Big-Girl-Underwear Are in Effect! (And Really Rather Wet)

'Oh my goodness!  Oh my goodness!  You got Big-Girl-Underwear!  Should we put them on?  Should we put them on!'  Emilia nearly shouted this at me yesterday as I opened up the Mini Boden package that had just come in the mail.  She was so excited, she looked like she was going to burst.

Emilia has been eyeing the underwear in the Mini Boden catalog for quite some time now.  'As soon as you go potty in the toilet you get those!', she would say over and over again.  And, lo and behold, last week she did just that -- the girl went potty in the toilet.  Mama and dada were shocked.  (If you don't believe me, just ask Emilia, she'll tell you, 'Mama and dada were shocked!')  So, being true to my word, we ordered a set of Big-Girl-Underwear right up.  And wouldn't you know, she has not had any interest in returning to the potty ever since.  Well, until yesterday that is.

Once those little floral beauties graced her backside, we couldn't get her off the pot.  She tried to go four times in ten minutes -- but nothing doing.  I suppose that when you don't have to go, you don't have to go.  So instead she ran around the house in a tee-shirt, her new undies, and her wellies, feeling pretty slick.  And she did not think it was funny when I suggested that maybe we put her skirt back on -- on account of the fact that then we would no longer be able to see her cute little undies with her cute little bum in them.

Michael and I both reminded her several times that she was wearing Big-Girl-Underwear, and that one is not meant to whiz in them.  However, in all of the excitement, she did just that.  As I was about to get our bowls of French onion soup on the table, Emilia ran in the kitchen and began wailing, 'You need a diaper back on!  You need a diaper back on!'  Too late.

Even so, she got to wear them again today, with Mama reminding her all the while, 'You've got to tell me when you've got to go.'  But again -- too late.  She wailed and wailed and cried and cried as she stood there, wet legs, wet Big-Girl-Underwear, and a wet pool going all the way from her bedroom down to the kitchen.  As I stripped her down and cleaned her off, she said she 'wanted to be a good listener.'  How does one explain that being a good listener is a different thing than being two-and-a-half with not much bladder control?  After all, she was being a good listener.  She told me when she had to go -- it just happened to be as she was going.

And so, with the girl all cleaned up and back in a diaper for nap-time, Mama on her hands on knees cleaning up a trail of wee, Emilia stood next to me and said, in her sweet sweet little voice, 'thank you for cleaning up the whiz, mama.  Sorry about that.'      

And because of that, I will clean up wee-laden Big-Girl-Underwear as long as she needs me to do it.  But -- let's just hope it isn't that long.