Its potty time for Sarah and Pickles!

So at my parents Sarah started to want to pee on the potty, which she has been strongly against for some time now. So i was over the moon to see she was interested in it again. So when we got home she peed on the potty a couple of times but never when we were out and often on the floor..you know how it goes. Then we were at Kelly's house and i thought I'd give it a go, so i took of her nappy and let her bare little bum run around. Nick was sleeping, which is only relevant later, so she sat on the potty there...for ages, no pee pee. then mum its coming pee pee is coming! quick. She rushes sits down and pees, then she claps and is extremely excited to the point that she wakes up Nick. Bless her, she was so pleased with herself ( i too added to the excitement!) then later she did it again! yeah way to go. this time I'd figured out that if you turn on the potty (i didn't know you could) then it plays music when she pees in it! how cool was that, for a little girl that loves music. She was over the moon.
So at home we made a star chart,and then she stopped peeing on the potty! yep it had the reverse effect. she refused to use the potty and thus i didn't push the issue. Then i tried again at a friends house and she did it twice. I gave her jelly (little mega sweet things that come in tiny containers that every kid loves). She was well chuffed that she got the jelly and went home and peed again, and asked for a jelly.
So the jelly worked the stars didn't.
this kid likes rules so i placed some, i told her when she was at home she wasn't to wear a nappy anymore (only at night). So this week we'd had a few fights where she wanted me to put on the nappy...so she could pee/poop. but I'd say no then when we'd go out I'd put on one and yep she's poop in it. so i told her if she peed on the potty she could have a jelly if not then no jelly's. If she pooped then she could have two jelly's (oh the other thing she learnt to do well in the UK was to count, so cute).
today was the first day i had a break though with the potty fiasco. We didn't go out all morning and see peed 3 times and pooped once, her first ever poop on the potty!! i was so pleased. however i am started to regret the jelly rule as this morning she has already eaten 5 jelly's...not so good!
So we left the house to go to the nannies with no nappy on, yep i risked it and she made it just fine. i am quite sure she will kill me when she's older and knows that i shared this information with the world, but I'd happy and i want to tell people.
the other thing that happened earlier this morning is that my cat Pickles, pooped for the first time on the toilet too. the real toilet that is. She's been peeing on the toilet for about 3 years now but normally she has a bowl with a little bit of sand in it and holes so the pee goes threw and the poop stays and she can cover it ect...
Well Thomas looked after her when i was in England and when he returned her he forgot her bowl. She'd been peeing just fine on the loo, but would poop in the "garden". today the weather is horrible and wet and she wasn't going outside so she just pooped in the loo.
thus I've had a very busy poopy day! :)
i will post a video of pickles peeing that tom put on line...i'm happy as after 3 years of trying to potty train Pickles, i now have no more cat poop to clean up...i hope!

flight home.

So we are back in Taiwan, Sarah was sick for the flight back but i got her some sinus medication to clear up the mass amount of snot she was producing just in time for the flight. The first 11 hrs went really well and i thought to myself wow i did it it was so much better than the trip there. Then we had a short flight from bangkok to HK, which i didn't relise was on the agenda, then HK to TW...the flight to HK wasn't too bad but she feel asleep and i had to wake her up..thus not so much fun waiting for the next flight and then dealing with the next flight...
However i have to say all in all that she did really well with the whole flighting thing. Seroiouly she was great, she never had a time that she cried inconsolably, never did she have a time where she threw herself about in a big old hissy fit. She cried a bit, yes but so would i, she hates to chew gum, sweets ect so the pressure up and down wasn't so great, particulaly on the shorter flights. I hurt me and i was chewing like crazy.
All in all i think kids will do much better than you think they will. i will say this that wrapping small (kind of crappy) little gifts REALLY helps. I have to thank Heather for this idea, it really works very well and she loved it. she would sit with one in her hand for ages waiting till we got on the plane, then open it taking another 3 mins then would play with it for well lets face it no more than 20 mins, it really helped to settle her down and pass the time. The other thing was that we took my little laptop that Tom had copied her dvds onto it so she could watch them. this was a life saver too, and made the 11 hr trip much better than it would have been, i even got to watch a movie as she was so into Dora. So thank you for the tips.
The plane that we had on the way back was just as crappy as the way there, i didn't think they even ran those type of planes still, it had just the one big screen at the front which is so well last year! haha. next time i think i will try and see if you can make sure you get the back of the head entertaiment system, its so much better.
The jet lag was worst coming back then going, i always fine that to be the case. It didn't help that i had to work the next day...i didn't relise that i would be but i had to. I told them that i was happy to go to the halloween party / not really a party. So they assumed that i would have normal teaching duty before...great. poor sarah had to go to the nannies less than 24 hrs after getting of a 15 hr flight. not good. and i had to teach...maybe not my finest hrs of teaching! next time i will make sure i come back late friday so i get a weekend before i have to teach again!

