I Have An Inkling About a Tinkling

On Monday when Mister Man and I had the stomach flu, my mom very generously showed up uninvited to take Little Miss with her to help prevent Little Miss from getting sick.

When she showed up, she had three pairs of Disney Princess underwear. Not surprisingly, Little Miss immediately chose a pair, took off her bloomers and Pull-Ups, and put on a pair of the underwear. Five minutes later, the bloomers came off and another pair was put on. Since she was headed to my parents’ house and I was feeling pretty wretched, I wasn’t about to fight it.

When I called Tuesday morning to check to see how Little Miss had done overnight and how she was feeling, I discovered that they were headed to Swedish Days in Geneva with my aunt and uncle. And my mom was brave enough to try to keep Little Miss in underwear (really, once she goes into underwear, there’s no going back). I stifled my laughter but reminded myself that it was her car, not mine.

Apparently, Little Miss went potty before she left my parents’ house. She went potty when she got to my aunt and uncle’s house. And she announced she had to go potty while at Swedish Days. Like most festivals, the only choice was Port-A-Potties.

Personally, I’ve trained myself to have the bladder of a camel to avoid most public bathrooms, and I can proudly say that I’ve never used a Port-A-Potty. Ever. The whole concept so grosses me out, I can’t even explain it. I can only pray that the wee ones will develop similar self-control.

When Little Miss got inside, she announced in quite the indignant voice, “Grandma, someone forgot to flush!” We’re all still cracking up over that one.

But she stayed dry. All day yesterday, and she was dry when she got back to our house last night. This morning, she chose Elmo underwear, and she stayed dry through all the errands she ran with Daddy, including announcing about five minutes after they finished eating lunch and were back in the car (Daddy has yet to learn to require that all children use potties before getting into the car). Fortunately, he was near a Dominick’s, and she quite proudly used the potty there.

She stayed dry during naptime. She stayed dry all afternoon and evening. And now she’s been back at my parents’ house (they do childcare on Thursdays) and has been dry again. She was so proud to choose her Ariel underwear this morning. Before she put them on though, she opened up her diaper drawer so that she could look at her old diapers and say good-bye to them – totally her idea and ohhhh-so-cute!

I’m crossing my fingers, knocking on wood, spinning counter-clockwise three times and whatever else I need to do to avoid jinxing this. BUT. I think Little Miss will be allowed to go to preschool next year (there was a question for awhile). Yay, Big Girl!