Yep, definitely progress

Colleen just completed her third night in a row sleeping the whole night through in her own bed and waking up with a dry pull-up. Nonna has been bribing her with a trip to Wonderment, a shop she loves in the neighborhood, for staying in her bed all night Seems that may have put her over the top.

A developmental milestone, perhaps

Colleen still tends to wake up in the middle of the night, more often than not. Sometimes I can succeed in getting her back into her own bed without too much issue, sometimes I'm lazy at 3 a.m. and let her sleep with us. (Heck, she climbs in on Cate's side, so most of the time I don't notice her coming in.)

But lately I've been up at all hours because of D3hoops.com's March Madness, busy time of year. If the light is on in the bedroom when Colleen wakes up, she won't come in. Last night was one of those nights, and she was padding around in her feety pajamas out in the hallway. And then ... lo and behold, she goes to the bathroom!

It sounded like all was well, but after a few minutes she was back in the hallway, whimpering. I called to her to come into the room, figuring she was just looking to crawl into bed, and she sniffled and said, "It doesn't work!"

She walked in the door, with her pajamas off except wrapped around one foot. She got the PJ's off but couldn't get them back on.

I helped her get all zipped up and such. And she went back to her bed.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ...

Colleen, full of ... surprises

I took a calculated risk with our nearly 3-year-old girl this afternoon and left her in plain underwear, no diaper and no training pants.

In the past I've been burned, fairly often. Colleen has managed to hit the potty in time once per session or so, but not long term. So I always hesitate, figuring I'll have some laundry to deal with if I don't remind her constantly. And Sunday is the day Cate leaves for work at noon, so I feel like I'm playing goalie all day.

But I'm a glutton for punishment.

We got through the first bathroom trip alright -- I kept reminding her until she went. Then, shortly before we were going to leave for the grocery store, she waddled up to me with her pants and underwear at her knees. I figured I'd missed my shot and we'd be changing pants, but in fact, she was dry and announcing she needed to go.

So she went. And I thought, shoot, let's take this one step further. She's just gone to the bathroom and we're going out -- so I didn't change her into a diaper. And she passed that test with flying colors as well, using her potty as soon as we got home.

I'm feeling pretty darn good at this point. But the coup de grace (coup de brennan?) came perhaps a half-hour later when she calls me into the bathroom, shouting that she had pooped.I get there and she's sitting on her little Dora the Explorer potty and the first thing I do is inspect her pants, which are sitting around her ankles.

To my surprise -- perfectly clean!

She got to the potty in time for everything. Turns out to be a great gamble.