"I DID it!"

--Caroline Aubrey (age 3)

Yep -- we've had two successes thus far on our climb. (see yesterday's post if that confuses you) I have learned that the best window of opportunity is the time immediately following lunch. Other than that, it's hit or miss. Thankfully, we've not missed yet.

Of course, I'm still not brave enough to just put her in big girl britches (I just can't type the "p" word here -- don't want sickos coming to my blog). Yesterday, she was successful on both endeavors. Today, it was just "number 1" if I may be so crass.

I'm very proud of her. I don't know where the communication breakdowns happen when it comes to activities like going potty. As Mark and I have learned about Down syndrome, we have learned that neurologically speaking, the pathways in the brain for impulses to be sent and received is somewhat hampered--not impossible--just hampered. This is one of those areas where she'll have to work a little bit harder than a "normal" child. (we usually use the term 'typical' instead of normal. . . but I was trying to make a point)

So, this process may take a couple more days. . .or a couple more weeks. Success may even be a year away. . .but this just seemed like the optimal time to really give it a try. So, I can be content with 2 successes thus far. In fact, there may have been a "quasi" success last night, after she got out of the bathtub. There was evidence this morning that there may have been unnoticed issues last night. I'm not losing sleep over it.

I am, however, sneezing my head off. I woke up this morning -- sneezed about 18 times -- got up, sneezed about 20 more times, and took a Benadryl. Yes, I am very groggy.

I took Caroline (in a diaper) to Walmart, and we did some girl shopping. Nothing really overtly feminine, but it was fun--just being girls out going shoppping. She's not nearly as well-known at Walmart as she is Food City here in our little town. In fact, if I make an appearance at Food City without her -- heaven forbid -- I hear about it.

"Where's that pretty little girl??"
"Where's your daughter today?"
"Where's our favorite Caroline?"

(that last one gets me)

So. . .I probably need to take advantage of the freetime I have right now. She's in bed -- I thought she was asleep, but I just heard singing coming from her room. I'm not going in to check--but I will keep an eye out for flying clothes or stuffed animals.

Boys? What boys? Oh, theeeeeeeeemmmm. Sorry, I was so used to this being a "chick" house, i forgot all about Mark & Edison. They made it to Phoenix on time last night -- and attempted to get on an earlier shuttle down to Tucson. No such luck. Their "scheduled" shuttle was actually 15 minutes late -- so when I talked to Mark, he was pretty tired (read: grumpy). They hadn't eaten, nor had they experienced any fresh air for about 14 hours. I heard about it.

. . . I started to remind them about our friend, Doug. Doug travels (or so it seems) more than he's home. I decided not to say anything about how much worse he has it than they did, but I was tempted. And, since I know Mark reads this, he'll eventually get this mini-message.

They're going to a baseball game today (as I type, actually). The Colorado Rockies are playing the Chicago White Sox in an exhibition pre-season game. It's autograph day -- so they may have even more fun than me. It will really be hard to top this, though.

Laundry. Cleaning closets. Washing dishes. Cleaning windows. Making beds. Scrubbing toilets (including a potty chair).

Yeah--they're gonna have to really stretch to have a better day than me.

Oh....one last thing -- sorry there are no pictures, but it seems kinda creepy. I'll be taking some for scrapbooking (family heritage preservation) purposes. But on the blog? Gah.