More Potty Talk....

....I know....kinda crude, but it's a big part of our lives right now.

I'm kinda on the fence of how to tell today's story. In order to tell it accurately and pass along the humor of the story, it means bringing another child's actual name into play (I've allowed my own family members name in here without making any extra anonymity efforts), but it's harder with another person's child. Therefore, out of respect to this child, I'm changing the name.

Rachel quickly learned how to urinate on the toilet. She hates being wet, especially in her underwear (she doesn't even like it in her Pull-Up [nighttime only]). However, BMs caused her a lot of trouble. She just wasn't getting the knack. She couldn't really anticipate the need to get to the toilet until it was too late. And every time, it would be the same thing. Rachel would shout out "Yucky Julio!!!!!". You probably can tell from the previous paragraph that "Julio" is another young child who was in Rachel's class at school this past year. We don't know WHY she started calling her BMs "Julio". I asked her teacher in an email about it -- she actually seemed to have a slight crush on him. So, we don't understand why. But she's consistent and she's communicating, so we go out of our way to call this "poopies", but don't criticize her for her choice of words -- just try to redirect it. Hopefully, soon she'll get the point and will call it something more appropriate.

But, anyway, a couple of nights ago, she released some BM into the toilet. I don't know if she truly intended this to happen or if it was by accident, but it seemed to create that connection that was lacking. Since then, she only has accidents early in the morning. And today, she told me she needed to go "Julio". Unfortunately, I was in the middle of changing Simon's diaper at the time and I just couldn't leave. By the time I had finished, it was too late and she had the accident. But we definitely have made great strides.

Finally, I wanted to include a short video of Rachel that we took tonight. One of the bedtime books was Brown Bear Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle, which is definitely a favorite. When we went to visit family during the holidays, I was reading this book to her, and she started pointing to the pictures at the end of the book and reciting the text. This was the first time I had ever seen her appropriately point at something, to correctly direct my attention to another object. Ever since then, I've been amazed by this behavior in her. I finally recorded it to share with others.