So we’re having dinner at my parents house last night, and everyone is feeling full and fine. Mo has been running amok all afternoon, fueled by peanuts courtesy of Pop-Pop, bedecked in jazz recital costumes from Yia–Yia, and just the general giddiness that comes from being two and a half.
We’re potty training again, coming to the end of week two, and she’s doing really well. Craig and I are on her like white on rice with the constant, “How are your pants?”, “Is pee pee coming?”, “Is poo poo coming?”, “Why don’t we go sit on the potty?” and so forth. Ever so polite, she always tells us, “No thank you, no thank you,” but we insist and head off to the potty to shower her with praise, stickers, the occasion piece of donut/several M&Ms/a Popsicle — generally whatever it takes to show her how pleased we are that any drips and drops of peeps made it into the pot.
After dinner, she’s jet propelled having eaten chicken wings, spaghetti, crusty bread she has all but bathed into the olive oil and spice blend my dad has set on the table. She’s burping up the sparkling lemon water and laughing at herself before excusing herself to chase after the dog with an extra tutu for Sage to wear.
After a while, she skids to a stop at my elbow, asking me for another dose of Little Einsteins, a video that she has already committed to memory and probably could recite verbatim if we left the picture on and the sound off.
Craig simply says, “In about 5 minutes, we’re going to go potty, okay?”
“No thank you”.
“Yes, Morgan, we’re going to try. But you have about 5 minutes,” and Craig holds up 5 fingers.
“Let’s watch a one video,” says Morgan, holding up one finger of her own.
I see where this is going, so I jump in. “How about you go pee pee in about 5 minutes, and then you can watch the video?”
I want to say that there’s a pause while she considers this option. I want to say that you can see the gears grinding and the smoke puffing out of her ears. I want to say that her little rosebud mouth is even pursed. But no. She looks at me and she says, “Let’s go pee pee now.”
Smart girl, that Morgan.
p.s. We did go pee-pee and she did it in the potty. Her reward? A short viewing of Tom & Jerry before we left for home.