Oh, That Panty-Wearing Girl!

Here's a glimpse -- front and back -- of Darcy's wonderful panties. She's very proud of them and insisted on wearing them to Las Vegas today after our original plans of a play date with Miles was canceled. She wore them the whole time, through many errands (grocery shopping, flower girl dress shopping, etc.), and agreed to put on a diaper only when we were about to head home. She usually falls asleep on the ride home and I wasn't sure how she'd do with bladder control while sleeping. She did GREAT.

Get Used To It

Yeah, I'm a proud parent. I'm not ashamed. Get used to victory posts about the potty!

So Darcy wanted to wear panties -- "like Adam" -- to go to Kelso this morning and I let her. I carefully packed an extra pair of panties and pants plus a plastic bag to bring wet clothes home in. And I just as carefully left it on top of the freezer in the entry when we left. I discovered this when we got out of the car. Great. That made me a little nervous.

We went in and said hi to everyone downstairs and then went upstairs to find Michael. While we were up there visiting with Christine and Julia, Darcy started pulling at her pants, so I took her to the staff bathroom and she peed on a big-person's potty. We ate a bagel and drank juice at the fully-operational lunch counter and then went back upstairs to see the trains and read her favorite book in the reading room. Once again, she started pulling at her pants and successfully used the potty again.

The end of this story is a happy one. Despite having a neglectful and forgetful mama, Darcy went on a long-ish outing that even included drinks and came home dry!

In other news, the Adam fascination has not diminished in the least. It is definitely part of the motivation behind wearing panties. Poor Adam -- according to Darcy he doesn't wear boxer shorts like daddy, he wears panties like Darcy. At least her training panties are more like boy shorts than women's bikinis!

Guess Those Parenting Books Are Right Sometimes

I was waiting for that miraculous time when Darcy would suddenly indicate in some way her readiness for giving up diapers. I wasn't convinced that there was some magic moment that would make the transition a piece of cake, but apparently, we've reached it! Darcy has spent the last two days in panties. One nice, stay-dry pair for each of those two days. She isn't asking to go potty, but she is peeing pretty much automatically every time I have her sit on the potty, which has been every hour and a half to two hours.

This morning, Michael got her up and she wanted a diaper, which is fine because we're going to the Depot in a little while anyway and I'm not sure if we're ready for pantied outings yet. Although, if she asks for panties, I'll give her panties.

Potty Training Seems To Have ARRIVED

Let the record show that amid great fan-fare and praise, Darcy wore a single pair of panties all day long (with a diaper for her nap) and peed in her potty seven times. Dry panties for twelve hours and almost instant peeing once seated on the potty. Oh, the joys of parenting!

And Her Parents Party, Too!

'Cause our girl wore panties for over four hours this morning and peed in her potty three times during that time. Enough said.

Darcy Parties!

Darcy has been a very social girl recently. She went to a birthday party in Kelso for her friend Sean. Party games happened, which made her very happy because she's seen them on Sesame Street. Here are Michael and Darcy playing musical chairs.

She also tasted her first marshmallows, in the form of these frog eyes. She loves a book called Stella and Roy Go Camping and they roast marshmallows, so she's been dying to try them. It was a thrill.

Last night, Darcy hit another party in Kelso, this one a BBQ with campfire at the home of two volunteers. Darcy loved the fire, the three dogs running around, and -- yes, again -- marshmallows. She and Michael roasted two over the fire. One slid off their fork and was sacrificed to the fire. The other was enjoyed very much by Darcy.

Teutonia Peak

Rocks. To climb.

Rocks. To sit under and snack.

Yes, if there are rocks, Darcy and Michael will climb them. Always. We took a morning hike on the Teutonia Peak trail a couple weeks ago. Part of the motivation was a recent mountain lion sighting about half-way up the peak. It's a rocky, wonderful habitat for mountain lions and it's exciting that one has been seen up there. Not by us, of course. We saw some wildflowers and some cacti thinking about producing some flowers. We had a good time scrambling around rocks and hiking.

And when we got home, we were back with our own carpet of teeny tiny flowers. They really are visible in the picture. Or, they were before I uploaded it to Blogger. You can get a bigger picture by clicking on it and then you're looking for itty bitty purple blooms. They're everywhere, but not actually native. They were introduced a few hundred years ago by those dang traveling Europeans.

And, just in case you missed the wonderful news today -- the EPA has suspended almost all mountain-top mining permits while they study the damage the practice does to the surroudning environment and watersheds!! Our new president might not be doing everything absolutely right, but he's doing some good, good things. Also suspended today? The Bush rules allowing concealed guns in national parks.