I wish I had it all on camera

Today was an adorable day for the kids. One of those days where you wish you had a camera rolling to catch it all so you could re-watch it over and over. Since today is saturday I let them run into the living room to watch a cartoon after brushing their teeth. Harper was still wearing his pajamas but Rilke only had her diaper on. At some point Rilke rummaged through the front closet and pulled out her fur lined Crocs. She put them on and watched a cartoon. A few minutes later I was in the other room doing something and Rilke runs in totally naked except for one furry Croc on her left foot. She is triumphantly holding her diaper over her head saying "I did it! I did it!" It was the first time she had ever taken off her own diaper. Conincidently it was the first time she had ever used the phrase "I did it".

Later that day Rilke was yanking on her diaper as I tried to read her a story before nap time. She looked at me and said "Rilke get the pee pee's out?" I asked if she wanted to go on the potty and she said "Yes!" So I took her in there and sure enough that little peanut went to the bathroom on the potty! She was so proud of herself and the second I took her back down to the floor she shimmied right over and flushed the toilet. I have no idea where that all came from. Her first success on the potty! It was really more adorable than anything else. She is such a tiny thing and to see her swinging her little legs on the potty is about as much as I can handle. I'm pretty sure we will wait until swim season is over before we start actual potty training but I can't help but be curious about how it will go.

That same afternoon I was returning a movie and there happens to be a giant gum-ball machine in the store. Harper has admired it many times before. It's the kind where the gum-ball zooms toward the bottom of the machine on a spiraling ramp. Today I said he could get a gum-ball. This is probably the third or fourth time Harper has ever had gum. The first couple times he just didn't get it. He would chew it and swallow it. But today I could tell he was up for the challenge. The first thing he said to me was "Mom, it's Ok if the gum goes in my tummy." I explained that he should give me the gum when he was finished chewing it and I would throw it out. He said OK, bit of one third of the gum-ball, and put it in his mouth. He bit down one time and then spit it in his hand and said "Here you go Mommy, I'm all done chewing it." After explaining he could chew it some more he agreed to chew it until we walked across the parking lot to the car. Once we were at the car he gave it to me. I gave him the second third of the gum-ball. He declared he would chew it until we got to his friend Dalyn's house (about a 5 minute drive). Meanwhile I gave Rilke the last third of the gum-ball. Although giving a 22 month old a piece of gum isn't ideal, I didn't see how I would get around it. Rilke keeps a close eye on my gum chewing habbit. I chew it almost every day. She doesn't make a big deal of it but I know she watches. Sure enough she pops it in her mouth and chews away. After a while I asked her if she was finished and she adamantly says "No fank soon!" which means "no thank you". That little peanut chewed her tiny share of the gum-ball for almost 2 hours while we played at a friends house. As we were leaving I gave her the option of putting it in the garbage. So she took it out of her mouth and chucked it in the bin. My two babies share their first gum chew success on the same day.