Wednesday, July 27, 2011

listening

Kiddo has a lot to say, and I'll admit, I don't always pay perfect attention to her. (Ahh, possible insight to why she doesn't listen to me.) We were at my grandparents today, along with my brother and his family, and an aunt and uncle. Kiddo was playing in the yard with two of her boy cousins. She yelled something to me about the yard, it sounded like "I'm going to play in the yard."

I "yeah, okay"d her to let her know I heard her, vaguely wondered why she was telling me she was playing in the yard when she was already there, and had been a while, but really I was trying to get back to whatever adult conversation I was having.

She made her announcement a second (third?) time, and for reasons I still don't know, I looked at her. There she was, standing in the middle of the yard, skirt up, underwear down.

At this moment she announced a fourth time, and this time I finally heard her, "I'm going to potty in the yard."

Not on my watch. I quickly ran to her, pulled up the undies, and carried her inside. She spent most of that time insisting she was not going to the potty, and me telling her that yes, she was. Luckily, the bathroom was the biggest she's ever seen, with two soaps! (to go along with the two sinks), so the novelty erased our previous argument. (Is it just me, or do I spend a lot of time arguing with my three year old? Is this normal?)

As she eventually went #2, I'm especially glad I found the proper venue.