I don't miss those days at all

When we were keeping Annabelle today I realized I don't miss those days of potty training at all. Not at all! She's good and she tries very hard. There are few accidents, but it's still the constant having to be aware of the potty training that makes it so hard. That's one nice thing about it...she remembers most times when I forget.

One time this morning I tried to get her to "hurry, hurry, hurry, run, run, run,"to make sure she made it to the bathroom in time once she said she needed to go. The bathroom was only one door away from her room, so she decided she would do it the hard, slow way. She shimmied like a snake, all the way down flat on her tummy, crawling along inch by inch. Giggle, giggle, giggle! It was a fun game she was playing. Actually, I think Mommy uses her that way as a dust mop and then she blames me when she gets home and finds her clothes all dirty.

She made it there without wetting herself, so I guess she knew how much time she had. But she was a funny little creature creeping along.

When we decided to go to eat (we couldn't decide whether it would be eat out or bring in since it was so very cold this morning, but staying in the house with a little one for a while, guess why we chose to go out?)she was ready, once I managed to tackle her to change her clothes, put on the shoes that matched her outfit, just to please her mommy, get her juice cup ready and everything else that taking her out entails. Then, as we were getting ready to leave the house, we realized Mommy in her efficiency had locked the dead bolt on the lock and locked us in. Good thing we had a key, huh?

In the car and fastened in only to find out somebody had forgotten Teddy. No amount of persuading would make her leave Teddy at home. She needed him even though she knew he had to stay in the car. So back into the house Granddaddy went looking for Teddy.

As luck would have it the girl at the cafeteria parked us directly facing a giant mirror. You can imagine how much fun that was! As soon as we sat down, Annabelle, after picking her seat next to the mirror, immediately started entertaining the little girl in the mirror, which she correctly identitied as, "Me! Me! Me!" and of course, "Granddaddy and Grandmomma!)

Another thing I realized I don't miss...Those days when the little ones outgrow the high chairs provided by the restaurants. They should at least make them big enough to accomodate a child until they are well into their teen years. At least. Well, she's outgrown hers at the ripe old age of two, whether physically or mentally, and she wants to sit in her own chair on her "knees! Sit on my knees!"

That would have been well and good except for one thing. She didn't stay on her knees and certainly didn't understand Grandmomma and Granddaddy's language when they told her to "sit on your bottom, Annabelle,"and after playing around with the mirror, her food, chewing on the chairs and table and just plain getting down on the floor, she began to be a handful! Ya think?

Mommy will be very interested to know that Annabelle had her first taste of liver today. Gag again, Mommy. Just as good as buttermilk, only Granddaddy will eat that. Granddaddy gave her a piece and she actually ate it without any ugly faces, melodramatics or anything. When Granddaddy asked her if she wanted more, she turned to me and said, "Yeah, Grandmomma's!" So Grandmomma shared. But from Annabelle's plate not Grandmomma's. Of course she didn't eat any more of the liver, but she didn't turn her nose up at it either.

Suddenly the urge to go "tee tee potty" hit her and you don't wait when she signals, so off she and I ran, right through the sign that says, "stay with your party until your check is paid." Off to the family potty. It was in use. Back around the corner to the smaller crowded one. Thank goodness it was vacant at the moment. Have to line the toliet with toliet paper. Not an easy job with a little two-year old who has decided she wants to fall back on some previous lifetime memories from when she probably lived in the '60's where she had been quite the professional limp noodle protester. Try putting toliet paper on the toliet when you have one falling through your arms, time and time again! Finally I parked her little hiney over on the diaper bag I had brought just in case I needed it for back up. That lasted about a second until she looked over and spotted the lady in the stall next to us with beautiful black heels on. I don't remember exactly what her words were, but she was trying to get me to look at that lady and her shoes. She was so very fascinated. And she was creaating a scene. Then it was up again and slinking through my arms as I tried to place her once more on the potty. This happened a time or two before I finally coralled the little wild colt and she kept her panties dry until she could finally use the potty. Amazing the will power she had after all we went through from the time she told me she had to go until she had the chance to go.

