A sick day but a good day.

SS woke up screaming for her Baba and that is never good news. Sick and whiny was going to be a challenge, so potty training was going to take a break today. I was ready to leave SS in pull-ups all day when she told me it was time to use the potty. Huh? My kids are strange creatures, I love them but they are freaks. When their neurons are fully functional and firing perfectly they can't manage to perform pedestrian tasks. Then when they are sick or in stressful situations, they blow my mind with their behavior and resilience. SS happily took her diaper off and went to do her morning business. As is now her routine she reminded me to wipe front to back.

SS was extremely clingy but that was expected, and asked me to hold her like a Baby a few dozen times. Heck it's not like I have anything productive to do. SS had an accident in the afternoon because she was hyper focused on her Bristle blocks. But even this setback was a positive step. When SS came to me I could tell she was beginning to panic. Yikes, a flashback induced meltdown is the last thing I needed while dealing with pooped undies. I quickly reminded SS that everyone has accidents, that Mama and Baba had them and that is a part of learning. Then I braced myself for the fallout. SS calmed down, asked me for help, I cleaned her up, and that was the end of the incident! SS said "Mama, I use potty now. OK?" And that is what she did the rest of the day.

We are thrilled about this baby step, it is the first time SS has not completely freaked out about wetting herself. Funny because that is perhaps the last thing one wants during potty training. But for us it is a long awaited step forward in building trust. Maybe SS was too tired to spend her dwindling energy crying. And maybe she simply believed that it was OK to have an accident, and that there would not be negative consequences. We are really hoping it is the latter.

SS loves placing stickers on her potty chart. We had to come up with this, otherwise SS would have stickers all over the walls, furniture, our bodies, you name it.

Like how she has a Leaning Tower of Pisa inspired design going.

SS has a few discolored skin patches that are very prominent during the summer, due to her ability to tan so well (it's a gift). During cold weather her skin gets very dry and those discolored areas get the worse of it. The picture does no capture it well but it is really dry. To make matters worse, SS is like her Baba, a skin picker. So much for not passing on our defective genes. G0d is certainly having a blast at our expense on that one. What we usually do is keep SS in footie pajamas when indoors, but that is not possible when potty training. Not only am I on potty patrol, but on "stop scratching" patrol.

And if she picks at her skin it results in burning when we moisturize her, which makes the necessary process lots of fun.