overwhelming pride

I caught Seth doing something yesterday that made my heart swell with pride. I was checking on him after he had gone to the bathroom and found him standing in front of the toilet, meticulously wiping up his little dribbles with a piece of toilet paper. Then he washed his hands and came out to play. I had wondered why I could never find any potty training accidents the past few days whenever I would check the bathroom after he used it. Now I know, my precious, 3 year old with OCD tendencies has been cleaning up after himself the way he sees mommy do it. Now, I realize that for some of you reading this, the whole thing might not seem like that big of a deal. But let me preface this milestone moment by reminding you all that I grew up with 3 little brothers. I spent my entire childhood with bathroom duty because my brothers were too incompetant to effectively clean the bathroom that we all shared. This should not have surprised me because they were also too incompetant to pee successfully into the toilet bowl. My saturday mornings (super cleaning day in my house) were spent scrubbing urine from the toilet rim, the toilet base, the bathroom floor, and any part of the bathroom wall that was unlucky enough to be positioned near the toilet. I have groggily fallen into more open, peed on toilet bowls at 3am than I care to remember. Let me tell you, having your rear end soaked with toilet water as you try to pry yourself out of the bowl is an incredibly unpleasant way to wake up in the middle of the night. And as of very recently, I have learned from my unsuspecting sister-in-law that I probably spent my whole youth living at home showering with a loofah that had been peed on. (Yes girls, apparently if you hang your loofah on the faucet down low, it will most likely get peed on by any boys attempting to pee into the drain while in the shower) My sister-in-law was lucky enough that my brothers cared enough to tell her that they accidentally peed on her loofah. I doubt they gave me the same courtesy when we were 10. Anyways, all this to say that my greatest fear of having sons was that I would spend the rest of my life cleaning up urine and falling into toilets. (I now know better about the loofah and hang mine up high in shower) I have trained my wonderful, cooperative husband to keep our bathroom clean and sanitary. And I sincerely appreciate his willingness to honor my bathroom hangups. (He does know my brothers after all and seems to feel sorry for me) But I have to say, I NEVER expected my three year old boy to be so willing to spare mommy from urine puddles and disgusting bathroom incidences. I am too proud and only hope that Seth continues with his considerate, bathroom behavior. And I just have to say to Lilah (the sister) and Seth's future wife right now... you're welcome.