Today we're potty-training - it's a long process but I have found a no-cry solution to encourage my resiliant almost four year-old to at least sit on the potty. Chocolate Advent calendars were on sale for 29 cents and he'll gladly sit on the potty to open one of those little doors. So the first time's a freebie, he sit's on the potty and gets to open a door. After that, well there has to be something in the potty and well we have yet to get that second door open. My almost two year old on the other hand has mastered going in the potty, as long as I remind her to sit on it.
With the development of speech comes good times. William, though a late bloomer in speech mastered commands quickly: "milk." progressed to "You get me milk, Mom" to his latest development "You better get me some milk." Though we require him to change his command to a request: "Mom, could you please get me some milk," he still always begins with that command. He is definately an oldest child - I guess that is what happens when both your parents are oldest children. Miriam, on the other hand, mastered the art of saying please at a very young age. She realised quickly that her"please will open more doors and is a lot more likely to change mom's mind than her second favorite manner of coersion - crying as if her heart was broken.