Fringes and farms

Never realise the benifit to sharing a bed with someone, personally i can't bear it and would much rather sleep on my own in my own room far way from wiggly worms.
Anyway, at home (Taiwan) Sarah has to sleep in my bed (only got air con in my room and its well very hot in Taiwan in the summer) but she sleeps on her own matress so is a bit higher and generally stays on the matrise. Here however she is just in the same bed. Which isn't great, but last night it was cold here..no suprise, when i went to bed Sarah was sleeping on "my side " so i got in and pushed her over. Thats when i was enlighted to the benefits of sleeping in the same bed as someone, my bed was nice and warm and then she was lying right next to me giving off heat, so i didn't have those 10 mins when you get into be and are colder than when you where out of bed.
nice. i new there must be some benifits! but maybe that's the only one.
I cut Sarah's hair, due to the fact when she was ill her hair was GLUED to her face with snot. Seriously. My sisters kid (Sky) was the same, and louise cut a fringe into her hair, and it looked really cute. So i thought i'd try it. I like it but it makes her look older...gosh they grow up too fast!
We went to finkley down farm, which is a petting farm in the town i grew up in. i grew up going to this farm and loved it. They do a great job there. Anyway, i took Sarah and of course she loved it totally.
My friend Leah gave Sarah a baby doll, normally she has rejected ALL dolls given to her, Lili would try to share her dolls with her and she'd push them away. However she is now in love with little dolls, and can't get enough of her new baby doll. Mum brought her a bottle to feed the doll with and the look on her face when she does it is so funny, this really serious face...i guess it looks a bit like my expression when i am trying to consentrate. very cute mind.

sick little Sarah bear

So we went to Wales to see my friends, they have a place that is in the middle of no where...really.
So Sarah had been sick with a cold, but so had i and i just thought it's just a heavy cold. She seemed to be getting a bit better on Saturday and i thought great she'll be fine for Wales...
needless to say i spoke to soon. We stayed over at Barrs (David's) house on Saturday and on Sunday morning she was perky and fine.
We stopped at a service station and she played fed ducks and seemed ok, a little more winny maybe but not too bad. Then we arrived at my friends lovely cottage, really lovely but there were lots of people still there and Sarah was well more than shy. She was clinging on to me for dear life poor thing. She was winny and cling, she was obviously not herself, that night after lots of people left she still was no Sarah, that night she was up and really sick with a heavy cold and fever, the next morning she was all well not right at all, so Dan took us to the hospital, which was 20mins away. The A&E (ER) staff said she was dehydrated and had really bad tonsilitus, and a heavy cold...so much snot i couldn't even belive how often i had to wipe her nose!
So they tried to put in an I.V but she moved right when they'd got it sorted and it popped the vein, so her little had swelled up and they took it out and she was left with a big old bruise, not nice.
Then she got moved to pediatricts and saw three more drs that all said the same thing, after four examinations i was a little bit naraked that no one had given her anythingfor the pain...4 hours later she was admitted to the pediatric ward and given antibiotics and pain relive (a spray along with the normal stuff). We stayed in all day and she finally got a little better. We went to leave and they gave us her medication and that was that. we didn't have to pay to sign to do anything, the NHS is and can be amazing really. They new that Sarah was adopted and we'd come from Taiwan, they didn't mind, it was so weird after living in Taiwan where you have to fill in forms show i.d ect...So at 10 pm we went back to my mates house.
That whole week i had to carry her around all the time, she was winny clingly and well just a mess. i kept praying that she would wake up and just be my Sarah bear again. She didn't the whole time, my dad came to get us on Thursday night and stayed over, on Friday she was a little bit better but still clinging to me. I was SO tired really, i wished that i could pass her to someone...of course everyone offered and but she wouldn't really go to them for long or without me right there! my joints were killing me. i was also so disapointed that my friends *(on of which Sarah is named after) didn't get to meet real Sarah bear. So sad.
So we left and on Friday she was well much better and by Saturday she was Sarah bear again! so nice.
So she's back to being herself again.
Here's some photos!

home, at last I've written a post!

