It's all about the squeezing.

Since this is my first post for 2010 I want to wish everybody a Happy New Year!

A funny thing happened yesterday. (Sorry, in advance, for another poop story. She's going to kill me when she gets older!) While we were out last evening, Ysabella told (our 13 year old) babysitter that she had to poop, and off she walked to the toilet. And yes, she actually pooped in the toilet. She has never done this for us. (Well, I take it back, she did it once for Ed a few months ago, but I think that it had more to do with Ed's perfect timing putting her on the toilet...) As you probably remember, before yesterday, she only peed in the toilet. Ever since the infamous poop fiasco/trauma drama, she's always asked for a diaper to be put on her. We've tried and tried to get her to go on the toilet, all without success. However, for (mostly our) fear of her holding it for days and thus perpetuating another vicious poop cycle, we've decided that when she's ready, she'll graduate to the toilet. Needless to say, when she was successful yesterday, it was a huge deal here in the Rama household. Ed and I did the poop dance with so much excitement and energy! We high-fived her, gave her lots of smarties and praised her like we never have before. She was quite pleased with herself.

I digress. The above is not actually the funny story. It's what she said after that made me laugh and laugh.

When we came home, she couldn't wait to tell us the good news. She said to me in a very animated voice (and this is word for word...):

"I squeezed and I squeezed and I squeezed and I squeezed until at last, the poop came out!"

I now realize that I have indeed, heard this quote somewhere before. (I knew it seemed awfully familiar.) It's from a potty-training book that I often read to her when she was younger. This fact makes me realize that perhaps the story is not as funny as I thought, but wow, what a good memory she has! She then proceeded to sing a poop song that she made up as she ran 'round and 'round the house as well as trying to duplicate the squeezing action. I'll spare you that video.

Despite this milestone, there's always room for some make-believe toddler regression as she pretends she's a baby and plays bare-bottomed in her doll's playpen.

And with her doll's baby bottle...

Today, I asked her if she would make a poop in the toilet again. She said (with her index finer on her chin, as if she's thinking so hard about it): "Hmmmm, I think not!".