Conversations with Delphine

Delphine and I were drawing, and I had drawn her a spider. She told me to give him a crayon, so I drew a purple crayon. Then she asked me to draw him a hand (to hold the crayon with), which I did. Then I said "Should I give him a hat?"

She said, "No, he is not going outside."

Okay, then.

We went to the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair last weekend, and we brought back a block of fudge. The next day I gave a little piece to Delphine. She asked "Is it from the fair?" I said yes.

"Thank you fair!"

I was folding laundry and every so often I would ask Delphine what something was. (Life is one big pop quiz when you're a toddler.) I held up a pair of Blake's underwear and said "What's this?"

"Daddy's big-girl pants."

We were reading nursery rhymes, and I started reading one out. Delphine said "No, no, Mummy, that's my!" ("My" is "mine".) And then she read it out. After she was done I turned the page and said "Do you want to do this one too?"

"No, you can do it. It's not hard."

Thanks.

She's such a little person. She is taking really well to the baby; she comforts her ("It's okay, baby, you don't have to cry.") and tucks blankets around her and stuffs the soother in her mouth (whether she wants it or not) and wants me to help her when she cries.

Today Blake took the day off (because he is a good husband. Delphine was only in daycare one day this week, and Blake has only been back at work for a couple of weeks so he knew that I was kind of overwhelmed by the idea of four days this week with both girls, so he took the day off today. He doesn't bring me flowers or take me out to fancy dinners, but stuff like that is so much better.) and we played. Delphine and I made pancakes (she is a top-notch stirrer) for breakfast, and then we went down to the playground at the school. Blake and Delphine ran around and climbed stuff while I watched and held Cordelia. Then we came home for hot chocolate and Jamaican patties, then a nap.

After naptime we played with Cordelia (Delphine blanketed and de-blanketed her about twenty times) and went out for coffee, and ate the rest of Delphine's Hallowe'en candy (she did not share). She played some games with her new flower toys, who are called Baba and Zeyda, and looked out the window. ("The clouds are pink, and white. There is water in the sky. Daddy! There is water in the sky.")

Then there was more patty, and Baba and Zeyda (the real ones) came over to pick Delphine up for her sleepover, which might just be a regular Friday thing. It was such a nice, easy, sweet day. The kind of day you imagine when you picture yourself with kids.

We are poking gingerly at the idea of potty training. Delphine is so conflicted between being a big girl with big girl pants, and being a little baby in diapers like Cordelia. It's painful to watch. We put her in pull-ups today but the experiment failed dismally; it's obvious she's not really ready. Fortunately they don't seem to mind changing diapers at daycare, even though she has moved to the preschool room.

I have a three-pronged plan of attack to get her out of diapers: First, I am going to help her practice getting to the potty (I think "run to the potty!" sounds like a fun game) and taking off her pants. Second, I'm going to try getting her to sit on the potty several times a day. Finally, I think I will also switch her back to cloth diapers. I'm getting sick of paying for disposable, and I think they will help her (and me) figure out when she has peed. Hopefully between that and the fact that all the kids in the preschool room are potty trained, she will soon be using the potty for herself, but if not I will launch a more intensive campaign in January, after the new baby/Christmas upheaval is over. Because what the hell else is there to do in January?