Our magic toilet

A picture of a tantrum taken sometime last year....


I think I may have mentioned in my last post that my daughter K has a strong personality & that it is just about impossible to get her to do something unless she wants to do it. This includes not only potty training, but everything else including eating.

Lately, K has decided that for the most part, she just doesn't want to eat when the rest of us do. So, instead of eating she either sits & talks with us or alternatively sits in time out. She has always been in the 75% in weight for her age group, so I am not too concerned that she will waste away to nothing. Also, I should point out that she does usually eat about 1 decent meal a day (usually lunch) & that she loves, loves, loves eating her vitamin everyday (thank goodness).

I am telling you all this because unfortunately, there is a direct correlation between her lack of enthusiasm about eating breakfast and her tendency toward mid-morning temper tantrums. I could draw you a graph, but I think you can guess at just what that relationship is. I try to catch her around 9:30 or so with a snack to ward off the impending tantrum, and usually I am able to catch it in time, but sometimes I'm just a litlle too late getting her the pb crackers or granola bar. And when I am too late... watch out, because anything & I mean anything can set her off. Once she starts in on a good tantrum, she really likes to milk it for at least 20-40 minutes.

During the course of this morning's tantrum, we ended up in the bathroom because she said she had to pee. But, once we got into the bathroom she wanted to show me the "magic". For some reason she began raising & lowering the toilet lid & seat over and over again while screaming (& sobbing), "I want to show you the magic". I really tried to grasp what she was trying to tell me & I asked a lot of questions trying to understand what kind of magic we were looking for here. The only thing I did find out for sure (thanks to more screaming) is that the magic certainly did not involve, in any way, the flushing of the toilet. In fact, the flushing seemed to make the illusive magical nature of our toilet even harder to find (I am only guessing this because as I reached to flush the toilet the screaming got louder & my hand was smacked away as she screamed "NOOOOOOOO!").

Thankfully, I was finally able to get her away from the toilet without having to wait for further evidence of magic. I got her out with a granola bar & the promise of watching a Charlie & Lola show on the way to visit my friend's brand new baby.

We finally made it to my friend's house, so we could welcome her new little girl to the world. While I sat there holding that sweet little 3 week old baby, I remembered fondly back to when my own 2 hooligans were babies:

> My baby boy....what a cutie!




Those cheeks! Those rosebud lips. My sweet (peaceful) baby K.


Now, I have to say that as my kids get older I find that I like each age better than the one that came before. But there is something to be said about the peace and quiet of a sleeping baby. Thankfully, I can still get that quiet by holding my friend's sleeping child. The best part? I still get to sleep through the night!