But I definitely think he is ready. He clearly knows when he is doing his business and he’s a pretty verbal kid. He understands a lot and can communicate very well, so we figured we’d use this time in isolation to get potty training over with. I consulted the book I used when we potty trained Ella (I loved this book - both the tips around potty training and the way it was written). Ella was super easy to potty train, and although I know that all kids are different, I couldn’t help but think Ollie would be somewhat similar. Oh how wrong I was!

Basically, the “method” we used was to start by having Ollie go naked from the waist down, and then to watch him like a hawk. At the first sign of a wee, we pick him up and tell him that we wee on the potty. Everything is supposed to stay nice and calm, and we’d use statements like “Ollie, you weed on the floor. Next time you need to wee on the potty. Please help me clean up the mess”. Except that “calm” was not really Ollie’s reaction when we tried to put him on the potty. Now, this kid has sat on the potty before, pretending to go to the bathroom, so it’s not like he was afraid of the actual potty. It just seemed like he was afraid to do his business there. He screamed and resisted the potty, stiffening his body into a rigid plank whenever we tried to have him sit on it.

Just before dinner on the first day, after Ollie had already weed on me twice and Andy once, he wanted to sit on my lap to read a book. Here is our conversation:

Me: Ok, you can sit on my lap, but no weeing on mummy
Ollie: (Happily) Yes wee on mommy!
Me: No wees on mummy, Ollie. Where do we do wees now?
Ollie: In a diaper!

Oh dear.

The first few days were definitely a challenge for us. Ollie was very resistant to using the potty., although he was proud of himself when he did make it on time, and was very happy to flush his wee and poo down the toilet when finished. By the end of this first week we’ve seen a lot of improvement, and Ollie will usually run over to us saying “help me!” which we’ve worked out is him asking for help to use the potty, and down to one accident a day (usually when he is very distracted by something much more fun than using a potty). So we have some hope that he will get there!

Potty training took up the bulk of our attention and mental space this week. In other news... we had nice summer-like weather on Sunday. Cue Ella getting out her bathing suit. She very happily played in this little blow up pool all afternoon:


She even set herself up a little lounging area by her pool:


Later in the week at lunch Ella and I went on a picnic. We set ourselves up on some fake grass on a soccer pitch behind her school, ate some snacks, ran around and just generally had a good time. Any change of scenery from our house, no matter how simple, is a good thing.



Cooking
This salad by Jamie Oliver. Broccoli and cauliflower roasted in baharat spice, mixed with garlicky lemon lentils and topped with honey fried halloumi. Yes please! Unfortunately this was not my dad’s favourite dinner so we probably won’t make it frequently but it is one of my favourites.

I baked banana bread quinoa breakfast cookies (similar here) by Love and Lemons for the third time since we’ve been in isolation, and they were again popular, basically disappearing within a day

I also made chocolate chip oatmeal pancakes by the Minimalist Baker. I tried cooking them on too high of a temperature so the outside cooked too quickly and then inside remained a bit mushy. I used a flax egg instead of a real egg so they were still fine to eat, and the kids gobbled them up, so they weren’t too much of a disaster!

My mom made a delicious banana, pumpkin, and zucchini bread this week. It was just sweet enough that it satisfied your craving for a treat, and is far healthier than anything store-bought.

Watching
Andy and I started watching Money Heist on Netflix. It is SO GOOD! And there are 4 seasons (or “parts” as they are labelled on Netflix). Yippee!

I also started watching Parks & Recreation as my go to when I’m running on the treadmill. Yes I know I’m about 10 years late on this one, but I had never seen it and it’s a good one to watch while trying to distract from the monotony of the treadmill. I read Amy Poehler’s book Yes Please a few years ago (really liked it) and have always thought she was very funny. The show, as you probably already know, is great.

Reading
I am still reading Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. It’s taking me ages to get through. I think I’ve been reading it for about two months and am a quarter of the way in. I’m enjoying it, but need to be “in the mood” to read it. And I can only get through about 10 pages at a time. I don’t have a current fiction book on the go. I started reading a book set in post-WWII, and I just can’t get into it. I usually love this genre, but I feel like I need my fiction reads to be light and uplifting at this point in time. There is just too much real life tragedy in the news, I need something a bit less heavy right now.

Learning
Andy taught my dad how to use the sewing machine this week, and my dad made his own mask!


In the news
All stores that have a street entrance can be open for curbside pickup in Ontario from next Monday, which is good news. Things are looking up in our province.

Australia and New Zealand are doing really well and seem to have contained the outbreak. They are talking about allowing travel between the two countries, without a quarantine period on arrival, at some point in the near future. I must say I’m a bit jealous! Oh travel, I miss you.

Comments

Hi friend! Finally catching up on posts. Ella is looking so grown up! I read that same potty training book with Leighton and did it with Houston when isolation started in March. He’s done pretty well but still has accidents here and there (but leighton was the same for a while). I didn’t realize Canada was so shut down. We’re in a bit of a bubble over here and you know how the news is (20% Australia and the rest is US news).

Popular Posts