"My poop went down the hole!"

Today, Clara had a fun outing with her Aunt Amy to the KidsQuest Children's Museum. Amy apologized for the state of Clara's diaper, saying, "I swear, she just started stinking" as they drove up to our house. We said thank you and good-bye to Amy, and then headed upstairs to get cleaned up and ready for nap. As we got to the top of the stairs, Clara got very upset: "I want to go potty! I want to go potty!" Okay, I thought, we'll get you cleaned up in the bathroom. I took off Clara's diaper and quickly discovered the "stinking" must have been gas. Clara and I did our usual routine of singing songs and reading a story while we waited for the pee-pee to come. After several minutes of "trying", Clara's expression became very upset. "I want to go pee-pee! I want to go pee-pee!" she said, close to tears. I assured her that it's okay if sometimes when she does her trying that the pee-pee doesn't come. With that, her face became very serious, and she started to bare down. She pooped! She climbed down from the toilet and spent some thoughtful moments staring at the poop. She flushed the toilet, then asked, "Where'd my poop go?" My too-technical answer was that the poop goes down the pipes under the city. She gave me a curious look and then exclaimed, "My poop went down the hole!" Yes, Clara, your poop went down the hole.

A new potty, Mt. Rainier, deep-dish pizza

It's been a while since I've posted, and much has happened since my last post, so I'll try to fit in the full run-down here.

We've gone on two camping trips this summer. Our first was to San Juan Island where Clara saw her first whales cruising the Puget Sound. She was so impressed, she even made up a sign for whales (back hunched with hand coming out of her back like water through a blow-hole). The whales certainly made quite an impression.

For our next trip we went to Mt. Rainier. We told Clara it was a "park", which to her mind, means "place to climb." She kept asking us: Where are all the climbing things? Clara soon discovered that she could find her own "climbing things" by trying to shimmy up boulders she found alongside the trails. Also, fallen trees make great "balance beams". It was a great trip, though we all came home outrageously dirty and exhausted.

Clara also unleashed her inner-photographer on this trip, which means our camera no longer works, so it may be a while before I get up-to-date photos uploaded. We are, however, headed to Chicago for a family reunion of sorts at my cousin's wedding. I'm sure some "guest" photographers can help me out with current Clara pics.

Lastly, Clara has a new potty! She is very fond of this new potty, and likes sitting on it for long stretches. When she pees in it, she does a surprisingly good job of emptying it into the big toilet. I've let her go diaper-free in between potty-sitting sessions. The other day she was playing on the floor sans-diaper when she said, "The pee-pee's kinda coming." She got up from what she was doing (unheard of!) and sat on the potty. Later I heard her say, "I all done. I need toilet paper." She walks to the bathroom, tears off the toilet paper, wipes herself, and throws it into the little potty. She retrieves the bowl, and starts carrying it to the bathroom when I look in and see that she has completed the whole potty process without any help or prompting from me or Greg. She was so proud of having done it all by herself.