I asked her if she knew what Grandmomma would have done to her mommy when her mommy was a little girl if she hadn't cooperated with me. She didn't, but was very interested in finding out. She said, "Mommy? My Mommy?" "Yes," I told her. I then told her I would have turned her around and spanked her little bottom. She was completely oblivious! She didn't know what that meant, obviously! So I turned her around and asked her if she wanted me to show her? "Ye-ah", she says enthusiastically with a big smile on her face. I turned her back around and gave her three swift paddles to her rear side. (Oh, Mommy, it didn't hurt her! She had her Pull-up on and she was perfectly protected. She even thought it was funny. Um huh!)

So then was time for the ritual of flushing the toliet. Would you believe they didn't have a handle, they had a step petal which is more difficult for her than a handle. So we made the best of it, and I turned her away and flushed it then turned her back around so she thought she did it all by herself! You do what you have to do.

And it is always so much fun to wash and dry hands when you have no step stool and there's only one of you or in our case, two of you. So, we washed our hands and dried them while the other two ladies watched amused at our progress. One of them even said she and I were so cute together. I couldn't disagree with that. Nor could I disagree with them when they said what a cutie she was. Because she is.

Back to the table where she announced a few minutes later in her sweet little voice, "Tee tee, potty, Granddaddy, tee tee, potty!"

Finally after she finished I decided maybe I better just hold her instead of taking a chance on her crashing through the mirror and hurting one of us. She watched a little girl who was almost three named Serenity sit quietly, using her best manners as she ate with her mother. In her own chair. On her bottom. Face forward. She had a perfect name. Serenity. That kid was definitely abnormal. She sat throughout the whole meal and I barely heard a word from her. Probably couldn't talk. Probably couldn't walk. Probably couldn't move. She was definitely not normal. Very quiet. Very serene. But she was a little cutie, almost as cute as ours...just almost. Ours had a name too. It was "Mexican jumping beans"!

Annabelle had a good nap and I got her up to play a while before Mommy came home. Everything is, "Read a book!" She loves you to read books to her. This time she asked for her dolly, Attie. She has Attie and baby Attie, which sometimes comes out as "Baby Daddy". Anyway, Attie and Teddy were called into duty. They were to sit in the rocking chair while Annabelle read books to them. Would she pick a small book for them to ready together. Nooo! It had to be one of the biggest books Mommy keeps stored out of her reach in her storage cabinet. So, she pulls that book out that's bigger than she is, turns the opened book with the pictures and words towards her baby and Teddy and begins to read to them as the book flips and flops all over the place. And it was turned with the words in the right position, as usual. It didn't matter to her that the book flipped and flopped, she finished that one and went on to another one.

We played with her new toys she got for her birthday. A little cooking set of muffins with shapes and cookies in a cookie jar with numbers on both the back of the cookie and the dots that looked like M & M's on the front to teach them counting. She's pretty good at trying to count with you and she's doing good once she realized there were shapes on the bottom of the muffins. And then there were the ice cream cones with eight different colors of ice cream scoops that fit on each cone. We played with stacking all eight of the colors on one ice cream cone and tryed to keep them from falling off by trying to balance them. It wasn't easy, either. Those things are heavy on one ice cream cone. She does enjoy that little set. And so did I. It was fun indeed.

Later this afternoon she tried her acrobatic exercises. She would try standing on her head, get her feet and those long little legs as far up as she could. I was worried she would break her neck, but she hadn't when we left.

When her Daddy drove up, she started saying, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy" and ran over to the window to see him when he got out of his truck. Then she met him at the door. That had to be one of the sweetest things. She was so happy to see her daddy.

Then she had to show Daddy her acrobatic achievements. She would fall over to her side, get back up and try again, until finally she managed to do a complete roll over all by herself! She wasn't frightened at all. She just got back up, giggling as hard as she could and tried again and again. I'm not sure she didn't surprise herself when she did it.

We left the two of them along to spend quality time together while Mommy was finally on her way home. I was sure she had gotten lost!

When we finally got home, I collapsed on the sofa and took a good, quick 1 1/2 to 2 hour nap before dragging myself back to bed for the night. If only she slept as well as I did after our play day, her Mommy had some quiet time. But I doubt it. She's like the Energizer Bunny. She just keeps going and going and going. But I love her!