Milestones

The past couple days have brought us to some remarkable milestones. The first occured on Friday when I took the girls to the rec center. We'd gotten our passes on Thursday and Abby had been looking forward to going swimming that day. Unfortunately the kids' pool is closed for maintenance until next weekend. "How about you go swim in the pool for mommies and daddies, and Penny and I can go to the toy room," she suggested. I about fell over from shock. The "toy room" is the daycare room we'd visited when we'd toured the facility the week before. Parents can drop off their kids there while they use the rec facility or take a class. We'd gone in and looked around at the toys and kids there that day, and Abby had seemed surprisingly amenable to going in there someday. I just hadn't expected her to suggest it herself!

So on Friday I took her up on her offer. We went over in the morning and the girls ran in as though it was their most favorite place to go. I signed them in, said goodbye, and off I went to swim.

This was the first real exercise I've done since Abby was about 4 months old and I was walking daily around the RSM lake. And I think the last time I went swimming PJ was about 4 months old, too. I had to rest for about 2 minutes after the first lap, I was so winded. I did that for a while--lap, rest, lap rest--and after about 10 minutes I was able to do two laps at once. I did laps for about half an hour, then water walked for 15 minutes before going in to recover and get dressed.

When I got back to the daycare room (I had to keep myself from running up there, I was so nervous that they'd both be basket cases when I got in) the girls didn't even notice I was there! No watching the door in anticipation, no looking forlornly through the window. I got them checked out and all their gear gathered up before Abby noticed I was there, and even then all she did was wave! My shy little girl who never wants to be left behind did just fine! In fact, she showed me all around the room once I went into the play area, pointing out the paintings on the wall and the fun toys she'd discovered.

PJ, however--my sociable little PJ--cried like I'd broken her heart. It took five minutes for her to calm down. The workers assured me she'd been fine the whole time, which I don't doubt at all. In fact, when I told them this had been the first time I'd ever left them somewhere without a parent or grandparent, they were stunned. "You'd never know it," they said. "They played the whole time and never even got fussy!"

Abby has been asking to go back. Hallelujah! PJ, on the other hand, I fear will freak out the next time we go in. We'll see. At least she has her sister there with her. I won't be doing it often--it's a little over $4 for child care every time I go--but maybe once every week or two. I'd like to swim 2-3 times a week, but Dan will watch the girls the rest of the time--much cheaper!

The other milestone occured yesterday. In short--Abby is potty training! On the advice of some of the moms on GentleChristianMothers.com, I just took her diaper off and let her run around naked. For the four hours she was like that she used the potty three times--all on her own, without any prompting from me--and never had an accident (well, save for a little "spill" that cleaned up no problem). We went out to Denver in the afternoon to explore, and when we got home I kept her in a diaper purely out of habit. But she's bottom-half nakey again this morning and has already run off to the potty once. TOTAL SHOCKER. I figure we'll just do this when we're home, and hopefully in a week or so she'll be able to recongize better when she needs to go when we're out and about, and I'll move her into pull-ups for those times. Dare I dream she'll be potty trained completely by the end of September?

Next step after that of course will be the dreaded paci. That, I don't even want to think about...