I used to think that I had experienced "literal" children. Afterall, my boys are gifted with the "literal gene" courtesy of my husband.

But ... Cassie is an adventure unto herself. The latest is potty-training. My husband has promised to buy her a digital camera like he bought the boys (the promise of which potty-trained them almost instantly). His criteria is that poop-n-pee must go in the potty for ten days in a row. Accidents begin the count again at day one.

There have been a few rough days with her. For example, she pooped in her diaper, took the diaper off, tried to dump the messy poop in the potty (there-by completely trashing the hallway and bathroom), because the rule was "poop goes in the potty". We hadn't clarified "poop goes ONLY in the potty"

Cassie gets this odd squinty-eyed look when she's planning. I ought to see it coming, but sometimes I'm just too busy with everything to stop and think "hmmm, interesting look, I should be watching her like a hawk".

I put her in pull-ups last night and tucked her in. We talked about how it was important to pee in the potty, that pull-ups must NOT be wet because they were like panties. (She's looking forward to getting panties).

A few mintues later, I went back into her room to get a book and something was ... not ... quite ... right ...

She had taken off her pull-up and laid it on her nightstand, so that it would be dry in the morning! Her plan was to sleep protectionless on her sheets, because I hadn't said the sheets needed to be dry ... only the pull-ups had to be dry.

At least she had a plan. Its important children learn the importance of planning :)