Guess who's wearing panties?!?!

That's right! We put her in panties on Tuesday night, and she's been doing great! No nighttime leaks, and only a few daytime accidents, when we lost track of time and didn't take her to the potty soon enough.

I'm so excited - and not just because it will mean fewer diapers. I can't help being so happy for her as she learns new skills and grows. It's like experiencing childhood all over again.

I don't care what the calendar says. She's 2.

I woke up this morning at, oh, 6:30 (well, I woke up earlier than that, but I went back to bed because dang it, I was tired!). Anyway, I woke up at 6:30 to the sound of Ariel wailing.

"Cup! Cup!"

My first thought was, My daughter is being ridiculous and she needs to be quiet.

But then I thought, What if she's really thirsty? I would hate to make her lie there and be thirsty until 8.

So I got up, filled a sippy with water, and brought it to her.

"No!!" she yelled between sobs. "Juice!"

"No, Ariel. You can have water."

"Down! Down!"

"No, it's still nigh-night time. Go back to sleep."

Hysterical screaming continues.

I went back to bed and tried to go back to sleep, but it's hard when your child is producing the most noise that that is physically possible, and from only a few yards away.

Finally, after a half an hour of bawling and cries of "Cup, cup!!!" I went and got her up.

Of course, by this point Felicity had woken up from all the screaming, and when I walked in she saw me and immediately started crying. I decided to leave her and see if she would fall back asleep.

I pulled Ariel out, along with her dolly and cup. All the lights were still off as I took her out into the hallway and pulled the door shut behind us.

"Cuuuup?!?!?!" Ariel whined.

"Here's your water cup, Ariel. You can have water."

"NOOOOO!!!" She threw herself to the ground, then stood up and started running in circles and stamping her little feet.

I turned around to go back to bed.

After a few moments, she came into our bedroom.

I won't trouble you with the details of the next half-hour, but it was comprised mostly of protestations about her water and refusals to be quiet, lie down, or give any hugs.

Meanwhile, Felicity kept screaming. So eventually we all got up.

At the table, she asked for juice again, so I decided to give her some with breakfast. I brought it in a glass, which made her mad - apparently she wanted me to put the juice in her sippy cup. Fortunately, she got over that one.

First she wanted one kind of cereal, then another kind. She wanted cow milk and she wanted Mommy's almond milk. And in the end she ate maybe 2 bites before whining to get down, then screaming because I washed her hands.

Wanted: Mommy's helper willing to work in exchange for food and a bed on the couch.

Tickling Her Best Friend

Ariel is one scared kid.

"I scared mommy!"

"You're scared of mommy?"

"Hmm!"

"Don't be scared of mommy!"

"I scared Ariel!"

"Don't be scared of Ariel!"

"I scared daddy!"

"Don't be scared of daddy!"

"I scared Foofy!"

"Don't be scared of Felicity! You don't need to be scared! You can be brave!"

"[Whine] I scared brave!"

While I'm putting up cute things...

Here's a precious video that Dan took two days ago! They say it's easier to learn things through song than just speaking them aloud, but I think at this age it's easier the other way around...

I just have to post this...

Because I can't handle how cute it is. And I don't think you'll be able to handle it, either. It's just too much.

I can't take it anymore.

Remember this post in which I told you that Ariel had asked about Dan's absence? It's not cute anymore.

There are two versions. And they both start the same way.

"Mommy?"

"What?"

"Mommy?"

"What, Ariel?"

"Mommy?"

"What do you need?"

You see, I have to say, "I'm Mommy." If I don't say that exact phrase, she will keep saying Mommy.

The moment that the correct answer is out of my mouth, she says, "Daddy?"

From here, there are two versions. If Daddy is not home, I say that Daddy is at work. At which point she may say "home?" and, after I've replied, "soon?"

But that's not the norm anymore, although it happens at least 5 times a day (are you getting an idea of how frequently this little exchange takes place?).

The more common response goes like this:

"Daddy?"

"Daddy's at work." or "Daddy's sitting next to you." or "You're in Daddy's lap."

"Foofy?"

"Felicity is RIGHT THERE." By now I'm getting a little irritated, because I'm only slightly sick of this conversation.

Half of the time, it stops here.

The other half of the time?

"Mommy?"

Round two.

Makeshift Mama - check out that grin!

Hey, all! In case you haven't noticed, I put a "feed" (for those of you who don't know, a feed is a continually updating list of blog posts) for Makeshift Mama at the top of this page, so instead of posting to let you know every time there's something over there, you can just glance at the feed to see if you've missed anything.

I want to draw special attention to today's MM post, though, because it contains THE FIRST EVER CAUGHT-ON-PHOTOGRAPH SMILE BY FELICITY!

Yeah, I knew you'd be excited. Come on over!

Doing What She Wants

What happens when you humor a toddler for several minutes straight? Today, I found out.

I went into my bedroom to change out of my pajamas this morning. Ariel followed, and, when I went to change my top, she started whining and trying to remove her shirt, too.

"Help? Help? Shirt?"

"No, Ariel, let's leave your shirt on."

"No! [whine] Help! Shirt!"

Why am I so quick to say no? I thought. What's wrong with what she's asking?

"Ok, Ariel, we can take your shirt off." I removed her shirt.

"Help? Pants?"

"Okay..." The pants came off.

"'N' diaper? Help?"

"Ummm...." By this point I didn't want to let her down and have all the undressing be for nothing. Plus, she has good bladder control. "Sure, Mommy will wipe you and then you can run around with no diaper."

A minute later, there was a little bare-butted munchkin following me around.

I proceeded to change my clothes.

"Shirt? My shirt?"

"Oh, you want to wear this shirt?"

"Hmm!"

I gave her my shirt and replaced my pajama top.

"Ree bee bee? Ree bee bee?"

"Sure, we can sing 'Rockabye Baby.'"

And that's how Dan came to catch the following on video.



Did I mind the intrusion on my plans? Not a bit!