Potty Training update

A few people asked me to keep them updated on how Jada's potty training is going. When we were in Canada I was just letting her go in an ice cream bucket because it was easier. No carpet here versus carpet there and I was worried about her having a miss on the way to the bathroom. I forgot the ice cream bucket and over the two months we were there she had learned to associate the ice cream bucket with "it's okay to pee/poo now. So when we got back to Beijing she wouldn't go. I had to start from square one again. I took a day to take note of every time she peed or pooed and from that got an idea of how often I should ofter her the potty. While I was doing that I was also re-teaching her to associate the Q sound with potty not with which potty it was. That went really well, I was quite pleased with how fast she was back on track. I only potty her while we are in the house, during the day. At night and going outside and at church/other events I just put a diaper on her. You need to have flexibility, especially in the winter when you have to dress them up in sooo much clothes to go out. It is just not convenient. Jada does really well. I keep her in a Velcro cloth diaper (it is easier to take on and off) and she stays dry for the most part until her nap and then I change the cloth after her nap. Here the apartments are heated by hot water pipes that run through the buildings. I hand scrub the cloths and hang them on the hot water pipes and they are bone dry in a couple hours (we don't have a dryer). I have learned to just go by my instincts. I have got to where I just know when she needs to go and if I go on that instinct then she stays dry. It is very interesting experimenting with this totally new way of potty training considering that I had never heard of this method until coming to China. The first time I heard it, it was very hard for me to believe just because of our western way of thinking but it really works. It still amazes me but I guess it totally makes sense. Babies learn so fast, it is an optimal time to teach them new things. Other news about Jada; she is laughing now and it is so cute. Her first big laugh was at church when this other baby tried to steal her binky and now she is laughing more and more. She is just fascinated with watching the bird eat out of our hands. I hope that Amber will make a good pet for her as she gets a little older. Eventually we would like a parrot that we can teach how to talk and do cool tricks and are not so liable to get stepped on or squashed but they are sooooooo expensive. I don't know how much they cost in China, we will have to check that out.