Fatherhood

One of the more frustrating parts of fatherhood is trying to help potty train my daughter. She has an obstinate streak that would amaze many people.
She vacillates between telling me she is big and then she is a baby. I think she does the latter so I will back off on telling her what to do. It just is not going to happen, I tell her. It was amusing, at first. Now I consistently tell her she is big even when she says she is a baby.
It has come to the point that either my wife or I have to keep her on the potty until she is done. She does number 1 fine. Oh boy does she have issues with number 2. She screams and screams. Despite several attempts, she has not pooped in the potty yet. I take that back. She did once, looked at it and grossed out. I think she could not believe that came from her.
This morning was a similar occurrence. She cried and cried, and nothing.
Her routine is running into her room and closing the door. That is when I know she has to do number 2.
In order for her to learn, I may have to remove her from the room, sit her butt on the potty, and wait it out. Let the tears flow, let the rampage begin!
Other than the potty issue and her stubborn streak, she is a well behaved girl.
Does anyone have any suggestions for alleviating this problem with number 2?
George

Most everyone can enjoy the spirit of dressing up for holloween. What better way to bring joy into a child’d heart than to dress them up? In that vein I dressed my daughter up as Nemo. That is her favorite character (right now, subject to change without notice.)
If she had it her way she would sleep with the Nemo costume nestled underneath her tiny arms.
When I dropped her off at daycare this morning, she was very excited when we ingressed the building and saw all her friends dressed up too. She went around to the different kids and was touching, feeling all the costumes. There is magic to a child’s touch. He or she can discern whether the cloth is smooth, rough, itchy and various other important details. That enables them to build up a repretiore of knowledge. At two she is a sponge and needs different stimuli to provoke thought.
When my wife was pregnant I used to put headphones on her swelled belly and play classical music. Only time will tell if it helped any.
Additionally, I read to my wife’s pregnant belly and both my wife and I read to her every evening we are home. Nothing gives me more joy than to see her on the couch with a book in her hands and pretending to read.
I hope every parent can experience that.

I never had any children of my own and thought I never would. Then something happened to me. I had met the right woman. She was ten years younger than myself and had never been married or had children. The time was right to have a child. At that time I was forty-three and having a child was a dream come true.
Something stood in our way of fufilling our dream. There were “issues” both of us had that prevented us from having children.
We had tried artifical insemination three times, to no avail.
With desperation clinging to our hearts, we tried invitro. I was particularly afraid of going that route. I had read some research indicating an eighty-percent chance of multiples. I am a triplet (natural birth), and am one of nine. I did not want to start a family right away with two, three or even more. If it happened, so be it. If there was a way to reduce the risk, we would try it.
Instead of inserting three or more eggs, we opted for two. The result was a beautiful little girl named Caris. She is my pride and joy.