Dear J-
We keep finding the envelope and pushing it when the sun goes down and there’s a bedtime to be met. After all there another friend to bring into the room, whether it’s Hello Kitty or Pooh Bear (apparently we are big believers in licensed merchandise, from stuffed animals to Band-Aids; I will note that having brightly-colored sticking strips is much preferable to the ghastly flesh color of years past). It’s sometimes easier to keep her from a nap — it’s all about that extra few moments of peace and when you can make them start.
We keep going back to the Zoo initially because it’s a way of keeping her interested in walking around, but lately it’s been about the little ground-level toilets they have in the Children’s Zoo restrooms — they’re just like the ones she has at school and therefore familiar enough that they’re the third place in the world she actually can use. They say that potty training is a gradual thing, but you end up having to be hyper-vigilant for backsliding and recalcitrance, though I suppose that’s true of any process.
The trap of technology is that it reduces vigilance and ability; I know that the auto-correct feature on the iPhone OS is sometimes the only thing that makes me sound semi-literate at times but sometimes I find myself typing gibberish at work thinking the computer will catch it and make sense out of it. Likewise I have to remember that there’s been thousands of years of human learning on how to raise children and some things must necessarily be universal, that everyone has an internal schedule and the pressure to conform is an external construct. We’ll get ther, no worries, no hurries.
Mike
Dear J- 
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