Smug as a Bug

There are those moments you wait for in a child's early days--some with gleeful anticipation and others with more trepidation. This was one of the latter. It's a moment a parent expects. You resign yourself to the fact that it's going to happen at one point--it won't be that big of a deal, really--but it definitely sets the tone of new exploration from that point on. To ward it off, you close doors, you redirect, you monitor more--but it's bound to happen at some point.

Really, it's not as bad as it sounds.

I knew the noise the minute I heard it.

I heard a faint clink-clink and a muted splashing--not a full-out bathtub splash (that would have been impossible--both of my children were not in the bath at the time). I jumped up from my chair and ran into the bathroom, where my youngest daughter was standing attentively at the toilet with her hands dangling over the edge. Her shirt sleeves were soaked and the toilet paper was completely off of the roll, laying in a heap at her feet. I suppose I got to the bathroom before her experiment led to the "let's see how much toilet paper I can stuff in the potty" stage.

Looking happy as a clam and quite content with her conduct, Hannah was mostly unaware of my exasperation. I swiftly picked her up, turned on the bathwater (because let's face it--even though I had just cleaned the toilet yesterday, I was not ok with just washing the child's hands. I'm a little more "relaxed" with my 2nd child but not that relaxed.)

I wish I had taken a picture instead of switching into "let's take care of this" mode. But, I feel pretty confident that this recent pic sums up the little girl's attitude about her recent exploratory feat.