Two beautiful moments to bookend my day

While I was still in bed this morning, Benjamin came into my room—dressed for working out—and asked me if I wanted to go for a run with him before the day got too hot. 

To think I used to have to bribe him to run with me!

Of course I had to say yes!

While we were out, I told him that soon he won't want to run with me because he'll think I'm too slow for him. But right now—in this moment—we make a good little team. 

It was still hot. And so humid—ridiculously humid. 

So we ran two miles. And chatted. And called it good. 

It was delightful.

*****

Phoebe just got out of bed a little while ago, all on her own.

I heard her jiggling the bathroom door, so I looked over (I can see the bathroom from my desk) and saw her standing there, fiddling with her pyjamas. 

I got up to help her and she held up her hand to stop me.

"I just can do it myself!" she whispered. 

So I let her do it herself. 

But she's wearing footie jammies and those are tricky, so when she peeled them off by herself she ended up making the sleeves go inside out and couldn't get them back on when she was finished going potty, so she whispered, "Now you can help me!"

And I did want to. 

I am very excited for this little milestone because we have been working on nighttime potty training for a long time (probably the second longest out of any of the children) and this is the first time she has woken up with the express purpose of going potty by herself. 

If we wake her up to go potty a huge tantrum is involved and things get really ugly...and that's been hard because that's been my go-to nighttime potty-training method for a handful of kids and it's never gone wrong. But she's just not having it, this one. 

It's been slow going. 

But this feels like a wonderful milestone to have hit.

Now Andrew is sitting on her floor (for two songs!) while she goes back to sleep because she always wants Daddy at nighttime instead of me. The last time I tried to sit with her she said that it makes her angry when I sit with her at night. 

"What?!" I gasped. "Why does it make you angry?"

"Because I don't like to have you that close and not be able to touch you," she explained.

She is a skin baby. She likes to hold my neck or rub my arm or...whatever. She just likes to touch my skin. And she's still bitter about weaning (seriously—she still talks about it).

Anyway, we are trying to encourage her to sleep independently so we've been slowly moving away from her at night when we put her to bed. And apparently it's fine for Daddy to sit in the doorway while she falls asleep, but it just makes her angry when I sit in the doorway because she wishes she could be right beside me. 

And...I love that for me. 

Because, honestly, she's a bit of a Daddy's girl (more so than any of our babies have been), so I love that for him but it's also been nice for be because she likes me (like, a lot) but is 100% happy to be with Daddy instead. And that's lovely. Because it's hard to be the only one for your baby (or toddler or preschooler) and I like that she likes Daddy. 

And I like that she likes me.

But tonight I'm just so, so glad that she got up to use the potty all on her own!