Zoralee at eight weeks

It's the middle of the night, and Zoralee is having a rough go of falling asleep. Why do they fight it? Why? The one thing they need is to fall asleep, but it's the one thing they won't do. Odd. So while Jason's caring for her, it's a good time to post a few pictures. Here's Zoralee making up for her fussiness:

Don't you want to kiss them lips and nibble them ears?!

Last week's fun activity was Jason tying a string to Zoralee's arm and tying the other end to a string of Christmas lights. Everytime she moved her arm, the lights moved. It's entertainment for Baby and teaches cause and effect. Plus it gets Mama and Papa laughing real good and going on and on about how their baby controls the stars in the sky, etc. etc.



News too on the potty scene if you care to read. First, some background. We've wondered for some time if it was possible to avoid keeping babies in diapers all the time (and simultaneously avoid shampooing your carpet once a week). Jason used to say that whenever we had kids, we'd devise a pen for them to roam about in naked, and it would be outfitted with a drain so that we could hose the pen and the kids off nice and easy. When we got pregnant (we being me), we happened to talk to a gal who'd been to Africa and had seen that the women somehow know their babies need to go potty and hold them out into the street for it. Even little tiny babies.

It didn't take us long to figure out that Zoralee hates to be in a wet diaper. Through happenstance, I keep running into references to "Elimination Communication," known as EC. The main idea is that you can learn your baby's cues for elimination, particularly since there are common times they do it - after naps, after nursing, etc. We're just not accustomed to watching for it. Evidently, a minority of people worldwide (including Americans) train their children to pee and poo in their pants. I gather that the point is not early potty training, though that is an indirect result. It's to get you in tune to your kid and to allow them to be diaper free more often, thus reducing or eliminating rashes and discomfort, and saving diapers and diaper changes.

So, I've been giving Zoralee a code word and sound for a month now and gotten her to pee on command several times. And in the last two days, she has done it twice in the sink! You'd like to know what the code word is, wouldn't you? I'm afraid my smart alec brothers would read this and scheme to say the word to Zoralee at inopportune times. Ha! But suffice it to say, the word or sound can be anything. You could say rhinocerous, I suppose. A few times, Jason the Skeptical Scientist was in the room for the pees, so he is becoming convinced these aren't merely anecdotal positive results. There is a book, "Diaper Free," I'd like to read to fine tune the process, but I'm excited for this development!

I'm not for sure that Zoralee realizes I'm connecting with her in a special way, since she smiles just as heartily at the overhead light as she does at us. It's a little frustrating, actually. I know the light looks like a giant (how to put this delicately) bosom in the sky, but she acts like it's her best friend. And as far as I know, that light doesn't give a rip when and if Z pees in the sink.