The Bathroom

In our house the bathroom isn't a private place you go to use the toilet, shower, and so forth; it's a battle zone! I've always used the bathroom as a place to get away. If I want to read I go to the bathroom. It has always seemed like a good place. I mean come on, where is the one place you can go that people leave you alone? Up until Kaitlyn was born it was the bathroom. Don't misinterpret this Kaitlyn isn't always the one bothering me. And just to make sure she has the art of knocking on the door down Neal is right there with her. They are upset if the door is locked. If I happen to unlock it (or Neal does) they stick their heads in and say, "what are you doing?" *Insert eye rolling* Ummm, what am I doing? Oh, yeah... "Get out!"

Really though, bathrooms are magical places. A bathroom, whether a home restroom or public, is where a mom learns what she is really made of. I can't tell you how many times I've been in a public restroom having to balance Kaitlyn on one hip or over my shoulder while I pull up my pants or all the other tasks that go with being in a bathroom. It can be a serious juggling act. I also must play bathroom defence on a regular base. Honestly this one can really drive me nuts. Kaitlyn's game is "let's see what I can get out the door with". My job is to stop her. *sigh* There have been quite a few tampons earn their wings as they fly down the stairs. Kaitlyn will snatch something just out of my reach, play with it for a moment, then take off running out the door while I call her back. Sometimes she giggles while running out while other times she completely ignores me. My goal is to snag an arm, piece of clothing, anything really as she runs out the door. I'm getting better at the game so Kaitlyn has changed the rules. She doesn't always run out the door with her bounty, sometimes she brings it all to me. Yes, this may not sound bad, but when you find yourself with three boxes of tampons and the extra rolls of TP in your lap then see the toilet bowl brush coming at you, bristles first... not so cool. This really happened. Yesterday actually. Or was it the day before?

My favorite time in the bathroom is chat time. Kaitlyn is a girl who completely understand why some women's restrooms have couches and she fully supports them. She can be more chatty in the bathroom then anywhere else. At different random times I'm in the bathroom Kaitlyn will stroll in, put her hands behind her back (not always) and go off on some topic. I can't always understand her, but for a while she would talk about the Shiny Show. Now she has expanded her discussions to different characters on the CBeebies toddler channel. Her and I will go back in forth (which I love) saying names, portions of toddler show theme songs, and show names. It's the funniest thing. I must admit it's like talking a foreign language in front of Neal and it tickles me.

Some of the main things we say are: The Shiny Show, come on, Mukka, Pippin, "Ooh, Pippin", Upsy Daisy, "Upsy Daisy here I come", Igglepiggle, Makka Pakka (our favorite), ogpog, and Tombliboos. Just for kicks we throw a little counting in too. Kaitlyn's actually good at counting. She can count to 10, but tends to leave 8 out. She will not repeat numbers after you. If you say, "Kaitlyn say 1" she will say, "2, 3..." What makes our conversation so great is Kaitlyn's attitude about it all. You wouldn't think we were throwing out a big bunch of gibberish.

Kaitlyn's 22 months old today. You now have two months of shopping days left before Christmas.