No Longer Entirely One-Sided

Daylight conversations in the Hoffman house generally consist of me keeping up a constant stream of natter, occasionally interspersed with increasingly intelligible utterances by Peabo; we're still in that period where she frequently makes sense to me or Gene, but few others (though apparently her bilingualism is coming on a treat, at least according to our two Spanish speaking babysitters), and most of the time, her statements are "I want" type things: "outside", "that", "more". She does actually say "thank you" consistently now, which is thrilling and charming in equal measure (technically it's TENKZ! but that is thank you, I assure you), and we spend a lot of time getting her to say the word "squirrel" because it's screamingly funny (SKEERL!).

All that being said, we have not had much experience in information giving, if you will; I should say rather information that requires action, until just now. To wit, I was standing in the kitchen cleaning up from lunch, and she trots in, looks at me and says, quite clearly, "I pood". I made some non-committal noise like "oh?" thinking she's just making noise. Again, louder, "I POOD". Finally dawns on stupid mother that maybe checking the diaper is useful, and bugger me, she had. Needless to say, I made a huge deal out of how helpful that was for her to come and impart said information, la la la - she was pleased with herself, I was pleased with herself, and the world just got a little bit easier.

In keeping with the facilities themed post for today, Bean has finally discovered that using the regular bathroom installation is not scary and now will use it after school quite easily and consistently. Is this a small step? Yes, in many ways, but for us - a massive one. I had accepted the fact that we might be dealing with other methods of waste management forever, but I'm realizing that maybe - just maybe - we're on the right track. I think kids with cerebral palsy can have a really challenging time with toilet training, no matter which part you're dealing with, so *anything* that helps in that direction is like getting an Oscar and a Nobel Prize in one.

I really hope no one was eating while reading this...back to normal, non-potty topics tomorrow.