Honor is almost a year old, and what an adventure her life has been! She has taught me so much, even with elimination communication!

I wrote this just before Honor turned 1, and because of the move I’m just getting it posted — she’s 13 months now! Oops!

I feel so blessed to have a baby that’s not really obvious at giving cues, because it has been a whole new experience for me. It’s pretty neat because we still manage to catch most poops and a lot of pees. Pees are based on timing, but the poops I would have to say are just intuition! They’re reinforced by knowing when she last went, but really, I often find I just have a “feeling” and when I offer, she goes.

Riding in the Car

One thing we’ve run into is that riding in a vehicle seems to seriously stimulate Honor’s bowels! I’ll just know that she needs to go, but be unable to get her to before we need to leave. Then, in the car, I’ll inevitably hear:

“Mama, Honor looks suspicious!”

And there she goes!

If Scott is driving and we pull over, I can usually catch in the little potty we keep in the van. The kids have gotten good at picking up on when she’s getting “suspicious!” She’s rear-facing in the middle row and the oldest ones are in the back row, so they talk to her and play with her as we drive.

I don’t know what it is about the van, but maybe the vibrations and rumbling of heading down the road cause her to get going. I will admit that if I haven’t gotten her to poop before we go out and I know I’ll have to drive a for more than just a few minutes, I put her in a disposable. She’s that predictable!

I try and offer her the potty when we arrive places, too. Now that the weather has finally warmed up (hopefully it stays warm), offering potty opportunities in the van is a lot easier. We’re also planning to get a larger van in a month or two, and that will make it even easier! Winter pottying and even pottying discreetly with a small car is also possible – Andrea’s tips in EC Simplified are great for all situations of pottying on the go. But the going while riding is still a tough one to handle!!

All Good Things Must Come to an End

I’ll admit that I’ve been really spoiled during Honor’s first year. We’ve used a diaper service with our local laundromat (Eastfield Laundry if you’re in my area) and it has been fantastic! I’ve used our own Imse Vimse wool covers, but I love those soft diaper service prefolds. Since we’re moving out to the country, however, it’s time to stop the diaper service.

I’ve enjoyed seeing just how few diapers I can put into the bucket for our twice-weekly pickups (and I like to think that they look fondly on our family for hardly ever sending a poopy diaper). But, I know there have been times that having somebody else do the laundry has caused me to not be as vigilant with offering potty opportunities for pees. I see that changing pretty quickly, and I hope that I’ll be catching most of Honor’s pees as she gets close to toddlings.

Little Potty Transitions

I’ve also continued using the small potty bowl for Honor I’ve used since she was a newborn. Galen was still using the Little Potty a lot when Honor was born, and I didn’t want to use it a lot because of that. But now Galen is mostly using the big toilet (he’s mastered peeing standing up, which provided tons of motivation for the toilet). I want to get Honor used to the little potty so that she can start working towards getting herself on and off of it once she’s walking. Granted, this will probably be several months in the future…

But Honor doesn’t seem to quite know what to do with the Little Potty, since it’s not her simple potty bowl. I’ve got to be really consistent with that for a few days so she gets the picture that it’s a potty. I’ve been setting her on it, facing me, when I use the bathroom, and thus far we’ve produced a lot of grins and exactly one Honor pee.

Oh, well! Adventures to work on. I’m secretly hoping that Honor will be like her big sister Cassidy, who was an easy EC graduate… but I’m expecting it to be a little rocky, especially with all the changes in the coming months for our family!