toddler fun and not so fun

A brief update on the pregnancy. We had another appointment and it went well. Baby was swimming all over the place so it was hard to grab the heartbeat, and every time we did, it was tiny and faint. Finally we were able to pick it up nice and strong. It's in the 150s. I've gained 11 lbs so far, so if I keep up that rate, I'll gain less than I did w/ Lydia. It makes sense since when I was pregnant with her, I had nobody to chase around and take care of. She is "helping" me burn some extra calories. I must remember to eat more. During the appointment, Tim also got to see the baby kick. There was a big kick, enough to make a little flutter on the outside of my tummy, and he happened to be looking right in that spot. We also scheduled my ultrasound for the 20th, and we are still planning on not finding out.

As for toddler fun, I love love LOVE the cute little ways that Lydia says certain words/phrases. Here are a few of her latest ones.

"nuffin" (muffin)
"butterjelly" (peanut butter and/or jelly... i.e. in the grocery store today, I pointed to just the display of jelly, and she still calls that "butterjelly.")
"shopping groceries" (grocery shopping)
"pooghetti" (spaghetti)
"poojamas" (pajamas)
"princess hat sticker" and "princess hat jammies" (for her 2nd birthday party, one of the activities was making princess hats, so now anything that has a princess on it isn't just a "princess sticker"... it's a "princess hat sticker" even though there are usually no hats in the stickers.)
"nermaid" (mermaid)

Now for the toddler not-so-fun. I've been seriously stressing and worrying about potty training. What if I start too early, what if I start too late, what if she has trouble and it takes years, what if she never gets out of diapers, etc. I've read both Diaper Free before Three and the 3-Day Method E-book, and neither one seems like it would work for us. The methods in the former are geared for MUCH younger children, and for the 3-day method, we can't really do that b/c we don't have three consecutive days in our schedule where nothing is going on. I keep trying to just do a "waiting" method where maybe she will just eventually catch on by example, but months go by w/o her ever showing any further "signs of readiness" (or any at all, really) and the stress cycle starts again.

But anyway. Occasionally when I wake her up from her nap, her diaper is dry-ish. (If she wakes up by herself, then it's already wet 99% of the time when I go and get her.) Yesterday, I woke her up from her nap, and she was dry, so I suggested she go sit on the potty. She got excited and said "Want to go sit on Lydia's little potty??" and I said yes, so I sat her down on the floor and she walked to the bathroom and sat down on it. I sat down on the big potty (closed lid) and waited with her. After less than a minute, I heard some action. I got excited and said "Wow, Lydia, that's peepee! You are putting peepee in the potty!" She stopped briefly and got a bit of a worried look on her face, but I kept being excited for her and cheering her on and she got into it too. Then I asked her if she had any more to put in there, and I heard a little bit more go in and I cheered for that too. Then we went to get daddy and show him what she had done so he could cheer for her and hi-five her as well. I thought it was a good beginning, but then today, every single time I've mentioned her sitting on her potty w/o a diaper, she screams like the world is coming to an end, and insists I put a "new clean fresh diaper" on her. She will sit w/ no problem if she still has her diaper on. I don't know where to go from here and just want to give up on the whole thing forever. Depends aisle, here I come.