Growing up fast!

Eva told me again last night that she wanted to see her nanny in China. I told her that we are sending her a letter and pictures and that we would go to China to visit her when we could. Eva asked me, "In car. Drive to China now?" I told her that China was on the other side of the world and we would have to fly there in an airplane another day. Then I told Eva that it was okay to miss her nanny and that her nanny loved her too and missed her also. I told her that the way to express that was to say, "I am sad because I miss my Nanny." I reassured her that I would always be with her and that it was okay to be sad and cry, mommy will hold her while she's crying and help her. I don't know what else to do. I've given her permission to mourn, I have taught her how to express her sadness and feelings and I have encouraged her that I will be with her always. I think I've finally figured out why suddenly at this very young age she is asking me about her nanny. I think that she thought about her before (some of her midnight crying) but that she didn't have the vocabulary to express it before. I've been reading her that book, "I love you like crazy cakes," and we look at pictures and movies of the nannies in the orphanage with Eva. I think she has finally connected her story with words in her brain and figured out how to say what she has thought before. She is amazingly smart. I want her to know that she is free to talk about this, that I won't ever feel threatened by her feelings nor deny them. The challenge is getting that message across to a 2 year old.

Eva has taken another big step towards growing up this weekend. She began her potty training. I have never given her so much candy in a single day before. She had to have had at least 20 pieces of candy on Saturday alone. In fact, I couldn't get her off the potty chair, she wanted to sit on it all day so she could get more candy. I got so sick of singing her potty chair song that I made up for her:
"Eva went potty on the potty chair
mommy checked, and the potty was there
Eva went potty on the potty chair
She's a big girl, wearing underware
Eva went potty on the potty chair
Yea... Candy!"
It's suppose to be accompanied by clapping and marching on the way to the kitchen to get the candy. She loves the song. Claps and sings along. She stands so pround by her potty chair, holding the lid up and showing me her big accomplishment. Then she runs downstairs to show granny her candy and get more praise, then back up to try for more candy. She did great though... she had one accident with #1 that she caught after it started and then ran to the potty chair to finish it (and get her candy)--that was early on in the process. The only other accident she had was while she was eating dinner. She didn't want to stop eating long enough to go potty and so had a #2 on her chair. On Sunday, she didn't have any accidents--and woke up with a dry diaper. She even went in the potty chair at church. I was very proud of her. Both Saturday and Sunday she still had trouble with her nap. I realize this is a lot of information that nobody probably cares about. I, personally, never dreamed in a million years that I would be writing a mini-essay about going potty. So, really I'm going to have to stop now before I can't even stand it anymore. Yet, it is strangely interesting to me, and I am very proud of Eva. She appears to be catching on to this thing very quickly and easier than I expected. She does hate pull up diapers and refuses to wear one, it's either the regular type diaper or panties.

I'm anxious to find out how things went at daycare today.