Anatomy 101

Yesterday we were visiting our neighbor Stephanie and her two boys (a quite common event). After a while, I asked Ellie if she needed to go potty. "No!" she replied (why do I bother? That's always her answer). Concerned that we might have an unpleasant accident and have to go home, I was encouraging her to try anyway when Stephanie said to her son Jon, who is also 3, "Jon, go potty! Go show Eleanor how to do it!" Sure enough, Jon raced down the hallway to the bathroom, Ellie zooming after him, and each gave it a go. Stephanie and I wondered mildly if there would be any noticing of differing body parts, but nothing was said by either party, so I assumed that was that.

It was, therefore, especially amusing to me last night when Ellie got out of her bath and proceeded to run up and down the hallway naked (again, a quite common event). Suddenly she stopped, grabbed her private parts in a rather Michael Jackson fashion and said, quite excitedly, "Mom, Jon can pee pee standing up!" And she proceeded to point her girly parts out, still holding on for dear life, mind you, and made lots of urinating noises while pretending to pee. I suppose I should be grateful she didn't *actually* pee, but I was too busy chuckling while explaining to her that, yes, Jon could pee standing up because he was a BOY - and boys have penises. But Ellie is a GIRL, and girls sit down to go potty. "I don' haff to sit down, mama, I a big girwl!" Ellie insisted. I emphasized several more times that girls sit on the potty every time.

But I'm just waiting for the inevitable. You see, when *I* was little, my mom caught me peeing into the bathroom trash can. Apparently I wanted to be "just like Daddy," and the toilet had just been too high. Like mother, like daughter? I'm counting on it. And gathering up the cleaning supplies.