Blue Competitive Pottying

Alyssa has two days of school left. Two days of second grade. She's beside herself with excitement. Had we not had a boatload of snow/fog days this year, she'd have been done last Thursday.

I didn't tell her that, though. Why dampen her enthusiasm by telling her she'd already be on summer break were it not for crappy winter weather over which she had no control?

No reason, that's why.

Anyway, in celebration of school being almost done, we did something unusual. Something I honestly never thought I'd do for my eight year old.

We dyed her hair blue.

Wait, before you all have a stroke, we didn't dye it all blue. We just did streaks, and most of the streaks are on the underside of her hair. I pulled the top up and clipped it, keeping it out of the way as I put the blue dye on her hair in hightlight-like streaks.

Of course, Olivia had to get her ends tipped in blue, because, hello! If you're doing something fun with one child the other feels a sense of entitlement to just the same kind of fun. O's tips didn't end up quite as blue as A's streaks, though, so there's that.

The fact that they've been watching the movie Aquamarine in almost constant loop is what made Alyssa ask for the blue hair. In this movie, Sara Paxton plays a mermaid with very blond hair with blue streaks. So...



Blue hair. It's a semi-permanent color, so by August and third grade, it should have faded/washed out.

Anyway, blue hair. Yay, right? Sort of cool even if it is buried in the rest of her hair.

After their bath in which they got the bulk of the blue rinsed out of their hair, the girls were picking out what they were going to wear between bathtime and bedtime and Olivia announced, "Lyssie has more tank tops than I do."

Huh? This was her first comment that indicates that compares herself or her things or anything else to Alyssa.

I laughed and assured her that her sister does NOT have more tank tops than she does.

She shrugged and declared, "She has more shorts than I do, too."

Well, okay then. Whatever, kiddo. But still, I like this awareness. I like that she's observing things and making comparisons, even if they aren't always favorable. This is a good development, even if it will probably lead to annoyance for me. Though it is hard to be annoyed with this face for too long.


And bigger still...she told me she had to potty today. Last year at this time, Olivia was doing well with the potty thing. 5p- kids are notoriously late potty trainers. Four is actually pretty early but...we decided to try. And last summer was great. She could go to town in underwear and either tell me when she had to go or hold it until we got home.

The winter was tough. She regressed a lot. To the point that in the last few months, she's been back in pull-ups pretty much full time because, well, it wasn't worth the frustration.

But today, after bath, we were all outside. She was in a pair of shorts very similar to her sister's shorts. They were playing on the swingset. Olivia cam up to me after sliding down the slide. She looked a bit frantic. She cried, "I have to pee!"

So we raced in and she went. It was big! I made a big deal, doing the potty dance, clapping, telling her how proud we are.

She'll go when we ask if she has to go, but often doesn't bother to tell us even once her pants are wet.

So big day all the way around.

Blue hair, competition with her sister, potty training step. Yay.

Ohhh, and summer has officially started. We had our first watermelon today. Very, very nice.