Tea.
Crumpets.
Isn't it a lovely morning, monkey?Well, today was a big day. It started off like any other day, morning tea with monkey, playing outside in her tutu, the usual. But what made today different was actually quite a big event in our world! The first pee pee on the potty! And isn't that just the way it goes that it caught us all a bit off guard. Here's the story:
Ford and Amelia were playing in the living room as I cooked dinner in the kitchen. He noticed she was fidgeting with her diaper so he asked her, "do you have to go pee pee?" She nodded. "Do you want to go on the potty?" She nodded again.
Now keep in mind, Amelia has not been all that interested in actually sitting on her potty, and when she does, it's very brief and nothing ever happens, but the wheels are always turning so we act out the whole thing anyway.
So, off to the bathroom they went...off with the pants and diaper as she sat down on her little green and blue, ten dollar, plastic potty. She stood up after a few seconds, turned around, looked down at her potty and waved goodbye to her pee pee...as usual, there was no pee pee there but Ford went along with it as we always do. She decided to sit down again and Ford asked her if this time she wanted to look at a magazine. Again, she nodded. She flipped through the pages and they exchanged small talk when suddenly, Ford caught a glimpse of something glistening...pee pee! He called for me and I ran in...she stood up, looked at her real live pee pee but seemed a bit oblivious as to the magnitude of what had just taken place. So, we clapped for her and congratulated her and the bigger deal we made of it, the happier she was. Ford gave her some toilet paper and she even wiped! (She's been practicing wiping for a few weeks now). She beamed with pride as all three of us sat in the bathroom, Amelia still on her potty, clapping gleefully as she looked back and forth at Ford and then myself, still trying to figure out what the all fuss was about.
It was then that I had one of those moments...when I feel like it's all happening too fast. How did we get here...already? Really? Ford and I exchanged a knowing glance as we continued to clap and I swallowed over the growing lump in my throat. She's big now, I kept thinking, not just because she finally peed on the potty, tomorrow she may want nothing to do with it, but because she can. Next thing I know she'll be attending her first day of school, riding a bike, losing her first tooth...
Next, there was hugging and more praise and I asked her if she wanted a treat...more excited nodding...and she ran down the hall with her little bare butt, toward the kitchen, still clapping.
I didn't even care if reinforcing the whole potty thing with a treat was the wrong thing to do, because it seemed like the right thing to do and she enjoyed every little bit of her little dish of vanilla ice-cream, very much.
