Otherwise, she's been testing us. She's begun to do things even after we tell her not to. The long and short of it is that we end up punishing her a bit more. The punishments almost always consist of a time-out in her crib, usually about 1-5 minutes in length.

But on the whole, she's still a very good child. She likes movies now. She seems especially fond of Cinderella (we think she likes the mice) and The Road to El Dorado. It's fun to watch her being so serious as she watches a movie.

For now, that's about all the news. She'll be swimming later today, with her grandmama. But for now, she's being quiet.

We suspect that Aiyla and I must've had some milk that was just turning, and just bad enough to hurt us. But we kept a close eye on Aiyla, and she seems to have pulled through with flying colors.

Not much else has happened recently. Aiyla's beginning to be more aware of her potty, but that's about all the news. Once we've recovered a bit more from the poisoning, I'll add entries daily again.

Now for the real news. It started with Aiyla getting some crayons. She's now making artwork, and absolutely loves it when some of her father's friends draw for her. The artwork itself is nothing more than scribbles, but I still think it's pretty cool. We already have one of her "pictures" up on the fridge.

We picked up the movie Much Ado About Nothing with Kenneth Bragnagh in it, and Aiyla was absolutely fascinated by it. Many times throughout the movie they clap, or dance, or sing, and she does, too. She also apparently likes Finian's Rainbow and The Wizard of Oz. I'm looking forward to seeing what other shows and movies she'll like.

Potty training has begun in earnest, now, but we're still on the quietly encouraging stage of it. We've set a potty out in the bathroom and Aiyla gets a tiny treat if she sits on it all by herself. (The treat is a square of toilet paper, which she's absolutely fascinated by.) The main reason we started potty training is because the other day when I walked into the bedroom, I discovered that Aiyla had learned to take off her diaper. That story is below:

Aiyla had been put down for a nap wearing a dress and diaper. (In the winter, our apartment gets rather warm if the windows are closed and fans are off, which they were.) A little while later, I heard her moving around. I went to get her, and noticed a diaper on the ground that looked a bit crumpled, but not soiled or anything. I didn't pay it much mind, figuring that I must have left a diaper within reach of the crib and Aiyla had snatched it. I picked her up, and it took me a couple of moments to notice that something felt wrong. When I stopped to try to identify what was wrong, I realized that I could feel one of her bum cheeks. Thinking that her diaper had shifted and she now had a wedgie, I went to move the diaper, only to discover that she had nothing on at all.

It was quite a revelation. I immediately put a new diaper on her, then examined the diaper on the ground, which still didn't seem soiled to me. I threw it away, of course, just to be on the safe side. Finally, I stripped her bed, checking each of the stuffed animals, but fortunately, only the sheet and blanket were wet.

Aiyla has also been having a bit of a problem with diaper rash of late. We suspect that it's all the different foods she's eating, so we've stopped allowing her to sample everything, confining her to baby food for a week or so.

For Christmas, Aiyla got a huge teddy bear from her great grandparents (my paternal grandparents), and she's really started playing with it of late, even using it as a pillow when she watches tv. It's really adorable.

That's all the news at the moment. I'll update more frequently now that I feel better.