Progress Before Birth of Second Child

It seemed like it was a bit less than a month ago when we were still experiencing frequent temper tantrums from Scarlett. Well, like many behaviors that have come and gone quickly, her temper tantrums appear to have abated recently (knock on wood). For the past month or so, Scarlett seems to be in a happier mood in general, throws less tantrums, and even plays by herself a bit more now. I never thought I'd get to this point: after all, one of the many reasons we decided to have a second child was so that she would have someone else to play with besides me/us all the time. During my non-working days, it's always been more taxing because she needs me to play/pay attention to her almost every minute. Now, I'm often amazed by how well she's able to play by herself. I can actually wash the dishes or prepare dinner (sometimes) and she would be happy playing with her kitchen or her other toys. Hopefully, it will stay this way after her baby brother is here and I have much less time to spend with her.

On the eating front, she is still very picky and a finicky eater but she has gotten a little bit better in her willingness to eat certain foods. In the last two weeks, she has actually eaten bacon and chicken, when she usually never eats meat (with the exception of ham and hot dog). She also ate 5 broccoli florets in one meal and she usually never touches vegetables. I can't get her to repeat those preferences every meal but hey, it's progress!


Lastly, She's made so much progress in the potty training department. The difference is almost night and day. She started potty-training last Oct. and even though she's been potty-trained with regards to pee-peeing, pooping has been a whole other story. Because she's been constipated her entire solid-eating life, we've struggled with this one since the potty training started. I won't gross you out but my husband and I were very tired of running to the potty with her up to 20 times a day (mostly false alarms) and washing many poopy underwears each day. Ever since we got back from Hawaii and we greatly increased her daily dose of Miralax, she's been just about perfect with going to the potty. She's no longer constipated (and the potty-training and constipation issue go hand-in-hand). I think I've probably handwashed one underwear in the last two months. You wouldn't believe how happy my husband and I are over not having to deal with this issue anymore.

Well, let's hope none of these things regress after the second one is born.