"I did it!"

This particular phrase, when uttered by the 26 month old in our house, means successful potty use. It is immediatedly followed by "Paper!" which seems to be the most exciting part of the process, followed closely by "Flush!" and "Hands!" So, she's got the steps down pretty well (better than her almost 5-year-old sister who often skips the last two and sometimes the last three). The next question is, when you've just started a blog, to post a child-on-potty picture or not. I'm electing not, based on the reaction of the older sister to just looking at an old picture of herself on the potty. When they are old enough to read, well, we'll have to take other measures. Instead, here is a recent photo of Penny, at least partially clothed.

You might get only a hint of it from this picture, but Penny likes to dress up. She's likes to choose her own clothes (sometimes she's overruled), often rejecting several shirts or pants before finding the right one. She also likes to accessorize (see sunglasses, above). Shoes, mine or her sister's preferably, are also tried on and tromped around in (apology from an English major for the prepositional ending). She seems to have a special fondness for my two or three pairs of shoes with heels. If I had anything but a print of Penny wearing my sister-in-law's three-inch red pumps (or a scanner), I'd post it. (My mother-in-law and sisters-in-law think this is hilarious and indicate she's going to be some sort of high fashion maven or at least shopping addict. They were trying to teach her the word "Prada" at Christmas time.) Here's a series of photos of her from January dressing herself in many layers and accessories.

Yes, those are swimming googles. She's also a bit of a ham.

Along with a penchant for the process of getting dressed, she also likes to undress. She's been taking her own pants/skirt/shorts and diaper off for several months. We have a very hilarious video of her breaking down at bedtime because she didn't want to put her clothes back on. It involves her hiding behind her crib, crying, and wriggling out of her shorts and diaper. For reasons stated above, I can't allow myself to post it.

So, I say all that because I'm aware that she's potty training relatively early (relatively because we all know the mom with the 18 month old who's got it down already). Her sister was at least 6 months later. But I wouldn't want anyone to think I was bragging. The several periods of self-imposed nakedness every day forced our hands. So we borrowed back the child-sized potty and offered it to her. It was only in the last two weeks that we've heard the phrase with which I titled this post.

What reasonable adult, before having children, would expect to be so excited about such things?

(While I've been writing this and uploading the photos, she brought me the basket of hair things from her room, told me to put on a headband, asked me to put a pony tail in her hair--wispy and light like her hair is, the pony tail sticks straight up like Pebbles from the Flintstones. I took a picture of this, then gave her the camera to distract her and she deleted the photo--but I didn't find this out until I plugged in the camera to upload the new photos--then she peed her underwear. So now even though she's added a hairband and sunglasses, she's pantless and I can't take another picture!)