Big Girl to Baby and Back Again

I just can't keep track of The Chebs.

First, she has fully and suddenly potty trained herself. I haven't cleaned a poopy diaper in a week, and aside from a few leaks here and there, she's using plumbing like the rest of us bipeds.

BUT she wants me to CARRY her everywhere. I used to crave physical contact with my otherwise stand-offish child, but if I hear the whiny words, "CAAAWWY ME!" one more time, I'm going to blow a gasket. She says it in a deliberately babyish voice, too, and it can happen any time:

"OK, Chebbles, it's time for dinner!"
"Caaaaaawy me!"
"But dude, Chebs, you're three feet away from the dinner table."
(Bursts into tears) "Caaa-aaaa-aaaaaiwy me!"

And she's also transitioned into a Big Girl Bed really well. She's a little confused (as am I) as to whether she's allowed to get up and use the bathroom in the middle of the night. She wakes up and wants to go to the potty, but then she starts having all of these "pretend" visits to the potty because it's fun and exciting to wake up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

But in general, she's ensconced happily in her big girl bed. She has never come into our bedroom in the middle of the night or had any other adventures outside of her room, so that's cool.

So now she's sleeping in this huge double bed that she'll likely use until she leaves for college, and I had a lump in my throat when I watched her clamber up into it and snuggle down into the sheets for the first time.

"Chebbles, what song do you want me to sing to you tonight?"
"No song, Mama."
"Oh sweetie, you don't want any song?"
"Not anything, just close the door, Mama."

OK... boohoo.

But as she's evolved into a champion potty-pisser and big-bed-sleeper, she is also completely obsessed with Baby V's bottles and pacifiers. Hooooo boy do I wish we had no need for those baby accoutrements here, but we do, and Chebbles gets extremely weird and golem-ish about them.

She's relocated full bottles into back pantries so she can find them later, most notably offering Baby V a bottle that had been festering in a cabinet for several days (which was nice of her, but still...). And I do NOT use the word "binky" but she does, all the time, as in, "Mama, where is Baby V's binky? Can I touch her binky? Can I carry her binky?" And if I cave even once, if I let her pick up a stray pacifier from the floor or carelessly leave it on a counter, it will be in Chebbles' mouth within seconds.

The vexing thing is that she never wanted a pacifier or even a bottle when she was an infant. Life would have been easier if she'd been into them. No, it wasn't until she was abou 18 months old that she started wanting "binkies" all of the time, posing in mirrors with them and getting super-weird about them, shrieking with grief if she couldn't find one particular pacifier in the middle of the night.

So whenever we have to make Baby V a bottle, we have to be hypervigilant for The Chebs, who will sneak up behind a person and take elements of the bottle -- the inner mechanisms or the nipple -- and hoard them elsewhere, or hang them jauntily from her mouth.

"Would it work if we just gave her a bunch to play with and let her get tired of them?" asked her sitter. Ahahahahaha. No. See: Golem. The longer she has them, the stranger she gets. (See photo)

And in the meantime, she's becoming more charming than ever. She adores her sister, showering her with love and little presents. While Baby V was napping today, Chebbles gathered a bunch of money for her. I'm not sure what Baby V is going to buy with these assembled coins, but it was sure nice of her.

And she can't wait for the day that Baby V is allowed to sleep in the big girl bed with her. It's not going to be for about, umm, two years, but she's already jazzed about cuddling with her sister all "Little House on the Prairie" style.

So that's the story on La Chebbelle these days -- you never know if you're encountering BABY child or BIG GIRL child, so you've got to be on your toes!