Tara used the potty a couple times this weekend. We haven’t much been pushing her toward it, and for the last couple months she has acted like the potty was just a seat you sit on while pushing wads of toilet paper between your legs. I had the bright idea of taking the toilet paper off the holder and telling her that she could have it back when she put her pee in the potty. Sure enough, it worked the second time I tried it, and she has used the potty three times since. She still goes in her diaper too, though, but it’s clear that progress is being made.

The dark side of Tara’s maturing is that she’s picking up some undesirable vocabulary. Anna has been reading the Junie B. Jones series of books, and recently got some on tape¹ from the library. They’re funny books, but the language isn’t really appropriate for a two year old. Tara has been repeating phrases like “shut up” and “stupid dumb lady” with her usual cheery monotone. It’s hard not to laugh.

¹ Tara extracted the tapes into a big, spaghetti-like pile on two occasions. I hope they still work.