So i have tried to write this post endless times, but Sarah or something keeps stopping me from writing it. The Internet is in our / her room so when she goes to sleep...i can't surf or type of course ...thus i don't get alone time ok i am in England, we are fine the flight was delayed for 2 hr on the runway..not good Sarah saying i want to fly mummy fly...ect... for 2 hr. then it took off then she fell asleep, just when they served the food.. i sealed it in a spare zip lock and she ate it when she woke up. She did ok on the flight really didn't cry much but she was able to walk around alot so that helped. The wrapped presents also did the trick , thank you miss Heather for that one! They really are perfect thing to bring as it makes them sit down still for well 10 mins if your really lucky! the plane was crappy, no back of the head screens for movies no no, it was old school like one big screen way over there for every one to watch in the middle rows and a tiny one for the side rows..thus Sarah had no hope of seeing it not that she'd want to as it was all adult movie (not porn i mean grown up movies!) Tom had put all Sarah's dvd's on a hard drive so she was able to watch a few programs on my mini computers, Thank you Thomas as that was also a life saver. Oh and regardless of the delay this was by far the longest flight i ahve ever taken...seriously it seemed like forever! normally i sleep or watch movies listen to book music ect...this time i was the enteratinment system...not so easy she only slept 3 times and for an hour each time,for way over 14 hrs flying time..not good not looking forward to the trip back i can tell you. Ok so we went to my sister (Louise) and i met Sky for the first time, she's just over 1 and very cute and sweet. Sarah and her seemed to get on well, she wanted to kiss Sarah a lot and well Sarah didn't scream at her when she was holding Spot for about 2 mins..(Spot is the thing that she doesn't have to share it's her spec ail toy like a blanket or something but its a small knitted spotty cat) So here are some photos from last weekend, i will put more up from this week as soon as i get two mins, Sarah is currently sat on my lap as the bath time was over quicker than i hoped! shame. She's taken to my parents which is really great she asks where they are and wants to follow them around when they are home, she even lets mum and dad give her hugs and stuff...but still doesn't want any one but me push the buggy, put her shoes on or anything like that....what's that about. mum took her out of the bath and she let her but then grabbed hold of me like a little limp and wouldn't let go, like i was going to leave her. you really think that she still remembers all the times i did leave her, i guess that she does huh. ok here are the cute photos. enjoy. Ps some are taken by Sarah...spot those win a prize (...oh as a disclaimer no prize will really be given!) oh and i just found this video...haha

Butterflies!!

So today i have butterflies and am feeling quite sick..excited nervous not sure..
Then i realised that i started my period today. Great right, so i get to fly with a 2 1/2 year old for over 14hr, while i am tired from having no sleep for the past few days due to excitement/worry ...ect, and now i will have the added joy of my period. nice.
Not!
never mind, i am sure that i will be just fine...can i really not take a hot water bottle on the plane? really can i not take Soya milk to subdue Sarah, as i know she will ask for it.
Dam those bomb makers and there stupid plans to blow up a plane with liquid. So annoying, but its still fine to take massive glass bottles from the duty free shop, but no no to nail scissors, what is that all about?? Seriously, i mean i'd rather be attacked by a pair of nail scissors that i big glass bottle, that you can knock someone out with then stab them repeatedly. Has no one ever thought about that? no really? It all stinks of making money as the reason you can and can't take some things on board.
Sarah's just turned up, the nanny brought her here as i was late...bad mother. She was screaming because she'd lost her shoe in the road and freaked out. the nanny said she's really scared of the road...err...too right then she will not run on it, am i the only one that think they should be scared of the road??
I know that Sarah will never run on the road, she walks down the street with out holding my hand and i know she's fine. She's only ever gone on the road once , and it was right in front of a car...quite road, very slow but you know scary. she's not done that again. now i trust her to be safe with road...so of course she's scared of them!!
anyway better go, we have to leave at like 3 am as the flight is at 7:30 am, i feel bad for Tom as he will be driving, i feel bad for Sarah as she will be sleeping, but i guess that is why it was the cheap flight. ho hum i am going via Thai airlines, and i have heard they are pretty good. i booked assistance and vegan meals, so i am a right complainer...gosh i wonder how on Earth i got to be so darn fussy, i nearly asked for no Almonds too but i figure that's all a little bit too much (almonds give me, and my family it would seem, mouth ulcers big painful ones..not so good. my sister had almonds on the way over and she got a big one. not good.)

getting ready to go go go!

Sarah and i are in the libary checking our email...well i am, she is currenty running around with no shoes on (there is carpet here so that means its clean right mummy?) she's collecting "rocks" from flower pots and eating her manto (bread), i am sure that i will get told off at any moment..but you know she's happy and she doesn't go too far from me.
I let her walk off out of my sight quite often as she never goes far and is always safe, however i think i better no do that in the uk as someone might take her, here there's little to no chance that will happen (of course there is always a chance but its pretty slim). As for the uk i don't know maybe, she's pretty darn cute! :)
We've been doing lots of shoppping to buy stuff for people in at home, and i gave sarah some of her own money to get anything she wanted only like 60nt with is about 1 pound, so what does she buy...
She buys two peach juice boxes one for me and one for her, then she buys hello kitty wet wipes...yes wet wipes. I ask if she is sure and yes she wants that, so that's what she got.
She then used them to clean the table, the floor and her face...
she's so clean...but they smell like floor cleaner so i don't think i want her to wipe her face with them again.