Did Lady Godiva Have an Easier Time on the Potty?

Well, our lives have settled down a bit now that a lot of the craziness has ended. Margaret had the last of her final exams on Friday and is done until she has to show up at 8 a.m. Thursday to pick up her report card. That’s it. They have the kids come in for five minutes. At 8 a.m. Patricia doesn’t fare much better. After today, which is a full day of school, she has to go Tuesday and Wednesday until 11:20 and then on Thursday until 10. Why they don’t just cram everything into two full days at the beginning of the week is beyond me. They stretch it out as long and as far as they can so all it ends up doing is disrupting everyone’s day. We’re lucky; we don’t have to worry about child care for them, but I can’t imagine what families have to do if both parents work during the mornings like most do.

Because Margaret is off until Thursday morning, she’s going up to the lake today to spend a few days with Grandma Downs and the horses. This is after having spent the entire weekend up there with Jack, Patricia and four friends for a belated birthday sleepover. They left Friday before I got home from work and picking up Brigid. I had the Baby B to myself all weekend. We hung out a lot, playing and laughing. The weather was questionable, so we didn’t get to do a lot outside. We did run around the mall and the halls of my office building on campus, which she really loves to do, oddly enough.

Brigid has been speaking up a storm, and doing a lot of singing, too. Last night, she was singing – over and over again – the quintessential Ring Around the Rosey song. I sat there wishing I had a recorder because it was adorable. She’s really been enjoying Simpayella – that’s Cinderella to you and me – and has recently discovered The Wizard of Oz, or, as she says (and Margaret did, too) Wizard of Boz. For the last few weeks, our VCR had been on the fritz so we had to bring down the little portable TV that Michelle had given us years ago that has a VCR built in. Coincidentally, we were missing a Barbie DVD that no one had seen in weeks. Saturday night, on a whim, I put my hand in the VCR slot to see if anything was obstructing it because every time you put a tape in, the machine ejected it immediately. Guess where Barbie was? Apparently, somebody who will remain nameless (Brigid) decided she wanted to watch Barbie in Princess and the Pauper and popped the DVD into the VCR slot. So two problems were solved at once and we’re happily watching hour after hour of taped programming.

Father’s Day was bike accessory day for Jack, who asked for baskets for the back of his bike that he can use to transport groceries – doing his part to reduce the carbon footprint – and a front-carrier bike seat for Brigid. The baskets work great; the seat, not so much. Although she can fit in it, and she seems to love it, we think it’s a small version of a good idea. There’s a reason it was $50 less expensive than the one we first looked at. It’s built for an American Girl doll. So, I’ll probably pack it up and send it back in exchange for the larger version. But as you can see from the test drive photos, Brigid loved it. And yes, for any of the three people out there who read this, we know she (and Jack) needs a helmet. The test drive took place in a circle around the back yard. We have to find the bike helmet we used for the girls when they were toddlers. I think we may have unloaded it in a yard sale.

In addition to other big-girl indications, Brigid has been showing an interest in the potty. The fact that she wants to strip down to buck nakedness as soon as we walk in the house helps because while she’s running around in the buff, I keep asking if she has to go potty. She has been sitting on it, and jumping off and running around and sitting back on it. But when she gets this startled look on her face, she runs up and says she needs a diaper on. This clothing thing has been weird. She doesn’t like to wear any. She’ll consent to wearing a diaper and onesie, but she doesn’t want to wear anything else when she’s home. Sometimes, she tries to get me to take off her clothes at day care, but I have to draw the line somewhere. Those clothes are expensive, and I want to get some use out of them. I know nudism is a common enjoyment, not just for toddlers but many adults, too. In our house, however, it’s unchartered territory. I’ve never dealt with a child so intent on not being clothed. I’m hoping it does indeed help with the potty situation. At the very least, it will help me keep all the floors clean.