Ali is about 99% potty trained and we are so proud of her. She does not turn 3 until July and we are very happy to not have to buy diapers and pull-ups any more. She has worn big girl underwear every day for the past 2 weeks and only had one accident. After coming back inside from playing in the playground, Ali and her friend Grant were talking…I would love to know about what. The teachers said they started laughing hysterically…yup, Ali laughed so hard she wet herself. That is a good laugh.

Otherwise she has been great…even asks to go all the time and the only accident is a little bit while she sleeps a few nights here and there…11 hours is a long time to hold it. Most mornings she is completely dry.

She gets very excited when she goes and calls herself a big girl. We were cleaning the house last Saturday morning and Ali went into her room for a minute. Tina went to check on her and Ali was pulling up her pants. She went to the bathroom all by herself and made sure we knew about it. It was a very proud moment in the Gotter house. Ali was running around very excited and shouting “I am a big girl and I get a treat.”

A few minutes later she disappeared again. We went to see what she was up to and she was back on the potty doing #2. Tina and I almost fainted. She had this smile from ear to ear as she attempted to wipe herself. Now that was a mess, but what effort!

For the rest of the weekend all we heard was that she is a big girl, she is going to get a big treat and her friends at school will be very proud of her. We would be driving and she would say..”I poo-pooed on the potty and my friends are going to be so proud of me.”

I brought Ali to work with me Wednesday afternoon and she asked to go potty 4 times...once 2 minutes before I was on the air and we rushed to the bathroom and I made it onto the weather set with a few seconds to spare. I gambled with no pull-up and won. Not me, Ali. When we got home, we were watching the deer in our backyard and then she started to run away and said she had to go potty. Great..she does that more and more now. Then she screamed...that could not be good. She went poo-poo again and wanted to show me. Great! No really..great. It was the best way to end a great father daughter day.

Ali is into this phase where she asks if people are her friend. “Daddy, are you my friend?” “Yes I am.” “You and Mommy are my best friends.” That makes you melt until you do something wrong and she tells you that you are no longer her friend…that lasts all of 30 seconds when she realized that was not nice. We were driving home the other day and she shouts from the backseat; “My people at school are going to be so proud of me for being a big girl…all my people’s are my friends.” Where do they come up with this stuff?