let me tell you something

So sometimes you just have to focus on the little causes for celebration. Toilet training is not yet one of those causes. While we seemed to be making good progress in the fall, Kiddo has taken several giant steps back since our trip to Japan, to the point where she mostly doesn't even want to sit on any one of her three available potties (potti?).

We are doing our best to be patient with her. After all, we don't want to give her some weird toilet complex or make the bathroom a source of stress. And we try to content ourselves with the fact that she does seem to be making progress.

She has the classic toddler "tell" when she is going in her diaper. The stop-doing-whatever-you're-doing-and-stand-perfectly-still-with-legs-akimbo position that's indicative of peeing. This is usually followed immediately by her announcement, "I have to change my diaper." That's progress, right? When the business is more serious, she will retire to her spot between the couch and the coffee table which I've heard is a good sign. If we happen to be in the living room when she needs her spot she will say "You go away." She likes her privacy, I guess. Of course, she doesn't always reciprocate, though perhaps I've said enough.

And then we went to the park and climbed a tree.

On the topic of Things She Says, she's been cranking out some winners lately. As her language skills advance, Kiddo has moved beyond repeating what we say and is now coming out with her own fully formed thoughts and sentences. I know that human children have been doing this since the dawn of humans, but it is damned interesting to observe first hand.

Just the other day, in a moment of parental chastisment for refusal to listen, she looked up and said, "Be happy!" It wasn't like a mellow sort of "hey, it's all good old man" utterance, either. Rather there was a straight arm and a pointing finger and a distinct tone of admonishment. "You be happy!" I think she was trying to stop me from getting angry or to prevent a visit to the dreaded Time Out Mat and it did kind of stop me in my tracks and make me laugh and feel like a terrible human being at the same time. Way to go, Kid.

She's been using it a lot lately, too.

Me: Get in the bath, right now.
She: You be happy!
Me: I'll be happy if you get in the bath.
She: (now crying) No happy. I'm crying.

And, scene.

And then she ran through the mud and found a baseball and we played catch.

I know that Mimi has a few thoughts on negotiating with the master manipulator, so I'll leave that particular post to her. I might even learn something. Yeah, because we don't actually talk to each other. We just read each other's blog posts and Facebook updates. We're 21st century like that.