Do You Have to go to the Bathroom, too?

My fellow women amaze me at the need to bond in even the most intimate of circumstances. I guess it shouldn't be surprising that Lucy has already discovered the joy of "girl talk" in the bathroom. Exhaustingly, it has now become part of our naptime routine for Lucy to have a half-hour "potty check" after her naptime book and before she lays down. This is the time of day that Lucy consistently poops.

It has required a lot of effort for me to maintain this pattern in our life lately. At this time of day, roughly 1:30PM, I am totally exhausted and just ready for those kids to go to sleep. Jimmy has already gone down for his nap, and Tommy is feisty and needy of attention. I have to constantly redirect Tommy to a private activity, such as Play-Doh or book reading, so that I can protect this learning time for Lucy.

Still, it's worth it. Every day, Lucy is making more headway on her potty training and we are bonding through girlish chit-chat in the bathroom. As she waits for her bodily urges to strike her, we sing songs and talk about things like the lace on her little pink socks. Today she instructed me on how to pull them up to her knees. I never taught her how to do that, so she must already be taking fashion notes elsewhere.