The other story.

So our little lu is reaching all kinds of big girl milestones these days: Her big girl bed is now off the floor and on a bed frame (mainly so I can store junk under it, but don't tell her that); she put her head under the water at the swimming pool; she went down the pool slide by herself; she has a new big girl bicycle (with training wheels); and she started swimming lessons this week. But there's another item on the list that she'd add. Notice this is where my list ends.

From the time she was three months old, the beach was one of Ainsley's least favorite places. We speculated that she hated the wide-open space and all the noise. It wasn't really until the end of last summer that she finally warmed up to the beach. This year, she embraced it—during our week-long Greifenkamp family beach trip in early July. Ainsley spent a lot of time dancing (and rolling around) in the shallow waves on the beach, and she'd let Carter carry her out into the deeper waves when she got bored with her beach frolicking. The one thing she couldn't bring herself to do was pee in the ocean. I explained that all the sea animals pee in there; it wasn't going to hurt the ocean. But try as she might, her bladder wasn't going along with the plan. We (whoever took pity on her at the moment) walked back to the house with her to pee. By the last few days, she managed to talk herself into peeing at water's edge—standing up—but she still didn't buy the idea of going out into the water to pee. So imagine her pride when she peed in the POOL last week.

"Mommy, mommy, I peed in the pool," she announced with great delight.

I hoped the noise of the fountains had kept other mothers from hearing the proclamation. "Ainsley, this isn't the ocean. You're not just adding your pee to a bunch of turtle pee. Let me know next time and we'll run to the bathroom."

"OK, Mommy," she replied in her chipper little cartoon voice.

Glad I didn't burst any big bubbles. I imagine she's just adding her pee to all the other kid pee, but I'd rather not be contributing to that!

Such a big girl.