Two things Penny did over the weekend that I meant to mention, but didn't:

Saturday evening, when I was changing her for bed, I noticed that her diaper was still dry. She'd been wearing it a good four hours, and had ice cream, juice, yogurt, and pizza. I've noticed this, lately, actually -- she's keeping her diaper clean for longer and longer periods. I'd think it signalled a readiness to potty-train, except that she won't tell us when the diaper is dirty, so we don't have a lot to work with.

Still, I'm all in favor of encouraging the behavior, so I offered her a chance to sit on the potty before we put on her pyjamas. As soon as she was sitting, she told me she was done, but I convinced her to sit a little bit longer. "Can you squeeze with your tummy and pee? Push on your tummy?" I asked.

She pressed on her stomach with her hands, and I laughed, but couldn't think of any other way to explain it. I was about to give up and go put her in a diaper when I heard it: a hearty stream, an afternoon's output. Yay! I praised her lavishly, and she got two little tiny chocolate cookies as a reward.

She hasn't managed it again, but it's a start!

Less gross and more cute: We went out for ice cream Saturday afternoon, and Penny begged for a waffle bowl. The girl behind the counter told me she had a waffle cone that she was going to have to throw out because it was too small, and did Penny want it? So Penny got her very first ice cream cone.

She was eating her ice cream out of the cone with a spoon, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, she scooped up some ice cream and held the spoon out to Matt. "Daddy wan' some i'cream?"

You know, we praise her when she pretends to share with her toys, just to reinforce the behavior, and she's not usually too bad about sharing her toys with other kids, but she never shares food. For her to offer, unprompted, to share one of her very favorite foods was just... stunning. Literally. Matt and I both just stared at her for a few seconds before Matt sort of woke up and accepted the bite of ice cream.

She willingly shared with me, too. And after we'd showed her how to eat the cone, she let us have bites. (Which was good, because she didn't quite grasp the concept of turning the cone to eat the higher side, and she was getting ice cream nearly up to her eyebrows.)

As Matt said later -- these are the moments that fill us with excitement and happiness. Sort of, "Yay, we haven't been total failures as parents!"

--Liz